‘Create future taonga nursery’
A puny ko¯whai from Caroline Bay placed beside one grown from seed sourced in the North Island’s central plateau paints a grim picture, a Timaru man says.
Aaron Wilson-Jones would like a community nursery established in Timaru, where native plants could be nurtured before being replanted in public spaces to foster the ‘‘inter-generational regeneration’’ of South Canterbury’s biodiversity.
‘‘We need to all paddle in the same direction to create biodiversity for the future generations,’’ he said.
Wilson-Jones said he could go down any road or river in the country and find a space that would benefit from the healing impact of native plants – from Patiti Point, to the Highfield Golf Course, to the base of Mt Dobson.
‘‘If we plant a totara tree which has been eco-sourced, a Peel Forest totara, and grow that seed and plant it in a public space – at maturity, which could be 700 to 900 years, we have taken part in the creation of a natural heritage site in Aotearoa New Zealand.
‘‘We have created a taonga for future generations.’’
Wilson-Jones appealed to the Timaru District Council to allow him to go into these areas to plant.
He pointed to the council paying the Government more than $900,000 in carbon credits in 2019, when that money would have been better spent to ‘‘plan our biodiversity strategy or other carbon-sink projects’’.
‘‘But how do our people in South Canterbury restore our areas if we’re not allowed to go onto our land and plant a single tree?
Until we have a place to go, we don’t have a single thing,’’ WilsonJones said.
Council parks and recreation manager Bill Steans said they did not have much surplus land to release.