By Jan Fryer

Happy Kings birthday, the 14th November.

How do I know that? His birthday is exactly one week before mine, so I have always remembered it for some reason.

On Tuesday, I was out weedeating one of our restoration sites beside a small stream. I was reflecting on the fact that my conservation career started with me weedeating and here I am, still doing it, exactly 40 years later. During that 40 years, I’ve sat through thousands of hours of meetings, especially as a City Councillor. That’s why I so enjoy weedeating . You can see where you have been for every hour you do 😊.

My career began in November 1985, as a newly minted Parks and Recreation Graduate. I had a summer hut warden job at Hidden Falls Hut, in Fiordland for the Department of Lands and Survey.

My first day was incredibly memorable. Trying to fly into Martins Bay, in inclement weather, in a small 4-seater Cessna, with the two back seats removed. The Martins Bay hut warden was perched on a boat motor in the back, with a whole lot of other gear. My pack was in there too, with all my worldly goods. We headed for the Divide, where the Routeburn Track starts, but couldn’t squeak through the clouds, so the pilot tried going up and over another pass. I’d never been to Fiordland before, and as we lurched and bounced around, all I could see were mountains at every angle, from every direction.

We had to abandon the attempt and try again the next day.

When we got to Martins Bay, I grabbed a few cans of baked beans from the hut and they said, "Your hut’s in that direction, three days walk away. See you”. So off I went, by myself, deep into Fiordland bush. The track included the Demon Trail, and it really was. My lazy student days meant I was horribly unfit. I remember sitting on a bridge just before Alabaster Hut, so exhausted I could barely move, when two pink and white marshmallows bounced past, chatting and laughing. I hadn’t realised there was a tourist lodge very near and the ladies dressed in pink and white tracksuits had arrived there by jet boat. I followed them to the Lake like a muddy troll.

I was responsible for looking after the hut, for trampers' health and well-being and maintenance of the track.

I moved to Dumpling Hut on the Milford Track in February 1986 and was responsible for seven miles of track. I was also the first hut warden at Moturau Hut on the Kepler Track during 1987-1988. Lots of weedeating.

I can see myself still weedeating into my 80’s, with all the grass growth at our place too.

So, with my birthday looming, and shining in the not-too-distant future a chance to use a Gold Card in a year, we at FuturEcology have been doing some future proofing and right sizing the business for the current economic climate.

Moving forward to 2026 and beyond

By Jan Fryer

As mentioned in previous newsletters, we have been looking at all aspects of our business and what makes it work well.

In todays economy, with the pullback from sustainability initiatives and other economic factors, we have been planning for the future.

As a result, we have changed the model of how we work. For the past few years, we have had a team of permanent, full-time staff and increased those numbers during our busy planting season with the help of casual and temp staff.

During the last year, we encouraged staff to seize other opportunities as they came along, and last week, the last of our permanent staff moved onto new opportunities.

Evelyn is heading back home to Argentina for Christmas and then making the move north with her fiancé Sam. They plan to see what big city life looks like and seek opportunities for both of them. Evelyn, in advisory work around environmental sustainability and Sam, in logistics, financial advisory services and procurement. There is much more opportunity for them in the big cities than in little Nelson, much and all as it is a lovely place to live.

Bridget has been recovering from ankle surgery for the past few months and has joined the ranks of Nelmac in Marlborough, bringing her 30+ years of horticultural experience to their team. She will definitely be a valuable asset to them.

Dan is venturing out on his own to do environmental related projects, with a particular emphasis on working in bird recovery programmes. Birds have always been his major interest, and since working with us, he has gained valuable experience in habitat creation as well. He will continue to contract back to us on a range of our projects.

We have had a great many people come and go through our business over the last eleven and a half years. We are always proud to see them advancing in their careers and taking their passion for environmental work with them on their journeys.

