Events

SERN Spring Field Trip - Te Anau area

This year’s SERN Spring Field Trip will be a two day visit to the Te Anau area, with other stops on the way there and back. We will be visiting some new sites, as well as returning to others which some will have visited before, to see how they have developed over the longer term. Most sites are riparian, some just getting started, others well established. A few have QEII covenants: an opportunity to find out more about the value and process of covenanting. It will also be a self-drive weekend (although carpooling will be organised as required - see below ). The programme is as follows:

Saturday 15th November

10.30am: Dunrobin Tussock QEII Covenant (2450 Wreys Bush-Mossburn Rd). QEII Rep Jesse Bythell and botanist Brian Rance will talk to us about some rare species present here and explain the special restoration techniques being used to try and ensure their survival.

12.00pm: Lunch at Mossburn (BYO)

1.30pm: Marwick’s QEII Restoration Covenant (625 Kakapo Rd, Te Anau). QEII Rep Mark Sutton will be present to explain a different type of QEII covenant here, where Simon and Sue Marwick have planted thousands of native plants to restore a gully system.

4.30pm: Te Kōawa Tūroa o Takitimu (3023 Blackmount-Redcliff Rd, Jericho). Te Waiau Mahika Kai Trust Programme Manager, Vanessa Horwell, will tell us about the restoration project being undertaken here by the Trust to restore mahinga kai (Ngāi Tahu traditional food and resources). We will do a short walk around to look at the site and at some of the work being done. (Overnight stay is possible: see below.)

Later in the evening, following a shared potluck Dinner, there will be a chance to listen out for bats.

Sunday 16th November

9.30am: Cathedral Peaks Home Creek Riparian Restoration Project (268 Hillside-Manapouri Rd). Landowners, Cameron and Wendy MacDonald, and project organisers, Environment Southland, will explain the community restoration work being undertaken alongside this stream which originates from the Kepler Mire.

10.30am: Waiau Trust’s Home Creek Restoration Project (170 Hillside-Manapouri Rd). Following early work led by Edith Jones, further restoration plantings have been undertaken by the Waiau Habitat Trust with support from the Motorhome Association. Check out the original creek plantings and hear about the future plans.

12.30pm: Lunch at Mossburn (BYO)

1.45pm: Rural Women’s Castledown Wetlands (928 Dipton-Mossburn Rd). Last visited in 2018 by SERN, in the last few years they have begun willow control. Hear about these plans from Ann Irving, and also about the group’s ongoing planting and pest control at this site on the Dipton River.

Please email Gay at [Enable JavaScript to view protected content] with expressions of interest for this field trip, especially in the night’s stay at Te Kōawa Tūroa o Takitimu Lodge. The Lodge can sleep a maximum of 20, but some campervans can be accommodated. Also please advise if you are interested in carpooling (offer a seat, need a seat).

Bushy Point 25th Anniversary Tree planting, tree releasing..... & BBQ!

Full details on the flyer (attached) ALL WELCOME!

Plant a podocarp in a threatened habitat to leave your legacy for centuries!

Totara dune forests are rare and threatened habitats in Southland and this is an opportunity to protect and enhance these habitats in Otatara. The Otatara Landcare Group is inviting back anyone who has contributed towards the enhancement of the Totara dune forest in the last 25years. Come along to see the progress of this community initiative and to connect with some rare and threatened biodiversity.

Five Minute Bird Count training course

2-day course, open to all, $21 at Southland Community Nursery. Book direct: Phone: (03) 539 5126 or email [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]

Excellent skill to have as a means of monitoring the success of all your hard conservation work!

Friends of Thomson's Bush Big Work Day!

10am to 2pm: Meet at playground off Queens Drive.

Pulling as much ivy as we can - can we top the 12 fadges we managed in March?

Please bring your own garden gloves, thanks

All welcome. Stop anytime for a free BBQ!

(If you can’t make the 28th; We are there every Wednesday 10am - noon and tackling many other weeds - see the photos for the latest inroads on crack willow.)

Otatara Landcare Group Tree Releasing Working Bee

Join us this coming Saturday, 2.00pm – 4.00pm for our spring working bee.

This season we are starting early to get on top of things in priority areas before spring growth takes off. The first priority is the series of 2022 plantings alongside the Totara block, where broom and poroporo are competing strongly with many young trees, and hopefully cleaning up here may be the final releasing needed in these areas. Grass is also competing strongly with a lot of the younger trees in the area below the
lookout seat and surrounds. Various methods can be used to release the trees and suppress competing grass etc growth, as will be demonstrated on the day.

We will meet at the lookout seat accessed from the Bryson Rd entrance to Bushy Point.

Please bring:

• shoes or gumboots suitable for working in long grass and lupins etc
• gardening gloves
• clothing suitable for the expected weather conditions
• a face mask if you are allergic to dust or grass seeds
• safety (or other) glasses to protect eyes when weeding amid tall plant stalks or branches
• a small pruning saw, if possible, for working in the broom, poru poru and lupins
• ideally, a pair of sharp garden shears suitable for cutting grass.

Feel free to join the working bee at any stage, and only stay for as long as you can.

Please contact Douglas Black on 022 104 8661 for more information if required.

Conservation Week events Sept 2025

With a theme of ‘small things can make a big difference’, lots of ideas for all ages to be involved starting from 1st September to celebrate Conservation Week this year.

Nature Art workshop 1.30-2.30pm Sun 14 Sept. All events free; just turn up! More details here and on Environment Southland fb page.

Competition winners will receive a copy of Observologist by Giselle Clarkson. Age categories 0-7yrs, 8-12yrs, 13-113yrs….

Despite the hail, as the Bug Hotel making was thankfully indoors, on 6 Sept. a dedicated group of families created several new hotels for the critters in their gardens. (see photos)