Environment

Blythe Valley c. 1965

Back in the 1960s the land had been completely cleared. A very barren environment with few native plants or trees, and little diversity.

Blythe Valley 2025

As landowners we have worked hard to build a better environment, including planting natives, removing wilding pines, growing seedlings for planting out, monitoring water quality, fencing off wetland and establishing QEII covenants.

Planting

We have planted thousands of native plants since the Blythe Valley Community Catchment Group was established in 2023. We propagated and sourced an additional 8000 native plants for the 2024 planting season.

Seedlings

The catchment includes two QEII reserves which provide a local seed source for totara whose numbers were significantly reduced by historic fires as well as government felling to provide timber for state housing in the late 1950’s. A community nursery has been established producing eco-sourced seedlings of totara as well as matai, kahikatea and other plants that are, or would have been, present in our locality.