Bay Harbour: January 13, 2021

PAGE 6 BAY HARBOUR
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Wednesday January 13 2021
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Meet the new reporter
for Bay Harbour News
BAY HARBOUR NEWS has
a new reporter – Samantha
Mythen.
Mythen has come on board
this week after cutting her
journalistic teeth as editor of
Canterbury University Students’
Association magazine
CANTA.
Mythen knows the Bay
Harbour News area well; she
Avoca Valley’s ecosystem
to benefit from plantings
• From page 1
The planting of native
vegetation is set to offer
long-lasting environmental
benefits to Avoca Valley.
Woods hoped it would
invigorate more insects
and invertebrate, creating a
thriving ecosystem.
The planting will mainly
be carried out in the Upper
Avoca Valley but the
society would also like to
plant in the lower Avoca
Valley.
“This area is currently
primarily covered in gorse
which can be used to create
a protective nursery to help
establish the newly-planted
natives,” Woods said.
“Our intention is not to
cover the area in trees to
reflect how it was 10,000
years ago. Rather, the new
native foliage will be predominantly
fire retardant
to help protect the Port
Hills.”
• By Samantha
Mythen
A FURTHER four
projects based in
the Banks Peninsula
have received
grants from the
city council’s
Sustainability
Fund.
The Diamond
Harbour Community
Association
on behalf of
Friends of Morgan’s
and Sam’s
Gullies, received
$3000 for the
restoration of indigenous
biodiversity along the
walkways and gullies of
the city council-owned
land.
This group of local
volunteers is hoping to
transform the gullies into
native forests thriving
with indigenous bird and
insect life.
Said city councillor and
PREVENTION: The native vegetation to be
planted in Avoca Valley will be fire retardant.
The society is made up
of volunteers who work to
maintain the existing areas
in the Port Hills under
their care.
“We are calling on new
volunteers to help with this
project. The society’s aim is
to encourage and promote
natural growth of native
vegetation on the Port
Hills for people to enjoy,”
Woods said.
Planting is set to begin
at the start of winter.
The damp conditions
chairwoman of the sustainability
and community
resilience committee,
which approved the
grants, Sara Templeton:
“These well-established
volunteer groups
have already
done enormous
amounts of
planting and
ecological restoration.
This grant
empowers their
work even more.
provide the trees with
better opportunity to
establish themselves
before the drier summer
season sets in. After
planting, a maintenance
programme will be put in
place, ensuring the new
vegetation thrives.
This project is part
of a management plan
developed for Avoca Valley
by the society. It is hoping
to eventually introduce
walking and mountain
biking tracks to the area.
Grants for four other projects
Sara
Templeton
has lived in Charteris Bay
and Cass Bay and her first
part-time job was at Lyttelton
SuperValue.
Her interests include the
outdoors, skiing and hiking.
•If you have a great news
story email samantha.
mythen@starmedia.kiwi
or phone her on 021 919
917.
“It is really
clear that more
native planting
is essential for biodiversity
regeneration. In the
Port Hills and Banks
Peninsula specifically, it
is clear that native species
are much more fire resistant
than others which is
fantastic.”
Three projects in the
Little River locality also
received funds for their
sustainable objectives.
The Little River Campground
was granted $2625
to contribute towards
the continued protection
of the native vegetation
and wetland in the Okuti
Valley.
The Living Streams
Community Nursery
Trust is using its grant to
help nurture and grow the
capacity of it’s community-run
nursery based out
of Little River.
Alongside propagating
indigenous trees and
shrubs that grow in the
Banks Peninsula, the
nursery helps with restorative
planting projects
in the area.
The Little River
Playcentre will use its
funding to install new
energy efficient lighting.
“Little River, like many
Canterbury community’s,
is really connected and
proactive on environmental
initiatives which
is great to see,” Templeton
said.