Several whio or blue ducks were successfully released into Abel Tasman National Park this week by Project Janszoon

On World Wetlands Day 2023, we celebrate the wetlands of the Abel Tasman National Park, from the rare kahikatea swamp forest at Hadfields Clearing, to the red tussock wetland ecosystem at Moa Park on Canaan Downs, the harakeke swamps and lagoons at Anchorage and Awaroa and the estuarine habitats at Onetahuti, Totaranui and Bark Bay.

Conservationists are celebrating the success of a wild kākā breeding programme at the top of the South Island.

Highlights from Project Janszoon’s 10th Anniversary celebrations, photo exhibition, guided walks and volunteer thank you event this year

This video celebrates the progress made by Project Janszoon and its partners over 10 years towards a biodiversity rich ecosystem in the forests, coastlines and rivers of the Abel Tasman National Park.

The September issue of the Royal Overseas League magazine, Overseas, featured an article on Springtime in the New Zealand Forest, featuring Project Janszoon Director Philip Simpson talking about his favourite springtime plants in the Abel Tasman National Park.

The Guardian Motueka ran a three page feature on Project Janszoon and its partners to launch our 10th Anniversary Celebrations

An unbanded kākā was spotted in gardens and reserves in Richmond and Wakefield.

A distinctive landmark in Mārahau greets visitors approaching from the South—a carved waharoa (entranceway).

Restoration work involved battling against browsing hares and frosty winters to get plants to a point where they could survive.

A community-led project to rid priority areas of Abel Tasman National Park of wilding conifers had a boost on Friday 25 March 2022 as it was handed over to the Department of Conservation (DOC) to ensure invasive conifers do not re-establish.

Project Janszoon Ornithologist Ron Moorhouse and Director Bruce Vander Lee were interviewed by an independent Auckland radio station about the recent breeding success of kāka in the Abel Tasman National Park.

A flock of young kāka chicks have fledged in the Abel Tasman, boosting the population of native parrots in the national park.

The latest release of whio into Abel Tasman National Park were flown in via helicopter longline for the first time, to access more remote inner reaches of the park.

It seems strange to celebrate dying trees in a national park but the grey skeletal remains you see on the skyline of the Abel Tasman National Park are a tribute to a community project that has stopped a huge green tidal wave from changing the park’s landscape forever.

16-yeqr-old Motueka High School student, and Abel Tasman Youth Ambassador has joined the board of Project Janszoon.

A passion for hunting has allowed local huntsmen to realise their dream of making a hobby into a job, as DOC rangers culling feral goats as part of a trial funded by Project Janszoon.

The 2,000th stoat was trapped in the Abel Tasman National Park recently, giving native species more chances to thrive.

The major storms that hit the Abel Tasman National Park back in 2018 left a major repair bill, but three years later there is a silver lining at Awaroa beach, also known as the Peoples beach, with the dunes looking better than they have in many years.

Feral goat numbers are being reduced in the halo of Abel Tasman National Park in a collaboration between landowners, Project Janszoon and DOC.

A 30 years championing rare and threatened plants in the Abel Tasman National Park and other conservation areas of Nelson/Tasman DOC botanist Roger Gaskell is retiring.

Observing pollution first hand in China and Europe prompted Project Janszoon’s 2020 Education Scholarship recipient to study for a degree in marine biology.

The Project Janszoon Conservation Education scholarship aims to support former or current ATYA (or SAB) students to pursue relevant development opportunities.

Chances of visitors to the Abel Tasman National Park coming across a rare native duck have increased with 50 0f the endangered species released recently.

The spotless crake, or pūweto, is a highly secretive bird and almost never caught on camera. Bradley Shields managed to prove that it has a home in Abel Tasman National Park.

The Abel Tasman National Park has a new bunch of residents. They’re loud, noisy, mischievous and like to party – but no-one is complaining.

One of the country’s rarest animals, a Nelson green gecko, has been spotted hanging out in the Abel Tasman National Park.

A Mārahau trapping group established during lockdown aims to build on the predator control work in the Abel Tasman National Park and create a “pest free halo” around the southern entrance.

Mārahau locals are getting behind a new trapping project creating a pest free halo around the southern entrance to the Abel Tasman National Park.

This video looks at the fantastic work being undertaken to monitor native snails in the Abel Tasman.

There may be fewer tourists walking the Abel Tasman track, but a group of carnivorous snails that call the park home are getting a hard time from a booming weka population.

Abel Tasman Youth Ambassadors returned to the park in the last week of term, excited to be back after an enforced absence due to the Corona virus.

Motupipi School’s year began with a mercy dash to Wainui Bay sandspit where over the past few years they have been planting trees in partnership with Project Janszoon.

