Wairere Mahi project connecting whānau to te taiao

Mohi Korohina, left, and Wiremu Johnstone.

The Wairere Mahi restoration project operated by Ngāti Hinerangi isn’t just about looking after the environment – it’s also about looking after the waiora (wellbeing) of its people and the legacy of their tūpuna.

Hinerangi Vaimoso, of Ngāti Hinerangi, says the predator control project on the western side of the Kaimai Ranges was started in 2021, after the iwi reached Treaty settlement, and as a result more and more iwi members are feeling connected with te taiao, the whenua and their whakapapa.

“We’ve gone from having whānau who had never been to Wairere Falls to whānau who now feel deeply connected,” says Hinerangi.

“And the comments came really quickly, too – birds we had not seen for a long time, we’re now seeing them and hearing them again.”

It takes an hour and a half to walk into the Te Tuhi project area, so the team stay in the ngahere for a few nights while checking the traplines.

Wairere Mahi’s restoration project, between Wairere Falls and State Highway 29, is targeting possums, rats and mustelids to restore the mauri of about 1000 hectares of sacred whenua, including land returned to Ngāti Hinerangi and public conservation land.

In September, via Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust, the project received $40,000 over two years from Waikato Regional Council’s Environmental Initiatives Fund (EIF) to help fund the field labour required to service and monitor bait stations and trap lines.

Project manager Mohi Korohina says getting the EIF funding is testament to the hard work that was undertaken with Jobs for Nature funding to cut the bait and trap lines through untouched bush.

In the main project area, at Te Tuhi, a team of eight kaimahi put in 968 bait stations and 270 Sentinal traps across an approximately 60-kilometre network.  

Wiremu Johnstone with one of the Sentinel possum traps near the Wairere Falls track.

A hut was flown in by the Department of Conservation so the team could stay in the ngahere, otherwise it would have taken them an hour and half to walk in every day before work even got started. 

“It is thick up there,” says Mohi, who led the team, many of who had returned to the rohe from overseas or cities during the COVID-19 pandemic and had never done this kind of work before.

“We might have moved only 30 metres every couple of hours.

“The dedication that went into cutting the lines for the bait stations and traps – it was hard mahi. At the end of each day, we’d have eight beaten people lying around the hut, all feeling the same way.

“Resetting the traps and refilling bait stations, now this is the cruisy part.”

View from Te Tuhi Track.

Initial monitoring after the first toxin operation in 2023 showed a decline in rat density from 70 per cent to 0 per cent, while possum density dropped from 25 per cent to 10 per cent.

Mohi says as a result, he’s noticed regrowth of understorey and “bird noise is coming back”.

Kaimahi Wiremu Johnstone agrees: “I had lunch with two kererū yesterday, and there is always a pīwakawaka that’s up for a big conversation.”

Ngāti Hinerangi is instilling whakapapa, tikanga, mātauranga Māori and the principles of te ao Māori throughout its work programme.

“We believe, as Māori, that those who walked this whenua before us all will awhi, protect and guide us on this journey of environmental restoration,” says Mohi.

“Our goal is to return the ngahere to its natural state of being, with minimal to no interference from predators. These predators are a threat to our forests and its resources.”

That means bringing volunteers and schools on the journey, also, so they too can feel connected to the environment and continue the mahi into the future.

Once a month, a group of volunteers from Predator Free Matamata help to work a designated block at Te Tuhi track, “the closest to the car park”, and they spend the day servicing the traps, as well as taking photos of moss and listening to birds.

The team brings school groups in also, into the bush around the Wairere Falls car park, to talk to them about conservation and inspire the rangatahi to get involved in the future.

Mohi tries to time school visits with the Tangaroa (waning) phase of the moon, because that’s when the pest animals are more active.

“We try to create hype, such as pre-feeding the area so we can catch lots of rats,” says Mohi. “The kids love that!

“The younger generation have an important role to play in this work. We’re trying to plant the seed in their minds and their hearts to carry on the mahi that we have done and that we are carrying on from our matua tūpuna.”