Kia ora <<First Name>>,
In June this year it was five years since the Hollyford Conservation Trust was established, and we feel we have come a long way and achieved a lot in that time. Birdlife in the Lower Hollyford Valley has returned to the Valley via sustained pest control, and the forest canopy is flourishing with greatly reduced numbers of possums.
Our Annual Report is now out and I'd invite you to read what we have achieved over the last year.
We'd also like to invite you to our Annual Stakeholder Meeting at Martins Bay on the 11th October - we hope you can make it.
I would like to thank all the Hollyford landowners, stakeholders and supporters for your continued support for this project and also for your donations and financial contributions. They are greatly appreciated. If you have friends who would like to be added to our mailing list then please let us know or they can sign up here.
We would like to welcome Vanessa Horwell to the team, who has replaced Michael Pullar as the Hollyford Conservation Trust's Project Manager.
We would love to hear any feedback you have on the project. As a community-led initiative, the Trust represents you as our stakeholders and supporters. If there are ways you'd like to get more involved, feedback on what we could be doing better or ideas on ways to extend our project, please let us know.
Please read on below about these and more.
Kind regards,
Ron Anderson
Chairman
Hollyford Conservation Trust
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Annual Report 2018/19
The Hollyford Conservation Trust Annual Report for year ending 31 March 2019 is now out. It's been another great year for the Trust, with highlights being the progress made with our annual bird surveys, and the release of locally extinct South Island robins / kakaruai back into Martins Bay in April this year.
 We hope you can find the time to read our Annual Report and find out what we have achieved over the last year. Click on the link below or email us at info@hollyfordconservationtrust.org.nz for a hard copy.
Hollyford Conservation Trust
Annual Report 2018/19
Click here to view.
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Annual Stakeholder Gathering
5.30pm, Friday 11th October 2019
Martins Bay Lodge
We hope you will be able to make it to our Annual Stakeholder Gathering which will take place at the Whitebaiter's Ball, kindly hosted by Hollyford Walks at their Martins Bay Lodge.
This will be a good chance to meet up with friends, neighbours and stakeholders, and share our progress, vision and ideas. We would love to get feedback from you on the project and answer any questions you may have.
We hope you can stay afterwards for a drink and a bite to eat, and celebrate the start of the whitebait season at the Whitebaiters' Ball. Hollyford Walks provide some refreshments, if you have something you would like to contribute you can drop it off at the lodge earlier in the day and they will cook/prepare it. BYO drinks.
All welcome.
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Introducing our new Project Director
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 Vanessa Horwell started in the role of Project Director in June, replacing Michael Pullar who has stepped down. Vanessa has a science and planning background, and a life-long passion for conservation and the outdoors.
She lives in Te Anau with her husband and young family, and is enjoying being part of this ambitious project in this very special part of Fiordland. Vanessa's interests include tramping, sea kayaking, gardening and travelling the world.
We wish to thank Michael for all his hard work over the last four and half years. His passion and motivation for the project and his ability to get stuff done is evident in the success of the project. Michael has also volunteered many hours down at Martins Bay for which we are grateful for. Michael has agreed to (re)join the Trust in December as a co-opted Trustee.
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E arlier in the year a founding population of 151 kakaruai / South Island robins were released at Martins Bay. There were three translocations, with rangatahi (young Māori) from Ngāi Tahu's 'Te Ara Whakatipu' programme helping to release some of the birds.
The robin breeding season starts in August, which is a bit earlier than other native birds. We have undertaken two bait station fills in the release area, and also have the A24 rat traps in operation to reduce rodent numbers and give the birds the best chance at successful breeding.
Quite a few robins have been spotted in recent trips to Martins Bay, and a formal monitoring trip will be undertaken later in the year so we can see whether any juveniles have fledged. If you see any robins when you are in the area please let us know!
You can download a robin bird call onto your phone which will bring them in closer. The adult birds are all banded, whereas the fledglings aren't, making it easier to identify the babies.