FuturEcology continues to operate full-steam ahead, but with a bit more flexibility for us. We are still selling EmGuards round the country and doing environmental projects around the top of the South. We hope to be able to get on the road and meet some of our amazing EmGuard clients and see the great projects they are doing. For the future, we don’t need the big workshop on the main road in Hira and the expenses associated with that, so have moved back to the very comfortable office at our own place. We are building a purpose-built shed for our ongoing work and encourage you to continue to drop in and see us at 84 Ross Road, Hira. It’s only about 1km from where we were. I am enjoying hearing the birds from this office, rather than the constant noise of big trucks thundering past.

We continue to work on all our projects that make a difference to the planet. We will be working collaboratively with our sub-contractors and casual staff, to ensure the ongoing positive environmental outcomes that we are so proud to have been doing for more than a decade, keep on keeping on.

We welcome all our customers to get in touch and discuss their current and future needs.

Plant of the Month

Māhoe, Melicytus ramiflorus, Whiteywood.

By Jan Fryer

This is often seen as an early coloniser of regenerating forest. It is a shrub or small tree that will grow up to 15m tall. It has a knobbly, pale trunk, with a soft white wood and greyish-white bark, hence it’s common name.

The leaves are pale and glossy green, between 5-20cm long and narrow, that taper to the tip. They are slightly toothed and have a strongly visible vein network on the underside. These are the “skeleton” leaves often found on the forest floor.

The flowers are greenish in colour, scented and clustered along the twigs, followed by an abundance of bright purple berries. These are particularly attractive to birds, and birds play a major role in spreading māhoe to regenerating forest.

It is common in lowland and coastal bush. The knobbly nature of the trunks provides all sorts of nooks and crannies as homes for invertebrates, particularly wētā. Walking past a māhoe tree at night, if you listen carefully, you may hear tree wētā hissing as you pass.

Māori used māhoe wood in their fire making, as it has good qualities for kindling embers.

We really like to see māhoe used in revegetation projects, but our experience has been that it does not transplant easily. It is vulnerable to drying out and to frost. However, if you scatter seeds through an existing planting, then you are likely to see māhoe popping up.

Weed of the Month

Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare

By Robert Fryer

This flowering, perennial herb is a member of the carrot family. You can clearly see this when it is in full flower, with its carrot-like umbels.

It is a very hardy, perennial herb, with a distinctive aniseed smell.

Fennel grows quickly at this time of year with tall, hollow, erect stems that can reach up to 2m tall and are a glaucous green

The leaves are feathery, up to 40cm long, and are finely dissected, making them almost threadlike.

Flowers are produced in terminal compound umbels with 20-50 tiny yellow flowers.

It is spread mainly by seed, although pieces of root or crown that have been moved through flooding or mechanical means, can resprout.

Although fennel will eventually be outcompeted and shaded out in a revegetation planting, it can make a site look unkempt and untidy.

Control is most easily done when the plant is young. Mature plants are persistent and difficult to eradicate as they are very deep rooted.

Manual control includes digging out the whole plant or cutting off the stems at the base and pasting with Cut N Paste weed gel or Vigilant gel.

If spraying, it is best to target the young plants before they elongate and reach the flowering stage. Use a 1.5% Glyphosate mix.

BE AWARE – Fennel is a popular culinary herb, so if spraying in a public place, ensure that the spray site has been clearly marked that it has been sprayed with chemical.

Bio-Security Alert. Yellow-legged Hornet - Vespa velutina

Biosecurity New Zealand expands hornet search | NZ Government

If any of you have been following this frightening detection in the Auckland region, it would be a good idea to remain particularly vigilant when you are out and about.

Wasps are our singular most persistent hazard when doing any outside work in our revegetation projects. All our staff have been stung multiple times, and it is so difficult to mitigate the risk. The last thing we need in New Zealand, is an even more aggressive stinging insect, that will not only hurt us but have a devastating effect on our bee population.

There have been seven yellow legged hornets detected to date in the Auckland region, including four queens that were in the process of creating nests.

