Thousands of native trees planted across city

More than 150,000 native trees have been planted across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula by volunteers and council rangers.

Christchurch City Council head of parks Rupert Bool said 152,900 native trees were planted last season.

He said volunteers played a "huge role in this success" through community planting days in the lead-up to Christmas.

"Our residential red zone had around 34,000 trees put in the ground, with standouts in Goodman St and our new site alongside Corser Stream in Burwood, the Welcoming Communities event in the Port Hills red zone, and our first te reo Māori bilingual ‘tree rescue’ event at Amelia Rogers Reserve.

"An impressive 16,000 trees were planted by volunteers alongside the Eco Action group at QEII Park this year, and 12,000 by volunteers in other community parks across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula."

Another 41,000 wetland trees were planted by council rangers at parks in the Coastal and Plains areas, while 13,000 went into community parks.

But Bool said the job isn’t finished yet, with plenty of post-planting maintenance still to be done.

"Mulching, clearing weeds and watering are already underway, and any help we can get from volunteers makes a huge difference.

"We really appreciate people coming back to continue the work where they planted, or new volunteers getting involved so we can better support the survival of the plantings."

• Anyone who wants to volunteer can fill out this form or email parks.volunteers@ccc.govt.nz for more information. Upcoming planting days, working bees and other volunteer opportunities will be listed here.