Tui 2000 Inc Logo

Tui 2000 Inc Logo

Friday 4 March 2011

Tui 2000 - Friends of Waiwhakareke

http://waiwhakareke.co.nz/
A 60 hectare wetland in the heart of Hamilton, Waiwhakareke is an award-winning natural heritage park and New Zealand’s largest inland restoration project.

Whether you are an individual,a group, a school or a business - there are lots of ways you can polish your green halo and get involved at Waiwhakareke:

Tui 2000 - link to Environment Centre

http://envirocentre.5.powersite.co.nz/support_your_community/community_group_pages/tui_2000/
What are the aims of Tui 2000?
To bring about the return of nativebirds and their habitat of native plants and ecosystems to Hamilton and the central Waikato.


Why?
160 years ago the central Waikato was a landscape of lakes, rivers, bogsand swamps, interspersed with hills and ridges.  The largest trees were kahikatea, pokaka and pukatea in the gullies and wetter areas, rimu, kauri and tawa on drier hill slopes and ridges.
The vegetation of the swamplands included flaxes, cabbage tree, raupo and sedges.  Kiwi and weka roamed the forest and fernbirds, craiks and bitterns hid in the swamplands.  Thousands of native waterfowl collected in the lakes and rivers. A few remnants of native forest can still be seen as Claudelands Bush, the bush remnants in Hillcrest Park, Mooney Park, Southwell School, some of the gullies, and along the Waikato River.
Remnants of the wetlands have almost totally disappeared except for small areas in the gullies and around Lake Waiwhakareke (Horseshoe Lake). The European colonization and settlement of the area brought about an almost total transformation of the landscape from native to exotic. Nowadays, native birds have almost vanished from the landscape.
Most of the birds that survive in this transformed landscape are introduced: blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, mynabirds, even the silvereye, which was self-introduced from Australia.  Most of the native birds that remain are insect eaters or waterfowl: morepork along the river and greywarblers and fantails where there is bush; shags and pukeko by the river and lakes.

What are we wanting to do?
Members of Tui2000 do not want to turn back the clock.  We recognize that natural New Zealand is as irrevocably changed as the cultural.  Our vision is towards a New Zealand where the native and the exotic co-exist in greater harmony. We want a distinctively New Zealand nature, not onethat is a 'new Europe'.
We want to bring back a place for the natives, not banish them altogether.

Actions:
Activities that we have been involved in since its inception include:
1. Planting of native plants with schools and community groups,
2. Restoration of Barrett Bush Reserve southwest of Hamilton,
3. Promotion and support for the Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park,
4. Promotion and support for the restoration of Maungakawa Scenic Reserve/Sanatorium Hill northeast of Cambridge,
5. Promotion and support for Hamilton City's gully restoration programme
6.  Submissions on annual plans, parks management plans and city plans.
7. We run an annual tour of Hamilton's gullies and wild places,
8. Put up displays at community events.

Contact or Join Tui 2000:
We meet on the 3rd Wednesday, once a month in the EnvironmentCentre, Ward Street from 7.00pm to 9pm.
Anyone is welcome to attend a meeting and we would welcome new members.
If you would like to speak to someone about Tui2000, contact DaleLethbridge, Ph: 856-9303; Warren Stace, Ph: 856-4486, Email:warrenstace37@clear.net.nz; or Katherine Hay at the Environment Centre,Ph; 07 839 4452, Fax 07 839 4454, Email: envirocentre@paradise.net.nz;

Project Halo Facebook link

http://www.facebook.com/hamiltonhalo?ref=ts&v=wall

Tui 2000 works actively with the EW and Project Halo

Planting your garden for Tui

http://www.ew.govt.nz/Projects/Hamilton-Halo/Planting/