Friday, July 30th, 2010
Creating new native forest on our steep local hills seems like a daunting task and not one that everyone is interested in. But the great thing about volunteering is that everyone is interested or passionate about something. Get a team of like-minded people with the same passion and shared idea of how to express it, couple that with doing it just for the love of it, and the results can be amazing.
With Nga Ururora there are green-fingered things to do all year round but winter is my favourite time. From the end of May through to August, thousands of little native trees (grown locally by volunteers) are whisked off to sites all over our hills to be planted. Several times a week, volunteer teams are off to plant the trees while it’s nice and moist. Weekends are my time to muck in.
A sunny winter weekend morning up the hills with Kapiti in the distance and the sparkling sea is a tonic in itself. But to look about you at morning’s end and see hundreds of new native trees in the ground is pure magic.
That morning spent on the hill just gets better over time. The first season, leafy tops of little trees are peeking over the grass and fennel. Next season there’s more trees, pushing above the weeds and filling out. The season after that, tall young trees are everywhere, the weeds elbowed out. What was a weedy neglected slope is suddenly, recognisably, a thriving forest with birds moving in to feed and nest.
Next time you’re on the train from Wellington look up to your right just after Fisherman’s Table: four years ago that was all bare slope. Take a look at it now and see what lending some free time to things we love doing can achieve.
Now I’m not saying that it’s all sunny mornings and sparkling sea – it’s winter for goodness sake! Sometimes it’s slithery and wet with a biting wind chilling your nether regions as you plant. But if you like green and growing things and like the sound of creating a forest, join us some morning soon to do as much or as little as you like. Planting’s my thing, but talk to people as there’s dozens of other things green we do that might inspire you to lend a hand in other ways. But start with that sunny morning on the hill, it’s pure magic!
Peter Martin