Kia Ora from Tracy and Kevin at TFBT, and welcome to our July Newsletter
We know it’s been a while since many of you have heard from The Forest Bridge Trust team, however we have not been sitting idle. Like the rest of NZ our world was turned upside down when Covid hit last year. However, in our case there was an unexpected silver lining in the form of a new partnership with Kiwis for kiwi, funded through Jobs for Nature. This has meant quite a bit of internal change for us as we prepared to increase the size of our team. It also resulted in some careful thinking about the best way to maximise this new funding and align it with our existing projects and programmes.
The result is that for the next 4 years we will be focusing on building a ‘central bridge’ of 54 000 hectares connecting the existing wildlife sanctuaries at Mataia Restoration Project in the west, to Tawharanui Regional Park in the east. We will still continue supporting all the wonderful projects and work that is happening in our wider rohe outside the Central Bridge. It just means that most of our attention will be focused on activity in the Central Bridge for now.
To help us achieve this rather ambitious target of a 54, 000 hectare protected and connected bridge, we have recruited the help of a few new faces. You can find out more about our new team members on our website About us | The Forest Bridge Trust
We still have some further recruitment to do, so keep an eye on our website and in future newsletters for new vacancies. Wherever possible we are keen to employ people from our local area, so your help to spread the job adverts would be fantastic.
Of course, no funding agreement provides an endless pot of money, and we still need everyone’s help and support to make the Forest Bridge dream a reality. Activities like fencing and trapping will always be areas that we need supporters, landowners and volunteers to be involved. By working together, we can make a huge difference to the amazing environment that we live in and alongside.
A big thank you for all the amazing effort and contributions you have made to date, and we hope you enjoy hearing a little more about what we have been up to in this newsletter.
All the very best
TheTrustees would like to thank the Forest Bridge Trust team for their commitment to move the trust to this new level.
In particular we would like to thank to management team of Tracy, Emma and Maj for the long hours and hard work they have put in to make it all happen.