Tim Park (centre with hat) sharing Long Gully Bush Reserve's history with trustees. Photo: Sarah Wilcox
A nature-knows-best approach is bringing birdsong back to a large block of protected private land in Wellington.
The no-plant regeneration method that lets nature lead the way pioneered by Hugh Wilson in Akaroa's Hinewai Reserve is bearing fruit in Wellington's Long Gully Bush Reserve.
The first step was to fence off the land then rid it of grazers, Ōtari-Wilton Bush manager Tim Park told RNZ's Afternoons.
"Nature does heal itself by taking away threats like browsing animals, herbivores like possums and the weeds and then letting her sort it out, basically.
"We're really lucky - we've got seed sources nearby and really plentiful bird life. So, the birds are doing a lot of the hard work and the plants [are] regenerating naturally."
The most damaging grazers on the land originally were goats, deer and pigs, he said.
"Then work your way down through possums. And now we're trapping rats and stoats and things as well, so the really small stuff."
Once the weeds and pests were removed it was all about maintenance, he said.
"It's nonstop - you've got to keep the pressure on, otherwise things will just reinvade."
Long Gully Bush Reserve was steep land between Zealandia and Karori, he said, cleared for farming in the 1980s. Now protected by a Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenant, it was the largest piece of protected private land in Wellington.
The no-planting approach has several advantages, Park said. Allowing local seed stock to regenerate meant growing appropriate local plants, he said. It was essentially free also access to the land was difficult.
Eventually he hoped the Capital Kiwi Project would bring kiwi back to the reserve, although he suspected there were some there already.
"They've been seen quite a few times in South Karori and at the peak. We've probably already got them, actually."
He put this down to diligent trapping.
"We've been trapping for 20-odd years. Actually, we've had a remarkable dropoff of stoats and weasels right across the Wellington landscape."
