Don’t let all this wonderful rain fool you, the forecast for this Sunday’s working bee is for bright all day sun, and I believe them! As we all know we need rain, and this is one of the pleasures of working in the field of restoration; days like today put a smile on my face! The regular downpours we have had since the November mini drought mean that planting has started early this year and what a start it has been. Paekakariki nursery is beginning to look a bit sparse already and it’s not even June yet. The three weekday working bees I spoke about last week have all gone off without a hitch. We have had so many volunteers crawling over our hills that I even had time to take photos on two of the three days.
Last Thursday Hannah Zwartz brought her horticulture students; Grant, Jonathan, Rueben, Andrew, Grace & Deon, and Supervisors Ari and Steve to the Ho Chi Minh trail. Then on Friday, Mark, Ardis and Annie of Te Ra School brought 35 students from years 4 and 5 back to the Mataihuka. There were about 50 of us up there including Paul Callister and new weekday volunteer Elliabes Lopes. Elliabes recently emigrated from Brazil and is working with us until his work permit comes through, which is great. And finally yesterday, Emma Kim of the Wellington Business School brought Canadian students; Vero, Maya, Sarah, Kate, Alyssa, Emma, Brittany, Marisa, Mike, Sean & supervisor Nancy to the Ho Chi Minh. If these new groups of students are not a one-off event, I’m not going to miss the Global Volunteers quite as much as I thought!
The Te Ra school kids just blew me away this year, they were a real pleasure to host. We didn’t have time to do the preparation we did last year only starting the digging on the morning. Then, these kids came in like seasoned professionals and just did the job. We had 490 trees with us and they all went in. Not only that, it was all done really well so we won’t need any follow up time replanting trees, re-setting the rabbit protections sleeves and removing protection from plants that rabbits don’t eat. Veterans of volunteer days will know the sort of thing that goes awry with large groups; plants half in the ground or planted still in the bags, etc. I think this started happening last year when the boys began sword fights with the bamboo canes and the girls started snail races, but I can’t be sure. I think Te Ra have one more day with us at the end of June when it is Year 3’s turn. I can’t wait!
I imagine all of you 9-5ers are feeling a bit jealous by now but you don’t have to wait long. This Sunday (29 May) Pete McLaughlin will be back on the trail with lots of carpet and a few hundred trees which have been brought to optimum planting condition by the experience and skill of our nursery teams. You won’t even have to carry anything to the site because the young and enthusiastic Canadian volunteers you see in the photos have already done it.
I won’t be there because it’s one of my daughter’s birthdays but it being early season and the sunshine should ensure a good turnout. Elliables will be there and our ‘resident’ photographer, PK, is determined to be there even though he hops of a plane from the UK on Saturday. We also have Susan Englert and friend. Susan’s mother is in the States and has purchased 30 trees to be planted by Susan with us through Greenfleet. http://www.greenfleet.org.nz/ For the past five years the Sustainable Business Network has sponsored some of our planting programme through carbon offset funding. What a great way for people around the world to get connected!
Pete, Tony, PK and others have put in a mammoth effort to clear Sunday’s planting area of weeds this year. The trees that survived the last two or three years are now over head height but not all of what we planted made it. There are large gaps which were until recently full of German ivy, inkweed, fennel and black nightshade. Our aim here is to plant densely to create a low canopy which will shade out the weeds and form a barrier to weed migration further along the escarpment. Success is in sight and, assuming we secure adequate resources, we will keep plugging away until it’s done.
Joe Clarkson
NUKP Field Officer