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Look what Richard Taylor found in the wetland area while planting on Sunday!  It’s a peripatus (or velvet worm) named Peripatoides novaezelandiae.

We had a great turn-out today to plant the slips on the Dingle’s property.  Many thanks to Neil and Sheryl Sutherland from Leigh Coastal Care group, Richard Taylor, Trish Gundy, Jo Evans, Sue Gibbings and Alan Lee for all your efforts.  Thanks also to Marco de Jong, Chris Ding, Tyler Wang and Niklas Erikson who worked hard for 4 hours carrying plants down the steep slopes and planting one of the larger slips.  Marco and Chris managed to get stuck up to the knees in mud and needed to be hosed down before they could get in the car!  Great to see teenagers engaged in (and enjoying) outdoor activities.

Our first Trees for Survival planting day took place on Wednesday 25 May with Ponsonby Primary School.  The wetland plants were wonderful specimens and a credit to the school’s nursery.  Fortunately the wet weather held off until after the plants went in.  The previously grazed area was extremely hard to dig and the volunteers suggested it must have been a road redirected at some stage.  Thanks to Ponsonby Primary School and Trees for Survival for their wonderful efforts as well as the Leigh Harbour Valley Society volunteers.  This will be a wonderful show case to the many visitors to Goat Island and Pakiri Beach and we look forward to seeing an improvement in the quality of the stream water and an increase in fresh water fish/invertebrates now the cattle have been removed from this catchment area.

The muddy water around the Leigh coastline was a sign that the recent heavy rainfall had caused significant damage in the area.  Unfortunately our restoration project was not left unscathed.  Two large slips on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property buried at least 50 of the wetland plants planted last Autumn.  Thankfully, the planted slopes were not affected, although one slip on the unplanted side of the valley exposed a large area of greywacke so we won’t need to plant anything there!   Another slip on our property took out some of the steps and a number of native trees on one of the recently formed walkways.  Several large slips have also occurred along the main stream.  We won’t be planning any clean up until the soil has settled and we have a better idea of the new course of the streams which have, in some areas, been altered by the slips.

Many thanks to Marco de Jong, Chris Ding and Niklas Erikson (three fit AGS  rowers ) who helped transport carpet to Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.   After placing carpet around the trees they helped to clear and other weeds.

The plants still look very healthy.   Further weeding/mulching will be necessary.

Monday, 18 October

A break in the wet and windy weather allowed Chris to carry out spraying on Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.

The plants are looking very healthy with a 97% survival rate.  Hand weeding will be necessary around some of the wetland plants and further control of privet also needs to be carried out as soon as possible.

It is hoped we will be able to work with Trees for Survival in 2011 to plant further trees in this valley.

A glorious day.  Chris planted the remaining pohutukawa from Project Crimson on the eastern slopes of Sir Duncan McMullin’s property.

I discovered 18 manuka which had been inadvertently left on the slopes, camouflaged in the grass.  Fortunately they had been well watered by weeks of heavy rainfall, and looked very healthy.

All the plants are thriving but so are the weeds.  A weeding effort will be required shortly, as well as mulching to ensure the plants survive during the summer months.

Thanks to Sue and John Haigh who planted flaxes along the border of bush, on Mt Pleasant Drive and then helped with further weeding/planting at the bottom of Mt Pleasant Drive.

In the afternoon, we carried out further weed control in the QEII protected wetland area alongside Leigh Harbour.  Chris chainsawed a pine tree which fell down in a recent storm and was blocking the estuary.