Sunday 6th March

Tamahere Gully Care/Ecosourced Waikato Seed Collection day

The first Sunday in March is our annual seed collection field trip when we go out to a site to collect seed for propagation.

Last year we went to Pukemokemoke Bush at Gordonton and managed to collect seed from a variety of species, including totara, matai and kaikomako. Because this bush has a good selection of plants, and we have the permission of the Pukemokemoke Bush Reserve Trust to collect seed, we will go there again this year under the guidance of Wayne Bennett.

The meeting place is the car park at Pukemokemoke Bush, Whitikahu Road, at 1.00pm on Sunday 6 March. There is a very nice gazebo a short distance along the track from the car park so you might like to arrive a bit earlier and have a picnic lunch. Allow three hours for the seed collection exercise although you are welcome to leave whenever it suits you. Bring some plastic bags or containers for collecting seed and wear suitable footwear.
The following month on Sunday 3 April, Wayne will run a session on seed treatment and sowing at the Tamahere Community Nursery.

 Jan
on behalf of Tamahere Gully Care/Ecosourced Waikato
Ph 8581010 (w) 856 8995 (h)

Sunday 6th March

Sustainable Sustenance on Sundays

Traditional Umu
1pm, at Hamilton Gardens.$30
Traditional Maori Hangi food and methods, help in the preparation, along with weaving flax food baskets, and talks on traditional food and preservation.
Book through the Hamilton Permaculture Trust, 834 2249, email permaham@actrix.co.nz

Sunday 6th March

Waikato Botanical Society Trip
Kaimais’ Te Tuhi Track

A 45 minute walk across farmland is followed by a steep walk up on to the tops of the Kaimais. Once on the plateau we will have time to botanise through the tawa dominated forests in the area with abundant fern populations.

Meet: The end of Te Tuhi Road off Old Te Aroha Rd at 9:15am
Leader: Kerry Jones: mob) 027 747 0733
ph) 07 855 9700 / e) kmjones@doc.govt.nz
Grade: Medium/ Hard

Sunday 13th March

Federated Farmers present Farm Day

Leave the city behind you and join us out in the paddock for some FREE family fun! Experience the sights, sounds and smells of farming.

Bill and Sue Garland
Rahiri Farm, End of Rahiri Road,
RD 3, Cambridge 3495

10am – 3pm

Guided farm walk
Interactive activities for children
Farm demonstrations
Visit www.farmday.org.nz for maps, directions and further information.

FARM DA Y is a national agricultural event coordinated and hosted by Federated Farmers of New Zealand

Saturday 26th March

On the Road to Self Sufficiency - Living Green in Style
Join the Hamilton Permaculture Trust on a bus tour to explore properties which are all on the road to self-suffciency.

View:  3 different styles of earth building; income streams; quick and easy approach to despatching chickens for eating; organic and permaculture principles, biodynamics and feng shui in action on different properties.

$40 includes organic lunch.
Leaves Hamilton 9am,  returning 5pm.
Book your seat with Hamilton Permaculture Trust 834 2249 or permaham@actrix.co.nz

Friday morning 9am to 12 noon

Anyone with a few spare hours tomorrow would be really welcome at a repotting session at the Tamahere nursery, situated off Devine Road, next to the Tamahere Primary School. (off Airport Road)

There are a large number of plants for the Waiwhakareke Restoration project (Horseshoe lake) ready to pot on so the more helpers the better.

Enquiries phone Catherine Smith 855 8296

Saturday March 5th
9am to 4.30pm

Workshop/Field Day - Organic Certification Process

Thinking about going organic this year?This free workshop is hosted by OFNZ Waikato to promote organic growing and sustainability in the Waikato.
A chance to see a beautiful, vibrant permaculture property and be part of the process as it achieves organic certification for the first time.

Anyone interested in organic growing and organic produce is welcome to attend.
It’s free - but you need to register if you want to attend.
Venue Raglan (directions given on registration, no charge)
To register please email tim@greenfootprint.co.nz

This has come from the MEIT today - 

Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust needs your support right now!

You may be aware that a small group of disaffected landowners with a direct involvement in the Maungatautari project - have called a public meeting in Cambridge this Tuesday night.

Their intention is to try and derail all of the work that has gone on in recent times to provide the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) with a best practice representation/governance structure that will enable the original vision to be achieved.

The organisers of the meeting are entitled to their views but we don’t think it will achieve anything positive for MEIT to attend.
Whether you attend the meeting or not is your call, but to provide some balance we have attached some FAQs and other material that helps put the whole issue in perspective.

