Thirty years ago a group of residents got together in Browns Bay, on Auckland's North Shore, to stop their local playground from being poisoned with Roundup by the Council, and so Friends of Sherwood was born.

They extended their activities with non-toxic weed control rapidly, to finally cover the whole of East Coast Bays until being bumped aside by the hot water system in the late 1990's.

They were fearful at the time that this silver bullet approach would not compete with the cost of Roundup, as their integrated, organic management systems had, and with amalgamation ten years ago, Auckland Council kept sliding down to the lowest common denominator, eroding the policy of North Shore City Council, rather than adopting it, as best practice, across the whole city.

After observing the last debate on weed management, the co-ordinator of FOS, Tricia Cheel, was horrified to find that where spot control with glyphosate was specified in the otherwise supposedly non-toxic regime, in fact it meant in effect a whole round of this probable carcinogenic herbicide whenever the contractors felt they needed to.

The other trustees have agreed that it is time to go back to the future, and offer people throughout the country the benefit of their experience and enable them to get rid of glyphosate off they streets, immediately, as they did 30 years ago.

Friends of Sherwood are particularly keen to contact the thousands of volunteers who have contributed to their activities, and invite them to a reunion and open day to be held at St Anne's Hall, that marks the beginning of extensive planting they have done along the banks of the Taiaotea Stream in Browns Bay, and extend the invitation to anyone else who may like to join their organisation and find out how to achieve a beautiful and healthy neighbourhood in which to live, as free as possible of toxic chemicals, waste, and other pollution, as they have been working hard to achieve since June of 1990.

At the open day the general public will be able to see some of the projects that this long-standing community group has undertaken, and why they have instituted the Honey Awards to recognise those unsung heroes who have been working tirelessly for years to protect nature from the onslaughts of ignorance, thoughtlessness, and unfettered greed and commerce.

Friends of Sherwood look forward to hearing from the many present and past volunteers and are offering great prizes for the best reminiscences, brought along on the day, or sent in to be on display, and are appealing to people everywhere, if they have volunteered in the past, or know someone who has, to get in touch.

To contact Friends of Sherwood, and send in the stories volunteers have to tell, people can visit facebook pages and events of the same name, email ecobee@xtra.co.nz or phone Tricia on 09 476 7279, to get a verified ticket number, since the capacity of St Anne's Hall is limited and preference will be given to those who have pre-booked.

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