Welcome to our September 2021 Newsletter
Welcome to our latest update for 2021. We hope everyone is keeping safe and well. The good news is that spring is in the air and this time of the year brings much delight in nature. And it's also Conservation Week, so we hope you get to connect in the calmness of nature in some way. Enjoy this newsletter and enjoy the great outdoors in the coming spring months.
Photo: Sarah Wills (DOC), Wayne O'Keefe (BCA Operations Manager) & Intake 2 Cadets at Whirinaki
Bay Conservation Alliance has been operating for four years, time flies when you are having fun! In that time our membership has grown from our foundation four groups to now supporting 19 groups across the Bay of Plenty and we anticipate continued growth this year.
To meet the needs of our member groups and to ensure we add the most value possible to supporting conservation outcomes, we recently refreshed our strategic plan. This has resulted in a reset of our vision, purpose and key objectives as follows:
Our Vision: Through collaboration the natural ecosystems and indigenous biodiversity of the
Bay of Plenty are restored.
Our Purpose: To support and grow the capability and impact of our communities and partners,
to restore and preserve natural ecosystems and indigenous biodiversity.
Our Objectives – 2026:
1. To expand and strengthen the support services for our network members.
2. To grow and develop the Bay of Plenty conservation volunteer base.
3. To improve the capability and impact of the
community conservation network.
4. To support and strengthen relationships with
our partners.
5. To support landscape-scale biodiversity
restoration projects.
6. To improve the sustainability of the BCA
network.
An action in our new strategic plan highlighted the need to review BCA's governance structure and capability to ensure we are representative of our membership and continue to develop in a way that adds the most value to our communities and partners restoring biodiversity.
We are consulting with our member groups on possible changes to our structure which may require changes to our constitution. We currently have the ability to appoint member group representatives and independents. Independent roles provide as opportunity to seek specific skills.
Our board has recently undertaken a skills self-assessment.
This has identified a number of skills we would like to strengthen through new board members, to join in our November AGM. These include:
- Strategic visionary thinking
- Te Ao Māori cultural advice
- Academia / education
- Policy development
- Fundraising
If you would like to consider becoming part of an exciting organisation, we'd love to hear from you.
For more information, please contact Michelle Elborn, BCA CEO – michelle@bayconservation.nz
We're excited to be launching a new project in the western part of the Western Bay of Plenty (SH29 north to Waihi) and would appreciate your input.
Funded by Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay Conservation Alliance and Boffa Miskell is developing an Ecological Connectivity Strategy. The aim is to help identify and prioritise key areas for conservation management within the western part of the Western Bay of Plenty, and work towards a cohesive, landscape-scale network of connected native habitats.
If you whakapapa to, live or work in the western part of the Western Bay of Plenty region, we would love your feedback on the species and areas you value and believe should be prioritised for conservation action.
To participate you are invited to click here to access our short online survey where you will be asked questions such as:
- Which key fauna species should we be providing connectivity (habitat links) for?
- Which key areas currently have the highest ecological/biodiversity values?
- Which key areas would benefit the most from restoration?
We'd love wide community input into the survey, so please have your say by midnight on Sunday, 26 September 2021. You will also go in the draw to win a family trip to Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.
The project will produce an interactive map of the region showcasing existing land protections, values, objectives and current community activity. A story map will be built around this which will also provide recommendations for conservation action. The story map will then be used for further engagement with communities and schools, informing future action.
We had a special farewell for our 2nd intake of Bay Conservation Cadets – Tauira Mahi in early August. Each of the team provided a short presentation on their own experiences throughout the 12-week programme and what they aspire for as they move on to their next chapter. Listening to each of them was truly inspirational. It's heartening to hear of plans to take learnings back to Hapu, seek exciting career pathways or seek new experiences through volunteering.
We wish them well and look forward to following their journeys. We are all set for the start of intake 3 in mid-September (pending Covid level settings).
Our Tauira Mahi programme provides a great opportunity to grow conservation knowledge and skills around areas such as species identification and monitoring, predator control, freshwater management, restoration planting and an insight into a wide range of conservation career pathways.
A very big thankyou to all our partners supporting the programme in different ways and our member groups who are hosting cadets to work together at locations across the BOP. An ongoing role is to help cadets find long term employment. 8 of the 10 cadets from intake 1 now have at least part-time employment. If you are seeking passionate skilled workers, please let us know.
Photos left to right: Intake 2 Cadet Te Wheki, Intake 2 Cadets Raven & Anna & Intake 2 Cadet Jacob
A very big thank you to our first donor to our new discretionary fund, to support conservation action across the Bay of Plenty.
