Next time you enter the Ashburton Library from Havelock Street, cast your eyes low down to the right and you will see our recently-sealed time capsule has begun its 50-year wait.

An engraved wooden box was built by Roger Paterson especially to hold the stainless steel time capsule, and you can now see its decorative face behind glass. The capsule was sealed recently after copies of the Ashburton Guardian and Ashburton Courier, featuring coverage of the formal opening of our new building, were added to the collection of precious images and information.

It was a thrill to be able to help our museum archivist Connor Lysaght manoeuvre it in place this week and then fix the glass panel in place. There’s a good chance Connor will be around in 50 years when it is opened, but I don’t think I will be!

The opening date on 2 August 2078 was chosen to mark the 200-year anniversary of the former Ashburton borough and county councils. It will be interesting to see what the citizens of the future think of the contents we so carefully chose to preserve.

With the old civic building at Baring Square West now on the market, we recently retrieved a time capsule from a different era that was encased behind a plaque laid by the borough mayor Darcy Digby when that building was constructed in 1972.

It’s a lot smaller than the time capsule we have just installed at Te Whare Whakatere, but it will be just as interesting when we open it. It’s currently on ice at the museum, as part of the decontamination process before it is opened.

Another part of my work this week was to attend a meeting of the Ashburton Water Zone Committee. The committee is a joint committee with Environment Canterbury and its members over the past 10 years or so have been dedicated to understanding the particular challenges of water in our district.

The committee also helps fund community biodiversity projects and this week decided on funds for six groups undertaking pest or planting work.

Thousands of native plants are being put into the ground at projects all around our district to boost biodiversity, but pests are a problem. Some of the groups seeking funds were planning long-term pest control to deal with stoats, possums, hares and other pests.

The Ashburton Forks Catchment Group was looking for money to buy 15 automatic traps, that will significantly reduce the manual labour involved in pest control. These auto traps don’t have to be checked every day, they reset themselves and only need recharging every five or six months.

To bring back the biodiversity and birdsong, we first have to deal with a few bad actors.