There might be less people flying around the country, but a plane carrying 49 rare pāteke made a special flight to Nelson, as part of the journey to their new home in the Abel Tasman National Park with Project Janszoon.

It might look like a seagull fossicking in the undergrowth, but it’s a white weka captured on film deep in the Abel Tasman National Park.

DOC’s annual Argentine ant surveillance programme has found no evidence of Argentine ants in the Abel Tasman National Park in 2020.

Hans Stoffregen reckons he is lucky to work in a field where he can make a difference. “Ten or 20 years ago I planted trees, now they’re a forest.”

Growing up on the eastern edge of Scotland’s Glasgow, James Livingstone realised early on he had two choices in life. We are glad he chose the one that took him to the Abel Tasman.

How did Whariwharangi, in the north of the park, got its name? Could it be a reference to a rare tree, a nod to a former resident, or a name to remember an awe-inspiring battle between Māori and Europeans?

Being an Abel Tasman Youth Ambassador is providing opportunities beyond the Abel Tasman National Park for avid bird watcher and photographer Bradley Shields.

Project Janszoon is working with the AviaNZ project to enable computer programmes to identify birds from acoustic recordings and ensuring any optimisation of the stoat trapping network, does not impact on our ability to keep predator numbers down.

A former Abel Tasman Youth Ambassador is the first recipient of a new award recognising Golden Bay High School students’ work to enhance environmental awareness.

Motupipi School’s year began with a mercy dash to Wainui Bay sandspit where over the past few years they have been planting trees in partnership with Project Janszoon.

Air New Zealand’s Kia Ora magazine delights in the kākā being returned to the coast of the Abel Tasman.

An eye catching depiction of conservation in the Abel Tasman is proving a talking point for people flying around Nelson/Tasman.

A chopper pod depicting scenes of conservation in the Abel Tasman National Park is proving to be a talking point.

Project Janszoon’s restoration supervisor Helen Lindsay has won a prestigious conservation award.

The success of a scheme to reintroduce endangered parrots to the forests of the Abel Tasman National Park in the South Island by Project Janszoon augurs well for wider efforts to restore native wildlife – Guardian UK.

Abel Tasman Youth Ambassadors for 2020 were welcomed at Te Awhina Marae, whilst 2019’s cohort were farewelled.

Applications for Project Janszoon’s 2020 Education Conservation scholarship are now open.

Kākā have been returned to the Abel Tasman National Park coast with 24 of the native parrots released at Bark Bay/Wairima.

A flock of inquisitive kākā have returned to the coastline of the Abel Tasman National Park, another step in the vision towards re-populating the park with bird species that once lived there.

A record number of threatened native New Zealand parrots have been released into the Abel Tasman National Park by Project Janszoon.

The future of the endangered kākā received a boost today, with the biggest ever release of the native parrots into the wild in the Abel Tasman National Park.

Nelson Mail story about rare native pāteke seeing out their twilight years at Tōtaranui.

World Ranger Day this week acknowledged the critical work of rangers on the front-line of conservation across the globe.

Local conservation efforts have achieved what seemed impossible in the picturesque Abel Tasman National Park. As TVNZ reports all mature wilding pines have now been controlled.

A second nest has now been found where a captive raised female and wild male have hatched two chicks in the Canaan area.

Ask an evolutionary biologist what his idea of the ultimate holiday is, and if it’s Professor Doug Robinson you are talking to, he will probably say; trudging the tracks of the Abel Tasman, listening for the call of the kākāriki.

The Abel Tasman National Park is now playing a major role in the survival of New Zealand’s rarest duck, the pāteke / brown teal.

The A24 trapping networks in the park are proving to be so highly effective the network of self re-setting traps is being doubled in 2019 to create a ‘Heart of the Park’ sanctuary.

A study on the effects of 2018/19’s substantial drought on the Abel Tasman National Park’s ecosystem, and what it means in terms of ecological restoration such as planting and species reintroduction.

Kiwi could be coming back to the Abel Tasman thanks to successful predator control programmes like an upcoming aerial 1080 drop.

Author and botanist Dr Philip Simpson has written a book about the natural and cultural history of the Abel Tasman National Park called Down the Bay. He talks about the book and shows us some of the special species in the Abel Tasman National Park.

Pāteke/brown teal are New Zealand’s rarest dabbling duck. Since 2017 over 100 pāteke have been released at Hadfield Clearing in the Abel Tasman. They are doing very well and breeding. You can help Project Janszoon protect the ducks when you are visiting the park.

While thousands walked, kayaked and camped around the Abel Tasman coast this summer, Kathy Ombler found solitude and serenading bellbirds on the park’s Inland Track

The islands off the coast of the Abel Tasman National Park have been declared free of predators once again.

