McGlashan pupils work on tracks
JOHN McGlashan students rolled up their sleeves to clean up tracks in a section of Naseby Forest last week.
Head of physical education Tom Casey said students had attended mountain biking camps in the forest for many years and wanted to give something back as a ‘‘thank you’’.
Naseby mountain biking guide and track builder Kila Hepi said three groups of 15 boys were involved in clearing and reinstating tracks after trees were felled.
‘‘One group cleared all the scrub, the next group cleared some of the felled trees and reinstated a new track and then the [other] group reinstated the end part of the Hard Left track,’’ he said.
Mr Hepi said having 45 workers made ‘‘a lot of difference’’.
Mr Hepi said trees were felled last year, leaving behind roots, and the terrain became soggy.
‘‘It is a lot of work reinstating tracks, because [there is] no canopy, no tree roots, everything is a lot wetter, so a lot of work to get them reinstated.’’
‘‘But we are making them good and wide, so that we’ve got room for improvement,’’ he said.
The tracks would be in position for around 30 years, Mr Hepi said.
He worked closely with Ernslaw One, the logging company that owned the forest, to create mountain biking tracks within areas of the forest where trees were being grown, moving tracks to new areas when trees were scheduled to be felled.
There were now about 50km to 60km of tracks in the Naseby Forest, Mr Hepi said.