The benefits Wairarapa has received as part of a recent initiative by Greater Wellington Regional Council [GWRC] has included the planting of 34,850 native plants in and around the region’s coastal wetlands .
With the help of green-thumbed landowners, schools, and community groups, GWRC has managed to plant 922,000 seedlings – 80 per cent of which were native species – throughout the greater Wellington region in parks, wetlands, rivers, and erosion-prone land during the past winter.
“Planting nearly a million trees in a few months is a restoration effort of extraordinary scale, but together, we’ve adorned Papatūānuku [Mother Earth] in a magnificent million-tree cloak,” GWRC Environment Committee chair Penny Gaylor said.
“A forest is a community – rich with diversity and connections – much like our local communities. Our community planting days were hugely successful, where everyone came together in the name of Papatūānuku.”
According to Rachel Scanlan of Masterton’s Akura Plant Nursery, exotic species such as willows and poplar are the best choice to prevent hill country erosion.
“They grow quickly, producing vast root networks that bind soil and prevent mass movement. In some areas, exotics are planted with natives to provide shelter – a kind of natural nursery for the slower-growing natives,” Scanlan said.
“Indigenous species take one to three years to grow from seed to seedling. Here in the Wairarapa, 89 per cent of the seeds we collate are eco-sourced, which means seeds are collected, germinated, and returned as plants to their original area.
“Eco-sourced or locally-grown trees mean the seedlings grow well in local conditions and enrich the biodiversity rather than replace it.”
In total, GWRC has contributed:
362,300 more native plants in Wellington’s regional parks;
34,850 more native plants in and around Wairarapa Moana wetlands;
282,400 more plants preventing hill country erosion across the region;
64,000 more native plants enhancing our river management and flood protection systems;
135,700 more native plants on private land, complementing river care, biodiversity and land retirement initiatives led by landowners.
GWRC received funding from its sources, including its Low Carbon Acceleration Fund, the government’s Climate Emergency Response Fund, the One Billion Trees programme, and the resources of private landowners.
