Rai Valley Dry Stock Farm
Before Te Hoiere Project, Gene and Cherie Bryant had already begun to erect fences and restore pockets of native biodiversity on their Rai Valley property. While their family farm is currently leased, the Bryants have continued their work to improve freshwater with support from the Project, including the final stretches of fencing, thousands of native plants and weed control.
The Bryants started fencing around 2015. A couple of years later, they added a QEII covenant over a wetland area, and then began to protect and enhance a pocket of native bush under the Marlborough District Council programme for Significant Natural Areas (SNA).
“We were doing bits and pieces, a little bit each year. We started by protecting the creeks as much as we could and re-arranging the paddocks to exclude stock. It was quite barren with no plants, and we wanted to see native bush and bird life,” Gene says.
The Bryants are the second generation to own the property, and the Project has been able to accelerate their long-term goals. This support has enabled the Bryants to complete the major fencing work, get more plants into the ground in a shorter period of time, and gain assistance with weed control and labour. This includes three release sprays for weed control 12-18 months after planting.
Kākahi (freshwater mussels) have been found in the waterways of the Bryant property.
Our goal is to move back to Rai Valley and enjoy the native bush, says Gene, who is currently farming in Golden Bay.
“Long-term, the goal for the farm is to protect it for future generations,” he says.
With 1,739 new native plants in 2022 and an additional 10,674 in spring 2023 on the Bryant property, neighbours are also working with the Project. There is a potential for a biodiversity corridor to stretch from the Bryants' SNA at the top of the catchment, down to the Rai Reserve near the township. This special stream has been visited by schoolchildren to monitor water quality, as well as undertake some planting and beautification of the reserve.
“It’s not a major stream, but it is one that reaches right down to the village for the community to enjoy,” Gene says. “We have a duty to protect it.”
About the existing native bush
The Bryant's Significant Natural Area is a steep hill rising from a swampy valley floor, roughly 180m in altitude. The presence of five podocarp species and three beech species in such a small area of forest is extraordinary, and noteworthy, in terms of regional plant distribution.
Much of the forest floor is covered in crown fern, with large trees of rimu, matai, miro, kahikatea, silver beech, hard beech, tawa, kamahi, pokaka, tarata (lemonwood) and hinau. Also present are totara, putaputaweta, lancewood, mahoe (whiteywood), pate, wineberry and lowland horopito (Pseudowintera axillaris).
The site is home to several native birds, including tui, bellbird, kereru, fantail, silvereye and riroriro. The seedlings of larger trees are quite numerous, indicating a relatively low level of use of the bush by domestic and feral animals.
Below: J&S Mears Contracting undertaking planting over 10,500 plants in October 2023.
Below: In 2022, Te Hoiere Project supported the Bryants to plant 1,739 plants downstream from their homestead. Below shows the growth of those seedlings during a visit in October 2023.
Updated: November 2023
