Bluegreens
Region: Auckland
Award Category: Auckland
Year: 2014
The Bluegreens are a policy advisory group to the National Party. They approached Wai Care in late 2010 to get the group involved in a local improvement project. As a result they adopted a site on the Lower Meola Creek. This group s project links in with the Lower Meola Restoration Project which will provide a native green corridor linkage and improve native biodiversity in the area.
The group s objective is to progressively restore sections of the Meola Creek environment from Great North Road to the North Western Motorway by removing inorganic rubbish, invasive weed species, planting appropriate native trees in their place and undertaking animal pest control. They are a group dedicated to cleaning up Auckland s waterways.
The Bluegreens main work site has been previously identified as a priority due to its upstream location and the requirement to initiate and maintain weed removal to reduce downstream recruitment and weed spread. The activity of the group includes regular weeding bees, planting days, fundraising to assist the project and raising awareness of the project and issues surrounding it within their networks. This work is publicised online and the group welcomes any other members of the community to attend.
Chris Severne (who spearheads the work at Lower Meola Creek for the Bluegreens), and the volunteers coordinated by him, have shown a level of commitment and enthusiasm which is highly commendable. The group have undertaken numerous hand weed control and planting days (one of which was funded through fundraising by Chris). The Bluegreens have also committed to on-going weed control, rat control and continued native planting. Natural regeneration of seedlings is beginning to occur. For these reasons, the Bluegreens are a group that is very deserving of a Weedbusters Award.