2013 Events and Achievements

Sunday 24 November 2013 - wetland restoration and tree killer control

In the Glade Place wetland, Linda, Duncan, Fiona, Dave, Gary, Christine, Richard, Leslie and others did a great job stomping down the weeds to let the natives do their thing. Two Andrews and Keith headed off to below Maritime Tce, where they cut the Blue Morning Glory heading up into the trees and also headed off lots of the notifiable weed Woolly Nightshade before they dropped their seed from private land into the wetland. A great morning's work by all. Many thanks to the volunteers.

Sunday 27 October 2013 - weed control around lower wetland

Many thanks to Duncan, Werner, David, Fiona and Keith for tackling the blue morning glory threatening the mature tree ferns and the other native plants along the wetland edge below Maritime Terrace. It is very satisfying to rescue beautiful ponga from this dreaded weed. There were a lot of baby woolly nightshade in their first year - so they were easy to pull out before they grew and spread even more of their seed about.

A lot of wattles frilled by previous working bees or by our contractor in past years had died off so we pulled the morning glory off them and pushed the wattles flat to the ground so they would rot down quicker. And stop being crutches for the morning glory. There's still lots to do - so we look forward to seeing you on the 4th Sunday of November - see https://sites.google.com/site/leroysbushauckland/what-s-coming-up) for more details.

Sunday 22 September 2013 - weed control Valley Road

Many thanks to Linda, Geoff, Duncan, Dave, Helen and Keith who weeded around the planting put in place under the "Naturally Smarter" project.

Interesting discussions held with neighbours. The flax and native grasses planted are now well established - but onion plant, broadleaf and invasive grasses required some work.

Tuesday 4 September 2013 - BNZ "Closed for Good" working bee

We had a wonderful turnout of 25 enthusiastic BNZ staff (Emma, Francesca, Bryan, Carey, Paul, Charles, Geoffrey, Guy, Henry, Jeremy, Justine, Karl, Margaret, Paul, Michelle, Nick, Nigel, Paul, Reuben, Tina) and 4 Le Roys Bush Management Committee members (Adrian, Geoff, Linda, Keith).

With rain threatening for the afternoon, we followed up BNZ working bee veteran Nick's suggestion of taking the team for a walk up to the waterfall so they could see other parts of the bush reserve they were helping to save.

The team broke into 4 groups and followed the Council ecologist's recommendations about releasing the native plants. It was great to find that some members of the BNZ team had also done bush restoration work in other reserves.

When lunchtime came, it started to spit and the rain radar showed more showers were close behind - but we had achieved so much we had no regrets about calling it a day. Soon after, heavy rain set in. Our next working bees are on the 4th Sunday of the month - so if any BNZ staff would like to come back we would be delighted to see you! And hopefully we will have the pleasure of your company next year too. We really appreciate your help.

Photo of 4 volunteers between clearing climbing asparagus and woolly nightshade.

The plant poster used for the working bee can be found attached to the page: Plants - identification and information

Friday 26 and Sunday 28 July

The 1000+ plants were carried down to the bottom of the track ready for planting on Friday afternoon - many thanks to Henry, Sonya, Richard, Ben and Keith for their hard work and ingenuity.

Sunday morning was a beautiful day - and a good crowd turned out. However, they were well spread out and we didn't get a group photo this time. But the willing volunteers got all 1125 plants in the ground in just under 2 hours. A great effort by all! Thanks to all the helpers who came from far and wider - wonderful to see you all. Great to be able to sign off the work sheets for fine young citizens doing community service or work experience projects.

Many thanks to: Wulf and Siri from Otahuhu; Steve from Coatesville; Chris, Gary, Troy and Lesley from the Open Polytech horticulture programme; Mike, Jydee and Linda from Mt Albert; Kees, Frances, Duncan and Rachel from Birkdale/BeachHaven/Glenfield; and LRB "neighbours" Steve P and his son, Zaneta and family, Andrew, Emma, Stuart, Lisa, Sarah, Davey, Florence, Moses, Ben, Susan, Mike, Helen, Carol, Keith and Richard and many other whose names and email addresses we didn't write down so can't thank you by email. But if you read this, please email LeRoysBush@gmail.com so we can add your names to those 30.

It is 4 years since we had a big planting bee here. Prior to 2009 this area was covered in kikuyu, ginger and other weeds. Priot to that it was full of crack willow. Hopefully this working bee will break the back of the beggars ticks and other seriously invasive weeds. And that a few "stomping" bees over the spring and summer will allow these plants to keep their heads above the weeds and get their roots well down into the ground so they can hang on it during any floods over the next year. Our working bees are on the 4th Sunday of each month - please put it in your diary!

Watch out on the calendar page for where these working bees will be.

If you haven't heard about "stomping" before - this is an idea brought to us by Paul the volunteer coordinator - instead of back breaking weed-pulling, you identify the plants planted, then crush down the weeds around them to prevent them being over-shadowed. There are situations where you have to cut away weeds that are tangled with the natives. But where you can clearly see the weeds separate from the natives, you just trample them to the ground - preferably before they start to strangle or shadow the native. And also before they start spreading their seeds. Of course ideally you have to do it often enough so that you don't stomp on the natives!

We didn't get round to taking photos of this working bee until after everyone left - but here are a few places in the upper wetland where you all helped to make a difference.

Sunday 23 June 2013

A fantastic small group of 18 turned out and planted all 1000 sedges in about 100 minutes!

Thanks very much to Linda, Brendan, Frances, Kees, Helen, Don, Eloise, Geoff, Linda, Andrew, Carol, Isobel, Andrew, Emma, Adrian, Sonya, Richard and Keith.

