The meeting started at 7.30 am;
Members Present:
Fourteen members were present. There were no apologies
President:
The vulcanologists have an AI application for predicting volcanic activity including eruptions. Very dubious! Gizzmo needs weeders tomorrow, and sheep shit spreaders - much more certain!
Three-Minute Speaker:
Rory announced the arrival of his fifth grandchild. He was congratulated and fined. An update of the Parnell Charitable Trust was given. The trust meets half-yearly with the AGM in December. Interplast Nurse Training and Beyond Water each received $500. Starlight received $1,000 with various other recipients mentioned. A total of $50k has been granted. Colleen, Greg, Rory, and Colin are the trustees, and much appreciated is their work.
The trust supports RIPEN, RYLA, Trees for Survival, and Duffy Books. New initiatives are welcome, (such as Starlight). Most of the funds came from the golf tournament, so a new source would be handy.
Ingrid:
Ingrid clarified the situation with Epsom Lodge. All is well, with the breakfast roster in place and our turn in three month's time. A donation of $3.5k from a member was most appreciated - thanks.
The Central Rotary Community meeting, scheduled for the evening of 26th, will consider taking on the Starlight project. Kathy met with the site nurse at Middlemore and with Kirsten Hawke for their club to follow up.
Sargeant Colleen:
A fire caused by a motorbike battery resulted in a fine for the President. Andrew Bayley, Chinese warships, Trump, and Hollywood in Parnell all got a mention as did David's tee shirt. Ingrid successfully flogged two new Rotary pins to Malcolm and Don for $20 each.
We learned that procrastination is good as you always have something to do tomorrow.
Main Speaker:
Stephen spoke on the subject of kiwi sanctuaries. (The two-legged ones!) His farm has 80,000 trees and he engages in extensive possum trapping as part of a concerted effort by landowners in the region to enhance native flora and fauna.
There are populations of kiwi in sanctuaries on the East and West coasts with indications that they are spreading. Stephen mentioned kiwi-avoidance dog training as part of the preservation effort.
Kiwis are from the ratite family, related to the moa. They have a lifespan of about 25 years if they survive predation as juveniles, as the adults can generally fend for themselves against predators. There are five families of kiwi - the local one bearing the prosaic title of the North Island Brown Kiwi.
We had a demonstration of a flip trap that chokes a possum to death - in a very humane way. DoC has its own design of trap. The controls are very effective as evidenced by reduced grazing damage and growing numbers of kiwi.
We heard a hunter's anecdote involving escaped pet goats, rugged terrain stalking, and sharp-shooting.
We finished with a video from The Forest Bridge Trust which is promoting a contiguous forest cover between the East and West coasts. There are 54,000 hectares of land under predator control so far. Their rewilding plans for the region are ambitious - possibly heroic, as they seem not to provide for any ongoing farming!
Stephen has family dotted all over the region - it sounded a bit like something from "Deliverance".
Next week's meeting is at Lala Cafe - be there!
The meeting closed at 8.30 am.
