THE WESTERN HILLS : Western Hills Highway Frontage of the Coronation Reserve. The Western Hills Highway runs along the bottom of the Coronation Reserve from the Russell Road intersection back towards the Avenues, where private housing takes over and sections back onto the reserve,.as they do at the Kauika Road West section. Much of this section is replanted native bush with kauri, kohekohe, tarairl, coprosma, kawakawa, titoki and other native trees forming a regrowth margin to the regenerated bush of the Frank Holman Memorial Track. Unfortunately nearer to the Avenues where private housing forma a frontage, seedling invasive plants have crept in from ptivate gardens and the trees in the Waiarohia Reserve on the opposite side of the highway. We will look at both portions and the plants therein.
Replanted native tree species at the northern or Russell Road end of the Coronation Reserve.
You can see how close the road is to the Reserve, in fact there is no footpath, just a grassed strip.
Part of the replanting showing Kauri, Coprosma, totara and astelia.
Looking into the gully at the foot of the Reserve from the grassed road edge.
Tarieri - Beilschmedia tarairi
Kauri - Agathis australis.
A young kauri tree surrounded by other natives.
Coprosma and Leptospermum.
Nature is winning. This tree fern has attracted a climbing fern and the kauri is in cone.
Another section of the gully showing how the plantings have thrives.
Kohekohe - Dysoxylum spectabile.
A young kauri growing by the roadside bush.
Coprosma showing ripening berries.
Another view of the lush bush at the Russell Road end of the Coronation Reserve.
Another young kauri at the edge of the bush.
A Puriri tree - Viex lucens - hosting several epiphytes.
Another puriri tree - Vitex lucens.
The entrance to the old Rust Track which is now closed. The new Rust Track is around the corner in Russell Road.
INVADED AREAS AND INVASIVE SPECIES.
Due to the close proximity of private housing to the Western Hills Highway section of the Coronation Reserve, introduced non-native species have invaded areas of the reserve. This is most noticeable on the Western Hills banks above the highway along the middle section of the highway between The Avenues and the Kensington Hill.
A section of the bank being taken over by Prunus campanulata - Wild Cherry or Taiwan Cherry.
Prunus campanulata and Chinese Privot - Ligustrum chinensis.
Gorse and Wooly Nightshade - Solanum mauritianum.
The above photographs shows the extent of the invasion. The gorse in the foreground is itself being invaded by moth plant or cruel vine (Araujia horotorum), Hedera (Ivy) and Kikuyu grass, while above this the lower slopes are slowly being overgrown with Prunus campanulata, wild cherry, which used to be a popular flowering cherry for home gardens. This invader is now very well established, not only on the Western Hills, but in the Waiarohia Reserve on the opposite side of the road. Each year that these rogue plants are allowed to flower, the fruit is eaten by birds and the bird droppings spead further into the reserve. This Prunus is now establishing in the northern or Russell Road area of Route 3. However, ironically, each time the District council disturbs the bushsoil while completing an upgrade to the tracs or other projects, the invasive species are the first testablish a foothold, before the native species of fern or other flora can gain a foothold. The photograph below shows how quickly gorse has begun to establish itself on the clay sidings to the recently installed staircases.
AS I walk through Route 3 of the reserve I see Honeysuckle, Wild Cherry, Solanum, Scotch Thistle, Gorse, Pampas Grass, African Club Moss, Tradescantia or Wandering Jew,Wild Ginger, Ageratum, Convolvulus, and other species that are becomming established in the more open areas of the bush, i.e track sides, lookout areas, and under tree ferns. It is a problem that requires immediate action, a problem that council alone cannot afford to tackle, but the Department of Conservation should help with the erradication of these invasive plants. One solution would be to utilize gangs of labour from the WINZ list of unemployed, as we did in the Auckland City Council to clear areas like Western Springs Lakeside Park and The Zoological Gardens in the 1970s, but that might no longer be PC.