Thirty-two thousand native plants.
That's a massive number of plants that have been planted on Taupō's Wairakei Drive and Taupō environmentalist, Quality Print owner and keen Greening Taupō supporter Shawn Vennell is the man to thank.
Sean 'the Vegetator' Vennell and a small group of helpers (he would dearly love more) have cleared scrub, planted, mulched, weeded, watered and loved 32,000 native plants that have gone into the ground since Shawn began his environmental crusade in 2015.
In addition, Greening Taupō's planting days have put another 140,000 plants in the ground along Wairakei Drive and environs.
It is hard work. For the first two years after the plants have gone in they need to be weeded to stop weeds smothering them, and given a litre or two of extra water over summer to get them through the drier months.
Once the plants are big enough to form a canopy of shade that prevents the weeds from growing, they can be left to do their own thing.
Areas of plantings that went in up to seven years ago are now thriving and eventually will become huge areas of native bush, providing safe shady corridors full of food for birds.
Shawn's particular passion is bringing back the native birds and his mascot is the kererū, so it was only fitting that when the tourism operators of the Wairakei Tourist Park wanted to recognise his efforts recently they presented him with a magnificent puriri tree, a native variety known to attract kererū.
It is believed to be the first puriri tree to be planted in the Wairakei Tourist Park.
The puriri was planted next to a gully and under the shelter of some huge old pine trees in the hope they would afford some protection from frost.
Richard Klein of Huka Prawn Park said the tree planting was to acknowledge, on behalf of the operators' group, all of Shawn's hard work and instead of a big function they decided to give Shawn one of his favourite trees and get together with a few beers and some finger food to say thank you.
Shawn said although he was always looking for more volunteer help, when he came to Wairakei Drive and saw the progress that had been made it was immensely satisfying to see and after a couple of years of weeding and encouragement the new plantings were able to look after themselves.
It was pleasing to see the community was getting on board with bringing back the bush too, with the huge turnout at the recent Arbor Day event outside Taupō Golf Club organised by Greening Taupō, where hundreds of members of the community turned out.
"It's an absolute joy to be recognised like this and I'm really humbled … it's so cool to have the group together and I'm a bit of a believer in holding hands is a good thing too, it's good for business."
The tree and the function was organised by Jo Saville from Huka Honey Hive, and attended by Jonny Clapcott of FourB, Richard, Dave Kilmister of Huka Falls River Cruise, Linda Symons of Craters of the Moon Trust, Jemma Gregory of Legend and Robyn Ellis of Predator Free Taupō.
Credit: NzHerald.co.nz
