June 2025 project update

Mānawatia a Matariki! As we have planted across Matariki, we have taken time to reflect on our kaupapa and the guidance our ecological, business, social and cultural experts have given us across three years. We send our support and care for our people who have lost a loved one this year and we would like you to know we channel respect for your whānau as we plant during Matariki. 

We especially acknowledge Kaumatua and Rangatira Hori Winikerei (Papa George) from Te Kawerau ā Maki. We extend our respect, admiration and aroha to his whānau and Te Kawerau ā Maki as they grieve his recent loss. We remain grateful to him for his leadership and to iwi for their continued investment in sharing their wisdom and knowledge of caring for Te Taiao and for their mahi as we learn about Mātaranga Māori, tikanga and te reo with Te Kawerau ā Maki.

We wish each of you, and your people, good health and enjoyable learning as we embark on another year.

With Hiwa-i-te-Rangi bright in our night skies, we are highly motivated to work hard, and quickly, to innovate and drive down our carbon footprint, sequester carbon, increase biodiversity and promote individual, community and environmental health and wellbeing.

Several important projects are underway with an intent to work collaboratively across our sectors to create opportunities to make a positive difference to our people, our place and the organisations that readily invest in us.

Massey University academic, Cadey Korson, is working with steely determination to complete her research on Te Hōnonga a Iwi social value chain. Her expertise, and the knowledge and skills of the people she interviewed for the year-long documentary, has generated insightful knowledge of who we are and why we are able to unite and work in new ways. This enables us to use our strengths to produce positive outcomes for our community, and, for nature to regenerate. More importantly, Cadey’s research will offer an opportunity to amplify our impact, with new insights into what could be improved. It is so exciting to have a chance to do better for future generations and the places their lives and livelihoods depend upon.

Having the support of a wide array of professionals, who are experts in their careers, inspires us, supports our learning and strengthens our capacity to innovate and create unique solutions that are fit for purpose at our place.

In partnership with iwi, and with guidance from Landcare Research, Auckland Council, UWEN and a school, we are in the process of imagining how we can control one of our invasive weeds in a way that enables students who manage significant movement challenges to participate in the restoration. Able-bodied students will inoculate their shoes with the tradescantia fungi that is present 500m downstream and walk it back to our site, which has not been infected with the fungi that controls tradescantia. While we are there, we will be leaving a glass jar upside down on a stick to collect the beetle that eats tradescantia and bring them to our site nearby. Students who work hard to balance and move their bodies are challenged physically and mentally getting in and out of these sites. With their teacher’s support, they accomplish navigating slippery slopes and fallen logs with positive energy, teamwork and build fitness. They are remarkable people.

We are busy imagining what a Tradescantia Beetle Hotel might look like, so we can support students to breed trad beetles for one cycle. Then release them into our tradescantia impacted zones. Supporting students to design a beetle nursery that can enable them to learn about bio controls, biodiversity and biology, caring for nature, caring for a beetle and teamwork, in ways that are meaningful and accessible for them, matters to us. Please let us know if you have a small mesh cage or fish tank we could borrow for 8-10 weeks!

Inspiring our future leaders to undertake a research output in this space will help us understand what we need to do to increase the impact of a bio control in our rohe. We hope that one of our tertiary environmental science students will take on this output.

The use of art to engage us, share a message, make us smile and attract people into nature is an area we have been working on with graphic designer, Sam Weston.

Sam has designed wooden lapel pins that we will be giving to volunteers who consistently exemplify our values and offer outstanding service to Te Hōnonga a Iwi.

We hope this initiative will generate a greater sense of belonging and promote self-esteem. To strengthen our sense of identity through art, Sam has developed a series of signs to highlight special initiatives or orientate volunteers and visitors to the restoration.

Rangitoto art students will work with Sam to paint the brightly coloured signs on recycled real estate corflute kindly provided by Phillipa Edgar of Harcourts and recycled waratahs collected by local business volunteer, Jayden.

