Barkers enlists with WWI Memorial Forest

Men's clothing company Barkers has joined ranks with our Council by donating 1,000 trees to our World War One Memorial Forest project.

The trees will all be planted this winter at the Gallipoli Memorial Forest site at Cathedral Cove. By winter's end, 2,779 native New Zealand trees will have been planted there - representing the 2,779 NZ soldiers who died in the Gallipoli campaign.

The donation is part of Barkers' company-wide sustainability programme.

"We're really pleased to have a New Zealand company like Barkers supporting our Memorial Forest and we thank them for joining the team," says our Mayor Glenn Leach.

"The Memorial Forest is a great initiative and a great opportunity for our company to help remember the sacrifices New Zealanders made in the Great War 100 years ago," says Jamie Whiting, Barkers' Group Managing Director.

The Gallipoli site is one of seven Memorial Forest sites around the Coromandel where about 3,000 trees were planted last year.

Each site represents a different battle or campaign of the war and pays tribute to the Coromandel men who went to war but didn't come return.

Thanks in part to a $122,205 Lotteries Commission grant, this year we can proceed with stage 2 of the project. An eighth site will be added and another 5,000 trees will be planted.

If you wish to make a long-lasting contribution to the Memorial Forest, you can do so by donating $25 which will pay for the planting and care of a tree.

And, you can dedicate the tree to one of the 18,166 New Zealanders who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war. Our Memorial Forest project web page has all the details. The tree's GPS location will be recorded and you will be issued with a memorial certificate bearing the soldier's name and the tree's location.

Alternatively you can gift a tree on behalf of your family, or somebody else, to "A Fallen Soldier". You will receive a memorial certificate without a specific GPS location.

If you would like your donation to commemorate a soldier killed in the Battle of Le Quesnoy (the Le Quesnoy Memorial Forest site is in Whangamata), for $35 you will also receive a commemorative poppy.

The project so far

• Cathedral Cove: A site on Public Conservation Land above the cove represents the Gallipoli campaign, in which 2,779 New Zealanders died. 1,500 trees planted in 2015.

• New Mercury Bay cemetery: Two signature trees have been planted and 35 trees have been blessed for planting. 37 men from Mercury Bay were killed in the war. This site will also represent the Battle of Passchendaele. 500 more trees have already been planted and a further 1500 trees will be planted this year to bring the total up to 2000 - a representative number to commemorate the men killed in the battle.

• Stella Evered Memorial Park: This publicly accessible privately administered reserve will host the Somme Memorial Forest site. Some 2,300 trees will be planted near the Purangi Estuary - again, one for each New Zealand soldier killed in the Somme battle of 1916.

• Tairua's RSA cemetery honours the 48 men from Tairua-Hikuai who served and died in the war. A total of 48 trees have been planted there.

• Pauanui's Tangitarori Lane represents the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, in which 640 New Zealanders died. 200 trees have been planted on Council and WRC land, with 440 more to be planted.

• Whangamata: A Council reserve at the north entrance to town has been renamed Le Quesnoy Park and 122 trees have been planted there to remember the 122 Kiwi troops killed in the Battle of Le Quesnoy on 4 November 1918.

• At Rhodes Park in Thames: 247 trees were planted on 11 August, to honour the war dead from that town.

• In Coromandel Town, TCDC land at the Hauraki Rd wastewater treatment plant is the site of the forest representing "Supreme Sacrifice". More than 1,000 trees have been planted there. This site also pays tribute to the 39 Coromandel Town men who fell in the Great War.

• Other sites honouring, for example, the Battle of Messines will become available as funding permits.

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