The Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust receiving their Supreme Award with Gerald Hope (far left), Andrew Macalister, Isabella Lee and Eric Jorgensen (Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust), and Dion Mundy (Plant and Food Research.

The Supreme and Landscape and Habitat enhancement award in 2021 was given to Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust for their trail-blazing community action on wilding pine control. Wilding pines pose a significant problem in the Sounds. The Trust was set up in 2003 to stop the rapid spread of wilding pine trees and bring back the native bush and distinctive skylines of the Sounds.

Working with landowners, Council, Government agencies and sponsors, the Trust raises funds to hire contractors to track down and poison each tree, one bay at a time. As the pines die off, the native bush returns.

The efforts of this volunteer Trust have had a huge impact on the appearance and biodiversity of the Sounds. They are leaders in wilding pine control and share their knowledge generously with similar groups around the country.

The MRC Trust has supported the Marlborough Environment Awards since inception in the late 1990s.

Gerald Hope, CEO of the Marlborough Research Institute says, “As joint supreme sponsor with long term partner Plant and Food Research we were delighted to announce the supreme winner: Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust who spearheaded community action on wilding pines in the Marlborough Sounds. We share their objective of ridding the landscape of this exotic self-spreading weed and returning the skyline and native forest to its original state. To all the category winners congratulations.”

This year we noticed a distinct theme of partnership between organisations, a theme that Marlborough Mayor John Leggett captured when he said “we achieve more for the environment when we work together”.

Dion Mundy, Senior Scientist, Plant and Food Research, in his speech added, “Listening tonight really bought home for me what the partnership between Plant and Food and the MRC is all about. The MRC is helping us, the research whānau get a real hub with BRI, NMIT, and even MBIE on site together. All this expertise gives us critical mass, and means we are rubbing shoulders with students, particularly at NMIT, that means we can enthuse science, and science creates paths into the industries you are involved in.”

At the field days you will get a chance to see what impressed the judges. The dates will be published on the awards website, and we will relay them to you also as the dates are released.