It was a great start to the Restoration Revisitation
It’s official, we have a real native forest, with natural regeneration now well underway in Ōtari’s Kaiwharawhara valley.
A volunteer team made up of ecologists, botanists and several ‘originals’ – those who were at the coal face 25 years ago when replanting of the once weed-choked valley began - joined the first ‘restoration revisitation’ on October 18. The project is being led by Jonathan Kennett and Bronwen Wall with support from the Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush Trust. All of the 22 original monitored sites will be revisited to determine the progress of various species planted.
Early results were exciting. On ‘Site 10’, a 3x10m plot where 50 trees and 10 species had been planted, there are now 25 native species and 247 native plants in total. ‘Some of the original tree planters from 25 years ago could not believe that it was a planted forest, said Jonathan. ‘Self-seeded arrivals included kohekohe, porokaiwhiri, kawakawa, rewarewa and hengehenge, as well as a variety of vines and ferns. We also found five weed species (39 plants) which have been pulled out. Site 10 is winning big time!’ Trust botanists (pictured above) Maggie Bayfield, Dr Carol West and Susan Timmins did the measuring and species identification.
Other volunteers helped to clear lightwells above climax species, while three wool fadges were filled with old carpet squares, originally used as mulch around some plantings but now impeding growth. The Kennett brothers, Jonathan and Simon, also dealt to a very much unwanted Clematis vitalba, discovered lurking in the undergrowth (pictured at right).
The next working bee will be on November 15, 9am to noon (meet at Tāne Whakapiripiri, the visitor centre).
Posted: 19 October 2025