Successful project profiles

Maybil Partnership

Lesley Powell and Kathleen Bellamy three years ago embarked on a major project to regenerate their Wellsford property.

When Lesley and Kathleen bought their 140 hectares Tomarata property in 2005 they could see it had a lot of potential. They set up a beef breeding and fattening unit on their property and were keen to improve the condition of their land and farm in an environmentally sustainable way.

Fencer Russell Gordon (left) and Landowner, Lesley Powell (right) building a fence to stop stock getting into an area of native bush on Lesley’s and Kathleen’s Tomarata property.

A section of forest Lesley and Kathleen fenced-off from stock in 2008. Browsing cattle have eaten most of the native vegetation, which now will have a chance to recover.

The property was a former dairy farm and stock had been able to access the streams and adjoining bush which had damaged stream banks and forest and degraded water quality.

In the past three years, with help from local schools and neighbours, they have fenced off more than 5.3km of stream and planted more than twelve hundred trees on their property.

The project has been given a boost with three grants from ARC's Environmental Initiatives Fund (EIF) and funding from Department of Conservation's Biodiversity Fund and the Rodney District Council's Nature Heritage Fund.

About 26 hectares of the land is covered in native bush and under Rodney District Council's district plan most of the 26 hectares is classified as a significant natural area (SNA).

Lesley and Kathleen's five-year plan includes fencing off the streams and bush to protect the waterways and to allow natural bush to revegetate. Planting the ‘gaps' between the areas of forest so that bush corridors are re-established is part of their ten-year plan.

Project achievements

• Vegetation, waterways and conservation fencing map (314.2 KB PDF)
   
• In 2005, Lesley and Kathleen fenced 2.88km of stream, which was the entire length of one of the main streams. This has protected the waterway from stock and improved water quality and the habitat for aquatic fauna, including the many eel, fresh water crayfish and mussels that live in the stream.
• In May 2006, as part of the Trees for Survival Programme, 50 Birkenhead Primary School parents and students planted more than 500 trees on the property linking together two forest fragments and creating a bush corridor.
  This has created an additional habitat for the wide variety of bird species originating from the nearby SNA, including fantail, kingfisher, tui, harrier hawk and especially the native wood pigeon which is endangered.
• In 2006 and 2007 a further 3.1kms of fencing was completed along the length of the second major stream on the property and around an area of native bush. The fencing protects 13.8ha of forest which falls within the SNA as well as the riparian margin.
• In 2007 with the help of students from the Albany Primary School more of the land was replanted with native plants and trees. This has enabled re-vegetation of fenced-off riparian margins and linked up more of the forest fragments.
• In March 2008 a further 1.5km of fencing has just been completed which will protect 3.5ha of regenerating native bush. Albany Primary School will be visiting the property again in August 2008 to plant more trees.