Thursday July 22nd Rainy Day Lectures and Visit to Addington LID Project

Kia ora koutou,
     Today started off with two lectures at Landcare Research. Our first lecture was from Dr. Dean Anderson on mammal pests in New Zealand.  He discussed how a lot of the pest mammals were introduced by British Acclimatization Societies to help make New Zealand feel more like the home country. Pest animals include possums, deer, rodents, etc...and non-mammals like Canadian Geese, certain fish and some reptiles. Current methods of control include 1080 bait drops and trapping. Dr. Anderson stressed the fact that biological research and technology need to advance new (and hopefully more "humane") ways to eradicate and/or control the pests for successful future preservation and restoration of New Zealand's unique biodiversity.  Robert Watts presented our second lecture on Christchurch waterways. The city was built on a swamp and waterway management originally consisted completely of drainage projects. Mr. Watts has been instrumental in convincing the city council to use a values-based approach to waterway management and shown by the example of Corsers Stream how natural treatment and day-lighting of waterways is an asset; costs less to maintain (and sometimes develop); and increases the value of the property.  
         After lunch at Lincoln, we traveled to Addington, a suburb of Christchurch.  Peter Wehrmann showed us how the city retrofitted an existing, dilapidated subdivision with different styles of experimental rain gardens to create an LID (low-impact design) development. It was interesting to see the differences between American-style rain gardens and Kiwi-style which result from different management preferences and different ecological challenges. The project also included a green corridor to help treat, reclaim, and transport stormwater in an artful way that becomes an amenity and also helps educate the community.   

Lastly, we went to see the Addington Bush and Mike Peters of the Addington Bush Society. In the early 90's, a group of neighboring landowners decided to all donate a piece of their connecting backyards to create a small bush reserve. Through great debate and hands-on learning, they created a now-protected reserve in the middle of the city. It's a wonderful example of how enthusiastic and hardworking people can recreate biodiversity out of vegetable plots and turf. No one in the group had any substantial knowledge in the subject originally! Though they are mostly in a management stage now, they hope to continuing introducing native plants and begin to monitor the wildlife that also uses the area. All in all it was a very educational day. The next three days are free time for the group, with five of us going to Queenstown and Milford Sound and the rest taking day trips from Lincoln including activities like skiing and rock climbing!
A tōnā wā e hoa.

Arohanui,
Ashley