Conservation Volunteers Kick Off The Planting Season—May 21-25

The 2012 planting season at CUE Haven got off to a great start with the help of a hard working team of Conservation Volunteers.

The group consisted of Brigid and Amy from the UK, Martin from Belgium and Andrea, Juliane and Achim from Germany and was led by Ben Sewell of Conservation Volunteers New Zealand.  Until last week, Ben worked with the Department of Conservation and this was his first week working as a CVNZ team leader. We look forward to having him back with many more planting teams.

CVNZ National Manager, Ian Smith, Volunteer Engagement officer, Fiona Mclaughlin and office administrator, Matt Jackson came out too and got an update and a tour of the areas where the CVNZ volunteers will be working this season.

Our goal for this planting season is 25,000 trees so although there were lots of tasks for the volunteers, their focus this season will be planting the native trees.

The team settled in and after an orientation to CUE Haven and lunch, they went to work in a remote part of the property.

But the weather was perfect all week and despite the hard work the team kept smiling.

On Wednesday, Sarah, a second year Environmental Sciences student from UNITEC, came over for the day.  As part of Sarah’s practicum work involves field work at CUE Haven, she assisted us in relocating some native plants that had been incorrectly planted in an exposed area.  Thanks Sarah! We’ll have more tasks for her when she is back at CUE Haven for a couple more days over the following weeks.

Meanwhile, the CVNZ team laboured away with their planting on higher ground.

At the end of the week, the team had a lot to show for all their hard work:

And they took a well-deserved break:

Prior to leaving the team did a thorough clean up of the cottage:

It wasn’t all hard work, though.  In addition to watching movies, some of the team members worked on a jigsaw puzzle.

And did some foot wrestling:

We want to thank the team for all their hard work.  And congratulations to Ben on his first week as a CVNZ team leader.  His hard work and leadership helped make for a successful planting week.

Thank you and come back and see us again!