Forest restoration is the core business of Project Rameka, so it was great to have another good turn out for the Saturday morning tree planting session. There were two goals, first to plant 20 Northern Rata (supplied by Project Crimson) and then to start planting fast growing native trees beside Rameka Road.
Many hands make light work, and the tree planting was no exception. All thanks due to Fil and Albie, Derek, Frankie, Chris, Derrie, Jonathan, Bronnie, Patrick, and Ricky.
Tuesday was set aside for track design with Ricky Ward, Jonathan and Bronnie. The main task was to continue an easy track from the historic Rameka Track down to Rameka Creek. There are plenty of steep slopes at Project Rameka, which we were keen to avoid, so a lot of time was spent walking back and forth with a clinometer, measuring the terrain and finding the easiest way down hill.
By the end of the day, we had marked out another 500 metres of gently sloping track that avoided native trees and rocky terrain.
Forest restoration can be a smelly business, so thank goodness Martin and friends have installed an outdoor bath! And what a luxury it seems after a hard days’ work to soak away with the stars above and Golden Bay below. But be warned, getting the temperature just right is not easy. A cold bucket of water nearby is essential.
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?!
Ok, so it can get cold in the winter, but this cold… By crickey!
Apparently the big dump at the beginning of July 2008 was one of the biggest in living memory.
