Thanks to the Legacy Trust for their contribution in 2008, which allowed us to purchase a vehicle. We can now transport plants, tools, and other equipment to our working bees. Awesome!

How can you get involved?

Come along and meet yout local care group at a community working bee this year.

Visit the Tauranga Environment Centre and offer your support in another way such as: donations of plants or other materials, financial support, new opportunities for care groups, volunteer admin support, and so on.

Our Background

The project began in 2005 after an application was successfully made to the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund. Since then we have successfully applied again and have funding from the Ministry until June 30 2009. From July 2008 we have secured partial funding from Environment Bay of Plenty’s Environmental Enhancement Fund to continue the project through to June 2010, and are currently seeking the balance of the funding required.

The Tauranga Environment Centre initiated the project in response to requests from the community and we have successfully brought together the Tauranga City Council and Environment Bay of Plenty in partnership with the community. The project has also received significant in-kind support from local business, and this is steadily increasing as the project gains recognition.

The Environment Centre employs one full time coordinator and another part time coordinator, with Tauranga City Council as land-owner providing native plants and Environment Bay of Plenty supporting with technical advice, tools and equipment. Local businesses have donated staff time, heavy machinery and plants for re-vegetation.

Welcome to the Homepage of the The Urban Greenspace Project

The Urban Greenspace Project provides opportunities for members of the Tauranga community of all ages, cultural and economic backgrounds to come together to adopt their park or reserve for ecological restoration (removal of weeds and planting of trees to attract bird life). The Environment Centre provides co-ordination, technical and administrative support to these groups, management of health and safety, and liaison with local government.

NEWS UPDATE - August 2009

The Environment Centre on its own cannot currently offer any certainty for this project, and therefore the work of care groups falls back on the Council to manage and administer. This has happened because the Environment Centre funding from the Ministry for the Environment has come to a natural end after four years.

We have agreed with Council staff that they will be able to help some care groups to run their own working bees. These groups are:

Argyll Reserve         – contact: Freddy Brignone on sixfootplus@hotmail.com
Fraser Street Reserve     – contact: Melina on melina@been-there.com
Johnson Reserve     – contact: Meyric on 544 4427
Mauao Reserve     – contact: Mark Ray on mark.ray@tauranga.govt.nz
Rotary Park         – contact: Phil Collins on phil.collins@clear.net.nz

Although working bees will not be held in all reserves, Council staff will look into starting maintenance contracts to maintain the substantial gains in pest plant control in the following reserves:
Lagoon Place, Taipari Gully and Scantlebury Street.

Care Group Leaders from other reserves will need to contact Council directly to find out what, if anything, can be done to facilitate ongoing community work in the reserves. The main point of contact for this is Dianne Paton, 07 577 7256.

The Environment Centre continues to review and plan for the future of this project, and may be able to re-launch Urban Greenspace, or a similar project, in the near future. We will keep you as informed and included as we possibly can, and we welcome your involvement and comments if you would like to meet with us and/or make any suggestions or proposals.

Achievements

To date nearly 4000 native plants have been planted and maintained by this project, with over 5000 volunteer hours donated by more than 200 individuals. This work includes the revegetation of Mauao, the ecologically significant Lagoon Place reserve, and numerous smaller neighbourhood reserves that provide active transport corridors and local green spaces in Tauranga

Funding

We are a charitable organisation run on a not-for-profit basis. There are current opportunities for:

Major sponsorship by local business to contribute to funding staff hours and overheads
Minor sponsorship by local business to contribute to operating costs such as travel, promotion and materials.

Following four years of funding from the Ministry for the Environment the Environment Centre now has a shortfall because the 2009 / 2010 funding application has been declined.

Work is now going on to build the next planks of the Urban Greenspace so that we can fund it into the future.

Our Vision

We coordinate and support a number of community care groups in Tauranga City, providing admin and logistics support, plants and expertise, access to specialist information and weed control, free mornign teas for volunteers, and lots of fun and rewarding work!

Our aim is to manage neighbourhood reserves using the community spirit of the people who live nearby.

We aim to nurture plants that encourage native biodiversity and keep our city looking clean and green.

Working bees are held regularly at each of our care group reserves, with a focus on clearing weeds and replanting with native plants.

Care groups are encouraged to self-organise and become sustainable in their own right. The Environment Centre continues to be a point of contact, resources, and inspiration to the groups wich reach this stage of development.