Four new kākā in the Abel Tasman National Park have boosted hopes of re-establishing a wild population.

For the first time in living memory kākā chicks have been hatched, and successfully fledged, in the Abel Tasman National Park.

More young people will connect with the Abel Tasman as the education programme expands.

Images from Project Janszoon webcams at Anchorage and Awaroa in Abel Tasman National Park are being used to keep an eye on boatie behaviour.

The squeaks of young kākā chicks can be heard at Natureland, as a group are being hand-reared in a bid to boost the population of native parrots in the Abel Tasman.

The squeaks of young kākā chicks can be heard at Natureland, as a group are being hand-reared in a bid to boost the population of native parrots in the Abel Tasman.

It’s not farewell it’s ka kite ano to Helen Young who has been involved with the education programme since it started back in 2014.

While next years predicted beech mast will mean a huge increase in predator numbers it’s not all bad news for the park’s birds.

The squeaks of young kākā chicks can be heard at Natureland, as a group are being hand-reared in a bid to boost the population of native parrots in the Abel Tasman.

Forget about Christmas turkey. The Abel Tasman National Park has had a surprise gift of rare native ducks for Christmas.

This month the Abel Tasman Youth Ambassadors from Motueka High School got to present the results from their research of Anchorage lagoon to the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society.

Abel Tasman National Park is New Zealand’s smallest national park. Ecologist and Project Janszoon director Philip Simpson was born and raised right beside the wilderness reserve and the park’s flora and fauna has always fascinated him. He writes of this and much more in his new book – Down the Bay – a natural & cultural history of Abel Tasman National Park.

Manaaki whenua, Manaaki tangata, Haere whakamua – Care for the land, care for the people, go forward

Manawhenua ki Mohua representative Bev Purdie consistently brings the sentiments from this Māori proverb to the education programme, donating her wisdom and time to the rangitahi / young people.

Dr Philip Simpson, author, botanist and Project Janszoon director, has written Down the Bay – a natural and cultural history of the Abel Tasman National Park.

For the past six years, Motueka High School has been privileged to be a part of the restoration and preservation of the Abel Tasman National Park, which is the major focus of Project Janszoon – a trust which is working to reverse the ecological decline of one of the most beautiful natural resources that is patronised by so many local and international visitors.

When Project Janszoon got underway five years ago one of the first tasks was to find out more about the interior, so a team was despatched to look at the vegetation. Way up top, a single individual of a species never before seen in the park, a perching orchid called ‘little spotted moa’, Drymoanthus flavus, was found growing on the trunk of a hall’s totara. Read how Cyclone Gita, revealed another secret.

Four whio were released in Abel Tasman National Park for the first time last week in a bid to establish the threatened birds there.

Descendants of Hohaia Rangiauru of Te Ātiawa, whose pou whenua stands at the entrance to Medlands Beach in the Abel Tasman National Park, kōrero (talk) about his legacy and efforts to ensure the title to customary land was recognised

Follow the story of four rare whio / blue duck that were released into the Abel Tasman National Park In September 2018

Four whio were released in Abel Tasman National Park for the first time last week in a bid to establish the threatened birds there.

The Project Janszoon Conservation Education scholarship aims to support former ATYA (or SAB) students to pursue relevant development opportunities. The Scholarship is worth $1,000.

It was only a few years ago that experts were predicting kiwi would become extinct on mainland New Zealand and now they are considering returning them to the Abel Tasman.

Can you get others engaged and active in supporting conservation? Are you keen to do your bit to protect New Zealand and encourage students and teachers to see the value of conservation and get involved?

We are looking for a committed and energetic person to provide input to the DOC/Project Janszoon education programme and help maintain and further develop school and student-group partnerships that promote conservation in Abel Tasman National Park.

Kākā are one of the noisiest and most sociable birds in the forest and Project Janszoon is working on different ways to increase the numbers of these charismatic native parrots in the Abel Tasman.

With a beech mast predicted for 2019 we are looking at taking kākā eggs from the wild, hatching them in captivity, and then releasing them into the park.

Birds and snails in the upland areas of the park are going to enjoy two consecutive years of low rat numbers, thanks to last year’s aerial predator control.

Monitoring results show that, in August this year (nearly a year after the October aerial predator control operation), rats above 600m altitude were still tracking at less than 10%. Experts say this is a level below which native bird species will be largely relieved of predation pressure.

