Plant a Tree - or Two!
Winter is tree planting season and across the city volunteers are getting stuck in.
I don't think that I've ever seen such a list of community planting events as this winter.
While we have many parks and reserves that have had ongoing work for decades, such as Styx, the Summit Road Society or the tiny forest at King George V Reserve in Huntsbury, there are so many more popping up all the time.
The Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor has been 'growing' for nearly a decade with increasing numbers of areas being planted and increasing numbers of volunteers helping.
On the Port Hills old reserves have new energy and new areas are being planted and there's a focus on fire resistant plantings in areas near homes, which is great to see.
Recently our community board approved the extension of the leased areas of Charlesworth Reserve to Trees for Canterbury to extend their nursery by a third to cater for the demand for eco-sourced seedlings and the CCC nursery is doing likewise.
There are 40 000 kahitatea planned for the Cranford Basin, with many in already and the new Avoca Valley Linda Woods Reserve, will have 80 000 podocarps planted over the next few years.
The Rod Donald Trust was set up by CCC to do this work across Banks Peninsula and have been incredibly successful. Their latest project Te Ahu Pātiki, is the purchase of Mts Herbert and Bradley for native regeneration and has been well supported by the public.
Trees and shrubs provide us with so many benefits - from biodiversity and ecosystem health, waterway health, erosion control, shade and cooling our streets, mental health, wellbeing and visual amenity, carbon sequestration and of course, something for kids to climb.
If you'd like to get involved have a look at the CCC website for planting events that park rangers support, or check out the Facebook events section. Here are a few links (happy to add more if you send them through!):
Volunteer in parks : Christchurch City Council (ccc.govt.nz)
SUMMIT ROAD SOCIETY - Summit Road Society
Avon Otakaro Forest Park | Get Involved (aofp.co.nz)
Travis Wetland – Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park
Drayton Reserve Volunteers | Introduction
Mahoe-nui Planting | Forest and Bird
Conservation Volunteers New Zealand
To plant a tree is to act for our future. Let's do more of it.
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