Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Converting farmland to forestry in the sensitive Catlins area of the South Island has been an opportunity to set good standards, says the forest management company tasked with the project, Southern Forests.
The river which flows through parts of Wisp Hill Station forms the headwaters of the Catlins' estuary.
The 5500 hectare property - once a sheep and beef farm - also borders the Catlins Forest Park which straddles Otago and Southland.
Ingka Investments purchased the property in 2021 and set about converting about 3300ha into commercial forestry, retiring the remainder of the land and leaving native vegetation to regenerate.
"It's quite sensitive land, it's got high biodiversity values, high conservation value," explained Josh Cairns of Southern Forests from the peak of the property.
"It's quite unique here on this Wisp Hill range where we've got alpine species that are commonly found in the Southern Alps that are at much higher altitudes, but they seem to do quite well down here.
"It's also too high altitude to grow a production forest on, so it just made sense to retire it and look after it."
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