This 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Reserve, on New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula, is an incredible story of how degraded, gorse-infested farmland, has been regenerated into beautiful native forest over the course of 30 years. Once considered a plan expected only of fools and dreamers, manager, botanist Hugh Wilson, is now considered a hero locally and across the country for bringing back 1,500 hectares of native forest, with abundant wildlife and permanent flows of water.

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  • Diane Hughes

    Nature will restore herself as soon as we quit destroying her. I needed to hear that as I am feeling so sad as tornadoes and wildfires have been so harsh recently, harming so many places I care about in California and the Midwest.

  • Mary Dudley Gilmer

    What a lovely video! So cool to think of Mr. Wilson and his ilk, looking at this from America where we need more like him. I had never heard of “gorse” so the whole video was extremely educational. Thank you.

  • Chris Isherwood

    My uncle used to spray gorse up in Whitecliffs. The poison got to him and now he has cancer. The idea of using gorse to bring back natives is simply fantastic.

  • Richard

    What an inspiring story, a compelling demonstration of basic processes that need to be recognized far more widely. Re homo sapiens, "We're good at destroying things, but not so good at setting things right." On the other hand, as this film shows, some homo sapiens can see pathways to things being set right.

  • Lai Meng Chin

    What inspired you about this video? If we stop doing that which is damaging, nature restores naturally. That applies to everything in life. We are so blessed!!!

  • Blissfool

    Thank yo, thank you. Thank you for showing is that - Yes, it's possible when we human get out of the way and leave our mother earth alone.

  • Babcia

    Conservation is so important to our planet. I'm so thankful to see this inspiring reminder of our job as occupants of earth. BEAUTIFUL film. People following nature's way of plant regeneration is key!

  • Mara Stevens

    Absolutely EVERYTHING! This is one of the most beautiful, inspiring stories and videos I've ever had the pleasure of seeing! Thank you so much and blessings on Hugh, his helpers and his vision!

  • Heidi J Smith

    Fools and dreamers are arising all over the planet. One of the themes I'm hearing quite often lately is that healing the earth through conservation doesn't have to be only big projects. If every person does what they can, no matter how small or big, it contributes to the whole. Plant a single tree, grow a garden for the birds and bees. Every effort helps. Thank you, Hugh, for your work and for being an inspiration for us to do our part.

  • Marsha Downs

    After recently watching many videos of Diana Beresford Kroeger, I also fell in love with this man. Her video, The Call of the Forest, shows much about the importance of forests, but also how the forest feeds the ocean. And here Hugh Wilson is, on this penninsula, doing this very thing, even if he might not understand that benefit, though he certainly understands the biodiversity. If it was there to begin with, it needs to be put back to rights for the ecosystem to thrive. Biodiversity is the key to a healthy earth. He is a treasure to the health of this planet. May we all become fools and dreamers, for that is the only way this earth can truly survive. And as much as I love gorse for it's yellow beauty, here is a man that totally understood it enough to use it while letting other things grow under it until it shaded it out. No poisons, no herbicides. Can't more people be like him?

  • kit

    "the problems are immense but the solutions are immense too"...beautiful and nourishing film, thank you!

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  • Learn more about the Hinewai Reserve, located on the Banks Peninsula in New Zealand.
  • Watch more "stories for a changing world" by Happen Films.
  • What small thing can you do to regenerate native growth in your part of the world?

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