Grey Lynn 2030 Transition Community

Clause 52 of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2009, banning general tree protection in urban areas.

ACTION IS NEEDED NOW – IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO START WRITING NOW (if you haven’t already) and please pass this on to others who might be also be interested.

It is expected that the government will put this Bill through the final parliamentary process as soon as possible – possibly starting on Thursday 27th August, with the critical final voting stage possibly on the 8th or 9th September (there is a week’s recess in between).

We urgently need people to write letters NOW to MPs and to their local newspapers to help influence the final decision. There is also talkback radio.

The Labour Party and the Greens already oppose this Clause, so it is best to target National (in particular), Maori and United Party MPs. If you live in an electorate with a National MP, please write directly to them, voicing your concerns, saying you are a
constituent. It is really important to target National electorate MPs, in particular Nikki Kaye (Auckland Central); Paula Bennett  (Waitakere), and Sam Lotu-Iiga (Maungakiekie) as they are most vulnerable, with slim majorities.

PLEASE ASK THEM TO REMOVE CLAUSE 52 OR SUPPORT AMENDMENTS TO IMPROVE THE EXISTING TREE PROTECTION SYSTEM.

Here are some points you could include (a couple more added from earlier Alert):

• government ignored large proportion of submitters who objected to this Clause
• Options are available from the NZ Arboricultural Association that will save time, money and the environment without removing general urban tree protection (see below** for a broad outline as   conveyed to MPs at the Select Committee stage, but were ignored)
• once law, developers will be able to clear fell a site and not have to replace any lost trees through replanting
• many trees will be cut down as soon as it becomes law
• with development pressure so great in the Auckland region, there will be increasing number of sites with little or no tree cover for shade, screening or visual amenity – any trees planted will be of a size that will take    decades to provide such functions
• listing, or scheduling, of trees in the District Plan, as the only permissible means of protecting trees, is costly, time consuming and very limited
• listing, or scheduling, will potentially involve more cost and council staff time than administration of current tree protection rules
• the well recognised and diverse functions and values of trees, clearly identify trees as being of community value, and need to be taken into account as well as that of an individual property right
• NZ risks losing its international clean green image that it has worked hard to promote and could negatively affect tourism.

You can also look at The Tree Council’s pages for more comprehensive ideas.

**(from the NZ Arboricultural Association) Improvements to the  existing system (i.e. not prohibiting general urban tree protection) include:-

• Lifting the permitted baseline (requirement for a resource  consent) and allowing a higher level of activities ­ like pruning ­ to go ahead without the need for a consent (based on additional
• criteria, for   example, utilising Œapproved contractor¹ provisions or similar),

• Allowing a greater level of delegation, so that the appropriate council officers can sign off on the majority of consents, therefore reducing the level of staff involvement,

• Allowing on-site, instant, carbonated or electronic decisions,

• Standardising some of the rules (i.e. the ³super city²
  concept),

• Increased efficiency through a review of the internal council processes and administration procedures.

Here is a more comprehensive list of Auckland MPs than was sent in the earlier Alert:

Auckland MPs:- (you can cut and paste whole list)
Nikki.kaye@parliament.govt.nz; paula.bennett@parliament.govt.nz;
sam.lotu-iiga@parliament.govt.nz;
Jonathan.coleman@parliament.govt.nz;
Murray.McCully@parliament.govt.nz; Rodney.hide@parliament.govt.nz

Western Leader 26 June
Council cash saves schools’ green scheme

A council cash injection of $90,000 will keep the Enviroschools programme going in Waitakere city for another two years.

Twenty-six west Auckland schools take part in the nationwide scheme funded by councils and the government.

But the scheme, set up to promote recycling, sustainable living and to teach how to grow food, looked set to falter after the Education Ministry announced plans to slash funding.

The ministry says the programme doesn’t teach core skills like literacy or numeracy.

“Naturally we were concerned that without our support the programme may well fall over,” Waitakere deputy mayor Penny Hulse says.

The council will give the EcoMatters Environment Trust, which delivers the programme, $30,000 in 2009/10 and another $60,000 in 2010/11.

