New trees to revive burned hills

Young gardeners braved wintry weather to help revive the scorched remains of Christchurch’s Port Hills on Saturday.

A 30-strong group from the Student Volunteer Army gathered to lend a hand returning native tree life to the Ohinetahi Bush Reserve.

The restoration project targeted the hardest hit section of the hills ravaged by fire in February.

Students joined university biology lecturers and the Summit Road Society, some who had tended to the land for several years, to plant over 750 native and locally sourced trees, including pittosporum and yellow kowhai seedlings.

Once grown, it would form a metropolis for wildlife and add a burst of colour to the once blackened landscape.

Student leader Emma Pratt said the second organised planting event kick-started the daunting process of bringing life back to the hills.

An estimated 1645 hectares were destroyed in the fire, and 83 of them were in the reserve owned by the Summit Road Society, where more than 1 kilometre of fencing also needed to be replaced.

The eco system had rejuvenated well and new plants had started sprouting, Pratt said.

At the first official meet last month 1000 trees were planted.

The goal was to reach 5000 before October.

‘‘I’ve always walked tracks,’’ Pratt said.

The students would plant more than 2000 of the trees, with the rest distributed to volunteer projects which local groups could ‘‘adopt’’.

Maintaining the shrubs and weeding would be critical in the plants’ success and the focus would move more towards this once the planting was complete, Summit Road Society secretary John Goodrich said.

It was ‘‘really heart-warming’’ to see the community support to these get the reserve back on its feet, he said.

Goodrich was thrilled with the progress over the weekend, but acknowledged there was a long way to go, especially with the three-month time crunch.

‘‘We’ve got an obligation to turn the tide where a lot of the land was cleared and bring it back and get the rest of these trees in before the end of winter to give them the best chance of taking.’’

He applauded those who came along despite the chilly conditions.

‘‘It was cold and damp, and the tracks very, very steep, muddy and tiring but it was very successful.

‘‘It was a fantastic effort and a really good start.’’

Police are appealing for information to help identify a man who may have been dead in the Kaituna River, near Rotorua, for days. The man was found by kayakers about 3pm on Saturday, downstream from the Okere Falls bridge on State Highway 33. Police do not yet know how the man came to be in the water or how he died. Police believe he may have been in the water for a number of days or longer.

A motorcyclist died after a collision with a car near the coastal Waikato town of Kawhia on Saturday. The crash happened about 2.50pm on State Highway 31 - also known as Kawhia Road - near the intersection with Harbour Road in Hauturu.