Restoring the balance

This Southgate property has a large bush area where weeds had taken over and karaka had become the dominant species, considerably reducing diversity. Although karaka is a NZ native, it isn't native to Wellington and takes over from our locals. Te Motu Kairangi explains more.
We are gradually managing the herbaceous weeds. With the karaka, we are hand pulling the seedlings and chopping down larger plants then Stump Stopping the cut. This seems to be working though karaka does re-sprout from below the cut, so we have to be more persistent than karaka. 
We're careful not to take out too many larger trees at once as the area is on a bank and we don't want to disturb the terrain more than necessary. 

Assessing the bush area Aug 2018
​Hover over the images to learn about our first visit to this bush area. 

Starting work

First task was to dig some rough steps for safe access and to start dealing to the weeds (tradescantia, convolvulus, galinsoga, bay tree, with old man's beard and German ivy on the fringes).

Continuing our mahi
October/November/December 2018. Hover for explanations

Summer 2019
Already we've noticed more birds (types and numbers), seen dragonflies and more native seedlings popping up. 
Now we've made space, let the light in, and it's planting time, we're hoping to plant some Wellington natives, ideally those that are getting rare in the wild. This will add to the wider ecosystem and increase diversity in this little piece of bush.