ANNUAL REPORT 2005
PRESIDENT
The importance of the Port Hills to Christchurch and its citizens is undeniable. The Summit Road Society is proud of the important role it plays amongst a network of organisations and individuals who treasure these hills and work to maintain, protect and enhance this unique environment. Earlier in our history we were possibly the only organisation with any real concern for the open spaces of the Port Hills, following the lone ‘voice in the wilderness’ of Harry Ell. Now, thankfully, there are many groups doing their bit, led strongly by Christchurch City Council. It is gratifying to acknowledge the importance the Council places on the Port Hills and the resources they make available for land purchases and the management of their reserves through the Port Hills Ranger Service.
To illustrate how protection of the open spaces of our hills has improved in recent years, in 1980, just 6% of the land area had some form of reserve status. By June of last year 22% was protected, comprising nearly 3,000 ha. of the total area of 13,000 ha.
However, we believe that we cannot become complacent. The Ranger Service does a magnificent job, but are resources adequate? Continuous vigilance and hard work are required to control weeds and animal pests, to maintain new plantings of native seedlings, and to manage recreational facilities. Volunteers make a considerable contribution to this work, with Society members being in the forefront. Pressure on local body budgets will continue, and priorities may change. Pressure from creeping urban development will continue to be a threat.
Membership:
The Board and I are grateful for the support of our members. Whilst I sometimes think that you do not get much for your annual subscription, I can assure you that your support is crucial to our work. The lobbying power and the credibility we have with the local councils and with dealing with resource management issues, depend to a large extent on the number of people we represent. It is gratifying that membership continued to grow during the year to reach in excess of 250, but this is still a very small fraction of those who use the Port Hills regularly for recreation and enjoyment.During the year we have encouraged membership with approaches to recreational clubs, speaking engagements and through personal contact. Personal contact remains the most effective way of recruiting new members, and I encourage all of you to look for new members amongst your family, friends and colleagues. Reciprocal membership with other like-minded organisations increased during the year, and a good relationship has developed with the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust.
Finances:
Our Treasurer will speak to the Annual Accounts. Our financial position is secure for the present, thanks mainly to the annual substantial grant from Christchurch City Council, which values our work, especially that of our work party volunteers. This grant has been crucial to our increased activities in recent years, and is gratefully acknowledged. This year we would also like to thank Selwyn District Council for its grant, the Lion Foundation for funding the winter plantings at Ohinetahi reserve, and Transpower Landcare Trust for the grant to implement the first stage of our Pest Management Strategy at Ohinetahi Reserve.During the year we were also able to offer seeding funding for the fencing of the Department of Conservation owned Claydon’s Block above Evans Pass to improve its management by sheep grazing, as reported in our recent newsletter.
The ‘Regional Park’ concept:
The progress of the concept of a ‘Regional Park’ for the Port Hills since the Society commissioned Landcare Research in 2004 to provide a scoping report on the options has been covered in previous newsletters and by the presentation by Professor Ann Smith and Dr Colin Meurk at last year’s AGM. As mentioned in the last newsletter, now that the amalgamation of Christchurch City Council and Banks Peninsula District Council has taken place, we will be pursuing the first step suggested by Landcare Research, of forming an ‘inter-agency and cross-sectoral forum’.Resource Management Issues:
Reports on the main activities of the Resource Management Group have been recorded in detail in our newsletters. In addition to these, a number of submissions were made during the year on various policy documents and proposals, such as the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy, the City council’s concessions policy and the concept plan for John Britten Reserve. The Society also lodged an appeal against the Banks Peninsula District Plan, and the coming year will see further work on this. My thanks go to this group for the hard work in this complex area of our activities.Publications:
The need to update our map of the tracks on the Port Hills coincided with Christchurch City Council proposing an overall map to complement the excellent sectional maps they produced during the year. In discussions with Council staff it has been agreed that we can include this in our pamphlet, which we intend to revise and republish this year. There remains a steady demand for our present map which we sell from a small number of outlets.An excellent flyer was produced by Janey Thomas to help promote our Society. These are available to members for general publicity and to support their quest for new members. Thanks must go to our Secretary for writing and editing our twice yearly newsletters and to Janey Thomas for producing them. The newsletters are important in keeping members in touch with our activities.
Port Hills Ranger Service:
I would like to acknowledge the commitment and dedication of the Ranger staff ably led by Paul Devlin. While we support their work through our volunteers, they support the Society in many ways as well. Their cooperation and support is of great value to the Society. Thanks must go to Nick Singleton for regularly attending our Board meetings, which is very helpful to our continuing cooperation.Sunday Outings:
This year’s outings, as recorded in the newsletters, were well led and organised by members of the Activities and Promotions Committee and the Secretary. Special thanks go to Professor Jim Cole who gave a fascinating glimpse of the volcanology of the harbour basin and peninsula on one of our outings.Arbor Day:
Arbor Day plantings first took place very early in the life of the Society, and have continued every year since. We now join with the City Council’s Ranger staff to organise the event. The Society arranges for local schoolchildren to carry out the plantings and for their transport, the Eastenders prepare the site and dig the planting holes, the Rangers supply the seedlings, and together we supervise the plantings. This is a good example of the cooperation between ourselves and the Port Hills Rangers.Another successful event took place this year, when 450 seedlings were planted in Victoria Park, by children from Cashmere, Rudolf Steiner and Thorrington Schools. As always, it is inspiring to see the enthusiasm of the children in this valuable educational exercise. For the second year in a row, children from Governors Bay School helped the Ohinetahi team with the season’s plantings in our reserve.
Work Parties;
Our work party volunteers remain the backbone of the Society, and at present up to 60 turn out regularly. During the year, our members recorded 3,500 hours of volunteer work. The contribution made by the work parties is arguably the most important activity of the Society. The work on tracks, planting and weed control is self-evident. What is less evident is the contribution that the work parties make to ensure that the Society remains a credible organisation, and that its voice is heard.Acknowledgements:
It was with great sadness that we learnt of Gordon Kirk’s stroke, which incapacitated him late in the year. Gordon has been at the forefront of the Society for many years, with one of his major achievements being the initiation of the purchase of our Ohinetahi Reserve. Even at the age of 80 he was regularly turning out with the work party on Tuesdays. He was on the reserve looking at some aspect on a Sunday, when the stroke occurred. The Society has a lot to thank Gordon for, and we wish for a good recovery.I sincerely thank the Board for their support during the year, the good work carried out by the Activities and Promotions Committee, the Resource Management Group, the work parties and in particular our Secretary. John Goodrich has the expertise to provide a very professional service for our Society and he adds to that an enthusiasm for the Society and a love for our hills that we all share. He certainly makes the job of the President less stressful than it could otherwise be.
Mike White
22 March 2006