The Restoration Project

Motuora is an 80-hectare island (links to Google Maps) in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. The island reserve lies five km east of Mahurangi Heads and 38 km north of Auckland. Motuora has a long history of human occupation over many centuries and was used for pastoral farming through most of the last century. Much of the original coastal forest was cleared long ago leaving only remnant pohutukawa and karo/mahoe scrub growing on coastal cliffs.

In 1990 the focus for the island changed and a volunteer-led restoration programme began. Restoration efforts gained momentum in 1995 with the formation of the Motuora Restoration Society (MRS). The Society managed the island, including the campsite, under an agreement with the Department of Conservation (DOC) until 2016. In March of 2016 DOC resumed full management, making a new agreement with the Motuora Restoration Society to continue to manage the restoration of the the island’s flora and fauna. To do this work we need Society members and volunteers to help with canopy tree growing, planting, species translocation and monitoring, weeding and track maintenance.

Until the mid-2010s the focus of the restoration project was re-establishing native forest cover on the island with about 30,000 native seedlings being raised in the Island nursery each year and planted out by volunteers during the winter months. Now some 300,000 trees are in the ground and they have grown sufficiently to form a closed canopy.

Currently canopy trees are being raised in the nursery which will be planted among the pioneer trees and which will eventually dominate the bush. These trees will provide food and shelter for a wide range of native birds, lizards and invertebrates.

Species Translocation

Motuora is special, not just for its secluded picnic spots and clear waters, but for the fact that it has remained free of mammalian predators despite the Island’s long history of occupation and farming. There are no rats, mice, mustelids (stoats, ferrets or weasels) or feral cats. This makes Motuora ideal for native ecosystem restoration and for the creation of a safe habitat for endangered species. Since 1999 Motuora has been used as a “kiwi creche“ for Northland brown kiwi by Operation Nest-Egg, and, over subsequent years, pōpokatea (whiteheads), diving petrels, Pycroft’s petrels, wetapunga, Duvaucels, Raukawa and Pacific geckos and shore skinks have been translocated to the Island. In addition, gannets and fluttering shearwaters have been attracted by broadcasting calls and decoys and are now nesting. All our work plans are documented in the comprehensive Motuora Native Species Restoration Plan 2009 developed jointly by the Restoration Society and the Department of Conservation.