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Sat 4th March is Seaweek, as part of Seaweek throughout the Nelson Tasman area beach cleanups are being undertaken, volunteers will be walking all our coast line and removing rubbish from our Beaches.

Under the umbrella of Forest and Bird, the group involved with the ecological restoration of Paremata Flats Reserve will be undertaking a Beach cleanup from the mouth of the Whakapuaka river around the coast to the end of Maori Pa Rd, we will be meeting at Paremata Flat Reserve at 8.30 Saturday morning on the 4th March, where rubbish bags and instructions will be given. Contact Ian Price by email

Pic’s peanut butter is now supporting the project by way of supplying the trapping program with the peanut butter required to ensure all the trap lines are baited. We now ensure all our rats and mice will be lining up to have their last supper with the best peanut butter available on the market, a very big THANKS to Pics for their generous support.

We have three trapping positions available on all three lines for checking on Wednesdays Uri (2.5 – 3 hrs to check line), Maori Pa Rd (1.5 hrs) and Paremata (2.5 hours), full training given, we ask for a commitment of once a month. Contact Ian by email.

Have been waiting on a reasonably fine weekend for a working bee, this Sunday (31st July) they are calling fine!!, so would be good if you were available, a number of jobs need doing, will start 9.30 and finish at 3 pm.

There are a variety of jobs;

• Weeding, always ongoing!, we will be continuing with the grid searching, will concentrate on the block planted three years ago on the Maori Pa Rd side of spring creek, bring gloves, spade, digging trowel or secateurs.
• Clearing Fence lines, this is always an important job to remove foliage from shorting the electric fence, we look to cut back foliage to around .800 to 1 meter off the fence, bring Hedge clippers, hand saw.
• Clearing Maori Pa Rd trap line and flood paddock, the trap line which runs between Paremata flats and Uri (Bishops Peninsula) needs cutting back as does the fence that surrounds the flood paddock and protects the creek that runs through the flood paddock. (The flood paddock is the paddock that is grazed by the Paremata lessee, is called the flood paddock NOT because it floods but is used when Paremata Flats floods by the Paremata lessee to protect his stock), need hedge clippers, secateurs, handsaw.
• Digging up Ngaio seedlings for transplanting, we want to transplant Ngaio seedlings into the estuarine influenced area of the new plantings, need spade and bucket
• Heeling in new plantings and re staking sleeves, in this years plantings a number have what we call wind twirl, either they were not heeled in sufficiently at planting or due to the rain we have had, combined with wind have loosened in the ground resulting in a gap developing between the trunk and the soil, we need to heel them in and in many cases stand the plant back up, unless we do this the plant will ultimately die. With the weather conditions we have been having, a number of plant shields have been blowing over and bamboo stakes breaking, these need re staking. Need to bring a heavy foot!, solid footwear.
• New track, the new track running parallel with the road in the new plantings needs to be finished, need to bring a grubber.

So there you go, plenty of jobs and plenty of variety 9.30 start finish 3 pm, remember to sign in, the book will be on the bonnet of my truck, I will give two briefings on jobs on site at 9.30 and 12.30 at my truck (white flatdeck Toyota) outside of these times you will have to find me or if you know what you want to do and what is required, go to it.

Project Janszoon are restoring kahikatea forest to a wetland near Awaroa in Abel Tasman National Park. Forest and Bird have been assisting with this planting over the past few years. This will be an opportunity for those who have already been involved to see the progress and for others to join in. Accommodation for the weekend will be at the historic Ngarata Homestead at Totaranui. Contact Helen Lindsay by email or 03 528 402

The planting at Paremata has come to an end, today was the last day, it ended along Maori Pa Rd where we have been infilling among existing plantings. Thank you to all those who helped and a special thanks to those of you who came multiple times, very much appreciated.

An amazing team effort to have raised $190,000 and planted 80,000 trees in 5 years, to see the size of the trees planted 5 years ago is a sneak preview as to what the native alluvial forest we have planted will look like in the future and all achieved by a dedicated group of volunteers, WELL DONE!!

From Tuesday 28th June we will be back into the weeding, every Tuesday 10.30 till 4pm, Irene Ward organises this and can be contacted by email we will aim to organise a working bee at least once a month, will keep you up to date on when we will have the working bees.

I will aim to get the final update out to everyone in the next month or so.

Again a big THANKYOU to you all, job well done,

Ian

Planting is cancelled tomorrow due to weather, back out there on Saturday planting along Maori Pa Rd.

 

The pioneer planting at Paremata has been completed with 21400 pioneer trees in the ground in 18 planting days through the efforts of 294 planters who gave 1238 volunteer hours a fantastic effort and a special thanks to those planters who came multiple times to plant and that dedicated group who came to every planting, a very special thanks as it was their efforts that resulted in completing the pioneer planting in such quick time.

Planting will now continue along Maori Pa Rd esplanade reserve, on behalf of NCC we will infill and plant a couple of areas requested by Council, this will enhance the corridor between Paremata and Uri, once again your volunteer help will be appreciated.

Planting will be every Sat, Sun Tues and Thurs from 8am till 4 pm, look out for my white Toyota truck, planting will start in the flood paddock which is the first paddock past Paremata.

Once this is finished we will return to plant some canopy trees at Paremata, getting close to the end of what has been an amazing planting journey.