DOC teamed up with local councils, iwi, and a variety of conservation groups in the Horowhenua/Manawatu, to get their hands dirty over the winter months and plant trees.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
Today’s photo of the week is of volunteers planting harakeke/flax at Athenree Saltmarsh wetland near Tauranga.
The Athenree and nearby Waihi Beach community have taken on a challenge to plant over 9000 plants at the wetland over winter.
This work is part of a multi-year project to return farmland to wetland habitat for threatened native animals.
Photo by Peter Huggins, Partnerships Ranger, Tauranga.
By DOC’s Des Williams, based in Hamilton
What used to be a relatively uninspiring walk from Te Pahu’s Limeworks Loop Road to the Kaniwhaniwha campsite in Pirongia Forest Park is being transformed into a tunnel of green.
The tunnel of green
Thanks to the efforts of the Te Pahu Landcare Group over the past 12 years, many thousands of native trees are flourishing and the track is now suitable for family groups, casual strollers, pushchair pushers and mountain bikers, as well as the more serious trampers.
It has always been DOC Ranger Bruce Postill’s dream to see the area planted up with native trees around the Kaniwhaniwha Stream and local residents regard it as part of their mission to make that come true.
Ed Brodnax, Bruce Postill and DOC ranger Stuart Wind reflect on their work
At the beginning of the project the track was nothing more than a walk through grazed pasture, with the adjoining farmer’s stock having free access to the stream banks and waterway. DOC’s Waikato Area staff members Bruce Postill and Dave Matthews started on a plan to change this little part of their world.
They went to the local council with their plans and the council agreed to turn it into recreation reserve and let DOC take control of it as an access-way to the park boundary.
The next task was to fence the boundary. For the first two or three years Bruce and Dave were making progress at the rate of about 100 metres a year. A hundred metres fenced, a hundred metres planted. Then Bruce looked at Dave: “Mate, we are not going to get this done in our lifetime at the rate we are going.”
Kaniwhaniwha Stream
Then the project got a kick-start, with the Lotteries Commission provided funding and with the Te Pahu Landcare Group keen to get involved.
Though present membership comprises less than a dozen people, they have all taken this project to heart and are starting to see results with some of their initial plantings now several metres high in places.
Solitary kowhai heralding the new spring
So, year by year, the walk through pasture land is becoming a walk through an avenue of trees, with each flourishing native carrying the pride of the local community that has helped put it there.
This week’s photo was taken by Pete Monk at a local planting day at Onoke Spit in the South Wairarapa.
The Friends of Onoke Spit hold a yearly planting day in a gorse infested area at the beginning of the scenic Onoke Spit, clearing multiple plots of gorse to make way for native plants.
Children from the local Kahutara Primary School, and others from the area, attend each year and make a major contribution to getting the plants in the ground. The young plants also get protective matting and covers to help them survive in the wild climate of the Palliser coast.
Send us your photos
If you have a great, conservation related photo you want to share with the world (or at least the readers of this blog) send it through to us at socialmedia@doc.govt.nz.
Our photo of the week is in celebration of National Volunteer Week, which runs from the 16-22 June. The theme for 2013 is “He tāngata, He tāngata, He tāngata! It is people, it is people, it is people”.
EcoQuest Education Foundation and Kaiaua Primary School recently got together with local DOC ranger Stephen Benham to do some planting at the newly purchased DOC Rangipo Scenic Reserve. It was a great day for both our university aged students and the primary school kids to get out, volunteer and contribute to conservation in our local area.
It’s great to see people of all ages getting involved in conservation and working with DOC. Conservation volunteers make an important contribution to conservation in New Zealand and we’d like to thank all our volunteers for their help.
Volunteer with DOC
Being a volunteer is fun. You also get to work as part of a team, share your skills and learn new ones, and experience conservation in action. Visit the DOC website to volunteer with DOC.
