Conservation Volunteers—June 25-29, 2012

This year’s planting efforts got a big boost as a great group of Conservation Volunteers battled some of the worst winter weather we’ve seen.  In spite of having to deal with rain, hail, thunder and wind on almost every day, the team still managed to plant almost 2,100 trees.

The team was led by Ben Sewell of Conservation Volunteers and included Adrienn from Hungary, Joe from England, Anna and Verena from Germany, Tamanja from Belgium and Natalja from Latvia.  This was the second visit to CUE Haven for Anna, Verena and Tamanja and it was great to have them back.  And Adrienn and Natalja were our first volunteers from Hungary and Latvia.

The group arrived on Monday morning and after brief introductions, they went straight to work.

We started by delivering plants up to the remote planting site.

Tree planting was the priority for the week and the team managed to finish off a big section of this year’s planting site and also do some infill planting where there were gaps in previous year’s plantings.

 The dedicated team even ate their lunch in the field!

This was the last week in New Zealand for several of the team members and many of them are graduating from university and moving on to new endeavours.  They decided to plant a celebration tree to commemorate their visit and to celebrate New Horizons:

The team planted a totara close to the start of the walking track.  It will be a very prominent landmark as it grows up over the years.

We want to thank the team for all their hard work during a week of nasty weather.  You’ve made a major difference in the CUE Haven landscape and we hope you will come back someday to see the forest you have helped to plant.  Thanks for all your hard work!