News

We have a new Chair - and more

New Chair Kevin O’Connor and Penny SalmondNew Trustee Geoff RidleyOutgoing Chair, Carol West, and Kathy OmblerIn the latest Board of Trustees news: we have a new Chair, a new Trustee, and two new Ōtari Award recipients. This all happened at the AGM, in May.

In line with the Trust’s maximum term rule, Chair Dr Carol West has stood down.

New chair is Kevin O’Connor, a Trustee of several years standing and with a strong conservation background through his decades-long career with the Department of Conservation.

Meanwhile, Ōtari is not losing Carol and her significant botanist knowledge. She will continue to guide tour groups, help with the Thursday Forest Weeders team, and advise whenever needed on matters botanical.

And we welcome our new Trustee, fungi guru Geoff Ridley. Geoff has a distinguished background in forest mycology and pathology, and is well known for the incredibly popular fungi walks he’s guided around Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush for several years.

Penny Salmond, a dedicated volunteer host and tour guide for 13 years, was presented with a deserved Ōtari Award. ‘Being a volunteer here has been a huge learning curve and I’ve loved every minute of it,’ says Penny.

RAMBO trapper and Trustee, Kathy Ombler, was the second Ōtari Award recipient. She’s been writing articles about Ōtari, and trapping, for around 15 years, and became a Trustee in 2022. ‘As a local resident, it feels good to be able to help promote and safeguard such a special place,’ she says.

For more in-depth information, the Trust’s June newsletter is due out soon – available to all members

Posted: 29 May 2024

Moko: Tree of the Year Finalist

The Trust was hugely excited that Moko, our treasured, more than 800 year-old rimu, was announced a finalist for Rākau o te tau - New Zealand Tree of the Year 2024.

For those who don’t know, this event is inspired by the ‘European Tree of the Year’ which began in 2011. It’s not about the biggest or most beautiful tree, butPhoto: Carol West celebrating the heritage that connects us to our trees, and celebrating the trees that play an important part in our future. Which brings us to Moko, possibly the best-loved and most-visited tree in Wellington and considered so important in the place she stands that in 2021 she was gifted her name by mana whenua. Moko hosts an entire forest community in her own right! Crwded over her limbs are epiphytes: astelias, ferns, clubmosses and many other plants including northern rātā and the rare kohurangi, Kirk’s daisy, that was locally extinct in Wellington until its recent return to Ōtari. Forest geckos live in her crown.
In the 1970s Moko and the forest around her were saved from destruction, when plans to cut a road through Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush were stymied by environmentalist, Bob Fantl and supporting locals.

Today the track to Moko is one of the most popular in all of Ōtari. Even a kiwi has been tracked heading her way!

And for an update - being a finlist attracted huge interest and nationwide exposure for Moko and for Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, even if we didn’t win.

Posted: 7 May 2024

Kiwi are here: in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush

We have kiwi!Brown Kiwi, Photo Sara Tansy, The Capital Kiwi Project The pleasure of safeguarding Ōtari’s chicks, eggs and seedlings from animal predators has motivated volunteer trappers for nearly 20 years. That feel-good notion just ramped up big time, since a male brown kiwi with a transmitter was located near Ōtari’s Upper Blue Trail. This is the first kiwi to be found in the reserve in 150 years. Other sightings, in Ōtari and a nearby suburb, have also been reported. Ōtari Manager, Tim Park, is beyond excited. “Having these guys in the ecosystem again, it’s just beautiful. This is where they belong. We’re so grateful to our network of trappers for controlling stoats and other pests and keeping Ōtari safer for all the birds,” he adds. Thanks also to The Capital Kiwi Project for all your work – and let’s now work together to keep our kiwi and all our other taonga species safe. Please, keep your dogs on-leash, even if they’ve had kiwi-aversion training. And if you see an off-leash dog, politely ask the owner to leash it. It is very easy for a dog, no matter how well behaved, to kill or seriously injure a kiwi.

Posted: 7 May 2024