20 Mahurangi Matters March 18, 2015 ecofestfeature

- Event Listings -

Matakana, Leigh &

Warkworth

Sat Mar 14: Feeding the Fish and Invertebrates. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre 11am.

Sun Mar 15: Beyond Organic NZ Tour Launch with Stefan Sobkowiac. Matakana Village Hall 10-4pm

Sun Mar 15: Research Presentation: Factors Affecting Crayfish Catchability. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh 11am

Wed Mar 18: The Kowhai Park Project Weed Working Bee. Warkworth 9.30-12noon

Sat Mar 21: Rock Pool Tour at Low Tide. Goat Island Beach 2.30pm

Sun Mar 22: Lobbying for the Environment: Day Workshop with Nandor Tanczos. Matakana Village Hall 9-4pm

Sun Mar 22: Rock Pool Tour at Low Tide. Goat Island Beach 3pm

Wed Mar 25: ‘Love our Ocean’ Book Launch and Talk with Steve & Riley Hathaway. Lifeway College Hall, Snells Beach 7pm

Thurs Mar 26: Ecofest Film: Bidder 70. Matakana Cinemas 6.45pm

Sat Mar 28: Tours of the Sculptural Habitat. The Protea Patch, Warkworth 10am

Sat Mar 28: River Trip on the Jane Gifford Scow with Eco Commentary. Warkworth Wharf 2pm

Sat Mar 28: Living Sustainably Family Activities. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh. All day.

Sun Mar 29: Tours of the Sculptural Habitat. The Protea Patch, Warkworth 10am

Sun Mar 29: Feeding the Fish and Invertebrates. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh 2pm

Wed Apr 1: The Kowhai Park Project Weed Working Bee. Warkworth 9.30-12noon

Wed Apr 1: Ecofest Film & Director’s Talk: The Man from Coxs River. Matakana Cinemas 6.30pm

Sat Apr 4: Beach Clean Up with Marine Discovery Centre. Goat Island Beach 2pm

Sat Apr 4: A Celebration of Pacific Cuisine with Robert Oliver and Cath Dunsford. Mahurangi River Winery, Warkworth 6-8pm

Sun Apr 5: Research Presentation: Sharks. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh 11am

Sat Apr 11: Feeding the Fish and Invertebrates. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh 11am

Sun Apr 12: The Good Life Tour: Visiting Eco-Homes & Gardens. Various locations 9-3pm

Sun Apr 12: The Kowhai Park Project Weed Working Bee. Warkworth 9.30-12noon

Sun Apr 12: Goat Island Coastal Walkway Guided Walk. Goat Island 11am

Sun Apr 12: Research Presentation: Whale Sounds in the Hauraki Gulf. Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre, Leigh 2pm

SEE FULL INFORMATION AT WWW.ECOFEST.ORG.NZ

21 March 18, 2015 Mahurangi Matters ecofestfeature

The union of engineering, design and nature.Tel: 09 425 0936

Engineers & Consultants

Require an environmental assessment of your property? About to sub-divide? Need assistance to meet compliance requirements?Drop in to see the friendly Morphum Environmental team at our Warkworth office. We would be happy to discuss your project needs.

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• Sustainable Land Development and Planning

• Civil and Three Waters

• Environmental Services

• Sustainable Management

greenliving FEATURE

Water sensitive design (WSD) is an approach to water resource management that addresses both water use and conservation, and water quality issues.By integrating natural water systems with built form, WSD promotes a more resourceful use of water and helps to protect the mauri (life force) of water. Based on holistic management of the integrated water cycle, WSD works to protect and enhance the health of receiving waterways, mitigate flood risk and create spaces that harvest, clean and recycle water. Designs incorporate key elements such as protecting bush and wetland areas, harvesting rainwater, reusing greywater, minimising impervious surfaces, and using vegetation to assist in trapping sediment and pollutants. The basic concept of WSD is to mimic how rainfall behaves in a natural bush forest by reducing the amount of runoff (volume), slowing

Lessons in sustainabilityEcoFest is an annual festival aimed at helping people to live more sustainably – at home, across the neighbourhood, at work and in the community. Northern coordinator Trish Allen says the festival programme presents a whole range of different opportunities for people to experience and learn something new and become more environmentally aware. “Our aim is to make it fun and by doing so we hope to engage people and inspire them to change something in their lives to become more sustainable,” she says.“Anything we do that is good for the Earth is ultimately good for ourselves.“We can all make a difference.”Trish says one of her favourite quotes is from Oscar Wilde, “anyone who thinks they’re too small to make a difference has obviously never spent a night with a flea”. “There’s something for everyone in the Ecof est programme and I’ve been blown away by all the amazing places we have in our area and all the dedicated people doing great work.”

