F&B Talk - Native Plants in the Urban Environment

The title of the talk is: How to put Nature into your Urban and Rural Neighbourhoods

Dr Colin Meurk is a well known and internationally recognised ecologist and environmentalist, who Works with Universities of Canterbury and Lincoln as well as Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, and numerous community conservation organisations. He has received lots of awards for his work including a F&B Old Blue and was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ecological restoration.

Colin is always willing to share his knowledge, and is involved with work on the ground restoring native ecosystems, as well as involvement in the governance of a wide range of environmental organisations. He has been involved with iNaturalist from the beginning, championing citizen science, and has led ‘Meurky walks’ (CHCH360Trail) encouraging urban dwellers to get out into nature by showcasing the rich natural history of the city.

This, linked with Colin’s particular interest in urban ecology, has evolved into the ambitious project to make Christchurch a National Park City (following in London’s footsteps). An improved level of tree cover helps provide shelter, shade, and habitat for native fauna. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the people in urban areas have a greater feeling of wellbeing where there are trees and other plants around.

His talk will build on these ideas and how to implement them at local to landscape scale using examples of urban greening, sponge cities and Te Ara Kakariki as models.