Arbor Day a growing trend

Winter is the time to plant trees and Arbor Day has been a focus of the season for more than 130 years. Gillian Vine reports.

These days, native trees are the focus of most public plantings but in the early days of European settlement, exotic trees were more common.

For example, every other public park around the country has a deciduous memorial tree, often planted by visiting royalty.

Dunedin’s Royal Oak, in the lower Botanic Garden, is a good example. Planted on June 10, 1863, not by a royal but to commemorate the wedding two months earlier of the then Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (later King Edward VII).

Because his father, Prince Albert, had died 15 months earlier, Queen Victoria decreed their son’s wedding be low-key.

As a result, it was held not in Westminster Abbey but in St George’s chapel, Windsor, the place incidentally where another Prince of Wales, Charles, had his marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles blessed in 2005.

Last month, all around New Zealand, trees were planted to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III, efforts that rather overshadowed Arbor Day on Monday, June 5.

Our initial Arbor Day was 131 years ago, the Department of Agriculture having decided that August 4, 1892, would be the country’s first official Arbor Day.

It is interesting to look back on the reaction of one West Coast writer to that announcement.

In the Grey River Argus of July 23, 1892, he wrote: "In a district so well wooded as the West Coast the idea of planting any more trees where there is such a wealth of them may seem almost ridiculous. But as far as the whole colony is concerned, the idea is a good one, and we hope to see it carried out as thoroughly as has been contemplated."

More importantly, he went on to predict that "... if we ignore our duty as we have been doing in the matter of tree planting, we shall be guilty of a flagrant want of economy for the time being, and also of preparing the way for a crop of troubles in the future. It is only of late years that it has dawned upon people that retribution is certain to overtake all countries sooner or later that disregard the economy of nature."

Prophetic words indeed.

The Department of Agriculture supplied a list of suggested trees to be planted in 1892 and it makes slightly amusing reading to see that of the four Pinus species, Austrian pine (P. nigra) was recommended for wet ground, which would have caused some disappointment to those who followed that advice, as it prefers dry soil.

Then there were cypresses, macrocarpa, several types of oak, weeping willow, poplars and Norway spruce.

The list also included shrubs and although one may applaud the inclusion of lilacs for their perfume, with hindsight one wonders why common holly, the poisonous September bush (Polygala grandis) or invasive Rhododendron ponticum and Darwin’s barberry (Berberls darwlnii) were included.

The first Arbor Day was widely supported in Otago, with schools particularly active. In Tapanui, for example, pupils planted 200 trees on ground prepared by a digger.

Ironically, after being enthusiastically supported by local authorities, the first Arbor Day at Hokitika was cancelled because of "incessant rain".

Arbor Day fizzled, was revived in the 1930s, then in 1977 the date was changed to June 5, World Environment Day.

Native planting is a welcome change from some of the choices of the past but one has to admire the Royal Oak. One of two saplings planted in the city’s first botanic garden, it was moved to its present site in 1869 and has thrived.

Tree planting for the coronation has been supported by the Government and the plan is that 100,000 natives will be planted in coming months.

Dunedin chose a rimu for coronation day and it has been positioned near the botanic garden’s main gate, appropriately not far from the Royal Oak.