28 April, 2022

Three years after the fire that devastated Teapot Valley’s indigenous forest area on land owned by Tasman Pine Forests, restoration is well underway.

Funded by MPI’s Billion Trees programme, a four-year Jobs for Nature project in the Tasman district aims to restore fire-affected hillslopes that were burnt in the 2019 Pigeon Valley fire, as well as re-connecting remnants of alluvial forest along Teapot Valley Stream.

Tasman District Council received just under $1 million from Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service for its Teapot Valley/Pigeon Valley fire restoration project, with landowners Tasman Pine Forests Ltd (TPFL) contributing another $70,000 in cash and resources to the project.

Ten full-time equivalent jobs are being targeted for creation over the duration of the project.

This project will run over a four-year period as part of Government stimulus funding through the One Billion Trees and Jobs for Nature programmes.

The Pigeon Valley fire started on 5 February 2019 and burnt through an area of approximately 2,400 hectares (ha), including 1400 ha of plantation pine forest managed by TPFL.

The restoration site covers around 60 ha of native forest, including several remnants of intact forest in good condition, hosting a diversity of plant and bird species.

Other areas of the site have more limited native vegetation, but some natural regeneration is occurring which will be supplemented with in-fill planting to increase plant diversity and abundance.

In areas most impacted by the fire, full revegetation is required, with 16,000 native plants on order for planting this winter and another 17,000 plants to be planted in winter 2023.

As well, some experimental direct seeding will be carried out, with native seed introduced to areas cleared of weeds.

If successful, direct seeding provides a cost-effective complement to planting, particularly over large areas.

Ecological restoration and biosecurity company Kaitiaki o Ngahere Limited is also involved with the project as the supplier of weed control and revegetation operations.

Weed control in the site started in mid-2021 and will continue throughout the project, particularly targeting old man’s beard, Himalayan honeysuckle, pampas grass and willows.

Two small wetlands in the restoration site are also being restored through weed control and re-planting, to improve their ecological health.

Project manager Fiona Ede says that the ongoing support of TPFL has been instrumental in getting the project underway, and she is excited about what the project will achieve.

“This is a great opportunity to learn how fire-affected indigenous vegetation communities recover and how we can accelerate their recovery through planting, direct seeding and effective weed control promoting natural regeneration.”

Fiona and her team have also been busy monitoring the existing vegetation, with monitoring to be undertaken again at the end of the project.

Fiona says comparing before and after data will provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the restoration activities.

TPFL chief operating officer Steve Chandler says “it is good to have TDC and MPI support for the restoration of an important lowland native forest area. It is anticipated that the successful re-establishment work undertaken in this area can be a showcase for other native forest restoration projects.”

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