Ensuring the survival of native flora and fauna

Ensuring the survival of native flora and fauna

There is a hefty fine given to anyone caught taking native seeds from Auckland Regional Council’s parks, but Wyn Blackie, a staff member from Manukau Institute of Technology’s department of Horticulture, is one of the few granted a permit to do just that.

Wyn’s permit extends to all the southern parks: Ambury, Awhitu, Duder, Hunua, Mutukaroa-Hamlins Hill, Omana, Tapapakanga, Tawhitokino and Waharau.

The peak collecting period runs from December to May, and Wyn estimates she collects 90,000 seeds each year.

After being sown in the department’s facilities, they are sold as seedlings to Trees for Survival (TFS) which co-ordinated the planting of more than 60,000 trees nationwide last year.

TFS is managing NZ’s contribution to the United Nations environmental programme that aims to plant one billion trees worldwide in 2007.

“I’m part of a network of seed-gathering horticulturalists,” says Wyn.

“We talk with each other up and down the North Island about the various pests and diseases we’re noticing. Someone in Northland might give me a lead about a pest they had up there. There might have been a pest on the red matipo last year but it’s gone this year.

“I go out most weekends and look at the trees to work out when the seeds will be in a mature state and ready for picking. All the information about the selected trees goes in a diary so I can follow the stages very closely.

“It’s not like clockwork – you don’t get seeds from the same trees each year. Gardening books won’t tell you so but the flowering seasons change slightly each year too. The seeds in exposed areas tend to be ready a fortnight ahead. Hunua is a fortnight behind.

“The weather is also important for gathering because some seeds such as manuka and flax can only be collected when they’re dry – once they’re moist they start to germinate. Succulent seeds, on the other hand, can be collected in either wet or dry conditions.”

Back at the department the seeds are removed from their shell or capsule, weighed and checked for viability, then sown 100 per punnet in potting mix with the help of the Horticulture students.

The punnets are placed in the school’s propagation house – some needing light while others require darkness for germination – where they are automatically watered once a day.

The seedlings are then passed on to 24 local schools that grow them into individual trees before planting some and handing others on to landowners.

By involving schools, TFS teaches children about trees and their place in the environment. The plantings provide plant cover and restore eroded land to improve water quality while also providing habitat for native flora and fauna.

Community building is promoted through further partnerships wi