May 2004 - Margaret Suman

The planting of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust reserves has begun! The soil on the Penguin habitats is wet enough so we can start putting the plants that we raised last year into the ground. We have been busy sorting out plant species for each of the sites and giving them a quick weed so that we don’t introduce weeds into the habitats. It’s very satisfying to see the plants finally going out. Everything seems to need to be done at once, and we are very grateful to our volunteers who have helped us meet our deadlines for planting days.

Planting Days
This week we were able to see our plants being planted at Tavora - a Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust reserve in North Otago. We were at the site researching a track walk that we are developing for the reserve. Our Ranger and Projects Officer were also there planting our trees with the East Otago High School and Malcam Trust. We had the opportunity to talk to each group and have the satisfaction to see the process from germination to planting completed.

This weekend we have been organising a big public planting day at the Okia reserve on the Otago Peninsula. The reserve is a safe and wonderful place to explore, and with a forecast of fine weather we are looking forward to a good day out. We already know that several groups intend to help, and have made “seed balls” for the children to disperse.

Winter Clean
When all the plants have been sent to the habitats the nursery will need a winter clean before the start of the 2005 plant production cycle. We have started with a huge clean up of our glasshouse. This is also a time for general maintenance e.g. sharpening tools, replacing and cleaning sprinkler heads.

Visits
Last week we were visited by the Otago Polytechnic horticulture students who were interested in learning more about the propagating of native plants for habitat restoration. We gave them a tour of our site and a quick talk about what we do. They were very interested in the specialized techniques we use that other commercial nurseries don’t (i.e. seed balls, unusual species etc).

New Buildings
By June the building of our sheltered outdoor workspace should be finished. This will greatly assist us in accommodating larger groups when the weather is bad.

Our other renovations are either completed or finally underway. We have electricity in the glasshouse for running our soon-to-be purchased heating pads and misting unit. This means that we will be able to extend our specialised species.

One of our volunteers has also undertaken to build us a “duff” (leaf litter) shade house. A lot of ready-to-grow seeds can be found in leaf litter under big trees that birds use for perching on. We collect this litter, spread it in trays in the nursery, and prick out useful emerging seedlings. The duff house will create the perfect conditions for germination in duff, and will prevent contamination from local seeds. Small things take a long time - we have spent many days preparing plans to apply for building consent to construct a new shade house on our site and are waiting for approval.

Restoration Workshop
A few of us from the Trust attended an Ecological Restoration Workshop in Christchurch last week, sponsored by Landcare Research. This was invaluable for the work we are doing. We were able to talk to other groups and plant nurseries involved in habitat restoration. We have found that once you start talking to people in the same field, you discover that they are struggling with a lot of the same problems. Even though we have been involved in habitat restoration for only a short time compared to many of the people there, we had useful information to share, as well as learn.

There’s always something to do, but we love every minute of it.

Cheers
Margaret and Anita

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