Community to help plant rata on Tinakori Hill

Sixty Wadestown School children, aged five and six, will be doing their bit to help establish a northern rata forest on Tinakori Hill today (14 June).

The children will be kicking off this year’s planting – part of a joint effort between Project Crimson and Wellington City Council that will see 7500 northern rata planted on the hillside over five years. Planting will start about 10am, weather permitting.

The first 1500 tiny trees went in last year and a further 1500 will be planted this week. A community planting is planned this Sunday (18 June) from 10am until approximately 1pm.

The trees are being planted on a site near the tennis court at the top of Weld Street in Wadestown. People wanting to help on Sunday should bring a spade, gardening gloves, and gumboots if they have them.

Project Crimson Trust Executive Director Bridget Abernethy says northern rata are a New Zealand native from the same family as the pohutukawa, and are indigenous to the Wellington region.

“In years to come they will furnish magnificent crimson blooms which will be obvious from many vantage points in Wellington,” she says.

“The Wadestown School has been very supportive of this project. Our hope is the children here will take a special interest in these trees over the coming years. After all, they will be the ones to see them at their best – not us. ”

Project Crimson was established 16 years ago to protect pohutukawa and rata around New Zealand. The trust is involved in a wide range of restoration and re-vegetation projects from the Far North to Stewart Island.

The Council’s Environment Portfolio Leader, Councillor Celia Wade-Brown, says the prospect of eventually having a forest of northern rata on Tinakori Hill is very exciting and will add to Wellington’s sense of place.

“The city grows and plants some 100,000 native plants and trees a year and couldn’t do what does without volunteers and community partnerships like this,” she says. “I’m looking forward to eventually seeing a gorgeous blaze of crimson on Tinakori Hill.”

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