Mount Impey is a 3000 ha property owned by the Holdaway family in Marlborough's Wairau Valley. Historically, Mount Impey was used for grazing sheep and beef cattle.

The 2000 ha Mount Impey Conservation Estate was established in 2020. Removal of stock and the ongoing control of pest species are enabling the regeneration of native forest, which sequesters carbon and provides habitat for threatened native species. The remaining 1000 ha has been planted in production forestry, which absorbs more carbon while also providing a sustainable future timber resource.

The Mount Impey Conservation Estate is one of the largest privately owned areas of forest being actively managed for conservation in South Marlborough. It ranges in elevation from 300 m to 1448 m and encompasses a diverse array of ecosystems and habitats. It includes extensive areas of regenerating manuka and kanuka forest, broadleaved forest gullies, sub-alpine shrubland, tussock grassland, and significant mature remnant forest stands of red, silver, mountain and black beech, as well as mountain totara and matai.

Mount Impey is home to at least 13 plant species that are recognised as nationally endangered and/or at risk, including the nationally endangered tree Pittosporum patulum, and an additional twenty-six vascular plant species that are either rare or absent elsewhere in the ecological district.

The area is large enough to support native birds such as the eastern falcon, South Island robin, morepork, and abundant populations of other native forest birds such as tui, bellbird, tomtit, fantail, and brown creeper. It is also home to endangered reptiles such as the South Marlborough grass skink, a range of unique invertebrates including the endemic tree weta.

Ongoing management by the Holdaway family, with the help of a few dedicated volunteers, seeks to address the numerous threats facing the Conservation Estate.

This includes:

• The establishment of a network of over 500 traps to control invasive predators such as possums, rats, stoats and feral cats that, if not controlled, can have a devastating effect on New Zealand’s endemic ecosystems.
• Removal of weeds such as wilding Douglas fir and Pinus contorta that would otherwise smother the native vegetation

Control of feral pigs, goats, possums and deer to allow the regeneration of palatable species such as tree fuchsia, narrow-leaved mahoe, Aciphylla sub-flabellata, and the native mistletoe Tupeia antarctica (pictured here)

All of this work is being funded by proceeds from wine sales. By buying our wine you can directly contribute to the enhancement of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity.