{"id":396758,"date":"2026-01-07T04:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396758\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T04:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:45:08","slug":"ohope-beach-golf-links-restores-trees-among-dunes-after-unlawful-clearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396758\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014chope Beach Golf Links restores trees among dunes after unlawful clearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The club admitted it made a mistake in cutting down 488 natives<\/a> during a working bee it organised in August 2023.<\/p>\n

The trees were mostly karo (pittosporum), along with eight p\u014dhutukawa, two of which were large specimens that could be seen from several kilometres along the beach. This alerted the public to what had occurred and resulted in the tree removals being reported to the council.<\/p>\n

Small numbers of other species cut down included karaka, coprosma and griselinia, along with some weed species, including Banksia, eucalyptus and euonymus.<\/p>\n

A court fined the club and ordered it to carry out a remediation plan, which included staged planting of new trees over three years, and monitoring and care of p\u014dhutukawa, rabbit suppression and invasive weed control for 10 years or until plantings reach 2m in height.<\/p>\n

\"GolfGolf club members take part in a watering day, carrying buckets of water to each of the new trees planted throughout the dunes. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

As part of the restoration plan, the club must report to council on the work that has been carried out. <\/p>\n

Council resource consents manager Mike Avery said the first year of planting under the remediation plan had now been completed.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u014chope Golf Club are currently finalising the performance report and plan, covering both 2025 and 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club has wholeheartedly embraced the project.<\/p>\n

Along with the p\u014dhutukawa, the first year of planting has included 20 karo, nine taupata, nine cabbage trees and nine ngaio.<\/p>\n

Ryall has devised a numbering system for the trees, which were connected by tracks, to make sure every tree was accounted for when members were watering and weeding.<\/p>\n

The project has been a learning experience for the volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lost about eight or nine plants in one of the gullies because they were a little bit frost sensitive. Yet up on the top, where they\u2019re really exposed, they\u2019re thriving. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the idea of planting so many, so that we could work out what worked in what area and carry that through to next year\u2019s planting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had so many positive comments from people who are out walking around in the dunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s general manager Ryan Walker said the incident had a negative impact on the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely a mistake and we wish it didn\u2019t happen but we want to turn this into a positive outcome,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a club, we are quite passionate about restoring this piece of land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u014chope\u014chope resident Jo Steens stands on the fresh stump of one of the p\u014dhutukawa felled in August 2023 during an \u014chope Beach Golf Links working bee. Photo \/ Troy Baker<\/p>\n

Jo Steens, who was reported in the Beacon as being heartbroken at the felling of the larger p\u014dhutukawa, said the progress was positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m particularly enamoured of the 80 p\u014dhutukawa being planted. It\u2019s long been my dream to see it planted as a p\u014dhutukawa arboretum \u2026 it will be amazing. A fantastic legacy to come out of a destructive event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The club admitted it made a mistake in cutting down 488 natives during a working bee it organised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[9490,9665,64,63,17713,43771,194511,755,26796,29602,211536,85,5425,211537],"class_list":["post-396758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-after","tag-among","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beach","tag-clearing","tag-dunes","tag-golf","tag-hope","tag-links","tag-restores","tag-sports","tag-trees","tag-unlawful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}