As part of Gisborne District Council's hill country erosion programme funded by MPI, our land management team are currently working on a project to establish 3 nurseries on the East Coast.

The nurseries will be run by groups of landowners and members of the community and the trees grown in these nurseries will be planted on coastal hill country properties to help reduce erosion. The nurseries are located at:

• Pourau Inc - poplar and willow poles
• Tokomaru Bay - native
• Whareponga - native

The 2 native nurseries have recently received purpose-built tunnel houses which the land management team helped to construct.

More than a quarter of our district’s land is susceptible to severe erosion (26%), compared with around 8% of the rest of New Zealand - so this programme is incredibly important in helping protect the whenua.

“The team are really excited to be working with the community on this project. We feel it's really important to build relationships in this space to help facilitate longevity of sustainable land management practice in our coastal hill country areas” says Council's land management team leader, Sandy Butler.

A special acknowledgement to Soraya Pohatu-Stone, Council's native nursery project coordinator who is doing the hard mahi in this space to bring it all together alongside the community.