Opinion: Major restoration project in Queen Elizabeth Park

Penny Gaylor.

Last Friday was a cracker of a day as I joined my colleague Cr Thomas Nash and a Jobs for Nature crew to kick off the planting of seedlings for GWRC's latest restoration venture.

Last year Wellington Regional Council created a new and innovative funding pool called our Low Carbon Acceleration Fund (LCAF).

The LCAF is a unique scheme that does not rely on public funds from rates. To fund it, GWRC borrows against carbon credits it already owns from planting work done decades ago, now worth an estimated $12.2 million and growing.

This year the planting begins. Kāpiti Coast's very own fabulous public park has been an inaugural and significant recipient of the funding.

At QEP, $1.4m will go towards restoring 128.5 hectares of peatland and duneland — the largest restoration project of its kind in Aotearoa.

As part of this restoration, 17.5ha of pioneer species such as kanuka, kānuka, mānuka, karamu, akeake, harakeke, whauwhaupaku (five finger), and tī kōuka (cabbage tree) will be planted this winter.

Greater Wellington climate committee chairman Thomas Nash and Greater Wellingtone environment committee chairwoman Penny Gaylor.

This planting season I've also been at QEP joining children from three local schools to plant 1000 trees for Arbor Day, and a couple of weeks back joined Chris Maclean for the northeast wetland restoration project that has been made possible by his family trust.

Don't worry, you don't have to miss out. This Sunday is our annual Spade Aid Day, open to the public, and you're welcome to join us from 10am to help with the restoration work the GWRC is undertaking at the park.

Since I was elected five years ago it's amazing to see the volume of plantings that have taken place at QEP, the landscape of the park is certainly changing.

The restoration work at Queen Elizabeth Park will help our efforts to provide a permanent carbon sink for the region that will cut Greater Wellington's carbon footprint by 2.5 per cent in the next decade.

This planting is part of GWRC's planting programme which will see 400,000 trees planted across the region this winter.