February 18, 2021
Seed-to-Feeds is all go: sign up now!
On Sunday February 28 from 4 pm – 7 pm at the Houghton Valley Community Hall (80 Houghton Bay Road) we are having a local food celebration dinner using produce from our local gardens, wild foraging and other gardens from not far away. We really hope you can come and enjoy the delicious 3-course, chef cooked, vegan meal, and get together with and learn about your local community.
Please sign up as soon as you can so we have a good idea of numbers leading up to Sunday week. You also have the option of buying a meal for someone in the community. Eventbrite tickets are available. Like last year, the Eventbrite tickets are koha tickets, whatever you can afford. But be sure, you will get a fabulous meal for your money! The money raised will go towards community projects, and will be held in trust by the HVPA.
Some of you may be concerned about gathering if we have to go back to Level 2, so to make things easier to commit to the event we have decided that at Level 1 we have a sit down meal, at Level 2 it will be a collect your meal in eco-friendly takeaway containers. But let’s hope we make it this year!
To dream of a stream
Many members of the community have been trying to raise awareness of the fresh and marine water quality and the general ecology of Houghton Valley and Houghton Bay, and to find a solution to improve it, including lifting our creek, which has been buried under the landfill. Over the last ten years we have done various things including:
- The development of a web site in 2011 titled, When the Creek Talks Back, www.houghtonvalley.org.nz, which documents the history of the valley; the current state of the fresh and marine water quality; and community-led projects such as painting the original line of the creek on the landfill surface in 2012;
- Participation in the 2014 International Waterwheel Symposium with artists’ projects about the state of our waterway, including asking locals to post letters to the creek, and discovering our springs, see Documenting the Flow video;
- Ongoing tree planting in Buckley Road Reserve, around the HV School, and on the Te Raekaihau Headland;
- A WCC funded feasibility study and report on lifting the creek undertaken by Cardno Engineering in 2015;
- Negotiations in 2020 with WCC over the creation of an urban farm, using the profits to fund the creek lifting and general ecological restoration;
- Undertaking eDNA testing of springs in 2020;
- A current analysis of future options for the valley, which is leading to the development of a hundred-year plan to rebuild the local ecology.
This year we have taken an exciting step forward and have submitted an expression of interest to the Freshwater Improvement Fund, part of the 1.245 billion dollar Jobs for Nature Programme for funding to help design and construct a new creek and wetland system that prevents leachate contamination and provides the community with a connection to our waters once again.
Predator Free: Island Bay to CBD
Predator Free Wellington is getting ready to
step out into the next phase of their project: from Island Bay to the CBD. This will involve 19 suburbs including Houghton Bay. Many of you may already have a trap on your property and they say keep up the good work! But in a bid to get more people on board, they now will be implementing a trap or bait station system on properties every 50 metres that they will service for you. All you need to do is say YES! to allowing them to put something on your property and they will do the rest. So sign up now and they will contact you when they are ready to go and let you know if your property is needed for the trapping”net”.
(158 recipients, 92 opens)