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Life membership for dedication and passion

 

 

JULIA WADE

thumbnail 04 MF-Ray1-122A Mangawhai man says he is both ‘humbled and honoured’ to receive an environmental organisation’s highest honour for nearly a quarter of a century’s service to ‘a cause I am so passionate about’.

Ray Welson was presented a Life Membership award by Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS) recently, in recognition of his 24 years of service to the Mangawhai community, helping to keep local harbour waters flowing clear and true, fellow member Ken Rayward says.

“Ray comes from the same pioneering stock as Jim Wintle… without which Mangawhai would not be what it is today,” he says. “His business integrity and ethical standards coupled with a knowledge of harbour waterways proved invaluable when MHRS first set about restoring and maintaining the Mangawhai estuary system.”

Responsible for writing MHRS’s first five year plan for the restoration, maintenance and enhancement of the estuary, which is still currently the base for all society activities, Ray has also been hands-on with planting grasses along the sand dunes, mangrove management and working with the dredging team.

“While Ray kept a steady tiller hand in directing the initiatives of the MHRS, he was, and still is, a very much ‘roll-up-your-sleeves-and-let’s-do-it leader.”

Ray’s involvement and influence on Mangawhai’s harbour, including a period as chairperson from 2008-2011, began not long after he and wife Alison bought property in the area in 1996. Due to his ‘heavy involvement’ with the Auckland waterfront, Ray was approached to join the MHRS management committee, whose focus was to establish a plan to oversee the restoration of the harbour back to its pristine condition prior to the famous ‘Big Dig’ of 1991.

“I guess my waterfront experience was anticipated to be put to good use,” he says. “I was involved with establishing a sustainable management plan and we ensured it was incorporated into the MHRS constitution.”

Through his years of involvement Ray has gone through both highs and lows, and lists helping to prevent sand mining at the harbour’s entrance as his best personal experience. Dealing with Northland Regional Council (NRC) he says is least favourable.

“My worst experience was MHRS having to pay thousands of dollars to go to Environment Court to appeal negative decisions by NRC which we successfully overturned,” he says. “My disappointment is with the NRC who continually put up barriers to common sense proposals for the maintenance and improvement of the harbour… bureaucracy has demanded costly submissions to the NRC, and I have driven from Auckland to Whangarei to countless meetings over the years.”

Ray also says he is disappointed that a group MHRS help set up to monitor and ensure the survival of the endangered fairy terns ‘negated our endeavours by setting up their own trust and have worked against us’.

“However my most positive feeling is for the resilience and support of the Mangawhai community who understand that a healthy harbour is paramount to our survival as Magical Mangawhai.”

Over the following five to ten years Ray sees MHRS’s work to continue with important dredging of the estuary to ensure tidal flows and navigable passages. The work also includes establishing an all-tide channel to the proposed new wharf adjacent to the Mangawhai Tavern, as well as the development of an all-tide basin for passive water activities and sailing. Further mangrove removal, Pingao planting for stabilisation of the sand dunes and ‘encouragement of riparian planting’ he also sees as significant activities for the society.

Through the years Alison has had Ray’s back, supporting the ‘huge amounts of time’ her husband has spent involved with MHRS.

“I’ve enjoyed my behind-the-scenes knowledge as his unpaid secretary with typing of submissions, minutes, reports etc, especially during his time as chairman,” she says. “I also feel privileged as a JAFA to have been accepted as a friend of so many locals through our commitment to Mangawhai, our ‘home away from home’.”

Ken Rayward says Alison’s business skills made the Welsons ‘a formidable and valued team’.

“Without which Mangawhai would not be what it is today… they are both very significant for the enhancement of, and for the future of Magical Mangawhai.”

 

Awarded Life Membership for a long dedicated service, Ray Welson with wife and main supporter, Alison; an inspirational couple at the centre of keeping Mangawhai’s harbour waters flowing true and clear.

“My most positive feeling is for the resilience and support of the Mangawhai community who understand that a healthy harbour is paramount…”

-- Ray Welson


 
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