KAT Badge

Kiwi Avoidance Dog Training

A 15 min training session to teach your dog to steer clear of Kiwi.

  • Saturday 7th December – at Morris & James Pottery on Tongue Farm Road
  • Sunday 8th December – at Matakana Country Park

Or register your interest and we will contact you when a training session is scheduled for your area.

Funded by:Rodney Local Board

Impact Report2023-24

View Report

Photo by: Shaun Lee

Help us to protect our Forest Bridge

Te tūhono tāngata me te whenua

Sponsor Safe Habitat for Kiwi to Thrive.

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Protect, Enhance, Connect.

Our Vision

Connected people and landscapes with healthy forest and flourishing indigenous wildlife from the Kaipara Harbour to the Pacific Coast.

Our Mission

We aim to inspire, support and resource people who own, occupy or manage land, to protect and enhance ecosystems and native species through fencing native forest, controlling invasive species, revegetating for connection and restoring waterways.

We will enable this work to grow to a landscape scale through our connection with local people, existing community conservation groups and networks which all have a critical role.

By inspiring and supporting a socio-ecological change movement we aim to encourage a voluntary and sustainable workforce committed to protecting and enhancing our surrounding ecosystems.

Our story

The seed of The Forest Bridge Trust was planted when founders Kevin and Gill Adshead— who reintroduced kiwi to their family farm at Glorit in 2013— discovered that for the new residents to spread their flightless wings and thrive, they would need 10,000 hectares of predator-controlled habitat. This would be a challenge in itself, but they had an even bigger dream that one day, these west coast kiwis could safely roam and eventually meet up with their cousins over in Tāwharanui Regional Park. It was clear, to make the dream a reality, a team was needed to work with farmers and other landowners and the wider community to connect the landscape through fencing and planting and to improve the habitat by controlling pests and predators.

Gill and Kevin sought out other like-minded people with similar aspirations and in 2014 a farmer-initiated environment trust, The Forest Bridge Trust (TFBT) was created. The vision and mission of the trust were developed by farmers, other landowners, and local groups working to protect and enhance the environment where they live. Since those early days it has been recognised that more specialised people and many more resources were needed to turn the dream into reality. From a largely voluntary base of a few people with a big dream, the trust is now a substantially resourced and effective organisation actively achieving the vision of connecting, protecting and enhancing the landscape from coast to coast.

Kia Ora from Ana

Ana Christmas

As we navigate through this year’s planting season, I am pleased to share the latest updates and accomplishments from The Forest Bridge Trust... Read more »

In the news

Our priority – building a Bridge

Our focus is working to achieve a predator controlled corridor of land from west to east.  This is an area of 54,000 hectares connecting the existing wildlife sanctuaries at Mataia Restoration Project in the west to Tawharanui Regional Park in the east.

How we will build the Bridge

Our activities connect the landscape and people in the North Rodney region through focused activities:

Community Liaison

Ecology

Predator Control

Fencing and Riparian Planting

Education

We welcome your help

Your Support makes a big difference

getting involved