All previous newsletters can be found here.
Work Day Reminder, November 16 2024
The next monthly work day will be from 9.00am – noon this coming Saturday.
This month we’ll probably be doing a bit of planting and releasing plants from weeds somewhere around the wetland.
If you arrive late there will be a notice on the Education Centre door explaining where we have gone and a phone number for if you need more guidance to our location.
All tools provided. Gumboots are highly recommended, but if you don’t have any we have pairs for loan. Please bring your own gloves if you can, but we have some of them for loan too.
If the weather on the work day is poor and we decide to cancel then an email will be sent by 8am on Saturday morning. So if you think the conditions are marginal, please check your emails.
If you’re reading this on the website and are not on the email list then you can add yourself to it through the form at the foot of the home page. If you change your mind there’s an unsubscribe link in each newsletter.
Latest News
Report on Trees for Canterbury Planting Day, 19 October
This was our big planting day for the year with Trees for Canterbury and our site was in the red zone near Anzac Drive, close to Lake Kate Sheppard. The site was well prepared in advance and we had a great team of CCC rangers and Trees for Canterbury staff managing the set up.
The weather was good and Colin Meurk did a great job of setting out the plants for us. The site had varied ground including wet and dry with liquefaction silt, mud or stones beneath the surface. A wide range of species, including trees, shrubs, rushes and flax, were planted to match the conditions.
Approximately 50 people, including numerous children, worked hard to plant about 700 plants during the morning. This was a great effort and was rewarded by barbeque food prepared by Al and Wayne. Thanks to Trees for Canterbury for the long-term support and to all who came along to do some planting. It is great to see improvement to this area after many years of battling invasive weeds.
Article: Sue Britain and images: Dave Evans
Safeguarding Precious Plants
As previous newsletters have noted Ōruapaeroa Travis Wetland is host to several precious plants. Species that were probably once widespread in Canterbury wetlands, but with the draining of most wetlands to create farmland these species have become exceptionally rare. The primary species referred to are from the Corybas genus (spider orchids), Celmisia genus (daisies) and Drosera genus (carnivorous sundews). Given that these plants are so rare and precious the transfer of specimens to create other populations of them around the city was advisable. This was initiated by Council botanists and our Rangers.
Earlier this year a few specimens of orchids and sundews were carefully transplanted to suitable habitat at the Styx Mill Conservation Reserve. Recently Eleanor and Mika travelled to Styx Mill Reserve to check on their progress and to provide some tender care. The good news is that the special plant plots are doing well but of course at this time of the year they need lots of care as the weeds want to occupy the plots as well!! This is very exciting as the habitat, although similar, is different – much more open. Competition from other species is less (so far) without the invading Blechnum (a native fern) and Machaerina (a native sedge), as there is at Travis.
The orchids have been described in a recent newsletter and more will be written about the sundews in the next newsletter.
Article: Dave Evans, image: John Dunlop
Subscription Cost Change at AGM
At the AGM in October it was largely business-as-usual, except that for the first time in more than 20 years there has been a change to the subscription rates. Due to the continuing increases in postal rates the Trust has decided to add $5 to the subscription cost of those who choose to receive a paper newsletter in the post. The subscription rates of those who do not receive a posted newsletter will be unchanged. The new rates will apply from the 2026 financial year beginning on 1 July 2025.
Many thanks to all those who have paid their subscription for the current year. For those who have not yet paid a subscription this can be done online with a credit card through the website here. Or by transferring the money (Individual: unwaged $5 waged $10; Family: $15) to the Travis Wetland Trust bank account 38-9018-0341728-00. If any of your details have changed please fill out the online form here.
Pūkeko Killed on Northern Motorway
You may have seen a recent article in the Press headlined: “Piles of dead pūkeko litter Christchurch [northern] motorway”. Given that the logo of the Travis Wetland Trust is centred on a pūkeko this news is upsetting. One of the reasons for the establishment of the Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park was to provide a safe space for pūkeko and when the park was formed it was thought that half of the city’s pūkeko lived at Travis.
Pūkeko like to forage on open meadows and large parts of Ōruapaeroa Travis Wetland are managed to preserve this habitat for pūkeko. The feisty bird occurs wherever there is suitable habitat all around the city, but ever less of these places remain as houses for people invade the pūkeko’s territory leaving the birds fewer places of safe grazing. So they are inclined to forage in the gardens that occupy land that was previously the pūkeko’s domain. The invasive people get cross with the birds that pull out their expensive plants and fertilise their precious lawns. Probably no one had told the pūkeko that their former territory had been colonised. Didn’t even ask them to put their footprints on a reassuring treaty.
I appreciate that the Press article noted that pūkeko was the 2011 bird of the year, but one paragraph should be corrected. “Despite being somewhat ‘self-introduced’ from Australia, pūkeko are considered native in Aotearoa.” Indeed, it is because (not despite) the pūkeko is self-introduced that it is regarded as a native. It should be entitled to all the rights that people claim.
Article: Dave Evans, image: Grahame
Images from Grahame
