Rata Trek: icon tree battles ‘northern cousin’ onslaught

By MICHAEL KOPP

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Dave Holey, front, and a band of hardy Wellington Botanical Society members pause for lunch in the brilliant glory of the huge old rata at St Paul’s church in Waiwhetu Road.   They were in the middle of an 11km tramp across the Hutt Valley from western hills to eastern hills and back again, looking at some of the 75-100 native rata remaining in the valley.

THERE’S AN old native Christmas tree growing anew and blooming in the Hutt Valley, and four hardy souls took an 11km jaunt last Saturday to the best specimens of the crimson-covered rata trees.

Dave Holey, a Hutt member of the Wellington Botanical Society, led the rata-walk, to look at about two dozen trees or groups of trees, from Percy’s Reserve on the western hills to Hayward’s Reserve on the eastern hills.

Mr Holey is a champion of the rata, which is found in two varieties, northern and southern.   He says rata once covered the Hutt and all of the Wellington region.   But the coming of people, both Maori and, later Pakeha settlers, changed the land and brought the rata’s more prolific cousin from the north, the pohutukawa, which was not native to Wellington. The only other substantial stands of native rata are in the Wainuiomata catchment.

Mr Holey said there are only about 72 remaining native rata in the valley, though there are many plantings.   “Pohutukawa never grew this far south on their own.   Rata are the underdogs of the valley’s tree world,” he said.   Amongst approximately 50 tree species found in the valley, Mr Holey said, rata are outnumbered by pohutukawa about a thousand to one.

“Northern rata used to form a very substantial component of Wellington ecosystems but they were logged and burnt by the thousand.   Possums find them very palatable and can browse them to death within two years.   Since 1999, northern rata has been the subject of a DOC restoration programmes in the Wellington Region.”   DOC has planted 1,500 rata on Mana Island off Porirua, and more on Matiu-Somes Island, in Wellington Harbour.

He said his interest in rata trees stems from the work of the Department of Conservation and Project Crimson, the destruction and potential destruction of many trees, and the potential for propagating rata (Metrosideros robusta, the northern, and possibly M. umbellata, the southern), instead of pohutukawa (M. excelsa).

But despite efforts like Project Crimson, a national society for the preservation and promotion of pohutukawa and rata, the pohutukawa is considered a ‘weed’, or ‘trash-tree’, by many both here and in other parts of the world where they have been introduced, such as in South Africa.

Taken over

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ISLAND OF RED :   Like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’s beacon in a forest of green, this eastern hills northern rata seems to be proclaiming the reclaiming of its natural range and heritage, once all of the Wellington region.   It can be seen from the end of Birdwood Avenue, Lower Hutt.

Pohutukawa, says Mr Holey, “have taken over the Hutt Valley”.   A few notable rata trees remain, such as the one in Daly Street in the central business district, preserved by an agreement between the city council and a land owner.

There’s a very large, very old tree near St Paul’s Anglican Church in Waiwhetu Road.   That tree is the only rata in the valley which is on the district scheme protected list.

The Botanical Society trek – Saturday’s 11km was a lot more than a walk, but everyone seemed fit and making good progress – covered only a small part of the range of rata in the valley, mainly across the main section of Hutt City from hills to hills.   But rata are found nearly down to Petone foreshore and as high up the valley as Taita, and even Haywards.   The most southerly tree is at 174 Hutt Road, the only known southern rata.

Mr Holey is happy the city council is planting rata around the valley.   He wants to see people plant rata, instead of pohutukawa, everywhere.   So the lower Hutt Valley may one day look like it did a century ago.

• RATA TOUR: For those who would like to take a good long hike around the valley in search of rata trees, Dave Holey’s list of most of them, in order of an itinerary, can be found at www.wellingtonbotsoc.wellington.net.nz/articles/2003/hutt_rata.html

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