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 2019 is reported to be the largest seeding event in New Zealand's forests in over 40 years, an event dubbed a 'mega-mast'. Forest seeding, or masting, provides a bonanza of food for native species but also fuels rodent and stoat plagues. The Department of Conservation (DoC) is underway with its biggest ever predator control programme- named the Battle for our Birds - targeting rats, stoats and possums using aerial 1080 dropped over approximately one million hectares or 12 per cent of conservation land throughout New Zealand.
The Hollyford Valley is included in the proposed treatment area, however is fourth in line out of the sites chosen in Fiordland National Park. This means the bird breeding season will be well underway before the proposed operation is started.
In our latest rodent monitoring round in July rats were tracking at 58% across the project area - this is of major concern. As a result of the high rat tracking results, we undertook a full bait station operation over all of our 2300 stations using the bait Pindone, in an aim to bridge the gap and provide protection for native bird species during breeding. We will monitor how effective this bait station work has been to see if further measures are required before the Battle for our Birds operation.
Thanks to Pub Charity and Otago Community Trust for providing funding for this pest control operation, and of course to our regular donors and supporters.
 
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Trustees visit Te Tauraka Waka a Māui marae
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The Hollyford Conservation Trust was honoured to be invited by Makaawhio Rūnanga to Te Tauraka Waka a Māui marae at Bruce Bay on the West Coast in August. We learnt about the history of Makaawhio Rūnanga, and their tipuna/ancestors, including rangatira / chief Tūtoko who lived in Martins Bay in the 1800s with his family. On the Sunday we had the opportunity to go down to the Makaawhio River to hunt for the rare and highly prized mineral aotea, which is only found in this river. Thanks to Makaawhio, and to Kara, Rachael and Caleb for hosting us and sharing your knowledge and hospitality.
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 Are you keen to help out with the project? There are a number of ways you could get involved:
- Volunteer in the field - you'll need solid experience with monitoring, trapping or species work, a good level of backcountry experience and high level of fitness tramping with a full pack for 7-8 hours a day;
- Help out with administration / office work - from general paperwork to data entry and GIS, there are a number of ways you could help out the Trust;
- Photos - if you have some great photos we could use on our website, publications and in the calendar then please send them our way!
- Ragwort biocontrol - if you're a regular down at Martins Bay you could do regular checks on the ragwort to see if you can find any ragwort plume moths or Ragwort flea beetles. These biocontrol agents were released earlier this year at the Lodge end of the airstrip (this is the best place to look for them!), and we are keen to see if they have established. See the links below on how to identify these insects:
We would love to hear from anyone who is keen to be involved. Please get in touch with Vanessa at info@hollyfordconservationtrust.org.nz. Let us know any ideas you have about the project as well.
We also now have a Facebook page, which is a good way to keep updated with latest news.
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In the last five years we have made significant progress towards our goals of saving the birds and saving the bush. Finally achieving our first translocations of robins into the project area was a great milestone.
Looking forward, we need to establish whether the robin translocation has been sucessful, and then we can start looking at reintroducing other species previously present in the area, such as kiwi or mōhua. In consultation with DOC and iwi, translocation plans will be developed, which can then be used to consult stakeholders and supporters.
Translocations are costly and take a great deal of time to organise, so significant funding will need to be secured. Our vision is to protect, enhance and restore all native flora and fauna for the enjoyment of all, today and for generations well into the future. We thank everyone who has provided assistance towards the realisation of this goal.
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Support the Hollyford Conservation Trust
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 If you would like to support the work we do in the Lower Hollyford Valley, donations would be gratefully received, and can either be deposited to our bank account: 031355 0801215 00 using reference 'Donation', or donated via our Givealittle page through the link below.
Every dollar donated goes directly towards protecting the Lower Hollyford’s native flora and fauna.
The Hollyford Conservation Trust was established to protect and enhance native flora and fauna in harmony with cultural, social and recreational values at Martins Bay, Lower Hollyford Valley.
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