The eroded hills behind Anchorage and on Motuareronui Adele island are not what nature intended.  What we should be seeing is a low forest of kanuka, along with hard and black beech. Instead, fire events over the last 200 years (sometimes planned, sometimes not) have left exposed ridgetops ripe for colonisation by introduced weeds like hakea. Restoration supervisor Helen Lindsay updates us on the beech planting project aiming to bring beech back to the hillsides.

Project Janszoon is delighted to launch two Abel Tasman “Toolboxes” designed to give locals, visitors and education providers access to expert advice, activities and helpful information about visiting the Abel Tasman National Park.

In May 2017 20 rare pateke / brown teal were released into the Abel Tasman National Park by Project Janszoon and DOC. This is only the 2nd mainland site in the South Island where pateke are found and if the ducks do well up to 300 will be released over 7 years.

An “extremely private” Auckland couple who have committed $25 million to restoring biodiversity in the Abel Tasman National Park have been recognised with a national award.

Neal and Annette Plowman were revealed in 2014 as the funders behind Project Janszoon, a comprehensive bid to restore the flora and fauna of the Abel Tasman over 30 years.

DOC senior biodiversity ranger Jim Livingstone has a way with words when it comes to our latest Abel Tasman residents. 

As of today, all were accounted for – fit and well…… Perhaps too fit and too well….

Gregarious in habit, with a large splashy, unruly, feathery raft of around 60 individuals frequently paddling up, and then drifting down the river.

If you can’t help but feel a twinge of envy as you watch the tourists pass through town on their way to the striking wilderness of our national parks, the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust might just have the antidote. The trust is looking to bolster its volunteer force and is calling on locals to register their interest to assist with recording predator data and clearing traps within the national park.

We were delighted to welcome 72 new pāteke at Hadfield Clearing on Thursday 3 May.

They were released on the banks of the lower Awapoto River, at Hadfield Clearing, near Awaroa.  The translocation  follows a successful release of 20 of the ducks by Project Janszoon and DOC last year. 90% of the ducks released in 2017 have survived their first year, with two pairs breeding and hatching 12 ducklings.  There are only 2,500 pāteke left in the wild, mainly in the North Island.

Like a bloodhound, sniffing out an elusive prey DOC biodiversity ranger Steve Deverell has been out hunting.  And the results of his efforts is good news for a rare species in the upper reaches of the Park. His prey?  Native mistletoe.  Until recently only 24 red mistletoe plants have been found at Moa Park and Canaan.  Steve’s survey has doubled that to 50 plants – an indication the forest is recovering as a result of sustained pest control.

It has been a busy start to the year for our education team who report that students are really enthused about heading into the Park.

DOC education ranger Brooke Turner says Motueka High School has had a range of students studying in the Abel Tasman in term 1, including Design, Outdoor Education, Geography and Science classes.  Some of the students are returning to the Park for their 2^nd and 3^rd years as part of their adopt-a-section classes.

The objectives of Project Janszoon’s planting projects on the foreshore in Abel Tasman National Park are to reduce the fire risk to the national park and to help build resilience in native foreshore ecosystems.   Some area of foreshore can be stable for long periods of time, but it is a dynamic ecosystem and will always be subject to damage in extreme weather events.

By Dave Hansford, Wilderness Magazine Feb 2018

A conservation project in Abel Tasman National Park has struck a new agreement which will ensure environmental gains are guaranteed by future governments.

Project Janszoon is a private trust working with DOC, the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust, iwi and the community to transform the ecology of the Abel Tasman National Park. This video looks at the first five years (from 2012 to 2017) of the projects’ 30 year journey.

In May 2017 20 rare pateke / brown teal were released into the Abel Tasman National Park by Project Janszoon and DOC. This is only the 2nd mainland site in the South Island where pateke are found and if the ducks do well up to 300 will be released over 7 years.

The Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust transfer 34 south island robin from Motuareronui Adele Island in the Abel Tasman National Park to Pitt Head on the mainland on 30 May 2016. Extensive rat control on the mainland means the birds will have every chance to thrive.

Project Janszoon and DOC plan to release up to 100 kaka in the Abel Tasman National Park. This video documents the background, release and subsequent monitoring of the first four birds in November 2015.

In August Project Janszoon and DOC completed an aerial 1080 operation in the Abel Tasman National Park. It was undertaken in response to a beech mast which saw a huge increase in rat numbers. This video documents the drop and gives background on the operations and how 1080 works and where it comes from

There are only just over 600 South Island Saddleback left in New Zealand. In September 2014 40 were transferred from Motuara Island in the Marlborough Sounds to Adele Island in the Abel Tasman National Park by the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust. This story which featured on TV3’s Campbell Live follows their journey.

Rare look at baby banded rail at Marahau Estuary at the start of the Abel Tasman National Park. Video taken by Wendy from Project Janszoon