A community group hopes the Dunedin City Council will contribute more than $1.2 million over the next nine years to re-establish native bush and exotic plantations on Signal Hill.
The Signal Hill Arboretum Trust estimates it will cost just over $2 million to clear the Signal Hill reserve above Logan Park High School of gorse, scrub and pines, then plant about 27,000 native trees and 1000 exotic trees.
The trust would raise 40% of the cost and was seeking the remainder from the council, secretary Nicola Holman said yesterday.
The two main access roads would be improved and walkways and picnic areas created by the trust and other groups, but the plan assumed maintenance of the trees and infrastructure would be a council responsibility.
The council and the trust had entered into a partnership in 2002 and the council had provided preliminary funding of $25,000 for the writing of a development plan, Mrs Holman said. Planting began in 2006.
The project would provide the city with a significantly improved recreational asset.
‘‘Clearly, the trust cannot do this work on its own. . . An essential factor in the success of this project is council's continuous commitment through to its completion. Now that the trust had had two planting exercises involving community groups, there is now an expectation within the community that the project will progress to a conclusion.''
