We’ve planted 30,000 trees at the Oruatua Recreation Reserve since 2014!
This is awesome but we need to give these trees some help to make sure they flourish. We need to Release Each plant so it can survive AND thrive!
A Totara can live for 900 years, but not if it gets smothered by weeds in the first 6 months. We have a small dedicated team of volunteers, but there are a LOT of trees to release!
We need your help!
Some people plant, some people donate time & EXpertise, some people donate funds - Altogether it all makes a difference!
To continue to progress the project sustainably we need $25,000 per year. We have applied for grant funding to support the work but we will need to top it up - that is where you come in! $20 would allow us to release 20 plants and $100 will clear 100 plants. This is a multi-year project, so if you are in a position to donate annually that would be incredibly awesome because it allows for us to plan ahead. Project Tongariro is a nonprofit charitable trust so all donations are tax deductible. If you are able and willing any time you can spend on the ground helping would be welcomed too.
Our Progress - Before and After
September 2016
August 2017
September 2017
September 2021
About the Project
Shirley Potter, an active volunteer with an intense disklike of pests, along with her partner Ardy, has been waging a quiet war against pests and weeds. Starting out with predator trap lines in the reserve in 2007 the restoration work began in 2014. Through sheer force of will (and a good amount of baking!) they have managed to bring vibrancy and birdsong back to the Tauranga- Taupo region and are gleefully doing it with a small but determined group of local residents and firm friends.
“WE ARE CLEARING WEEDS AND PLANTING APPROXIMATELY 6000 PLANTS OVER 2 HECTARES PER YEAR AT TAURANGA-TAUPO. THE COMMUNITY PLANTING DAYS ARE A GREAT SUCCESS AND THE HELP IS HIGHLY VALUED, HOWEVER, THAT’S THE ‘EASY’ PART OF THE RESTORATION PROCESS. KEEPING THE PLANTS FREE OF WEEDS, RELEASING, IS REQUIRED FOR 3 TO 4 YEARS TO ENSURE THAT THEY NOT ONLY SURVIVE BUT THRIVE” SAYS SHIRLEY.
As we plant 6000 trees per year our small crew of volunteers cannot keep up with the exponentially growing task. Funding, that you can assist with, will allow for the employment of part-time staff to supplement the work of volunteers.
The restoration site is on public conservation land, part of the Oruatua Recreation Reserve, and beside the Tauranga-Taupo River. It is near SH1 about 10 minutes north of Turangi. Parts of the reserve were farmed in the late 1960s following the removal of kanuka for firewood. The farmer walked off in the early 1970s and the land was left for a raft of invasive weeds to run riot. Weeds have been cleared and native trees planted across approximately four hectares - there are ten hectares left to restore.
Following the planting of trees, it is necessary to remove competing weeds to ensure newly planted plants have a better chance of survival. Careful hand releasing also ensures that self-sown native seedlings can be cared for. This job needs to be done for the three years following until the plants have a chance to form a canopy and weeds can’t compete. This is key to the success of the restoration. Unfortunately, there are not enough volunteers to do this work. We already contribute at least 2000 volunteer hours each year at this site.
To initially prepare the land a local contractor (Bryan Lawrance) drives his tractor through the weedy mess to create access so we can carry out spraying from the back of a ute. Once the weeds are dead Bryan comes back with his tractor and mulches the dead material into the soil. We have funding from the Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust (WCEET) for two more years of this land preparation. All spraying is done voluntarily by Nick Singers and Shirley Potter who are both Grow Safe certified. Our plants are purchased from the Tongariro Prison nursery and we assist with seed collection each year. Te Uru Rakau have kindly funded our trees for the last two years and have committed to the next two years of planting, at one hectare per year (we are finding extra funds to plant two hectares per year). Our desire is to have the remaining ten hectares restored in the next 6 -10 years.
The reserve is being changed from a weed-infested area to a magnificent regenerating native forest amongst existing native trees. Biodiversity has received an enormous boost since predator trapping began in 2007. Kereru numbers have been steadily rising, with 14 seen recently, popokatea (white heads) are now in seen flocks daily. Most exciting are the numbers of miromiro (tomtits), they arrived late 2019 and have successfully bred. Birds can always be seen and heard in the reserve. We have had occasional visits from a Toutouwai (robin) but they have yet to gain permanent residency, hopefully one day soon!
