Mt Taranaki ranger Tāne Houston - 'we let the forest talk for itself'

Country Life takes a walk with mountain ranger Tāne Houston through the forest on the slopes of Mt Taranaki. We head up the volcano along a trap line, resetting bait, foraging and chatting about the progress made in restoring the landscape.https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6351213811112Imagine your office as the side of a mountain, and one as revered as the great volcanic peak at the heart of the Taranaki region.It's the place of work - but also a place of wellbeing - for mountain ranger Tāne Houston.If you're out on one of the tracks, you might bump into him checking traps or passing on his knowledge to visiting school kids.He's part of the Taranaki Mounga project which aims to bring the maunga and the community living around it back to health.Tall and burly, Tāne strides ahead of me as we head up the track one morning in early autumn.He wears trampers' leggings, well worn boots and a high viz vest.His pockets are bulging with all the things you might need for trapping and keeping safe in the bush.Listen to Tāne Houston talk about his work on Mt TaranakiJust before the path begins to rise steadily up the mountain flank, Tāne stops to offer karakia."This maunga is my grandfather, this maunga is my grandmother," he explains."I engage with the mountain as a living being." Mt Taranaki is considered to be a sleeping active volcano (pdf). The last major eruption was around 1655.It stands just over 2500 metres high, one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world, like an island, surrounded by a sea of rich fertile farmland.That makes it somewhat easier to get rid of predators and pests and fulfill the project's mission of restoring the landscape.The Mounga project, a collaboration between several organisations and volunteer groups, has been going nine years and it covers 34,000 hectares, including the Pouākai and Kaitake ranges to the northwest of the mountain and the Ngā Motu/Sugar Loaf Islands.In 2021-2022, goats were stamped out after an intensive hunting campaign, but the war against other pests - ferrets, stoats, weasels, rats and increasingly feral cats - continues.Feral cats like bear cubsTāne has been with the project four years now. He's worried about the increasing number of feral cats being caught in the lower regions of the mountain.He says the cats - two or three generations down from their domesticated ancestors - appear to have evolved to suit the wild. They look like bear cubs, with thicker fur and stubbier, stronger legs and necks, he told Country Life…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details