\u201cThe main reason is to protect the land from slipping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter seeing Cyclone Gabrielle, it definitely confirmed that it needed to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cyclone Gabrielle caused slips across the property.<\/p>\n
Early mapping suggested about 170ha had moved, although Read-Jones said the affected area was closer to 70ha once the land settled and grass returned.<\/p>\n
Much of the vulnerable parts of the farm have shallow soil over solid rock, with slips typically shallow and gully erosion occurring near drainage lines.<\/p>\n
Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council\u2019s senior land management adviser Colin Stace said it wasn\u2019t just about planting more poles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is about putting the right pole in the right place, so it has the best chance of doing its job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2020, the farm has planted 1530 poplar and willow poles, all bought from the council\u2019s Allen Rd nursery.<\/p>\n
Stace said erosion-control planting was a long-term investment, taking about two years to establish and seven to eight years for the full benefits to be realised.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not get the full benefit overnight, but once those root systems are well established, they become part of the farm\u2019s long-term protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
The farm has missed two seasons because of Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle, but Read-Jones said the programme had become more targeted each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have learned a lot from the early years experimenting with the different varieties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some varieties were not suited to windy or dry sites, and cattle damaged the lighter poles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learned from that, and now we use the varieties suitable for our farm conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 252,000 hectares of Hawke\u2019s Bay hill country is considered high risk, and pole planting can reduce erosion by up to 80%.<\/p>\n
At Tarawera Station, the latest poles will be helicoptered into position on steep hill country \u2013 a cost covered by the farm \u2013 before being spread out for planting.<\/p>\n
Read-Jones said dropping bundles close to planting sites meant contractors weren\u2019t walking 600 or 700m with heavy poles and were more able to put them where planned.<\/p>\n
He said the support from the council had been invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cColin has helped us with a farm plan and advice on what varieties to use and where to plant them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means I pass the right information to the contractors, and it has been of much help to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe main reason is to protect the land from slipping,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter seeing Cyclone Gabrielle, it definitely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,2841,272150,272153,12252,3233,71,1976,5838,31037,5749,1362,3607,111,43,139,69,36654,79503,272152,272151,3240,147711,13655,126755,165,8229,540,1533,105534],"class_list":["post-554167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-country","tag-erosioncontrol","tag-erosionprone","tag-expands","tag-farm","tag-from","tag-hawkes","tag-help","tag-hill","tag-hundred","tag-made","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-planted","tag-planting","tag-poles","tag-poplar","tag-recently","tag-stabilise","tag-station","tag-tarawera","tag-their","tag-they","tag-where","tag-will","tag-willow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}