Puketahā is a proposed wildlife sanctuary to be established in a water catchment reserve in

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. Origin of name The word 'Wainui-o-mata' is a Māori name made up of the words Wai = water, Nui = big, O = of, and Mata – which could refer ...

, New Zealand. The proposed sanctuary would involve constructing a predator-proof fence, enclosing an area of . The forecast cost is NZ$42 million. A study commissioned by

Wellington Regional Council Wellington Regional Council, branded as Greater Wellington Regional Council, is the regional council overseeing the Wellington Region of New Zealand's lower North Island. It is responsible for public transport under the brand Metlink, environm ...

and conducted by Jim Lynch, the founder of

Zealandia Zealandia (pronounced ), also known as (Māori) or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.Gurnis, M., Hall, C.E., and Lavier, L.L., ...

, reported in 2022 that establishing the sanctuary was "technically and practically feasible". The site of the proposed sanctuary is the Wainuiomata water catchment area containing virgin forest that is rare in New Zealand. It would be 15 times as large as the Zealandia sanctuary. Native trees inside the proposed sanctuary include tawa, hīnau, rātā,

mataī ''Prumnopitys taxifolia'', the mataī ( mi, mataī) or black pine, is an endemic New Zealand coniferous tree that grows on the North Island and South Island. It also occurs on Stewart Island/Rakiura (47 °S) but is uncommon there. It grows up ...

, miro, and

rimu ''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...

. Of these, rimu is particularly abundant, covering 85% of the sanctuary. The large number of rimu could make it feasible to translocate critically endangered

kākāpō The kākāpō ( ; ; from the mi, kākāpō, , night parrot), also known as owl parrot (''Strigops habroptilus''), is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrots of the super-family Strigopoidea, endemic to New Zeal ...

birds to the sanctuary, because rimu is important to their breeding success. Other threatened birds such as

rowi The Okarito kiwi (''Apteryx rowi''), also known as the rowi or Okarito brown kiwi, is a member of the kiwi family Apterygidae, described as new to science in 2003. The species is part of the brown kiwi complex, and is morphologically very si ...

kiwi and hihi could also be translocated to the sanctuary.

References

External links

RNZ interview with Jim Lynch about Puketahā - April 2022
Protected areas of the Wellington Region Wildlife sanctuaries of New Zealand Lower Hutt {{Wellington-geo-stub