Some years ago, Council carried out an inspirational wetland restoration in the lower Kauri Glen Reserve, upstream of Woodside Ave, Northcote. Willows were removed, weeds controlled, and the area has flourished since. I have been eyeing up the downstream Woodside to Lake Rd stretch of the Kauri Glen stream, below this area, for some years for restoration, and when Forest & Bird did not have a big planting planned for Tuff Crater this year (the Crater is almost fully planted), I thought that now was the time. Forest & Bird North Shore Branch were supportive and planning started in 2018 with a site visit by Dan Marrow, Parks Officer, who was on board straight away. We arranged for Wildlands to prepare a stream restoration plan and Dan engaged them to do stage one weed control, with us preparing a suitable plant list. The stage one area covers the first 100 or so metres of the stream below Woodside Ave, which has significant willow, pampas, and a few scattered privet. We decided not to “nuke” the area and plant into the live willow weed. This option was chosen to minimise chemical use and to maintain some vegetation on the wider flood plain to help prevent erosion and hence maintain water quality. This experiment will be interesting to follow as some of the grasses will need releasing as the willow weed thrives over summer. The pampas were sprayed and scrub cut, and a selection of willows will be drilled in the coming growing season.
The Pest Free Kaipatiki (PFK) team came on board early in 2020, seeing an opportunity to engage the local community and help develop the Kauri Glen Halo, a concept of predator and weed control in the properties in the catchment to protect the highly treasured Kauri Glen Reserve at the centre. Predator control in kauri reserves is now very difficult as we weigh up the risk to kauri from people entering the bush. We met at Northcote College in June with Annie and Fiona from PFK, teachers Sean and Jane from the College, Norman from St. Mary’s School, Edmund a fresh water fish enthusiast, and Bob and Helen from the Kauri Glen Bush Society. We developed a plan to engage the community with 400 flyers funded by Council, delivered by Northcote College. We also planned displays on the day for fish, kauri dieback and trapping, and Forest & Bird planned to put on kai. Forest & Bird Youth Auckland signed up to help as well, advertising the event to their members. I visited the two local businesses some weeks before to get approval to use their parking areas on the day.
On the Friday before the planting day, I had some communications with Fiona from PFK, Prayag from Forest & Bird Youth, and the Wildlands team who were engaged to help on the day to lay out the plants and clean up. We were anxious as the day approached as several fronts were forecast and we knew it would not be a blue sky day! Flooding of the stream was our major concern. Plans were made for a phone tree if we needed to postpone to Sunday. Pressure for Saturday was high as the PFK team were launching their Citizen Science programme on Sunday and would not be available. In the end, the forecast was for showers but these were unlikely to cause flooding.
On Friday afternoon I met Paul at Tuff Crater to load up my trailer with gloves, fertiliser, hi viz, first aid kit, spades, signs, barrows, gazebo, tables and 2 wheelbarrows. These were parked in my driveway ready for a quick getaway in the morning. We had heavy rain overnight, alarms rang at 6.15, and happily the weather looked fairly benign. Fiona and I met Geoff from Scrubgrowers and Chris and Jade from Wildlands at the site at 7am to offload and position 1400 fine plants. By 9am all plants were in position ready to plant. We had gloves out, fertiliser and 40 or so spades ready.
Annie, Jem, Marion, Jocelyn, Anne and others set up the PFK trailer, 4 gazebos, 5 tables, and a veritable feast for morning tea. Annie had the sign in sheets organised and displays were set up. At 9am about 30 keen planters and lots of children were welcomed, brought up to speed with safety and given planting demos. Volunteers came from Northcote Rotary, St. Marys School, Northcote College, PFK, Forest & Bird, Forest & Bird Youth and Kauri Glen Bush Society. People came from as far away as Glendowie, Epsom and Orewa. The dull day probably kept a few of the uncommitted in bed!
By 11am more than 50 volunteers were well engaged, all 1400 plants were beautifully planted and the site was already looking “a million dollars”. We had planted carex virgata, carex lessoniana, cyperus ustulatus, harakeke, kahikatea, lacebark, mahoe, kohuhu, karo, nikau, manuka, miro, kohekohe, puriri and more. Some who arrived late missed out on planting but were entertained by the great displays. A huge pile of debris was also removed from the stream – another job to ask Auckland Council to remove this.
We were grateful for the gazebo shelter as a heavy squall came through while we enjoyed our coffee and kai. In no time at all it was time to wash the spades, pack up the gear and vacate after a very successful event. Thanks to everyone who helped out on the day and to John who helped me return all the gear to our Tuff Crater container. The gloves went home for Karen to wash and sort again.
The Woodside to Lake Road restoration will be a three year project, with a need for ongoing weed control. The plan cost about $2500 and stage one cost about $10,000, all funded by the Kaipatiki Local Board through the Community Parks team. This is in addition to all the volunteer time and input from the PFK professional team. This is a significant Council investment in our environment for which we are very grateful. Planning for stage two will commence shortly with another site visit and securing of funding for weed control and planting in 2021. The Forest & Bird team will arrange at least two work days at the site over summer to ensure our plants are not smothered by weeds. It is our hope that the Kauri Glen Bush Society and Halo will be strengthened by this event as new volunteers get involved in protecting and enhancing the natural treasures in the catchment.
Richard Hursthouse, Tuff Crater Restoration Team Leader
8 August 2020
Forest & Bird North Shore Branch 