Te Hoiere Project is a collaborative project which is working with the whole community to carry out landscape scale restoration projects to increase catchment health and put measures in place to prevent further degradation. TOTSWC is proud to support this project in an area where many of our members work, live, recreate and visit.

Top of the South Wood Council is working with the Project on five forestry innovation projects:

• A sediment loading study to establish a clear understanding of the current sediment levels in streams within specific forests in Te Hoiere prior to harvesting. This will serve as a critical baseline for future monitoring and management efforts and inform similar studies on other land uses in the area.
• A post-harvest riparian native planting project to establish and test a number of current options in post- harvest riparian management in Te Hoiere with the intention of identifying either the most successful – in terms of biodiversity and stream health – or the factors that contribute to the most successful restorative outcomes.
• A land transition study to identify owners who may want to transition areas within their property to another land use; understand where transitioning land may lead to better environmental and economic outcomes; and create an industry-led roadmap for landowners to effectively transition to alternative land uses, including funding and resources available.
• A research project aimed at investigating the exclusion of introduced ungulates – deer, pigs and goats – from forests in Te Hoiere and the potential restorative impacts this could have on indigenous flora and fauna, aquatic health and carbon sequestration.
• An access toolkit and forest database for researchers and monitoring teams to better engage with forestry owners throughout the catchment.

For more information on Te Hoiere Project see Te Hoiere Project.