Did you notice we have just had Conservation Week?
As individuals, we still need to be doing more. I still see dogs off leash running through bush, and we know about cats killing native birds. We have two much loved cats who sleep inside at night, but we are considering saying that they may be our last.
Conservation Week asked a number of questions of citizens. How green is your backyard? Do you set a trap for rats? Do you make sure you are not harbouring pest plants and weeds? Check the council website to see if you have any plant pests you didn’t know about. Have you planted any natives in your garden to attract bees and birds? Are you looking out for worms and lizards in your garden, signs of healthy soils?
And, above all, are you cutting right down on plastic usage? We are now saving plastic bread wrappers for picking up our son’s dog’s doggie dos.
Planting more trees in our urban area is a ‘must do’, instead of the current practice of cutting them down. We have lost so much tree cover in the last five years, it is criminal. Part of it is due to the removal of tree protection in the Resource Management Act by the last National Government. If they had had their way, the RMA would have become the Resource Development Act, and let our tree cover disappear in the interests of more millions for greedy developers.
One of the most exciting results of endangered species conservation has been the growth in kakapo numbers. Our son, Finn (Ponsonby News music columnist) won a Peter Blake-sponsored trip to a Children’s Environmental Conference in Japan when he was 12 for his study of kakapo and his prediction for their future.
They numbered just 86 in 2003 when Finn did his study. He predicted steady increases in numbers in the 20 years up to 2022, and he wasn’t far out. He predicted 216 in 2020, and Eugenie Sage has just announced there are 213 in 2019 following a huge mast season. (JOHN ELLIOTT)
#ponsonby #ponsonbynews #iloveponsonby #loveponsonby #hernebay #jervoisroad #climatechange #waitematalocalboard #conservationweek #kakapo #peterblake