Mapping nature for smarter restoration on farms

Wendy Sullivan, Wairau Nature Network

The Wairau Nature Network has launched an interactive mapping app that’s proving to be a valuable tool for land managers, farmers and community groups across the Wairau catchment in Marlborough.

Designed in collaboration with MapHQ, the app provides users with a visual overview of native vegetation, restoration projects, and opportunities for ecological connectivity throughout the catchment.

The tool helps you see both what native vegetation currently exists and where gaps in native vegetation could be filled by restoration planting. By exploring map layers, landowners can identify potential ecological corridors, areas where native habitats link up across property boundaries.

These corridors allow wildlife to move more freely and increase the resilience of native species, benefiting both biodiversity and the wider landscape.

For landowners, this means smarter planning for environmental projects such as riparian planting, shelterbelts, or wetland restoration. Rather than working in isolation, the mapping app supports strategic thinking about how your land connects with surrounding patches of native vegetation, and how small local efforts can contribute to a broader ecological network.

The Wairau Nature Network was created to bring local landowners, community groups and agencies together to boost native cover and landscape connectivity in a catchment that has lost much of its original vegetation. The app complements this by making restoration data easy to access and use on the ground.

Whether you’re planning new plantings or just curious about nature on your property, the app is a simple way to link farm productivity with thriving ecosystems.

Please email Wendy at [email protected] if you’d like your restoration project added.

Find the app at https://wairaunaturenetwork.maphq.co.nz/