For the restoration of Cape Rodney and the Leigh Harbour foreshore
It was a pleasure to recently meet Frances Dickinson, founder of the Te Kohuroa Rewilding Initiative .
tekohuroarewilding.orghttps://www.tekohuroarewilding.org
Frances is a passionate environmentalist and has provided valuable advice to support our efforts to protect a magnificent, ancient kauri on a paper road, which is at risk due to the area being recently formed into a walkway. We are very grateful for her wisdom and guidance.
On Sunday 17 and Monday 18 August, 12 volunteer hours were spent weeding and planting along the bullock track/Tenetahi Rd. Marcus Moody helped remove more jasmine, among other weeds, and to plant around 100 eco-sourced plants. The area is gradually taking shape, and we’re heartened that we might win this battle after all.
Leigh resident Martin Turner wasn’t deterred when asked if he’d be available to help with weeding along the notorious bullock track at the bottom of Tenetahi Road. Clearly, he hadn’t been put off by this ominous stretch of weeds.
On Sunday, 27 July, armed with enthusiasm and determination, Martin tackled the dreaded jasmine, pulling it out roots, nodes and all. The recent wet weather helped considerably, making removal easier than usual, and two large weed bags were filled with very little effort. In total, 5 1/2 volunteer hours were devoted to this task.
In addition to his help at working bees, Martin has also been kindly tending to the plants along the foreshore, including controlling kikuyu that was threatening to engulf the platform walkway.
A big thank Martin for your ongoing efforts. We really appreciate your contribution.
Linda Beatson has a longstanding connection with Valhalla. She and her late mother were part of the original team who planted tea tree on the coastal and harbour side of the property. It’s a place of quiet reflection for Linda, and a favourite walking spot for her and her dog Chester who is obsessed with sniffing out rabbits.
Initially, Linda began letting us know about trap catches she noticed during her walks, saving other volunteers time and effort. More recently, she’s taken on an active trapping role herself, quickly mastering both the D-Rat traps and Flipping Timmys.
Linda is showing early signs of moth plant obsession. Some of us know the symptoms all too well – an uncontrollable urge to collect every pod in sight, a compulsion to uproot anything oozing that dreaded white sap, and in more severe cases, dreaming about attacking moth plant pods dangling from trees.
On Sunday 29 June, we set off for an afternoon of trapping. Once the moth plant vines were spotted, it was hard to walk away. More time ended up being spent on moth plant control than on trapping. We returned again on 27 July. Chester was in his element; at times looking like he was leaping like a rabbit. Apart from pulling out the odd obvious moth plant vine, we tried hard to stay focused on the traps and not look up too often for fear of seeing pods in trees. Two rats were added to our tally. Linda returned the next day removed a freshly caught mouse from a D-rat trap. She is working towards mastering the DOC200’s and becoming a fully-fledged trapper.
Fifteen years ago, members of the Auckland Grammar School under 16 rowing team joined us to help with weeding and planting in one of our restoration areas. All these years later, we’re thrilled to have reconnected with the school.
This time, it’s been the school’s woodworking students, along with members of the St George’s Youth Group, Epsom, who have contributed to the Leigh Harbour Valley Society’s efforts. Together, they’ve built an impressive 98 rat trap tunnels which have been donated to our project. These new tunnels will allow us to extend several of our traplines across the project area.
The initiative was coordinated by Evan Walters, an Auckland Grammar old boy who is currently studying Engineering at the University of Auckland and working part-time at the school. Evan is also involved in a restoration project near Huntly.
We look forward to hosting some students for a tramp through the bush to see first-hand how their work is making a difference.
Something about the bullock track at the bottom of Tenetahi Rd seems to strike fear into the hearts of even our most seasoned volunteers. Maybe it’s the seemingly impenetrable jasmine, the long stretches of ivy, the thick vines of Japanese honeysuckle, the mountains of ginger, or the tangled strands of blue morning glory. There’s also another possible deterrent… the pungent smell of the native stinkhorn fungus, Aseroe rubra (anemone stinkhorn). One thing’s for sure: when a working bee on the Bullock Track is mentioned, people suddenly remember they have other plans!
On Sunday 29 June, two unsuspecting volunteers; Damian Moody and his son Marcus, ventured into this notorious piece of bush. They tackled the jasmine with sheer determination and removed Japanese honeysuckle, and moth plant vines as thick as your wrist. They also emptied ten weed bags of mulch in preparation for the next working bee. Marcus returned the following day and discovered a foul-smelling anemone stinkhorn fungus; the odour of which is described as resembling rotting meat or animal feces.
