Seed Islands going from strength to strength

Our seed island project, funded by Lotteries, is going brilliantly. We’re planting ‘seed islands’ of fruit and berry-bearing trees in natural clearings in the mānuka-kānuka shrublands on the Waikereru Hills.

The idea is to attract the birds, who eat the berries and fruit, wrap the seeds up in packets of nitrogen, fly around the hills, poop everywhere and plant the trees for us. We don’t have to pay them, so this is a cheap and easy way to speed up the regeneration of bio-diverse native forest in highly erodible hill country - for carbon, erosion control, cleansing waterways, biodiversity gains and other wonders.

And it’s working! Here are the reports to prove it.

• Seed Islands Progress Report - Dec 2023 (PDF)
• Pest Control & Species Summary - Jul 2023 - Jan 2024 (PDF)
• Year 2 planted seed islands - Milestones 3 & 4 Progress report (PDF)
• Five-Minute Bird Counts - Dec 2023 / Jan 2024 (PDF)