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FENCE CONSTRUCTION COMMENCING!

We are thrilled to let you know that today Point Bush Ecological Restoration Trust Chairperson Gary Dennison and Fencing Contractor Jamie Wratt confirmed commencement of our Predator Fence thanks to our Trust receiving the funding required to begin construction!Works will begin on MONDAY 16th November - starting along the top boundary of our Ecosanctuary at the Whitehorse end of Centrewood Park Road!We are absolutely delighted to be able to share this good news with you - and will be posting reg...

Bio Blitz on Labour Weekend 2020

“A BioBlitz is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species  within a designated area.  Groups of scientists, naturalists and volunteers conduct an intensive  field study over a continuous time period“   Our first official BioBlitz was set up at the Ecosanctuary site last weekend with volunteers venturing forth, armed with clipboards, notebooks and I-Naturalist NZ Apps, headed  to a designated area in the Ecosanctuary ...

Open Day 2020

We hosted our first Open Day at our newly opened visitor centre on the 11th October - the aim of the day was to showcase the work of our Trust and to also celebrate the fantastic environmental activities and groups in the region who are also working towards fantastic outcomes for our DistrictWe had a number of displays from community groups and want to thank all the volunteers from those different groups who came along to share their knowledge and time -  Glenda and Mark from Waimate T...

Bio Blitz - Sunday 25th October

SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER9.30am - 1pmCo-hosted by The Eco Project - Waimate and Point Bush EcosanctuaryThe aim of a Bio Blitz is to record the biodiversity found ... It is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species within a designated location and time period as possible. Anyone interested is welcome to join of all ages and bring your smartphone (if you have one, totally fine if you don't, still come along!) as records will be made using the I-Naturalist app Meet at our Point Bush Eco...

OPEN DAY AT POINT BUSH ECOSANCTUARY

Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 10 AM – 3 PMFREE ENTRY!Drop in to our Point Bush Ecosanctuary Visitor Centre to meet our Trustees, Volunteers, find out more about our 250 year vision + our wallaby, pest & predator proof fence Sausage Sizzle; Coffee & Tea; Rain or Shine! Bring your walking shoes or bike and enjoy using the tracks and trails!MORE DETAILS HERE!...

Kahikatea Seedling Rescue

As a second part of Sunday’s session (see our blog post on Banana Passionfruit vine control work), volunteers set out to rescue our precious Kahikatea seedlings that have grown below the mature ancient trees here at the Ecosanctuary.Armed with trowels, small potting containers and soil our volunteers carefully set about uplifting and transplant 2 – 4 cm tall Kahikatea seedlings that have appeared at the base of the giant parent trees at the start of the Whitehorse Walkway.     In t...

Invasive Vine “Seek & Destroy Mission” for Banana Passionfruit

With weather conditions perfect at the weekend, we would like to extend a big THANK YOU to a group of volunteers who spent a very satisfying Sunday afternoon searching for and dealing to clumps of  “Banana Passion Fruit” or Botanical Name  Passiflora ‘Tacsonia’ subgroup Family  Passifloraceae (passionfruit) found wound around bushes and climbing high up into branches of tall trees.   Although this plant has beautiful ornate flowers and delicious edible fruit, enj...

"Kids Looking At Leaves"

 “Kids Looking at  Leaves”  fun with leaves activityBring along your favourite shape or coloured leaves  - but do ask before picking!    WEDNESDAY 15th July                                                   Time:       10 am – 12 middayVenue:      Waimate Museum Adults to accompany kidsSh...

Community Events with The Eco Project Waimate

We had a great response to our invite to come along last Friday evening for a Social get together and some 25 interested volunteers got together for a catch up session.   We are currently working on suggestions for upcoming  Walks, Talks and Workshops  that will be advertised out through the Eco Project Waimate Facebook page, News & Views and our Point Bush Ecosanctuary website.Ann Dennison one of our Point Bush Ecosanctuary trustees is also a founding member and organiser of The ...

Kōwhai - The Golden Shade of Winter

I was out walking this week and enjoying the brilliant winter sunshine when a noisy chorus of  tūī and Korimako (bellbirds) closeby attracted my attention!  Looking around to see where all the bird chatter was coming from I was amazed to see the excitement was coming from several Kōwhai trees that had  a great many birds engaged in a frenzy of feeding off the  bright  yellow flowers hanging like bunches of golden bells.  It seemed incredible to see Kōwhai trees ...

Upcoming Department of Conservation Workshops!

BIRD COUNT  & TRAPPING WORKSHOPS organised by Department of Conservation Courses (NZQA certification) Tim Exton - DOC Community Ranger has been in touch to  confirm that courses planned prior to  covid 19 lockdown are now going ahead and we are pleased to post information on our website of the two courses and how to book.  Please note there are limited spaces so do get your application in asap.  The venue for the courses is to be held at the Peel Forest Outdoor Centre, P...

IMPORTANT NOTICE: NIGHT CLOSURE OF TRACKS

>>> WALLABY NIGHT SHOOTING <<<***UPDATED 11 OCTOBER 2020*** Attention all users of POINT BUSH ECOSANCTUARY tracks and trails for Cyclists, Mountain Bikes and Walkers - including the Whitehorse Walkway, Whitehorse Big Easy and Mountain bike trails Please be aware Hunters (with permission) will be active across the entire property to night shoot Wallaby on the POINT BUSH hill bloc - these hunters will be active FROM MONDAY 1ST JUNE 2020 until FURTHER NOTICE ALL PUBLIC ACCESS will...

