Vibrant birdsong, long-tailed bats and a regenerating understory are returning to a small pocket of Western Southland native bush, thanks to a supportive community and dedicated group of locals known as the Tuatapere Predator Free Team.

Well known as the backdrop to Tuatapere's iconic domain the 160-hectare bush remnant, once part of uninterrupted beech and podocarp forests that stretched from Fiordland to the Catlins, is now surrounded by houses and farmland.

The Tuatapere Predator Free Team was formed in 2023 after an Environment Southland (ES) report identified the reserve as an important refuge for indigenous birds, fish, lizards and bats.

LISTEN: Tony Shore talks about the work of the Tuatapere Predator Free Team

Nationally threatened and at-risk plants were also identified along with important taonga including several century-old totara trees.

Tuatapere Predator Free Team member Maria Tipuna beside one of the Tuatapere reserve's 1000-year-old Totara trees. Photo: Supplied

However the report also pointed out threats to the reserve from not only introduced pest plant and animal species, but also people using it as a source of firewood and to dump rubbish and garden clippings in.

Predator Free Team member Glenys Steele said that while the reserve with its 'Tui Trails' were well used by the public, the bush was only considered to be in a fair condition at the time of the report.

She said once the team had signed a memorandum of understanding with the reserve's owners - the Department of Conservation and the Southland District Council, mahi began to grid the reserve into manageable blocks.

Because the fledging group only had a handful of members and as traps were expensive, they decided to concentrate their initial efforts on the closest block to town.

After several 'bush bashing sessions' - and with help from members of the Omaui Landcare Group - the first traps lines (using donated traps) were established in September 2023.

"Our [trapping] numbers were pretty amazing for the start," Steele said, with over 270 possums and a countless number of stoats, rats and mice caught.

"We have definitely made a huge difference in the first block," she said.

Tuatapere Predator Free Team member Glenys Steele maintains a trap line of 'mouse motels' in the reserve. Photo: Supplied

Predator Free Team president Tony Shore, who walks the lines up to 4-times a week with fellow member Jared Fluerty, said that while the reserve had an amazing array of plant species, what had astounded him most was the size and age of many totara and matai.

"A couple of these totaras are two to three metres thick and approximately 1000 years old [and] there are another three or four off track that are slightly larger."

There was also some pretty majestic silver beech in the block, with some of the large ones being in the vicinity of 500-years plus, he said.

However Shore had been disturbed to find up to a dozen big Matai and Totara trees that had been historically scarfed (a wedge-shaped cut made in preparation for felling).

"It's like 100-years ago that they were scarfed. That's illegal. You don't scarf trees and leave them. I don't know the reason for that," he said.

Shore said there was a good selection of native birds in the reserve including kakariki, kaka, falcon, kererū, fantail and grey warbler as well as silver eyes, tui, bellbirds and morepork.

"It's an important patch of bush, surrounded by farmland, that connects the migration routes of things like the kererū from Fiordland through to the Longwoods."

ES listening posts had also now confirmed the presence of long-tailed bats across the reserve, Shore said, but because they could fly up to 20kms to feed - their roost locations remained a mystery.

Tuatapere Predator Free Team president Tony Shore inspecting one of the group's new AT220 automatic traps. Photo: Supplied

Along with donated traps, the group now boasts 4 automated 'AT220' traps, which can automatically reset up to 100 times.

The group hopes that through further fundraising and grants, more automated traps can be bought and a contractor used to start actively trapping the remaining blocks.

CLICK HERE to find out more or to help the Tuatapere Predator Free Team.

LISTEN: Tony Shore talks about the work of the Tuatapere Predator Free Team

Tuatapere Reserve. Photo: Environment Southland