If you didn't make it to the planting bee, you can see the carexes planted alongside the north side of the track from the Seaview Road track (by Dudding Park playing field) heading towards the upper reserve.

The aim of this planting bee is to encourage the native grasses to grow big enough that they will shade out annual weeds such as ox tongue and beggars ticks. Hopefully the pukekos won't pull any out!

Hope to see you at 10am on the Sunday 28 July at the Le Roy Tce entrance.

Sunday 26 May 2013

Many thanks to all the helpers who helped plant 875 plants selected by the Auckland Council Parks Department biodiversity coordinator. The tussock and flax will help to infill the gaps in the wetland where pest plants like Beggars Ticks emerge each summer. The cabbage trees, manuka and putaputawētā will provide shade to suppress weeds and cool the stream water - encouraging native fish.

100 Cabbage tree/ti kouka (Cordyline australis)

250 Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium )

250 Flax/harakeke (Phormium tenax)

25 Marbleleaf/putaputawētā (Carpodetus serratus)

250 Carex virgata (vigorous clumping tussock - a successful coloniser in dry and damp areas)

Many thanks to: Sydney,Margaret,Trisha,Cathrin,Tantiana,Frances,Kees,David,Michael,Charlie,Megan,Carol,Helen,Richard,Linda,Geoff,Ken,Adrian,Lyn,Neo,Alex,Anthony, Jenny, Keith and Richard (if we have forgotten anyone - our apologies, but please email leroysbush@gmail.com to remind us). A particular welcome to the newcomers and the members of the Open Polytechnic restoration course. And best wishes to the other David for his op next week.

Sunday 28 April 2013

Many thanks to all the helpers who helped plant 250 carex in the wetland and about 180 natives in a bend in the walkway above Valley Road: Carol, Don, Julia, Eloise, Lili, Laura, Maureen, Werner, Helen, Susan, Paul, Richard, Keith. Thanks also to Bones and his helpers for carrying the plants in on the Saturday. And to Michael for cycling round to put up the notices. And to Paul Duffy and the Auckland Council Parks Department for providing the plants. Thanks also to Richard Tippett (ExpertGardenService@gmail.com) for coordinating the planting.

These photos show the group planting a variety of natives such as carexes, kiekie, pukatea and fivefinger in a fascinating bend in the track upstream from Valley Road (as the crow flies it's below the bottom of Wernham Place). The aim of the planting was to shade out the annual weeds which we have been trying to control for many years.

The next working bee is on Sunday 26 May at 10am - we would love to see a big turnout as we have 1000 carex to plant in the wetland at the bottom of Glade Place and Valley Road to shade out the weeds! Lets beat the beggars ticks, willow weed and nut sedge.

For the record - here is a list of the 443 natives we planted today::

Sunday 24 March 2013

A small group did a solid morning's work releasing native plants in the wetland in preparation for the April planting bee. A pleasant morning in beautiful weather.

Thursday 14 March 2013 - ASB Compliance Team working bee

A wonderful team of men and women from the ASB Compliance Department did a great job clearing morning glory and other weeds around the Little Shoal Bay wetland. The main task was removing Blue Morning Glory so that it didn't choke and kill large native trees and ferns.

Many thanks to Damien, Tom, Melanie, Madeleine, Sam, Deidre, Chinar, Sue, David, Brett and others from the ASB.

Thanks also to Richard, Carol, Linda and Keith from the Le Roys Bush group.

And to Paul Duffy, Volunteer and Biodiversity Coordinator, Parks Department, Auckland Council

Sunday 24 February 2013

A small group met at 3/60 Maritime Tce to tackle the blue morning glory and other weeds along the south edge of the raupo wetland.

It is a bit depressing to go back again and again to see this particularly smothering weed killing off punga and trees.

As we worked, we also talked about new ways of tackling the problem - from working with property owners to getting BMG declared a noxious weed. We also prepared things ready for an ASB volunteer group in March.

We thought congratulations should go to the owners of the properties bordering on the wetland where the owners are keeping on top of the weeds - their native bush looks great. A pity we can't wipe out BMG so it doesn't creep across boundaries.

Thanks to Linda, Adrian, Maisie and Keith.

Sunday 17 February 2013

About 35 people from all over Auckland turned up for the Auckland Council Wetland Walk in the Little Shoal Bay Wetland.

Monique and Graham from Auckland Council led the walks assisted by Carol and Gail (Auckland Council) and Linda, Geoff and Keith from the LRB Management Committee. Graham had set traps the night before and was able to show participants 5 banded kokopu, 2 inanga, several short-finned eels and a heaps of little gambusia from the wetland area. He explained how the kokopu and eels manage to climb the steep rocks in the waterfalls. Monique told participants about the gradations of salt-water marsh plants down around Rods Island. The birdlife was mostly hiding - a white-faced heron emerged after the event.

Sunday 27 January 2013

This "releasing bee" was following a recommendation from the Auckland City's Volunteer and Biodiversity Coordinator to try "stomping" on the weeds rather than pulling them out. Lynda located the small pukatea from previous years - still growing well - but not very big yet. Ken located a 1.2 m high kahikatea buried under lotus and other weeds. Geoff and Troy found a number of manuka planted earlier this year growing well - some with flowers or possibly seeds. Pukeko had pulled out quite a lot but overall the successful ones were pleasing.

Thanks very much to Mike, Troy and Vaike from the Open Polytech/Unitec course and to Geoff, Ken, Lynda, Sylvia and Keith.