Dan Childs/Supplied
The team behind a $420,000 grant for a community group to plant trees on Slope Hill, from left: David Butt and Emma Thompson, from the Department of Conservation; John Hollebon, Cora Heister and Mike Rewi, from Mana Tahuna; Chris Ehmann, from the Hilton Queenstown, and Jo Smith, Neill Simpson, Barbara Simpson and Karen O’Donahoo from Whakatipu Reforestation Trust.
A grassy hill with sprawling views across the Wakatipu basin will be replanted with native trees funded by an enormous financial grant from an international hotel chain.
The Hilton Global Foundation has donated $420,000 to the Queenstown-based Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, enabling it to fast track a project and plant 8ha of Slope Hill reserve land in native trees and shrubs.
Trust operations manager Karen O’Donahoo said the grant was overwhelming for the decade-old charity, which had an annual budget of about $150,000.
The money would be used for site preparation, fencing, rabbit control, trees and labour supplied by locally-based charitable trust Mana Tahuna in spring next year.
“We’ve got the social licence and reputation, but we’re volunteer-based.
Kavinga Ariyathilaka/Supplied
Whakatipu Reforestation Trust volunteers planting native trees and shrubs on Slope Hill reserve, near Queenstown.
“Mana Tahuna have a highly skilled, fantastic work force, and they have a really great understanding of the Lake Hayes catchment.”
Mana Tahuna would lose their Jobs For Nature funding next year so it would be timely for them also.
“It’s a very powerful collaboration,” she said.
O’Donahoo said the reforestation trust had a long-term relationship with the Hilton Queenstown, which provided food and volunteers on planting days.
When Hilton staff suggested the trust apply for the international funding, they struggled to think of any project large enough.
Funding had already been secured from Trees That Count to plant 7000 native trees and shrubs on Slope Hill as part of a $1 million spend across New Zealand marking the coronation of King Charles III.
Kavinga Ariyathilaka/Stuff
The funding enables another 22,000 native trees and shrubs to be planted on Slope Hill.
The Hilton funding would enable a second stage of planting up to 22,000 native trees and shrubs to be brought forward by 10 years.
The 33ha site was owned by the Department of Conservation but used as grazing land.
It sat alongside the Queenstown cycle trail and backed onto Lake Hayes where the trust had undertaken another large native planting project.
Initial discussions were being held to consider building a walkway to the top of the hill, she said.
“The view up there is the best in the Wakatipu.”
It was a win-win for biodiversity, climate change, conservation, and the community, she said.
Trees That Count
Conservation charity Trees That Count provides tips on dealing with weeds when planting native trees. (First published September 19, 2022)
The addition of native trees and shrubs would provide habitat and food for unique native birds, lizards, and invertebrates, stabilise the hillside, and sequester more than 8000 tonnes of carbon over 50 years.
Since 2015, the trust had planted over 75,000 natives throughout the Wakatipu Basin, working with schools, community groups and businesses.
It propagated and grew about 10,000 native plants at its Kelvin Heights nursery each year.
The grant was the first of its kind offered by Hilton in Aotearoa-New Zealand and was one of only four awarded across the Asia Pacific region.
It was awarded in recognition of Travel with Purpose Week, Hilton’s annual week of celebrating service to communities.
