Volunteer Army helps plant Summit Road Society reserve

Wednesday, 3 August 2022

The Summit Road Society is aiming to restore former farmland in the Avoca Valley in Christchurch over three years. As they can't do it alone, the Student Volunteer Army got their hands dirty.

It was a good idea to send the Student Volunteer Army onto the steep slopes of Christchurch’s Avoca Valley. Planting natives in this arduous terrain suited the young and hearty.

The university students had to grub “benches” out of the mountainside – small, flat platforms into which the trees were planted.

The Port Hills are hot and dry in summer and autumn and the benches will hopefully capture more of whatever rain falls, said John Marsh of the Summit Road Society.

It was a lot more work than planting natives in the flat and soft red zone. Slipperier too.

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Summit Road Society secretary Marie Gray on a steep hillside of the Avoca Valley. Industrial Woolston can just be seen in the distance.

The students got about 275 natives into the ground last Saturday afternoon.

Summit Road Society volunteer John Marsh grubs out a bench into which he plants a native.

The society has so far planted about 16,500 natives this year and hopes to get another 12,500 into the ground before year’s end, society secretary Marie Gray said.

The vast bulk of those were the work of Wai-Ora – the non-profit native nursery and landscaping contractor. Its staff have been busy on the more remote and steep areas of Avoca Valley, which overlooks industrial Woolston.

The society’s current programme covers about 38 hectares of the 233ha reserve. Eventually, they’ll plant 90,000 natives.

Kirsty Brown and daughter Lucy Mintern and the Student Volunteer Army help with the reforestation.

The society bought the land – formerly Tussock Farm, now Linda Woods Reserve – in 2018 and expected to slowly plant a new podocarp hardwood forest. But then the pandemic happened and the Department of Conservation rolled out the Jobs for Nature scheme.

The society got $650,000 over three years, and most of it goes to providing jobs through Wai-Ora. The Department of Conservation expected the society to partially match the funding and it raised an “extraordinary” $276,000 so far, Gray said.

Another $36,000 is required and the society’s Givealittle page needs some love.

The Avoca Valley is protected by a QEII covenant and can never be developed. The main risk now is fire, Gray told a conservation event in June.

They’ve built fire breaks into the planting plan, including along Summit Rd, even though the portion bordering the reserve is still closed.

The society allows sheep to graze much of the reserve, also as fire mitigation. Sheep don’t eat kānuka, which is why that species is favoured in the current plantings.

In about 10 years, when the kānuka have matured, they’ll provide shade for a new generation of infill plantings, she said.

The Summit Road Society doesn’t have the money for that – and the DOC money is running out.

But that’s OK. Reforesting the reserve is a “job for the generations”, Gray said.

*CORRECTION: The Summit Road Society has not covenanted the whole of the Linda Woods Reserve, as earlier stated. Only the Avoca Valley has been protected by the QEII covenant. (Amended 10.18am, August 5, 2022)