Environment Centre Trust AGM

Thursday 15th May at 6pm in the Environment Centre

Enquiries to Katherine 849 4452
All welcome

Tuesday Night 13th May

Just a reminder that the third workshop for the 2008 series called 'Eco-Design for a New House' is tomorrow night.

Discover the win/win of building an eco home. Increase the value of your asset, while at the same time reduce your outgoing monthly costs. This workshop will cover issues such as site considerations, toxicity and water use, material choice and energy efficiency.

The workshop is on Tuesday May 13th at the Centre of Continuing Education at the University of Waikato. The workshop starts at 7pm and there is a small fee of $5.

Registrations are now being taken, so make sure you register today by contacting the Centre for Continuing Education on 858 5209.

The fourth and final workshop in this initial series for 2008 is on May 27th and is called 'Fine Tuning a New House for Energy Efficiency'.

Aaron Fleming
Environmental Policy Advisor
Hamilton City Council
Council Building, Garden Place
Private Bag 3010 Hamilton 3240
DDI: (07) 838 6483
Fax: (07) 838 6464
E: aaron.fleming@hcc.govt.nz
www.hamilton.co.nz

Te Kauri Waikuku Trust- Environmental Education and Restoration Project is seeking a manager 16 hours a week. Experience in business management is preferred, and experience in environmental restoration and education is desirable. Own office, car and phone needed. Self-motivation and initiative required.
Email Chris at c.eames@waikato.ac.nz for a job description, or ph 07 838 4357. Applications including a CV and cover letter to above email or to TKWT, P O Box 228, Raglan by Friday 23 May.

Annabelle Giorgetti from enveco is coming tomorrow to talk to some of the Transition Towns group about carbon credits, trading, etc  to be followed by a showing of A Crude Awakening.

Talk is at 6.00 and the film will follow.
Environment Centre Hamilton, 25 Ward St, Hamilton

Anyone is welcome to attend

RSVP Katherine 839 4452 or envirocentre #at# paradise.net.nz

Dear all

Riverlea Environment Society is now working with Hamilton City Council, Environment Waikato and local property owners to help restore Hammond Bush.

We are having a working bee Saturday week 17 May, 1-4 pm. We will be working on the area behind the lookout (about 100 metres along the Hammond Bush boardwalk from the Malcolm street end). The focus will be on clearing pest plants like bamboo and taking the material out to the end of the boardwalk where HCC will be able to take it away for disposal.

We will meet at 1pm at the northern (Malcolm Street) end of the Hammond Bush boardwalk. Please expect the work may be quite wet underfoot. If you can, please bring gardening tools like pruning saws and loppers. If the weather is very poor we will cancel and reschedule.

As we need to get an idea of numbers please let Martin Thrupp know if you can help. Email thrupp@waikato.ac.nz, or phone 856-7637.

Hi all, this is just a reminder to you all - Green Drinks this Friday after work in the Environment Centre, any time after 5.30pm.

Please remember that you are supposed to bring your own drinks, we supply eaties, fruit juice, tea coffee etc but not anything stronger. Also a koha towards the food is appreciated.

Also part of Green Drinks is the networking experience and bringing a new person is part of that if you can, so invite someone who hasn't been before.

Cheers See you all here on Friday 2nd May,

Katherine

This is from Moira Cursey from the Waikato Biodiversity Forum -

(It is really important that people also take a look at other issues such as buses. Please do put in a submission - you can just tick boxes or add your own comments - we need heaps of voices to be heard - Katherine)

I sent this out a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd follow up with a reminder to submit on EW Annual Plan especially in relation to the reduction of pest management. See my comments below that may help with your submission. I remind you that decisions could rest upon the numbers submitting for and against a reduction of pest management so please have your say. It has been suggested to me that fronting up to speak to your submission adds weight so if you feel you are able to do this even with a written statement to be read out to support your submission that would be great. If you are able to let me know that you are submitting that would be good so I can guage numbers of you who have a view about the issues below. Cheers Moira

Hi Everyone
Environment Waikato's draft Annual Plan is out for feedback. Annual Plan website link. http://www.ew.govt.nz/policyandplans/annualplan/annualplan.htm

As a Biodiversity Forum member I would like to draw your attention to the changes in the plan that affect biodiversity protection. See Biosecurity section pages 29 - 32 of the Annual Plan.

The Plan proposes to cut back on animal pest management as part of the Councils plan to keep rate increases at the level of inflation. Biodiversity protection in relation to animal pest management is one of the first areas to be targetted to achieve this reduction. See pages 120 - 124 in the Annual Plan for the details and implications of the proposed changes.

As we know animal pest management and biodiversity protection and enhancement go hand in hand. If any pest management is reduced this is a backward step in biodiversity protection. Gains made to biodiversity protection over the past 10-15 years need to be built upon not eroded away. In relation to finances it is cost effective to build upon these gains not reduce them and have to rebuild at more expense in the future.

The Council proposes 3 options this year to achieve some reduction in rates increases.

Option 1 Deferring 2 operations (Te Kopia and Mokauiti) which would reduce costs by $132,000 and defer pest control on 32,000ha
Option 2 Deferring 4 operations (Te Kopia and Mokauiti, Awaroa/Whangape and Kaimai/Mamaku) which would reduce cost by $295,00 and defer pest control on 194,000ha
Option 3 Deferring 6 operations (Te Kopia and Mokauiti, Awaroa/Whangape and Kaimai/Mamaku, Opuatia/Punga Punga and Waikaretu) which would reduce costs by $500,000 and defer pest control on 211,000ha

There is no option offered to retain pest management at the present Long Term Community Council Plan (LTCCP) levels.