Trish Allen

By working with the natural contours of the land, property owners can protect their soil and

provide valuable habitat for native wildlife.

Water management a question of designBy CALEB CLARK & KIM BUCHANAN Morphum Environmental, Warkworth

the speed of the runoff (flow rate) and not increasing the frequency of runoff.In this way, soil erosion and stream erosion, slumping and scouring are reduced which helps maintain natural habitats. Households that embrace this method of sustainable design, bring more native flora and fauna into their areas, improve the attractiveness of the environment and create sustainable, resilient communities. Good water management of farms can help improve soils, drainage, crop yields, animal health and productivity.Examples of WSD technology include:Rain gardens which are the opposite of raised beds. Runoff is allowed to drain into the garden where it is used by plants and eventually soaks away, thereby reducing erosion and discharge of sediment. Tree pits are similar to rain gardens – a large hole with the right soil media and species can help compensate for developing hard, impervious surfaces such as carparks and driveways.

Swales and water tables along roads, and even access ways and races, can slow the flow of stormwater, trap pollutants and replicate nature. Importantly, these can be planted or have the grass kept long for added water management.Green roofs (vegetation covered roofs) can provide surprising benefits including increased insulation and energy efficiency, delaying stormwater runoff, biodiversity and noise reduction.Simple ways you can benefit from WSD on your property include:• Rainwater tanks to harvest water for

irrigation, grey water or car washing.• On rural properties, consider the

natural land contours to ensure that water flows to vegetated areas rather than directly into streams.

• Use plants that require less water in landscaping and in summer gardens.

• Preserve, fence (and plant) wetlands and watercourses to keep stock out and provide shade to streams.

22 Mahurangi Matters March 18, 2015 ecofestfeature

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Young activist makes a standSome people stand in front of bulldozers to protect the environment, while others are prepared to scale condemned kauri trees.In the case of Tim DeChristopher, he was prepared to disrupt a highly disputed gas and oil lease auction in Utah to safeguard thousands of hectares of pristine land that were slated for oil and gas leasesHis story is told in Bidder 70 which will screen in Matakana on Thursday March 26, as part of the Ecofest North programme.Bidder 70 is a feature film length documentary on civil disobedience that has won 20 major film festival awards.Not content to merely protest outside the auction hall on December 19, 2008, Tim registered as bidder #70. He outbid industry giants on land parcels which, starting at $2 an acre, were adjacent to national treasures like Canyonlands National Park, winning 22,000 acres of land worth $1.7 million before the auction was halted.

Two months later, incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar invalidated the auction. DeChristopher, however, was indicted on two federal felonies with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. Patrick Shea, former BLM director for President Bill Clinton, represented DeChristopher pro-bono. DeChristopher was sentenced to two years gaol.Bidder 70 was produced and directed by Beth and George Gage.They say they hope Tim’s commitment to future generations, his evolution as a leader and his willingness to courageously accept the consequences of his action will inspire and motivate a new generation of activists.“Tim is a young man with a message that needs to be heard,” they say. “Climate change is upon us and there is nothing more important to work for than a livable future.”The movie will screen at 6.45pm.

viewonlineTo view the trailer see this story

online at localmatters.co.nz

Bidder 70 is a film about Tim DeChristopher, the college student who derailed an illegal oil and gas lease auction in 2008.

23 March 18, 2015 Mahurangi Matters ecofestfeature

Celebrating The Natural Beauty of Aotearoa

Handmade in Matakana

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Pacific flavours inspire chefThe author of the ‘Best Cookbook in the World’ in 2010, Robert Oliver, will join Cath Dunsford at a presentation at Mahurangi Winery on Easter Saturday, April 4.Robert is a New Zealand chef who was raised in Fiji and Samoa. He has developed restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Sydney, “farm to table” resorts in the Caribbean, and food programmes feeding homeless people and African immigrants with AIDS in New York.He returned to the South Pacific to write his first book Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific. The book was written with a mission to connect Pacific agriculture to the region’s tourism and won the top prize at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris, considered to be the

Pulitzers of cookbooks. Robert was on the tasting panel of My Kitchen Rules NZ and has also given Ted talks.Ecofest North coordinator Trish Allen says she is thrilled that he will be in the Mahurangi as part of Ecofest.“I just love Robert’s philosophy, ‘I seek to create a food product that supports our well-being, validates culture and empowers local agriculture and community’,” she says.Entry to the event is by donation, and there will food and wine to purchase. Food will be from Robert’s books and will be cooked by the Mahurangi River Winery’s chef Kahui.Cath Dunsford will do readings from her book Kaitiakitanga about growing food and Robert’s presentation will be about cooking it.

