Year: 2008

First Tree Planting Session

Project Rameka -

Saturday 28 June 2008

Yes folks, the first 350-odd trees have gone in the ground, in a gully 50 metres down from the top of the project and around the Lorax Lair clearing. Plants were donated by Murray Drake and Ginny Woods; Myra and Robert Fulton; and Rob Lewis.

Weather the night before had comprised a mixture of hail, thunder and lightening. Excellent! We groaned and curled up into tight balls in our beds, imagining the work party the next day. But unbelievably, the skies cleared to give a perfect (if slightly cool) morning. In all, 14 people turned up for the occasion, which combined planting with bbq-ing (thanks Brent and James for the awesome fire that you got cranking, and Fill and Albie for the sumptuous soup!) and track marking.

Suspecting that such tasty morsels as new native seedlings would be irresistible to all hares from miles around, Matt Shoult went up on dusk to sit quietly just above the planted site. …

We thought this might happen, so we’d taken the precaution of enclosing a section of the planting in a 10 x 10 metre chicken-wire fence, and placed barberry branches for protection around other vulnerable plants not included in the fenced section – well, why not? May as well get some use out of that prick of a pest weed!

Next time, we’ll try and be more co-ordinated and actually advertise the event. It will be interesting to see how many people we can get along then … maybe, if we give enough notice, we’ll even get some Wellingtonians?!

You Need a Deck!

Project Rameka -

… And the happenings just don’t stop.

Murray Drake came to visit the Lorax Lair and wasn’t impressed. “You need a deck!” he declared and promptly donated $200 towards that end. So what could we do? Martin got on the blower to Andy Cole, builder beyond compare, and work started in earnest:

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By morning tea, the planning had been done. What planning?

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Ta-daa!


The Inaugural Committee Meeting

Project Rameka -

The committee is swinging into gear! The first meeting took place at the Wholemeal Cafe. Of course, there’s a lot to be done to get this project up and running smoothly, but this scribe for one has never seen such a capable, enthusiastic committee. If anything needs to be done, this is the crowd to achieve it!

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A Visit from Her Majesty

Project Rameka -

One of the main aims for the next year is to get Project Rameka covenanted. This will give the natural values of the Rameka property legal protection and help consolidate the goals of recreation, forest restoration and carbon sequestration. Hopefully, the legal protection offered by covenanting will also assure potential supporters that we are genuine in our intentions.

Our number one choice for a covenant is the QEII. They have been covenanting areas of land for many years now, and as far as we know, no QEII covenant has yet been overturned.

Philip Lisaman, the Nelson representative came across on a wintery May morning to assess the property. The photo makes it look like a sunny day, but don’t be fooled. At one stage, snow fell on us while we looked over the land.

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And the verdict then?
Philip was absolutely positive about the project. He was extremely impressed by the community involvement and how much had happened already. Way to go, everyone.

The only stumbling block he could see would have to be the 13 hectares of pine trees. We don’t want to be foresters, but the QEII would be even less interested than us in getting involved in a forestry project. Now the challenge is to come up with a really credible, positive and definitive management for those pesky pines to convince the QEII board that we can deal with them without compromising this fantastic project!