A member of the group that secured Hadfield Clearing for the conservation estate says the transformation of the site has confirmed they made the right decision 20 years ago.
Former Nature Heritage Fund Committee member Gerry McSweeney has been in touch after seeing these before and after photos of the restored wetland and kahikatea forest in Abel Tasman National Park and praised the work undertaken by Project Janszoon, the Department of Conservation and volunteers.
“What you have achieved here confirms the wisdom of that 2006 decision,” he said.
In 2006, the Nature Heritage Fund purchased the 311-hectare Hadfield Farm for $2.6 million, using most of its annual conservation budget to protect the property from potential development. Gerry says it wasn’t an easy decision to give the Abel Tasman National Park priority because there were many other worthy conservation protection proposals competing for NHF support.
“What made Hadfield Clearing special was that it was lowland, coastal, had great restoration potential, had an enthusiastic DOC and public team wanting to lead the restoration and the family really wanted to secure its permanent protection.”
Kahikatea, or white pine, are New Zealand’s tallest trees and the 10 hectare remnant was one of the largest stands left in the Nelson Tasman region. However the wetland had been drained and gorse and blackberry were starting to invade.
Project Janszoon began restoring Hadfield Clearing in 2012. Restoration supervisor Helen Lindsay says it was a complicated restoration on many fronts. “The project overcame severe frosts, dry summers and heavy browsing from hares, deer and pigs, by adapting planting methods, using larger and less palatable species and intensifying animal control,” she says.
Fourteen years of restoration work later, around 34,000 native plants have been established and the site is steadily returning to life. Today, vegetation islands are expanding across the clearing and will eventually reconnect into a forest canopy. Wildlife has also responded, with pāteke/brown teal doing well and species such as spotless crake returning to the wetland.
Big thanks to volunteer groups like Forest and Bird, Golden Bay High School students, professional planter Rob Lewis and his team, Mike Crawford who began the planting and Helen Lindsay and her team of regular volunteers for all their hard work.
As part of the Tomorrow Accord, the Department of Conservation has committed to maintaining the site into the future.
The Nature Heritage Fund was established and funded by the Government 1990 to 2025 to legally protect privately-owned natural areas in NZ in partnership with landowners.
