Scheme To Restore Waikato Bush Cover

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 13

Scheme To Restore Waikato Bush Cover

A unique new tourist attraction may well be the result of a Lands and Survey Department project now starting at Taupo, helped by geothermal steam from 1000 feet below the ground. This is the department’s native plant nursery and the scheme to restore to the banks of the Waikato river, over a five-mile length from the Huka Falls to Aratiatia, the bush cover that existed before European settlement. Other areas of the Taupo region will receive attention later. Those in charge of the scheme have as a guide the notes of Bidwill, the botanist and explorer, who found in 1839 a cover consisting mainly of flax, kowhai, cabbage trees, toetoe, koromiko, clematis, matipo, titoki and ferns. Successive fires have changed that scene until today exotic weeds, such as pines, predominate in an area of scrub and fern. It is a long time since this area presented a truly native New Zealand scene such as visitors would find nowhere else in the world. If the planting programme is successful a similar scene will be developed again. For the visitor, interest in the river will almost certainly be enhanced rather

than suffer from the presence of the 90,000 kilowatt hydroelectric scheme at Aratiatia. The hydro plant has been designed in such a way that under favourable operating procedures the beauty of the famous Aratiatia rapids will be preserved—at least for much of the day. Two Million Seedlings The nursery began work in earnest last April. Although still operating under the handicaps of insufficient buildings and plant, it has raised 120,000 thriving young plants from seed. It is hoped to set out 70,000 plants a year until about two million have been established between the Huka falls and Aratiatia. When it is at normal working strength the nursery will have on hand 350,000 plants in various stages of development. From seed, raised in a propagation frame heated by geothermal steam, to hot house, cold-frame and shadehouse, thence to open field, takes about a year. In the field a four-year cycle will be observed so that most plants will have had four years’ growth in the nursery grounds, before they are transferred to their final homes. The first big planting is expected in 1964. Nursery staff have, however, been collecting seedlings as well as seeds since last spring and the first plantings will be made next year near the Huka falls. Any semblance of artificial plantations will be avoided. Nature’s handiwork will be imitated as closely as possible, with large random groups of the larger subjects in a ground cover of the smaller. Exotica, foreigners in the region such as pines, are being cut out or sprayed with weed killers. So far the nursery has had to improvise a good deal while waiting for its proper equipment. Thin plastic sheeting on light timber frames is doing duty for glasshouses, cold frames have yet to be built, and a home-made device is being used for sterilising the soil with geothermal steam. A shade-house measuring 100 ft by 40ft has been built. Of aluminium laths on a timber framework, it is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand. Wildfowl Haven Some 45 acres have been set aside for the nursery, three miles north of Taupo, and 36 acres will be cultivated. An interesting feature will be a small lake made by building a dam in a swamp part. It is hoped this will become a haven for wildfowl for there are suitable breeding grounds in the district. This particular job is being done by officers of the wild life branch of the Internal Affairs Department. It may be a year or two before the lake reaches its full size of eight acres, they say, but some wild duck have already discovered it Two experienced horticulturists have been engaged to operate the overall scheme. Mr J. Bennett, formerly a landscape officer for the Ministry of Works and a Dominion councillor of the Royal Institute of Horticulture (N.ZJ, is supervising; and Mr L. Nicholls, previously a technician in the botany division of the Department of- Scientific and Industrial Research, is in charge of the nursery. Although in its infancy, the project has already made real progress. A most unusual Government undertaking, it is one which may help swell New Zealand’s earnings from the tourist trade, and it Will certainly add to the enjoyment of the many thousands who visit the region.