Progress on the Brooklyn Stream planting project
By Kim Burridge, Brooklyn BOMB squad leader
Our first planting working bee took place last Saturday 15th February on the planting site adjacent to Linden Reserve. It was a small but enthusiastic team of five, and we cleared a rough path through half the strip of land, using branches and rocks to define it, as well as removing some of the juvenile willow trees. All large willow trees will stay in place to shade the stream as well as sheltering the future native plantings.
Tasks in the next couple of months include extending the path, maintaining weed control and taking out more straggly little willows. We were excited to find some mature Tutu established on the streambanks among the willows as this native is included in the plant list. Details of the next working bee will be emailed soon.
Thank you to Motueka Catchment Collective and Tasman District Council who’ve provided $7693 in funding. This has enabled us to pay MAD Conservation Services to clear the site and do follow up spraying, and to order enough plants/guards to cover the first half of the site in winter 2025.
We need to find more funds to complete planting on the second half, so if you know of any friendly organisations wanting to fund projects like this, please let us know as soon as possible. If more funding was available, it would be great to plant the whole site this winter. Alternatively, if you want to grow/donate plants for this site, we can provide you with our approved list. We are sourcing most of the plants from West Bank Natives and have approached Titoki Nursery to supply items not available from West Bank Natives.
Brooklyn School is keen to grow plants and be part of this project, and MCC’s Kate Radloff is liaising with the school on how best to get involved. We look forward to working with them!
We intend to get some signage up, explaining the project and acknowledging the funders. The hope is to include Brooklyn’s indigenous name, but uncovering that information is still a work in progress. Motueka Museum’s current Brooklyn exhibition talks of ‘Matakoe’ as a name for this particular area, and we intend to continue to explore this further with local Tangata Whenua.
If you want to pop along and take a wander through the site, head down to Linden Reserve and cut through the little path at the far end beside the stream. And feel free to weed as you wander!