This story was first published in Open Space issue 107 in November 2024. You can read the full issue, as well as previous issues of Open Space, on our website.

Once too discouraged to enter the QEII covenant on their property south of Warkworth since purchase in 2022, Carolyn Workman was “blown away” by the difference some help with weed control can make.

Carolyn moved to Mahurangi West after 32 years living in Auckland City. A member of Yosemite Conservancy since 1976 and a volunteer with the Conservancy at Yosemite National Park for the past 10 years, she was keen to purchase the property with a QEII covenant and be a steward in her own backyard. However, after her first year of weed control with the support of two local students, Carolyn found the problem was way bigger than she realised. While initially feeling defeated, Carolyn and her QEII rep agreed that a strategically planned approach was the only way forward.

The covenant was registered in 1981, protecting lowland regenerating forest featuring kānuka, puriri and mahoe. Over the years, pest plant species had increased to the point where they threatened the forest’s regeneration, with wild ginger, climbing asparagus and monkey apple becoming the most abundant.

Thanks to funding support from the Auckland Council Fund, QEII regional rep Chris Floyd and Carolyn agreed on a three-year plan to tackle the problem with help from local contractors. “If we could get the covenant to an ecologically sustainable state where the existing native plants will be dominant, it would make routine weed control maintenance achievable,” says Chris.

The contractors set to work and removed all mature fruiting pest plants, sprayed ground weeds, and applied cut and paste to woody weed saplings – this has already made a staggering difference. Upcoming work for the project’s second year will target the removal of younger pest plants and follow up with a second round of spraying. The work undertaken not only benefits this covenant but contributes to work undertaken by the Mahurangi West Pest volunteers in the wider community. The property is also on the edge of a pest plant buffer area around Auckland Council’s Regional Parks.

Carolyn joined Chris in the covenant to see what had been achieved by the contractors in the first year of work and Chris said she “came out with a smile on her face”.

“It was a huge encouragement to walk the length of the covenant for the very first time, top to bottom, and see first-hand the progress made in a densely pest tree and plant habitation that I was too discouraged to view a year ago because I was so overwhelmed by the scale of the problems,” says Carolyn.

The landowner is committed to ensuring the site continues to be maintained once the project ends, to prevent weed species from overrunning the site again.