With our full funding target achieved, large-scale work to remove wildings from behind Arrowtown kicked off in earnest in February.
Ground felling
The initial stage has looked to remove wilding trees on the slopes of Brow Peak above Eichardts Flat and within Sawpit Gully. In mid March the focus shifted to the remaining portion of Sawpit Gully, above where they skid hopped earlier.
Once they're finished there they will start clearing a line above Bush Creek so they can start felling the big trees on the steep part of the track above Bush Creek. When the crews enter this area please expect some track diversions or closures.
The work includes removing clearing buffer strips from around existing tracks, waterways and existing native bush like our lovely beech forest. Already the ground crews have removed over 8000 wilding trees, including Douglas fir, larch, contorta/lodgepole and mugo (check out all those red dots in the 3D map!).
Aerial spraying
Due to the density of trees in one portion of German Hill (not visible from town and away from the main tracks/waterways), we will aerially spray this area in the next month (weather permitting). We’ll put up signage around any track delays and have people on all the tracks explaining what is going on. The work should be over within a day, and we’ll try to keep any track closures to a minimum. Updates will be posted on our social media.
The Big Spring Chop
On a community chop day on Sunday 23 February, over 60 people joined together to make a good dent on small wildings in the Sawpit Gully area. Take a stroll up there and see all the native flora now given a chance to flourish by the hard yards put in by the Arrowtown Choppers and the wider community over the last few years!