Canterbury's Weedbusters Warriors Recognised

Canterbury’s 2012 Weedbusters nominees and award winners were recognised and celebrated last Sunday at a Canterbury Weedbusters Information sharing event in Little River.

The Weedbusters Information sharing day was coordinated and hosted by Environment Canterbury and Department of Conservation and was the first of its kind held for Canterbury Weedbusters.

The day celebrated award winners and provided attendees with a range of informative talks on topics ranging from wilding pines to Immediate Steps and ecological perspectives on weeds/restoration. Presentations from the Weedbusters group shared their work successes and challenges over the last year.

Environment Canterbury Commissioner Donald Couch presented the awards the winners and congratulated them on their achievements.

“I am thrilled to see so many different organisations and people making a difference in protecting the environment,” says Mr Couch.

Judges Jon Sullivan (Lincoln University) and Mary Lovell-Smith (The Press-Gardening Editor) said that as in past years, there was a high calibre of nominees which didn’t make the judging easy.

“We awarded overall excellence to the Lindis Pass Conservation group as we were very impressed with their thorough application and what they have achieved. They have done amazing things since their application for the 2008 Weedbusters awards and are deserving of this award this year,” says Mr Sullivan.

“Dick Tripp was award for his tireless behind-the-scenes working weeding private land in Governors Bay and Grant Bowden for his amazing efforts ridding the Ernle Clark reserve of weeds and helping the restoration group in the planting at the reserve.

“We highly commend all other individual applicants for their efforts and we hope they will be nominated again in the future,” says Mr Sullivan.

Nominees for Canterbury Weedbuster Awards 2012 included both groups and individuals. They were the Lindis Pass Conservation Group; Ernle Clark reserve restoration group, Dick Tripp (Governors Bay Landcare group), Grant Bowden & Alice Shanks (Ernel Clark reserve), Annelies Pekalharing & Denis Blomquist (Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust),  and Lindsay Hamilton and Graham Nairn (Tramway Reserve Trust).

The category winners were:                                                                                              

Overall Excellence Award: Lindis Pass Conservation Group

Public Land: Lindis Pass Conservation Group and the Summit Road Society (joint winners); 

Private Land: Dick Tripp (Governors Bay Landcare group)

Individual: Grant Bowden (Ernle Clark reserve restoration group)

Highly Commended: Alice Shanks, Annelies Pekalharing, Denis Blomquist, Ernle Clark reserve restoration group, Graham Nairn and Lindsay Hamilton (Tramway Reserve Trust)

Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to protect New Zealand’s environment from the increasing weed problem. The Weedbusters programme celebrates the efforts of community groups, individual and organisations, and aims to spread the message that each of us has responsibility for stopping the spread of weeds.

For more information: Gemma Livingstone, Environment Canterbury, Biosecurity Officer (Information/Liaison), 027 487 5472, gemma.livingstone@ecan.govt.nz