Half price natives - and planted for free

Landowners in Karamea are not beating around the bush when it comes to riparian planting.

They are making the most of a local not-for-profit nursery and planting service that grows and eco-sources trees.

Clean Streams Karamea was founded by Craig Stenhouse and one of its big projects is protecting and enhancing waterways in the area.

"It was a dream of mine for a long time and three seasons ago we managed to secure some funding to get the nursery set up and get our first lot of plants growing," he said.

The busy nursery sits on a council road reserve that cuts through farmland towards the Kahurangi National Park.

"It's only 20 metres wide but 320m long so we've got plenty of room to grow as required."

It took time for people to warm up to the idea of subsidised riparian planting, but now many farmers are embracing it, he said.

"There's some great work happening around the Ōpārara River Catchment, and there's going to be a lot more planting happening in that area over the next few years."

Sina Tuiavi'í is project manager for Clean Streams Karamea and is based at the nursery which employs four or five staff.

"Our primary riparian plants are karamu, cabbage tree, nikau, mānuka, flax, ake ake.

"We've got tarata growing and most of the plants we use are hardy and have perfect filtering roots," she said.

So far, the team have planted 23,000 trees on farms, basically at no cost to the farmers.

The five-year farm goal had been set at 100,000 trees, but that has been adjusted to 40,000, Tuiavi'í said.

"So we're punching really high when we came into this, but farmers have a lot of pressure on them and it's hard for them to prioritise putting money aside for this kind of project."

Clean Streams Karamea has done two years of planting at Charlotte Aiken's dairy farm at North Beach.

The ex-banker farms 85 hectares of grazable land, 10ha of King's Chain and 10ha of bush.

"We're working towards her farm meeting up with the neighbouring farm's riparian buffer," Sina explained.

About 200m of riparian planting has been done on the farm so far.

"It's cost about two grand, so that's not too bad really."

Aitken had one stipulation when it came to tree selection.

"I didn't want cabbage trees. I don't like them. There are a few around here and I think they're ugly."

She says some farmers in the district are still a bit hesitant about doing riparian work.

"You can plant, but you still have to fence, so there's another cost on top of that."

Tuiavi'í is also overseeing the work Clean Streams Karamea is doing for the Ōpārara Estuary Reserve Project.

"We supply plants and do the planting. We also work closely with Karamea Area School."

Under Tuiavi'í's guidance, the students have planted thousands of plants at the windswept reserve.

They have also been learning as they dig.

"I always quiz them on the plants we're planting - the Māori names, the botanic names - and I was pleased to see some of them were picking them up," she said with a smile.