Award Nominee

The Tiffany Bush Care Group was formed in 2003 by 5 landowners who were concerned with removing the weeds that threatened the bush and riparian areas on their properties. The work includes animal pest control and re-vegetation where appropriate. This is an ongoing project that expands as resources allow and now includes 22 properties. We currently cover about 10ha of bush, all in various stages of management and are fencing (where necessary), eradicating plant and animal pests, planting natives and ongoing maintenance.

Tiffany Bush is set in a semi rural area that has fragmented bush remnants that are under threat from current and future intensive development and the areas currently being restored serve as a buffer. The community aspect of the project has helped landowners to learn the significance of their patch of bush at the bottom of the garden and see how it fits into Auckland s biodiversity picture.

We communicate to the local community via working bees, meetings, mail box newsletter drops, email and over the fence discussions. Regular community meetings are helpful for disseminating information, creating awareness and keeping up momentum. Community response to the Group s work has been overwhelming. A key to its success is tempering continuity of the projects so they remain connected to the landowners. The obvious positive results to date have led it to be infectious into the wider community.

Both Auckland Regional Council and DOC have been key funders of the project to date. We have received funding from other agencies including the World Wildlife Fund, Transpower Landcare Trust, MCC and pub charities. The funding has been used to purchase plants, remove weeds (using contractors), purchase animal pest control equipment and bait and to fence stock threatened bush lots.

We have built a great working relationship with Te Ngahere who complete a lot of the weed eradication work and are networking with other community based landcare groups.