Walking The Whitehorse Big Easy - An Autumn Afternoon Wandering

Living in Singapore there was continuous year round heat and humidity with only seasonal monsoons for variation.  I’ve never seen rain quite like it since!  Huge deluges interspersed with cracking lightening and thunder making it one of the world’s highest lightening strike countries.  In a matter of minutes the deep Storm Water Ditches ( built purposefully all over the Island for just such times) would rapidly fill to the brim and rivers of water that once used to drown stree...

The Wallaby Problem... How This Pest Is Running Amok

The short version of this is.... Wallabies are running amok!With more of us getting out walking the tracks under L3, it is evident from the very many well defined wallaby tracks that there is a lot of activity going on in the wider region, and certainly we haven't escaped this in the Ecosanctuary!   Many of you have reported back to us that they have sighted several bold wallabies in daylight hours calmly hopping around the hills! The article says it all and the alarm bells are well an...

Autumn Updates & "Forest Bathing"

Autumn at Point Bush Ecosanctuary - on the Whitehorse WalkwayToday's early morning sun was already hot and promising a pearl of a day!   By 11 a.m. it was absolutely stunning;  still calm with the Autumn sun slanting through the trees casting deep dark shadows on the forest floor with shafts of golden sunlight piercing through the overhead  canopy leaves  framed by  patches of azure blue sky.The start of  the 1.1 km Whitehorse Walkway commences over a style-fen...

Upcoming Events - Summer 2019/2020

Thursday 12th December  7 to 8 pm at Waimate Museum Success & Progress – Looking ahead to 2020 Come along and join us for a Social hour plus plans for future Talks, Trips, Topics for 2020 including proposed (pool-car) visits to Orokanui EcoSanctuary, Riccarton Bush, Conway Bush and more. Sunday 15th December   8.30 a.m.  at Studholme Bush Scenic Reserve       Native Bird Survey in the Bush  Come along and be involved in a Bird Survey and find out how to ...

Totara rescue - Volunteer day October 2019

Plenty of sunshine and warm spring conditions meant we had an excellent day with our group of volunteers who came along to help with our latest Totara seedling rescue operation! With such a beautiful day to be out amongst the trees here at the Ecosanctuary site, and the small but might army of volunteers, we were able to not only rescue one species with our incredible Totara, but also precious Kahikatea seedlings - we can’t say a big enough thank you to everyone who came along to help out, len...

October Events

Make sure to add these to your calendar and join us, we would love to see you there...Friday 11th OctoberFree public talk & workshop7pm to 8pmWaimate MuseumCome along and listen to two presentations - one thanks to Rob Smith on “Cute birds, weird plants and nasty wallabies, QEII National Trust and what we are doing about them.” Plus a workshop on how to make Predator Tracking Tunnels to monitor what predators to our native birds are hanging around your place!Sunday 20th OctoberTorara Seedlin...

Whitehorse Walkway Tour - Spring 2019

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for a tour of the Whitehorse Walkway and Link Track! We had a great time chatting about Waimate's incredible natural history and the future of our biodiversity.Andrew Oliver and Gary Dennison took a keen group along the Whitehorse Walkway (from Point Bush Road), while Ann Dennison and Geoff Leinert provided a tour of the Link Track (which begins at the Whitehorse Monument)...

Growing an Ecosanctuary

Spring and planting time is here!   However, we have to be patient as plans to plant out the Point Bush Ecosanctuary area in natives is programmed for 2 to 3 year’s away.  However, the selection of native species for propagation is now! Gary and I met with local Headford Propagators Nursery Owners Grant and Roybnne Hayman last week at their Nursery to talk through plans for future planting programme of some 50K native seedlings to enhance the existing established native bush from the...

KAREAREA (Fast flying bird of prey)

Transcript of Colin Dore's presentation - Friday 13th September 2019  The KAREAREA(Fast flying bird of prey) "Some of my reasons, for being so passionate about the Karearea, apart from its hunting ability; it is also close to being on the endangered species list. I have three very vivid memories that I have experienced an associated with that have helped me focus on this magnificent bird of prey  This is a bird that my father bought one home 60 years ago having shot it while on a ...

Totara rescue with Waimate High School

On the wettest day of the past few weeks - perfect for trees mind you - a group of Waimate High School students came to help with a programme of Totara (Podocarpus totara) rescue we have been running since 2015! Totara take over 100 years to reach maturity, growing to approximately 30 metres tall, and living for over 1000 years - making them one of the longest living tree species in New Zealand’s forests. Point Bush Ecosanctuary has pockets of mature Totara trees (who could be anywhere around ...

Spring 2019 - Wilding Pine Control

This might not look like much, but it represents a big leap forward towards our vision.For those walking or mountain bike riding this week up the Whitehorse Track or on the Whitehorse Big Easy, they will have seen a group of Foresters at work on the hill top removing the (regrowth) of Pine Trees as a step towards eventual planting this area in Native Bush. A team of 7 x Foresters from Dunedin (DM Holding) have been working their way through gorse and along tracks to reach these young pine t...

September Events

September is nearly here, and our intent is to hold topical Talks, Walks & Workshops on a regular basis and to kick off we have a couple of dates coming up in September you may want to attend or participate in! Despite nature’s drenching (of much needed rain I hasten to add), cutting off SH1 for a time and causing havoc... we were delighted that so many of you made it to the Waimate Event Centre for the Presentation by Ourselves and Andrew Oliver at the ...

Pest and Predator Control - Tips from the Department of Conservation

Predator Free NZ 2050.....It's quite a challenge as we all know, but there are more and more volunteer groups getting involved in some form of monitoring and trapping...so yes...if we all deal with our own "backyard"...it just might be possible to reach this target of NZ predator free. (Click the link to learn more!)  So...Gary and I just attended a Free DOC run Workshop in Geraldine "Introduction to predator trapping ".  Apparently this was the 4th Workshop in as many months and was r...