Olivia Li, youth consultant has guided the development of the pins and signage. We thank Cadey, Sam and Olivia for their time and expertise.

As we celebrate other Matariki stars, including Tupuānuku, the star associated with food that is grown in soil, we have completed phase two of the community food garden/ mara kai ably built with Dingle, Harbour Hockey, Westminster School, Auckland Council and UWEN. Local business support for the build was a direct contributor to enabling us to raise the capital needed to purchase the shade house and glasshouse, water tanks, irrigation system and develop the syntropic food garden. The annual working bee with Dingle and Westminster is epic on every level and the positive energy the 85 volunteers brought to the day, will carry us through Winter. Please check out our social posts and news item we have developed to thank our partners for the outcomes we all achieved on the day.

Huge thanks to all volunteers, Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, Dingle, Westminster, Auckland Council, Upper Waitemata Harbour Hockey, Atlas, Central Landscape Supplies, Pioneer Pies, NZ Machine Hire, Wintergardenz, Foundation North, BUPA and NZ Landcare Trust for investing in the development of a wheelchair accessible food garden using food scraps from Harbour Hockey.

A special thanks to Matt Cummings, Untangled Landscapes, for his continued guidance and expertise in our development - his regenerative agriculture and design knowledge is integral to our success.

We also wish to acknowledge and thank Chairperson Anna Atkinson and Kyle Parker for their ongoing support as Upper Harbour Local Board members. The Board is active with their investment and support of Te Hōnonga a Iwi on many levels including expert advice, helping at working bees, problem solving, strategic thinking, connecting, and funding.

Over the next two months we plan to install two 30,000-litre water tanks funded by the Upper Harbour Local Board, the wheelchair accessible glasshouse funded by Foundation North, rat proof vermicomposters to take Harbour Hockey’s food scraps, irrigation to all aspects of the mara kai funded by BUPA and NZ Landcare Trust and plant a food forest, grapes, passionfruit and espaliered fruit trees funded by Sky City. We have the ability to scale vermicomposting to enable other local businesses to deposit their food waste to convert to compost.

The star Waipuna-ā-Rangi, rose at a crucial time for Te Hōnonga a Iwi this year following a long, hot, dry summer. We lost scores of natives this summer and feel relieved to be planting 2000 new natives at a time when rain is falling consistently now. Kristin School, Westminster School, Hockey New Zealand, the retired Chinese community friends, Rangitoto School, the Harbour Hockey Under 18 boys representative hockey teams, Albany Junior High School Northcross School, and Te Hōno regular volunteers have planted in excess of 1500 natives this season. We have 1000 to go! The 2022, 2023 and control sites are looking beautiful with this year's infill from Paremoremo Prison, BUPA, NZ Landcare, Trees that Count and our own nursery. This includes creating several nikau groves, just because.

The greatest opportunity to show our hope and intent to improve during Matariki is the chance we have been given to work with iwi, Mountains to Sea, Uru Whakaaro, Auckland Council, Craig Bishop and Matt Wardle from AUT and our stream peers to have a plan we can all use to support the regeneration of the stream’s ecosystems. Te Hōnonga a Iwi is dependent on indigenous expertise and guidance from Ngāti Whātua, ecology specialists expertise from Mountains to Sea (MTS) and Matt Cummings, Council, NGOs and UWEN experts such as Nicholas Mayne to inform our direction. We are thrilled Auckland Council Park Ranger Theo Jaycox and Mountains to Sea have invested $10,000 to enable Charmaine Baillie, Uru Whakaaro, to craft a stream restoration plan following consultancy with all the stakeholder groups and knowledge partners. We look forward to sharing the plan and using it to guide our future actions across the next 100 years. Untold thanks to council, MTS and Charmaine for investing in us. To our colleagues along the stream, it is so great to unite and work collaboratively to generate positive environmental outcomes over time. Thank you. Mānawatia a Matariki!