I also suggest that you support the Environmental Initiatives Fund as some Councillors do not see the value of this fund and it could be at risk. Also support the Natural Heritage Fund which is a valuable way of protecting biodiversity on private land when special pieces come up for sale and the fund also has contributed to projects such as Maungatautari and the purchase of land by the NZ Forest Restoration Trust at the headwaters of a river in the Waitomo area.

The Councillors are asking the public for their views. The most vocal voices at present are the members of the community who want minimal spent on biodiversity. Those of us who value biodiversity and the work of EW on animal pest control in relation to biodiversity protection now need to stand up and be counted.

I urge you all to take the time to put in a submission by 1 May. I suggest that you do not tick any of these options. There is a comments section at the bottom of the form in which we can submit to keep pest management at the present LTCCP budget projections.

Make a submission online link
http://www.ew.govt.nz/policyandplans/annualplan/annualplan.htm#Heading4

Suggested wording of the submission: I submit to retain pest management at the present LTCCP budget projections levels to ensure the work of biodiversity protection. Therefore I do not support any of the options to reduce pest management as proposed. The present gains in animal pest management should not be eroded by pulling back on any targets previously set. I support the retention of the Environmental Initiatives Fund and the Natural Heritage Fund as valuable ways of protecting biodiversity.

If all Forum members took a few minutes to do this it would be a strong voice for the importance of biodiversity protection.

Please pass this email onto your networks especially your organisations members so that they can submit as well. I suggest individual member submissions can add weight to the numbers game of these submissions.... not just an overall submission from your organisation. It will probably come down to a numbers game and we must make our voices heard.

Let me know if you want help with any aspects of the submission. Phew that was a long email!

Moira Cursey
Waikato Biodiversity Forum Co-ordinator
31 Friesian Place
Hamilton
Phone 078465066
Mobile 0272223791
Website www.waikatobiodiversity.org.nz

Tonight -  reminder
Sustainable Urban design - Green Home Introduction at Centre for Continuing Education.
7pm Bookings 858 5209

1 May - submissions to EW have to be in - this year there are some really important considerations and we need lots of submissions to go in - please see separate post for information about issues.

Starting next week:
Sustainable Living series
The Environment Centre is putting this series on at Wintec - Tuesdays 7 - 9pm for the next 7 weeks. There are a couple of spaces still so please phone Katherine if you are interested in attending 839 4452.
This fun and interactive series will look at how you can make simple changes to your lifestyle to reduce your impact on the environment, and in the process be healthier (and wealthier).

Saturday 3 May
8am Forest and Bird plant sale, at Pak'n'Save Mill St, Hamilton. Always heaps of great plants, and the proceeds go to a charity.

Saturday May 3rd
10am Talk on composting & vermiculture held in the Sustainable Backyard in Hamilton Gardens.
Contact Cheryl 834 2249

Gully Restoration
3 May 1.30 Bus trip to Peter Morris's gully
4 May More gully tours this weekend  - St James private gully and Hukanui Gully.
Bookings through Continuing Education 858 5209

May 7th At the tipping point: thinking beyond sustainability
Where: S1.04, Waikato University
When: 1pm

What: Nandor talks about the deeper implications of resource depletion as part of his series of 10 nationwide free public lectures. Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos will brief students and members of the public around New Zealand on how the world's love affair with economic growth impacts on our environment.
He will address the issues of climate change, peak oil, and resource depletion and discuss how rising to these challenges requires a fundamental rethink of current assumptions.

7th May
Screening of A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash at the Environment Centre, 7pm
RSVP 839 4452.
This movie tells the story of how our civilization's addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film visits with the world's top experts and comes to a startling but logical conclusion - our industrial society, built on cheap oil must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.
83 mins.

Two separate Earth oven workshops to be held on May 10th & 11th. also 17th & 18th.

If you are interested in participating in a 2 day hands on workshop contact Hamilton Permaculture Trust 834 2249

Sunday 11th May
Waikato Botanical Society: Port Waikato Coastal Remnants
A visit to the large Limestone Downs remnant of semi-coastal forest and some nearby coastal scrublands to the south. Limestone Downs is 900 ha of privately owned mature kanuka forest on the ridges with semi-coastal forest in the gullies containing puriri, kohekohe, taraire, mamangi, white maire and the threatened Mida salicifolia. The many scenic limestone cliffs and rock formations of the area may harbour some interesting plants.
For the second half of the trip we will go to the Ward farm, where remnant pohutukawa and Pseudopanax laetus remnants still remain along the coastline. We will be on the coast close to Ngatutura Point where Cook's scurvy grass and Hebe speciosa survive on an inaccessible rock stack. These species should be able to be viewed from the Ward property with binoculars.
Meet: 8.30am at BP petrol station at south end of Ngaruawahia township SH1.
Contact: Gerry Kessels or Britta Deichmann ph (07) 825 9025 britta@kessels-ecology.co.nz or gerry@kessels-ecology.co.nz

Tuesday 13 May
Sustainable Urban design: Eco-Design for a New House 7pm
Centre for continuing Education. Phone 858 5209

Wednesday 14 May
Permaculture video evening - two videos,
Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
and an Australian one showing the setting up of a complete urban permaculture garden.

15th May
Environment Centre AGM
5.30pm in the Environment Centre

 19 May Hamilton Organic gardeners
Cottage gardens. Held at Fairfield Community House, 60a Sare Cres. 7.30pm