Stretching to the gravelly shores of Waihihi Bay, the Waharau Regional Park on the eastern slopes of the Hunua Ranges covers varying landscapes. Photo / Outdoor Kid, File
Stretching to the gravelly shores of Waihihi Bay, the Waharau Regional Park on the eastern slopes of the Hunua Ranges covers varying landscapes. Photo / Outdoor Kid, File
Opinion by Kit Howden
OPINION
I leaned over the rusty fence with the battens falling off and looked over the regional farm park where the Hereford cattle were grazing.
In the valley, the native vegetation and kauri grow, although my grandson and I had to chase an escaped steer out of this forest theother week. Perhaps this is the little we can do to help the few rangers who work on this public land.
Standing by the fence also brought back memories of decades ago when, as a young parks officer, I had to show Judge Arnold Turner, the then chair of the council’s Citizens Advisory Group, options for managing the recently purchased regional park property. He wanted to see the land and get a feeling for the complexity of managing the land for conservation, recreation and public access to our rural heritage.
I meet Arnold again three months before he died at 96. He said: “Look after the regional parks.”
He was a visionary, a great Aucklander serving on the Regional Authority, and the political founder of Auckland’s Regional Parks now totalling 28 parks covering 41,000ha.
Judge Arnold Turner planting a tree in the Waitakere Ranges with his great granddaughter 3-year-old Keira Davis in 2013. Photo / Sarah Ivey, File
With Arnold’s passing it is time to reflect on the future of Auckland’s park and open space system.
There is a lack of finance to purchase parks as well as maintain the large infrastructure within them.
In addition, there is no single vision or plan for all types of parks with the Parks and Open Space Strategy still being reviewed after its poor performance since 2010.
There is no specific, single body in Auckland Council governing regional park assets worth billions.
It is a time to challenge the structure of funding and managing our parks.
At an operational level, much is left to a thin green line of park rangers and a growing, siloed upper management.
This month, the Auckland Council considers submissions on its development strategy for the coming decades.
High on the agenda will be how to fund and deal with the aftermath of extreme weather events and publicly acquire hazardous flood-prone areas and clifftops as green space.
One solution is to place regional parks and open space at centre stage.
Parks provide many functions aside from recreation and conservation.
Parks can provide green space for flood mitigation and duplicate as sportsfields in dry periods.
Even pocket parks in a dense city are essential for trees to cool the air and provide sanctuary.
Parks were used as horticultural areas during World War II, providing food during this time of shortage.
Perhaps a new type of “private regional park” is needed to protect elite soil to feed the city.
Planning needs to be done a decade if not a century ahead with a vision to live with nature and adjust to the extremes of climate change.
How is this to be done in a society based on private property rights as well as the need to focus more on the overall common good?
Kit Howden.
We need leaders like Arnold Turner in our elected officials but also within senior management and business.
We also need a more involved community and generosity as shown by many Aucklanders such Logan Campbell who donated Cornwall Park.
Most importantly, we need a larger professional ranger service working closer with every local community as successfully seen in some areas of Auckland.
July 31 is World Ranger Day and rangers worldwide are the front line in helping meet the international target of 30 per cent of our land and sea put aside as protected or wild areas for nature.
Perhaps it is time for me to contact the local ranger, do what little I can do in this small area in the Waitakere Ranges, and fix that fence.
I think Arnold Turner would approve.
Arnold Turner talking at Bruce McLaren Intermediate School about the then Waitakere City Council's proposed Heritage Area Bill in 2005. Photo / Richard Robinson, File
- Kit Howden is a park volunteer and member of the Friends of Regional Parks. He is also an associate member of the International Ranger Association July 2023
