Thirty years and counting: Environmental action at St Columba’s Presbyterian Church Havelock North
St Columba’s Havelock North Environment Group (SCHNEG) has a long and impressive history, being created in the early 1990s and continues its valued work today, some 30 years later.
SCHNEG was formed by Rev Bob Eyre, Minister of St Columba’s at the time, with Hettie and Cyril Park, members of the congregation in 1992. They were joined by other environmentally minded people from the congregation. They wanted to do something practical and felt the most important thing they could do was become involved in a local restoration project. It was from this that the concept of “project Karamu” was born.
The Karamu Stream Restoration Project was initiated in 1997 with the group working closely with the Hawkes Bay Regional Council and Hastings District Council. The group did a lot of work to enable the project to get underway and their work paid off with the first trees, 25 kowhai, being planted by pupils of Iona College and Havelock North Primary School in July 1997. Further plantings, weeding, care of trees and installation of irrigation systems occurred from 1997 to 1998. In 1999, a walkway, seating and signage was proposed and planning got underway. A large public planting ceremony was held in August 1999. The public walkway was opened in October 2000. On 13 June 2009, the new Heritage Trail signage and the formal naming of Park’s Reach were acknowledged in a ceremony.
The short summary here cannot give justice to the huge amount of work put in by SCHNEG to this project over many years. The publication “Park’s Reach. Te Karamu - Between Two Bridges: The story of a Hawke’s Bay (New Zealand) stream-bank restoration project” by John Gould is well worth a read to appreciate the dedication to this project by so many over an extended period.
Karamu Project planting (Photo credit: SCHNEG)
Karamu Project planting (Photo credit: SCHNEG)
From 2002-2012 a series of annual lectures were organised by SCHNEG on various environmental and social topics. The group also held their own in-depth studies on topics that interested them (including Antarctica, the Pacific, Water and Nature’s Services).
Through these years the group were also actively involved in local issues with the Hastings District Council and Hawkes’ Bay Regional Council.
SCHNEG are currently involved with a number of initiatives within their church:
St Columba’s mini market. (Photo credit: SCHNEG)
St Columba’s mini market that runs monthly during the summer months selling locally made products from preserves, wooden toys to knitted products and even locally made dishwashing liquid with refill options.
Columba Books: Bookshop where secondhand books, sheet music, CDs and LPs are sold.
Church window displays on environmental themes.
Church service for Earth Day 2023 held in April this year with Walter Breustedt speaking on climate change, influence of the oceans, the concerns around micro-plastics and possible responses through encouraging buying clothing made of natural fibres, car sharing and car pooling for reducing transport emissions.
Calculating their carbon footprint and initial emissions reductions projects around energy use.
It is so encouraging to see the fruits of the efforts of SCHNEG since their activities in the 1990s and the efforts continuing to this day.
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* Information about the Karamu project and photos of the project are from the publication “Park’s Reach. Te Karamu - Between Two Bridges: The story of a Hawke’s Bay (New Zealand) stream-bank restoration project” by John Gould. Published by Saint Columba’s Havelock North Environment Group (SCHNEG), 2019.
* Information from the activities of SCHNEG from the early 2000s summarised from the publication “The Wonderings and Doings of SCHNEG 1990 to 2019“ by Jim Watt. Published by Saint Columba’s Havelock North Environment Group (SCHNEG), 2019.