Kids dig deep to restore Port Hills poroporo

A group of Christchurch school children will take to the hills next month armed with hundreds of poroporo seedlings, as one of the city’s unique Port Hills fire recovery projects comes to fruition.

The “Poroporo for the Port Hills” project is a trial aimed at getting more of the native plants established on the Port Hills to encourage faster natural regeneration as the area recovers from the devastating February fires. 

Cashmere Primary School children help to pot poroporo seedlings.

Christchurch City Council Regional Parks Ranger Di Carter came up with the plan to give the opportunity to hundreds of school kids to help with the Port Hills regeneration efforts after the fire. 

“We had 12 public planting days, but we couldn't accommodate school groups on these. So we set this project up in May to see if we could involve the wider student community to help establish more poroporo on the Port Hills, to encourage natural regeneration and for students to provide valuable insights through their inquiry projects.

“Poroporo is one of the first native plants to establish after a disturbance, It has a stunning purple flower which becomes a large, fleshy orange fruit full of seeds that birds will easily spread.  

"Getting our local school students involved felt like an important step for young nature lovers to identify with the stunning Port Hills and to have a chance to observe what happens naturally and be part of it.”

Fourteen school groups expressed an interest, with each receiving two seed trays and 20 poroporo fruit; enough to produce around 1600 poroporo seedlings each.

“With germination rates so far, we hope to have around 7000 poroporo that the schools involved can plant on the Port Hills by mid-September/October,” Ms Carter said.

“The students have been involved in the entire process, from planting the seeds through to germination and potting up the seedlings. Our next step is heading to the hills to plant the poroporo. The logistics of planting this volume of plants means that only a limited number of students from each school will be able to join us for the planting, but we hope everyone has been able to learn from the project and take real pride in being a part of the recovery project, and the future of the Port Hills.”

Trees for Canterbury has provided advice for the project, Living Earth has donated 2.9 tonnes of premium compost, and Coffee Culture provided 10,000 used coffee cups for potting the plants. Perception PR and Marketing has also been a helpful sponsor, Ms Carter said. 

The trial will be evaluated and a decision will be made in February or March next year about whether it should continue. Schools can email di.carter@ccc.govt.nz if they would like to go on a waiting list of participants for next year if the project goes ahead.