Tree-Planting Working Bee of 21st June 2009 - True "People Power"

The best turn-out ever for a working bee at the Pukete tracks. In spite of a frosty morning and an early start, over 40 people turned out to plant 1300 trees, mostly in the area on or near the Gurney trail, and the area surrounding the new tracks, including some wetland planting just below them. We were supervised by Patrick the possum who gratefully watched us from a nearby tree, as we made excellent provision for his future food supply. (see photo) Lefty the legendary Pukete-kitty also visited but showed far more interest in the swap-meet afterwards than in the tree-planting itself.
Gerard Kelly from the council brought all the trees along and gave us information on how and where best to plant them. The work was also carried out under the supervison of Doug Hope and Dave Hudson, who made sure we didn't plant in such a way we would make future trail maintenance difficult.

We had families, including young children on the job and we had a good sprinkling of our young rising star competitive male riders whose strength and fitness came in as handy for planting as it does for winning races. Names of these included Jack Chapman, Josh Parkin and Connor Dove. The entire committee was also there.

Because of the large turnout, planting was finished well before mid-day, and once the work was over, much food was consumed, some of which was served from muddy wheelbarrows, which made excellent dining tables. Thanks to those kind people who provided such excellent food for the workers. Maria Cleland's quiche was delicious. So were Isy's pikelets.

Money changed hands at the swap meet afterwards.

Aerial Photos of the Track

1. This is the start area leading into the inner track area. It has transparent red lines showing the track with arrows for direction.
2. This is the inner track area with track shown in transparent pink with arrows for direction and landmarks labelled.
3. The inner track without markings and labels for those who know the track so well, markings may be unecessary and annoying.

We also have photos of the outer park tracks, (over closer to the river) These are tracks we only use when specially permitted for our race nights, so the council prefer us not to include them here in case anyone should mistakenly infer they are part of the official MTB track.

There are versions of all these photographs which are larger and better quality than is practical on a web site. They are available on request from Tui.

Tree-planting Days
The club now has an arrangement with the council that we plant trees in the park every winter in lieu of license fees. License fees would otherwise come to thousands of dollars which would mean a considerable hike in our annual subsriptions. The council even provides the trees free of charge! So whenever you hear of a tree-planting working bee, it is the responsibilityof everyone who appreciates the park to get down there and help us. Then when our kids grow up, the park will have changed from the weed-patch it tends to be today into a beautiful native forest alive with the singing of native birds. The process is under way already - lets keep it going strong. We need to plant hundreds of trees - its not just one or two, so many spade-toting helpers are always needed for this big job.