Lower Branch chair Andy Mitchell. Credit Caroline Wood
A quiet Forest & Bird volunteer effort in Wainuiomata is helping restore native forests and wetlands in the Greater Wellington region. By Caroline Wood
Forest & Bird magazine
A version of this story was first published in the Summer 2024 issue of Forest & Bird magazine.
When we arrive early on a sunny spring Saturday morning, the shade house is already a hive of activity, with Forest & Bird branch volunteers caring for hundreds of native seedlings, some of them locally rare.
Outside, Lower Hutt Branch chair Andy Mitchell and members David Cornick and Brenten Higson are chatting as they carefully ease young mahoe, olearia, and swamp coprosma seedlings into larger pots using a freshly delivered crumbly black compost. These tender young plants will go back into the shade house to protect them from becoming snacks for local deer.
The visitors from Wellington Branch, including chair Kate Littin, are soon put to work weeding the long rows of native plants growing outside. There’s an atmosphere of friendly camaraderie, and every so often we stopped to drink in the sights and sounds of the surrounding bush-clad hills and Wainuiomata River.
Kate Littin, Pam Nash, and Kate Riddell in the shade house. Credit Caroline Wood
Wainuiomata Nursery is one of the Society’s newest nurseries and officially opened in July 2021. Here volunteers grow eco-sourced plants from the Tararua Ecological District, mainly from seed, although seedlings and cuttings are also taken.
Once ready to plant, they are donated to local conservation projects run by Forest & Bird branches and other community groups in the Wellington region. This spring’s trees and shrubs are destined for Baring Head, Manor Park, Waiu Wetland, Waiwhetu Stream, and the Wainuiomata Recreation Area.
The Wainuiomata Nursery is jointly managed by the Lower Hutt and Wellington Branches, and is supported by Greater Wellington Regional Council. It is located in Wainuiomata Regional Park, an important water collection area that provides high quality water to 15% of Wellington’s population.
It is only a 35-minute drive from Wellington to the nursery, but it feels like a world away. Māori used these forested hills and valley to travel from the Wairarapa to Whanganui-a-Tara, and the Wainuiomata River has been a source of drinking water for Wellington since 1884.
Brenten Higson and David Cornick. Credit Caroline Wood
The nursery is managed by Forest & Bird member and local paramedic Gary James, who also used to run its sister site, the Wellington Nursery, near Zealandia. Over the past four years, the nursery has grown 4000– 5000 shrubs and trees, including tōtara and mātai.
Some of its special plants include a regionally threatened Olearia virgata, with cuttings taking from the Waiu Wetland. It’s unusual for a twiggy tree daisy, in that it likes its feet in water and is suitable for wetland planting.
Its propagation was a joint effort between the two nurseries. The cuttings were processed and rooted by volunteers at Wellington Nursery, in Disley Street, and grown on to planting-out size by Wainuiomata Nursery.
“We have probably got more plants here than in the wild. They grow to 3m tall and have lovely white flowers,” says Gary.
Gary and the other nursery volunteers collect seeds within a 2km radius of the project site. They have been known to venture out on Christmas Day to Baring Head, near Eastbourne, where a locally rare matagouri only sets seed for a few days every summer.
Plants destined for Baring Head. Credit Caroline Wood
The Lower Hutt and Wellington Branches raised $20,000 to build a shade house to protect the vulnerable nursery seedlings from being eaten by deer, who have munched on newly planted flax and other plants in the wetland next to the nursery.
Local pigs are another threat, along with rats and mice sneaking into the seed propagation area. There is the risk of the odd flood from the river, and the area’s high rainfall means that sometimes volunteer sessions have to be cancelled at the last minute.
Gary told us how timber milling stopped at the location of the nursery and upstream is an ecologically important area of 1000-year-old native forest, which is closed to the public because of its proximity to the regional council’s water collection area.
“Kiwi have returned to these hillsides recently, and the area is potential kākāpō country if introduced predators can be removed,” he said.
There is talk of setting up a fenced eco-sanctuary around the water catchment, an initiative supported by local iwi, but it would mean millions of dollars of government investment. Gary is also working with a local marae helping its rangatahi learn how to grow native plants.
The Wainuiomata Nursery is looking for five to 10 new volunteers to supplement the small team of regulars. If you can help, contact Gary at lowerhutt.branch@forestandbird.org.nz.
Nursery leader Gary James (kneeling) with Lower Hutt and Wellington Branch volunteers. Credit Caroline Wood