FuturEcology & EmGuard ™ July 2022 Update
Hello from the team at FuturEcology & EmGuard ™
As Matariki draws to a close, we hope you have all been able to take the time to reflect on the year that has been, and look ahead to the next 12 months.
Over this period, we have been in awe of the beautiful night sky as well as some stunning sunsets within Tasman Bay.
Here is a picture from one evening along the Boulder Bank.
It has been a busy year for us with some real highlights and exciting changes. We have had a big increase in the horse power of our team with new employees: Alvin, Meg, Desiah and Emma all helping with the wet boot work, planning and EmGuard distribution from our new base at 769 Hira Road, Nelson.
We have also been involved in some exciting projects including the planting and planning for the Whale Trail CycleWay from Picton to Kaikoura as well as work restoring the flood plains and riparian margins of the Wakapuaka River through Cable Bay Adventure Park and Kidson's land.
Memorial planting for Dr. David Butler near the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary.
A community planting at Kidson's over the inaugural long weekend for Matariki had over 50 people show up to plant plants - what a success that was!
We also had a great memorial planting for Dr. David Butler near the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary just last week and another community planting in the pouring rain at the Hira Reserve.
Thank you so much to those brave volunteers who came out in the mud and rain in Hira to support another great planting project.
Keep an eye on our instagram for any future community plantings.
In the coming weeks, we hope to improve our distribution of EmGuards significantly as our manufacturer has just had a new machine arrive which produces our EmGuards.
The past month has been very challenging with Covid ripping through the team, although luckily everyone got away with just feeling very miserable and sorry for themselves but not desperately ill.
Other exciting things we are looking forward to include working on a number of wetland restorations including one on Wairau Bar with Marlborough District Council, a large wetland within Delegat's Ltd Wairau Valley vineyard and the restoration of Ruapaka Wetland with Ngati Kuia.
Get in touch if you have any restoration ideas or dreams that you want to see come to fruition.
Dillon’s wetland, Wairau Valley
About the team
What a month it has been. Busy as always down here at the powerhouse we call FuturEcology. We have an excellent team on the go and are very much enjoying the new direction and energy that has come with implementing a new business structure, with Team Waka replacing the traditional hierarchical organisational structure.
He waka kootuia kaahore e tukutukua ngaa mimira
A canoe that is interlaced will not become separated at the bow. In unity there is strength.
(The Te Reo Māori Classroom, n.d.)
The waka encapsulates the long history of Māori as ocean voyagers, navigators, and innovators. This sentiment inspires us as we work together and paddle together in the same direction. We are guided by a vision of making the planet a better place for us having resided here and leaving a legacy for future generations.
Building a waka, carving a waka, paddling a waka – it takes a group working in collaboration, to be able to do these things successfully. (The Te Reo Māori Classroom, n.d.)
Here at FuturEcology we are passionate about training and giving our employees the opportunity and tools, they need to succeed in the world of conservation and ecology. Our focus will see our team members become project supervisors who will see their projects through from start to finish with the help of the rest of the team. They will work closely with our customers to help turn their visions for a sustainable planet into reality.
A waka represents teamwork overcoming challenges and having the group moving in the same direction. By working together, we inspire and energise each other, therefore gaining more by using each other’s strengths.
Thanks to Dave Thompson from DT design for our amazing new imagery.
Emguard update
This month we welcomed our manufacturers down to Nelson and so enjoyed being able show them around some of our local projects. This enabled us to show them the importance of what we are trying to achieve with using EmGuards in our plantings and what a difference they make to the success of a planting.
The day was filled with very interesting conversation and innovating. We also had assurance that the new machine would bring an end to our very large back log of orders as it has triple the capacity.
We so appreciate everyone’s continued support, patience and understanding in what has been the most challenging season yet with COVID running rampant through everything.
Today the new machine had its maiden voyage so we are hoping by Monday we should be seeing a real flurry of guards that will be heading straight to our waiting customers.
With such an increase in capacity we are looking forward to being able to offer much shorter lead times very soon.
Lake Ōhau restoration planting
The Ōhau Conservation Trust has planted about 3500 native plants alongside Lakes Ōhau and Middleton in the last 10 or so years. The Trust started using EmGuards in 2019, after deciding the days of plastic and wire plant protectors were over!
Restoration planting took on a new importance after the October 2020 Lake Ōhau wildfire that destroyed houses and around 5000 ha of predominately native vegetation. Around 80% of the Trust’s planting efforts were destroyed or damaged. Remarkably some beech seedling and their EmGuard protectors survived the wildfire as it roared along the shores of Lake Ōhau.
Read more here.
Aspire Conference 2022:
On Friday the 1st of July, Jan and Alvin headed along to the Nelson Aspire Conference. The conference had some fantastic speakers with a common theme of leadership.
One interesting discussion was led by Melissa Muirhead who is passionate about Growth Mindset.
This focuses on the willingness and ability to learn new skills, and not being fixed in what you can and can't do.
We are all capable of learning new skills, and trying new things that we haven't done in the past.
Weed of the month
Japanese honeysuckle – Lonicera japonica
We were out last week, doing a bit of old man’s beard control in our local river and were amazed to see great long tendrils of Japanese honeysuckle still growing strongly along the ground, despite it being the middle of winter, with lots of frosts happening.
As the name suggests, it originated in Japan and was introduced to NZ as an ornamental species early last century. By 1926 it was recorded as naturalised and it really favours the NZ climate particularly from Nelson/Marlborough northwards.
It is classified as a pest as it climbs and forms a dense, impenetrable mass that smothers most plants from ground level to mid canopy. In favourable conditions it will grow up to 15m per year.
It is an evergreen climber, with long, wiry stems that will twine clockwise round other plants. The stems are hairy and purplish red when young and turn woody and hollow when they mature. The leaves are glossy dark green, occasionally showing a yellow tinge and are in opposite pairs on the stem. It produces pairs of sweetly scented, two lipped tubular white flowers that age to yellow, followed by egg shaped, glossy black berries containing seeds in colder parts of New Zealand.
Controlling and eradicating it takes persistence because of the nature of the very dense mats that it forms. Dig it out and burn, bury deeply or landfill it. Composting it is not recommended. Cut and paste it all year using a glyphosate gel or spray in summer to autumn with Glyphosate
Interesting Snippets:
Did you observe the Matariki Constellation? Stormy weather and cloudy nights made it difficult to spot this year. Check out this insightful video which explains a technique to locate the constellation in the sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN7MkI53Gl0
We also thought you might enjoy Michelle and Nigel's (from Reflection in Nature/Positive Catalyst) first newsletter; sharing a holistic update on mahi happening here, using EmGuards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/19cYtu7fuo6yKsyddDPz1p6JNq3AWMOw0rfdfg4Hd3F8/edit?usp=sharing
Books we have been reading
This Thing of Darkness. By Harry Thompson
The story of Robert Fitzroy who at just 23 years old captained the HMS Beagle surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego with a young amateur geologist – Charles Darwin on board.
It is an amazing story of friendship, rivalry and obsessions and gives an incredible history about Fitzroy who was an early Governor of NZ.
The book is working its way around the team at the moment and is well worth looking out for.
