TIPU WAIĀRIKI

Friends of the Tarawera Trail are a collective of passionate volunteers working on the ecological restoration of the native forest surrounding the Tarawera Trail.

This project is working under the umbrella of the Tipu Waiāriki Charitable Trust.

Tarawera and its trail’s surrounding forest needs urgent attention, the forest is currently in a dire state, with biodiversity at severe risk of significant decline and birdlife almost non-existent.

This is a result of a combination of factors:

• Large amounts of invasive weeds spreading widely, smothering the native trees and causing canopy collapse in some areas.

• No possum, rat or wallaby pest control meaning key tree species are grazed and damaged, seedlings and saplings eaten eliminating forest understory preventing yforest regrowth

• No possum, rat or mustelid pest control allowing these pests to increase and prey on our native birds.

We will be working in full collaboration with Te Ara Kuiti a Tarawera (TAKAT) and the Department of Conservation.

Volunteer hours pulling and killing weeds, stopping the spread of invasive weeds down the trail into wider areas of native bush.

Once funds are raised possum and rat/mustelid traps will be purchased.

Plans will be developed to deal with large infestations of honeysuckle, this could involve contractors with specific access skills, helicopter use and large number of volunteer hours. Native planting may then be needed to restore the worst affected areas.