Bringing back the giants of the forest

A key part of our 500-year vision for Zealandia is a towering canopy of podocarps. Podocarps are Aotearoa New Zealand’s tallest trees, such as rimu, kahikatea, and tōtara.

While we generally let the forest regenerate by itself, each year, the Conservation team does some planting to facilitate the establishment of species that would not otherwise come back into the sanctuary, including podocarps and rare and threatened plant species.

Recently, we ‘released’ some of the planted podocarps along Te Māhanga Track and the wetland. This release involved strategic trimming and cutting around each podocarp to allow the trees to access more light. Podocarps, such as rimu, require a lot of light when growing, so we hope this will allow these special species to thrive!

Did you know kererū have a special role in dispersing some of these trees? Kererū are the only manu/bird remaining that can eat some large seeds, so without them, trees like mīro, matai, and tōtara would struggle to disperse.

Photo credit: Tōtara fruit by Allison Buchan