Gambling money goes to conservation

Forest and Bird, Issue 281, 1 August 1996, Page 4

Gambling money goes to conservation

MORE THAN a dozen projects as diverse as weka captive breeding, the purchase of a Waiheke Island forest block, researching the conservation values of pastoral leases, and environmental education, have been the beneficiaries of funding to Forest and Bird from the Lottery Grants Board over the past year. Since March 1995, the society and its branches have received over $235,000 from the Environment and Heritage Committee of the board. One of the major grants was

for the eradication of kahili ginger around Whangaroa. Forest and Bird’s Far North branch, with the use of the lottery money, DoC assistance and additional Task Force Green funding, has managed to knock back much of the rampant spread of the invasive weed in many sensitive forest locations. Another grant has helped fund regular transport to Somes Island for the group of Lower Hutt branch members who have been crossing Wellington Harbour once a fortnight for the past 15 years in order to restore the vegetation of the island. When the MAF boat on which they had previously depended was sold after DoC took over management of the island, the group was faced with crippling travel costs before the lottery money came to the rescue. Lotteries also provided topup money to enable the Auckland regional office to hire a planner on Task Force Green for 12 months. Selma Dancy filled this position to July, and her replacement for the final three months is Sandra Proctor. Selma organised planning workshops for branch committee members interested in the resource management process, and kept them abreast of case law in the fields of natural resource management and conservation. With several other young planners, Selma prepared written and oral submissions for the society on such major projects as the Auckland Regional Plan (Coastal), and the Manukau, Rodney, Waitakere and Auckland City District Plans.