By ANGELA GREGORY
A decade of work by Project Crimson to restore the health of the North Island's coastal red-flowering pohutukawa trees is blossoming into success.
A forest ecologist, Dr Gordon Hosking, says his recent research into the health and conservation status of North Island pohutukawa shows the trees have enjoyed a turnaround in fortune.
Dr Hosking was co-author of a 1988-89 report commissioned for the Department of Conservation (DoC) which showed that about 90 per cent of New Zealand's original pohutukawa had died.
Most of the remaining trees were old and in poor condition, with very little evidence of regeneration.
Dr Hosking said there were concerns that a combination of possum damage and human activity was threatening to push the pohutukawa towards extinction in many areas.
In response, Carter Holt Harvey formed a partnership with DoC and launched the Project Crimson Trust in 1990.
The joint project aimed to protect pohutukawa, and later rata trees.
In the past 10 years the Project Crimson Trust has spent more than $2 million to fund community and service groups and iwi and school-based tree planting and maintenance projects. More than 150,000 trees have been successfully established.
Last summer, Dr Hosking resurveyed 105 of the original 190 pohutukawa sites researched in 1989. The resurveyed sites were in Northland, the Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and on the East Cape.
Dr Hosking said the results were much better than he had expected.
"For example, pohutukawa regeneration has increased tenfold in Northland and similar results were found in all other areas surveyed."
Dr Hosking said community involvement in possum trapping and tree planting had been a key factor in improving the position of pohutukawa.
There was also an increased awareness of the tree's plight by landowners, who were fencing off pohutukawa from stock, which increased natural regeneration.
The possum control work undertaken by DoC and regional councils, and the refinement of pohutukawa planting and maintenance through ongoing research, had also greatly helped.
Dr Hosking said that while the results were outstanding, it was important that pohutukawa conservation activities continued.
More work was needed to promote the need to exclude domestic stock from pohutukawa sites, and to control pests.
Although his report focused on Project Crimson's success with protecting pohutukawa, Dr Hosking said he looked forward to seeing increased work on protecting and rehabilitating rata trees throughout New Zealand.
The executive director of the Project Crimson Trust, Debbie Teale, said there was an ongoing commitment to continue funding and also increase the work started in 1995 on rata trees.
She said the bulk of the funding provided by Carter Holt had been spent on protection and regeneration planting, followed by education and research.
Pohutukawa making comeback
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.