30/07/2026
Keeping the Barbarians at the Gate
Our 60ha hill block that towers over both the Transmission Gully motorway and our sculpture trail in the valley. It has been cleared of pines and a predator free fence built around it. We are re-establishing the original native bush cover, controlling invasive weeds (especially wilding pine), upgrading the fence to a standard that prevents rodents, and monitoring the progress of regenerating endemic species. Early days (3 years now) but results are encouraging - we started with a hillside of logging slash and already native flora is dominant.
Our idea is to have a corridor of native forest that extends from Paekākāriki Hill Rd to the top of our property which is 400m above that road. We have already planted (with help from Greater Wellington Regional Council) over 80,000 natives across our farmland to achieve that. The pine forests that encircle our land (Battle Hill, Fernhill and more) are packed with pigs, goats, deer, possums, rabbits, hares and more. The exclusion of these introduced species is the priority of our predator fence. No decent forest floor with those buggers around.
It’s a cool conservation project, come and see it sometime.
https://themorgans.co.nz/
[photo 1] Boyd and the boys starting the upgrade to our 3.5km predator proof fence. Big job.
[photo 2] The views from our Conservation Sanctuary are drop dead gorgeous – across Transmission Gully and our Sculpture Trail, Mana Island and out to D’Urville Island at the top of the South Island. A neat place to be doing conservation work.
