Tēnā koutou katoa

As most, if not all, of you will already know we recently lost our friend and Trust Treasurer Colin Ryder due to an unfortunate accident.  Reading the tributes to Colin it was extremely humbling to hear how much involvement he had in so many important conservation projects.  Colin was very humble and though I was aware that he was involved in a number of projects I didn’t realise quite how many.  We were extremely lucky to have had him on our board as Treasurer since 2014. In that time he had an extremely positive impact.

One of the conservation projects that Colin was very influential in was Baring Head and it was rather ironic, though very fitting, that Friends of Baring Head were selected to be this year’s recipient of the Coastal Restoration Award.  Trustees had voted on this prior to the conference and Colin had abstained from voting due to his involvement in the project.

This year’s conference, held in Whanganui, was another great one.  The conference was last held in Whanganui in 2008 and it was great to revisit some sites and get to others.   We had a record-breaking turn-out and it was good to meet lots of new people as well as many regulars.  Two of the latter, Lyn and Graham Pearson, came on board with the Trust after the last Whanganui conference and have been solid supporters ever since.  Graham was an important part of this year’s organising committee and instrumental in securing an impressive amount of sponsorship towards the operation of the conference. There is a thank you to the organisers and sponsors later in the newsletter but I would like to add here a thank-you to the Trust administrator, Lyneke, who put an enormous amount of care, energy and time into organising the conference and helping it to run smoothly.

Ngā mihi nui

Laura Shaft

Deputy Chair

This year's conference in Whanganui broke several records. The highest number of people attending at both the conference AND the workshop, and the highest number of sponsors.

The feedback has been very positive; 80% of respondents found it excellent or very worthwhile and a further 19%  liked it or found it worthwhile. Thanks to all who responded to the survey(s)! We'll take your comments on board and try to make it even better next year.

We are very grateful to Horizons Regional Council as our main sponsor and host, and the other sponsors Whanganui District Council, Coastlands Plant Nursery, Daltons, Progress Castlecliff, Department of Conservation, Totara Glen Nurseries, Whanganui River Markets, Downer, Manawatū District Council’s Kawa Kawa Road Nursery, Rangitīkei District Council and Horowhenua District Council. They made it possible to keep this conference affordable for all.

Our thanks also go to the conference committee, who put it all together.

We look forward to seeing many of you at next year's conference! Keep an eye on the conference page and Facebook for details as they come to hand.

During the conference Colin Ogle was awarded our Pingao & Toheroa Award. Colin is one of NZ's top botanists and an expert on anything to do with plants.

As a kid he was encouraged to tell the visitors to his parents' property the names of all the plants in the garden and surrounds, so it is not surprising that he became so knowledgeable.

Our database contains over 100 entries for Colin and these  span the country, several subjects, and go back to the 1970s.

Colin’s contributions have been recognised before, receiving the Allan Mere Award from the NZ Botanical Society in 2003, and the Loder Cup for services to conservation of vegetation in 2004.

More about Colin on our Pingao & Toheroa award page.

Photo: Colin with Betsy Young (CRT trustee) by Southlight

Friends of Baring Head Charitable Trust was presented this year's Coastal Restoration Award by the award's sponsor, Jo Bonner of Coastlands Plant Nursery. Trustee Tim Park received it on behalf of the Friends.

The award was presented for the multitude of projects that the Friends are successfully working on, from weed control and trapping to encouraging and protecting rare flora and fauna.

Photo: Jo Bonner (l) and Tim Park (r), by Southlight

Our long-term supporter from Southlight, Simon Hoyle, has once again made his photos of the pre-conference workshop and conference freely available to us. They can be downloaded until 31 May for private use from this website.  Following this date a selection of these will be on the conference page. Note that Simon had to unexpectedly rush off on Friday morning, so the only photos of the Koitiata visit are on our conference page. You're welcome to send us some more to share if you have any.

Simon also put together a little movie of photos put to music. This can be viewed here.

Newspaper articles, plant lists and presentations, that we have permission for to share are now on the conference page too. If yours is not there and you would like it to be, let me know and I'll add it.

Tumbleweed Tees have long supported us by donating $5 per sold t-shirt of their coastal range. They are now keen to do some extra fundraising for us:

There will be a storewide discount and 20% of your order will be donated to our Trust. This is a short-term fundraiser and will finish on 16 May 2021.

Click on the poster or here to check it out and use these login details to obtain the discounted prices:

user name: coastalfundraiser@tumbleweedtees.com
password: 2021Fundraiser

The 2021 Coastal Restoration Scholarship was awarded to Cassandra Newman.

Her study is on utilising 3D drone imagery for coastal erosion analysis at historic landfill sites on sand dunes in Southland New Zealand.

