Ruud Kleinpaste
Unsung heroes of the environment.
it’s extraordinarily pleasing to see New Zealand communities starting to embrace some of our ambitious restoration projects. I can see it taking shape in the way early childhood education finds the “outdoor classroom” more and more important. Getting your hands dirty, playing with soil and water, and growing some brightly-coloured flowers, caterpillars and edibles – they’re exactly the kind of things gardeners know all about.
Primary schools are getting into it too: the whole curriculum can be taught outside and Nature is our third teacher, together with adults and other children (as in the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy). This is so important if we are to become familiar with the operations manual of planet Earth.
One well-known project that is run by (community) trusts, educators, grandparents, mums, dads and the kids (thank you all!) is Predator Free New Zealand. Set rodent, possum and stoat traps in your backyard, and remove the exotic predators from your immediate environment.
The results can be spectacular; just go and visit Wellington suburbs around Zealandia and you can’t hear yourself think because of the songs of saddlebacks, t¯u¯i and k¯ak¯a. It truly is an amazing experience and a fabulous glimpse into the future of a restored Aotearoa.
There are many other examples of New Zealanders getting stuck into restoring their biodiversity – Tiritiri Matangi, Maungatautari, Rotokare, Orokonui, the list is endless – but quite recently I came across a few examples of community initiative that went a step (or two) further.
On January 9 this year, the Otago Daily Times carried a front-page article about two bush-walking cribbies from Papatowai who restored an old track to the “lost” Koropuku Falls. The old track was not really lost but had not been in great shape, so Wayne Allen and Peter Hill decided to do something about that and started a renovation project some 15 years ago. It became a labour of love that involved a couple of thousand ponga logs, and a lot of slashing and remodelling of the track in their spare time. The end result is a wonderful 15-minute walk to a spectacular waterfall for everyone to enjoy.
We walked it on that January 9 before the hordes arrived and found it to be one of the most scenic tracks we’ve ever done, the very best of south Aotearoa bush. Thank you, Wayne and Peter! The concept of a national park is also starting to change, thanks to community initiatives overseas, such as planned Glenthorne National Park in the heart of Adelaide or the project to make London the world’s first National Park City. A similar initiative is happening here; with Bay of Plenty National Park aiming to make the entire region, including its urban areas, greener, healthier and more sustainable for everyone. It’s partly an aspirational goal and partly a choice in how to live.
New Zealand has outstanding national parks, administered by the Department of Conservation. These are the places we’d like to visit on our holidays, to go tramping, camping, bird watching – areas where we can recharge and be one with Nature.
But imagine living in a national park for the rest of your life!
Living in a green subdivision, full of trees and shrubs, with many parks for kids is the Kiwi dream.
It’s good for your physical and mental health. It’s safer too. Lower crime rates are directly related to the abundance of green spaces.
But the Bay of Plenty National Park project, launched by Laura Wragg from Envirohub Tauranga and Geoff Canham from Geoff Canham Consulting a few months ago, is not just about creating a giant garden suburb, village, subdivision or city, full of eco-corridors and restored biodiversity, planted waterways and silvopasture landscapes. It is also about creating green schools, slowing traffic in built-up areas, investing in more sustainable water management by de-sealing some roads and creating a cooler, shaded environment in the heat of summer. It’s about rongo¯a M¯aori, health, minimising waste, transport systems, our happiness and wellbeing, buying locally and interacting with your neighbours.
People always aspire to move up in the world; shifting house to a “leafier” suburb. Laura and Geoff knew this. But they simply asked the question, “Why not create those conditions in the community where you are living today?” He t¯angata. It’s not rocket science.
It became a labour of love that involved a couple of thousand ponga logs, and a lot of slashing and remodelling of the track.