(1) View the native forest in the Waitakere Ranges from the Visitor's Centre platforms built among the treetops on a steep hillside. The valley below is reported by historians to have been home to the largest kauri trees in the ranges. Fine regenerating forest now surrounds one of the water supply reservoirs.
(2) Note the large macrocarpa timber beams in the Visitors Centre. Milled in the Pukekohe district, they may be the largest to be seen in a public building of this kind.
(3) One of the leaders worked from 1970 to 1982 as foreman of the Auckland Regional Authority Parks Dept landscape team, and can comment from first-hand experience on the size that some native tree species have grown in some of the parks. Photos of planted trees such as puriri, now over two metres in girth, will be discussed. Conservation and amenity plantings can give indications of how native trees might be grown for other purposes.
(4) The same leader has walked on almost all tracks in the Waitakere Ranges, and in many off track locations, over the past thirty years, and can give pointers on how visitors may, if they wish, continue to explore the Waitakere Ranges on future occasions.
Visit to an 11-year old experimental forestry block in the
foothills of the Waitakere Ranges. The block was Kikuyu and gorse
when purchased and immediately converted to shelter and forestry
with 6,000 trees/plants put in the first year. There is a large
number of timber and shelter trees in a variety of trials,
including some which have never been grown in NZ before. The
ongoing work includes species assessment, trials of Californian
Redwood clones, silvacultural trials on a variety of coppice,
mixed forestry trials, and clonal assessment of selected
blackwoods (PVR trial). Many of the species grown can coppiced
(re-grow from the stump) and there is an emphasis on sustainable
growth/yield management.
Unfortunately recently there has been a major overspray of some of the property by the adjacent grazing unit, so some of the property's activities will not be in full operational mode. Visitor can see what was a very successful (small) banana plantation and breeding and selection work on Cherimoyas. There are also a number of tropical/subtropical fruit trees, and a small orchard under development to three varieties of figs. All food and fruit crops are organically grown.
Garden trees include a pond and short walks through modified regenerating bush areas with many orchids, bromeliads, rhododendrons, and a wide variety of other plants and trees.
For the purist there is a small QEII Trust area of climax forest which includes a very large Kauri plus Rimu, Nikau, and some exceptional Kahikatea, a vary large Puriri, and many other natives.
We look forward to sharing our work with all inquisitive tree croppers.
Back To Recent National Conference - Auckland 1999
http://www.nzero.co.nz/treecrop/feat99/WaitakareTrip.htm
Updated:1999-05-13