That’s on top of the $30,000 it already pumps into the scheme.

“Obviously we hope the government will see sense and reconsider its decision but we want to ensure the programme’s survival in the west for the next two years at least,” Mrs Hulse says.

Whether it extends beyond that is up to the new Auckland Council to decide, she says.

Education Ministry spokeswoman Mary Chamberlain says the programme is worthy but the ministry has to focus its resources where they will make the most difference.

She says raising achievement, particularly among Maori students, lifting literacy and numeracy levels and reducing the number of young people who leave school without worthwhile qualifications, are priorities.

The ministry would continue to provide support materials for schools that looked at topics such as sustainability.

2 July 2009 Taranaki Daily News


TARANAKI’S environmental watchdog won’t provide funding for a leading educational green scheme because it is fearful of ‘‘double-dipping’’.

Regional council chief executive Basil Chamberlain told a council meeting on Tuesday that it needed to be mindful of giving money to programmes already supported by the district councils.

The Ministry of Education announced last month an early withdrawal from its $4.6 million contract with the nationwide enviroschools programme.

The New Plymouth District Council has provided $15,000 over each of the past three years while councils in South Taranaki and Stratford allocate $7000 and $2500 respectively. The ministry had been giving the local programme $32,500.

The three district councils are not committing themselves to a funding boost for enviroschools, and say the programme will need to apply for extra money and its application will be considered.

Councillor Neil Walker said he would like to see the TRC support the scheme.

‘‘We do have a particular interest in this area.

‘‘It’s a valuable programme – it teaches students about the environment, the kids work in the community and do practical things like growing fruit trees and looking after waste,’’ Mr Walker said.

‘‘We need to make an effort to get the Government to look at this again.’’

Mr Chamberlain argued that education was the role of central government and the TRC needed to be mindful of the Government’s decision to cut the programme.

‘‘If the Government has decided to cut this, for whatever reason, does this mean the council authorities should stand up? ‘‘We’re all aware of double dipping.’’ Council chairman David MacLeod said the council had sent a letter in support of the scheme to central government and was happy to support them in that way.

A quarter of the country’s schools belong to enviroschools. In Taranaki 19 schools take part.

The programme sees students taught environmental sustainability and ecological issues in practical lessons often held outside the classrooms.

Schools say it will be harder to educate students about sustainability issues without the external support.

Meanwhile, national enviroschools representatives met with the ministry last Monday to thrash out details of the transitional funding between now and December. Negotiations were continuing.


Waikato Times 1 July 2009 (Editorial)

By any standards the Enviroschools programme has been a stunning success. Started in the Waikato over a decade ago, it now boasts a quarter of New Zealand schools as part of its network with hundreds more waiting to join. No-one makes them do that – they can see the merit in the scheme and the benefit to pupils. Enviroschools has met none of the resistance and angst associated with introducing the likes of new assessment standards or a new curriculum. Instead it has grown organically – and is now even being exported.

The Enviroschools Foundation, which is based in Hamilton, also makes the point that for every dollar of government funding, it secures another two dollars from regional partners and supporters.

That’s not good enough, according to Education Minister Anne Tolley, who has abruptly pulled next year’s funding, apparently without warning, leaving a shortfall of more than $1 million annually which the foundation must scramble to replace if it is to continue functioning at the same level.

If it can’t, 16 jobs may be lost, seven of them based in Hamilton, but that is not the point. The point is the pupils. The foundation assists schools in providing education that suits students who don’t flourish in a classroom environment, and stretches those who do. The innovative programme is based on the children themselves identifying what they want and going about getting it. That may involve working with budgets, making presentations, writing funding applications and so forth, along with the practical aspect of perhaps digging and maintaining a vege garden if that is what the school has decided it wants. The minister has put the spotlight on standards of numeracy and literacy – she should be able to see just how valuable the Enviroschools programme would be in contributing to that. The scheme will also be setting up students for the future in other ways. As we bemoan the loss of traditional values, it doesn’t get much more traditional than learning how to grow vegetables or plant trees or conserve energy. But these are not just skills of the past, as our future is about to develop a much greener tinge. The eco sector is set to be one of the major growth industries of the next 20 years, and those who are well schooled in it will have a head start.

