Future-proofed, a tree at a time
Family project paying off with birdlife and stable soil
Tukituki Land Care (TLC), a farmer-led catchment collective, is encouraging actions that benefit the land across the Tukituki River catchment.
In the Makara subcatchment in Central Hawke’s Bay, the Laugeson family has been busy planting natives and poplars on a 350-hectare farm which they purchased in Elsthorpe in 2015.
Planting is a family affair on this Central Hawke’s Bay farm and Graeme (known to all as Logie) and Kate Laugeson’s children have never been afraid to get their hands dirty.
Phoebe (21), Maddy (19) and Jack (15) have been helping their parents with farm work for as long as they can remember. Although all study away from home, they are back often to help out. Moving stock, shearing, fencing and planting can all be part of a weekend at home.
When the family bought the farm eight years ago, very little planting — other than pine trees — had been done. After the purchase, there was not much money left over, but the dream was there.
“There were shelter belts
with old pines and they just kept falling over. That first year, we got some of them milled and the money we got out of it we put towards fencing and buying natives. It worked out well for us, so everywhere there were pines, we followed the same process,” Logie says.
The kids have been involved since they were young.
“When we were little, it wasn’t that we thoroughly enjoyed planting — we just did it,” says Phoebe, who is studying veterinary science at Massey University. “Now, coming back, I enjoy it a lot more. I am not
sure at what point it changed, but it definitely wasn’t something that we got excited about as kids, that’s for sure.”
“I still don’t get excited about planting poles,” laughs Jack, who helped his father plant 400 poplar poles this year.
“Now though, when we walk through the bush we know the names of all the trees because we are so used to planting them, and that’s pretty cool,” adds Phoebe.
Maddy, who is in her first year studying agribusiness and food marketing at Lincoln, has spent the last few days planting natives. “We have just
spot sprayed and filled in gaps around a dam that we planted up last year,” she says. “I have been planting a bit of everything — lots of pittosporums, flaxes and lancewoods. I take
the jabrador with me, put some music on and it’s actually pretty fun.”
The kids were introduced to planting at their local primary school in Elsthorpe.
“We had school shade houses and would do planting days at the native reserve next to the school and on a local farm,” Phoebe recalls.
The Laugesons are on a
mission to fence off and plant one dam each year.
“We have quite a few to do,” says Logie. “If you are going to fence them, you have to do it 100 per cent because, if you get a drought, the stock are going to try and get in. We have about four or five on the go and next year we will fence another one.
“It is a lot of time and money, but sometimes I have my smoko by the yards and look around and think, ‘Well, there was not a tree here when we got here’.”
“I now see tui flying around and think, ‘They never used to be here.”’
Two years ago they created a wetland on the property.
“The area was all swamp
and rushes so we fenced it off. We had a digger here for two weeks digging it out,” Logie says.
“We teed in the overflow from a nearby dam, which acts as a silt trap before it flows through the wetland and into the creek. Last year, Phoebe planted 200 carex on the bank all the way along to stop the erosion.”
The Laugesons are making plans to set up a poplar pole nursery next year and are seeking advice from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Every year they plant poplars on the farm to help with erosion. “Anywhere we can’t work, we plant poles,” says Logie.
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawke’s Bay in February, they
were able to see the benefits of the pole planting.
“Where we planted all the poplar poles the land definitely held better,” says Logie. “The stuff we missed has gone down the gully. There is no doubt the poles made a difference.”
The children have been helping their parents plant poles for many years. “I remember we had to carry around a little ladder to plant the poles as we were so short,” laughs Maddie.
The planting project has not been without challenges: many plants were lost during two particularly severe Hawke’s Bay droughts. Cyclone Gabrielle also brought challenges but, luckily, not too much damage to this farm.
Tukituki Land Care recently awarded a $10,000 grant to the Makara Catchment Group for a stocktake on the current state of the catchment, including environmental management challenges and opportunities.
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To find out more about Tukituki Land Care go to www.tukituki landcare.org.