Newsletter Winter2015

Stuart Park Restoration

Project Winter 2015 A Titahi Bay Community Group Initiative

Hello all tree planters and associates of...

Winter this year started not with a cold thump but a wet dump followed by gale

nor westers. The Wellington mayor rush to call it climate change while the

SPRiG weather team have accessed it as an El Nino event (see back page).

The upside of our El Nino winter has been that all our planting days have been

lovely sunny warm winters days, the downside the poor trees where flattened by

weeks of gale force nor westers. Thankfully Ngaios being the super tree they

are now all upright and away, maybe minus a few leaves.

The count so far is that we have planted 1862 trees with just one last planting

day to get in the stragglers. The Northern Rata are to be planted in July - August

by the Brownies. The site is further south from last years planting.

This year we had the Titahi Bay Scouts attend a planting day. They where a

great team of workers and with

the aid of the post hole borer,

they planted over 500 trees. The

Scouts planted the exposed

rocky ridge at the park

entrance. You could see the

erosion on the ridge, on the pad-

dock side of the fence, plants

were planted in broken orange

rock, the other side, in black soil.

Just looking at the other side of

the fence, the soil is 20+cm

higher. This is from years of the

horses standing around the wa-

ter trough.

We saw and end to infill planting of the gorse cluster. In a few years time, thou-

sands of Ngaio seed will be dropped every year into the gorse below these rows.

We could sit back and watch the natural colonisation of the gorse but that

would be boring! We will probably go back in and plant Kohekohe underneath

the Ngaio canopy in a few years time, fast forwarding the natural cycle of re-

generation.

What's with the SPRiG? Astrid was finish-

ing out off our project documentation and

came up with title SPRiG - Stuart Park Res-

toration Group - .

I think Mr Bumble bee on a sprig of White

Rata would make a great logo...

The residents of MASH trust are going to

assist with nursery work this spring. If any-

one wants to donate to the nursery you

can purchase a $6.50 sack of potting mix

from Bunnings and drop it off at my place.

Support our environment and also assist

with the small amount of money we have

to help go further.

Sarah's boys enjoyed sticking flax into mud....

Don't worry, mum will clean the shirt... (again!)

The spades weighed more then the boys!

The residents of MASH trust get stuck in...

Stuart & his boys...

John Hornblow ph: 2368 624 email: [email protected] web: http://tinyurl.com/mtqun9v

One Year On....

Its vitaly important to keep e a photo record before and during the project.

One year on, lets take a look at what's changed..

Below the arrow is John, cutting the first track through the gorse for planting.

A year later the gorse is still coming out of my shins!

The entrance to the park was just a sea of gorse. Once removed, the site was found to be eroded from years of

horses standing on the ridge by the water trough.

The track into the park was just about to be blocked by encroaching gorse.

The final working bee capping gorse with Ngaio on the park border A year ago there was a single Ngaio in the gorse, there are now over 600!

The MASH team from Runi Heights finish off the first area of mixed planting rather then the gorse blocking we have done up till now.

Thanks heaps for the Spades Ian...

A big thanks to Ana Coffey and Ian from the Village Plan team for pur-

chasing us 16 Atlas Trade all steel planting spades.

Everyone has commented on how efficient planting has been this year,

not having to pick holes through the rocks with old garden spades.

Anyone in the Bay with a planting project is welcome to use these

spades, contact John.

A very proud young man plants his first tree with our new spades.

The spade probably weighted more then the little fella!

Rock Busting

Thanks to the loan of a post hole borer from Peter Gilberd we where

able to bust open planting spots on the eroded ridge at the park

entrance.

Martin first cleared the site with his bush cutter and put a lot of

time into cutting hole though the dreaded Muehlenbeckia vine. This

was to prevent it tangling with the borer.

The borer was highly effective leaving my left hip blue with bruises

from the kickback.

We will probably make use of the tool next year to bust open

planting holes along the rocky costal track.

Book us in Peter!

Fungal diversity in Stuart Park

Both manuka and kanuka are important colonisers of native ecosystems and we intend to plant over 500+ along one of the

eroded ridges over the next few years. The plan is that once established, some rare native herbs that only live under Manuka can

be reintroduced to the park.

One of the tools Manuka and Kanuka have to help with colonising tough sites is Mycorrhizal fungi on their roots.

Mycorrhizal form a network of filaments that associate with plant roots and draw nutrients and water from the soil that they

would not be able to access otherwise. This relationship between fungus and plant stimulates plant growth and accelerates root

development and makes them more resilient to droughts. A small Manuka tree can have up to one kilometre of fine Mycorrhizal

filaments on its roots!

While these fungi have existed since the first plants appeared on dry land more than 450 million years ago are they present in

Stuart Park? On soil that has been disturbed by human activity (in the case of Stuart Park, horse activity), the quantity of

Mycorrhizal decreases drastically. Two years ago a block of Manuka was planted in Whitirea park and in two years they have

made little progress and are not much larger then when planted. Is the soil on that ridge lacking Mycorrhizal fungi?

At this stage the plan is to mix soil collected from under established manuka in Mana with the potting mix when potting up next

years seedlings.

http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/plants-animals-fungi/fungi/distribution-and-ecology/site-restoration

Know your El Nio from our La Nia...

Why was Porirua slammed by gale nor wester and floods at the start

of winter? The SPRiG weather team (Martin & John) say its due to El

Nino conditions in Australia.

During El Nio, New Zealand tends to experience stronger or more

frequent winds from the west, typically leading to drought in east

coast areas and more rain in the west. I say we have had an El Nino

conditions at the start of winter which explains the floods and nor

west gales we experienced while Central Hawkes Bay was asking for

rain!

And the SPRiG weather team predictions for Summer? If the El Nino

conditions don't settle in Australia, non-stop nor westers all summer!

Who needs NIWA? Check out Martins Titahi Bay Weather Station

Or more on El Nino at https://www.niwa.co.nz/El Nino Conditions

Warmer sea temperatures over Aussie = increased westerly air flow over us!