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 (s ee 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 paddock 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 water trough.
We saw and end to infill planting of the gorse cluster. In a few years time, thousands 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 regeneration.
What's with the SPRiG? Astrid was finishing out off our project documentation and
came up with title SPRiG - Stuart Park Restoration Group - .
I think Mr Bumble bee on a sprig of White
Rata would make a great logo...

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...

The residents of MASH trust are going to

assist with nursery work this spring. If anyone 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.
John Hornblow
ph:
2368 624
email: John@titahi-bay.co.nz
web: http://tinyurl.com/mtqun9v

Stuart & his boys...

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..

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

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 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 purchasing 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!