What will help tremendously is to have an indication of your support for MEIT – either by “liking” our Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/SavingMaungatautari or providing positive support for MEIT by posting your support for MEIT onhttp://www.facebook.com/savemaungatautari and encouraging your family and friends to do the same.
There are some exciting developments coming up that we look forward to sharing with you in the near future.

Kind regards
Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust

FAQ:

The facts behind the current debate over governance for Maungatautari Ecological Island

Q. How has the governance structure changed?

A. A two-tier structure has been developed to clearly separate representation from governance and bring greater future accountability for everyone associated with MEIT.

Under the current structure the Guardians retain the same representation as previously, with a three-way split - five landowners, five Iwi and five other (community) trustees.

Q. What level of support does the new two-tier governance structure have?

A. Of all the landowners less than 20 per cent are opposed to the new structure. All of the key funders (Waipa District Council, DoC, Environment Waikato) support it, as do the major corporate sponsors.

Q. Why did some Trustees get removed or resign?

Because the original Trust deed required 100% support for any constitutional changes (unlike the 75% generally considered the norm,) three Trustees were able to block any changes at all. This became unworkable.

(There is a parallel here in recent changes to jury trials. It used to be that ALL members of a jury had to agree before someone could be found guilty. Now only 10 or 11 jury members have to agree to convict. This change removed the ability of a single juror to dictate to a majority and potentially bring about a miscarriage of justice).

Q. Doesn’t MEIT have contracts and easements that guarantee their position?

A. Sadly, in all the enthusiasm to get the project off the ground, important legal and contractual issues were put into the too hard basket. MEIT would thank the land owners for bringing this issue to the table.

Q. What about the things that the Save Maungatautari campaign is alleging: i.e. it is a Maori land grab; that public access will be removed once the Treaty settlement is signed; that access to water will be affected etc, etc.

A. Those claims are untrue. There has been a known Waitangi Treaty settlement claim on Maungatautari well before the birth of MEIT and this was acknowledged in the original trust deed. Trust support was reconfirmed as recently as 2008 with a unanimous resolution.

It’s also worth noting that no private property, Maori or Pakeha, is involved in the Treaty claim and no private property rights will be affected by the claim

There is no doubt that the landowners fully share the vision of the Trust and the wider community: To remove forever, introduced mammalian pests and predators from Maungatautari, and restore to the forest a healthy diversity of indigenous plants and animals not seen in our lifetime.

Q. Are the disaffected landowners excluded from the project?

A. No. They have exactly the same rights as all adjoining landowners and are eligible to be nominated to the Guardians and appointed to the MEIT Executive.

Q. What happens now?

A. MEIT has offered to have an independent review of the processes used to change the governance structure. Continuous communication between all parties must be kept open, whilst MEIT continues to ensure their vision is adhered to.

Q Does Gareth Morgan have money in the project?

A. Not currently. Gareth Morgan had previously loaned MEIT $1 million to offset its bank overdraft until the bank approved the loan that the Trust now has.

Reminder - tonight, 17th : Hamilton Mokihinui River Forum with Kevin Hague

The Mayoral Cycle Challenge - Sunday 27th February

Assemble at 2.00pm in Flagstaff Park.

The ride will be led by Mayor Julie Hardaker and Sport Waikato CEO Matthew Cooper.
Spot prizes will be drawn on the day and also some lucky person will win a new bike.

The course will carry the disability symbol and is therefore suitable for handcycles and trikes.
Last year we 800 cyclists participating and came second for numbers taking part in similar events throughout the country.

This year we would like to improve on that and be the most 'cycle mad city' in the NZ.

This event is not a race but very much a participation/family event.

To all who care about Maungatautari

come along  on Tuesday 22^nd Feb at 7pm at the Cambridge Town Hall to hear the facts and together seek a united solution based on community passion, goodwill and partnership with iwi and landowners.

Information at www.savemaungatautari.org

Coastal culture: How we relate to coastal areas and their management

NZAssociation for Environmental Education (NZAEE) Waikato are hosting the third in a series of Green cafe events on Tuesday 22 Feb 7.30pm at Cafe Francais (the old BBC – on Victoria St, Hamilton just north of London St).
Come at 6.30pm for a meal (cafe prices between $12 and $20) or come for the talks and a wine or coffee at 7.30pm.

As Seaweek 2011 approaches (Feb 26 – March 6, see http://www.seaweek.org.nz/), it is timely to consider our relationship to our extensive coastal areas.
We have a great line up of speakers, each of whom will speak for ten mins to give their perspectives and then questions and discussion to follow.

