August 2018

Workday reminder, August 18 2018

Travis Wetland Location Map

Travis workday, Saturday August 18 2018, 9 am – 12:30.

Meet at the education center (the old farm house) behind the Beach Rd car park at 9 am.

We will be working on the Mairehau Rd dunes.

Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear, Travis is wet at present.

All gear provided.

There will be morning tea afterwards for those that want to stay for a chat.

Latest News

Workday Saturday 21 July

The morning was dry and mild with a little cloud cover, so perfect for our planting mission.

About fifteen people turned up to assist with some planting in the Mairehau dunes area. This area is sandy and prone to dry out, so it was pleasing to see existing plants growing well and looking healthy. The hebes in particular seemed to have benefited from our wet June weather.
As the area already has a good covering of hardy native species our job was enrichment planting – adding some more unusual plant types to increase biodiversity, while providing shelter and food for a variety of animal species.

Workday July 2018

Several species planted were decidedly spiky, such as matagouri and 2 types of New Zealand lawyer (tataramoa). Matagouri is a nitrogen fixing plant so enriches the soil and lawyer plants have large berries for birds to eat.
Several Coprosma species were planted and these will provide more berries for the birds and skinks. Some of them are divaricating so they provide a dense tangled mat of twigs which skinks and invertebrates can use for protection. Several Muehlenbeckia species were planted too and these provide similar benefits.
A few specimens of porcupine shrub (Melicytus) were added close to the track. These have tiny leaves and long quill-like external branches and can be great hiding places for lizards.
Other plantings included dry site favourites such as Cassinia and Dodonaea (ake ake) and a selection of ferns to suit the conditions.
Thanks to everyone who helped.

Article: Sue Britain

Rangers Report July 2018

Excerpts from John Skiltons ranger report.

EMguards Biodegradable Plant Guards

Robert and Jan Fry, FuturEcology, visited Travis last week we were able to show them some of our restoration sites and discuss the EMguard. They say it will last at least 1 year in the wettest “southern’ woods site and longer on our dry sites. Now that there is an alternative I think it’s time to move away from plastic, and model a more environmentally friendly product to others. Advanced Landscape supplies have wool mats which will be suitable. I have order 5000 which is the amount we will use over the next 2 years. We can continue to reuse the combiguards for the next year.

Many thanks to Craig and the IDEAS conservation team for enabling the reuse of the combiguards. If I wasn’t for the team sorting and washing dirty guards we would not have been able to reuse them for as long as we have.

New Signs

New bollard style direction signs have replaced the blue ones and do look tidy I must admit. Next will be the double post signs around the perimeter. We have some signs with “Caution, Seasonal Flooding keep to path” for when it next rains. There is a budget for replacement of interpretation panels.

Education Centre Display Cabinet

Flanagan Display Cabinet

It is with great pleasure that we, the family of Anne Flanagan have chosen and donated a display cabinet for the rooms at the Travis Wetlands.
We felt that it was a fitting gesture in her memory, so that some of the items pertaining to her fight in saving the Wetlands for the future generations could be displayed to the public rather than being locked away in a room.
She was incredibly passionate about saving the Wetlands and I recall visiting her when she had just arrived home from a cold day planting. She would be frozen to the core but very “ hetup” about those blasted weeds and brambles that they were trying so hard to clear out. We would jokingly say “ just spray them Mum” and off she would go at us before she realised that we were winding her up.
I think most of you who did know her, will remember the blue coat that she wore most of the time, it masked how thin she was getting as her illness progressed.

Anne Flanagan, David Bellamy

But still she soldiered on doing all in her power to get all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed before she wasn’t able to carry on anymore.

The highlight of the whole journey I feel for her was being acknowledged by David Bellamy when he came to Christchurch. She was so excited and they spent some time with heads together discussing all the progress. We have a lovely photo of her and David from that day.

Anne Flanagan

So please fill the cabinet with the treasures that you have there, the bust that was carved by Hans Muller, there is a document someone mentioned at our last meeting, but please keep it in Mums’ memory. We know she will be watching over you all as you carry on the journey.

Thank you
The Flanagan Family.