By SHELLEY TOPP
A planting day at Kaiapoi’s Honda Forest last Saturday provided a reminder of September 4, 2010, when the town suffered extensive earthquake damage.
The day was a poignant reminder of how far the region had come, Waimakariri District Council Greenspace manager Grant MacLeod said.
“Ten years on we are still here, and the land is healing.”
It was the third planting day held this year at the new forest, which is on red-zoned land known as the Regeneration Kaiapoi East area.
Seven thousand forest plants have already been put in since the first planting day in May last year, with volunteers adding 649 more last Saturday.
The forest is a collaboration between the council and the Honda motor company, which has sponsored about 12,500 seedlings for the forest development that will cover 3.2 hectares surrounding the wetlands of the Beswick Stormwater Management area.
The forest will include podocarp species such as kahikatea, New Zealand’s tallest tree. It grows to a height of 60 metres or more and can live for several hundred years.
Planting of the forest is expected to end in 2023.
