Helping to restore native forest is one of the best things New Zealanders can do with their time, says environmentalist Dean Baigent-Mercer.
"[Native forest] is always revealing itself, always showing you a little bit more and challenging what you assumed in the first place."
Dean grew up in Palmerston North - not knowing what native forest was - and now lives in the Far North. His job with Forest & Bird involves working with hapū to protect and restore Northland's native forests.
"If you go into them, they're silent, there's ancient trees dying, there's not much on the forest floor compared to what there should be. And as those forests die they're releasing carbon, rather than being some of the best carbon sinks we've got on land."
Fifteen years ago, Dean bought a piece of land with some native forest in Otangaroa, near the township of Kāeo. His land was logged at the end of World War II and everything taken except some ancient trees that were twisted or rotten in the middle.
Now, after a lot of work, the forest is full of birds again and even some long-tailed bats (pekapeka).
Summer is a time of "great fruit abundance" for these native species, Dean says.
"The Coprosma [tree species], like karamū, with their orange berries, they're fruiting. So is tōtara with their red flesh to entice the birds to eat the seeds…"
Right now, tawa trees are especially popular with kererū, which are the only remaining native bird with a mouth big enough to eat their fat, seeded fruit, he says.
"If you go to [Otari-Wilton's Bush] in Wellington… the tawa are full of seeds and the kererū are scoffing them down."
Kererū like to stick together and big flocks are now building up in Wellington, the Coromandel and the very south of the South Island, Dean says.
If you come across just one or two kererū, he says it's because the birds have been "hassled and worn out" by rats, cats and possums.
Dean hopes to see a culture change in New Zealand towards less cat ownership and suggests the flightless and curious weka as a possible substitute.
'We can still have amusing creatures on the ground… who are full of character and sassiness, but they just don't happen to have fur and four legs."
