Conservation Week was 5-11 September 2022. BHMET set out an ambitious target: to put 20,000 native plants into the ground during the week. With the help of corporate and individual volunteers, we beat our target!
The focus was to plant the urban fringe - the 20m strip behind the residential area. This is a great win-win-win: ICC wins because they won’t need to keep the strip cleared of gorse; the residents win because they have native bush all the way to their back fence; and our birds win by expanding the amount of native habitat.
In addition, a large area of scrubby gorse and bracken was cleared at Gunpit - including a large area cleared or gorse by a local resident. This was designated as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee planting event on Saturday 10th September which saw generous support from Trees That Count and Te Tapu o Tane. Sadly, Her Majesty died just a couple of days before the event and so it became the Queen’s Memorial planting event.
20,000 plants is a remarkable achievement and BHMET could not have done this without the many volunteers that supported us from: Te Ao Marama Inc, South Port NZ, The Building Information Group; WSP Invercargill; Environment Southland, Department of Conservation, Invercargill City Council, The NZ Abalone Company, Awarua Whanau Services, St Teresa’s School, Bluff School. Thank you!
Posted on: 21 October 2022
The children from Hedgehope School have been learning about the environment so their teacher Lisa McCraken, thought it would be a great idea to bring them to Motupohue to meet with the BHMET. The children were very interested in the bird life that live on the hill and the trapping system that helps keep them safe. Trust Chairperson, Estelle Leask, spoke to them about the work the trust does and showed them the trap system and how the traps operate, they were facinated to learn how many rats one pair of breeding rats produce.
Posted on: 4 July 2021
Southland Community Nursery along with the Bluff Hill Motupohue Environment Trust joined forces on the 1st may 2021 to ‘return the treasured native plant - pūnui/būnawe to Motupōhue’. It was an historic day - returning this taonga species to mainland New Zealand where they once thrived, but had been lost due to introduced pests.
Posted on: 2 May 2021
Despite the rain, some fabulous people turned up to plant some baby trees at Greenpoint.
Thanks to the Invercargill City Council and Department of Corrections for preparing the site.
Posted on: 12 October 2020
2020 has made for an interesting year. With so much uncertainity in the world, we are so very lucky that New Zealand has decided to keep some of its focus on conservation efforts and we would like to acknowledge that massive difference that these organisations have made towards Te Korowai Whakahou Native Plant Nursery!
- Te Runanga o Awarua donated $10, 000 towards development of the nursery site.
- Blacks Fastners have made another amazing contribution towards the nursery, being the nails/screws that will hold the structure together!
- Kennards Hire-Equip for their generous contribution to the work being done
- Osborn Engineering for being there when we needed them! You have saved us hours of work and sweat!
Posted on: 19 August 2020
