The AVA's Arrowtown Wilding Group has been hard at it over the last few months progressing Stage One of the Arrowtown Wilding Strategy. We are planning to have a public meeting in early March to outline plans for 2019, but in the meantime here’s a brief rundown on progress so far.
Funding
Central Lakes Trust funding of $600,000 for ongoing control of wilding conifer spread was confirmed in December and just today we heard that Community Trust South will contribute $120,000. A Lotteries application will be made in March to try and reach our targeted amount for Stage One.
Control work
If we do reach our Stage One funding target, contractors will start work behind German Hill in second half of this year.
Arrowtown Choppers continue to work on Wednesday evenings up behind German Hill. A large amount of progress has been made thanks to all the volunteers. Check out the @arrowtownchoppers Facebook page for day and time, and head on up to join them!
A community chop is planned for late March or April, watch for updates on this.
Revegetation
In spring this year we will begin a revegetation trial near Tobins Track of a mixture of exotic autumn colour trees and native species to replace the conifers. This will allow us to see what works well for when Stage Two is initiated and a start is made on filling in the gaps.
It will be a community-led effort with volunteer planting days – more on this soon.
Information
We have installed information boards at two points near the river to inform locals and visitors alike about the work we are doing.
And finally, as we've have a number of queries about just how the wilding control and replacement project works, we're going to put a list of common questions and answers on this website soon.