FRIENDS OF THE FOREST
Tucked into the foothills of the Kaimai Range near Tauranga is a tree lover’s dream that is the result of 52 years of hard graft.
The amazing work put in by the Bay of Plenty Tree Society can be seen here, just a half-hour’s drive from the city. The McLaren Falls Park is administered by Tauranga City Council and features 6km of road, 12km of walking tracks, a visitor centre, camping sites, café, equestrian centre, waterfall, disc golf course and 1600 different taxa of trees planted in 190ha alongside Lake McLaren. Best of all, entry to this arboreal wonderland is free.
Stroll to your heart’s content or enjoy seeing trees from all over the world. For instance, a Chinese cork oak ( Quercus
variabilis) is planted next to a European cork oak ( Quercus suber), while nearby is a coffee tree ( Coffea arabica, Ethiopia) and a row of handkerchief trees ( Davidia
involucrata, China). Park ranger Gary Borman is thrilled that vehicle entries will soon exceed 100,000 a year. “We conservatively estimate three people per vehicle,” he says, “but that doesn’t take into account school visits and minivans. We’re looking at a 45 per cent increase in visitors in two years.”
About 10 Tree Society volunteers meet at the park every Monday afternoon.
They weed, affix ID tags, prune, work in the nursery and, during winter, plant.
Under Gary’s supervision, they have also attempted to GPS plot the park’s trees but, for technical reasons, this has been unsuccessful. Instead, many of the unusual trees have labels fixed to the trunks and this work is on-going.
Society member John Nicholls, a retired nurseryman, has also been using his contacts to source new trees, especially the rare and unusual although, naturally, these are getting harder to find as the collection grows.
So far, the vast collection includes maples, magnolias, ornamental cherries, silver birches, conifers, native trees and some of the large family of evergreen Mexican oaks.
Citrus, apples, pears and plums have gone in by a campsite and picnic area. Visitors are welcome to pick the fruit.
Volunteers have also started propagating from cuttings.
They hope to eventually swap with other specialists and councils.
A new cattle stop is now containing grazing sheep in the back half of the park and volunteers are relishing the chance to plant smaller trees in the front.
“Up to now we’ve had to put netting cages around everything,” says the society’s operations manager Dave Kershaw. “Not having to do that for every tree will speed us up and it will be nice to add some smaller trees to the park.”
Volunteers have absolutely no doubt exactly where McLaren Falls Park ranks among the nation’s arboretums. “Everyone talks about Eastwoodhill, but we have more land, more trees, more evergreens and can grow more tender varieties. And we have a lake,” John says.
“This is a magical place. I often find myself forgetting what I’m supposed to be doing and gazing at the trees instead.”