News

The Bittern are Booming

The Australasian bittern, matuku, is one of our rare birds. A solitary and secretive creature, their numbers are low, however several years ago a citizen science project, the Matuku Muster, was started to try and find out just how many there might be in Aotearoa. In the spring the booming of the male bird can be heard, their way of finding a female to breed with in the wetlands they inhabit. You will see there is an official Matuku Muster event (details here), however as well as that, there will be other searchs for this elusive bird across Southland. One of those is at the Waiau Trust’s Rakatu Wetland on the Blackmount-Redcliffs Rd. You are invited to join with Waiau Trust members and Wendy Ambury, national leader of the Matuku Muster, to listen for the bittern on the Saturday evening and Sunday morning, 31st October/1st November, at Rakatu and other nearby wetlands, plus the offer to stay at the nearby Te Koawa Lodge for the Saturday night. If you would like to join in the Rakatu Matuku Muster, please contact Roger Hodson, Waiau Trust Operations Manager on 027 667 1542 or email [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]. Check out the Rakatu Wetlands here.

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Oreti Totara Dune Forest Restoration - 6 Years, 1200 Trees

Six years. Twelve hundred trees. One rare forest coming back.

On a Sunday this winter the Southland Tramping and Outdoor Recreation Club finished something they began in 2021: six straight years of planting trees at our Ōreti Tōtara Dune Forest Reserve, near Invercargill.

A hundred trees a year to begin with. Then 700 in 2024, to mark the club’s 75th anniversary. A hundred more in each of the past two years. Around ten or twelve members turning up each time, whatever the Southland weather had in store.

The first plantings are well away now — some of the wineberry is over three metres. The later ones will soon stand taller than the grass around them.

Ōreti is one of the last tōtara dune forests left in the country. It is being brought back by people who simply kept coming back.

Read more of this story and check out the project on our SERN site here.

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 September 2026

Westpac Water Care Grant Winners Announced

Excerpt from Thriving Southland’s September newsletter:

‘This year we had four applications submitted to this fund this year from Lower Oreti, Greater Dipton, Otama and Hedgehope Makarewa Catchment Groups covering everything from creating an animal pest trap library, restoring Kowhai Reach, sediment reduction mitigations, and possum control.

The Westpac Water Care Project is an annual opportunity where seven community-led catchment projects from around Aotearoa receive $10,000 to support practical restoration projects in their local waterways. The Westpac Watercare Team said that there was an exceptional level of quality applications this year, with amazing work being done across New Zealand. The lucky winner of the Southland funding was …drumroll… Greater Dipton with Kowhai Reach restoration!

Kowhai Reach is a special area of rare, meandering riparian forest and an ancient kōwhai trees (some over 400 years old) on the Winton Stream at Kauna in Central Southland. It is a community-led restoration project with strong support from local landowners, QEII covenantors, QEII National Trust, Limehills School, Southland District Council and the local Catchment Groups and many more.

Congratulations to all four entrants. It was an amazing range of projects from our region, and the Thriving Southland Catchment Coordinators will now work with the other three Groups to find funding to make their projects happen. Many thanks to Westpac and the NZ Landcare Trust for this great funding opportunity.’

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 September 2026

Big Bay Conservation Trust Bring back the Bird Song.

Big Bay Conservation Trust Manager, Natasha Yamamoto, spoke of the Trust’s work at the recent Biodiversity Southland Forum. The Trust was set up in 2019 when whitebaiters and others grew concerned at the loss of flora and fauna from this wild corner of Fiordland in Southland’s north west extreme. The predator control they have undertaken since the early 2020’s has led to the volunteers doing the mahi to comment on how the bird song has now returned. There has also been the discovery of a skink that is only found in this area, which would be susceptible to mustelid predation, along with wetland bird species, bittern and fernbird. Kotuku are regularly seen around Waiuna Lagoon, and recently a weka was sighted, which was the first time those who have long frequented the area knew of. The work being undertaken by the Big Bay Conservation Trust complements that being done to the south by the Hollyford Conservation Trust, ensuring this very special area of Fiordland is a place where our native biodiversity cannot just survive, but thrive. Check this project out here

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Our Local Conservation Star - Catriona Gower

Many of us know Catriona Gower well through her work as a Biodiversity Officer with Environment Southland. However as well as this wonderful mahi, she was recently acknowledged for all the volunteer hours she puts into other conservation education and restoration projects. As a member of the South Otago branch of Forest and Bird, she was recognised by a 2026 Forest & Bird Tī Kōuka Award at the national Forest and Bird AGM.

From the ODT: ‘Affectionately known as the ‘‘Bat Lady’’, Mrs Gower set up a long-term pekapeka-tou-roa/long-tailed bat survey programme in the Catlins alongside popular bat walks. The Catlins Bat Project, established in 2014, consisted of transect surveys and year-round bat activity monitoring across the district and popular annual summer bat evenings. She was the driving force behind Long Yellow Ribbon, a riparian revegetation project — the ribbons being the kōwhai and ribbonwood trees that once were a feature along the Owaka River. She grew hundreds of seedlings and organised working bees to plant them along the river margins as well as successfully encouraging local farmers to get involved in the riparian planting.

Recently, she organised Kiwi Conservation Club activities, including two art exhibitions, ‘‘On the Brink’’ and ‘‘Art at the Nuggets’’, and the Matuku Muster — searching for bitterns.

A citation for the award said Mrs Gower was always looking for an opportunity to advocate for nature and encouraging people to enjoy being in te taiao (the natural world). Mrs Gower frequently organises fun community events focusing on enjoying Catlins wildlife and habitats. She also promotes the South Otago branch’s work in a local quarterly newsletter and includes a note on a ‘‘weed of the season’’ each time.’

Our SERN team is very grateful to have Catriona on board, always providing enthusiasm and support for what we are doing. No doubt many involved in the restoration projects registered on SERN can identify with this. Thank you and congratulations, Catriona.

Posted on: Monday, 29 June 2026