32 kilometres cleared in 1 day!

Update on the recent storm at Zealandia

Wellington's recent wild weather caused a bit of damage by bringing down trees across Zealandia Valley, tracks, and even our fence. Our team was inspecting the fence line as soon as it was safe. Several trees were cleared quickly, but one massive pine, delicately balanced on a fencepost, needed specialist support.

Huge thanks to the crew from Arb Innovation, who came straight over after a 4am start elsewhere, and carefully removed the tree with the help of a hiab lift. Once cleared, our very own Infrastructure Ranger Gary had the fence fixed in no time.

Meanwhile, 32km of tracks were checked and cleared in just one day (!) by our weekend rangers and ranger assistants. Some trees were torn apart and posed a Health & Safety risk, so our Infrastructure Team worked with the arborists to either trim or remove them this week.

Treefalls are one of the anticipated causes of a fence breach because they can create a ramp to allow introduced predators to get over the fence. Thanks to regular and frequent monitoring and help from the public, these treefalls were discovered early. However, each treefall still requires an urgent incursion response.

Our team has been busy setting traps, motion-sensor and thermal cameras, and even employing a rat detection dog, Rapu. They’ve found signs that a rat may have got in, so the team is ramping up detection and response efforts to protect the wildlife inside the sanctuary.

These moments remind us how vulnerable the valley is—and how powerful it is when people come together to care for it.

If you can, donating is the best way to support critical responses like this.