In total, volunteers (including Marcus and Damian) clocked up 15 hours of hard work on 29 and 30 June. Whether they knew what they were getting into is unclear, but their contribution has made a real difference.
We’re incredibly grateful for the help of all our volunteers who have worked hard to restore this special area of bush.
Stinkhorn Fungus
Keith and Chris have continued to chip away at tradescantia along the stream edges. It’s interesting how the tradescantia beetle, a form of biological control, has become established in some areas but not others.
Heather Johnston-Lee from Pest Free Leigh asked if we would help her locate some tradescantia beetles, so we joined forces on a beetle hunt. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find any beetles but we did collect a bundle of chewed tradescantia leaves, including some that looked like they had eggs on them. While they didn’t look exactly like the eggs shown in a previous post, they will hopefully prove useful. We decided some investigation is needed into the habits and spread of this elusive little beetle, including the best time to harvest them.
Unfortunately the website was hacked recently and we lost all the posts between May and August which detailed a significant number of hours work.  It is frustrating to lose this information which is a helpful reference when reporting back to the Council and other organisations.
In brief our focus over the past few months has been targeting pests with the assistance of Cam Rathe from Coastal Pest Control.¬† Quite a number of hours were spent planting astelia and a selection of other native plants on the Carlyon’s property.¬† We also had a successful weeding day on Mike and Fiona Francis’s property.¬† Shortly after returning from Europe, Jo Evans and Sue Gibbings set to work checking the stoat line and planting alongside the concrete driveway.¬† We have caught several more weasels and rats.
We had to cancel a couple of planned events due to the heavy rainfall.  Our next working bee will be a Community planting day on 25 September.
Sunday, 22 May.
It had threatened to be a wet and stormy day but we received reports the sun was shining at Leigh so decided to head up for our planned weeding day.  We arrived at Tenetahi Rd shortly after 9.30am where we met Nola and John Harvey and helped them transport some plants down to the wetland area.  Richard Taylor, Arthur and Trish Gundy approached the valley from Pakiri Rd and continued weeding in that area.  After several days of torrential rain it was rather slippery and very muddy under foot and it was evident the from the flattened sedges that the stream had reached a high level during the heavy rain fall.  Nik planted the remaining sedges stream side and we planted some of the pratia angulata upstream.  We then headed back down the valley and started rolling a large area of tradescantia.  Further pratia was planted along with some eco-sourced sedges.  We packed up our tools at about 1.00pm when the weather started to turn.
In the afternoon I met with Chris Floyd from QEII and took him through parts of the covenant and to other areas of our project.  He provided some helpful advice regarding how best to approach various weed challenges; in particular controlling the tradescantia.  Like Cam, he was of the view that we should ensure this weed is cleared before planting to avoid the risk it becoming re-established.  He recommended a few drought-tolerant species for the Carlyon’s property including astelia.  All in all, a successful day.
Sunday 15 May Р2 hours was spent splitting flaxes which had been donated by Sue Haigh  and planting them on the Carlyons property, along with some sedges.  The pratia angulata is looking very healthy, however, a number of weeds have become established within these plants and it was rather time-consuming digging them out.
On Thursday, 19 May and Friday 19 May, Cam spent several hours clearing weeds on the Harvey’s property (mainly chainsawing and pasting privet along the stream edges).¬† He said he had never seen such large privet trees.¬† The area has been opened up and will need to be planted as soon as possible before other weeds become established.
On Sunday 24 April, Trish and Arthur Gundy and Richard Taylor met with me in the valley (on the Harvey’s wetland area) to weed around the sedges planted last year.¬† The Council’s recommendation to plant sedges has proved to be a positive move.¬† While they were covered in convolvulus, there was very little Tradescantia amongst the plants.¬† While there are concerns regarding the ongoing management of this nuisance weed, the general view is that if we wait until the Tradescantia is fully under control before planting, we might all die of old age first, due to it recolonising from upstream every time there is a decent flood!¬† Tradescantia is well established further up Pakiri Rd which is a whole project in itself.
We therefore plan to continue planting sedges along the border of the stream and carry out hand-control where necessary.
The 4 of us spent 2 hours weeding.  We were so involved we forgot to take a before and after photograph.