Come and join us for an update on our projects and a talk entitled ‘World of Penguins’ from Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM.
Postponed by a year due to lockdown, we hope that this evening of illustrated talks will not be affected by high alert levels.
The talks will be at the Tai Poutini Polytechnic lecture theatre in Greymouth at 5.30pm, Tuesday 11th May and will be followed by a cuppa.
We hope you can join us to find out what we’ve been doing and to hear fascinating, enlightening and amusing penguins tales with wonderful photographs from Kerry-Jayne Wilson, our former Chair and still our esteemed Scientist.
While materials were chosen that would stand up to the harsh coastal conditions, those same coastal conditions are conducive to plant growth! Occasional checks of the fences have been carried out by volunteers and rangers so that any maintenance needs can be identified and remedied. The never-ending need for maintenance is managing the vegetation that can grow through the fence, for example gorse, blackberry and hydrangea, pushing it to breaking point in places, or flop over causing damage from the weight of rank grass, rushes and weeds such as montbretia.
Volunteers recently spent a few hours tidying up the main fence along Woodpecker Bay north of Punakaiki so a big shout out to them - thank you Fiona, Jony, Reef, Katrina, Mandy, Marty, Teresa and Deb! Flax had been pressing down on the fence, but now the fence has been freed up by these wonderful volunteers - and they picked up a fair bit of rubbish too.
Volunteer Natassja Savidge has offered to check and help maintain the Hokitika penguin protection fence and joined Ranger Lucy Waller and Manager Inger Perkins in May to inspect the length of the fence. Some minor issues were found but the main finding was the extent of the vegetation growth that was damaging the fence in places. Big thanks to Natassja!