Our seed donor is Cheeky Rooster Distribution Limited, who distribute food products across the Bay of Plenty. Cheeky Rooster are working to improve their business sustainability with a range of actions including recycling, sending food waste to a pig farmer and calculating their carbon emissions. They generate 9.5 Tonnes of carbon a year across transport and refrigeration. To assist in offsetting their transport emissions they have kindly made a $1000 donation to seed our conservation discretionary fund and are encouraging other businesses and individuals to follow suit. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, firstly thank you and click here.
The Bay Conservation board will consider project opportunities to allocate funding to. We have an exciting project ear marked for this first donation and hope to update you on that in our next newsletter. A special thanks again to Cheeky Rooster!
Bay Conservation is partnering with the Predator Free NZ Trust who are taking a predator control roadshow through the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. These events are free and open to community group volunteers, landowners, local hapū and individuals interested in predator control.
The event details for Tauranga are:
Trapping presentation with Cam Speedy
Pick up some great hints and tips from expert trapper Cam Speedy. Bring your questions!
Wednesday 20th October, 5.30 – 7.30pm
Venue: TBC
Field trip to Otanewainuku with Cam Speedy
Limited spaces for a more personal look at setting up a high performing trap network in the field, by visiting the Otanewainuku forest.
Thursday 21st October 9-11am
Venue: Otanewainuku, Mountain Road
Booking essential.
Further details to be confirmed due to Covid restrictions. If you would like to be notified when Predator Free NZ Trusts online booking is up and running, feel free to let us know at admin@bayconservation.nz
Don't forget to keep an eye on our events calendar for events & upcoming work days with our members!
Photo: TBC Student Ethan Lewis setting a trap at Aongatete Forest
We've had a very busy last few months educating our future leaders. Throughout Term 2 we hosted around 430 Year 9 students from Tauranga Boy's College for a full experiential learning day In Aongatete forest. Students learnt about NZ's aspirations to be predator free by 2050, discussed the types of pests impacting our native biodiversity and what methodologies are available to support our native wildlife. Then they got in the bush for some action!
Maketu Ongatoro Wetland Days
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This term has seen a focus on wetlands with schools supported by the Maketu Ongatoro Wetland Society Education programme not only learning but getting out and planting to support restoration efforts in the Kaituna
Photo: Te Puke Primary School at Maketu education day
Photo: Emma Cronin (BCA Operations Manager) with Ballance Agri-nutrients
Otumoetai Students & Ballance
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And a big shout out to students from Otumoetai College who will be managing some trap lines at their school camp location, Oteora. New traps have been set up across a 5-hectare area with support from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's environmental enhancement fund and Bay Conservation Alliance field staff. The traps will now be maintained by students with additional support from Ballance Agri-Nutrient staff through corporate education days hosted by Bay Conservation Alliance. What an awesome collaboration for nature.
As many of you know an exciting announcement was made last year to invest $19M of Jobs for Nature funding to support restoring the mauri of the Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park and the surrounding area.
The governing structure of the Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust has been completely revised with new statutes, an enlarged Board of Trustees and a clear commitment to co-Governance. This was done to ensure that it was fit for purpose in handling the Jobs for Nature funding.
The Trust has recently appointed a founding CEO, Louise Saunders who will start in mid-September. Louise is currently a Senior Principal Ecologist and has been employed by Boffa Miskell for the last 18 years. She has also been a board member
for Bay Conservation Alliance for the last three years. Bay Conservation congratulates Louise on being appointed to this very significant role and is very supportive of her as she looks to progress one of the biggest landscape environmental projects in the Bay of Plenty.
In support of these developments at the Trust, the Department of Conservation have recruited three new positions to support progress with Kaimai Mamaku projects while the Trust develops appropriate systems. BCA is pleased to welcome Lucas MacDonald – Senior Project Manager, Shulamit Gordon – Project Coordinator and Max Yeager – Communications.
We can anticipate further communications and engagement coming soon.
Volunteers play a huge role in helping us achieve great conservation outcomes across our region. BCA has a role to support groups be as effective as possible and lighten the load on some of the challenging parts of daily operations, meaning volunteers continue to enjoy their roles.
We're really grateful to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for the community initiatives funding they have made available in their recent Long Term Planning round.
BCA received funding to help us deliver operational support to conservation orientated groups across the Bay of Plenty.
Support will also be in the form of training and capability building through workshops and networking etc.
The funding will allow us to take on board six new member groups a year, over the next three years.
If your group is interested in becoming a BCA member, please contact us at admin@bayconservation.nz
Photo: Te Whakakaha Trust volunteer planting day
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