Brent Barrett’s Home Planet: Green Corridors great example of community-driven action

Alice Meek (left), Rebecca Beer and Willa McLaughlan during a Trade Aid Palmerston North cleanup of a section of the Manawatū River earlier this year.

OPINION

It’s amazing to see the power of community-led action over time. Green Corridors is a great example. Sparked by a bright idea at the turn of the century, this nature restoration project has improved local stream and gully habitats in Aokautere for more than 21 years. It’s largely been achieved by volunteers, with some professional support, and over time they’ve created new nature corridors to connect the river with the ranges, providing spaces for birds and bugs and fish.

Earlier this month, I participated in a gathering celebrating 21 years since the first plantings in the Summerhill-Aokautere area. It was inspiring to hear from the founders and people who’ve volunteered, worked, studied and innovated to restore the gullies and riparian areas along Summerhill Drive and Turitea Rd. For nature geeks like me, it was an awesome day, hearing about waves of tui using the corridor as a commuter route, rare species spotted, and all the community and social connections.

When my turn came to speak, I reflected first on the value this project has created. That value is immense, contributing to nature restoration, community building, physical and mental health, recreation, resilience, amenity and, yes, to property values.

Looking ahead, I shared five predictions, which I’ve summarised here. Whether they come true depends on our community effort, but the potential is certainly there.

• In the decade ahead, Green Corridors will strengthen relationships with mana whenua, expanding and anchoring the project’s cultural and ecological foundations.
• In the future, what has been achieved to date will be known as the Original Green Corridors. There will be other riparian restoration projects that will draw on the founders’ work for inspiration and wisdom.
• Green Corridors will inspire a community-led urban stream care project in Palmerston North. We might call that a Blue Corridors initiative. Local groups will form and care for long-neglected urban streams in the city.
• Building on the learning and success of the toutouwai (robin) reintroduction, there will be more native bird reintroductions at the headwaters of Turitea Stream, adding to the ecological value already created by the project and wider predator control work.
• Green Corridors will inspire Green Patches and Green Zones. We can expect replanting and rewilding near the city over a larger scale. There are two big drivers for this: increasing demand for places to rewild and soak up carbon, and society better valuing the function of trees in slowing stormwater and anchoring soil.

I’d particularly like to see a Blue Corridors initiative get up and running. The community has made a great start on urban stream care through the Palmy Plastic Pollution Challenge under the guidance of Environment Network Manawatū. For anyone who’s got in the streams with the organisers, you’ll know there’s a lot more than plastic that needs cleaning out. The opportunity to zoom out and build project teams around a more holistic urban stream care theme seems ripe for the picking.

Ultimately, the outcomes in the blue corridors and the green corridors are linked, as is everything in nature. We’re a city with many waterways and connections to the mountains and the sea, providing every opportunity to restore nature right here on our doorstep, all while getting a bit of exercise and building stronger communities.

The Green Corridors project continues and has a bright future. Look it up if you’d like to get involved. And if Blue Corridors is your thing, let’s talk!

Brent Barrett is an environmental advocate, Green city councillor and scientist. The views expressed here are his own.