Forest restoration near Ross

• Published date: 13 December 2023
• Publication title: West Coast Farming Times, The

Meridian Forever Forest has purchased large areas of unproductive land (1200ha) throughout the South Island for its seed sowing and native tree planting operations which includes 60ha of unproductive farmland at Ruatapu

Once the trees are all planted, they will start soaking up carbon. In a few years trees across the country will soak up the same amount of carbon the Meridian Group emits - which means the company be carbon neutral without buying overseas carbon credits.

On the Meridian Ruatapu block, 15ha of land was seeded using a specialised Burford seed drill while an additional 45ha have been seeded by helicopter.

On the Ruatapu project, in excess of 30 million native seeds were sown while additional native seedlings were planted in an area covering 21ha.

"Seed NZ Natives and Meridian are working together to rapidly regenerate native forests and showing how new technology is helping bring native forests back faster," Seed NZ Natives co-founder Pieter Brits said.

"Direct seeding is mimicking mother nature's natural process rather than sticking one small tree in every couple of metres and hope.

Mark Allen with the innovative Whakatane designed battery powered NZ Autotraps, an automatic, self-resetting trap that kills both possums and rats.

Seeds in hand pass down the tube and mimicking nature will grow from the turned ground.

The Burford Tree Seeder was in operation at Ruatapu.

Meridian is not only doing this to offset the carbon footprint but also for land restoration."

The Meridian Ruatapu site is being seeded with an early species mix of manuka, cabbage, kamahi, hebe, flax, lemonwood and mahoe.

"We are expecting 600,000 new native trees from the seeding in the 60ha block," Pieter said.

The Burford Tree Seeder uses a direct seeding process and is labour friendly being towed behind a vehicle.

It is made up of a scalping disc, a calibrated twin seed box for small and large seed, and a press wheel, Tim Whittaker said.

"The hydraulics are controlled via a cable connected through to the vehicle cabin, so that the whole operation can be done by a solo operator," he said.

"The disc scalps a furrow around 1.5 inches deep and 5 inches wide, creating a clean seed bed. The large seed type is deposited 1 inch deep into the soil, while the small seed is sprinkled on the soil surface and firmed down by a press wheel."

The Ruatapu land was previously a deer farm.

While 90% of the perimeter has existing fencing in place, sections have been replaced to keep wild deer...