Air New Zealand Greenteam—13 May 2017

Our 2017 planting season got off to a great start thanks to the Air New Zealand Greenteam.  This is the third year in a row that Greenteam members have planted at CUE Haven.  The Air New Zealand Greenteam includes over 3,000 employees who are committed to environmental action and education both at work and home.

Among other things, the Greenteam members and their families and friends participate in educational activities such as taking field trips to observe native birds, insects and plants at close range, doing beach clean ups and tree plantings, all on their own time.

Today Greenteam members and their families spent the day at CUE Haven doing some very challenging planting.  They arrived at ten and the group included Angela, Bill, Brett, David, Hayley, Jemiton, Jing, Josh, Kevin, Khin, Lisa, Melanie, Merida, Michael, Priyanka, Rebekah, Samuel, Shafi, Shelley and Win.

It was great seeing lots of old friends as well as meeting some new people.  We got acquainted over morning tea and Mahrukh gave the group a brief introduction to CUE Haven and told them of the new developments.

Thomas described the work plan for the day and also gave a safety briefing.

The plan was to plant in two areas – both adjacent to each other, but both areas requiring different types of plants. Interestingly, quite a bit of both those areas had been planted with pioneer trees by the Air NZ Greenteam in 2015.

Last August we had a major slip in the 2015 planting area after unusually heavy rain and it destroyed a lot of the original planting. The slip area has now settled and today half of the Greenteam members helped us plant it with flax and cabbage trees which put down deep roots and will further stabilize the area.

The pioneer trees in the area adjacent, which was not affected by the slip, are growing well and the trees have grown enough that we can start doing infill planting of canopy trees.  Half the team went to work planting taraire and totara amongst the Manuka, kanuka and karamu that had previously been planted.

Both planting areas were challenging – one area because of the uneven and steep ground left by the slip, and the other because the area was on a slope and there were also lots of dead weeds.

However,  it was a perfect day for planting and the Greenteam members were totally up to the challenge.

After several hours of planting, the team broke for a well-deserved late lunch.  They accomplished an amazing amount of planting considering the difficult terrain.

The replanting in the slip area will ensure that the area is stabilized and protected in the future.  It better because Brett, who was one of the Greenteam members who initially planted the area in 2015, has said he’s not going to plant it again!!

Our many thanks to Shelley for organising another successful Air NZ Greenteam visit.  Shelley – we very much appreciate your support and look forward to having you and the Greenteam members out again soon.

And extra special thanks to all the Greenteam members and their families, partners and friends who gave up a Saturday to come and help out.   Thanks for a wonderful start to our 2017 planting season. We really enjoyed meeting you all and working with you and truly appreciate your hard work and contribution – not just to CUE Haven but to our environment and the wider community.

We look forward to seeing you all again at the Greenteam Enviro picnic in spring when you can explore more of CUE Haven and enjoy the growing native forest that you have helped create.

Many thanks again!