Charity to celebrate one million trees planted

A local community group is on track to plant one million native trees and has set itself an ambitious new target of planting a million more.

The not-for-profit nursery Trees for Canterbury has been running since the 1990s and later this year hopes to chalk up a major milestone, achieving the planting of one million trees at sites around Christchurch and Canterbury. A celebration of this achievement will be held at Travis Wetland Reserve on 15 September.

Trees for Canterbury manager Steve Bush.

Trees for Canterbury Manager Steve Bush, who has been in the role since 1992, is proud of what the organisation has achieved.

“It is a true social enterprise in that 100 per cent of our income goes into the running of the nursery and carrying out our aims. It’s a real buzz to see the trees we’ve planted around the city and the region and know that we’ve helped create that legacy. You can go back years later and see a huge change, so it’s really fantastic.”

When he first started working for the organisation it was able to donate only a few thousand plants each year, now it donates about 45,000 annually.
Trees for Canterbury regularly works in partnership with the Christchurch City Council, donating plants for community planting days such as the one held earlier this month at Styx Mill Conservation Reserve.

“We show up with lots of plants and encourage lots of people to come. For the recent Styx Mill planting day, we contributed 1950 plants. Our relationship with the council is a long term association, we work quite closely with a number or rangers and if we can supply them with some plants, I think it does help the Council out substantially.”

All of the plant seedlings and trees that the nursery donates are eco sourced. This means they are grown from seeds collected by volunteers from native trees growing in pockets of remnant native bush in Riccarton, on the Port Hills, and at locations on Banks Peninsula.

“This means we know the plants are direct descendants from trees that have been here for hundreds of years. They’re not from seeds that have come from the North Island,” Mr Bush says.

It can take up to 18 months to mature to a stage where they can be planted out. The varieties grown at its nursery include pittosporum, coprosma, totara, kahikatea, lace barks, cabbage trees, flaxes and grasses.

The trust, which won won the Champion Community Impact - Small Enterprise category of the Champion Canterbury Business Awards last year, works with other community groups and schools around Canterbury, providing environmental education along with plants.

Its goals are to employ disadvantaged people, educate people on environmental awareness, and regenerate by cultivating native plants in its nursery for community plantings and other revegetation projects.

Mr Bush says the organisation’s success and longevity comes down to its volunteers: “They’re doing something special for the community. They’re special people and we think they’re wonderful.”

Trees for Canterbury is holding 10 community planting days this year and encourages everyone to come along and pitch in towards its goal of getting two million native trees planted.