A bold Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay billboard featuring a tui feeding on a harakeke flower has been erected at the entrance to a prime block of land newly-gifted to The Guthrie Smith Trust at Lake Tutira.
In 2018, Napier couple Stuart and Alison Riden signed a Memorandum of Understanding gifting a 30-hectare block of their land just north of the Guthrie Smith Arboretum and Education Centre on State Highway 2, to protect it from development.
The Memorandum was deliberately signed on 11 November at 11 o’clock – 100 years after Armistice Day ended World War I and in keeping with the Riden’s desire that the land be called The Tutira Sanctuary and be administered and developed as a place of peace and recreation for the public to enjoy.
“Lake Tutira is unique for a small lake outside of a National Park,” says Stuart Riden. “The surrounding terrain combined with an absence of dwellings establishes the lake in a wonderfully untouched-looking setting.
“The concept behind the creation of the Guthrie Smith Tutira Sanctuary is to permanently secure this park-like setting for the lake”.
The Riden’s gift is very significant in protecting and enhancing Lake Tutira.
“It effectively means lake Tutira’s entire perimeter is now preserved in perpetuity and protected from development, says David Allan, chair of The Guthrie Smith Trust. “We are thrilled to be able to look after it. The Sanctuary will add value to the whole region.”
The Tutira Sanctuary Block is still awaiting final resource consent before an official launch (which BayBuzz will cover) but the hope is that it will extend Guthrie Smith Trust’s educational activities at Tutira with the proposed re-establishment of a four hectare wetland creating a good habitat for wildlife, improving the lake’s water quality and facilitating further educational activities.
As well as Herbert Guthrie-Smith’s famous Hanger, and the ninety hectares of arboretum overlooking Lake Tutira, the Trust runs a certified outdoor and environmental education centre, with programmes offering a multi-faceted learning environment, including hands-on sessions out in nature.
The new billboard, one of only two in HB, reflects the shared commitment by Guthrie Smith Trust and Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay to enhance biodiversity, and the importance of education and awareness as part of that.
“The importance of education and an appreciation of the need for biodiversity now cannot be overstated ,” says David Allan.
To learn more about Guthrie Smith Trust and Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay: https://www.guthriesmith.org.nz/ and https://www.biodiversityhb.org/
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
A wonderful area with nature peace and quiet lake tutira is our favourite camping and picnic spot once they get the water right. (No more spraying by road works which killed every green thing in sight and probably ran into lake) it will be nice to see bird life back again.
A very generous contribution to enrich our community … it will be interesting to watch the progress as the plantings become established.