News

SERN Spring Trip – Te Anau Revisited - 16 November 2025

On Saturday 16 November 15 people set off in hail from Invercargill on the annual SERN spring trip. We were heading for Te Anau, but the first stop was Dunrobin QEII Covenant where Jesse Bythell and Brian Rance showed us all the tiny lily flowering (Wurmbea novae-zelandiae)! It’s the smallest lily in the world with the flowering head about the size of a match head. Dunrobin is one of only two sites in Southland where this lily grows. Jesse and Brian then explained the monitoring and management investigations taking place on the site to maintain and hopefully increase the populations of this rare plant.

Next stop was lunch at Jenny Campbell’s in Mossburn and then on to Sue and Simon Marwick’s restoration site in Te Anau. One of the new QEII “restoration covenants”. QEII Te Anau Basin Rep., Mark Sutton, described it as a “covenant in waiting”. The site and planting effort over very recent years was extremely impressive with local native plants from beech trees to tussocks planted in the gully running down to a pond at the bottom. The site had been bought by Sue and Simon with the specific intention to restore it back to nature and we all walked through trees over head height in the perfectly managed area. Use of local native species, foundation species, herbicide spray preparation and releasing and combi-guards, had all been employed to make this project a great success. There was also a grove of existing matagouri on the site. The Marwicks, well Simon in particular, had moved and renovated a small hut at the top of the site so we could all enjoy a sit down and afternoon tea provided by QEII while looking enviously down onto the plantings. Mark presented Sue and Simon with an Alan Mark alpine plant book “Above the Treeline” in acknowledgement of their great efforts.

The group then moved on to the Te Kōawa Lodge located at Te Kōawa Tūroa o Takitimu in the Jericho Valley. Our accommodation for the night was in double bunk rooms, with great communal and cooking facilities. It sleeps 20 and is a great place for groups to book and stay – it is managed by Ōraka- Aparima Rūnaka; information at https://www.tewaiaumahikakaitrust.co.nz/lodge and can be booked through [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]. Before dinner the group had a walk around the Matariki plantings and up the valley to the wetlands. At dusk, Catriona led a bat walk down to the river. No bats were heard on this occasion but had been recorded in the previous month.

Sunday saw us do the clean-up and out ahead of schedule, so we took the opportunity to visit Rakatu Wetlands, walking up to the viewing hide. Then on to Cam and Wendy MacDonald’s section of Home Creek on Cathedral Peaks Station where Catriona explained the work done to date at this challenging riparian site by many community members especially school groups.

From there to Home Creek Wetland, a Waiau Trust property where Edith Jones has done a lot of planting in the past, with Brian Rance, in Edith’s absence, speaking on the early beginnings of the restoration project. John Whitehead, a trustee on the Waiau Trust board, spoke of more recent plantings undertaken by the Waiau Trust. They have also had NZ Motorhome Association volunteers, whose camp is adjacent to the wetland, undertaking plantings, along with giving a major contribution to the new upstream bridge cost. We all walked the track admiring the clear meandering creek, the well- established earlier plantings (begun over 20 years ago), recently planted areas, the new bridge and stunning snowy mountain views.

The last but not least stop on the trip was Castledown Wetlands, managed by Rural Women. Ann Irving and Jesse Bythell gave us all a conducted tour of the wetland, over the ingenious bridge, and explained the work done to date and work to be done on willows soon and we had afternoon tea sitting in the sun by the side of the river.

What did we all learn from the trip:

• Learning about a special, rare Southland plant
• Seeing best practice restoration in action
• Learning the importance of kaitiaki succession in starting and continuing projects
• Networking with other groups and experts and learning from them
• Consoling and encouraging each other that sometimes it doesn’t work as well as we would like
• Supporting projects like Te Kōoawa by staying in the accommodation there
• Learning about funding opportunities from organisations like ES, Waiau Trust and QEII
• Learning new skills e.g. listening for bats

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 November 2025

OLG's Bushy Point Project Celebrates 25 Years

The Otatara Landcare Group would be one of the few remaining Landcare Group’s in Southland. Their ambitious restoration project of joining the two significant coastal dune forest remnants, on the west of Invercargill Estuary, reached a milestone last Saturday with their 25th annual planting day. Check it out in the report on their website - https://www.otataralandcare.org.nz/news-events/bushy-point-25th-anniversary-celebration/

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 October 2025

Kākā making themselves at home

Two Kākā were seen in Thomson’s Bush, happily searching for invertebrates by pulling apart pieces of wood. This is the second time Kākā have been photorahed here recently. One or two together are also regularly being seen in Myross Bush and parts of Otatara. They are very likely the same birds. In all cases this is exciting news and indicates some potential for the locations to be providing good foraging for them. The main reason Kākā spread out from their key home territories, is reduced food availability there. We are aware that fruiting by most tree and plant species was very low last autumn and this may be a factor.

Please do not put out food for the Kākā: far better is for you to plant suitable native trees and bushes to provide fruit in the future, keep cats indoors (at all times) and set up some pest animal control traps. There are many groups on this website who can provide advice and offer opportunities for you to help with this in a local reserve. Friends of Thomsons Bush meet every Wednesday 9.55am in the car park. Myross Bush are now setting up a ‘pest buster’ group to better protect their area. Otatara has a very active pest busters group and planting activities. (Look for contacts on the SERN site).

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Funding Opportunity: Meridian Energy Power Up Community Fund

If you live in a community near one of Meridian’s generation assets (White Hill – Mossburn, Dipton, Lumsden or Manapouri – Te Anau, Manapōuri, Clifden and Tuatapere) then you can apply to their Power Up Community Fund. Your application must meet the Power Up Community Fund objectives and selection criteria, with one of the fund’s key objectives being to promote environmental awareness and programmes that sustain and improve the quality of the environment in the community.

The next funding round for Power Up White Hill and the Manapōuri Community Fund is open now, and applications need to be submitted by 19 October. Click here for more details.

Looking for funding but don’t live near their generation assets? Meridian’s Decarbonisation Fund is available nationwide for projects that reduce carbon emissions. Click here for more details.

Posted on: Monday, 1 September 2025

Update on Mid Dome Wilding Pines

Thanks to Richard Bowman for an update on the Mid Dome Wilding Pine removal (see attached here). As he explains, great progress was made over the last few years with Jobs for Nature funding, however with that gone the Trust is looking for funds to complete the work on Pinus contorta and P mugo that was reaching it’s final stages. Sadly there’s a new wilding appeared with the spread of douglas fir, an issue that ES staff recently outlined to the ES councillors. This is a very real threat in the future, both economically and environmentally, and so another battle begins.

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 August 2025