• Parks Home Page • People in Parks • Check out our next volunteer event

How You Can Help • Join one of the great volunteer groups and help out with the fantastic work they’re doing in our parks and reserves. • Come and plant some native trees at one of our Community Planting Days. • Join the ARC’s big clean up by visiting "The Big Clean-up Site" to find out what you can do at home to help the environment. • Children can become an ecoagent and help to save the earth at www.ecokids.co.nz. • Become a weedbuster http://weedbusters.co.nz to learn about pest plants and how to fight them. • Control animal and plant pests. • Plant native plants in your garden.

Volunteers in Parks

The role of volunteers

The community plays an important and often underestimated role in the maintenance and beautification of the city’s parks and reserves.

Our parks and environment team is supported by a number of parks volunteer management committees, Friends Groups and countless individuals, all working together to better improve our environment and the quality of our reserves.

Nowhere is the value of volunteer work more visible than in our parks. Work ranges from planting and weed control to mulching, keeping the tracks tidy and spreading the word through the community. The high standards of our parks and reserves could not be achieved without these valuable contributions.

The Council recognises that there are many benefits to community involvement. These include:

� Sharing skills and knowledge
� Linking people directly to the ecosystems that sustain them
� Educating in horticulture and natural heritage
� Instilling a sense of ownership (which leads to an increased sense    of responsibility)
� Facilitating community wellbeing by encouraging interaction
� Reducing antisocial behaviour such as vandalism
� Developing our parks to meet the needs of the immediate users
� Promoting the value of open space areas
� Encouraging the community to become involved in volunteering through the activity of others

If you would like to get involved in your area and require more information, please contact Actionline on:

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