Guardians of Titirangi focus of planting days

Enabling the community to take ownership of Titirangi’s (Kaiti Hill) future welfare is at the heart of Council’s planting days over the next few weeks.

A community planting day on Sunday 31 July, and school planting days from August 1 – 12 will see an estimated one thousand people planting over 1500 native trees on the port side of Titirangi.

Council in partnership with Ngati Oneone and support from the Department of Conservation (DOC), want to take this opportunity to share the reasons why Titirangi is culturally and historically important to our community.

Planning and Development Group Manager, Nedine Thatcher-Swann says “We had a lot of success with the community planting days last year, and we’re taking it another step further this year”

The community planting day will be held over two sessions, starting with a morning session at 10:30 – 12:30 and and afternoon session from 12:30 – 2:30

The sessions will start at the lower carpark on Queens Drive, where there will be a karakia (prayer) during the morning session, followed by a short walking tour to the planting site. During the short walk we will have representatives sharing historic stories, staff sharing work progress and weed identification to give people a fuller picture of the restoration work happening on the reserve.

“It’s not just planting a few trees, we want the community to understand the significance of Titirangi and form a relationship with the maunga to ensure its future protection”

“We want to create future guardians of Titirangi” Said Ms Thatcher-Swann.

After the community planting day, there is a program of school planting days which will see over 700 students planting trees throughout the first two weeks of August.

“Interest was so high that our original 15 sessions were booked out within a week, and we had to arrange a further 12 sessions.” Ms Thatcher-Swann.

The Titirangi restoration project is currently replanting sites that were harvested last year, and has just passed its consultation period for the reserve management plan. The plan will provide a framework for future development on Titirangi.

Mayor Meng Foon says “Planting natives is significant to our treasure right in the city, our hope is that in the future native birdlife will return and thrive in the reserve”

For more information on the Titirangi restoration project, please visit our website atwww.gdc.govt.nz

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