Professor Chris Battershill, University of Waikato

Chris will address the topic Reef to Royalty: Why discovery of new drugs and other chemicals from the sea is dependant on conservation of biodiversity in its natural context.
New Zealand played a significant part in the successful development of a new breast cancer active drug derived from a sponge, that was licensed in the US, Japan and Europe just before Christmas. Furthermore, we have arguably contributed to the highest proportion of anti-tumour drug leads based on marine natural products currently in the US National Cancer Institute’s clinical program. This is due in good part to the high endemic biodiversity of our coasts. Given the rapid decline of biodiversity from around our coasts and harbours due to sedimentation and marine invasions, there is an urgent need to protect remaining diversity in its natural context; that is, in a natural dynamic ecosystem regime of effective size. Argument for networks of suitably sized marine reserves and reduction of adverse coastal pressures is strengthened by the fact that our livelihoods and those of next generations can be improved by biochemical discoveries yet to be made, so long as the biodiversity exists from which to make these discoveries.

For further reading:

Newman DJ, Cragg GM, Battershill CN (2009) Therapeutic agents from the sea: biodiversity, chemo-evolutionary insight and advances to the end of Darwin’s 200th year. Diving Hyperbaric Medicine 39 (4) 215-224.

Battershill C.N., Bavington C., Chahal, S., Jaspars, M., Littlechild J., and Spragg, A. (2008) Contributions of marine bioscience to industrial biotechnology. Roundtable Discussion. Industrial Biotechnology 3 (4):304-313.

Battershill C, Jaspars M, Long P. (2005) Marine Biodiscovery: new drugs from the ocean depths. Biologist 52 (2): 107-114

 Graeme Silver, Environment Waikato

Graeme will address the topic Development of Aquaculture in our coastal region: Who is driving it? Recent changes in the role of regional councils has led Environment Waikato to evolve from a mainly regulatory function to a broader consideration of promotion of the economic, social and environmental well-being of the Waikato region. As part of this move, the council is considering a strategy for development of aquaculture. Already present around the Coromandel Peninsula, aquaculture poses questions for us about the capacity of our marine environments to support increased marine farming activity, as well as positive aspects of the economic gains and employment opportunities that can be accrued.

For further reading:
Environment Waikato website www.ew.govt.nz

 Fred Lichtwark, Whaingaroa Harbour Care

Fred will address the topic How local communities can a say about their coastal areas. Fred has for several years spearheaded a community group, Whaingaroa Harbour Care, which is dedicated to improving the environmental quality of Whaingaroa/Raglan Harbour. Through committed volunteers raising native plants from locally-sourced seed, large scale riparian planting in areas around the harbour has significantly reduced run-off into the harbour. Fred will talk about how this project has helped community members get involved with their coastal regions and enhanced a local coastal area.

For further reading:

Whaingaroa Harbour Care website http://www.harbourcare.co.nz/

Forest and Bird Film Evening Thursday 10th February

'Water Whisperers: Tangaroa'

Chartwell Room, Hamilton Gardens, 7pm

Kathleen Gallagher, award winning Director of Earth Whisperers Papatuanuku. says "This film is about the reconnection of ourselves with our lakes, rivers and oceans. We have guides already in our midst - old fishermen, conservationists, farmers, scientists local iwi and divers who are intimate with lakes river and sea life, knowledgeable about sustainable fishing practices and to restore damaged waters"

In this beautifully photographed film ten stories of environmental redemption are told : from the Poor Knights Marine Reserve to the Hurunui and Rakaia Rviers, and including the wonderful Mike O'Donnell describing how a toxic Coromandel waterway was rescued from arsenic and effluent poisoning by sensible planting and community committment.

$5 entry

Contact Katherine Hay 856 1906

Sunday 13th February

Waikato Branch of Forest and Bird Walk - Great for families!

RUAKURI and KOROPUPU (easy/average)

Explore two bush reserves in Waitomo district, with caves and beautiful limestone formations. Leave Hamilton at 9.00, meet at carpark at Ruakuri Scenic Reserve at 10.30 (travel through Waitomo village and turn left past the glowworm cave to Aranui and Ruakuri caves.) Later, we’ll walk alongside and finally in a stream that ends up at an underground lake with lots of glowworms. Getting your feet wet is unavoidable! Bring a torch. A particularly beautiful walk. Great family outing.

Leader: Jane Mcleod 07 856 2505.