Spring is full of promise

It has been such a wet winter and spring so far in Oruawharo Bay and just when it looks like the ground is starting to dry up the rain just keeps coming. At OME headquarters we are not really complaining too much, because all the plants we have planted over autumn and winter have been thriving and are getting a great head start on the summer, whatever it may bring.

Pāteke ducklings are taking their first swimming lessons and the first pīpīwharauroa/shining cuckoo has already delighted us with its first song of the year. The kōtare/kingfishers are zooming around getting ready for the busy nesting season and bees are humming in the karo flowers.

Great Barrier Local Board, thank you!

OME have been awarded funding for the pig trap that over 50 households helped get over the line, by signing your name to the letter of support from the community. We are very grateful to the Great Barrier Local Board not only for the funding, but also for sharing our vision in this venture, which will require a lot of hard mahi from us all. We know we are not alone in being dismayed at the immense damage done by roaming pigs in Oruawharo Bay and indeed across the island, and this year it seems to have been worse than ever, so a community effort is needed to minimise the damage caused on private property as well as public land. Thanks to everyone who signed the letter we sent out, together we really can make a difference.

We had a second funding application in with the Local Board for a Community Hub which was also supported. We have seen it being very useful for community engagement for other environmental projects across the country and it will act as a way to share information about volunteer days and general project updates, as well as a chance for other community groups in our area to get a platform to share their work. We also aim to host local events from that little shed and it will be used for storage for traps, spades and other tools. We intend to build the small structure near the community gardens for a central location with maximum visibility, pending full permissions from the relevant landowners.

Wetland news

Many thankless tasks have been thrust upon the unbelievably dedicated volunteers who faithfully show up for more punishment each week, but when we sometimes stop to admire the fruits of our labours, we are amazed at the difference it makes in, what in the grand scheme of things is, a very short time. Harakeke, planted only last year in October, are almost in flower and a lot of last years plants are already visible from the road. Mexican devil weed hand pulled by the road, pampas seedlings hand pulled in their thousands and over 700 plants planted, some in the thick kikuyu, none of which is for the fainthearted, so thank you all for your incredible mahi!

For the first time a pair of mātātā / fern bird were heard and spotted in the wetland. Click here to learn more about these rarely seen little beauties.

If you would like to join the hard workers for some Wednesday morning recreation (we usually do a couple of hours) send us an email medlandsecovision@gmail.com or a message 0297705111 so we can tell you where we are from week to week. Many hands make light work!

OME Phase Two

In August OME were notified of having received funding from Auckland Councils Community Coordination and Facilitation Programme for a feasibility project, aiming to cover a much bigger area for pest control. This project proposal will involve DoC and public conservation land, Auckland Council land and private properties, subject to approval by the owners. The funding was received as co-funding for the Tū Mai Taonga project and we plan to hand over any progress when that project eventually moves further south to contribute to an islandwide pest control project. This type of landscape scale integrated pest management is sure to be of higher biodiversity value than OME’s current efforts, no matter how hard we try. We will keep you posted!

Kororā survey

In June Auckland Council engaged a canine handler and her two trusty co-workers to do a kororā/little blue penguin survey of certain areas of Aotea. There is only so much ground they can cover in a short amount of time, but they did really well to discover many kororā burrows around the coast of the motu. Click here for the full report of what was found. Here in Oruawharo Bay we were lucky enough to have the added bonus of the team discovering a few oi/grey faced petrel burrows as well as several kororā homes. The daily fresh footprints at the southern end of the beach are now no longer a mystery. A property owner of Medlands even spotted this little beauty and its mate strolling back to their burrow as a consequence of the survey, knowing where to lurk in the shadows to get a good picture. (Thanks Jim)

Do take care when driving at night, these little guys are not terribly road savvy.

Finally a reminder that Pestival is coming up on October 22nd. Click here for the full program for the day, it looks to be a good one. If you happen to be on the island that day, please come along.

Get in touch on medlandsecovision@gmail.com or keep an eye on our Facebook page Oruawharo Medlands Ecovision.

Hope to see you all back soon, from the OME team.