Friends of Pourewa Valley

Good effort on more ginger today. Martin and Pat attacked the new ginger growth on the track that was constructed last year. Martin used the red gel poison and we wait to see if it is more effective than the blue spray. Although we have not had much rain, the weeds have responded to the little we have had and are proliferating. Hot work.

Other groups have also contributed to the ginger eradication. CVNZ has done great workt. Not sure what Forest & Bird are doing on their visits.

We walked around to see what had died over the summer. Amazing survival by the Ti Tree.

Kingfisher in the bush today with heaps ot Tui. The magpies are still around.

The 1st day of volunteers from Forest and Bird today, a note from Jane Ferguson volunteer coordinator from Forest and Bird....

"Roy took everybody on a lovely walk for about an hour and shared much of the history of the project with everyone. We then spent an hour with our daisy weeders – great little tool on the side of the path leading down around the slope where we extracted a few weeds and I shovelled some bark over where we had weeded."

It is wonderful to have Forest and Bird involved and many thanks to Jane for all of her organisation of volunteers, the future is looking brighter everyday for the valley!

A hot day and it is only 9:30am! Pat and Robyn had arrived earlier to avoid the heat and started to weed the slope which is looking good but needing a bit of maintenance. We noticed how quickly some of the plants (especially the grasses) have grown in the last few months, clearly the few tropical storms we have had in the past 6 weeks have kept the ground moist.

Pat left  early due to the heat and I had friends from England come to view the area so showed them around and killed a few weeds along the way. The weedkilling last week by brush is starting to take effect. 

This week was just Roy and myself. I was testing a new method of applying Roundup by using a brush, this allows safer application to the weeds with no chance of overspray but you still need to be aware of runoff onto the good plants. Will see how well it has worked in the next few weeks.

Roy was down in the lower valley weedeating  the grass which was where Pat cut her foot the week before. When the grass is high it is hard to see where your feet are going so can be not so safe. Plenty of Cicadas in the bush today.

Up early to meet up with a journalist and photographer from the Eastern Bays Courier by the stadium. We look forward to seeing the article in print, though not looking forward so much in seeing myself - the biggest weed in the photo!

Also met up with Su Sinclair who presented us with a Weedbusters award! - far to many photos been taken! Very appreciative of the award though and is a credit to all those that have worked on this project.

Wake up to fine weather - let's hope it continues. The majority of planting is carried out beside the stadium near the start of the main pathway.

Plants added were a selection of grasses, Hebe, and Kowhai. Also larger trees such as Rimu were planted lower down in the valley. A good attendance with 8 volunteers in total Roy, Abdul, another REAF student, Robyn, Chris, Anne, Mauve and Martin. Everyone got stuck in and we planted the majority of the 75 plants in a couple of hours, just as well as just as we were starting to enjoy some refreshments near the end the rain came down and we had to run for cover.

The holding plants team!

Abdul at work down the valley

Still smiling after a morning planting

Roy, Robyn and Martin headed down to Rogers to purchase  plants for our latest planting day tomorrow. We purchased 74 plants in total including grasses, Hebes and Kowhai. The money for these was kindly donated by the ASB stadium. 

It has been difficult to get down there on Sundays in the last month due to the rough weather. Pat, Robyn and I headed down to the bush in the afternoon after a wet morning. Everything is pretty saturated after about 5 weeks of rain. We did some basic weeding on the slope and then did some clearing of cut down trees in the "lower field slope area".

Roy and Abdul have done a huge amount of work during their free time over the past few months clearing woody weeds from the 'lower field slope' area. A large number of Acmena and Privet have been felled and sawn up which will allow clearing for the native seedlings in the area to prosper.

Pat, Robyn,Chris and I spent a couple of hours working on the southern slope around the first planting area, clearing around the plants and cutting and killing numerous Privet, Wild Ginger and Woolly Nightshade. After a week of rain the ground is now quite damp and should stay that way until the summer again.

Pat and Martin planted some Puriri trees on the car park slope after clearing wandering jew from the area. Also did some general weeding on the stadium slope.

Robyn, Chris and Martin worked on car park slope and transplanted a number of small Mahoe seedlings that were at risk of being walked on - may they grow in peace! 

A nice fine day for Moth plant hunting. Pat, Robyn,Chris and Martin headed down to the Purewa Valley stream to check out the most common areas for Moth plant. Pleased to say only a few mature Moth plants around, but many seedlings so must head down there in a few weeks to spray the area. Also removed some of the usual Privet, Ginger and Asparagus fern.