Te Ara Awataha: Jessie Tonar Scout Reserve regeneration

» Te Ara Awataha: Jessie Tonar Scout Reserve regeneration

Join us, contribute and learn.

Jessie Tonar Scout Reserve is the jewel of Northcote. Be part of this exciting project, with many opportunities to understand our seasonal focuses of regeneration work in this place. Each session has an educational component, such as plant identification, harakeke tikanga and fish, lizard & pest monitoring.

Things to bring: Suitable closed-toed footwear (gumboots or boots), clothing appropriate for the weather, reusable water bottle and sun protection.

Join our Jessie Tonar Scout Reserve regeneration Facebook group here for updates.

About the initiative

Te Ara Awataha is a 1.5km greenway corridor in the heart of Northcote. The key focus of the project is to bring life, or mauri back to the Awataha Stream, which includes regenerating the Jessie Tonar Scout Reserve, also known as Kākā Reserve.

Since March 2019, Kaipātiki Project has been delivering the community-led restoration of this reserve on behalf of Eke Panuku in partnership with mana whenua, Auckland Council's Healthy Waters and the Kaipātiki Local Board.

Working to deliver on the aspirations of the Take Mauri Take Hono mauri indicator framework developed by mana whenua, we are piloting this whole systems approach for community restoration. This framework will guide efforts to boost the mauri of the stream, improve water quality and allow it to become a habitat for birds, insects, and tuna once more. It will also reconnect the community to this lost environmental taonga through the wider stream daylighting project.

Cost: FREE

What you will learn

May 2022: Learn about harakeke, cleaning, harvesting and tikanga. We will also monitor fish and follow up on bird counts and traplines.
June 2022: Lizard monitoring, introduction to geckos and skinks. How to check for lizards and not handle them (illegal). Set up artificial lizard homes. The key is not to disturb sites more than four times a year.
July 2022 - Matariki Restoration Day: Refresh on native and weed plant identification. Tie in with new plantings. Regular bird counts and trapping monitoring. Depending on the weather this will be a great time for finding forest fungi and using INaturalist for ID.
August 2022: New animal pest monitoring session, chew cards and trap setting prior to the event. Overview of work this year in this area. Harakeke, cleaning, harvesting and tikanga overview. Regular five-minute bird count. Check animal pest control.
September 2022: Weed and native tree identification, using a range of new plantings and existing species. Noting new weed species tuning up. Checking traps and five-minute bird count.
October 2022: Check lizard homes, habitat for skink monitoring, and fish monitoring.

Thank you to our funders for supporting this project.