Forest and Bird Aotearoa-New Zealand

Forest & Bird is New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organisation — protecting wildlife and wild places, on land and in the sea.

Since 1923 Forest & Bird has played a key role in preserving New Zealand’s environment and native species. We’ve helped establish conservation protection for a third of our country’s land mass. We work to protect and enhance habitat to keep threatened species such as the kakapo, kiwi, takahe, Maui’s dolphins and kokako from becoming extinct.

Our society has grown to 80,000 members and supporters nationwide. Members also engage with local and regional councils to be a voice for Nature in local and regional planning forums and raise awareness in their communities about conservation and environmental issues.

The responsibility for protecting Nature and our environment will one day pass to our children. Forest & Bird is developing a new generation of nature lovers and conservation leaders through our children’s club, Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC).

KCC is the place for Forest & Bird’s younger generation of conservationists between the ages of 5-13 years. Regional KCC coordinators arrange in-person activities all across the country to explore Nature and help with projects like habitat restoration, tree planting, creating lizard gardens, or making nesting boxes for little blue penguins.

‘Bird of the Year’

‘Bird of the Year’ – ‘Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau’ is a yearly competition run by Forest & Bird. It is a fun and lively competition that helps to raise awareness around the fragile state of our native species many of which are threatened with extinction.

This time the karure or Chatham Island black robin was elected ‘Bird of the Year’. With the help of Don Merton, a conservation pioneer and one time resident of Upper Hutt, this tiny bird was brought back from the brink of extinction. With only 5 birds surviving anywhere in the world, in 1980 Don and his team used innovation and determination to save the black robin. Today there are hundreds of birds thriving on the Chathams and elsewhere.

Forest & Bird Upper Hutt

Closer to home, our busy local Upper Hutt Forest & Bird branch committee and members organise and carry out restoration projects in our own community. We’re a friendly group of people who care passionately about New Zealand’s unique natural environment and we want to ensure that our local natural taonga are protected for future generations.

Forest & Bird Upper Hutt has 200+ members who meet at various times to carry out conservation work in our city. Tuesday mornings we are busy at the shade house and potting shed located behind the Upper Hutt recycling depot on Park Street. At this nursery site a wide variety of native trees are propagated and grown on from locally sourced seeds.

Each year during winter our teams plant out more than 4000 of these trees in our communities to create and enhance the native bush. Members meet regularly to provide ongoing care for the trees we plant to make sure they thrive and grow into healthy native bush.

The fourth Tuesday evening of each month the Upper Hutt branch of Forest & Bird holds its monthly branch meeting. Guest speakers present on a range of interesting conservation topics and everyone enjoys catching up over supper.

Pest Free Upper Hutt

Our local branch of Forest & Bird and Upper Hutt City Council support a city wide network of pest eradication. Rats, stoats, weasels and possums prey on native birds, insects and lizards and also damage the bush which can cause biodiversity loss. The Pest Free team area co-ordinators work with groups of trappers in suburbs to provide traps, lures and advice on trapping. The numbers of pests have reduced significantly and the bird song in the bush is increasing.

Not all local pests are animals. Forest & Bird and Upper Hutt City Council also support the Old Man’s Beard eradication team which works to ‘cut and paste’ this pest plant and other invasive species such as Jasmine and Pampas Grass. These damaging non-native species literally choke the bush, collapse the canopy, kill native trees and take over habitat.

Want to know more? Keen to get involved?

For additional information on Forest & Bird including how you can become a member check out these contacts:

Forest & Bird – Te reo o te taiao:  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/

Forest & Bird Upper Hutt FB:  https://www.facebook.com/ForestandBirdUpperHutt

Forest & Bird Upper Hutt: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/branches/upper-hutt

A “thank you” to Mary Beth Taylor for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

19/10/26