Other actions across this month include:

-        Ongoing water testing

-        Weekly trapping for possums, rats, mice and mustelids

-        The live cat trap was triggered and the male cat was taken to the vet for assessment. He was determined to be feral and euthanised. Huge thanks to Phillip for his ongoing trapping commitment.

-        Pest plant mapping continues weekly

-        Pest plant removal continues

-        We have five new news articles showcasing our people and their positive impacts for Te Taiao

-        Mayne Wetherell is progressing our Incorporated status and lawyer, Amelia Porteous has been very helpful to us to help us complete our transition to a Society. We thank Mayne Wetherell for their commitment to community development. Having legal expertise takes a lot of pressure off us, enabling us to focus on planting.

-        Over 1200 harakeke seeds have been transplanted into pots this month through our seed whakapapa model with Wilson School, student nursery leaders Lily and Tim, Kristin School and Settlers Lifestyle Village. All these harakeke will be planted along the riparian border in 2026.

-        We have 300 2024 harakeke coming through from Settlers to plant in the chicken coop area once the chooks have worked their magic to eat out the morning glory and increase soil health in that area. Untold thanks to Kristin Junior School, Settlers retirement Village and the Student leaders in the Chicken Care team who make this mahi happen.

-        Te Hōnonga a Iwi continues to work closely with the Upper Waitemāta Ecology Network, we attend strategy and operational meetings to learn and support regional socio-ecological growth and development. We also attend regional trapping and plant pest management meetings monthly to ensure we are aligned with a regional strategy and learn how to improve pest management at Te Hōnonga a Iwi. Our working bee coordinator Elouise is developing expertise in conservation and biosecurity academically and with her management of pest plants and animals within nature. The learnings she took away from last month’s Cam Speedy talk, have been implemented and resulted in a lot more animal pest catches, a success which has been pleasing for our two youth trapping teams. Congratulations to all five trapping teams (Te Hōno and Centurion, Burnside Reserve, and Philipp (with the live cat trap) on the fantastic process the teams are making year on year.

-        One of our pest management social media posts has gone viral with over 112,000 views that has resulted in 939 interactions with our platform accounts, 273 likes and 43 new followers! Louis and Ethan’s video of how to set a flipping timmy trap has garnered an extraordinary following. We are not worthy! Extending our communications reach is important to us, especially when it is about pest management, enabling us to share our actions and learnings with a wider audience.

-        We continue to have approximately five new website/school student inquiries to offer service per month. Around three new volunteers per month come on board from their enquiries.

-        We are delighted when we have alumni approach us to offer service when they are back in town or they find they have more time again! This month we welcome three volunteers back, one international student and two older adults.

-        We celebrate the students who come to working bees for school service who express interest in getting more involved. Around 75 per cent of our youth leaders enter the restoration through the school service pathway and determine they wish to progress within the project. Their leadership is outstanding and offer immense value in areas like freshwater testing, plant growth and survival, mara kai development, chicken care, trapping, business activation, strategy, journalism, art, social media content development, drone work, plant pest mitigation, plant pest mapping, serial site photography, working bee leadership, consultancy, presentations, award representation, backyard nurseries, and seed whakapapa.

-        We would like to thank Mia Irons, AUT sports and recreation student, for her on-the-ground support across two months. Mia sought us out as she identified the role of the sports sector in supporting environmental regeneration. Mia worked hard during her time with us and made a positive impact. We wish her well for her future studies and encourage her to return when she is able.

-        With our capacity to welcome 100 volunteers to the restoration and our intent to become climate positive, carbon negative, we are dependent on increasing our circularity to reduce overconsumption and overproduction of materials and tools. We recycle, repurpose, reuse, repair and borrow as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint to mitigate climate change. Local business investors, our Park Ranger Theo and UWEN help us with reducing our greenhouse gases. We thank them for their patience and support to enable us to reduce our indent stock especially when we host large volunteer events. Having two reused sheds now enables us to better care for our equipment and reduces transportation to site, driving down our emissions further.

-        Sequestering carbon through reducing stormwater run-off and erosion, the mara kai, cover crop use, planting trees and increasing soil health (carbon content) amplifies our climate change mitigation and supports local climate resilience.

