Chch dark(er) sky
Hi all, over time I have noticed the replacement of horrid orange/yellow sodium discharge lamps used as streetlights, with energy efficient LED ones, has noticeably reduced the light pollution across large parts of Chch. On Monday night I setup a camera to capture a night sky scene, and the attached photo is the result - it is the Great Nebula in Carina. Captured from my home in Mairehau I've not been able to capture this much detail of the night sky above Chch before, so it's awesome to see. As the last remaining stretches of road with those horrid sodium lamps receive new LED lights I believe the light pollution will drop even further - currently where I live in Mairehau has seen a 25-30% drop in artificial light luminance since 2018, a fantastic result - credit to CCC for deciding to upgrade the street lighting.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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