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Ngati Whare has teamed up with forest research institute Scion to build a state-of-the-art nursery for propagating native trees and plants at Minginui.
Chair Bronco Carson says a feature of its historic treaty settlement was that the central North Island tribe needed to plant thousands of native trees once pines are harvested from plantations around the Whirinaki Forest.
Sourcing seedlings from outside and transporting them to the forest for planting out would be prohibitively expensive.
The iwi’s new $1 million nursery includes irrigation booms and tray filling equipment from Italy and the latest technology from New Zealand’s nursery sector.
Technology developed at Scion will allow the nursery to propagate cuttings from selected trees in the forest, rather than trying to grow from seeds.
Mr Carson says as well as providing jobs, the nursery will become a way to teach the village’s children about growing plants, the high level science Scion, and also the history of forestry in the rohe.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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