Restoration work in popular park means big win for environment

Penny Gaylor.

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

Last week we made a monumental decision that will benefit not only the Kāpiti Coast but also the Wellington region, and it will also advance our organisation's goals and the goals of all of us fighting to combat climate change.

GWRC's Climate Committee first approved last Tuesday, then full council approved last Thursday, new investment of $1.4 million in additional spending on top of our existing budget of wetland restoration in Queen Elizabeth Park on the Kāpiti Coast.

Greater Wellington's Low Carbon Acceleration Fund allocated $1399,101 to restore 128.5 hectares of peatland and dune forest at QEP and $370,810 to restore 21.8ha of pasture land at Kaitoke Regional Park.

This is exciting - it's a huge win for us and an even bigger win for our environment.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the development of this thinking, shaping how this has been made possible. And now it is action time.

It's great to be on a council of like-minded doers - our officers and my elected colleagues.

In my first term on GWRC we signed up to being carbon neutral by 2030 and we signalled a 10-point action plan laying out how we envisaged that could be achieved for our organisation.

Before the local government elections last year I circulated my campaign newsletter the Kapiti Guardian to most households across the Kāpiti Coast, I gave a list of five commitments I would be especially focused on; wetland restoration at Queen Elizabeth Park was on my list. I am stoked that it has turned out to be a shared aspiration across the regional council staff and councillors.

As you'll read in the story in this issue, this has been made possible without drawing further on our ratepayers, and we see this as the ongoing extension of the fantastic work already achieved through community partnerships.

This work is exemplified by the spectacularly successful Maclean Trust partnership of plantings on the northeastern block of QEP. And like-minded local people such as Chris And Sam Maclean, who are helping deliver good work in our environment with hugely tangible results.

Love my job!