Farm Forestry New ZealandField day to Dave Gratton's forest, February 2024
The Wellington branch had a day out at Dave Gratton’s forest on Sunday 11 February, before holding its AGM. Dave won the 2023 North Island Farm Forester of the Year award, and this was a chance to visit his property near Upper Hutt and hear him outline what he had done, why, and how successful it had been.
Dave’s land is bounded by the Akatarawa river to the east, which winds through a deep but comfortable gorge leaving him with alternating cliffs and river flats. These rise steeply to a gently graded plateau to the west. The flats are mostly grazed, the cliffs are mostly in native forest and the plateau is mostly in pines, but there are experimental plantings throughout.
We assembled near the implement sheds at 10 for a briefing and a quick look at the trees around the homestead, which include redwoods planted in 1982 and a range of Abies planted in 2000. These were planted for interest rather than timber but are growing strongly in the gravelly flats amongst the sheep. A steep drive up a good gravelled road took us to an area of regenerating native forest, where Dave had planted cryptomeria, redwoods and macrocarpa in lines through the scrub. Now 15 years old, the exotics had broken through the canopy and were starting to show good form. This area was planned for continuous cover forestry, and will be harvested one tree at a time,
Down the hill we found another set of flats, where Dave had planted native trees along the riverbank and protected them from grazing. Most are not really pretty but they are sturdy and healthy, and support a range of creepers, ferns, flowers and epiphytes.
Behind that, a QE ll covenanted area of native bush has been fenced off, which Dave said gave him some protection against officials who had argued that much of his forest should be in an SNA.
On a second grassy terrace above the river Dave had put in a trial for the Cypress Development Group, planting 20 rows of 10 clones to see how they performed. Some were clearly more palatable than others as there were several gaps where trees should have been. However some of the young cypresses were looking really good and already 2 metres tall at age 2. There was a lot of discussion about the clones, how they were performing and the problems of deer and pigs.
After winding up the road to the plateau we had lunch at the skid site where the firewood contractor worked, and admired the shed, machinery and bin system. From there it was a short walk to last year’s harvested area, where Guadeloupe and Monterey radiata had been damaged by storm winds of up to 140 km per hour, but still yielded 700 tonnes per hectare.
In Wellington you can’t have everything – with deep soils and a good rainfall, you have to expect a bit of wind now and then. Given the level of damage there was some discussion of what to replant, but since radiata grows well there, it will probably be replanted in the same.
Off the crest the land sloped gently to the west, and in the more sheltered dips Dave had 30 year old pruned radiata growing straight as gun barrels and about 40 metres tall. There was a strong native understorey and soft damp soils despite the lack of rain. It was a lovely place to be.
After that the AGM brought everyone back to reality. The branch was in good shape, the committee was re-elected, we enjoyed a cup of tea and we all drove home. But imagine, if everyone had a forest, what a wonderful world.
Howard Moore
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