seven: flora and fauna

Who are you and what do you do in your day-to-day job?

I'm Mike Davy and I am part of the Marketing and Products team and a member of the Executive team at MAS.

How did you use your 'Here for Good' day?

The Executive team worked with Wellington City Council (WCC) to plant some much-needed trees to help the WCC achieve their target of planting two million trees in Wellington by 2025. Currently, they have planted just under 1.8 million with the help of community groups, corporate volunteers, schools, and others.

Why did you choose them?

WCC is committed to replanting native trees to encourage native fauna to flourish, including protected bird species. We should all be doing our bit to combat climate change and protect our NZ natives. 

What did you do?

We needed to find areas along a creek in Churton Park, Wellington, to clear weeds, dig holes and plant young native trees. You'd think that would be a piece of cake, but we managed to get pretty wet and muddy, and we found plenty of plastic bags and rubbish to clear as we went along. 

Young trees should be spaced out at least a metre apart to make sure they get their own patch of soil and sunlight. 

What did you enjoy most?

It's always great to have an excuse to make fun of your colleagues, so what better way to do this than to have a tailor-made opportunity to see the Exec team in action. I'm not entirely sure we're all cut out for manual labour — just saying!

What did you learn from the experience?

While there seem to be a lot of plants and greenery around our suburbs not a lot of it is native. Native birds and animals are best suited to our native trees so it's a great help with this. 

How can I help?

WCC are always looking for volunteers to help plant natives around our city, check out more here if you have a few spare hours to get your hands mucky!