Lake Pupuke Puriri Forest Community Hui – Te ngahere puriri o Pupukemoana

We would like to invite the community to come together to help plan for the future restoration of the park’s critically endangered forest ecosystem.

Sylvan Park and Kitchener Park on the shores of Lake Pupuke, is the home of the last surviving fragments of the critically endangered Puriri forest ecosystem in this area. Puriri forest was once dominant across the Takapuna Milford area, cloaking the volcanic soils with thousand year old Puriri, Karaka and Kohekohe. Bird song rang from the canopy as the birds enjoyed the abundance of nectar and fruits from these magnificent trees, and the ground crawled with kiwi, moa and many insects, geckos and skinks.

Today local residents are restoring the forest and wildlife by controlling pests and weeds. In the first 3 months of trapping, 1 resident has removed 32 possums, and now the forest is starting to regrow and regenerate. The Kohekohe are flowering prolifically for the first time after many years of being devastated by possums. A rat baiting programme has been helping to decrease the number of rats and Residents are also weeding to remove the invasive plant pests trying to take over the park.