Good afternoon,
Members of the Campaign For Better Transport will hitting the streets in key Waikato towns this Saturday. We will be asking the public to sign the Waikato Commuter Trains NOW! postcards on the spot, then commence bulk mailing them to MP's and the Prime Minister next week.
We will have a couple of CBT members in Huntly and Ngaruawahia, and some at The Base and Central Hamilton. If any of you know any key events on Saturday where CBT should be, please let me know as soon as possible. If you would like to help out on Saturday, please also let me know asap.
Just in case you don't know, you can go onto the CBT website and download postcards to print and send FreePost to show your support from Waikato Commuter Trains. Please tell all your friends and colleagues to do this. Local Hamilton East MP, David Bennett has publicly stated his opposition to the train service, as he says the future is electric cars - which could well be true, in 20 years time. Residents and businesses want the trains NOW!

 Direct link to the postcard campaign: www.bettertransport.org.nz/campaigns/hamilton-auckland-rail
A DOWNLOADABLE poster is in the process of being designed at the moment, so soon you can print them off and hang them up in your offices or public notice boards.

Timetable for Saturday:

CBT members from Auckland meeting at Huntly approximately 10:15am.
Team 1
Some staying at Huntly for an hour or so, then going to Ngaruawahia shops for an hour or so. Then meeting at The Base.
Team 2
Approx 10:45 at The Base until around 1:30pm
Team 3
After helping team 2 out, will go to Hamilton CBD for an hour or so.

All meeting back at The Base at about 1:45 / 2pm to check success on getting people to sign up and Auckland members return back.

 T-shirts
We have a couple of CBT t-shirts available for sale (only to financial members) from our last print run. Our committee member Barry Palmer has 5 left at approx $24 (cost) each. These tshirts we tend to wear on the various public meetings and campaigns. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one.
Thanks for your support and help. Did you know Waikato members now make up our second largest group after the Auckland region. We also now have members in Wellington, Palmerston North, Taranaki and a couple in the UK!
Regards,
Jon Reeves
Waikato Commuter Trains NOW!
Campaign For Better Transport
 021 535 295   www.BetterTransport.org.nz

Here is a photo which was posted by a CBT member of a recently refurbished Silverfern railcar ( as proposed to be used on the Waikato Commuter Trains). This rolled out of the KiwiRail workshops about a month ago and in the interim, with out a contract finalised on the Hamilton - Auckland route, is being used for occasional charters.

 

Sorry, correction - sack the typist!
The Friends of Waiwhakareke Working morning is on the Saturday, 29th August not Sunday.  9am - 12 noon

Cheers Katherine

In this newsletter:
1. Thursday 20 August 7.30  - Fruit Driller Caterpillar Meeting
2. Sunday 29th August - Friends of Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park working day
3. Calling for Eday Volunteers for 12th September

1. Thursday 20 August 7.30 pm - Fruit Driller Caterpillar Meeting

The Waikato Branch of the Tree Crops Association would like to invite you to attend a public meeting on the Fruit Driller Caterpillar (also known as the guava moth).
Chartwell Room, Hamilton Gardens Pavilion
Everyone welcome

 This pest has recently spread from Northland to the Waikato and is a serious threat to many fruit including citrus, feijoa, pipfruit and summerfruit and so should be of concern to everyone that grows, sells or buys fruit.There will be a panel of professionals/experts, including Dr John Clearwater, Tree Crop Reps, MAF and scientists, that will present information on identification, implications, possible control methods etc and they will be available to answer any questions.

 NZTCA Waikato Branch
Chairman: Rob Potter (07) 829 7696
Secretary: Maxine Fraser (07) 855 1968
Committee Rep: Don Harwood (07) 843 9007

2. Sunday 29th August,
Friends of Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park working day
9am - 12noon

This is the first regular working day at Waiwhakareke - everyone welcome. This is your chance to get involved in a fantastic local project. http://www.waiwhakareke.co.nz/index.php
MEET:Baverstock Rd Sign
BRING: spade, gloves, morning tea.

The Friends group will be involved in regular weeding, planting and releasing (last Saturday of every month)

CONTACT: Catherine Smith 07 8558296
Moira Cursey 07 8465066
HCC Parks and Gardens Unit 838 6622

This project is supported by Hamilton City Council, University of Waikato, WINTEC and Tui 2000.
See attached newsletter for more information - contact Moira Cursey if you would like to join the Friends and keep receiving the newsletter.

