| Kowhai Reach Happenings |
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Wednesday, 5th June 2002 - Limehills School pupils celebrated Arbor Day with a trip to Kowhai Reach for some of the senior school to do maintenance work on the previous year's plantings - cut short by the weather which decided to turn wet !!  that this was just a grassy patch two years ago. Meanwhile at the school, there was a rolling gang of potter-uppers who got almost two hundred seedlings into plastic bags to grow on for next year's plantings at Kowhai Reach. Well done, everyone ! |
| Friday, 8th June 2001- Fifty pupils, with assistant teachers and parent and other helpers, attacked another Arbor Day planting session with gusto, to double the area now revegetated. The spraying of the area by the landowner is greatly assisting the establishment of these plants, removing the competition from the strong grass growth in this loop, surrounded on three sides by the Winton Stream. The high fertility of the floodplain soils is also no doubt contributing to the good growth. This reflects how the threatened plants being replanted here are in the situation they are, as most of our fertile Southland plains have been cleared for agriculture. Kowhai Reach gives us a wonderful opportunity to re-establish populations of these plants. |  are the main species used in this year's plantings. |
 Kowhai Reach, working in pairs, so as the bush is cut off the stump is immediately painted with Round Up solution to stop regrowth. |
Monday, 11th June 2001- The Southland District Council has responsibility for the east side of the Kowhai Reach where there is an esplanade reserve the full length of the stretch. They have allocated some funding to assist in the management of this area, which this year has gone in to weed control and plantings. Revegetation work has begun in a bend in the stream which was recently retired following the refencing of the north eastern side. Cabbage trees and flaxes have been planted in here. |
| Wednesday, 28th February 2001 - A meeting was held to review the work that had happened over the last year and to decide what next. It was attended by landowners; Southland District Council staff and counciller, Reg Palmer; Gary Morgan, Envirosouth and Gay Munro, National Trust rep. Also in attendance were four pupils from Limehills School, who came to inspect their plantings. Everyone was impressed to see how well the trees had done, with few loses. |
| The threatened plants had put on good growth, both the Melicytus flexusos ( nicknamed Moa tree, see right ) and the Olearia hectorii, Hector's tree daisy. More plantings are planned for the same area on Arbor Day again this year, along with work on pest plant control ( broom, gorse and elderberry ). There will be some removal of trees blocking the stream flow, following consultation with the Envirosouth drainage engineers, along with the possible release of a biological control agent for ragwort. |  their 'Moa tree', threatened plant Melicytus flexuosus. |