Sustainable Farming Fund is a misnomer.
Because
the fund beautifully benefits both farming and
forestry sustainability projects, it richly deserves to be re-named.
By dropping
Fund from the fund’s title, and adding
Forestry, the obligatory three-letter acronym would remain intact, and also some awkward phasing could be avoided—‘funded by Sustainable Forestry and Farming’ reads so much better than ‘funded by the Sustainable Farming Fund.’
Semantics aside, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Sustainable Farming Fund knows what it’s doing when it comes to facilitating effective sustainability projects. One of the requirements is for project information to be effectively disseminated—a major driver in taking the
Mahurangi Magazine online.
One of the dissemination tools emphasised is field days, hence the
open-ground open day at
Taupö Native Plant Nursery.
While field days preach partly to the converted, they do at least preach to the interested. One person acutely interested in the field day was Graeme Fleming, chief executive of the
Lake Taupö Protection Trust.
Graeme explained to the 40 attendees how the trust plans, with its budget of $81 million over 15 years, to pre-empt Taupö going bottom up, in the manner of the Rotorua Lakes. The trust’s particular focus is nitrogen reduction. While there is a range of measures that are pertinent, a switch from agriculture to forestry is the signal
land use change sought. The principal barrier to the inclusion of an indigenous forestry component, Graeme had soon learned, was the high cost of indigenous plants and their establishment.
Subsequently, Dr David Bergin has discussed the open-ground project with Graeme Fleming and protection trust director John Kneebone. An application to the trust (prepared by Dr David Bergin and Cimino Cole) for $150 000 was successful, enabling the open-ground versus container-raised trials to continue for a further three years.
The Taupö trials facilitate:
- • The Mahurangi trials to be repeated in central volcanic plateau conditions
- • Trials to be easily accessible by central volcanic plateau land holders and foresters
- • Associated research, science and technology to be furthered.
The trial is being conducted by
Täne’s Tree Trust, a national organisation with a vision for the majority of property holders to be successfully planting and sustainably managing indigenous trees, for multiple uses, by 2020. Dr David Bergin is a trustee, and fellow trustee
Roger MacGibbon is the project manager. One of Roger’s hats is managing director of the
Xcluder Pest Proof Fence Company, 47 kilometres of whose product protects
Maungatautari.
The first year of a trial is typically less than optimal. With the Mahurangi open-ground project, the focus was initially on establishing a pilot nursery, at the Ömaha wastewater treatment site. While a lot was learned by the project team, it belatedly occurred to them that more robust results could be obtained by are far as possible having the plants produced by an established nursery with open-ground and container-raised capability. The Sustainable Farming Fund understands that
projects often evolve, and encourages flexibility—being the keyword requisite, of course.
The first year of the Lake Taupö Protection Trust trials is similarly short of perfection. The comparison omits root-trainer-raised plants, and site is not readily accessible by the target audience. It has also been established later in the year than is accepted best practice. However it is also valuable to test the extremes, provided that the early summer is not so drying that a large percentage of plants die.
Having some plants die, in a scientifically designed trial, is generally valuable in demonstrating what works and what doesn’t. This has been the happy result at Sandspit Road where there were appreciable losses amongst the root trainer–raised plants, but only small losses of those open-ground or planter bag (and pot)–raised.
The challenge for next year is to locate a site in the Taupö catchment with accessibility as good as Mahurangi’s Sandspit Road, complete with a
café as close, and as good—no pressure!
Maybe a
Mahurangi Magazine reader will put an oar in at Taupö.
Next section Growing Trees from the Tractor Seat
Previous section Indigenous Forestry Strategy
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The Open-Ground and Container-Raised Indigenous Plants Comparison is a Sustainable Farming Fund project.
Steeped in Science: The characteristically hard-working Michael Bergin demonstrates the steepness of the Taupö trial site terrain. The trial seeks to compare establishment rates of pot-raised and open-ground plants. Photographer Jonathan Barran
Seriously Tested: In order to be a seriously considered option to the fashion for raising plants in plastic containers, open-ground plants are being trialled in the Taupö catchment, as well as the Mahurangi. Photographer Jonathan Barran