Big community turnout at July working bees

Schools, businesses and members of the community have helped out at seven Te Hōnonga a Iwi Restoring Rosedale Park working bees across July, undertaking planting, clearing and preparing seeds for the new season’s cover crops.

The project team partnered with Rangitoto College on two community working bees. Around 50 young people joined volunteers in raking biomass for the bioreactors, planting more than 100 plants and releasing existing trees from weeds threatening to choke their growth.

Albany Senior High School’s Impact team held three working bees at the restoration across the month. With their team of nine students, they sorted emptying a bioreactor, weeded, planted and made cover crop seed rockets for the kindergarten children and Wairau Valley Special School youth to throw across the new site extension.

Conference company Brightstar brought a group of its staff along to a business working bee, removed the growing stands of woolly nightshade, planting 20 more natives and emptying another bioreactor.

Stormwater360 returned for its third business working bee in a year. Every time this team visits, we ask them to undertake some of the hardest mahi at the site. This working bee was no different. They wasted no time getting in amongst the blackberry and digging it out. They rounded their visit off planting a bare patch by the bioreactors.

There’s lots more planting and clearing to do on the restoration site extension so we are hoping for a similar turnout to our August working bees. Community working bees will be held on Saturday, August 5, August 12 and August 26 from 10am to 12pm. Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest information on these volunteer days.