September 2005

Annual General Meeting time again. All the Information is on the back page

The Silver Poplar Track and Settlers Track ARE BOTH OPEN NOW.

The reconstructed Track from Bath Street to the High Level Bridge or down the new stairway and over the Bridge under the Bridge to either the boat ramp or the skate bowl stairway is completed now for use.

It has taken longer than we thought but if you walk it you will notice it is of sound construction and next year we will complete the planting of the banks that have been disrupted by the earth works needed to make this a very usable track.

All the stairways had been made by official contractors for safety reasons.

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 The year nine students from Cambridge High School have all worked at the Lumb Park and Poets Track area as that has been our main project this year. After each group did their planting they were taken on a walk over the new Poets Track and up to the High Level Bridge and across to the New Track that has been constructed on the town side of the river.

In discussions with these young people we learned that many had not even known that there was this very interesting walk available to be used and that we had a waterfall here in Cambridge.

The students were told how these tracks had been reconstructed, one by council contractors with diggers and rollers and the other by correction department workers and volunteers from the Tree Trust.

The last of the High School groups all came on the one day (the first of September) and there were three classes so a very busy day was had by all helpers (about 75 students)

A big thank you is due to all those people who came along to help with the supervision of the students)

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 The very last few trees to be planted have been for the Parks Department and they have been big trees. They were planted on the bank in the Leamington Rugby Ground and the Park on the corner of Shelley Street and Thompson Street (Oak Trees and Liquidambar Trees.)

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We have just had a very large late donation of bare rooted trees that were surplus to requirements for a local nursery. Immediately we put 51 maple trees into the ground at the back of our nursery and potted up another 50 into big plastic bags and provided a watering system for them. All these trees are suitable for street plantings.

The Cherry trees went straight into the ground in their permanent homes (Now for a quiz.) How many can you locate?

We have finished all major plantings for this year now.

 The areas where we have planted trees to cover bare ground or supplement what is very sparsely planted already are; Lumb Park, Poets Track (stage 3), Silver Poplar Track, below Souter House (in the mulch), Settlers Track (between the Bridge under the Bridge and the stairway), the slip on the Waikato river in Addison Street (the fenced off area) The Camellia Gardens in Lake Te Ko Utu Park and of course the cherry trees which are in six places about the town.

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Another day while Brian was working at the nursery another gentleman came in with a trailer load of native trees that he did not need so they too, joined the many that have been planted on the bank below Lumb Park. 

We thank all these people who kindly give us suitable trees for the waste land planting in Cambridge. The gorse, blackberry, Privit, honeysuckle, pampas and other pest weeds are slowly being eradicated and replaced with trees that shade the ground and prevent the weeds coming back.

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It has fallen to us to push forward with the re vegetation of the Pope Terrace River bank. At this stage the plan is to weed mat the top two metres all the way along to prevent weeds. Then next year, plant with suitable low growing plants to prevent erosion, and have windows so the great views of the river and the bridge can  be enjoyed by all.                                  

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One of our members who is a volunteer on Maungatautari Ecological Island was not going to wash his right hand for a month as he has shaken hands with so many V.I.P.s.

In the lead up to the elections there were many prospective candidates out at the M.E.I. looking the place over.

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We have been approached by the Drainage department for help as they had a wash out on the bank behind the Badminton hall that needed some planting at the top to retain the bank and at the bottom to hold all the earth that had washed down.To get into that place we have had to cut our way through blackberry and gorse down the steep bank before we are able to plant the poplars in the wash out. As some of the work we do is too hard for us older volunteers we have had to pay a man to clear this track and other maintenance work in previous planted areas.

 Over the past year we have used the labour of 67 gangs of Corrections Department workers in the building of the Tracks and clearing scrub and with some of the planting and all of the mulching that has been done so we are really grateful for their help. Without this free labour not a lot of these projects would get done. We support them by providing the use of our building for their breaks.

We also need to provide a portable toilet when they are about the town. At the present time we have to uplift the one from the council and move it to sites but we really need to have one that is on a trailer that can be taken with them to their work sites.

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We wish to thank all our volunteer helpers who have worked hard over the past year in many ways, without you we would not be able to create such interesting places to visit.

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With the Annual General Meeting now due we need volunteers for all positions. Please give this some thought as this is one way to become involved in the beautifying of your town.

Contacts;

ChairmanBrian Mayo..827 8073

Secretary.Leslie Wood827 4498

 One way to get a lot of potting up done is to have a group from the Bahai Faith come The day turns out wet so we can not go out to work so we form a chain gang and in one hour and fifteen minutes they potted up 370 pseudopanax (five finger) trees from size three bags to size five bags.

 What a great effort folks and what fellowship and laughter and then we all had a cup of tea and chocolate cake to finish.

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e have had some very generous donation this year from many source; Trust Power, Cambridge Lions, Rotary, Selectrix, Hewitt Trust, Jumble Around and others .We thank you all.

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We value you membership, and would love more of you to drop by the nursery when ever you are over this side of town and check out the facility.

Our financial year is from the first of September 2005 until the 31^st of August 2006.and if you want to stay a member you suds are now due. We have kept them to $10.00 and this gives you about 4 newsletters a year and buys us a few seedlings or another bucket of potting mix to grow trees to help beautify Cambridge.

The Annual General Meeting;

The meeting will be held on the 25th.of October 2005 at 7.30pm.