Renewables
Landfill gas, captured and transformed. Renewable energy, powering up to 4,000 homes.
Conservation / Kate Valley Group
Thinking in generations.
Communities rely on infrastructure every day.
At Kate Valley Group, that responsibility runs further, to the landscapes, ecosystems and communities connected to Kate Valley.
Conservation began as a condition of consent. Kate Valley Group has since adopted it as one of its core values, supporting the regeneration of indigenous forest, strengthening biodiversity and creating lasting environmental value well beyond what was required.
Today, that commitment is taking shape through Tiromoana Bush, one of Canterbury’s most significant long-term conservation projects.
Our Vision
Tiromoana, a vision measured in centuries.
He Kitenga o Te Wāheke / A View to the future
Tiromoana Bush
Take a moment to imagine… standing here
300 years from now you will see before you a mosaic of forest and wetland.
Aotearoa’s tallest tree, kahikatea, towers above wetlands, their buttressed roots holding firm. Mighty tōtara will cloak the hillsides, leading down to the coast, with patches of tawhai/beech on dry ridges. Trees echo with the voices of korimako, bellbird, tūī and the whirr of kererū wings. Wildlife flourishes and people visit to learn, recreate and enjoy.
Twenty years in.
The vision is already taking shape.
Stewardship at Tiromoana
Every vision needs stewardship. At Tiromoana, long-term thinking becomes action: regeneration planting, predator control, ecological monitoring and a commitment to working with nature.
Restoring Tiromoana Bush was part of the vision from day one.
The commitment continues today through a 300-year regeneration vision, renewed every five years through an updated Restoration Management Plan, each generation building on the last.
Locally sourced native planting reconnects remnant forest. Predator control gives native birds, lizards and other wildlife the chance to thrive. Wetlands continue to expand. Ecological monitoring tracks it all, guiding what comes next.
Across Tiromoana, indigenous plants, birds, lizards and other wildlife are taonga, living treasures whose protection is part of caring for this landscape across generations.
Kate Pond shows what that thinking looks like in practice.
Created as part of the project and sustained by year-round stream flows, its wetlands now support an increasingly diverse range of native birdlife. The air is filled with birdsong and the pond has become a destination for visitors exploring Tiromoana Bush.
One purpose runs through all of it: leave this landscape stronger for the generations that follow.
Part of Something Bigger
Regenerating Aotearoa’s indigenous forests and wetlands is one of the most urgent environmental challenges of our time.
Think Like a Forest, a Pure Advantage documentary, follows the people and places behind Recloaking Papatūānuku, an ambitious programme to regenerate two million hectares of indigenous forest across Aotearoa over the next 30 years.
Tiromoana Bush is part of that story.
At its heart is kaitiakitanga: guardianship, long-term responsibility for the natural world. It is an idea of walking backwards into the future, eyes fixed on what we leave behind.
The documentary features Professor David Norton, one of Aotearoa’s leading restoration ecologists and former Chair Gill Cox. Their shared vision has helped guide Tiromoana’s restoration since 2004. They explain why conservation is measured in centuries, not years.
Professor Norton on the scale of that commitment: “Remember, a mature tōtara might live for 400 years. Our lifespan is just a blink in their eye.”
Gill, on why Tiromoana was restored: “We wanted to give back to the community that was hosting us, to bring the land back to the way it used to be.”
Watch ‘Think Like a Forest’
Featured on Air New Zealand and TVNZ+ Think Like a Forest explores one of Aotearoa's most inspiring restoration movements and why Tiromoana Bush is part of that story.
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Partnerships
Over $1.7 million returned to the local community through the Kate Valley Group Community Trust.