This is a timely topic considering that there are many landfills on coastal sites that are at risk of being washed out to sea, toxins and plastics included.

The expected benefit of this research is that it will allow councils and government to optimise their short-, mid- and long-term restoration projects priorities for different sandy coastlines in New Zealand.

Auckland Council is asking for feedback about vehicles on Muriwai Beach. It had a ban on vehicles for a limited time over the last summer holiday period and they now want to know what people think should happen in the future.

This is a topic that we get often asked about and causes great concern, so have your say. It could result in a precedent-setting decision that may be copied around the country.

The Coastal Policy Statement 2010 has some useful information about this and can be found in our news section.

Also: many councils are making their long term plans (LTPs) at the moment and you may want to make a submission asking for a coast care coordinator to help prepare the coast for sea-level rise, if your area hasn't got one already. Check with your local councils.

It recently came to our attention that the link that sends filled-in forms from our Coast Care Group page was no longer working.

This problem is now fixed. If you filled in a form recently (or less recently; we don't know how long it was broken) and haven't heard back from us, please have another go.

Being on our website helps people find you and may result in more volunteers.

If your group is on this page, it might be a good time to check if all your details are still correct. If not, please email us.

Subject content for the first seven videos to be produced in Year 1 is to focus on coastal processes, expected impacts of climate change and providing coastal communities and managing agencies with options for restoring and managing shorelines.

Southlight Studios, with a long history of involvement in coast care and the CRT, have been engaged to undertake the production of the videos. Content for videos including restoration programmes, examples of coastal processes and involvement of experts, practitioners, iwi and coast care volunteers have been initiated in several regions. These include Wellington, Manawatū, west coast Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay. A brief insight into the footage being compiled for videos can be seen via this link.

The first of the community-based workshops was held in Whanganui in March 2021 in association with the CRT annual conference. The workshop was led by coastal scientist Jim Dahm with over 60 participants comprising representatives from coast care groups, iwi, coastal landowners, councils, Department of Conservation, educational entities, environmental NGOs and consultants.

An update about the project was presented to the CRT annual conference with the workshop, conference and associated field trips widely reported in regional media.

Read more on the Video and Workshop project page.

Photo: workshop participants checking out the Castlecliff coast (by Southlight)

Despite several months delay due to Covid-19 the first community planting day for this project was undertaken in August with the Student Volunteer Army planting over 1000 native trees. This was followed by a further community planting day in September. A network of monitoring plots was established to sample across planted sites.

This coming planting season will see 5000 native trees, shrubs and sand binders planted within the coastal sequence zone from the fore- to backdunes. The next community planting day is planned for June.

Other work has involved the gradual replacement of willows and underplanting with natives, specifically kahikatea to restore the lagoon with indigenous vegetation that supports mahinga kai and spiritual values.

Read more on the Tūhaitara project page.

There are just 360 species of seabird out of a total of 9,000 bird species worldwide. Of this 360, 86 breed in the New Zealand region, including 38 (10% of the world total) which breed nowhere else. A further nine migratory species breed elsewhere but visit New Zealand each year, and a number of others are recorded in New Zealand waters from time to time.

With a greater diversity of seabirds than anywhere else, New Zealand can rightfully claim to be the world's seabird capital. (from Te Ara website), see links on our Links page under "Native fauna".

Photo: Department of Conservation

The International Blue Carbon Initiative is a coordinated, global program focused on mitigating climate change through the conservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems.

Wild for Taranaki restoration guides

Much of this information is transferrable to other regions. Includes great plant lists with site requirements and other useful details.

Wild things Issue 116 on shore birds and other coastal features and creatures. A great little booklet from Kiwi Conservation Club, the kids' club of Forest and Bird, with lots of fun games. Find the PDF here under Kids.

Our Coastal Reference Database, which was a project funded by the Department of Conservation in 2015, has been gradually added to.

It now contains well over 6000 titles. If you have or know of documents that can be added to this database or notice anything wrong, please email us.

Here are is a recently added document that might be of interest to those who were at the Whanganui conference. It was held in Palmerston North and there was some overlap with this year's conference:

Proceedings of the Coastal Dune Vegetation Network 2002 conference

It is that time of year again when we get to do the most exciting thing of the year: planting. This is also the easiest time to get volunteers to come out and help you. Make the most of it!

Entice them with coffee and cake or maybe even soup, and talk about the other exciting things that need doing such as weed- and pest control, releasing and nest protection.

A planting event is an excellent opportunity to use our flags. They stand out and make it easy for people to find you. We are happy to send them around the the country at no charge to you.

To book one, click on the link that is nearest to you: Northland, Waikato or other locations.

Photo: Pataua North planting 2020, by Laura Shaft