Over 150 supporters of the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary gathered at Bowater Honda listen to Brook Waimarama Sanctuary General Manager Hudson Dodd detailing the need for a pest proof fence.

Fundraising for the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary pest-proof fence got a big boost with the official launch of the public phase of the campaign at Bowater Honda on Friday night.

Over 150 invited guests were treated to an evening of information, celebration and motivation to take the initiative and "Get behind the Fence". The evening was also an opportunity to celebrate the new campaign office situated in the top showroom of Bowater Honda's central city dealership. This new central city location will hopefully make the new phase of fundraising a little easier, with a more visible location in the heart of Nelson city, and the chance for those passing by to wander in and see progress of the Sanctuary project and even meet a few of the sanctuary locals, like the 3 very handsome gecko's in the campaign office at the moment!

It was a great turnout and a very successful launch event, with invited guests able to mix and mingle for the first part of the evening and talk through the project with a strong contingent of Brook Sanctuary Waimarama Trust members, Sanctuary staff, local Tasman District and Nelson City Councillors, local MP and Minister of Conservation Hon Dr Nick Smith, and Tasman District Mayor Richard Kempthorne.

The money is flowing in and the birdlife flowing back ... but it's early days yet.

Nelson Mail reporter Naomi Arnold checks progress on the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in this great article from The Nelson Mail.

The birds are coming down out of the hills and back into our lives. There's been a skinny brown weka poking around the bushes near the Nelson Post Shop during the last couple of weeks, and others spotted running through the gardens of The Wood.

There are more kereru weighing down city branches, more tui on the flaxes, and more bellbirds in Richmond gardens. In fact, there are more birds around here than there have been for years.

Their increasing numbers are due to the pest-trapping programmes in the hills from Richmond to Delaware Bay, which have been wiping out rats, stoats, possums, and more.

But those behind the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, an ambitious conservation project at the head of Nelson's Brook Valley, want more.

The old water reserve is already a biological haven, a dense pocket of mature beech, podocarp and broadleaf forest, some of which has never been felled. As trapping, tree-planting, weeding and track works progress in the valley - which includes 17,000 pests killed in fewer than six years and 80km of new tracks cut - it's also become full of new life. Pairs of little green rifleman, each weighing less than a $1 coin, have been spotted raising successful clutches. There are more robins, more falcons, and trappers even report hearing kaka at the tops.

Brook Sanctuary general manager Hudson Dodd says all that is excellent news - but only to a point. "It tells the story of a need for a fence."

The trust behind the sanctuary wants to build a pest-proof fence surrounding the valley, capable of blocking predators, from mice to deer.

The Brook Sanctuary intern Julia Teufel at work in the new Campaign Office at Bowater Honda on Rutherford Street whilst the A-Team from The Signman apply new images to Hudson's office space.

Julia has swapped her northern hemisphere spring for a taste of Nelson in the autumn, but couldn't be happier.
She has travelled here to be the new Brook Sanctuary intern, and 3 weeks into it she has already found her feet and integrated into the hard working core Brook Sanctuary team.