Kohinga, Kaweka Forest Park, Wednesday 4 September 2024
Banner Photo: Check out the wilding pines everywhere
It was chilly at Park Island, but the sky looked sort of blue(ish) so we hoped the rain wouldn’t arrive until later. Johnny D drove the van and we met Graham Leech from Afoot at Omahu.
Getting kitted up, followed by the safety briefing
Graham organises the wilding pines pull days. He and Giles are trustees of the Hawke’s Bay Wilding Pine Control Trust. Graham, Giles and another three were already at Omahu, (two from our club) so it was a great turn-out from NTC.
At the starting point, the mist came down, the wind rose and the temperature didn’t move. We kitted up and armed ourselves with secateurs, pruning saws, drills and herbicide.
Off we went, climbing straight away which warmed us up, then into a bush area, chopping as we went to improve the track, then out into the open to some big clay pans which were steep and a bit slippery. Then back into more bush, more chopping.
We began to see the pines. Forget the secateurs, these were trees and the saws came into action. The average diameter was probably 150mm; some had been cut before but re-grown with several small trunks almost from ground level.
Ed Vowden and Julia Mackie at the Kohinga trig
Most of us went to the trig at the summit. Heading down, the hard work really started. The more you looked, the more trees there were. Some meant bush-bashing, some were in the open; if you saw it, you sawed it.
Simon, ringing a big huge pine and then pasting
The larger trees had three holes drilled in and glyphosate injected. There must have been lots of holes because the batteries were flat at the end of the day. All stumps or cut saplings were dealt to with glyphosate. You only need one small green shoot and it will grow again.
We stopped for lunch in a sheltered hollow at 11.30am but were up and off after about 20 minutes because people started to get cold again. It was decided that we’d keep working downhill and meet at the vehicles around 2pm. The trouble was, every time you looked up there was another […] pine!
Returning through the bush to the vehicles, the track definitely looked a lot clearer than when we arrived, which was great.
The tally showed that we’d cut 213 pines from 58 volunteer hours. Wow!
Many members hadn’t done any wilding pine work before, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Newbies Selina and Teresa said they liked the variety of outings, even though Teresa ended up with the muddiest backside that I’ve seen for a long time.
Then it was back in the van, heater on, Johnny D driving and the rain really came down – so the timing was perfect. A good day out and a job well done. We were back at Park Island at about 3.45pm. Next time, hopefully it will be a bit warmer and we might even see the views from the top.
Pullers, drillers and sawyers: Teresa Cuthbert, Elly Govers, Gerard van de Ven, Alison Greer, Simon Hill, Selina Chilton, Julia Mackie, Doug Matheson, John Dobbs, Kate Fuller, Keith Gore and reporter Di Reid
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