Flame Tree Bank's Journal

In 2018 Flame Tree Bank was completely dominated by environmental weeds.
The entire tangled mess, on a steep slope above regen kauri forest margin, was overhung by Flame trees (planted in 1999) which were initially expected to be controlled by arborism.

The prescribed arborism would have destroyed or smothered much of any regen present by that time, so we did not attempt to maintain much weed control here till 2020, when it became apparent that there would be no Flame Tree control by Council. ( A blessing as it turned out, as the site was not subjected to the massive injections of poison prescribed to accompany the arborism. And over the years since 2018, necessity being the mother of invention, we have discovered we can manually control all but the largest trees, through partial breaking of branches and ringbarking of small trunks, both of which procedures appear to have suppressed or slowed growth in the large trees of the primary stands, while eliminating about a dozen small stands in the forest itself).

So in 2018-19 we controlled only honeysuckle, ginger, Alocasia, Arum, moth plant, extensions of Flame Tree invasion, and kikuyu, allowing the more benign weeds including Tradescantia to maintain ground cover and suppress seeding of environmental weeds.

During hundreds of explorations and interventions, only 12 wild native plant species were observed on this bank from 2018-2023. (In addition to the wild regen, only some nikau seedlings were planted).

One of these wild native species was kahikatea, represented at time of writing only by 3 very young seedlings released from Tradescantia in 2019 and later dying (due to natural attrition or drought).

This week, under the shelter of the rapidly developing regen spreading from the boundary of Flame Tree
bank top with the adjacent Cape Honey Flower (CHF) Bank top, we found:

• a single mapou seedling
• a single Pteris tremula sporeling
• 2 Hebe stricta seedlings

and on Flame Tree Bank Lower, under the big ti kouka on the boundary with CHF Bank Lower:

• several Carex lambertiana

These 4 modest finds are all well-situated among 2-3 year-old native regen on likely to be overtaken by weed, drought or flood, not extraordinary or even of note in other situations, are very significant here, and the mapou and Pteris have increased the native species count of Flame Tree Bank by 30% :)

A very weedy site gives enormous rewards to the restorationist, by the contrast of ugliness, waste and destruction with the exponential growth, harmony and co-operation seen in the emerging native plant communities, in soil kept shaded, moist and richly fed by the composting weed material.

Not to mention the reward of the diminishing effort required over time to maintain the process of native regeneration and increasing diversity.

From the forest below Gahnia Grove, moving (North?) towards the major Flame tree stand through the forest, several multi-trunk stands were observed. The further they are from the original planted specimen on the ridge, the smaller the trunks. One trunk was only about 6cmD.

The total number of standing trunks observed is about 30, in 7 discrete stands.

Also seen were numerous low-lying branches in contact with the ground and/or in deep tradescantia, and much fallen wood in various stages of decay.

The base of some of the trunks was visible as suckering. In one case it appeared the trunks had arisen from a length of wood about .4m long and 10cmD. It may have been a raised section of root, but it appeared to be horizontal at one end, as if a broken branch.

Two young trees, c10 and 20cm diam, found in lower part of Gahnia Grove, below the c5mH single-head ti kouka recently released from Japanese honeysuckle.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/14225058

These trees can now be reached about 2m down a bank from Gahnia Grove, and from there the bank above them is visible up to the kikuyu pathway and the large Flame Tree. The area between is dominated by Cape honey flower,.

As suspected when viewed from the initial invasion from the path at the top of the bank, there appear to be more Flame trees below and north of these two, but as the foliage and trunks are mixed with native trees they cannot yet be clearly identified.

6 July Parks Auckland council Community Ranger advises Parks Arborist has been asked for approval for "poisoning of the tree", and that Resource Consent may take 6 weeks to come through.

It is assumed that the extent of the surrounding forest will be thoroughly surveyed for the presence of further trees, and live and rotting fallen wood, as the results will be needed prior to Resource consent for intervention, and for containment of all the trees and fallen wood.

In the meantime, a volunteer is attempting this as time and safety permit (steep muddy banks, dense weeds, possible unseen slippages/erosion, wet weather).

The lower trees are extending their reach with new foliage reaching Gahnia Grove, the adjacent volunteer-managed zone, under canopy of Manuka and Kanuka. However no action has been taken as yet and the lower border of the invasion is not yet accessible to the volunteer due to uncertain contours making exploration difficult until more weeds have been removed. Through the Parks Community Ranger, a request for survey and containment is being made to the Council arborist for the area.
Fallen wood remains on the road site pedestrian grass access path to the Reserve.