The Lakes Tauriko
The Lakes in Tauriko is an innovative, residential development which includes 2450 sections and took over 4 years to complete. Designed to be self-sufficient and cater for a modern lifestyle, The Lakes has all the services and amenities residents need including a shopping village, parks, playgrounds, walking and biking trails, schools, and public transport. As one of the last major projects specifying 1L plants as the minimum size grade for revegetation plantings, the long-term benefits including speed to canopy and reduced maintenance costs were well demonstrated with The Lakes Tauriko significant project.
Ecosystem – Growing with the project
Balancing the needs of residents, while making the most of this opportunity for the revegetation of local ecosystems took careful planning and involved considerable resource. Kauri Park was awarded the project based on the scale of our nursery and supporting infrastructure and these key ingredients proved crucial to the success of this ambitious project. The original order of 200,000 plants increased to 1 million plants within the first year and we had to adapt quickly to rapidly increase supply whilst maintaining quality. Our trucking fleet delivered the plants around the clock to keep up the supply to the planting teams.
All the hard work paid off, with the development setting new standards for the size and range of landscaping including reserve and esplanade plantings, revegetation, walkways, riparian and wetland plantings, street landscaping and residential landscaping.
Ecovitalism – Building resilience
It was important that all revegetation and wetland species for this project were eco sourced from the surrounding region. There are over 30 reserves and open spaces bursting with native species that will be enjoyed by local wildlife and residents for generations to come. The fact all plants were supplied as 1L grades has meant the ongoing maintenance costs have been minimal with lower replacement costs than smaller grades and plants meeting maturity and canopy coverage 12-24 months faster than the new smaller minimum sized grades that are now allowed. While initial budget savings of smaller grades are appealing to project managers when scoping urban developments, reflecting on this project’s long-term success and positive environmental impact, begs the question of whether revegetation projects should revert back to the pre 2008 good ol’ days of 1L minimum grades – for the greater benefit of the local community, the project owners and mother nature.
Note: - This project occurred before the change of industry standards. This was the last major revegetation project to have a minimum grade of one litre. Since this time (2008 -GFC) the revegetation specifications have reduced the minimum grades to smaller such as half litre or less.
