Dream job foraging for seeds

Valissa Williamson reckons she has found her dream job.

She spends her days eco-sourcing seeds and propagating thousands of native plants that go on to be planted throughout P neke each year.

Wellington City Council’s only Plant Propagation Technician, Valissa loves the outdoors, so she is stoked that walking the tracks in reserves around the region is in her job description.

“I have the most rewarding job,” Valissa says.

“I get to wander the hills in our native reserves and coastlines to eco-source native seeds. My role is to propagate over a hundred different native species.

“When I’m out on the trails I could be foraging for seed anywhere, from the back of Tawa to the south coast and over to Makara.

“It’s a real privilege to have such an amazing job and be able to contribute to our local environment, I absolutely love it.”

When she’s not out and about collecting or scouting for seed, she’s immersed in seed propagation back at her Berhampore Nursery base.

Each year the nursery grows around 90,000 native plants, which are then distributed to community groups and the council’s parks and gardens team for planting.

They are planted in council reserves, new housing developments, sites where it is no longer safe for the council mowing team to mow, and also the nursery’s road reserve scheme.

Each year the challenge is to collect seed and propagate a range of native species, such as kawakawa, rangiora, mahoe and kowhai – just to name a few.

The seeds are eco-sourced from the local Wellington reserves to preserve the ecological integrity of the region.

“Nature dictates how much seed I can collect and from what species,” Valessa says.

“Some years, certain species might not produce seeds, so I try to collect more from other species to compensate for that.”

The success of Valissa’s seed collecting is all about understanding what is happening in Wellington’s native reserves.

“I have a purpose-built app, created by council’s mapping team, on my phone to plot specific species and their location.

“I can map where the plants are, whether it’s in flower and if it has green or ripe seed.

“I can also document if I’ve collected seed from a particular plant before and record when I think I need to go back and revisit that site.”

It can take time to find and collect seed of certain species such as matai, totara or kahikatea.

Wellington City Council works with more than 100 volunteer groups, many of which have contributed significantly to the regeneration of P neke’s biodiversity through planting and trapping.

Breakfast cancelled

The Rotary business breakfast that was to be held on 20 July has been cancelled.

This because Caitlan Cherry, Editor of The Post, who was to be the guest speaker, quit her position on 5 July. Rotary hopes to arrange another breakfast event in the next couple of months.

Hard conversation help

A workshop to help people when they are having difficult conversations will be held at the Johnsonville Community Hub from 9:30am to 12:30pm on 24 July.

Volunteer Wellington has organised the workshop.

The workshop will help you with learning practical skills, enhancing communication skills and improving relationships.

For more information and to register visit https://www.volunteerwellington.nz/index.php/news-events/ vw_training.

Send your tips to herald@wsn.co.nz

Showroom: 29 Hutt Road, Thorndon

BLINDS FOR YOUR HOME AND OFFICE

FREE measure and quote

Hours: Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm

JUST DEDICATED TO YOUR SATISFACTION sales@justblinds.co.nz