Replanting Jack's Blowhole

Forest and Bird, Issue 298, 1 November 2000, Page 39

Replanting Jack's Blowhole

Dunedin

Forest and Bird.

national

treasurer.

—John Dawson.

—David Underwood,

ack’s Blowhole, in the J Catlins district of South Otago, is a collapsed sea cave, 140 metres long by 70 metres wide. When I first visited it, you scrambled through thick bush, mainly kamahi and rata, past yellow-eyed penguins and their chicks nesting under fallen rocks: suddenly the earth opened and you stared down at the waves rushing through the tunnel 70 metres below. In the 1950s a suspicious fire flattened the whole area of bush, and the local famer ‘cleaned it up’ by ploughing and sowing pasture right up to the blowhole, including the designated scenic reserve. After a bitter fight over a number of years, spear-headed by Forest and Birders Wallace Ramsay and Paul Every, the reserve was fenced off. For the past 20 years Otago Forest and Bird members have been fight-

ing possums, rabbits and grass to create a new bush area in the reserve. In early August, Prof Alan Mark took a busload of mainly ‘green students;’ with a sprinkling of ‘oldies’ to spend a weekend there. At the same time an icy blast, interspersed with showers, arrived direct from the South Pole. Wellwrapped in polypropylene, we were able to plant out another 400 assorted natives, with a few strategically-placed miro, rimu and rata. When showers passed over, we were grateful for the thick canopy of already-estab-lished trees. At least we could warm up and socialise in the comfortable Pounawea Convention camp nearby, with the satisfaction of helping to restore a landmark of New Zealand’s heritage.

which passed from the Society’s ownership some years ago, to a locally based Bushy Park Homestead and Forest Trust. When he became membership secretary there were 207 ‘Friends’, rising to a peak of 397 in 1994, and droppping to 288 presently. Contributions to Bushy Park over these years total $96,108. Stan Butcher has also long been an active committee member and sometime chair of Lower Hutt Forest and Bird, and is a distinguished life member of the Society.

After 15 years’ service, Stan Butcher of Lower Hutt recently stood down from the role of membership secretary of the Friends of Bushy Park Trust. This is the body which financially supports the Wanganui mansion