The whole hillside, mapped

The big planting on 2 August put in around 213 plants with about twenty people, including “some very helpful children”. Everything on the trailer and in the truck went into the ground.

Mid-week plantings added another 48 over the previous month — three people, chipping away. Two or three more have said they would like to come to the smaller days, so those are being organised a bit more deliberately from now on.

According to my calculations, we have now planted a total of 914 trees and shrubs …

The report goes on to say that the total does not count plantings other people have made further out along the Cape, and that is the reason the figures on this site are what they are: earlier plantings by Forest & Bird elsewhere on the headland are not in this project’s tally.

The most important thing to happen in August had nothing to do with plants. The whole hillside was surveyed and mapped in ArcGIS — nineteen blocks, their areas, their existing cover and the ground already planted.

A huge “thank you” to Craig, who has mapped the whole hillside for posterity, and so we will be better able to keep tabs on our progress over time. This is hugely important, and will be really helpful for our fundraisers when they need to show how hard we have been working.

Every shape on the map on this site comes from that work.

And on why people keep turning up:

The best thing about the plantings is the feeling of pride people are taking in being part of the group, bringing nature back to our town. Going to Scott’s after a planting is a definite winner, and although not everyone can come, it’s clear that people really want to hang out afterwards. The most common question has become “when’s the next planting?”, and people are thanking us for being invited to come along and dig holes.

If we can keep that going, we have a winner.