By Hannah Zwartz
Photography by Anna Briggs
Featured in Capital #83.
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Return to childhood memories. Tim Park talks to Hannah Zwartz about his work with endangered species.
Kaiwharawhara stream flows from headwaters in Zealandia, through Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush and down Ngaio Gorge, to join the harbour by the Interislander car park. It’s the part of town where Ōtari’s Kaiwhakahaere (manager) Tim Park grew up. As a child he played on the boulders of the Alpine Garden at Ōtari. “When this job came up, strong memories of time spent here as a kid were part of the attraction.”
Ōtari is still a great place for a bush walk, with or without kids. There are now supplejack tunnels on the cabbage tree lawn and hedge mazes by the lookout, or there’s still the time-honoured tradition of playing by the stream. As well as recreation, there’s learning and inspiration aplenty.
With nearly 20 years’ experience in ecological protection and restoration, the aptly named Tim Park has been instrumental in projects including Predator Free Wellington and the Forest in the Heart of Wellington. Since joining Ōtari in January 2021, Park has overseen a redesign of the visitor centre and a major expansion of the plant conservation laboratories, which study the best way to store and grow native seeds. International seed banks, such as those at Kew Gardens, are doing similar work across the globe, but they don’t specialise in New Zealand plants, says Park. “We still don’t know much about how to store many of our native species.”
The lab controls environmental conditions – temperature, light, humidity as well as fungal associations – to determine the optimal conditions for storage and propagation. Some of the endangered species conserved in the laboratory are down to one or two individuals in the wild. One such is Pennantia baylisiana, commonly known as Three Kings Kaikōmako or Kaikōmako Manawa Tāwhi.
Work like this puts Ōtari in the handful of Gardens of International Significance designated by the New Zealand Gardens Trust. The country’s only public botanic garden dedicated solely to native plants, it’s an important part of our national plant conservation network. And it’s crucial to local ecosystems. “If you want to see the true Wellington forest, this is the biggest and best bit left,” says Park. With 98% of our old-growth forest gone, the seven hectares fenced off by Job Wilton in the 1880s is extra rare in that it’s on a sunny, north-facing slope.
Around that forest area in 1926, Dr Leonard Cockayne established an open air native plant museum. He had the foresight to create ecosystems from around Aotearoa, not just collections of plants. While some beds are traditionally “botanical” (for example where different types of Veronica or Hebe are growing together, showing their wide range of adaptations from Chatham Island ground-huggers to dainty alpine whipcords), plants are also grown in ecosystem gardens, recreating the plant associations found in nature. There’s the Wellington Coastal Garden, the Rainshadow Garden, the Black Beech Forest, and the 38 Degree Garden with plants from northern parts of New Zealand.
The Black Beech Forest is one of Park’s favourite areas at Ōtari. Even under the large trees, there’s a light, airy feeling. “What I tell people gardening at home is, think about the feeling you’re trying to create with plants. Lush plantings with nikau palms and rengarenga give a warm, tropical feeling, while tussocks en masse can be a bit bleak, creating more of a cold, alpine feeling like being in Waiouru.”
His other tip for home gardeners is to cover the ground with a layer of mulch. “It’s the key to reducing maintenance – it saves you time weeding and watering.”
The new visitor centre has been given the name Tāne Whakapiripiri Tāne who shelters the many identities of the atua of forest, humans, and birds. The relationship with mana whenua is important to Park. “We’re in a process of decolonising, rethinking and reframing the wider perspective of our relationships with nature. It’s not a change of direction but ongoing respect and a deepening of our appreciation of mana whenua.”
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