PREPARING A PROPERTY PLANTING PLAN FOR REVEGETATION FOR 1 HA OR MORE
If you are considering revegetating 1 ha or more with native plants, and particularly if you will be looking for any financial assistance for the revegetation, it may be necessary or useful to prepare a property planting plan.
Before starting to draft such a plan, you may need to consider how it would fit or align with other similar types of management plans which might be encouraged or required by the Christchurch City Plan or the Selwyn District Plan in the future, a management plan required under a covenant, or a Farm Management Plan under the Canterbury Regional Land and Water Plan. The objective is that a property planting plan as part of Te Kākahu Kahukura not be an onerous task and that ideally it aligns with or forms part of one of these other types of plans, where they are in place. For more information, or to discuss the relationship between these various types of plan contact
How detailed the plan should be will vary from property to property depending on the scale of revegetation, but the plan is intended to guide the management approach as well as the specific native species to be planted, and their location, in a way which contributes to the overall strategy of Te Kākahu Kahukura.
A property planting plan can be prepared by you on your own, although it may be easier to do this as part of a wider group of landowners within the Te Kākahu Kahukura area. This latter approach involves an initial workshop with a facilitator who will help guide you through plan preparation including how carry out an ecological assessment. You would then undertake a biodiversity assessment of your property (with or without technical ecological assistance) and then using the results from this assessment and what you learnt in the workshop, write your planting plan (with or without assistance).
In summary, the preparation of a property planting plan involves:
- A brief statement on the intent of your plan, the philosophy that underlies the management of your property, and the general location and history of your property. The introduction should include some general comments on your management approach and/or some of the key assumptions that underlie the management of your property.
- A description of the ‘biodiversity assets’ (forest and shrubland remnants, wetlands, scattered native trees, tussock grassland etc.) on your property and associated mapping, an assessment of their condition, a species list, and where relevant a consideration of native biodiversity that is present in areas adjacent to your property.
- In setting biodiversity conservation goals for the property, it is important to reflect on both the intrinsic opportunities (such as existing restoration plantings and remnant vegetation) and constraints (such as the presence of deer and woody weeds) associated with the site itself, as well as considering the opportunities and risks that factors beyond the site might present. A realistic consideration of these factors is important in formulating credible goals and for planning management actions achieve these goals.
- A statement of your vision for native biodiversity on your property out to 2050. This long-term goal is essentially your idea of how you would like to see native biodiver sity develop on your land in the future. Outcome statements can summarise the key issues that need to be addressed through management to achieve your vision. The long-term goal can be fairly generic and aspirational while the outcome statements should be more specific and therefore are intended to guide actual management.
- Developing a five-year operational plan -this is based on a series of five-year goals that are the stepping stones to achieving the long-term outcomes for your property. The development of the five-year goals recognises that it is not possible to do everything at the outset both in terms of the resources (time and cost) required and the need to stage the biodiversity management and protection actions in a logical fashion.
- Identifying how you can monitor and show the improvements in native biodiversity that have arisen from implementing the management outlined in this plan. This is important so you can see and quantify the benefits of your management.
- Outlining the process for keeping the plan up to date Ideally the plan should be a ‘living’ document that is important to you and possible future owners as part of managing your property.