TREE-PLANTING

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 266, 6 August 1937, Page 5

TREE-PLANTING

Forest in Wellington ON TINAKORI DILLS Near the -Mount Etako (Tinakori Hill) Government wireless .station the Post and Telegraph Department owns 75 acres of land, which was formerly town belt. Although that land was taken as a public necessity it cannot be said that it is being misused, for practically the whole of it is gradually being converted into what will one day be a splendid area of native forest. Now, after a. hundred years, a start has been made to clothe the hills with trees once more. Of the 75 acres mentioned, 35 acres on the eastern side of the ridge overlooking the city have already been planted in the last three seasons, and of the trees planted in the first two seasons, more than JO per cent, are making good already. This winter no fewer than 6000 trees have been planted in the area, making a total of about 13,000 for the three years. All are native trees. They consist of ngaios, pohutukawas (which do especially well on the hills), hou-hous (five fingers), myrtles, karakas, rangioras, rinius and ratas. » Not only are the trees caretul y planted, but there is also a definite scheme of planting. The trees arc planted eight feet apart. That appeals to be fairly close together for big trees, but it is done deliberately. It Is Nature's own plan of mutual protection for, when the growth becomes too thick, the forest can easily be thinned out. . .. The planting of these trees is the special care of an enthusiastic officer of the department. His delight in seeing the hills once more covered with trees is mingled with certain fears, the chief of which is fire. He contends that one of the greatest mistakes the citv council made was to allow the town belt to be planted with exotics, such as the pinus insignis. There is a forest of the trees on the lower slopes of the Tinakori Hills above Tinakori Road. These trees shed their needles each season, until there is a thick mat of them covering the ground. At times gangs of men are detailed to burn these up under direction, but there arc places where this attention is not convenient. Once a tire starts in a belt of these pines, with a wind to help it, there is a poor look-out for anything in the vicinity. When the needles are allowed to accumulate and the fire gets into them it is almost a hopeless task to subdue the smouldering. That is the one big risk which has to be laced in the creation of the new native forest around the wireless station. In order to provide some measure of protection the whole area is being surrounded with three rows of karakas and two of tree lucerne, both highly fireresistant trees..

For the first season the trees for planting were purchased in the ordinary way, but since then it has been found more advantageous to grow them from seed in a nursery which has been established on the mountain side, so that, when the time for transplanting comes the trees are not. submitted to any change of air.