Opinion: Regional council involved in 'variety of stuff'

Penny Gaylor.

Weekly column by Kāpiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.

For this week's column I'm going to take the omnibus approach - a reminder of the variety of stuff we do at Greater Wellington Regional Council on behalf of our community, with our community, and for the betterment of our community.

A stunning 132 schools got on board with Movin'March which encourages kids and their whānau to reduce carbon emission by walking or wheeling to school. Over the month, tamariki travelled 81,300km by foot, scooter or bike — that's the distance from Cape Reinga to Bluff 40 times over! Throughout March, we hosted four competitions to reward students for getting active, and over the next few weeks, we'll be celebrating winners at schools across the region. Congratulations to all tamariki who participated. We'll see you next year!

GWRC is working with mana whenua and landowners to identify fish passage barriers in Kāpiti Coast waterways. There are around 20 native freshwater fish species living in our streams, rivers and connected pipes. Most of these fish need to migrate to and from the sea, however, barriers in waterways are stopping fish from accessing suitable habitat, resources and completing their lifecycles. By identifying these barriers, we can establish a plan to fix any structures threatening our native taonga.

Help spread the load: take the bus to work and Snapper on before 7am to receive a 25 per cent discount on your journey with Metlink. This trial has been extended until August 21. Note, this special is only valid for adult Snapper Card users, and it's not valid for SuperGold card users or any other discounted fares. The special will run for an extended trial period of three months only as per the date indicated above but does not include after-midnight services.

Metlink's rail operator Transdev Wellington is seeing a growing diversity within its team, with the number of women on the staff soaring higher than the Australasian average. That's great news for everyone: It means more young people will see a job in rail as a viable career opportunity. A strong rail network is a key part of getting people out of cars and into more carbon-friendly forms of travel. To tackle the climate crisis, we need as many people as possible in jobs that drive climate action — in this case, literally!

GWRC is chuffed that our Low Carbon Acceleration Fund recently received national recognition at the 2021 LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards. The fund enables us to boost climate action initiatives, like the phasing-out of grazing in our regional parks, and restoring native forests and wetlands. We have a laser focus on reaching our climate-positive commitment by 2035, and we're hoping this spotlight on the fund will encourage other organisations to set up similar schemes.

"Fight for the Wild" explores the dire position of indigenous biodiversity in Aotearoa, and documents the fight to protect it. It explores the notion of a Predator Free 2050, including a focus on the efforts of the community group Predator Free Miramar and our very own Predator Free Wellington team. We're proud to have helped support the production of this docuseries, which features some of our passionate staff.

After watching "Fight for the Wild", you'll probably feel inspired to join in the fight to protect our native taonga. Our partners at Predator Free Wellington will be glad to have your help — they need lots more volunteers for phase 2 of the eradication project: Island Bay to the Wellington CBD.

And one last thing — have you made use of our free pest plant identification service? Here's how it works: If you spot a potential pest plant, contact us on pest.plants@gw.govt.nz or 0800 496 734 (it helps if you send photos and location details too!) We'll give you free advice on how to control it. And if it's a pest identified in our Regional Pest Management Plan, we'll likely even remove it for free. Don't hesitate to contact us — it won't cost you anything, but there's too much at stake if you don't.