Introduction

Mangemangeroa Reserve is located in Manukau City, 108 Somerville Road, Howick. It is recognised as one of eight Premier Parks in Manukau City and is described as an area of "dramatic estuarine landscape at the edge of the urban area" Map Location

The flora found in the Reserve represents a variety of podocarp and coastal forest not easily viewed elsewhere in suburban Auckland

Importance
The importance of the Reserve from an ecological perspective is two fold, it:

• purifies pollutants from the land as the water travels toward the estuary
• forms part of the feeding grounds for native birds such as; tui, wood pigeon, grey warbler, and fantail

Mangemangeroa also offers the opportunity for people to view an area of coastal forest as it would have appeared when the early settlers arrived.

Reserve history

Maori people occupied this land before the Europeans arrived. (The remains of middens too are visible and clearly marked). On the land around the trig site there is evidence of a fortified Maori site.

European settlers were responsible for felling the timber, bulldozing the land and then sowing introduced grasses to form valuable pasture land. As more land for housing development has become necessary as part of urban growth this Reserve offers an area for recreational leisure activities within Manukau City. It is planned to link the reserve, via walkways, from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Ocean (Hauraki Gulf).

This reserve was fenced in 1999. Until this time stock had been able to browse the understorey layer. Possum control has been carried out and this should influence the regeneration of species favoured as food by the possums.
Rats, mice and mustelids have not been poisoned regularly. Cats (both domestic and feral) remain to roam freely within the reserve. Because of the nature of the reserve with its large coastal boundary it is, at present not deemed possible, to fence or restrict access of cats, mice, rats and mustelids.

The addition of the board walk, provides easy access for the human population and the effect of this on the native species, both flora and fauna is yet to be determined.

This website has been designed to provide information about the flora and fauna which is present in the reserve. All photographs were taken in the reserve and near the tracks.

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This page has been prepared by Sally Barclay during her time as a Teacher Fellow 2003

The digital photos were taken in the Mangemangeroa Reserve, Somerville Road, Howick, Manukau City.

Fern identification and information was from Andrew Crowe “Which Native Fern?”, Patrick J. Brownsey and John C. Smith-Dodsworth "New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants", Lawrie Metcalf "Ferns of New Zealand", and Friths "Ferns of New Zealand".
Plant identification and information was from Lindsay Poole and Nancy Adams "Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand", J.T. Salmon "The Native Trees of New Zealand"
Alan La Roche provided information pertinent to the Mangemangeroa.