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By Ivor Wilkins Muddy boots and clothes, stiff shoulders and legs and a great deal of camaraderie and satisfaction marked the first weekend of the RNZYS tree-planting project at the Lidgard House property on Kawau Island in early August.

This was earmarked as a legacy project for the club’s 150th Anniversary and marks the start of implementing a long-planned improvement programme at the island. The legacy vision is that kiwi and other native birdlife will return. Estimated costs for the first year are $120,000.

“The planting is part of a five-year plan,” says Committee Member Peter Boardman, who is leading the project. “This is the first phase, where we have cleared the land to get rid of invasive plants, and trees and begun replacing them with natives.

“We plan to plant 4000 trees this year and about 2,500 a year over the course of the project. At the end of the project, we envisage developing the boatshed to include a bunkhouse facility. We have already begun the resource consent process for that development.”

Good progress was made over the first weekend, with 1300 trees planted on the steep slope behind Lidgard House. “We had a group of 22 volunteers and staff on the first day and another eight on the second day. Overall, it was a very successful couple of days,” says CEO Hayden Porter, who ferried volunteers to and from the island from Sandspit aboard Pembles Bay, transported trailer loads of trees up and down the muddy track with the four-wheel drive ATV, joined the planters and manned the BBQ to provide the troops with much-needed sustenance.

As the volunteers worked their way across the steep slope, digging and planting to a pre-arranged plan, a constant murmur of conversation could be heard as they swapped yarns and jokes and occasionally eased their backs to admire progress. By the end of the weekend, what had been a barren, muddy slope had been transformed into a nursery of small treelings.

As a prelude to the planting, RNZYS Facility Manager Cooper Hopman oversaw the ground preparation phase. “The major part of that involved clearing the site. We loaded an 80-ton Stanway Marine barge with two diggers, two industrial chippers, a fuel trailer and the ATV. There wasn’t an inch of deck space left,” he recalls.

“We had a team from Aarons Contracting over there clearing and felling for four weeks. We hauled out 160 large pines, macracarpa and Japanese cedar. All the small stuff was put through chippers and was distributed along the loop track we created, which goes all the way up to the ridge above Lidgard House.

“That track will be retained and maintained, so that members can walk up and then link to a network of other tracks that cross the island.

“The chips were used to cover the track and also for mulch on the planting slopes. The pine logs were used to define and retain the track edges, while the macracarpa and Japanese cedar logs have been stored. Ultimately, they will be milled and used in the boatshed development,” says Cooper.

Assisting Cooper were Will Clough and Johnny Montgomery. Like a trio of island boys, they took up residence in Lidgard House, working by day, cooking their meals on the BBQ and keeping house by night. With the Kawau Island Boating Club (KBC) shut for the winter, they had to be self-sufficient, making occasional runs into Sandspit to stock up with supplies and provisions.

In addition to the tree project, they worked on maintenance tasks. These included repairing the seawall around the KBC where the sea had eroded the walking track, making repairs to the septic system, and doing a number of improvements around Lidgard House with assistance from Andrew Harris Construction.

They replaced the wharf stairs, which were rotting and are continuing work on enlarging and re-planking the deck, which involves 1400 linear metres of timber from Buildpro, and 6,500 stainless steel screws from Harts Fasteners.

“It averaged out at about four days a week out there for nearly three months through the winter,” says Cooper. Finally, the big day arrived when they were ready to transport 4,000 native trees across to the island, ready for planting.

“We used both Te Kouma and Pembles Bay and had a team of four volunteers, three staff members and some Ecology New Zealand contractors. It took 11 hours and four trips to move the treelings onto the island. We were all pretty tired and sore the next day.”

• Members can assist in a number of ways, which are detailed on the website rnzys.org.nz under the 150th Anniversary tab.

A second planting weekend was held on September 4-5, but a third weekend was cancelled due to the Covid lockdown..

Members can also assist by buying a tree, a cluster of trees, a tree with a commemorative plaque, or by making a donation.

From left: Chairman of the House, Garry Scarborough selects his weapon for the day. Committee Member Peter Boardman is leading the Kawau Legacy Project. Below: An artist impression of the proposed bunkhouse development.

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