Our
Story
The Hakarimata Restoration Trust was initially founded in 2002, by community members with support from Iwi, Regional and District Councils, and the University of Waikato. Volunteers with the trust took steps that has had a lasting and profound impact on the health of the forests and streams, most notably the eradication of destructive feral goats from Haakarimata. Several wide-scale pest control initiatives showed great promise, with korimako and kuku thriving in the reserve - however, sustained pest control has proved challenging, and eventually diminished to about 200 hectares of bush protected through volunteer efforts and supported by local businesses and councils.
In 2023, these fragmented efforts began to coalesce and the Haakarimata Restoration Group was re-formed in 2024, with a groundswell of support from the local community and hundreds of visitors to an open community launch event in Ngāruawāhia.
The group is now expanding on-the-ground efforts with plans to extend pest control efforts and major stream planting projects underway in 2025, and planning underway to secure financial support to take major steps towards our long-term ecosystem and community goals in 2026.
What We Do
Pest Control
Introduced vertebrates, insects, aquatic organisms, disease agents, and weeds are threats to our unique native taonga, and to the ecological process which support them, and us. This is also true in Haakarimata. Today, portions of old-growth kohekohe forest are at risk of canopy collapse because of extreme browsing pressure by introduced possums. Introduced wasps devour massive numbers of insects which would otherwise be pollinating native plants or being fed to baby birds. Birds that survive are at risk of predation by rats and weasels. Largely through volunteer effort, we seek to suppress and remove these pests from Haakarimata, using a variety of appropriate, safe, and humane tools, so that the forests and streams can thrive in perpetuity.
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Community Engagement
We believe that ecological health and thriving communities go hand-in-hand, and we seek to engage with the communities around Haakarimata and Ngāruawāhia for all of our benefit. The Haakarimata Restoration Trust is a community-focused group. We welcome support and involvement from around the world, but our initiatives are set by locals, guided by iwi, discussed with our neighbours, and supported by our community and local government.
Restoration & Advocacy
We work with local land owners and agencies to restore the wairua of Haakarimata. This involves people working together to return ecosystem-appropriate native forests to streams and slopes which run from Haakarimata to the Waipa and Waikato rivers. We have begun to return rare plant species, once common but locally extinct from Haakarimata due to prolonged pest pressure. We hope that intentional introduction of locally extinct birds will follow, and advocate for translocations once the forest is again made safe. The idea of kiwi and kōkako calling from the forest edge may seem far off - it once did to us. We believe that we could begin to reintroduce these species by 2030.