TRIP REPORT : Hutt River Riparian plantings

 Saturday 31 August 2002 :   The first monitoring of the Hutt River riparian plantings.

BotSoccers may remember reading in the May issue of the Newsletter, about the joint Wellington Regional Council and BotSoc planting trials of selected native species alongside the Hutt River.   BotSoc is very appreciative that Council bought the plants recommended by us, and Council staff did most of the planting.

One of the four proposed sites, a rockline, was withdrawn from the trials as being unsuitable, leaving one opposite Maoribank, one at Taita Gorge and one at Avalon.   Two hundred and fifty plants per site were put in during July and August.

Steve Murphy and ecologist Ian Atkinson. - Photo: Barbara Mitcalfe.

This workbee was an “extra” on our BotSoc programme.   Seventeen BotSoccers and WRC Operations Support Engineer Steve Murphy spent 4 hours measuring and assessing the condition of the 750 plants.   This data-collecting exercise will be repeated at the same time every year till 2006, when the overall results will be analysed.

At each site, 50 plants of five different riparian species were planted, on a 1 metre grid pattern.   At the site opposite Maoribank, the line nearest the river was Phormium tenax, next line back, Phormium cookianum, next line, Cortaderia fulvida, then Podocarpus totara, and lastly Plagianthus regius.   At the Taita Gorge site, the front line was Dicksonia squarrosa, then Pittosporum tenuifolium, then Pittosporum eugenioides, then Plagianthus regius, then Podocarpus totara.   At the Avalon site, the first three rows were as for Taita, but the last two rows were reversed.   Half of this site had 2-year pole willows already planted over half of it, so it will be interesting to see how well the natives fare in that matrix.   All three sites are susceptible to scouring, flooding, and regrettably, theft.

The party worked efficiently in pairs.   Special thanks to Steve Murphy for attending our workbee.

Participants: Ian Atkinson (co-leader), Stan Butcher, Barbara Clark, Rae Collins, Jenny Dolton, Peter Dunstan, Jill Goodwin, Chris Horne, Gordon Leary, Sheelagh Leary, Rodney Lewington, Brett Lindsay, Barbara Mitcalfe (co-leader), Darea Sherrat,Steve Murphy, Patricia Tankersley, Diane Wallis, Julia White, Jane Wright, (Apology: Sunita Singh)

Barbara Mitcalfe