Forest & Bird using ecological mapping for Hāwea planting projects
Central Otago-Lakes branch of Forest & Bird (COLB) is using new ecological mapping to inform its tree planting project to soak up carbon emitted by its activities and to re-introduce indigenous forest biodiversity.
It is hard to visualise it today but the neat farmland lapping the lower range slopes between John Creek and Hawea Flat were once the home of mighty native podocarps such as kahikatea and matai. The familiar beech forest of the wetter alpine ranges used to extend further east, merging into totara forest in drier Central Otago. These are the ‘invisible’ or lost forests of the Upper Clutha. A lone totara or isolated beech patch are rare portals to this ecological realm of past and future.
Recent mapping of the potential natural ecosystems of Otago by Wildlands Consultants is an exciting new reference for planning new native plantings to restore our indigenous biodiversity and local landscape character, maintain our high water quality and sequester carbon. COLB is using this information to plan its new native tree planting in Grandview Creek.
