Ralph Sims is a man of many diverse talents. His ability to turn his hand to planting and successfully maintaining native trees in the Turitea Valley as part of his volunteer work for Green Corridors Range to River is just one of them.

Ralph is perhaps better known as Professor Emeritus, Sustainable Energy and Climate Mitigation and for his 53-year stint at Massey University. Ralph has lived in the Turitea Valley with his wife Cathy for 38 years and notes that they ‘had frequently walked the trails that Green Corridors has since developed’ such as the walk through the wonderful Adderstone Reserve. For someone so professionally invested in mitigating climate change, planting and maintaining native trees as part of the Green Corridor project and joining the committee was an obvious step. Ralph notes that ‘carbon sequestration is close to my heart, although native regeneration and maintenance is not a permanent  solution, but it’s helping us buy some time in the need to urgently reduce our domestic emissions’.

Green Corridors Range to River aims to plant corridors of eco-sourced native vegetation along stream banks and walkways connecting the Tararua Range to the Manawatū River. This provides habitat for wildlife including birds, insects and lizards but also improves the water quality of the streams and thus helps the aquatic life. In 1998 PNCC approached community members to discuss the possibility of creating a green corridor of native plants from the Tararua Range to the Manawatū River. The first planting was in 2001. This group initially focused on the Turitea Valley but has now extended to many of the gullies in the Summerhill and Aokautere areas. The group has evolved into a successful collaboration between the community, PNCC and Horizons Regional Council.

Ralph focuses his efforts on a tract of the Turitea Valley following the Te Araroa- New Zealand Trail down  ‘the steps’ from Turitea road to the valley below and along the stream to Ngahere Park Road. With help from grandchildren and Totara Glen Nursery staff, he has recently planted hundreds of natives on both sides  of the steps so that birds and insects can thrive in this diverse, beautiful space. There is also an element of eradication; old man’s beard, blackberry and gorse being a constant issue, as are predator pests which are being successfully trapped.

Ralph is incredibly passionate about this work and is particularly enthused by the increase in native birds, citing a recent study which recorded ‘over 600 tui flying every evening back from the city through the Turitea Valley to roost in the ranges’.  Such a success is the result of the major efforts of the many Green Corridor volunteers – though there is always room for more!