FuturEcology & EmGuard ™ July 2023 update.
Mānawatia a Matariki
“Matariki is an abbreviation of Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea (‘The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea’) and refers to a large cluster of stars, known in some European traditions as Pleiades” (Te Ara, 2023).
Iwi across Aotearoa understand and celebrate Matariki in different ways, but for many Māori, it heralds the start of a new year.
Traditionally it was a time to acknowledge the dead and to release their spirits to become stars. It was also a time of reflection, to be thankful and to feast with family and friends (Te Ara, 2023).
We hope you had a nice break over Matariki and had the opportunity to eat good food, spend time with loved ones and do something to fill your cup.
Here at FuturEcology, we have had a very good month, working on projects all over the Top of the South, enjoying working in the sunshine and expanding networks. We have also taken on some exciting new projects for the coming year which we look forward to sharing with you.
Maori Pa Road Reserve Community Planting Day
By Anna Bradley
There was a great turn out to support this Nelson City Council Matariki community planting event along the Wakapuaka River. With around 60 volunteers and beautiful weather, we were able to plant 1200 of the 3200 plants, making it a very successful North Nelson planting.
Plants were selected to suit the varied topography of the site, including the dry banks and the damp floor next to the river, acknowledging that the site is in the narrowest section of the valley and liable to be inundated by the river at times.
This planting supports restoration efforts on neighbouring properties and highlights the importance of creating riparian corridors. Existing valuable species in the area include matai, kahikatea, tōtara and tawa. It was also a great opportunity to establish pukatea back into the landscape. This forest giant was once common in coastal and lowland forests on the edge of streams in North Nelson but has become increasing uncommon.
There is another community planting this Saturday 22 July 10:00am along the Matai River – see details below on the council website - Community planting events continue - Our Nelson
The community at work
Malcolm and Leo
Weed of the Month
Nutsedge Cyperus species
By Robert Fryer
Most of us will have noticed a very distinctive small rush growing around streams and wetlands. This plant gives the appearance and is often thought of as being a native sedge. It is not to be confused with our native giant umbrella sedge, Cyperus ustulatus or the smaller Bolboschoenus caldwellii which grows up to 1m tall and is suitable for riparian or coastal river planting.
The exotic weed sedge is Purple Nutsedge or American Nutsedge, both highly invasive and spreadable weeds. If you are working around or walking through patches of these, be very careful with cleaning your footwear or tools to avoid accidently introducing these plants to clean areas.
Once either of these are established, they are immensely difficult to control. There is a herbicide called Sempra that will control these weeds if used according to label instructions. Becoming familiar with our own native sedges is important so we can treasure these species rather than the exotic weeds that will try and take their place.
Nutsedge
Native giant umbrella sedge, Cyperus ustulatus
Aspire conference highlights
By Shaun Burton
On the 7th of this month, Emma and I were lucky enough to be able to attend the Aspire conference held at the Annesbrook Events Centre and organised by the Nelson Chamber of Commerce.
The day was packed with great speakers from one end of the country to the other, with a focus on the topical theme of disruption. This theme seems to be a reoccurring issue in both the personal and work lives of many people lately.
Of the many speakers, I had two personal favourites. The first was by the directors of a startup called Urban Intelligence on their geospatial climate adaptation dashboard. The second was from Florence van Dyke, originally of Nelson’s Chia Sisters, who spoke on environmental sustainability in business. These two presentations both had significant relevance to what we do here at FuturEcology.
The work that Urban Intelligence are doing can potentially provide landowners with the latest climatic and geographic data to maximise the success and benefits generated by ecological restoration projects, while Florence van Dyke inspired thought of decarbonising our EmGuard supply chain as much as possible. All in all, it was a fun and thought-provoking day!
Freight – The challenge of moving products around the country.
The Ministry of Transport recently released a report on a study conducted on domestic transport costs and charges. https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/DTCC-Main-Report-June-2023.pdf (If this is something you may possibly be interested in)
The report found that the total annual economic costs involved in the NZ domestic transport sector are approximately $125 billion or $25,000 per head of population – phew! The idea of this study was to encourage future policy decisions in the transport and related sectors to be based on sound evidence.
