MHRS sees new leadership at helm

JULIA WADE

Mangawhai’s harbour guardians now have a new captain at the helm who has sights on maintaining the organisations set course – keeping local waters free-flowing, and highlighting the vital necessity of the groups enduring work.

Long-time holiday local and now permanent resident, John Pearson, accepted the role as president of Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS) at the organisation’s July AGM, taking over from Doug Lloyd who held the position for three years. With previous experience in project management along with a passion for the community, members saw him as well suited to the leadership role.

“My early connection with Mangawhai was to holiday with my wife Claire and our three children as it was close to the water but safe in the estuary for boating and swimming,” he says. “In those days, renting a bach in Mangawhai was very affordable. My vision for Mangawhai is to maintain the health of the harbour and its environs and to build on the amazing work that was achieved by those from the early days of ‘The Big Dig’ and those who are still part of the MHRS committee.”

Prior to moving into the area, Pearson, who was bornand-bred on Auckland’s North Shore, spent his work life in the construction industry in various roles including site engineer, project manager and company director. He also donated time to the community, involved with the Browns Bay School Kindergarten committee in his early days, and as a member of the East Coast Bays Rotary Club before moving to Mangawhai.

Since being invited to join the MHRS in 2018, Pearson has been initiated into planting and rabbit control on Mangawhai’s iconic Distal Spit and is part of the dredging operation team.

For a few months every year, MHRS survey the estuary to locate areas of sand build-up, removing the residue to keep water channels clear and flowing freely. Dredged sand is usually funnelled back onto the Spit which helps to increase the dune’s size and provide shell for the fairy terns, however, this year MHRS has brought it over to the mainland to create a wider white sand beach along the estuary’s shoreline Pearson says.

“We started a lot slower this year because of Covid, and can only dredge on the incoming tide to keep pressure on the silt net which is placed around the beach site to minimise run-off into the estuary.”

Pearson aims to continue to emphasise the ongoing efforts and past achievements of MHRS, to make sure their work is recognised and understood by other organisations, ‘that the current health of the harbour for recreation, habitat for bird and marine life is in no small way due to the work carried out by the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society’.

“We still have major threats to the harbour of which sand mining undertaken by McCallum’s Brothers is the greatest, which could undo the last 20 years of the Society’s work,” he says. “With global warming, rising sea levels and the threat of tropical cyclones likely to be more prevalent, protecting our precious environment is even more important.”

Previous MHRS president Doug Lloyd says he is stepping down from the leadership ‘as we like to rotate the role to keep the Society fresh’ but will definitely remain as a committee member.

“Highlight for me was for us to be able to proceed with the removal of 17 hectares of mangroves after the long drawn-out and expensive cost of the environment court hearings,” he says. “The new NRC regional plan has absorbed a tremendous amount of energy, cost and time over the last two years as we fight to retain the right to manage the mangroves and to continue to dredge the harbour.

“It’s been great working with such an incredible team who made it easy for me. Good luck to John, he is the ideal guy for the job and has great support from all of us on the team.”