Project De-Vine Chair Report to AGM (July 2016 – June 2017)
Takaka Library 11/12/17
I would like to thank staff, trustees and funders for your support over this reporting period and up to the present time. It has been a period of significant challenge but Project De-Vine has endured and continues to deliver real, on the ground conservation outcomes.
The focus of this report is the year ending June 2017 but since this is Project De-Vine’s first AGM I have taken the liberty of providing a wider context.
Project De-Vine started in 2010 as a community led weed busting group championed by Chris Rowse’s enthusiasm assisting landowners overwhelmed by the invasive plants – banana passion vine and old man’s beard. It operated under the umbrella of The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society for 6 years, receiving support from their national office with finance, governance and legal issues as it expanded with grants and contracted work.
In July 2016, the beginning of this reporting period, Project De-Vine became an independent Charitable Trust with four founding trustees – Chris Rowse, Chairperson and Project Director, John McKee, Celia Butler and Bob Kennedy. Neil Clifton was appointed as an additional trustee in August 2016, subsequently being elected chair through to the end of this reporting period. With the recent resignation of John McKee and Celia Butler, the Trust presently has three trustees – Neil Clifton, Chris Rowse and Bob Kennedy.
A significant amount of work over the early part of the reporting period has involved transferring grants and contracts from Forest and Bird into the new trust. This was linked with an audit of the Trust by an external agency appointed by Forest and Bird. The audit covered governance, management, financial and health and safety systems. The Trust acted on all recommendations and now has a board charter, strategic and business plan, delegations policies, and a health and safety management plan. Throughout this period the Trust has been very well served by our administration assistant, Sada Iswhara and finance officer, Paul Bastin.
While the necessary administrative arrangements in setting up a new trust were made and throughout the reporting period, the core operational work of Project De-Vine has continued with field staff targeting specific weed species in well defined management units that span Golden Bay. The majority of this contract work has been completed to standard and on schedule and I would like to acknowledge the dedication of our experienced team leaders Emma Stephen, Mark Brignole, Bianca Harris, Todd Stillwell and Hobie Mercer (who left in August 2017).
Particular highlights have been:
- After two years of planning, our team was able to start tackling the heavy old man’s beard infestations on the Riwaka side of the Takaka Hill and the banana passion fruit vines on the Takaka side. This is one of our flagship sites to show landowners and visitors to Golden Bay, what we are doing and how effectively we can achieve big changes. The work has achieved a lot of positive feedback and NZTA have committed to further work this coming autumn.
- With Project Janszoon, Project De-Vine carried out contract pest plant control work inside Abel Tasman National Park from 2014 to 2016. Since then, we have worked with Janszoon to carry our searches for pest plants inside the National Park and around its perimeter, focusing around the Wainui area. We have carried out Janszoon paid control work in 2017 for Italian Jasmine in the Park and Climbing Asparagus around the perimeter of the Park. At the same time with Lotteries funding, over three years to May 2018, we have made big inroads in controlling high infestation levels on all the properties of pest vines in the Wainui and many in east Takaka areas to lower the chances to seeding spreading into the Park.
- In 2013 Project De-Vine wished to engage in a full scale ‘de-vining’ programme from Ligar Bay to Wainui Hill. We identified that the Tata Peninsula would make a great first site to focus on. It was heavily infested in pest vines, which smothered many trees. It was an isolated area, that could be maintained until other funding could be found for the wider area. We received funding from TDC and QEII to start clearing the vines. Now in its fifth year, the vines have died away and the native trees are flourishing. We have just heard that we have received funding of $80,000 from the DOC Community Fund to carry on the work for two more years over a wider area including private properties. This will reduce the pest vines to primarily young plants and then be suitable for a lower level of funding from Rata Foundation to continue maintaining the area.
- On a similar theme, we are now in our fifth year of our contract work with LINZ to manage the pest vines found on UCL land along the 11 rivers of Golden Bay. In this last financial year, LINZ was able to give us more money to focus on the upper Waingaro River, where the banks are festooned in Banana Passion vines. Due to its closeness to Kahurangi National Park, we started to think about looking for further funding to assist the many properties adjoining the river with similar problems. This created an ideal ‘investment ready’ project, that fitted when DOC’s War on Weeds team were contacting Regional Councils to nominate a project at short notice. Paul Sheldon at TDC contacted us and the project became reality in a short space of time in this financial year, to assist a further 18 properties in the area. Since then, the water engineers at TDC have engaged us to survey their reserve at the head of the private properties, with a view to carrying out pest plant control work. The lowered pest plant level and good assessment data, now means we will be able to add this area into our application to The Lotteries Board to control many sites of pest plants in the lower Takaka valley in 2018, with secured funding from the Cobb Mitigation Fund. The aim of this grant is to assist the many riparian plantings in the area and reduce the spread of pest plants across the valley.
I would like to thank our funders – Department of Conservation, Lotteries, Tasman Environmental Trust, Tasman District Council, Rata Foundation, New Zealand Transport Agency, Project Janszoon, Work and Income New Zealand, Nelson Building Society, Motueka Community Board and Cut’n’Paste Ltd. (who supply our gel at very generous rates). Without their support and confidence the work of the Trust would not be possible.
I mentioned at the start of this report that it has been a challenging year. The most significant of these challenges have occurred in the latter part of the year, outside the reporting period. However, it would be remiss of me not to make mention of them. The first of these was the resignation of our Operations Manager in October 2017. The second, and more recent has been the unexpected and sudden onset of a serious illness which Chris Rowse is now recovering from.
The strength of Project De-Vine has been and will continue to be its ability to deliver on the ground conservation outcomes, specifically weed control. I am confident Project De-Vine will emerge from these challenges and continue its track record as a lead community conservation organisation.
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