FOOB received a fantastic write-up in the “Backyard Battlers” section of the Sunday Star Times this weekend.
There is some great aerial photography in the video here on Stuff: The DOC Reserve
Excerpt from the article:
Other local environmental groups are unhappy about the 150-house Weiti Bay development springing up on Okura Bush’s northern edge and the intensification of housing in Okura village, but FOOB is focussed on fixing the bush itself.
With assistance from DOC and Auckland Council the group, has been trapping stoats, rats and possums to allow the birds to flourish, and removing weeds that compete with the native plants.
Already “we’ve noticed there’s more birdsong in there”, says Lezette.
The bush is a place where she can “commune to nature. It grounds me. It takes me back to the person I used to be when I was younger. I love coming in here any time of year, but spring is lovely with the kowhai flowering.”
Perhaps the biggest problem the reserve faces is its sheer popularity, says Geoff.
Each year tens of thousands of people walk and run through the bush, a prime example of coastal broadleaf forest, including remnants of virgin forest that somehow avoided the burnoffs back when this was farmland.
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- Lezette Reid on Stuff video