The Morgans

Predator Proof Fence Upgrade – An Update

Our 60ha felled pine forest is transitioning to native nicely. It’s only been three years since we seemed to have nothing here but mountains of logging slash. Nowadays the contrast between inside and outside the fence is stark. Pigs, goats, rabbits and hares denude the forest floor outside the fence as the first photo shows.

The fence enhancement is progressing at full steam and is snaking its way around the property. We will end up with an outer- and an inner-fence. The outer is already in place and has successfully prevented intrusion from the large animals on our boundary – pigs, goats, wild cattle, wild sheep and deer. These critters wander the open country that surrounds us and are continually trying to get to our lush forest floor. The design of the inner fence is exclusively focused on rodents, mustelids, marsupials(possums) and cats. These species are lighter but far more agile and we need specific barriers to deter them – small gauge wire mesh at ground level (rodents, mustelids), hooded steel sheet (possums) and capped by loose-fitting fishnet (cats).

https://themorgans.co.nz/

Has Jack Frost finished for the Year?

(thanks for the pics Dane)

https://themorgans.co.nz

Keeping the Barbarians at the Gate

Our 60ha hill block that towers over both the Transmission Gully motorway and our sculpture trail in the valley. It has been cleared of pines and a predator free fence built around it. We are re-establishing the original native bush cover, controlling invasive weeds (especially wilding pine), upgrading the fence to a standard that prevents rodents, and monitoring the progress of regenerating endemic species. Early days (3 years now) but results are encouraging - we started with a hillside of logging slash and already native flora is dominant.

Our idea is to have a corridor of native forest that extends from Paekākāriki Hill Rd to the top of our property which is 400m above that road. We have already planted (with help from Greater Wellington Regional Council) over 80,000 natives across our farmland to achieve that. The pine forests that encircle our land (Battle Hill, Fernhill and more) are packed with pigs, goats, deer, possums, rabbits, hares and more. The exclusion of these introduced species is the priority of our predator fence. No decent forest floor with those buggers around.

It’s a cool conservation project, come and see it sometime.

https://themorgans.co.nz/


[photo 1] Boyd and the boys starting the upgrade to our 3.5km predator proof fence. Big job.

[photo 2] The views from our Conservation Sanctuary are drop dead gorgeous – across Transmission Gully and our Sculpture Trail, Mana Island and out to D’Urville Island at the top of the South Island. A neat place to be doing conservation work.

Sod it

Earthen sculptures present tough challenges. Here Ocean Pasture is recovering from an onslaught of Yorkshire Fog that we had to spray out. So another hydroseed needed to restore the lush green waves. While Spiral Mountain was built during an overly wet summer and hasn’t had a chance to consolidate. We’ll get there but it takes patience to make perfect.

https://themorgans.co.nz/art-park

Bu**er.
What do you mean, it’s too big to fit in the row?
And BTW this one’s supposed to be blue.

https://themorgans.co.nz/art-park

Head in the Clouds?

https://themorgans.co.nz/art-park

Something Weird arriving coming up the Sculpture Trail

And it’s one of eight apparently. Any guesses?

https://themorgans.co.nz/art-park