Botanist Newsletter

Issue No. 21, September to October 1998

Waterway Weed Guide

Version 1 of the Weed Guide is now complete. This will assist Works Operations staff to recognise more of the weeds that grow along Christchurch waterways. Prompt control of many of these species will decrease the maintenance cost of weed control in the longer-term.

The guide has information on how to identify 32 weed species, along with colour photographs of each. It also has information to enable staff to tell the difference between weeds and some quite similar looking native species, eg between pampas grass and toetoe.

The booklet has been designed so that further species can be added as required. Information on how to control the various weeds is also included.

Grazing of Reserves on the Port Hills

Additional funding for fencing is being sought for the 1999/2000 budget. This would enable us to draft leases for the grazing of some of these reserves.

New Map Layers Available

Environmental Policy and Planning Unit have made several interesting new layers available. One of these is a shaded relief map for the Port Hills. This makes a good back drop to give a sense of the shape of the hills.

Aerial Photographs

The other significant new resource, again organised by EPPU, is a set of aerial photographs for the whole city.

These provide a high resolution view of the city. When used with other map layers the aerials provides an immediate, high information, context for maps.

The aerials have been corrected so that they match cadastral boundaries. The photographs were flown in October 1996.

The photographs are located in \\bilbo\digphotos$. They are for council use only. Also please note that these are very large files and using them over the network has the potential to cause problems - so don’t try to look at the whole city at once!