Our 500-YEAR JOURNEY OF RESTORATION
We believe it will take 500 years for the restoration of the sanctuary valley. This is based on:
- Removing exotic trees like pine and replacing them with native vegetation so that more natural soil composition and processes can result.
- Forest giants like rātā, rimu and miro are rare or missing. It will be a long time before the small trees being planted now reach maturity and natural regeneration of these species is occurring.
The restoration of native forest in the sanctuary valley will provide habitat for the re-establishment of wildlife species that have disappeared. This is a mutually beneficial relationship as several of our most important tree species (such as tawa and miro) rely almost entirely on birds for transport of their seed and others rely on birds and lizards for pollination.
Our ultimate restoration goal is to create self-sustaining ecosystems representative of the pre-human state that existed in New Zealand approximately 1000 years ago. We aim to create a fenced safe haven as free as possible of non-native species, in which we can:
- Re-establish wild populations of representative fauna and flora and restore indigenous habitats.
- Restore the indigenous character of the valley.
- Get key natural processes such as species dispersal and gene-flow functioning once again.
-Gain knowledge and methodologies that can be applied elsewhere.
-Contribute to national recovery programmes.