Leading from the front issuu

SMART IDEAS —
REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
New chairperson of the Ahuriri Estuary Protection Society,
Angie Denby, says the society’s mandate is to ensure
the Estuary is a place that people want to come and visit,
and they’ve got plenty of plans.
The society’s mandate, Angie says, is for the preservation
of the current area, advocating for restored and
protected wildlife environments, networking with others
with shared goals, and education for the public on the
ecology and importance of this sensitive environment.
At the annual January picnic, the reinvigorated group
says it’s keen to bring as many people together who have
an interest in the Estuary’s restoration and preservation,
and that includes building networks with individuals,
groups, organisations and business.
They’re keen to attract younger people to the group as
well. “Most members are older with spare time and we
need younger people to get involved too. Our focus is in
circulating ideas, keeping things in the public eye and
bringing young people on board to help with this.”
Angie recently linked up with Richmond School and
took groups of children to see the 200 to 300 Godwits
when they arrived at the Estuary as part of their epic annual
migration in November. “The Bar-tailed Godwit/
Kuaka is the ‘nobility’ of migrants, having flown directly
from Alaska in the Spring. The others don’t come nearly
as far! That to me is what’s important, people getting to
know what happens at the Estuary and helping them to
connect with it.”
The society also organised an educational talk focused
on Godwits in February. The guest speaker was a member
of the Australian Flyway, a group interested in the
11,000km annual journey that the godwits make. Members
share knowledge and assist countries on the godwits’
migratory path, to restore and maintain wetlands.
The society was run by co-founding stalwart Isabel
Morgan for 35 years. Pat was involved in those early days
when the group was set up to stop development in the
area following the proposal of a marina. “It was a minor
miracle really that they succeeded and our job now is
to keep what’s there, not to let anything be removed or
altered,” says Angie.
The Napier City Council is working on an encouraging
initiative at Lagoon Farm, which runs alongside Prebensen
Drive. “The aim is to turn this area into a wetland in order
to clean up the dirty water that comes through there.
When it rains something like 70% of Napier’s stormwater
runs into the estuary in some shape or form, so we’re
hopeful the wetland will filter the water and ease pollution
in the Estuary.
“The council is also doing a lot of monitoring to find out
exactly what is going into the water. Management plans
are being arranged with each and every industry in the
Onekawa and Pandora industrial areas, just like they are
for farmers, so everybody is needing to become accountable
whether they like it or not.
“It feels like there’s movement now, whereas before
there was kind of resistance to doing anything to help
clean up the area. And it’s coming from central Government.
They are saying, ‘You’ve got to do it.’
“This is such a welcome turnaround from the early days
when environmentalists felt the society was perceived as a
lone, crazed voice. Isabel and Pat were the foot soldiers, the
ones who held on to the belief that what they were doing
was right, despite their stance being unpopular at the time.”
The perennial challenge for the guardians / the kaitaiki
of the Estuary; is monitoring the ongoing tension and
competition between industry, environmental issues,
and public recreation. “EIT now offers a course in Environmental
Management, training people up in policy, so
all these things will help”, Angie says.
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The Environment – Pat walks his talk in his own hood