THOUSANDS OF ACRES RECLAIMED FROM SAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3939, 7 May 1929, Page 3

THOUSANDS OF ACRES RECLAIMED FROM SAND.

' PLANTING AT TANGIMOANA. GRASSES AND TREES ON ONCE DESOLATE AREA. 1 e 'Oomtueiiced in 1921, the Forestry Department sand dune reclamation work at Tangimoana has now (practically achieved its purpose and after seven years of labour, the deadly drift oif sand inland from the sea has been cheeked Iby the planting of 2500 acres of once desolate sand desert, with marralm grass, flax and hardy pine trees. Year by year, the Forestry officers have claimed the wind-swept acres and stabilised the shifting dunes, until to-day practically every sand hill is thatched with marram and tufted with the green of trees. Low-lying flats, once drifting sand in summer and flood lagoons in winter, are now covered with a heavy growth of marram, flax, toitoi and bulrushes, under the hardy shelter of which, excellent rough feed for cattle is growing in abundance. AH sand drift has been stopped and the Forestry department, leaving only one man to superintend the nurseries and carry out planting, can• leave nature to consolidate her handiwork. Everywhere, the growths are firmly established and, as the years add ,to their growth, will met only have stdmmed the menace of the sand drift but will have a considerable commercial value. Recently, through the courtesy of Mir. D. L. McPherson, head of the Forestry (Department in Palmerston North and district, a reporter was conducted over a portion of the extensive area which has been planted at Tangimoana during the past seven years. THE NURSERIES.

.An inspection was first made of the nurseries, now much reduced in size, from the broad plots which provided the thousands of seedling pines which have been planted. Despite the fact that several of the old plots are not being used, however, the nurseries still contain over 200,000 seedling trees which will be used by the department on its various stations. The greater proportion of 'the young trees, some 112,000, are of the radiata branch of the pinus family, 77,000 are pinus imuricata and 40,000 pinus pinaster. The radiata species has probably the quickest growth of any tree in the world and is noted for its hardihood in exposed country. The muricata variety is very similar in appearance .but has a more luxuriant lower growth, which makes it valuable as a shelter tree. The third variety, the pinaster, is a gojod timber tree but has not the same bushy growth. GROWTH OF TREES.

Of the total area of 2900 acres which was taken over iby the Forestry Department, about 500 acres has been planted in different varieties of pines, amongst which the radiata predominates. The plantations, however, are scattered, the trees being planted in most cases on the dunes, where their roots hind the sand and their growth makes excellent shelter. The hardy marram grass is planted first, in curving lines and once it becomes established, the seedling fare transplanted from the nursery and sheltered by it in their tender years, soon obtain a hold. Wherever the trees have been planted on the Tangimoana country they have done well, until to-day, seven years after the first seedlings were planted, the oldest trees have grown to a height of over 22 feet some having a girth of 30i inches at the base. The first year after transplanting, the trees grow very little, but once their roots are firmly gripped in the sand v they have an astonishing rate of growth. The average increase in height is from three to four feet a year but this varies according to the position of the trees and the degree of shelter which they can obtain. On the exposed ridges oj sand dimes at Tangimoaua are pines which have been planted for some years but which are only one-third of the sixe of sheltered trees whose age is much less. Some of these trees have put forth a remarkable growth, one sapling being examined which had grown over six feet in a year. Round the boles of the pines, •wherever they have been planted, 'has grown up a strong growth of marram, with grasses which are of excellent feeding value for cattle. On all the dunes, this growth is firmly established preventing the sand drift and every year increasing in strength. . LOW LYMG AREAS.

A large area of the reclaimed district is of a low-lying nature and is still flooded by surface water during the winter season. Trees cannot be planted on these flats but to bind the sand, a strong growth of marram, bulrushes and toitoi has been established.

A trip was made from the nurseries for some three miles across typical reclaimed country to a position within half a mile of the site of the old camp which was established in 1921. Here the first nurseries were set up and the first seedlings planted out. In 1923, the camp site and nurseries were removed to their present position near the road and about three miles further inland. Mr. McPherson lias in his possession a number of photographs which provide a most interesting record of the progress of the reclamation and the growth of the plantation work. The first photographs taken show stretches of desolute sand and stagnant water but with the stabilising of the dunes and the planting of the flats, the later photographs show the saJme country in a completely changed guise. The re-

elamation work has changed the configuration of the whole area and has developed it frojm. a “howling wilderness’ into an area which is now valuable and as the years pass, will become increasingly so.