The coastal forest restoration area

Planting to restore
Native forest that would have once naturally occurred in an area can be recreated by actively replanting the area with the right plants, or by allowing natural succession and regeneration to occur. To restore an area successfully takes planning, effort and time. A successful restoration planting should create conditions where native plants can regenerate themselves, so that eventually the planting can become self sustaining like a natural forest. The right selection of plants will attract and provide habitat for native birds and other wildlife.

What to plant
Due to the mild climate, native forests in the Auckland region are complex and contain a large number of different native plants, which grow in a variety of combinations. Existing natural forest areas commonly consist of broadleaved forest interspersed with taller canopy trees such as rimu, tōtara, miro, tānekaha, kahikatea, and stands of kauri. Of the broadleaved species, taraire, pūriri and kohekohe are very common canopy trees at lower altitudes, with tawa typically becoming more common above 200m and on cooler south-facing slopes.

Beneath the canopy trees there is usually a profusion of tree ferns, shrubs and ground layer plants. In younger regenerating stands of forest, mānuka and kānuka are dominant, often accompanied by treeferns in gullies. Every site is unique and needs to be treated individually. For planting to be successful, it is important to identify the physical conditions of a site that will influence plant growth.