Already we are well into the year of 2009 and we have continued to be busy every week all through the holiday season. Our Tuesday morning group continues, regardless of the season.
All through the summer holiday season different members have been away at times, to the most interesting of places, mostly in New Zealand. They come back rejuvenated with lots of stories to tell us about the Queen Charlotte Sounds Walk, or the cycleway in mid Canterbury, Northland, and one member is away for four weeks touring the South Island, so we await his tales. A couple have ventured to Australia, but not to the flooded area or the bush fire zone.
We have had some very constructive meetings with relevant Council staff who are responsible for our environment to discuss our plans for this year, and how we will work in with the Parks and Reserves member to achieve another great outcome. We all want to be paddling in the same direction.
The corrections department team members do not have holidays so we have been deploying them to the best advantage for Cambridge. At the beginning of the year a number of teams and days were spent at the top of Maungakawa in the reserve clearing the undergrowth and pruning trees, cleaning up the "Rest and be Thankful" area under the big tree on the side of the road. They cleaned up the car park and placed big rocks in between the bollards to prevent vandals from racing around on the grass reserve. 'The Friends of Maungakawa' group are working on upgrading the reserve to make it more interesting to the public, with relics from the past when the Sanatorium occupied the place.
The next major job was to clean out the drains and the bank at the bottom of the hill in Lake Te Ko Utu Park. Many truck loads of smelly rubbish were carted off to the council's dump in Queens Street. After this the bamboo on the hillside beside the "Sam Lewis Track" was seen to. A number of very interesting sessions have happened here, as there are some hidden wasps nests in the bank or the bamboo, somewhere. After a few quick dashes out of the bush and down the hill the teams are very careful to keep and eye open at all times for those pesky paper wasps or the German wasp and at the first sign of one, they all come thundering out from the bush making a dash for freedom and no stings. We have had a few bad sting sessions. One guy got about 30 to 40 stings and mostly on his head. He had a number one haircut which gave no barrier to the wasps, and they really did give him a bad time. Wide legged shorts offer no protection, and slow runners can get caught and receive a few stings. Ask Brian.
Our Tuesday group has covered a number of varying tasks this year. Weeds don't take a holiday so we have kept up a regular spray programme and weeding sessions in the most visible places like Cook Street Reserve and Pope Terrace, the Steelway and the Swale. Another interesting task has been to remove the oak seedlings that have appeared in the leaf mulch we used in areas like the Watkins Road Swale and below the Kauri Grove. They are fairly easy to pull out when young but if they get a hold on the carpet underneath some of them are pretty darn hard to get out. The Cambridge leaves make good mulch but we can have a multitude of little oaks come from that same mulch if we don`t work on it.
It is good to see the number of people who regularly use the Watkins Road Swale. Every time we are working there we see many people walking, running, or exercising their dogs. On weekends the wide open spaces are used for kicking footballs about and kite flying. The Council has informed us that a path will be installed soon so that the users won't have to walk through wet grass in the winter.
Since the car park in Cook Street has been installed it has become a popular place to park and walk. The seat with Stephanie Blackie's memorial plaque is in place and is often occupied. From there you get a lovely view across the river and in either direction it is a peaceful place to view the world. We would like to thank the council for their assistance in getting this place more user friendly, and putting the seat in place.
The work in Poets Track and the Steelway has been mostly spraying weeds and pruning to let the light in. We have a secret grove of Nikau Palms that is really getting established. Kauri, Miro, Kahikatea, Rimu, Puriri, Putaputaweta, and Kowhai are some of the major species that, at five years old, are now poking their heads up into the sunlight above the minor species of trees that were planted to protect them.
The plants outside of the safety fence have grown to fill the space available to them, and some we have to prune slightly. The flax that we planted in the wet marshy place in the middle is getting established. We have some work in little corners to fill up yet, but it is so pleasing to see so many native trees suitable to feed the native birds. A group of university students approached us needing a job as part of their studies so this is to be included in their work schedule.
One member while out driving noted a large number of Rewarewa seedlings growing on a roadside bank near Otorohanga, and being a proper tree person he had in his car boot the tools necessary to dig up seedlings, and returned home with 120 plants all of which are now potted up and growing. Another member has rescued from his wife's garden rubbish a group of coloured flax and felt that we could possibly use them on the riverbank, so they too are potted up.
We had a display table at the "Have a Go Expo" in the town hall on Sunday March 22nd and we will also have a display at the Autumn Festival on Sunday April 26th in the main street of Cambridge ,so come and say "hi" to us.
This year we are going to resurrect the daffodil planting in Cambridge as we have been offered a donation from the Christmas Festival for this purpose.
Down, down, yellow and brown,
The leaves will soon be falling
all over the town
