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Waitākere
Ranges Local Board
10 April 2014
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Portfolio
update: Member Saffron Toms
File No.:
CP2014/03050
Purpose
1. This
report provides an opportunity for Member Saffron Toms to give an update with
regards to activity within her portfolio areas.
2. Portfolio
holders are responsible for leading policy development in their portfolio area,
proposing and developing project concepts, overseeing agreed projects within
budgets, being active advocates, accessing and providing information and
advice.
3. Member
Toms has lead for the portfolios of Environment, Biodiversity and Youth.
Executive Summary
4.
This report reflects on the main highlights of
the Environment portfolio and outlines some related responsibilities. Next time
I will discuss the Youth portfolio, the Local Place-Making Champions portfolio
I share with Member Steve Tollestrup and my roles on the Ark in the Park
Governance Group and the Manukau Harbour Forum.
5.
Weed control, Kauri dieback disease and the
control of animal pests were recognised early in the term as key areas to focus
on in our Local Board Plan, discussed later. The marine environment will also
be a key, and new, focus for our Board.
6.
Weeds have exploded again this summer. Some
weeds are thriving, multiplying their seed-supplies and suffocating some areas.
We are working with biosecurity to get a good understanding of this. Key to
this is understanding how weed management approaches and associated funding may
have changed since Council’s amalgamation. We are gathering key people working
on weeds in the area to achieve a more coordinated approach to weed control and
to encourage knowledge sharing. This is so we can be strategic and get the best
results with the resources we do have.
7.
In efforts to raise awareness within the
community, Chair Sandra Coney and I are developing a weed poster with Waitakere
Forest and Bird (F&B). This collaboration acknowledges the work F&B
have done to keep people educated on weeds during the period of Council
amalgamation.
8.
We have been advocating to Auckland Transport
(AT) on appropriate management of weeds in the road corridor, including working
on design guidelines for the heritage area. Included in this advocacy is asking
for detailed mapping of the roads in our area to enable a more bespoke approach
to roadside maintenance in our unique environment and rural roads.
9.
Reactivation of the No-spray Register is a
priority and we will have a workshop with AT next week to ensure the Register
is active. This is in response to three themes of feedback from the community:
firstly that properties on the No-Spray-register have been sprayed; secondly,
that that there has been an absence of alternative methods of weed control in
No-Spray trial areas; and thirdly, a common perception that sprays are overused
in general.
10. Kauri dieback disease (or Phytophthera Taxon Agathis, PTA) is a
major focus of the Board this term and ideas abound for how to support the
community to be ambassadors for bush hygiene and compliance. We will put more
resources into enabling communities to take a lead in being proactive in
prevention of the disease and are looking at other avenues to raise awareness.
11.
Responding to new threats such as Block Offer
2013, new definitions of set-netting activities (which threaten the critically
endangered Maui’s dolphin) and the prospects of distant sand mining activities
at unprecedented scales, Marine ecology has been catapulted into the attention
of this new Board. With our significant coastline, including the pristine and
high energy West Coast and the more sheltered Manukau Harbour, our area of
interest is significant.
12.
We were proud that one of our first actions, as
a Board, was to stand with our communities to protest against the threat of
deep sea oil drilling off our Coasts. This action was followed the Board’s
earlier submission to the Government opposing Block Offer 2013. We are very
disappointed to hear the announcement this week that despite widespread public
opposition, the Government has now expanded the area for oil exploration to
most of the North Island’s West Coast.
13.
Early this year we also submitted against an
application by Trans-Tasman Resources Limited (TTR) to mine 50 million tonnes
of sand per year for 20 years, in the South Taranaki Bight. This is of concern
to us for many reasons, including the effects on treasured ocean mammals such
as Maui’s dolphin and Southern Right Whales, whose habitats include our coasts
and beyond.
14.
I represented the Board at the Dunes Restoration
Trust annual conference in Taranaki in March. Well supported by the local
Regional Council, field trips to different sites along the Taranaki coast were
highlights. Presentations and site visits revealed triumphs and challenges of
dune restoration efforts in high energy beaches. A key finding was that the
gene-pool of pingao is in serious decline, so transplanting the species from
other regions should be discouraged in favour of eco-sourcing (planting seeds
from naturally occurring local populations).
15.
Currently, the Board is hosting two events as
part of the EcoWest festival:
·
In March we hosted a Cycleways and Stream
Restoration tour along the Waikumete Stream to celebrate progress and to share
the Board’s aspirations to connect the stream’s Cycleway to Glen Eden village
and other regionally connected transit links. Project Twin Streams staff, who
are contracted by Council to work with communities to carry out restoration
work on the streams, and Local Parks staff from Council were key participants.
The event was well attended.
·
This weekend we hosted a walk and talk on Kauri
Dieback Disease. Lead by Council’s Biosecurity Principal Advisor, Dr Nick
Waipara, and accompanied by Regional Park Rangers, participants were taken by
the first area that PTA was recognised in the Waitakere Ranges. Dr Waipara
shared what is known about the pathogen; its history and pathology, as well as
how to prevent or minimise its spread and participants were encouraged to share
what they had learned with their communities. The walk was well attended and we
received very positive feedback.
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Recommendation
That the Waitākere
Ranges Local Board:
a) Receives the portfolio
update from Member Saffron Toms.
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Attachments
There are no
attachments for this report.
Signatories
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Authors
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Member Saffron Toms, Waitākere Ranges Local Board
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