-        We are working on developing a local business partnership to harvest roof water off a large industrial building adjacent to the restoration to build a capacity to protect our developing bush from adverse climate conditions such as flooding or protect local manufactured capital (buildings, equipment, commodities) from climate related fires. We know we need water stored for putting out future fires that could place our bush at risk. Using modelling from high fire risk areas in NZ, we know all tanks we negotiate to be installed must be fitted with fire hose outlets for immediate access to water in the event of fire. We need support from academic ecology experts to understand if we can use a water tank store to irrigate the restoration in drought. Park Ranger Theo Jaycox raised some initial thoughts regarding the impact on tree roots and tree stability if they have been irrigated early in the growth. If you would like to be involved in this aspect of our future development, please let us know. Water is a finite resource, its conservation is crucial to our future and we are taking action now to mitigate future climate change risks.

-        We have James Gow coming back to work in the restoration undertaking the bat echolocation monitoring. Thank you so much James- we are so lucky to have you back!

-        Business North Harbour continues to support Te Hōno by advertising trapping opportunities to their extensive business network. Please let us know if your organisation would like to ‘own their own trapline’ as part of the halo we are building across the O te Hā basin. UWEN lays out the trapline, supplies traps and all the education needed. Businesses need to provide peanut butter, dried apricots, cinnamon and flour and time for a team of three to five people who can trap by themselves for 90 minutes per week. It is a fantastic way to have employees out in nature, building camaraderie, at a time that suits the company. Their action forms the backbone of ecological restoration in the area and helps staff to feel they belong to the area. We know that businesses can retain and attract talented staff with sustainable initiatives like this. The ability to cool your workplace with increased canopy cover and enable biodiversity to flourish and adapt to climate change helps businesses to build local resilience.

-        We continue to have opportunities to increase our cultural knowledge through Auckland Council workshops and Kaumatua Richard Nahi teaching us when we work together.

-        If you would like to become a business mentor for school based business students who activate commercial investment in the restoration, please connect with Nicky on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz. We work with three motivated and able students to support their interest in business development.

-        We continue to divide the restoration into management units to map pest plants for removal. We use regenerative agriculture techniques rather than sprays to control pest plants which are extensive at the site. Huge thanks to Elouise and the Rangitoto students for mapping and Krisitn students for pest plant removal.

-        We need recycled offcuts of thick black plastic please to cover pest plants.

-        We work in partnership with nine local schools. The work the teacher leads do to enable this partnership is extensive and requires effort beyond a teachers daily workload. We thank Gail Goodwin, Martene Mathews, Emily Kennedy, Sarah Wakeford, Gary Wood, Kathryn Huish and Toni Shaw in particular for their outstanding contribution to Te Hōnonga a Iwi.

-        Louann King, Accountant at UWEN, has been managing a high load on our behalf with the community garden build and the funds associated with that development. Huge thanks for the financial support we have needed to grow.

-        We welcomed Hockey New Zealand to their first working bee with us and loved the chance to showcase the ability of the sports sector to lead environmental health initiatives across the motu. Thank you all for coming and being an important part of the project!

-        We have applied to BUPA for $10,000 to finish the garden pergola, we will inform you of that outcome in the July report.

-        We have confirmation from Auckland Council that our soil health results enable us to begin inground planting.

-        With support from Harbour Sport Chinese lead Daniel Dong, we welcomed 60 retired Chinese volunteers to the restoration this month. We recognise and value the immense skill set this group offers us each year and wish to continue working in partnership with the Chinese community to improve the mara kai and regenerate the soil at the restoration. It was a special working bee and we look forward to meeting again next year or earlier!

-        AUT Environmental Science Senior Lecturer Craig Bishop has shared palynology data that has information of vegetation in the area thousands of years ago as well as catchment outlines and a composite aerial photo from 1940. All this information will inform the restoration plan Uru Whakaro is designing. Thank you so much Craig for your time and support.