Transmission Gully, Wellington

Evergreen Landcare were privileged to be part of the 27 km Transmission Gully Project. From early in the project to completion Evergreen Landcare not only provided temporary stabilisation, Hydroseeding, Hydrosoil®, Siltstop® Socks, Straw mulching, Mitigation Planting, Plant Maintenance, Weed Control and Pest Control.

The Mitigation planting involved more than 1.7 million plants on the high hills surrounding the alignment to help future proof against erosion. Around 534 hectares of land surrounding the new motorway has been fenced and with around two million native trees and shrubs, including seedlings of long-living tree giants like totara, matai and rimu

This is all with the aim to create one of the most significant lowland bush areas in the Wellington region. Streams along the 27-kilometre route are also being enriched with riparian planting to create better environments for native fish and birds.

With many planting areas in ‘hard to reach places’ the Evergreen Landcare team needed to find alternative solutions, to manually hauling hundreds of thousands of plants across hundreds of hectares. With the assistance of helicopters, we were able to get plants to the hard-to-reach locations.

With the increased habitat, it’s hoped that iconic songbirds like tui and bellbirds will successfully nest in the new bush and rarer species like native falcon or karearea will migrate from the Tararua, Rimutaka and Akatarawa Ranges and kaka to and from the likes of Kapiti Island.