Popular Roland’s Wood gets $15k boost

A park popular with nature lovers and dog walkers will extend its car parking facilities after a $15,000 boost from the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board, granted at a meeting last Thursday (31 August). The Friends of Roland’s Wood, a group that maintains the park in Kerikeri, is fundraising to meet the remaining costs of the upgrade.

The increasing popularity of the park, close to the Kerikeri CBD, has revealed the limitations of its current parking area of four car parks. This will be increased by up to 10 extra spaces. The upgrade will also see some perimeter fencing added but the existing park entrance will not be changed.

The park was made possible by Kerikeri resident, Roland Sansom, who started planting his dream of a public woodland around 1987. Roland’s four hectares (approximately) of land was bequeathed to the council when he passed away. A group of volunteers formed the ‘Friends of Roland’s Wood Charitable Trust’ to maintain the land – clearing weeds and revegetating it with natives - and later purchased an adjacent block of 4.3 hectares.

The need to remove trees away from powerlines prompted the group to extend the carparking area at the same time. Three Liquid Amber trees are at risk of encroaching on power lines and need to be removed, a fourth tree will need to be removed to make this possible. Removing a further three trees will allow for the carpark extension. In its application to the board for funding, the Friends of Roland’s Wood noted that its arborist had advised that none of the trees earmarked for removal are significant specimens.

To find out more about Friends of Roland's Wood Charitable Trust you can visit its Facebook page.

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Photo caption - a walker and his dogs enjoying the lush Roland's Wood in Kerikeri.