Rugby legend joins conservation initiative

Northland rugby legend Richie Guy joined around 80 volunteers to plant 3,100 native trees and shrubs at Uretiti Rest Area in Bream Bay last Sunday.

Living Legends has completed 14 regional projects over the last month to reach a target of planting a total of 170,000 native trees throughout New Zealand, established as a legacy from New Zealand’s hosting of Rugby World Cup 2011.

Each region’s planting project is dedicated to a local “rugby legend”. Richie was selected by Northland Rugby Union as their regional Rugby Legend in 2011 and spent Sunday morning at Uretiti mucking-in with volunteers from the community to complete the Northland planting project.

“Living Legends is a fantastic project that has brought together rugby and conservation,” he says. “It has been an absolute privilege to be selected as the local rugby legend and to contribute to a project that will make a difference to New Zealand for generations to come.”
Devon McLean, Project Manager for Living Legends, adds: “Richie has been a wonderful local ambassador for the Living Legends project, and has gone out of his way to support us. To have him there this weekend alongside the local community for our final event was brilliant. Richie truly is a legend.”

The area that Living Legends has been planting is adjacent to the DOC campground and was formerly a weed infested waste land. It is hoped the dense cover of over 10,000 plants from the Living Legends project over the past three years will eventually suppress the weeds, but some management will be needed for a couple of years.
 

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MUCKING IN: Richie Guy with Living Legends volunteer Sheryl Mai.