Mountain bike tracks and carbon sink project
Ricky Ward on the Rameka Track. Photo: Supplied.
After a year of significant achievements, Project Rameka held its first AGM at The Brigand last Wednesday. The meeting was an occasion to celebrate the project’s many successes, including the opening of the first part of a new recreational track to the public.
A Wellington couple, Jonathan Kennett and Bronnie Wall, began Project Rameka a year ago, after they bought 50 hectares of marginal farmland in the Rameka Valley with the intention of creating tracks for walkers and cyclists and maintaining the land as a carbon sink.
At that stage, an incorporated society was formed to manage the property and an application made to the Charity Commission for funding. The Quiet Revolution’s Marie and Martin Langley have helped out right from the start, as have the other members.
“We have over 15 members from the Bay. The rest are friends of Jonathan and Bronnie, who are very generous to make the land available for the public,” said Project Rameka’s secretary Marie Langley. “By joining, members contribute a little bit, but the membership fee is only $10 and a lot of people paid a lot more, or whatever they could afford, to get the project off the ground. We have a real range of people interested in Project Rameka. Some are in it because of the conservation-type issues; others are here for the tracks.”
To date, cyclists or walkers coming down the Rameka Track can connect up with Project Rameka a short stretch down the Rameka Valley road. The long-term plan is to get the track developed so it eventually links up with the Takaka River, creating a rideable track up and down.
The majority of the property in the Rameka Valley, however, remains covered in native scrub. Landcare Research has estimated it absorbs carbon dioxide annually at the rate of 12.8 tonnes per hectare. Patches of pasture are being planted with native seedlings and there are plans to plant 1000 trees this winter.
The 13 hectares in pines have been managed with caution. While the long-term intention of Project Rameka is to restore the land to native forest, the committee recognises that Pinus radiata absorbs carbon dioxide almost twice as fast as native trees.
“As climate change projections have worsened, the value of pine trees has become more apparent,” said Jonathan Kennett. “It has been decided that only the pines directly inhibiting existing native trees should be removed at this stage. In the last 12 months, the growing trees, both native and pines, on Project Rameka have removed over 500 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
Pest control and track building have also been two very active areas in the project. Committee member and local hunter Matt Shoult has made a huge contribution by getting rid of possums and pigs, said Jonathan.
“Pigs were causing a huge amount of damage, but we think that Matt shot the last elusive boar a couple of weeks ago. We have also been trapping rats and stoats.”
Ricky Ward of Takaka designed a track that will run through the majority of the property, and over 50 volunteers at different times have contributed muscle power to build it. This track, called Great Expectations, has an easy gradient and will add over three kilometres to the Rameka Track when finished. The first 500 metres, already open to the public, follows the historic Rameka Trail built in the 1850s. Developing the next two kilometres will be a major undertaking and Ricky hopes that it will be officially open to the public this summer.
A working bee this Sunday 10 May will extend the Great Expectations track. Walkers and bikers keen to help can meet at 10am at the signposted entrance to the track, 10km from Takaka on Rameka Creek Road. There will be a BBQ lunch at 12:30.
“Anyone who wants to come, even just to see what we are doing, is welcome to come along,” said Marie. For more information contact Martin or Marie Langley at the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop, phone 525 9555.
Ina Holst
