Growing greenspace beyond the runway
While it is hard to imagine that the area around Monaco needed beautifying, Nelson Airport has done just that by holding a community tree planting event over the weekend.
Nelson Airport Commercial manager Stephen Batt said 1080 trees were planted at two locations – beside the cycleway south of the Honest Lawyer complex, as well as on Point Rd near the new Airways navigational equipment on the Monaco Peninsula.
A new park bench was also installed on the cycleway.
At its peak, 35 people took part in Saturday’s event, while about 50 people in total showed up throughout the day.
‘‘It was a really good turnout and I think everyone had a good time.’’
Batt said it was determined during the early stages of the new terminal’s development that several trees would need to be removed.
Having spoken with a local arborist and a tree expert at the Nelson City Council, Batt said the airport was told the trees could not be saved as their likelihood of surviving transplanting was minimal
‘‘We decided that since trees and airports don’t go together particularly well, we’d do a planting down on the cycle path,’’ he said.
‘‘It also means the birds tend to be down there rather than [at the airport].’’
Batt said there were plans to install a plaque at the new bench as a dedication to Nelson Airport and cultural exchange organisation Friendship Force, who had previously planted a large number of trees in the cycle way vicin- ity.
While it was unfortunate that some green space had been lost around the airport, Batt said it was all part of the process in ‘‘cre- ating a modern gateway for Nelson’’ – the construction of which was now under way.
‘‘Just looking out of my window today, I can see about four cranes, a couple of diggers and a pumping wagon and somebody lifting some containers around, so it’s all sort of happening at the moment.’’