Author: kathryn

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.

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.

Thanks to Richard Taylor, we have time-series of photographs of the restored wetland area on Julie Turner’s property (corner Tenetahi and Pakiri Rds) taken between 31/1/11 and 3/4/16.¬†¬† The first 5 photographs were taken in 2011 when the area was fenced and Ponsonby Primary planted the first plants with Trees for Survival.¬† The other photographs show the effects of regular follow-up weeding which was carried out between 2012 and 2014 to ensure survival of the plants.¬† The final photograph shows how well established the plants have become and that all the hard work has paid off.¬†¬†

It has been a disappointing start to the year with the climatic conditions proving to be particularly weed-friendly.¬† Convolvulus became established over the plants on the Carlyons’ property despite two hand-clearing efforts in preparation for spraying.¬† Many other varieties of weeds including¬† mothplant also made their presence felt but the convolvulus formed a thick carpet over the plants.¬† No doubt this was due the fact this weed, which was already established at the top of the property, was disturbed in spring when Cam sprayed the area.¬† The muggy temperatures during February prevented us from doing much follow-up weeding and Cam was unavailable for most of the month.¬† While it had already been concluded that the selected plants (pratia angulata and muehlenbeckia) were¬† not hardy enough to compete with certain weeds and more suitable native plants needed to be planted instead, my heart sank when I saw the area two weeks ago.

However, it is easy to forget how many weeds we have removed including large areas of moth plant and eleagnus which were threatening to strangle the bush.  Patience is necessary and with regular follow-up spraying, a selection of more suitable plants, as well of regular control of weeds, our efforts will pay off.

March has gone off to a promising start.¬† Cam carried out 14 hours of weeding in the valley and on the Carlyon’s property, cutting and pasting privet and other larger weeds and spraying tradescantia 1 metre from the stream edge.

Our first formal working bee for some time was held on Saturday 12 March.  We were thrilled to see how great the area was looking since we last worked there just under a year ago.  Thanks to our volunteers Richard Taylor, Nik Erikson, Trish and Arthur Gundy and John and Nola Harvey, a large area of Tradescantia further downstream was cleared.  Richard, Nik and I planted about 20 sedges in the early afternoon.  It was difficult for Richard to get a spade into the rocky stream banks and stream bed, so at times we resorted to using our hands.  I think the pratia angulata John Harvey has been propagating will be a good plant for this rocky area.

Nik set some further stoat traps and then we distributed some of the remaining sedges to other property owners.

We both worked for another 4 hours in the afternoon, finishing just before 7pm.¬† Nik mowed our lawns which came up to his knees and I carried out further weeding on the Carlyons’ and planted a few sedges around the surviving plants.

Our water pump at the bach was out of action so we were unable to have a nice shower after all our efforts.  We headed home very dirty and received some strange glances when we stopped in at a Japanese restaurant to pick up takeaways at around 8.30pm!