What does this really have to do with FuturEcology? Unfortunately, we are a transport heavy business, relying on transport to get our products and services out to where they are needed. As many of our locations are rural, there are limited options for transport and we have had a few rude shocks recently, at just how costly it is to move product to some of the smaller towns and rural locations in New Zealand.
We have been working with our freighter, Team Global Express (formerly Toll) to get the best deals possible. We do not add any extra margins onto freight for your wonderful EmGuards and Dagmats, but sadly freight costs are an expensive part of the process of getting these to you, particularly to rural areas. EmGuards are quite heavy for what they are and all the freight cost is weight based. For parcels, we are charged a rural surcharge for all rural deliveries ($7 exc GST) and a home delivery charge for all urban properties ($2.50 exc GST).
Pallets are charged by weight and volume, whichever is greater and EmGuards at 408 kgs per pallet are quite weighty, so all our pallet deliveries are charged on a weight basis. There is a home delivery surcharge on top of this of $87 exc GST if you have them delivered to your home address.
We work very hard to try and make freight as efficient as possible. There are a few ways of saving costs, including picking your parcels or pallets up from the nearest freight depot to you, having them delivered to a commercial address or buying in bulk. We always try and work out the cheapest way possible to get them to you and will discuss this before sending them away.
However, with rate increases for freight recently and some recalculations by Team Global Express on making all our deliveries weight based, we are reluctantly left with no alternative but to pass these costs on.
Please feel free to discuss options for having your products delivered and we will do our best to keep costs as reasonable as we can.
EmGuard update
By Emma Fryer
We continue to have great stocks of EmGuards, bamboo canes and DagMats. If you have any projects in the pipeline and would like to talk further, we would love to hear from you.
Kinky Boots – The Live Show in Wellington
By Jan Fryer.
Robert and I managed to sneak away for the weekend at the beginning July to enjoy the wonderful experience of seeing the live show of Kinky Boots at the St James Theatre in Wellington. (Plus the chance to spend time with our wee granddaughter and take her to the zoo😊)
We have enjoyed the movie in the past, but a live show is so much more fun. Brilliant acting, singing and sets. Lots of colour, amazing choreography and fun lyrics.
In short, it’s the story of a young man that inherits a shoe factory when his father dies, that has been making men’s brogue shoes that will last a lifetime. The problem is no one wants shoes that are sensible and long lasting anymore.
Charlie had planned to move to London with his girlfriend and carve his own path, away from generations of the family shoe firm. However, the untimely death of his father puts him in the unenviable position of having to make a decision about closing the factory.
By chance he intervenes in an altercation in the back streets of London, where a woman is being attacked. He is knocked unconscious and wakes up to find himself in the dressing room of the drag queen, he had “rescued”.
Their conversation gets around to the problem that drag queens have in getting “sexy” shoes that will hold a man’s weight. Charlie has a light bulb moment and invites Lola to help design boots that will fit the bill – the makings of a great story of learning to accept people for who they are and also adapting to cope with change. Something every business needs to be able to do and a very fun way to be reminded of that.
We would recommend it, if it comes to a town near you, or you can get your hands on the movie. Here’s a taste of the show.
Interesting Snippets
Roasted Beetroot with Red Onion and Goat’s Cheese
This salad is a perfect winter treat.
Recipe by Owner Chef, Colin Fassnidge, Banksia Bistro Banksia, NSW
Read the recipe here.
Dale Dug A Hole
With August on the horizon, we continue to be blown away by how quickly this year is going. It seems to be the common theme across everyone we have talked to.
While it is nice the days are getting a little longer and summer is getting a little closer, remember to make the most of every day, smile often, and celebrate the small wins.
Happy planting!
Here’s to saving the planet one tree at a time.
If you have any photos or stories you would like to share, we would love to hear from you.