At the turn of the century this area had very little biodiversity, consisting mostly of rewa rewa, ponga and mamaku ferns with one large kamahi and two kohekohe trees. There was almost no understory thanks to the hundreds of wild goats grazing but there was a profusion of large pines, wooly nightshade, gorse and black wattle.

After the pines were felled and the goats cleared off the regeneration began. One of the early discoveries was the re-emergence of king ferns which occur naturally in only one other part if the Kaimai Mamaku forest park due to grazing by pigs and deer.

In March 2009, we experienced a weekend of extremely heavy rain which resulted in a slip blocking the stream, a large dam being formed behind which an enormous amount of water built up. When the dam broke, we were left with a clear area about 20m wide on each side of the stream which although devastating, provided us with a blank canvas for planting.

Over the next few years we planted over 5000 tress and shrubs of as many native species as we could source and then formed walking tracks to provide access to as much of the area as possible.

During our weed control patrols we are now finding seedlings of tawa, puriri, totara, kohekohe, cordyline, banksii and other species appearing on their own which is a sign of the bush regenerating on its own - nature at its best.