Rewilding: A Forest Grown by Many Hands
Growing Native Forest Champion
Ollie has been rewarded for his hard work by being awarded a Growing Native Forest Champions Award in the Lifestyle Block category. This is awarded to recipients across six categories each year by Te Uru Rakau, New Zealand Forest Service. This year, three of the categories were awarded to groups and individuals in Te Tauihu (the top of the south), one of which went to Ollie.
Ollie talks to Dana Carter in the interview below about his entry, what it means to him to have won it, and what he’s hoping to achieve with his rewilding project.
The story of Rewilding
When Ollie first arrived at the 17‑hectare block now known as Rewilding, the land felt tired — a patchwork of pasture, weeds, and fragments of what once was. But it also held possibility. Five years later, that possibility has become one of the largest volunteer‑powered native forest restoration projects in the Tasman region.
More than 450 volunteers from 23 countries have walked through the gates at Rewilding — around a hundred each year. Some stay for a day, some for weeks, some return year after year. Together, they’ve helped transform the lower Motueka Catchment hillside into a thriving mosaic of young native forest, wetlands, and wildlife habitat.
Nearly nine hectares are now protected under QEII covenant, open for the public to explore, learn, and reconnect with the whenua.
From the beginning, the vision was simple: restore native ecosystems, and restore people’s connection to them. Not through lectures or pamphlets, but through muddy hands, shared tools, and the confidence that grows when someone realises, “I can do this on my own land too.”
Over time, Rewilding has become a living classroom. Local schools wander through the nursery, learning how to sow seed and spot pest tracks. Community groups come for open days and workshops. Landowners arrive with questions and leave with planting plans, propagation tips, and the spark to start their own projects.
The numbers tell part of the story:
16,000 eco‑sourced native trees planted,
over 500,000 seeds sown,
80% of plants now grown onsite,
every locally endemic species represented,
more than 500 pests removed to protect the new forest.
But this journey is essentially about people – spreading the seeds of connecting with and nurturing nature far and wide. Volunteers who had never planted a tree before. Travellers who found belonging in a valley they’d never heard of. Locals who rediscovered the bush they grew up with. Children who now know the names of the birds that return each year.
Rewilding’s approach is grounded in best practice but done in a practical, cobbled together way— eco‑sourcing, careful species matching across microclimates, sustained predator control, and a commitment to minimal chemical use. But it’s also grounded in generosity. Knowledge is shared freely. Mistakes are part of the learning. Success is celebrated collectively.
Beyond the boundary fence, the project’s influence continues to grow. Through the Motueka Catchment Collective, Rewilding contributes to catchment‑wide restoration efforts, working alongside iwi, scientists, farmers, and community leaders to strengthen ecological resilience across the region.
What began as a lifestyle block has become something much larger: a demonstration of what’s possible when passion, people, and place come together.