‘We just kept planting …’

The Lovell family, minus eldest son William, line up in front of some of their earlier riparian planting on the banks of the Hutiwai River.

01-09-2010 | Not Specified

The family became involved in planting their riparian margins in the 1997-98 season when they bought 11ha bare of trees.

The riverbanks on the flats alongside the tidal estuary were eroding so they began sourcing trees through the regional council's tree scheme, which provides trees at cost to encourage dairy farmers particularly to fence and plant their waterways.

"We bought as many as we could afford each year and just kept planting up the river."

The previous generation had left the big native trees intact on the Lovell farm so Bruce and Maxine fenced the river with three-wire electric fences and planted younger trees, including kahikatea, rimu, kauri, pittosporums and cabbage trees. Flax and toitoi are underplanted among the bigger trees, with around two paces between plants.

Planting is a family affair. The children are a great planting gang, and Bruce says it doesn't take long once they get going.

The trees also have a good strike rate with few losses in the warm, wet climate.

The family have now completed planting more than 5km of riverbank, over 70% of their target.

Encouraged by what the Lovells were doing, neighbouring drystock farmers across the river Evan Lobb and Emma O'Sullivan have joined the scheme and started planting their riverbanks as well.

Whitebait need shade on the banks to spawn effectively with a habitat uninterrupted by stock clambering down the banks.

The whitebaiting season runs from August 15 to December 1 when the river attracts many retired people who the Lovells say are generally pretty well-behaved.

"They construct their own little stands and bring their nets across the paddocks but are no trouble."

Bruce and Maxine are thrilled with the birdlife attracted to their plantings, and say the bird population has been monitored by Forest and Bird who were excited to find 40 species of native birds.

The native bush which surrounds their property is plagued by the usual pests - possums, pigs and goats - and hunting is a great source of adventure for the older Lovell children.

Poisoning possums using 1080 a few years ago was effective, getting rid of many of the pests. There has been a huge growth in numbers of native birds since, Bruce says.

Kiwi and moreporks are common in the bush and the Lovells enjoy the increasing numbers of tui and fat wood pigeons around the house and garden.

Normally buying 300-400 plants each year, the family received a bonus in 2007 when they were allocated 500 free trees through the regional council from the Honda NZ tree scheme.

Whenever Honda sells a new car they allocate money to buy trees for riparian planting.

The regional council also gave them an extra 800-tree grant this year and have been helpful with willow control in the rivers.

Bruce plans to keep the plantings going for the next three to four years to limit erosion on all the Hutiwai River and tributary stream banks.

Then he says he plans to kick back and relax, enjoy the fruits of their labours, and wait for the grandchildren to come along.

Bruce and Maxine and the family are eager to continue their tree planting and river care work on land Maxine has inherited up the Mokau River, and the children are keen to be the third generation to farm the land.

As for the future, 10ha on the home property are in 17-year-old pine trees as a retirement fund and Bruce has recently registered to claim carbon credits from the block.

He is proud of the fact that the dairy farm is close to being carbon neutral and says "there are not many dairy farms that can say that".

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