By the end of this spring, Whakatipu Reforestation Trust volunteers will have grown and planted over 70,000 native trees and shrubs around the Whakatipu Basin — the results of which are already evident.
Trust ops manager Karen O’Donahoo says the growth at keystone sites around the Whakatipu, like Arrow Junction’s Whitechapel Reserve, Kelvin Heights’ Jardine Park and Morningstar Reserve, at Arthurs Point, since the replanting programme started in 2015, is ‘‘impressive’’.
‘‘[It] clearly demonstrates the power of collective action to have a major impact on our natural environment.’’
The 2022 spring planting season will see another 5000 plants go into public land during the trust’s ‘‘drop-in style’’ planting days, the first of which will be held this Saturday, from 9am till noon, at Whitechapel Reserve.
O’Donahoo says 1500 new plants will go in there, taking the total number of natives at the site to more than 16,000.
The Hilton Queenstown team’s providing morning tea for vollies, and the planting day will finish with a community sausage sizzle.
Two other planting days are also scheduled next month — on September 10, at Bush Creek, behind the Chinese Village, and on September 17 at Mill Creek Tributary on Slopehill Road, accessed off Speargrass Flat Rd.
Both days will run from 9am till noon.
Any keen vollies are asked to bring a long-handled shovel, if they have one, gardening gloves, hats, boots and water.
For more information visit wrtqt.org.nz/get-involved, or see the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust’s Facebook page.
