WARRINGTON RESERVE GROUP

By Karen Hobday

Warrington Domain Planting Day this year is Sunday June 13 at 10am. Come join us, create beautiful areas of native plants,  attracting birds and providing shelter. Bring a spade if you have one, friends and family, all ages welcome. We will start at the main planting site across from the playground . We hope to have enough people to plant out some new sites as well. As always, we will have hot drinks and biscuits for you all, and a smoko table if you want to bring food to share.

A long term planting plan is to add native plants along the edges of the roads to the beach and bay,  and around the domain.  Planting sites will be where there is an existing vegetation line, so the overall look of the domain won’t change. We will retain existing plants, and replace weeds with new native plants to create a more varied and beautiful boundary to the grassed open areas and roadside.

We are excited to report that we have some funding for the long-awaited notice board/information area,  from Telecom via the DCC. We are now at the stage of design, quotes, and then securing any additional funding if needed. You may remember that we asked the community, via ‘Blueskin News’ in June 2007, where you would most like this information site. There was a clear preference for the grassed area near the playground, where the road divides to go to the surf club and the bay. We plan to make this an attractive area, with plants and sculpture, as well as information on our area and wildlife. The design will include space for permanent displays, seasonal information about wildlife, and an area for local notices relevant to beach and domain.

We are also looking at tidying up the uneven parking area at the end of the vehicle track to the north end of the beach,  below the Esplanade. We want to level out the big puddles so there is more space for parking, since many people now use this access point. We need to retain access for surf club and boat launching, but we have received lots of complaints about the numbers of vehicles parking and driving on the beach during tourist/holiday season. We are considering a simple chain gate across the narrow beach end of the track, which would be easy to open for beach access, but may encourage our many visitors to park here instead of on the beach. What do you think?

Lastly, a explanation for any confused readers of our column. In March and April, our contribution to ‘Blueskin News’ was presented under a Waitati Reserve heading, a wee mistake at the editorial stage, and in May our column and poster disappeared in cyberspace, something that has been known to happen from time to time in our Warrington area!

We like your feedback. Let us know if you have any ideas, or queries about any of our projects. We have a box at Blueskin Store if you want to drop off a written suggestion.

 

Warrington Reserve Group: Karen Hobday, 482 2762