Enviroschools is likely to be able to find alternative funding sources, since the government only started chipping in 21⁄2 years ago. Going cap in hand to possible

2 funders will be difficult during a recession, though, and there is another problem around the corner. Councils have been happy to continue their funding, but Local Government Minister Rodney Hide’s planned scaling back of council activities may put a squeeze on them and at that stage the programme really does face uncertainty.

To diminish the programme’s effectiveness would be a shame; to lose it altogether would be disastrous.

The Government’s axing of funding is short-sighted and mean spirited. It should reconsider.

Waikato Times 27 June
Enviroschools’ staff are lobbying the Government in an effort to stop their funding being cut and save 16 jobs – seven of them in Hamilton.

Photo: IAIN McGREGOR.

Education Minister Anne Tolley announced this month the Government would no longer contribute $1.6 million a year to the popular Enviroschools programme.

The programme, in which dozens of Waikato schools are involved, sees students taught environmental sustainability and ecological issues in practical lessons often held outside the classrooms.

The concept, developed in the Waikato in the 1990s, has since been extended to schools across New Zealand.

Heidi Mardon, Enviroschools Foundation’s Hamilton-based national director, has been in Wellington this week lobbying the Education Ministry to continue the Enviroschools funding.

Enviroschools directly employs 16 people, seven of them based in Hamilton.

‘‘We’d all be gone if the cut goes through,’’ Ms Mardon said.

They would know next week if their lobbying had been successful.

Ms Mardon said that through local councils, funding at grassroots level remained secure, but the Government’s funding cut would affect facilitator training and development work and presented the programme with a major problem.

‘‘We didn’t see it coming quite as quickly [as this]. We had a contract until mid next year, and we expected that contract to be honoured . . . we did not expect to be cut right now.

‘‘It’s very hard to understand why they’re doing it.’’

The cut in funding has been called shortsighted by Waikato principals, who have hailed the benefits of the scheme.

Most schools have specific Enviroschool teachers and are regularly visited by Enviroschools co-ordinators.

Tirau School principal Leo Spaans was ‘‘fairly much devastated’’ by the ‘‘shortsighted’’ funding cut announcement which, he felt, was not well thought through.

‘‘I was quite disappointed. As part of the new curriculum, we’re looking at giving back to the community, sustainability, environmental issues, etc, and then funding gets cut – it doesn’t make things any easier for the school.’’

He believed the Government’s decision to cut Enviroschools funding was at odds with its

Te Miro School’s flourishing vegetable garden is a product of the newly-pruned Enviroschools programme which has had its funding axed as part of Government cost-cutting because it is not a ‘‘core spending’’ priority. messages about New Zealand’s Te Aroha Primary School prinneed to plan for a more cipal Kevin Johnson was sustainable future. unhappy about the funding cut,

Enviroschools had engaged the and felt it was strange for the entire community. Government to promote sustain

‘‘We’ve done quite a bit in the ability in the curriculum when it two years we’ve been involved in was pulling money from the the project – we’ve got sustainEnviroschools programme which able gardens which provide food helped achieve the sustainability for the foodbanks, we’ve planted goal. ‘‘It has come as a shock. the native gardens throughout There are all kinds of programthe schools with the support of mes which have been axed, and the Enviroschools team, and this is just another cost-saving we’re working to replant bush. measure.’’

‘‘It’s a big initiative. The imMr Johnson said Te Aroha Pripact (of funding cuts) will be mary was a very keen Envirohuge in small rural schools.’’ school, and he pledged to press ahead with the school’s environmental work because it benefited the wider community.

Enviroschools lessons were particularly beneficial for students who struggled with conventional learning, or had special needs, a point also made by Nick Quinn, principal at Hamilton’s St Peter’s Chanel Catholic School.

‘‘It’s absolutely practical learning at its best,’’ Mr Johnson said. ‘‘It’s not a one-off learning thing, we’re teaching kids a way of life.’’