3. Calling for Eday Volunteers

The annual EDay e-waste recycling event is back in Hamilton on Saturday 12th September at Habitat For Humanity, Bryant St, Te Rapa.|
9am to 3pm

This is a very popular event, and is a great opporunity to get involved if you are looking for a way to help our local environment.
Household e-waste from computers and cellphones is collected at this event, and then recycled for free. To give you an idea of volumes we get, last year we collected 90 tonnes of e-waste from over 900 cars!! It's huge, busy, rewarding and lots of fun.

We require some passionate volunteers to assist on the day from 8am through to 4pm to help unload e-waste from cars, stack computers, collect cellphones, control traffic and to do a survey on the equipment being collected. Each volunteer will also be provided with food and refreshments.
If you would like to assist with EDay09 or have any questions please email aaron.fleming@hcc.govt.nz or phone 838 6483 to register your interest.

For more information check out http://www.hamilton.co.nz/ewaste
Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who is interested,

 

Nominations for the Recognyz Youth Awards are now open.

 Awesome musicians, talented artists, clever ideas people and great leaders – there’s a whole lot of great stuff happening in Hamilton because there are some awesome young people behind it. That’s what the 2009 Recognyz Youth Awards are all about! We want to hear their stories and see the talent our City has to offer. There are some great young people working in Environmental groups - here is a chance to celebrate their efforts.

 If you or someone you know is aged between 12-24 and is doing some of these amazing things, nominate them now! Nominations can be made on line at www.hamilton.co.nz/recognyz  or use the attached nomination form.

 

Hamilton City Council Parks & Gardens Unit will host a Community activity at Te Hikuwai Reserve.
You are invited to come along and help out to plant trees to attract native birds and improve our local environment by removing weeds. It would be great if you could attend this event and help contribute a little to our Mother Earth. This is a great opportunity to put into action "Think globally and act locally" Please invite your family, friends and neighbours (age is no barrier to helping as we need your knowledge and guidance to help our younger generation!).
If you could please respond (RSVP) asap to let me know if you can attend or for further information please e.mail starchen@xtra.co.nz
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Location: TE HIKUWAI RESERVE - Meet at corner River Road roundabout opposite Flagstaff car park (

Friday 7th August, 5.30pm

Hosted by Landcare Trust

Enter from Gate 10, Silverdale Road,
Landcare Research, where the NZ Landcare Trust offices are situated, is 2-storied white building surrounded by native plants. There is plenty of parking.
Entry is via the front entrance - please note that the door is locked after hours (ie from 5pm). Someone will be on the door between 5.30 and 5.45. Otherwise txt Monica on 021 049 2036 and someone will open that door for you.
(We will check the door after that as well)
As usual, bring your own grog, koha, and friend. See you there

 

Sustaining our food supply
Meeting at 7pm Environment Centre Hamilton, 25 Ward St

If you are interested in where your food comes from, how we can produce more locally, supporting local growers, etc please come along to a meeting on Tuesday evening and begin the process of where we are at, where we want to get to and what actions we can undertake to get there. We will also have some examples of what is happening in other places.

This meeting is a Transistion Towns meeting. TT is an international movement based around making our communities more robust in the face of rising oil prices and increasing scarcity.
Enquiries phone the Environment Centre 839 4452

If you have not seen this article which was recently in the NZ Herald, it is worth a read (just to cheer up your day):

Economist's warning: Oil supplies are running out fast

The IEA's chief economist has warned the world faces a catastrophic energy crunch as oil supplies run out.

9:41AM Monday Aug 03, 2009

By Steve Connor

 The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.

Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.

In an interview with The Independent, Dr Birol said that the public and many governments appeared to be oblivious to the fact that the oil on which modern civilisation depends is running out far faster than previously predicted and that global production is likely to peak in about 10 years - at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated.

But the first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago.
On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by oil-producing countries, a feature that is set to result in an "oil crunch" within the next five years which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession, he said.

.....One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day," Dr Birol said.

read the whole article

Sorry late notice!

Free film screening of the environmental and humanitarian documentary Food Matters.
 
At Waimarie Community Centre
53 Wellington Street, Hamilton East
 
7pm Wednesday 29nd July