Their diet includes a significant portion of honeybees. It catches the bee in mid-flight, kills it and takes it back to the nest as food.

The hornet was accidentally introduced into France in 2004 and is now well established. Densities of up to 13 nests per square kilometre have been recorded and these nests can have up to 13,000 individuals.

That’s a lot of winged stingers and the very last thing we need to see in New Zealand.

New Zealand is particularly vulnerable to such invasions, as our native species did not evolve alongside social hornets or wasps.

This is our one chance to eradicate them before they establish, so it is up to everyone to be part of this. Keep your eye out, use flyspray on any nests you find, and report any suspicious looking wasp like creatures. There is a useful post about these hornets on the Tasman District Council Facebook page here.

EmGuard Update

By Jan Fryer

I don’t really want to think about the big event that happens in just over a month. If you are looking for the perfect Christmas present for those people that have everything, then a packet of EmGuards, bamboo canes and dagmats is a great gift.

A sustainable, sensible present that has the opportunity to have a lasting impact on the planet.

We have good stocks of guards, mats and canes at present.

Check out our website for details.

If you need large quantities, or are planning a big project for next year, please get in touch so we can ensure we have them on hand. The factory closes over the Christmas period, so orders need to be in well before that if you need any large quantities prior to Christmas.

Jan’s details are:

Jan@futurecology.co.nz

Ph: 027 497 5838

Buy EmGuard ™ now

Interesting Snippets

What we’ve been watching

by Jan Fryer

We had a lovely break away in Wellington at the end of last month to celebrate our daughter’s 30th birthday.

While there, we made the most of their varied streaming accounts (we only have poormans tv at home - haha).

Elizabeth recommended that we watch “Adolescence”

Phew! It is a British television psychological crime drama created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.

It centres around a 13 year old boy, who is arrested for the murder of a girl at his school.

The acting is incredible.

It focuses on issues with social media, cyber-bullying, a young man’s view towards women, associated with manosphere and the wider implications on his hard working, ordinary family.

It is scary to see the impact social media is having on our world and stark reminders like this should be compulsory study for teenagers in today's world, not to mention the wider family.

What we’ve been reading:

by Robert Fryer

If you want some great summer reading, then this trilogy by Lars Mytting will keep you well occupied.

The Bell in the Lake, The Reindeer Hunters and The Night of the Scourge.

It begins in Norway in 1880 during a hard winter in Butangen.

The lake is frozen, the ground too hard to dig graves to bury the dead and Astrid Hekne dreams of a life beyond this and the expectations of being a wife and mother and working the land till the end of her days.

Pastor Kai Schweigaard takes over the small parish which includes a 700 year old Stave church carved with pagan deities.

Then a young architecture student from Germany arrives with grand plans for the church.

The second book is set in 1903. It follows the family - intertwining love and bitter rivalries, sorrow and courage, history and myth as change sweeps across Norway.

The third book is set during the German occupation of Norway during WW2. The descendants of Astrid, along with the old Pastor must navigate a new order. Resistance, betrayal and sacrifice, alongside rebuilding trust and post war Norway, makes this story very compelling.

The common thread through the book is the Pastor. Seeing him develop and evolve over the 60 or so years is really interesting, interwoven with the history and superstition of a fascinating time and interesting culture.

Conclusion:

By Jan Fryer

*An art piece created at a community planting in Hira in August.*

This time of year always feels a bit more than hectic. It always feels like a race, with the finish line being Christmas.

Grass and weeds are growing madly. Events are crammed into every weekend between now and Christmas.

If I was an organised person, the Christmas cake fruit would be soaking in brandy. Haha. I’ve been known to make the cake on Christmas Eve.

I’m rather hoping that this year, we may have a bit more of a measured approach to the festive season.

Take the time to smell the roses and hear the birds.

Breathe, catch up with friends, be creative and remember how important family is.

If you have any projects in mind and would like to talk further, give us a call or pop in and see us.

We look forward to hearing from you!