Robert Oliver is passionate

about genuine Pacific Island cuisine using organic local ingredients.

24 Mahurangi Matters March 18, 2015 ecofestfeature

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Mahurangi River Winery is proud to host a celebration

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Bookings essential

A celebration of Pacific cuisinewith Robert Oliver

Snells Beach explorers share world beneath the wavesFollowing the hit TV series Young Ocean Explorers, Snells Beach father and daughter documentary makers, Steve and Riley Hathaway, are launching a book this month, which will soon be available in every school in the country.Steve says the new book Love Our Ocean is an expansion of the TV series which showcased New Zealand marine life with a commentary by Mahurangi College student Riley.“It’s about making education entertaining,” Steve says. “The book covers some of the same things like sharks, stingrays, orca and dolphin, but in more depth and written from Riley’s perspective.“It’s got an environmental message, but the main aim is to get kids intrigued with how magnificent the ocean is. I want it to be something that inspires kids around the world. “We’ve already had teachers using the DVDs in classes in Australia and China.”The book features photographs from award winning photographer Richard Robinson and artwork from musician Jamie McDell.“We’ve had an exceptional team behind us. It’s taken months of work.”

Love Our Ocean will be launched at Lifeway, Snells Beach, on March 25 at 7pm. The launch will feature a talk by Steve and Riley, with behind the scenes footage of Young Ocean Explorers.Love Our Ocean and a DVD of series one of the Young Ocean Explorers will be distributed to every primary school in the country in August after a generous donation from the Bobby Stafford-Bush Foundation and a KickStarter campaign, which raised $32,000 last year.Steve and Riley are currently filming a second series to be released later this year and have just returned from filming in the Kermadec Islands.“It was unbelievable. It takes three days to reach the islands by boat and more people get to the summit of Mount Everest than set foot on the Kermadec’s each year. Very little research has been done on them because they are so remote.“When Riley first got in the water she had 12 Galapagos sharks swimming around her. We also filmed a white tip reef shark, which is just the second sighting of the shark in NZ waters.”The series will also feature marine life in Australia and the United States.

bookgiveawayMahurangi Matters has a copy of Love Our Ocean to giveaway. Just write your name and daytime contact phone number on the back of an envelope and post to Love Our Ocean Competition, Mahurangi Matters PO Box 701 Warkworth or send us a message Facebook/mahurangimatters with the subject line: Love Our Ocean. Competition closes March 28.

The release of a second book is planned for November, but Steve’s next project is filming part of a new series of the BBC documentary Blue Planet. The book Love Our Ocean is available through youngoceanexplorers.co.nz.

25 March 18, 2015 Mahurangi Matters ecofestfeature

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Sustainable lifestyles is the theme of a home tour on April 12 which will finish in Matakana.The Good Life Tour will visit four eco-properties, starting on the North Shore and working north.The first stop will be at a 1950s section with lots of space, some fruit trees and a huge water tank – the perfect place for a backyard community garden where some young dedicated gardeners who don’t have space at their own homes assist the elderly owners. The amount of produce from the site is impressive.The second stop will be at a home where the owners moved in just a year ago. The property had established fruit trees, space for a garden, a large

and unshaded roof for water capture and solar, and offered opportunities to improve the building. The owners used the Homestar rating system as a guide, had it rated, and incorporated other ideas. Visitors will be able to visit Homestar “stations” around the property, which will also be used as the basis for a short walk and talk.The next stop is at a quarter acre section that has been turned into a food forest and the last stop is at Trish Allen’s home in Matakana where she has created an edible landscape around her eco-house.Spaces on the tour are limited. To book, contact Toni atfestival@kaipatiki.org.nz

Sustainable lifestyles on show

Snells Beach explorers share world beneath the waves

For information and application packs contact Jahna 09 424 3273 enquiries@wentworth.school.nz • www.wentworthcollege.school.nz

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The tour will include four eco-houses and gardens.