Saving Our Coastline - Banishing Corporate Greed

The North Shore of Auckland is truly a beautiful place, with bush and beaches only minutes away in any direction. The North Shore holds a special place in my heart as it was my hometown, so when I first got wind of the 1000+ house development in Okura, North Shore, I felt pretty disheartened and disappointed.

The land is owned by the Todd Properties which is an arm of the Todd Foundation. The development was estimated to gross over $1.5 billion upon completion. It’s extremely disappointing the impacts to the natural character of the landscape and environment are not so much a priority when the profits are so high. Corporate greed knows no bounds when $1.5 billion dollars is on the table.

Understandably, housing development is an important part of the growth of Auckland and New Zealand. Our population is growing and there has to be enough houses to feed the insatiable housing market, otherwise house prices will continue to skyrocket, way past some of the increases already seen in Auckland, and to a lesser extent other areas of NZ.

So why was this development of such concern? The last stage of Todd Property’s ‘Long Bay Development’ hinged on the removal of the rural urban boundary. The 300 acres of to-be-developed coastal land lies adjacent to the Long Bay-Okura Marine reserve. Despite having already developed the coastline along Long Bay and going over the hill to Okura, concerns were raised about serious and potentially irreversible damage to the 23 year old marine reserve.

Todd Properties responsibility towards protecting the environment was being completely ignored. The bare minimum approach was being taken, and while enough steps were taken to get consent, clearly not enough steps were taken to actually prevent any damage.  The main environmental concern with developments like this is the ‘deforestation’ of the bush and grass that previously covered the area, and the terraforming of the land to suit super high density housing.

If you were to take your little 8 foot inflatable out into the marine reserve and catch some fish you will be handed up to a $10,000 dollar fine and/or up to 3 months in jail.  The Long Bay Great Park Society (the watchdog of the reserve) saw the need to have the area protected in its natural state as a typical slice of the Hauraki Gulf. The reserve boasts a diversity of coastal habitats that includes the sandy beaches of Long Bay and Karepiro Bay, the rocky reefs off the two headlands at either end of Long Bay, and the sand flats and mudflats of the Okura River and estuary.

Yet, Todd Properties and other nearby development have been discharging hundreds  of tons of sediment into a precious marine reserve without so much as a second glance at what they were doing. The marine reserve contains hundreds of thousands to millions of filter feeding cockles beneath the surface of the water. They are hugely important in the healthy dynamic of the ecosystem and are a main food source for many of the native and precious sea birds in the area. Peter Townend, a local resident states “Shellfish are our filter feeders. They are hugely important for a healthy marine environment. We have acres of dead and dying shellfish. It is horrifying and we need to act fast.”

Thousands of dead cockles washed up on the marine reserve shores.

The MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) report notes “that the gills (of shellfish) were often affected both with parasites and particulate organic matter – this could be compromising the animals ability to feed – and an excess of particulate matter could also cause mechanical damage to the gills, again compromising the animals ability to feed.” For the THIRD time, large scale cockle death - in the hundreds of thousands - was present in our supposedly PROTECTED marine reserve as a result of sediment discharge from Todd Properties development.

Right before our eyes we were witnessing the destruction of Government protected land for the only reason that one rich (as f***) developer wants to make even MORE money. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The Long Bay Great Park Society started a campaign stop these money hungry, careless developers from causing even more damage, with the help of other community groups such as Friends of Okura Bush, Forest and Bird, and incredible individuals like that of Mr Geoff Reid.

While an incredible amount of credit and praise should deservedly go to the community groups involved, for me Geoff provided the tipping point of public support needed to get this campaign to the incredible heights it soon achieved.

I have been following Geoff for a year or two now, and the self professed ‘Nature Frother’ has spent his time all over NZ and the pacific nations with his conservation efforts for both wildlife and humanitarian missions. He was recently in Vanuatu assisting with evacuation as a result of the volcanic eruption, and to list all of his efforts would be a 300 page dossier.

With Geoff’s help, the community groups banded together to take on Todd Properties, taking them to environmental court. Over $320,000 dollars was fundraised and spent on experts and legal fees in a landmark case that resulted in Todd Properties being banned from continuing their development. The environmental court ruled that the Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserves’ outstanding natural landscape values and the avifauna (precious birdlife) were more important and halted the development.

In a true David vs Goliath, Geoff used his large following of passionate environmentalists to sign petitions, make a lot of noise, and bring awareness to the devastation and destruction happening to a beautiful & historic part of our coastline.

One of Geoff's greatest achievements in his relentless efforts to save this Marine Reserve are not only incredible regarding saving this particular marine reserve, but his victory is a tremendous milestone, setting precedent that greedy developers cannot, should not and will not be allowed to develop houses and apartments at the expense of our natural wildlife and out standing coastlines.

So if you are aware of similar issues in your region or anywhere else for that matter, then know that your efforts, no matter how small they might be, are extremely important. Your effort and commitment actually works and can change so much. As a bonus, if you want some passionate firepower on your side, get in touch with Geoff on Facebook or Instagram! He is a New Zealand environmental warrior and has told me that he is more than happy to get behind other issues and or share skills to try and change the way we live for the better.

In all seriousness,  here at Live Green NZ, we think Geoff is an absolute hero. If we had more Geoff’s in this world then maybe we wouldn't see such careless and greedy acts, and we would see more bush, more nature and a healthier environment. Nature and the outdoors are fundamentals of kiwi living. Let us each do our bit to protect and conserve this beauty.

If you wanna follow Geoff and all of his endeavours in and around NZ then you can reach him on his Facebook or Instagram. Geoff thoroughly deserves every like, share, comment he gets and by liking his page you are helping him have an even greater influence in protecting NZ.

As per usual, let us know what you think in the comments! We love to hear what you guys think on the topic, and like us on Facebook for more blogs! ALSO - type "LAUNDRY-10" at checkout for 10% off our entire Laundry collection!