100 trees for green warriors’ birthday milestones

The group planted 100 trees at I'Anson Bush Reserve to celebrate the Forest & Bird centenary.

A group of young Bay of Plenty environmentalists and their families planted 100 trees at I’Anson Bush Reserve in Te Puna late last month to mark two significant birthdays.

The planting on April 23 celebrated Forest & Bird’s centenary, and the 30th anniversary of the organisation’s junior arm, the Kiwi Conservation Club. About 45 children and adults planted a range of native species.

Forest & Bird members played a significant role in the creation of the reserve in 1987 on land gifted by Te Puna farmer Keith I’Anson. Three years later the Tauranga branch of the Kiwi Conservation Club’s (KKC) work at the reserve began, with members planting 600 trees.

One of the branch co-ordinators, Liesel Carnie, says photos of the plantings in areas of bare farmland in 1990 are unrecognisable compared with what is there today, and it was “a fantastic opportunity to show the kids what value there is in planting trees now”.

Yearly planting continued in a designated KCC area until 1996, and the club now plans to return to yearly work. “We are now going to continue our legacy and come back each year to plant our trees. Each time we come back to plant more, we will also weed around our older plantings to teach the kids about that and help out the volunteers who have monthly weeding sessions,” Liesel says.

The volunteer group Friends of I’Anson Reserve, led by Kate Loman Smith, will look after the trees as they grow. The group is made up of Forest & Bird members and other supporters. Kate says the volunteers have made huge progress on weed control and bulking up planting where appropriate.

“The transformation of bare farmland to well-established, regenerating bush is astounding. The reserve is a treasure and a wonderful community asset to be enjoyed.”

Forest & Bird’s Tauranga branch president, Richard James, says early members were heavily involved in the creation of I’Anson Bush Reserve.

“It was one of those projects that started with tree planting and now involves more weeding than planting.”

Forest & Bird and the Kiwi Conservation Club had a planting day in April.

Founded in Wellington by Captain Val Sanderson on March 28, 1923, the then Native Bird Protection Society later became the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. The Tauranga section started in 1955 and became a branch in 1974.

Richard says the society has been the voice for nature for 100 years.

“While many of their campaigns have been well documented, others often involve a lot of work to get any reward for nature. The Tauranga branch is run by volunteers who make submissions on local issues and get involved in local conservation projects.”

Examples include opposing the discharge of treated sewage into the head of Welcome Bay Estuary, lobbying against a proposed canal and housing development in the Matua saltmarsh, lobbying against replacing native forest with plantation forestry in the Kamai forest and involvement with the Kaimai Forum (which is now Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust), dotterel protection in Bay of Plenty including on Matakana, protection of Hochstetter frogs at Otawa Quarry, helping start Aongatete Forest Restoration and advocating for mangroves in Tauranga Harbour.

For more information go to tauranga.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

– Supplied by Friends of I’Anson Bush Reserve