NRC offers poplars and willows for erosion planting

Poplars and willows are the seldom-recognised heroes of Northland’s hill country properties, with a host of benefits including stabilising land and helping hold fertile soil in place instead of polluting waterways as it washes into our estuaries.

Northland Regional Council (NRC) member Rick Stolwerk says keeping fertile soils on the land is in the interest of all Northlanders and without the protection poplars and other trees afford, hills simply erode and wash away in severe rain storms.

Councillor Stolwerk says few people realise that while a natural phenomenon, eroded sediment is Northland’s biggest natural pollutant, research showing the Bay of Islands alone has lost an average of 500,000 tonnes annually for the past century.

Preventing erosion at source – for both environmental and economic reasons – is one of the reasons the regional council has invested heavily in its 16-hectare poplar and willow nursery near Mata, south of Whangarei, in recent years.

“Poplars and willows really are among the unsung heroes of our regional environment,” Cr Stolwerk says. “Without the protection these trees offer, many of our hills would seriously erode in bad storms. They stabilise pastoral hill country, increase water storage, reduce sediment runoff, improve water quality, benefit stock and enhance the farm environment.”

Every year about this time the NRC invites landowners with erosion-prone properties from Topuni north to order heavily-subsidised poplar and willow poles from the Flyger Rd nursery for the approaching winter planting season.

Orders are open now and the council’s nursery co-ordinator Matthew Mabbitt says a subsidised 3m poplar pole will cost $4 (+GST) and a 1m shrub willow pole $2 (+GST). A pole typically retails for about $12. Protective sleeves for the poles are $7.50 (+GST) each and depending on contractor availability, the regional council is also heavily subsidising the planting of poles for an additional $5 (+GST) per pole.

The council has about 7000 poles to sell and while payment doesn’t need to be made until Friday May 21, demand usually outstrips supply, so people are being urged to order them sooner rather than later. Orders will stop being taken on Friday April 30 or when stocks are all sold, whichever comes sooner.

To save costs and comply with Covid guidelines, the council will no longer deliver poles direct to the farm gate, with landowners now able to collect them up from one of four pick-up points instead.

Councillor Stolwerk says the fast-growing trees have broad and binding root systems and have been widely used for years in Northland to prevent and control erosion and cut waterway sediment pollution. In summer they provide shade for livestock and in winter drop their leaves allowing the grass to grow, making them ideal trees for pastural farming.

“Although neither species is native, they’re preferable because their quick growth rates mean they can be controlling erosion within as little as three years.”

n General info about poplars and willows is available from the council’s website nrc.govt.nz/poplars. Anyone interested in securing poles should contact a member of the council’s land management staff on 0800 002 004 or email nursery@nrc.govt.nz to arrange a consultation and free planting plan.

Regional council nursery co-ordinator Matthew Mabbitt in the thick of it at the Flyger Road poplar and willow nursery. PHOTO/FILE