Whakauru
Get Involved
At Home
The journey to restore our precious natural environment can start at home.
In order to remove your backyard weeds, look through our pest plant resources to get the information you need. Make a plan for what to tackle first – start with those pest plants that you have least of but that are a high threat to our native ecology. This will be a quick win for the environment. Take some photos and email us at info@restorehb.org.nz if you would like advice on this.
Applying herbicide gel to cut Arum Lily at Torbay Heights Reserve.
You will need a hand saw and gloves, and ideally the appropriate herbicide gel for the weed type. Follow our health and safety guidance, as well as the guidelines on the bottle.
Document your progress! Photos are good – before and after.
Plan what you’d like to plant in your garden during the winter to replace the areas of weeds and to restore native biodiversity. If you’re interested in growing native plants from seed, you can collect seed from your nearby reserve.
You may also want to set a rat trap or bait station in your backyard to provide a safe haven for nesting native birds and other wildlife. Together, as a community of backyard trappers, we can provide defence for our significant ecological areas. You can use chew cards, monitoring tunnels and wax tags to find where pests are present and to help inform the specific location and placement of bait stations and traps. You can use apps such as Trap.NZ to report your catches or bait taken. Look up ‘RestoreHB’ or another project name to add your data to the multiple groups and projects within our network. Let us know at predators@restorehb.org.nz if you need any help with this.
Wetland Warriors setting up a monitoring tunnel and trail camera. Photo by Mary Stewart.
Borrow traps, bait, bait stations, herbicides, composting pest plant bags, and other equipment from our community tool libraries in Browns Bay and Whangaparaoa, or contact your local project coordinator or group leader.
To meet other environmentally-minded people in our community and learn more about our groups and projects and how to get involved, join us at our bimonthly network hui. Everyone welcome!