26 November 2012

It’s hard to sit at an office desk in Wellington and receive regular email reminders of Wedneday night workparties at Project Rameka. Very hard. All the images of sun and long grass and the purr of knobbly tyres down a dusty track come flooding in and can leave you hankering to get down there and join the fun. The last week of November; things were a little quieter in the city, and the lure proved too hard to resist.

This trip followed a familiar and enjoyable format:
Spring is an important time for plant growth – and that includes the weeds. The first two days on the Project saw all hands on deck releasing the natives from long grass, biddy-bid and other choking weeds.

Just to remind us all how important releasing is, and how much the trees can achieve when they have the space to grow, Jonathan took the following photo of Bronnie heading past some wineberry and lemonwood that were planted by Corrina and Patrick Ward in 2009. Three years old, and these natives have really added to the experience of riding Great Expectations. No wonder Bronnie is smiling!

And because Great Expectations is riding so nicely, it seemed appropriate to add in a bit of spring cleaning maintenance work to the track. Bronnie swept loose rock away from the switchbacks, while Ricky and Frank built up the edges into a fine rock wall.

Tim Galloway joined in, helping tidy the short Kaikomako Walk near the hut, named for the kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa) trees that abound in the area.

This time, we also treated ourselves to an outing, joining in the celebrations for opening the initial stage of the Takaka Walking and Cycling Track along the Takaka River edge from Paines Ford. And an elegant piece of track it surely is! Hats off to all involved in designing and constructing such a fine trail.

28 April 2012
Anzac Day had been and gone, and it was time to spruce up Great Expectations in preparation for some good autumn mountain biking.

The main focus was on track maintanence and upgrading sections that had deteriorated with time and use. This translated to a fair amount of track widening and clearing off-putting loose rocks from the track.
It wasn’t long before people’s attentions focussed in on one particular corner. The section where stage 1 of Great Expectations had jumped out on to the road, at the slip point was now more or less redundant. The slip had confirmed that, but more to the point, Great Expectations now continued in wide swoops right down to the valley. In future, the short-cut out to the road would be reinstated, but for now, the focus was on inproving the flow of the main track – Great Expectations.

Over two hours, four to six eager workers built up a sweet sweeping berm that would have cyclists spinning down and onwards without a pause.

At the same time, Paul Kilgour led a hardy group in planting out 50 totara around the sunny ridged area of the berm. This would lead the corner to be nicknamed Totara Berm, a name that would stick.

23 April 2012
Four months since the big slips, and it’s time to check out exactly how we’re placed. Jonathan went to assess the head of the slip site with committee member Matt Shoult.

Ok, so they were able to get to the top, but things didn’t look pleasant up there.

There seemed to be a chunk of land cut away at the top that was just waiting to slide further down.
The slip covered about 1 hectare in area, and we had lost 200-300 seedlings and several short sections of track. The track could be rebuilt, and new plants could be put in the ground, but the possibility of another slip occurring loomed large.

We realised we needed help. Jonathan phoned the Tasman District Council and sought advice from the experts. Resource scientist Andrew Burton was brilliant. He came out and gave the site a thorough assessment:

“Tree species are required to control the gully and slip erosion processes. Council has available suitable poplar planting material. I would be happy to provide that material free of charge for the purpose of slip planting. … 400-500 plants may be required for the complete area. The planting material we provide is unrooted 1m cuttings that can be put in with a light crowbar so they are easy and quick to plant. Not all of the slip face can be planted because there is nothing to plant into (its rock) and some planting will be required adjacent to the slip area as well”

Poplars weren’t quite what we were hoping for a revegetation project, but the practicalities of controlling a dangerous slip site won out. And besides, poplars would do very nicely in carbon sequestration, and we worked out that once they were established and had stabilised the ground enough, we could come through, thin them, and set in some natives to take over.

On a brighter note, plants in the unaffected areas were beginning to take off.

That lemonwood had been planted three years ago on the edge of the road. It didn’t seem to mind the harsh condititons of roadside life!

And there was even time to tidy up around the Lorax Lair, with Bronnie smartening up the inside of the toilet with a lick of paint in a smart cream colour, making it a salubrious spot to hang out.

28 December 2011

After a great pre-Christmas track opening and plant releasing stint, Jonathan and Bronnie left the Project buzzing and headed back to Wellington for a relaxing Christmas. Desolate at their departure, the rain began to fall … and fall … and fall.

The Rameka valley was one of the worst affected areas.  A slip developed on the land above the main road heading through the Project. It rolled over the road and down into what had become known as “kahikatea gully” and there it gained momentum.

Kahikatea gully had been well planted out with a huge variety of trees, not least being a number of kahikatea, which had thrived in the narrow cool glutch at the base of the gully. The “midpoint” exit from Great Expectations crossed the gully and popped out onto the road just to the downward side. The slip took out this exit point and the majority of the plantings. It continued its downward trajectory, gaining momentum as it flowed.

What had been a fairly innocuous random stream – sometimes flowing, sometimes disappearing underground, was now a deep gouge all the way down to the Rameka Creek. Grey, clogging silt smothered everything. Random snippets of green plastic plant guard and bamboo plant markers poked out at different points along the way.

Further down valley, the tracks One Click and Two Click were basically annihilated. Disheartening.

But not for long! Within days, people were eager to be back on their bikes and were talking of ways to repair the tracks.