Warm up your home this winter
Predator-free Hamilton: Help needed
Jubilee Park working bee: Kahikatea Forest Restoration
The Big Squeeze
National environmental reporting – feedback wanted
Two workshops at Plenty Permaculture

Warm up your home this winter

• Is your home difficult to warm?
• Do you have a high power bill?
• Problems with dampness and condensation?
• Thinking about a home ventilation system?
• Want to spend less on heating?
• Want to be more environmentally-friendly?

If you answered yes to any of the above, our certified home performance advisors can help.

Often there are simple, low-cost changes that you can make that will keep your home warmer and reduce your energy bills.

Landlord warrant of fitness and Comprehensive Home Performance Assessments for households: $120 this fee will contribute towards providing this service to low-income households.

Other free services available for low income households, email us or call 07 839 4452 to find out more.

Predator-free Hamilton: 
Help needed

Working together, Landcare Research, Hamilton City Council and Waikato Regional Council are setting up a project to help people control rats and possums on their properties next to Hamilton gullies and the river bank. This will be good both for our birdlife and for residents.

The first step is to understand how many of these predators we have and how far they range. Numbers are being estimated with tracking tunnels and chew cards. To find out their range, Landcare Research are going to capture a number of animals and fit them with radio collars. These will then be tracked with a radio receiver by a WINTEC student, Nic, as part of his studies.

For safety reasons the student needs a companion each night he is at work – which is where you come in. We want to put together a team of volunteers to accompany Nic. He will be working week nights over a two month period from dusk until around midnight. We intend that each volunteer will be called on perhaps once a fortnight over that period.

The job will be to walk with Nic along either gully paths or marked routes in gully bottoms while he records rat movements. You will need boots or sturdy walking shoes, a head torch if you have one, warm and shower proof clothing – he won’t work if it’s raining hard. Walking surfaces will vary from boardwalks to rough (no tracks), so moderate fitness is required. You will need to be taken through a brief safety induction at Landcare Research, Hamilton, prior to going out.

Depending on completion of technical requirements, we hope to start in the week beginning 22 August or the week after that, but would appreciate your help any time through the period.

For further information and to sign up contact Neil Fitzgerald at Landcare Research, ph. 07 859 3746, or email fitzgeraldn@landcareresearch.co.nz

Jubilee Park working bee

When: Every second Saturday of the month  (except December and January); Next Event: Saturday, 9th July 2016
Time: 9.00 am – 12.00pm

Meet at Migrant Centre car park Boundary Road, or if late follow board walk around bush area , a sign will be out showing where the group is working.

Come and help with the removal of pest plants and invasive weeds from the most important remnant bush area in Hamilton City. The group have targeted the removal of tradescantia and are down to the last remaining scatterings. Come along and help with this project and have a sense of contributing positively to the urban restoration of Hamilton City. Some planting of the forest edges, pest animal monitoring and control.

Volunteers must have suitable footwear (gumboots good as many sites are wet & muddy); raincoat during; gardening gloves and drinking  

Contact: Gerard Kelly, DDI: 07 838 650or email gerard.kelly@hcc.govt.nz

The Big Squeeze

3rd September
Venue: Hamilton Boys High 

Here is an opportunity to support an awesome local project making the best use of the fruity abundance in Kirikiriroa! Join in the fun!

A one day event to get together and make preserves from citrus fruit. The marmalades, jams and cordials made will be shared with community groups, foodbanks and families in need. Some of it may be sold to fundraise for Community Fruit Hamilton.

This is what's needed:1) Citrus fruit to pick 2) People to pick it 3) Sugar, lots and lots of sugar! 4) Jars, wine & glass sauce bottles with lids. 5)People to help make preserves on 3 Sept.

To help, sign up at pickfruithamilton@gmail.com. Donate fruit from your garden trees, or any surplus from your orchard. Phone 021 253 1526.

National environmental reporting – feedback wanted

Would you like to be involved in shaping the future of environmental reporting in New Zealand?

Statistics NZ and the Ministry for the Environment work in partnership under the Environmental Reporting Act 2015 to publish regular data that illustrates and explains what is happening to our environment.

They want to get a better idea of how people are accessing and using their reporting products so that they can make environmental information more accessible, relevant and influential. Your participation in this 10–15-minute online exercise will help them determine how findable and useful the information and data are to different users.

If you would like to provide additional comment, please email the environmental reporting team at info@stats.govt.nz.

Two courses to build confidence and resilience (Plenty Permaculture)

Biointensive Gardening Workshop

17 & 18 September 2016

Plenty Permaculture think Biointensive Gardening is the best system for home gardeners to produce the maximum amount of high quality food, with the minimal amount of human labour, cost and sprays, and inbuilt is not only soil protection but soil production. Brad Harding is a terrific teacher. Learn all you need to know to set up a productive, successful garden on this weekend workshop. Find out more.

Advanced Permaculture Design Course

25-27 November, 2016

In November, Plenty Permaculture will be hosting international permaculture designer and teacher Dan Palmer.  Dan is the spark, brain and heart behind a movement to make permaculture stronger both in NZ and around the world.  This 2.5 days will be an incredibly deep and engaging exposure to the essentials of design which really underpin anything we choose to do successfully - landscapes, buildings, gardens, social enterprises, our entire lives really. Find out more.

Contact Plenty Permaculture for more information.