The South Canterbury Riparian Planting Project has brought together the resources of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand, the Department of Conservation (Doc), commercial partner Botanica by Air Wick, and four golf clubs in the province, to restore biodiversity around the locale through the planting of native trees and shrubbery.
The South Canterbury venues involved in the project are the Gleniti, Temuka, Pleasant Point and Geraldine golf clubs. The clubs were identified by the Department of Conservation as being strategically located for habitat restoration in conjunction with the wider predator-free initiative, as well as having access to large numbers of volunteer members able to assist in the beautification process.
The first planting day was recently held at the Gleniti Golf Club, with a group of volunteers working alongside a horticultural team from Temuka’s Arowhenua Marae nursery which is contracted to grow and supply the native plants for the greater planting project over the coming months.
About 20 green-fingered golf club volunteers, along with nursery and Doc staff, attended the day-long planting session, seeding about 1300 native trees and shrubs around three large water catchment ponds running through the Gleniti course.
Days later the process was repeated with about 14 volunteers from the Pleasant Point Golf Club, which has a free-flowing stream running through the middle of several fairways. About 1195 trees and shrubs were planted along the stream banks.
Similar planting days will be held along the waterways and catchment ponds of the Temuka and Geraldine golf clubs over coming weeks and months.
"Golf clubs are renowned for being environmental pillars within New Zealand communities the length and breadth of the country, undertaking hundreds of hectares of planting projects as well as implementing pest and rodent eradication programmes to help rid the country of stoats, weasels, and possums," Mr Hudson said.
"The South Canterbury Riparian Planting Project showcases that the restoration and care of our environmental assets really is a multi-discipline opportunity — with the various stakeholders bringing on board their respective strengths and contributions, whether that be organisational, financial, horticultural expertise, personnel or location.
"Being proud intergenerational custodians of the land, South Canterbury golf clubs and their environmentally-conscious members are wholeheartedly supportive of the South Canterbury Riparian Planting Project which not only adds to the area’s ecological sustainability, but also increases the visual appeal of courses as natural recreational areas able to be enjoyed by all members of the public."
The South Canterbury native vegetation planting programme at the four golf clubs is the third phase of the WWF-New Zealand and Botanica by Air Wick joint #ReBlossomNZ initiative.
With about 90% of New Zealand’s wetland areas lost to development, the three-year partnership aims to restore these important habitats through planting native flowers.
WWF-New Zealand chief executive officer Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb said the organisation was proud to support a project that had seen nearly 28,000 natives planted across Aotearoa over the last three years to protect wetland areas, restore biodiversity and improve water quality.
"These sorts of community conservation projects can make a real difference in ensuring we have a healthy environment for the next generation of New Zealanders."
