News

Matuku Muster Highlights 2024

Wendy Ambury has sent out the highlights and next steps from her wonderful Love Bittern Project. She visited us in mid November and gave an inspiring talk about what we can do to help Matuku Hurepo. For more information on the whole project go to the website here. Highlights poster attached.

Sadly, the Awarua Wetlands were extensively burned in January. This is bittern habitat (& home to many other species of concern). Warren Heslip was fighting the fire when he caught sight of a bittern doing its freezing pose (see photo).

We don’t have a lot of current records for bittern - do keep recording (iNaturalst, eBirds, LoveBittern or DOC) any you hear or see. Head to the World Wetlands Day event on 23rd Feb for some more information on habitat creation and management for these magnificent birds (details here).

Posted on: Thursday, 13 February 2025

Friends of Thomsons Bush off to a Good Start

Friends of Thomsons Bush started off in May last year. In the six months they’ve been working on removing ivy they have given a total of 331 volunteer hours and removed 73 fadges of ivy. Meeting most Wednesday mornings from 10.00am to 12 noon, they have a regular base of about 5 people. They have been liaising with Derek Winwood, ICC Parks, who recently acknowledged the group, writing “thank you all for the wonderful work that FOTB has completed over the past months, your passion and drive is amazing.” There is still more work to do removing ivy, however the group are hoping that they will soon be able to start on woody weeds, once a formal agreement is in place with ICC. If you would like to be involved, check this project out at https://www.sern.org.nz/project-directory/thomsons-bush-invercargill/

2024 November. FOTB members clearing ivy from the forest understory.

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 January 2025

The Great Matuku-Muster

Sunday 17 November - Some photos from the afternoon workshop and evening bittern surveying at Bushy Point.

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 November 2024

SERN Spring Trip 2024: Meandering the Mataura River

Another successful field trip was attended by 35 people involved or interested in the Southland ecological restoration work going on, in this case in the lower and mid-Mataura catchment.

The day began with a visit to O’Neills Bush at Titiroa. Formal restoration of this forest began after the purchase of the lower Mataura floodplain in the early 1980’s by the Southland Regional Council. At the time they fenced off and protected the forest remnants with a QEII Open Space Covenant. This small bush block was being replanted by local schools in the early 2000’s (https://www.sern.org.nz/project-directory/oneills-bush-mataura-floodplain/) , filling in areas of grass within the fenced off QEII covenant. The goal was to give this small forest remnant better protection from the elements and reduce the opportunity for weeds to establish. At the time there was also work done on the removal of holly.

More recently there has been plantings undertaken by the ES Biodiversity team, filling in an area between the forest and the Southern Scenic Route, along with more plantings in other areas remaining around the forest edge. As well as this there is now extensive animal pest control work going on in these lower Mataura remnants by Environment Southland, ensuring the better health of flora and fauna.

There was talk of future visions and the opportunity to retire more land, acknowledging that the area is low-lying, wet and experiences flooding several times in a year. So, although lessees have managed to bring in good pastures in places, it was recognised as a difficult farming environment.

From Titiroa we travelled up the east side of the Mataura River to a recently registered QEII covenant on John Somerville’s farm. The interesting feature here was the protection of 500+ year old matai and rimu standing in pasture with a Life of the Trees covenant. QEII rep Jesse Bythell explained the value of these trees as a source of genetic variability in seed and for pollination, habitat for birds and insects (even as a partially dead tree), providing protection for the adjacent fenced off forest and as a landscape feature.

At Gore, we were addressed by Keith McRobie, Parks Manager with GDC. Since his arrival several years ago he has reinvigorated the Gore Forest Restoration project (https://www.sern.org.nz/project-directory/gore-native-forest-restoration/). This is native plantings on the old Gore landfill site, just below Hamilton Park, which was initiated by Men of the Trees members, especially Don and Margaret Lamont, 20 odd years ago. A Trust was established at the time and funding gained, with the project being overseen by Janet Gregory, Landcare Trust and Arne Clelland, Pukerau Nursery. On their moving away, little work was done here for a number of years, but more recently Keith has engaged with the schools and service groups, who have helped to plant several thousand plants into the area each year.

The final visit was to the Pukerau Nursery, where we heard from James and Maree Holloway about their belief in using eco-sourced stock. They were all too aware that a number of places sell plants brought from further afield and that these did not survive as well as plants whose seeds were collected locally. This is especially important if you are working on a restoration project, that the plants you are putting in are those species found in the Ecological District.

Our final discussion was about how nature will change things over time. The DOC managed Red Tussock Scientific Reserve just below Pukerau, is gradually becoming a flaxland in drier zones and dominated by wire rush in another area. So, what you protect and restore today may become a quite different habitat in a hundred years. However our native flora and fauna will find its balance, all the better for the work being done by those involved in these and other Southland restoration projects along the way, with planting and animal and plant pest control.

Our thanks again go to Environment Southland for their sponsorship of the bus costs.

Another day, visit the amazing Jo Ogier exhibition at the Eastern Southland Gallery and discover some of what was and potentially could be there in the future.

The SERN group gather at the O'Neills Bush carpark to hear the history of and the future plans for the lower Mataura floodplain.

Recent ES plantings between the small O'Neils Bush remnant and the Southern Scenic Route get a helping hand with clearance of grass by the attendees.

QEII Rep Jesse Bythell introduces John Somerville, who recently had an Open Space Covenant registered over a bush block and a Life of the Trees covenant on mature matai in pasture at Pine Bush.

The lunchtime gathering was addressed by Keith McRobie, GDC Parks Manager about the ongoing restoration work being done on the old landfill site below Hamilton Park.

Gay Munro and Chris Rance, Forest & Bird members, sit on the Lamont Memorial seat. Don and Margaret Lamont were the main drivers of the vision of restoring a forest on this site, a project that began in the early 2000's.

Willing workers helped to do planting maintenance.

Chris Rance, Southland Community Nurssery and Sally Dustan, Otatara Landcare Group checking out seedlings at the Pukerau Nursery.

Pukerau Nursery owners, James and Maree Holloway, explain their business is based on ecological good.

Thousands of ecosourced seedlings awaiting to help restore our native environments.

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Rural Women's group workday in the sun at Dipton Wetland!

A few of the group were out releasing plantings and doing the trap checks today. After all the rain and floods it was a good chance to see how things have fared. The results of recent bait refills were evident with a few dead possum seen too. For more details of future working bees, contact Ann Irving at Rural Women NZ