Sunday 14th April
Forest and Bird walk:
WAIRAKE TRACK (KARIOI BY THE SOUTH SIDE)
Time: about 5.5 hours walking
Anyone is welcome to come along.
This is the shortest route to the summit. You drive to a carpark off Ruapuke Road, then it’s a 40-minute walk across farmland to the bush edge. From there the track climbs steadily through native coastal forest to the summit.
It is not as steep as sections of the Mt Karioi Track. On a fine day there’ll be great views up and down the coast. Share travel if possible to reduce car park congestion at the track end.
Meet at the carpark at 9.30am.
Leader: Sue Smith 07 889 5859
Thursday 18th April
Waikato Branch Forest and Bird AGM
7.30
Hamilton Gardens Pavilion
After a brief AGM, Dr Mike Joy will be the guest speaker.
“Our 100% pure delusion”
In this talk he will give the facts on New Zealand’s stark environmental and biodiversity reality - the facts that are hidden from most New Zealanders.
He will discuss the reasons for this and what the declines will cost us if we don’t change. Finally what we need to do to see some improvement.
Mike Joy BSc, MSc (1st class hons), PhD in Ecology is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at the Ecology group-Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University.
He has been, and continues to be, critical of local and central government and the failings in relation to environmental protection. He is angry that these failings have led to New Zealand having the ignominy of having the highest proportion of threatened species of any country in the world and recently being ranked as 18th worst performing country environmentally in the world.
Mike is an outspoken advocate for environmental protection in New Zealand and has received a number of awards including “ecologist of the year” from the NZ ecological Society, the North and South Magazine New Zealander of the year environment 2010 and an “old blue” award from the Royal Forest and Bird protection Society.
Everyone welcome. Come and hear this very stimulating speaker.
Monday 22nd April
Waikato Botanical Society Annual General Meeting
Venue :University of Waikato – S Block. Room S.G.03
Time : 5:30 PM
Catherine Beard will give a talk on her recent trip to the Chatham Islands.
