{"id":4466,"date":"2024-09-28T16:26:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T04:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northshorewilds.co.nz\/?p=4466"},"modified":"2025-05-26T18:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T06:14:15","slug":"moss-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northshorewilds.co.nz\/?p=4466","title":{"rendered":"Moss Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Moss Island, October 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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June 2019 – Old rubbish collected from the forest as part of the Gahnia Grove restoration project is piled beside the orange tape, marking this extension of the Gahnia Grove chemical-free weed control trial and restoration project.
The weedy grass area on the left was later cordoned to become part of “Cherry Bay”, and in late 2020 Moss island was created there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cherry Bay in July 2020. Moss Island was created later that year, in the area of grass behind the cordon, between the foreground and the big clump of harakeke.
Cherry Bay is the whole area behind the cordon on the right, visible from the lower right-hand corner of the upper field of Eskdale Reserve in Glenfield Rd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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July 2020<\/em>: The grassy area to the left is where Moss Island was later created. The lower trunk of the big cherry tree can just be seen on the far left of the photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 during Auckland Council’s construction of a new forest track for cyclists and pedestrians, we asked their contractor RAM Contracting if they could save a little of the beautiful moss-covered clay bank which had to be excavated to widen, pave and channel the track for its new use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Native mosses, shrubs, creepers, fungi and tree seedlings lined the old forest path along the top of the ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The RAM Contracting team kindly agreed, and brought a digger load of large clay pieces out of the forest to the edge of the playing field below Glenfield Rd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At our request they placed the pieces together in “Cherry Bay”, a damp weed-grass covered area just behind the Gahnia Grove cordon (see photos at top of page), where we could weed around it a few times a year while observing what happened to its covering of native mosses and gum-lands tree and shrub seedlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, some close-ups of Moss Island in March 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moss Island after the summer: Milk moss, with seedlings and young tangle fern, mingimingi and tanekaha, and a little invasive Creeping buttercup creeping in from the surrounding “weed sea”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mingimingi seedlings – and a single kanuka seedling (top right), supported by the mostiure-retentive milk moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Close-up of the milk moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A mingimingi seedling in milk moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Three kanuka seedlings in milk moss with tanekaha leaf litter from the older forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A tanekaha seedling (centre), in milk moss, with tanekaha leaf litter from the older forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dianella nigra seedlings in milk moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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a juvenile mongimingi in milk moss – with a stem of the invasive Lotus pedunculata creeping in from upper right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A kanuka seedling (centre), in milk moss, with tanekaha leaf litter from the older forest<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This brown tanekaha seedling may have died, or may be among those that survived and flourished the following year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Invasive Creeping buttercup creeping into milk moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The big vine and shrub weeds and most of the tree weeds had been manually controlled in Cherry Bay in 2019, and wild revegetation was progressing well, but this particular part of it had little shade overhead, and gets very wet in winter, so it fills with Creeping buttercup and grasses every autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The buttercups creep into the mossy clay and are weeded out by hand, and the “sea” of weeds around the “island” of native forest, so we keep the weeds down with a heavy mulch of dead wood, cherry and harakeke prunings, pine litter from under nearby pines, and any weeds that can be easily uprooted or cut down around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A mulch of Harakeke prunings helps suppress weeds in Cherry Bay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Moss Island in July 2021, the area around it recently weeded and mulched with woodchips (by the cordon) and harakeke prunings (under the trees)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As expected, the larger tree seedlings growing in the clay pieces died not long after, but the native “milk moss” (Leucobryum javense) and many of the native tree and shrub seedlings are thriving, four years after translocation of their clay bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moss Island in September 2024 – kumerahou left of centre <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We are grateful to RAM Contracting for their understanding of and collaboration with the Gahnia Grove restoration project’s objectives, and their cheerful contribution of time and equipment in creating Moss Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kumaraho (Pomaderris kumerahou, or “gumdiggers’ soap” , a seedling among the moss, now standing about 50cm high at the front of Moss Island in September 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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September 2024: New leaves on Moss Island’s largest kumerahou juvenile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thank you RAM Contracting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2020 during Auckland Council’s construction of a new forest track for cyclists and pedestrians, we asked their contractor RAM Contracting if they could save a little of the beautiful moss-covered clay bank which had to be excavated to widen, pave and channel the track for its new use. The RAM Contracting team kindly agreed, … <\/p>\n

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