Teachers and students thrived on the Enviroschools learning, Mr Johnson said, praising a ‘‘wonderful’’ Enviroschools coordinator who regularly visited Te Aroha Primary.

Education Minister Anne Tolley did not respond to specific Times questions, but a statement from her office said: ‘‘The decision was taken because in tough economic times, the Government is focusing on its core spending priorities for the education system of raising literacy and numeracy and increasing the numbers of pupils leaving school with educational qualifications. This programme does not contribute directly to these priorities.’’

Prime Minister John Key, who visited the lower Coromandel this week, also defended the decision to cut the Enviroschools funding, saying his administration had redirected the money to literacy and numeracy.

‘‘Obviously, no-one likes cutting programmes,’’ Mr Key said.

He said he believed a lot of what was taught in the Enviroschools programme would be picked up by teachers, and said its website would continue to offer on-line learning.

Please put this up on a wall in your neighbourhood.

Thanks

Click on the image to view the PDF

Tree Systems and Agroforestry
Module 9, Permaculture Design Cert
Sat 9 May    8.45am-5pm    $80-$180,
Finn Mackesy & Gary Marshall; Guest tutors Wade & Jenny Cornell

Note – new booking and inquiry details for all permaculture workshops – see above. Pre-payment required.
Introduction to forest ecology; tree crop design; species for firewood, timber, amenity, ecological restoration and habitat; forest restoration; coppicing wood lots; plantation management – pruning, thinning, harvesting; agroforestry – integration with livestock.

Sustainable Home Water Systems
Policy and Design Practicalities
Wed 13 May    6.30-8.30pm    $10
Damon Birchfield, Land-use planner and sustainability consultant/researcher

Water is a precious resource. This seminar discusses both the policy environment related to water conservation in NZ, as well as the practicalities to designing a more sustainable home water system – from rainwater tanks to greywater systems. Find out how much water you could save, and how to access financial assistance when purchasing water conservation technologies.

The Beauties of Biodiesel
Fuel from last week’s fish & chip oil
Wed 20 May    6.30-8.30pm    $10
Andre’ Hamman, Director NZ Ester Fuels Ltd

Imagine having a sniff of your normally stinky diesel tail pipe – and all you smell is a faint cooking oil odor – if that! Andre’ Hamman is director of a new Biodiesel manufacturing company based in Tuakau which has production capacity of 2 million litres pa. Find out about biodiesel manufacturing, hear about the possibilities for use from factory forklifts to the household runabout.

Fruit, Nuts and Berries  Module 10
(prev Mod Permaculture Design Cert
Sat 23 May    8.45am-5pm    $80-$180
Finn Mackesy & Gary Marshall Guest tutor Derek Craig, Oak and Thistle Ltd

Note – new booking and inquiry details for all permaculture workshops – see above. Pre-payment required.
Orchard design, layout and management; selecting appropriate fruits / nuts / vines / berries; beneficial insects; planting and propagation; plant health, pests and disease; herbal lay; integration with small animals.

EDIBLE GARDEN CULTURE Part 3.
Waste to Resource Cycle
Sat 30 May 8.30am-10.30am   11am-1pm (repeat)   $20
Richard Main, co-founder Unitec Hort Sanctuary, environmental educator

An 8-part practical series designed to get participants up-skilled in home fruit and vege production. This module covers: composting, and utilizing available materials in a productive and sustainable garden system. Due to demand we are holding a second repeat class on the same day.

Other news and events!

Biodynamic Organic Gardening Group – May field trip

This month we are going to join the Kaipara BD group in putting down a cow pat pit at Sandie Wendt and Patrick Corfe’s place in Kaukapakapa.  Sandie has been biodynamic on her 33 acre property for 25 years.  She has a large garden, labyrinth, beehives, chooks and other farm animals and a wetland. This will be a great opportunity to explore the use of biodynamic gardening on a larger scale.

The field trip will still go ahead, rain or shine, but in case of torrential rain, please ring Sandie Wendt on 09 420 5624.

