Tekau Rakau

There are a million reasons to plant a tree this year.

Plant One. Plant Ten.

"10 Trees" is a response to the declaration of the climate change and ecological emergency in Synod 2019 motion 11.

We aim to plant 10 trees a year for every person on the parish roll by volunteering at community tree plantings.

• The challenges of climate change can feel overwhelming.

• There are practical things you can do.

• Make a difference and plant a tree.

Recent Plantings

Community planting days at Mairehau, Travis Wetland, Horseshoe Lake, Styx Mill, The Groynes, Southshore Reserve, Halswell Quarry Park and Orton Bradley Park have been run by Trees for Canterbury and Christchurch City Council.

Volunteer

Planting a future forest requires land ownership, long-term maintenance and protection, planning and organisation. When we volunteer at a community planting day, all the hard stuff is done for us. All we have to do is dig.

Volunteers aged from 3 to 83 have taken part. If you can walk 500 metres over rough ground then you are fit enough to lend a hand. In less than 2 hours you will be relaxing in the sun, enjoying a bbq.

The hardest part of volunteering is turning up. You have to get out of bed, find some gumboots, travel to the event. By yourself, you're probably not going to do it. Turning up requires a sense of shared mission, that your morning effort is contributing to something worthwhile.

What have we achieved?

One of the biggest plantings is in the Cranford flood basin on Philpotts Road, Mairehau.

In the future forest at Mairehau, kahikatea saplings are nurtured into adolescence. Their seed was collected from Putaringamotu - Riccarton Bush and grown into seedlings by Trees for Canterbury.

We joined the community planting days at Mairehau over many months in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 we returned to join the volunteers adding companion plants to nurse this floodplain into a forest ecosystem.

Only the strongest seedlings planted in the sweet spots between the stop banks and field drains survive, but these mōrehu will seed many descendents. 40,000 forest giants will grow here.

The first fruits of this work are beginning to take shape. Shelter plants like Ngaio are reaching waist height. The Kahikatea is at knee height. Within 10 years these future giants will be taller than the tallest adult.

What can you do?

Trees for Canterbury publishes an annual list of events during the planting season. All you have to do is turn up.

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