Surveying 1,600 hectares of rolling hill country on foot is possible, but the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust (BPCT) would rather do it from the air. "We use it on farms for capturing, basically, native biodiversity from above," James Wright of the trust's farm biodiversity team said of its newest drone, flying over Tim Coop's sheep and beef property at Port Levy for RNZ's Country Life.

Coop's farm carries remnant indigenous flora, including a bench of old totara — "the last few giants", he said, that he wants to protect. Wright flies the drone while colleague Josh Foster watches through binoculars for birds that might chase it; the imagery is then combined with on-foot surveys and eDNA tests, and the trust sends each farmer a package describing what lives on the property.

Coop, the fourth generation on his land, said he was in the early stages of understanding the farm's mix of plants: "You don't realise how much it regenerates, until you start looking down on it."

The same approach is documenting recovery at Te Ahu Patiki, a 500 hectare former farm turned public park and native restoration project that runs from the peninsula's highest peak to Mount Bradley. BPCT surveyed it two weeks before heavy flooding in mid-February scored "fingernail scratches" through parts of the park; co-ordinator Sarah Anderson said the trust can now return every couple of years to map how native plants come back from bare ground.

The farm biodiversity programme began in 2023, but the trust itself was formed by a group of farmers in 2001 and marks 25 years this year. Foster said its collaborative style — talking with farmers rather than at them — is what makes long-term progress possible on private land. "There's such a respectful relationship," Coop said. "There's never any sticks — sticks don't work, it's carrots." The story was first published by RNZ, reported by Anisha Satya.

Source: Farmers Weekly NZ