Wild Life - a nature story
By Claire Browning
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This campaign was successful and closed on 28/09/2013 at 11:09 AM.
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Wild Life - A Nature Story
Project 2013-08-16 05:49:26 +1200
Will you help me to help a town, by planting some trees?
I live in a town with a railway, a river, and two roads running through it. To the west stand the Rimutaka hills, the Forest Park, and the Pigeon Bush Reserve. To the south is Lake Wairarapa, with its birds and wetlands. On the north side of town is the Domain, where bush huddles on the side of the hill, and a solitary lonely pine looks out to the horizon.
There are trees on scraps of public land around the town - the Dorset Square park, a battered rest area by the Reserve, where kereru congregate in flocks when the tree lupins are flowering.
I don’t know how long I’ll live in this town. People come and go here. The old ones die and the young ones leave. The wind, when it blows, howls down like a runaway train.
But the wind doesn't always blow; and there seems no reason why Featherston shouldn't be a pocket between some very special wildlife places filled with trees and birds - except, there's no money here to do it. This is not the rural heart of Carterton, the vineyards and olive groves of Martinborough, the rather exclusive clique of Greytown. In Featherston, like the wind and the roads, people just drive through on their way somewhere else.
But I would like to offer it some trees, because I love trees, and I believe that trees change things - that this town could do with some fingers of green reaching out into it, and who knows what might happen after that. I’d like to see veins of trees spreading out around the town, offering shade and shelter, some food for birds, and food for people too - and I think, in a few years, this might become a beautiful thing, or at least, a better thing.
Your support will help achieve the first year's planting of a selection of bird- and people-friendly trees: donate $50 or more and you can choose, from among karaka, puriri, wineberry, kohekohe, titoki, pigeonwood, kowhai, miro - and those are just the ones for the birds.
Even if it does nothing for the town - if people neither notice nor care, it is still a gift for the wild life, for the kereru who come to my plum and wild cherry trees, and rest in the sycamore tree on contemplative summer afternoons. If they - and the silvereyes, bellbirds and tui who live around here too - had miro, karaka and wineberry to feast and rest in, what happy birds they’d be.
You can read more about what I do here, where the project will also be updated: www.wild-life.kiwi.nz - or you can follow me on Twitter, @tweetandtwig.
Comments
Updates 2
The Silvereye Guild's all a-twitter with excitement!
28/09/2013 at 10:09 AM
We made it! To all of those who pledged, thank you for your trust and support; and to the person who bridged the gap with 31 minutes to spare, matching the amount already raised - what an extraordinary magical thing to do. Thank you so much.
As I wrote in my last update, the planting will be a project for 2014, now. I want to get the best choice of the healthiest little trees, and get them off to a good start.
I hope I can talk to the council too, because I had a letter in my box from new candidate Colin Olds, who cycled past on a sunny morning delivering his leaflets - and who had, as two of his top five priorities: improving the appearance of the town, and preservation of the wetlands around Wairarapa Moana.
I think he might be an ally.
Thank you. We've sown a seed.
09/09/2013 at 7:59 AM
1. We hit halfway!
Or close enough. Dear people who pledged. Thank you very, very much.
2. The Kereru supporters started choosing their trees!
Supporter Number One, Jackson James Wood, was excited and requested “in this order, as
far as my dollars will take me,” puriri, an heirloom apple, and kohekohe - described by Zealandia here as “one of our quirkiest trees”.
“You choose as you know the place better,” wrote supporter number two. “How about one tree that will be good for nectar eaters and a podocarp for Kereru?”
I would have planted a giant for Richie Davies - miro or matai (known as the plum pines) - and for the nectar eaters, perhaps a kowhai?
3. I went back to the nursery ...
... which had everything in July, but by September, has been well cleared out of the best trees.
4. I haven’t done this very well. I’m sorry.
I’ve decided that it would be better to get organised earlier next year, and start again - rather than taking people’s money now, perhaps not being able to get the right thing, and hurrying trees into the ground, when it’s quite late and also quite dry here this spring.
Thank you, again, for your pledges and your patience.
I’m sorry to disappoint, but I would rather get this right - so please hold that thought, and next winter will come around.
Pledgers 13
28/09/2013 at 11:09am
27/09/2013 at 12:31am
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Followers 3
Followers of Wild Life - a nature story
Wild Life - A Nature Story
Project 2013-08-16 05:49:26 +1200
Will you help me to help a town, by planting some trees?
