The dawn chorus is returning to a remote Fiordland valley, considered one of the National Park's most fertile places, thanks to the efforts of the Hollyford Conservation Trust, its volunteers, supporters and local Rūnanga.

LISTEN TO LINDSAY WILSON

The Hollyford Conservation Trust (Trust) was set up in June 2014 with the aim of establishing a 2,600 hectare 'mainland island' sanctuary in the lower Hollyford Valley.

Trust manager Lindsay Wilson said the valley stood out because it offered a whole bunch of really productive ecosystems, all in the one place, which would have traditionally feed huge numbers of birds, invertebrates and lizards.

Hollyford Conservation Trust manager Lindsay Wilson. Photo: Brent Beaven

The area, with its river, fertile podocarp forest, lagoons and large dune system, was also an important mahinga kai/food gathering area for early Māori who travelled the pounamu trail and had settlements at Martin's Bay.

However when the Trust started its project 10 years ago, that same productivity was increasingly feeding very high numbers of rats, stoats and possoms, Wilson said.

"The birds have taken a hammering... Robins and Mohua and Kiwi had gone... and [possums] were starting to really impact on those vulnerable species like Rata, Mistletoe and Fuchsia."

"[However] a lot of wetland birds like fernbirds and bittens were still there."

Meanwhile heavy browsing by deer had reduced the understory to a very small number of species, with all the tasty things like five finger and broadleaf gone, he said.

"And what you don't see is regeneration of a lot of your canopy species... so you won't see a Rata or a kāmahi sort of knee high... it is a huge problem."

Martins Bay/Lake McKerrow (Whakatipu Waitai) Photo: Satoshi Yamamoto

"But there was [also] huge potential to restore it."

Wilson said a lot of the landowners, who own sections within the national park, had seen the demise of bird life in their lifetime and were really enthusiastic about restoring it back to what it was.

The Trust initially set up an intensive pest control programme, laying a network of stoat traps and rat bait stations over 3,000 hectares of the easiest and most fertile part of the valley.

They also worked in partnership with the Department of Conservation (DoC) who conducted an aerial 1080 operation.

"[It was] very effective at actually knocking the possum down to low numbers... so that was a really big help."

"Then we established this really intense 100x100 metre grid of killing devices," Wilson said.

In 2021 the Trust used Jobs for Nature funding to add a further 100kms of track, effectively expanding the stoat control programme to around 12,000 hectares.

"So now we've had 10 years of intensive sustained control holding those bad guys down to low numbers, and the place has just bounced back phenomenally," Wilson said.

"I think we are in a really good place... we're probably at, I'd like to say, seven [out of ten]."

"Our Chairman had 46 Kaka in one tree by his house recently... [and] we've got flocks of Kererū back, so the transformation has just been phenomenal."

"We've reintroduced [South Island] Robins/Kakaruai, they're doing really well."

"People come through who haven't been there for 10-15 years, and they all comment, wow you've actually got a dawn chorus again."

"And our big ambition is to reintroduce Kiwi, with Tokoeka in the future," Wilson said.

"We are also looking at expanding the Hollyford project up the Kaipo River further, to include some whio/Blue Duck habitat."

The efforts of the neighbouring Big Bay Awarua Conservation Trust have also complimented the Trust's work.

It now effectively mades 14,000 hectares of continuous managed forest, Wilson said.