Source: NZ Department of Conservation
29 years of planting leaves a legacy for Buller High School and retired school teacher Janet Pottinger.
Late in 2025, DOC staff in the Buller Kawatiri office headed out to Tauranga Bay to take part in a planting day which both marked the retirement of a local schoolteacher, Janet Pottinger, who spearheaded work to restore native vegetation in the Bay and the adjoining Cape Foulwind with the mahi of the Buller High School Year 9 environmental programme since 1997.
Four times a year since 1997, these students have planted native shrubs and trees along a walkway, sea front and car parks. Originally, the walkway was through windswept open paddocks that have since been transformed into a dramatic environment of native vegetation.
The main plant chosen for the project has been harakeke, which grows quickly, is very hardy in a coastal environment and creates a great habitat and a food source for native birds and other animals. Other native plants can grow in the shelter of the harakeke.
Planting in 2004 and another picture taken in 2015 (left), this area is now totally covered in flax and vegetation (right).
Birds, attracted to its summer flowering bring seeds with them to speed this process. The revegetated areas support sooty shearwaters, blue penguins, fairy prions, weka, seals and many other native birds, lizards and invertebrates. The aesthetic values of the area have been greatly enhanced.
A roadside area pre-planting in 2010 (left), and just six years later in 2016 (right).
At the final planting, Janet remarked that the timing of the final planting had worked out pretty well, as she was retiring and there was nowhere left to plant! If you are naturing at Tauranga Bay and Cape Foulwind, it’s hard to believe that 29 years ago, the place was bare pasture and grassland.
Ex DOC Ranger John Green, who attended the final planting says that when the area came into DOC management in 1987, they were finding dead penguins from dog attacks “all the time”, and cattle were collapsing shearwater burrows. The view at the Bay is now picturesque, with flaxes and native vegetation framing the bay and headland, where thousands of visitors go to visit seals and walk one of DOC’s most popular tracks in the area: Cape Foulwind Walkway
Before and after on the track – this change came quickly, the first photo was taken in 2004 (left), the second in 2008 (right).
John says the plantings haven’t just made the place look good, they’ve helped all the species that live there, who benefit from the shelter and enriched habitat the plantings provide.
On the statistics side of things, Janet says 12,425 plants have gone in the ground, approximately 2800 students have been involved and over the 29 years there have been 108 planting trips.
“Over the years I have found that the students were always very enthusiastic about the trees they planted and many of them were proud to show their whanau years later how much their plants had grown.
“The school should be really proud, it’s been an amazing partnership with DOC, and we’ve even had a second generation of students planting, following on from their parents before them.”
Through the years the project has been awarded a West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Award, a Trustpower West Coast Supreme Award, and a Plant Conservation Network Award. Well done Janet and Buller High School and thankyou for bringing back nature to this place.
Janet is happy to help or give advice to any other schools or groups who want to do something similar, so if you are in that category, get in touch via info@doc.govt.nz, referencing this blog.
