Friday, August 20, 2010

Months of work and maintenance

Norfolk Landcare Group has never had a large membership but our people are dedicated to helping Norfolk's environment and gave hours of their time in getting stage one presentable. It took many, many working bees to clear the lower slopes. Some of the upper sections of the hill it was impossible to work on as it is so steep. Much of this area was quite dense native forest and had less weed in it that the lower slopes. It was thought that the only way to work there would be to get some people to abseil down and do spraying of the woody weeds.

We planted pines in the far steep corner of the hill above the waterfall. This area was the most exposed and was exceedingly steep and eroded from the cattle. It was felt pines were the most hardy and would better withstand the coastal winds and poor ground. This proved true and the pines did well there.

The lower slopes towards the centre and on the other ridge were planted in mixed forest. Tne upper section on the other ridge could have been planted but there is a huge very dead pine up the hill which is precarious and could fall at any time. In the interests of safety, this section was left for another time.

The plan is that over time the forest will grow up and provide a canopy to crowd out woody weeds from within. Meantime, we would need to periodically work to get rid of the weeds.

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