A great day! Well, it was actually raining when the team assembled. Some of the 5 to 12 year old children from Pirinoa Primary School even had to go back home to collect wet weather gear before coming to the wetland. However, the rain cleared and it was all hands to the...spades!
In addition to the 20 children from Pirinoa, plus Mums, a Dad, and a teacher, there were 15 students from the Taratahi Agriculture Training Centre in Masterton, plus Dave Webster their tutor, Rotarians from South Wairarapa, DU members and representatives from the Farm Forestry Association, Forest and Bird, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Department of Conservation. "A great team effort involving a great cross section of the community" said Howard Egan, one of the DU members who had fought to get the project started back in 2005.
John Hayes, the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa, also put "hand to spade" to help with the planting and congratulated the team on their efforts. "Just the sort of commitment we need in our community" he said.
Don Bell, a Forest Conservator with the GWRC instructed the students, both the "little ones" (from Pirinoa) and the "bigger ones" (16 to 19 year olds from TATC), in the skills of tree planting. Jim Law, a DU member, shared the vision DU had for the wetland with them - to restore it, as near as possible, to the paradise it once was, providing pristine habitat for waterfowl. He also pointed out that the project was a long term one and suggested to the little ones that they remember where they each planted their tree, so they could return in years to come and say with pride "that's the tree I planted!"
In all, 750 trees were planted by lunch time. This was despite some of the "little ones" getting up to their waists in the wetland. "They should have brought the swimsuits rather than wet weather gear" observed one of the mothers.
All in all, great effort and a great sense of "ownership", a key ingredient for any project!
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