Proposal to replant Tūtira Regional Park with mix of natives and pine
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is considering a plan for Tūtira Regional Park to be re-planted with a mix of natives and pine across 114 hectares, after upcoming logging.
Environment and Integrated Catchments Committee Chair, Hinewai Ormsby said the replanting plan developed with the community aligns with the Regional Council’s focus of reverting to regeneration and is a great example of the Regional Council expanding its Regional Parks.
“The community is passionate about Tūtira and leaving a legacy for their mokopuna. We’re proud to have developed this replanting plan over the last two years with tangata whenua from Maungaharuru Tangitū Trust and the wider Tūtira community, focussing on biodiversity,” Cr Ormsby said.
“The park, including streams, Lake Tūtira, and the wider park itself, are of great cultural and historic significance to Maungaharuru Tangitū hapū. This plan respects and acknowledges their values and has further strengthened our relationship. We envisage over time that much of the park will regenerate to native forest.”
Regional Council Forest Management Advisor Ben Douglas says after the forest is harvested between 2021 and 2027, 51 hectares will be retired to regenerate to native forest, with 57 hectares replanted in radiata pine, and the remaining land used for roads and skids.
“This plan gives us a good balance between moving towards more regenerative plantings and providing the council with the income it needs to maintain and improve the Regional Park.”
The logging creates a window of vulnerability to erosion that will remain until new plantings are established.
“We’re well aware of the risk of erosion once forests have been logged, and the planting plan balances the long-term objective for the land while minimising the duration of this window,” Douglas said.
There has been significant investment over many years in water quality improvement initiatives in the lake, including in recent years more than $4 million in the Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi and Te Waiū o Tūtira Projects to restore the mauri and water quality of the Lake.
The recommendation from the Environment and Integrated Catchments Committee will go to a full meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council on 24 February, 2021.