Date:           17 May 2009
Time: 10.30 for 11am
Where: Makarau Rd (driveway goes up hill beside Makarau Hall), Kaukapakapa.
Parking: Do NOT go up driveway. Please park at bottom of drive beside hall.
What to bring: Food for shared lunch
What NOT to bring: Dogs
What to wear: old clothes, boots/gumboots, raincoat/sunhat, garden gloves
Cost: gold coin koha and $10 for new BOGG members
Places are limited so please book in early by phoning Sarah on 826 4276.

Bio-diesel Co-op

EcoMatters Environment Trust is pleased to announce we have a bio-diesel co-operative operating.  We have secured a high quality bio-diesel derived from locally sourced waste oils. The oils have been put through a system in such a way that they are readily usable in almost all diesel engines without conversion. It burns so cleanly that you can’t see or smell a thing coming out of the tail pipe!

The diesel will be $1.10 per litre with an annual membership fee of $25. Once you are a member we can come to an arrangement in terms of supply. At the moment people will be able to fill up here at EcoMatters http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?hl=en&tab=wl but we can to do a pick up system where you can take containers home and use them at your own discretion.

So if you do have a diesel vehicle, here is your chance to power it on a waste product and get around carbon neutral!

If interested please contact Aaryn Barlow on 826 4276 or email aaryn@ecomatters.org.nz

Are you involved with another voluntary group besides GL2030? If that group is trying to get online, but lacks the budget or know-how to do it independently this could be for you.

Help is now at hand in the form of innovative community web service, the People’s Times . A brand new addition to Aotearoa’s digital landscape, the People’s Times has brought together the latest internet technologies to create a world-class website with a very homegrown mission – supporting New Zealand’s grassroots groups to communicate, organise and promote their activities, while also giving individual Kiwis a place to express themselves.

The People’s Times offers three purpose-built, integrated services in one place. They are:

• People’s Times Communities – offering simple, ad-free homepages for groups with user-friendly networking tools and online storage built in;
• People’s Times News – NZ’s first dedicated “citizen journalism” platform: anyone can submit original articles and pictures or link to stories elsewhere; and
• People’s Times NoticeBoard – searchable, community-oriented free listings (also accessible directly at www.noticeboard.org.nz).

It may be ambitious in scope, but the sites features are simple in application and determinedly non-commercial – everything on the site is free to use, and ads are kept to a minimum – making it ideal for groups who haven’t yet made it online for reasons of expertise or expense.

The People’s Times is the result of a partnership between the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, leading open-source developers Catalyst IT and e-learning specialists Flexible Learning Network, and the project has received financial support from the Community Partnership Fund as part of the Government’s Digital Strategy.

Project Director Richard Wyles says that the site began life in time-honoured fashion – as jottings on the back of a napkin over a beer with a friend.

“Many of us are involved in groups and clubs at the neighbourhood level – they’re a really vibrant and vital part of New Zealand society. Yet despite the internet revolutionising the way people do business and even run their social lives, many small, local groups are yet to make the leap online.”

Drawing on his experience using open-source web technologies to support communication and learning in business and education, Richard started to think about how the latest web developments could be customised to produce something simple and practical for community groups.

“We were trying to think of a way to help grassroots groups to harness the new communication tools available in the digital age, without needing to develop the infrastructure individually. Organising virtually can reduce the administration burden for small groups, while helping to ensure their accessibility to new generations of members.”

Richard had also become interested in the burgeoning web phenomenon dubbed “citizen journalism”, which is becoming increasingly popular internationally. As a result, New Zealand’s first dedicated citizen journalism platform – People’s Times News – is one of the three strands that make up the site.

Adding the Noticeboard to the mix was a logical third step, providing for community listings such as advertising school fairs, public notices, and Lost and Found.

For more information visit www.peoplestimes.org.nz or info@peoplestimes.co.nz

The Sustainable Business Network has just launched Green List.

This is a new online directory of green products and services where listings are compared against basic principles of sustainability

At Green List you can compare prices and products as well as seeing where the suppliers rate themselves against against six principles of sustainability: cyclic, solar, efficient, safe, social, and certified.

Like TradeMe, you are able to comment on the listings. You are able to see all the consumer endorsements.

If you have a product or service you want to list, the listing is free for the next 18 months.