Education

What an amazing team at @mdoutdoorsnz!

A huge thank you to the team at MD Outdoors for supporting the Sanctuary through their Great Outdoor Quiz Night at The Boathouse, Nelson which raised an incredible $1,700+ for the Sanctuary! 🤗

Some of our amazing volunteers also joined in to show their support — a fantastic effort from everyone! And congratulations to Team Randy Rampage for taking out the win!

We’re incredibly grateful for the support of our community and everyone who helped make the night such a success. 🌳

Make sure you pop into @mdoutdoorsnz store in Nelson City for all your outdoor needs — their gear certainly comes in handy when exploring the Sanctuary!

🌿 Celebrating Our Incredible Volunteers 💚

At Brook Waimārama Sanctuary, our volunteers are at the heart of everything we do.

Every year, our incredible volunteers contribute more than 25,000 hours of volunteer mahi, helping with everything from fence repairs and pest control to monitoring, track maintenance, visitor experiences, field support, events, bird counts and countless jobs behind the scenes — even jumping into the moa suit!

But it’s not just their time and skills they generously share. Some of our volunteers also go the extra mile by providing in-kind donations, from cushions and beanies to homemade jams and other wonderful contributions that help support the Sanctuary in so many different ways.

Their contribution has a direct impact on our ability to provide a safe haven for native wildlife, protect and restore this beautiful ngahere, and create meaningful experiences for our community and visitors.

We are incredibly grateful for the passion, commitment, creativity and enthusiasm our volunteers bring to the Sanctuary.

Thank you to every volunteer who gives their time, gets stuck in and finds ways to help make a difference. The Sanctuary simply wouldn’t be the same without you.

Ever thought of volunteering, you can sign up today - www.brooksanctuary.org.nz/support-us/become-a-sanctuary-volunteer

Rare tree discovered in the Sanctuary

During our annual kākāriki karaka survey, Biodiversity Ranger Chelsea spotted a small raukawa sapling, a species not yet recorded in the Sanctuary. Biodiversity Ranger Henry accompanied Chelsea to the site and together they managed to locate several adult and juvenile plants. This find is significant as this species has become exceptionally rare in the region.

Raukawa is a tree whose large shiny leaves are delicious to possums and deer. Raukawa was recently moved from ‘Not Threatened’ to the threat category of ‘At Risk - Declining’. This reflects its increasing rarity of this species nationally, however, the threat status of the plant locally in eastern Nelson is probably quite worse.
Within the ranges surrounding the Sanctuary, raukawa is scarce. Where raukawa still does persist, it does so under constant threat of destruction.
The Sanctuary is free of pest mammals*, and in turn has become a refuge for historically common plants like orchids, mistletoes and palatable trees like raukawa.

The leaves are large, thick and glossy, and as juveniles, come in sets of three leaflets. The juvenile leaves are distinctively lobed/ deeply toothed. Once an adult, leaves are produced singly with an entire margin that undulates like a crinkled chip. Raukawa are both male and female at the same time, but not like most plants. Inflorescences(clusters of flowers) of raukawa contain a mixture of separate male and female flowers. This cleverly separates their sexes spatially which may help them to avoid self pollination.

Raukawa is what is called a facultative epiphyte. This means that it has the capacity to begin its life in a tree, in this case tree ferns like kātote and ponga. This ability once kept them out of reach of the giant moa. Eventually their root reaches the ground and then forms a trunk, at which point the raukawa slowly outgrows its host, becoming reasonably large.

This find embodies the natural wonder that is beneath the surface of the Sanctuary. And, the importance of the Sanctuary, not just for birds, but for plants, lizards, invertebrates and habitats and communities as a whole.

#nativeplants #rareplant