Hinewai — an ecological restoration project on Banks Peninsula

The 109 ha Hinewai block, ranging from 620 m a.s.l. to 210 m, was purchased in September 1987 by private funding, the Maurice White Conservation Trust. Some 42% of the land is under native forest and scrub ranging from red beech forest through kanuka seral scrub and forest, mixed second-growth broadleaved forest, to small areas of podocarp/broadleaved forest. The remainder is pasture, pasture reverting rapidly to shrubland of gorse, broom and kanuka, and dense mature gorse scrub.

The management policy underway involves control of feral goats and possums, cessation of stock grazing, establishment of a walking track system for management purposes and for public use, and detailed scientific monitoring of vegetational and faunistic changes. Largely for purposes of co-operating with the local authorities noxious weed policies, there will be some planting of seral species propagated from locally collected seed, and in the case of a few paddocks, grazing of sheep will be continued for up to three years.

Further land adjacent to Hinewai is to be purchased when and if it is offered for sale, the long term aim being to restore native vegetation across as much as possible of the whole catchment. Re-introduction of locally extinct fauna is also contemplated.

Information already obtained on vegetational dynamics and the practicalities of management are discussed in this case study.