I live in a town with a railway, a river, and two roads running through it. To the west stand the Rimutaka hills, the Forest Park, and the Pigeon Bush Reserve. To the south is Lake Wairarapa, with its birds and wetlands. On the north side of town is the Domain, where bush huddles on the side of the hill, and a solitary lonely pine looks out to the horizon.
There are trees on scraps of public land around the town - the Dorset Square park, a battered rest area by the Reserve, where kereru congregate in flocks when the tree lupins are flowering.
I don’t know how long I’ll live in this town. People come and go here. The old ones die and the young ones leave. The wind, when it blows, howls down like a runaway train.
But the wind doesn't always blow; and there seems no reason why Featherston shouldn't be a pocket between some very special wildlife places filled with trees and birds - except, there's no money here to do it. This is not the rural heart of Carterton, the vineyards and olive groves of Martinborough, the rather exclusive clique of Greytown. In Featherston, like the wind and the roads, people just drive through on their way somewhere else.
But I would like to offer it some trees, because I love trees, and I believe that trees change things - that this town could do with some fingers of green reaching out into it, and who knows what might happen after that. I’d like to see veins of trees spreading out around the town, offering shade and shelter, some food for birds, and food for people too - and I think, in a few years, this might become a beautiful thing, or at least, a better thing.
Your support will help achieve the first year's planting of a selection of bird- and people-friendly trees: donate $50 or more and you can choose, from among karaka, puriri, wineberry, kohekohe, titoki, pigeonwood, kowhai, miro - and those are just the ones for the birds.
Even if it does nothing for the town - if people neither notice nor care, it is still a gift for the wild life, for the kereru who come to my plum and wild cherry trees, and rest in the sycamore tree on contemplative summer afternoons. If they - and the silvereyes, bellbirds and tui who live around here too - had miro, karaka and wineberry to feast and rest in, what happy birds they’d be.
You can read more about what I do here, where the project will also be updated: www.wild-life.kiwi.nz - or you can follow me on Twitter, @tweetandtwig.
Comments
The Silvereye Guild's all a-twitter with excitement!
28/09/2013 at 10:09 AM
We made it! To all of those who pledged, thank you for your trust and support; and to the person who bridged the gap with 31 minutes to spare, matching the amount already raised - what an extraordinary magical thing to do. Thank you so much.
As I wrote in my last update, the planting will be a project for 2014, now. I want to get the best choice of the healthiest little trees, and get them off to a good start.
I hope I can talk to the council too, because I had a letter in my box from new candidate Colin Olds, who cycled past on a sunny morning delivering his leaflets - and who had, as two of his top five priorities: improving the appearance of the town, and preservation of the wetlands around Wairarapa Moana.
I think he might be an ally.
Thank you. We've sown a seed.
09/09/2013 at 7:59 AM
1. We hit halfway!
Or close enough. Dear people who pledged. Thank you very, very much.
2. The Kereru supporters started choosing their trees!
Supporter Number One, Jackson James Wood, was excited and requested “in this order, as
far as my dollars will take me,” puriri, an heirloom apple, and kohekohe - described by Zealandia here as “one of our quirkiest trees”.
“You choose as you know the place better,” wrote supporter number two. “How about one tree that will be good for nectar eaters and a podocarp for Kereru?”
I would have planted a giant for Richie Davies - miro or matai (known as the plum pines) - and for the nectar eaters, perhaps a kowhai?
3. I went back to the nursery ...
... which had everything in July, but by September, has been well cleared out of the best trees.
4. I haven’t done this very well. I’m sorry.
I’ve decided that it would be better to get organised earlier next year, and start again - rather than taking people’s money now, perhaps not being able to get the right thing, and hurrying trees into the ground, when it’s quite late and also quite dry here this spring.
Thank you, again, for your pledges and your patience.
I’m sorry to disappoint, but I would rather get this right - so please hold that thought, and next winter will come around.
28/09/2013 at 11:09am
27/09/2013 at 12:31am
26/09/2013 at 3:56pm
20/08/2013 at 7:20pm
20/08/2013 at 6:01pm
20/08/2013 at 5:56pm
19/08/2013 at 12:14pm
19/08/2013 at 10:19am
18/08/2013 at 8:05pm
18/08/2013 at 6:36pm
18/08/2013 at 2:17pm
17/08/2013 at 8:24pm