Volunteer Army heads for the hills
It was a good idea to send the Student Volunteer Army onto the steep slopes of Christchurch’s Avoca Valley. Planting natives in this arduous terrain suited the young and hearty.
The university students had to grub ‘‘benches’’ out of the mountainside – small, flat platforms into which the trees were planted.
The Port Hills are hot and dry in summer and autumn and the benches would hopefully capture more of whatever rain falls, John Marsh of the Summit Road Society said. It was a lot more work than planting natives in the flat and soft red zone. Slipperier too.
The students got about 275 natives into the ground last Saturday afternoon.
Society secretary Marie Gray said the group had planted about 16,500 natives so far this year and hoped to get another 12,500 into the ground before year’s end.
The vast bulk of those were the work of Wai-Ora – the non-profit native nursery and landscaping contractor. Its staff have been busy on the more remote and steep areas of Avoca Valley, which overlooks industrial Woolston.
The society’s current programme covers about 38 hectares of the 233 hectare reserve. Eventually, they’ll plant 90,000 natives.
The society bought the land – formerly Tussock Farm, now Linda Woods Reserve – in 2018 and expected to slowly plant a new podocarp hardwood forest. But then the pandemic happened and the Department of Conservation rolled out the Jobs for Nature scheme.
The society got $650,000 in funding over three years, and most of it goes to providing jobs through Wai-Ora. Gray said DOC expected the society to partially match the funding and it had raised an ‘‘extraordinary’’ $276,000 so far.
Another $36,000 is required and the society’s Givealittle page needs some love.
All of the Linda Woods Reserve is protected by a QEII covenant and can never be developed. The main risk was now fire, Gray told a conservation event in June.
Fire breaks have been built into the planting plan, including along Summit Rd, even though the portion bordering the reserve is still closed.
The society allows sheep to graze much of the reserve, also as fire mitigation. Sheep don’t eat ka¯ nuka, which is why that species is favoured in the current plantings.
In about 10 years, when the ka¯ nuka have matured, they will provide shade for a new generation of infill plantings, Gray she said.
The Summit Road Society doesn’t have the money for that – and the DOC money is running out.
But that’s OK. Reforesting the reserve was a ‘‘job for the generations’’, said Gray.