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Trees That Count

@treesthatcount

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Restoring Aotearoa New Zealand's native forests and ecosystems. Fund restoration planting projects across the country to recover native biodiversity.

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Three billion steps for nature, and counting. 🥾

Every year, the Bupa Healthy Cities Challenge encourages people across Aotearoa and Australia to get active for their own health and the health of the planet, with each step unlocking vital funding for nature regeneration mahi.

This September, Trees That Count has been walking, running and exploring the precious places we love most, clocking up more than 10 million steps toward the total.

And with just a few days to go, we're gearing up to finish strong for te taiao. 🌿

📸 Pictured:
- Waikawau in Coromandel, captured by Penny
- Sarah in rural South Ōtākau
- Joris on a stroll around Island Bay
- A sunny day in Miramar, captured by Kelsi
- Ella the horse and snow on the Tararua Ranges, captured by Kay
- Emma (and Pablo) out for a lunchtime walk in Pōneke by @treesthatcount

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9 days ago

How do we make sure funding for native trees makes a tangible impact? Hear from Technical Advisor Elliot Easton, who takes you behind the scenes.

In his words, “Restoration projects that thrive are usually those where the groundwork has been done well before the planting day itself, and where people remain committed long after the last tree goes in the ground.” 🌿 by @treesthatcount

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10 days ago

This week, AIA Vitality Members can hit their AIA Vitality Active Rewards target, donate their reward to @treesthatcount, and AIA Vitality will match it - turning a $5 donation into $10 to plant more native trees across Aotearoa New Zealand.

While a single $5 donation may seem small, collective donations together can help restore native forests, improve waterways, support biodiversity, and create lasting benefits for future generations.

T&Cs pinned in the comments taken in Awaawaroa by @treesthatcount

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20 days ago

"Every rākau we return to the whenua returns a piece of us." 🌳

Recently, our Planting Partnerships Manager Emma Giesen took to the stage at the Endangered Species Foundation National Hui for a kōrero alongside Rangitahi Wharepapa (Te Whānau ā Apanui).

Together, they spoke about the Raukūmara Pae Maunga Restoration Project's efforts to revitalise the mauri of the Raukūmara — the North Island’s largest native forest from maunga to moana.

The kaupapa was born in 2020, when neighbouring iwi Te Whānau ā Apanui and Ngāti Porou noticed their ancestral ngahere had fallen silent, with few manu to be heard and an understory that had all but disappeared. Downstream, the health of the moana was under strain too — the result of unstable hillsides across the Raukūmara Range releasing sediment into waterways.

So they got to work. Not just to regenerate the Raukūmara, but to reconnect whānau to their whenua, to their whakapapa, and to each other. The mahi began at home, with hapū reintroducing native trees around their own marae.

Today, Raukūmara Pae Maunga is one of the world's largest indigenous-led conservation projects, having sparked a groundswell of restoration spirit across the region, from Hawai to Tolaga Bay. It’s a kaupapa that Trees That Count is immensely privileged to help enable. 🌿

@endangeredspeciesfoundation
@raukumarangahere
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📸 Pictured:
Rangitahi’s niece and brother, preparing to plant mānkua
One of many hīkoi through the ngahere by @treesthatcount

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24 days ago

This week, AIA Vitality Members can turn their workout into a native tree. ⁣
⁣
Hit your physical activity target, donate your $5 Active Reward to @treesthatcount and AIA Vitality will double it to make it $10. ⁣
Apple Watch Member? Just hit your physical activity target this week, and we'll donate $1 to Trees That Count.⁣
T&Cs pinned in the comments.⁣
⁣
Together, we're helping fund native tree planting projects across Aotearoa and create healthier forests for future generations. by @treesthatcount

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24 days ago

800 native trees planted along the banks of the Roding River in just three hours. That’s the power of community. 🌿

The Roding Catchment Group was established in 2023 by five families with a shared vision to protect and restore the Roding Catchment.

Just three years in, they’re already making impressive strides toward their goals to improve water quality, reintroduce native vegetation and create habitat for endangered species — mahi we’re proud to help support, thanks to Trees That Count funders. by @treesthatcount

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a month ago

Clean water, native forests, dramatic landscapes. Travel and the environment are deeply connected – especially here in Aotearoa where tourism is our second-largest export earner.

But travel puts real pressure on the places it touches.

For @ahiparaluxurytravel, adding a native tree contribution to every itinerary has become an ongoing way to give back to the places their customers come here to experience. 🌿

🔗 Read their story via the link in our bio — and learn why more than 250 tourism businesses support native forest regeneration with Trees That Count. by @treesthatcount

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a month ago

Celebrating the biodiversity of the Haakarimata Ranges. 🌿

Ngā mihi to Brian Cutting and David Sheely from the @haakarimatarestorationtrust for sharing these images.

Near Ngaaruawaahia, the Haakarimata Ranges sit at a unique meeting point: a place where northern kauri forest and southern New Zealand beech forest overlap, creating a mix of habitats that once supported some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the country.

Centuries of human activity and introduced pests have put immense pressure on this special place, but the Haakarimata Restoration Trust is striving to change that, leading an ambitious project to regenerate native forest and improve waterway health across the Ranges' lower slopes.

It's spearheaded by a group of neighbours, some with a dream to see their children swimming safely in local streams, others envisioning native birds moving freely. Many are keen to see the return of the giant bush dragonflies they remember from their childhood.

📸 Pictured:
Giant springtail (Brian Cutting)
Ruru (Brian Cutting)
Korimako (David Sheely)
Tūī (David Sheely) by @treesthatcount

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a month ago

The @ruamahanga_restoration_trust is regenerating six sites along the upper reaches of the Ruamāhanga River — part of their vision to create thriving biodiversity corridors stretching from Mt Bruce all the way to Palliser Bay.

One site includes the Hidden Lakes, formed by the massive 8.2 magnitude 1855 Wairarapa earthquake, once home to a hillside pā long since buried as a result of the quake.

A key part of the Trust's approach is involving local schools in hands-on restoration mahi, connecting students with their environment and heritage.
We recently visited one of the sites, at Dunvegan Station, where Restoration Advisor Trevor Thompson shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse of something students often learn: how native moss can be used to build shelters.

"It's all interesting — not just the giant things, but the little things as well."

Since 2024, Trees That Count funders have enabled the Trust and local schools to plant 3,000 native trees across these sites. 🌿 by @treesthatcount

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a month ago

On the Ōkato coast, in the shadow of Taranaki Maunga, six families are leading something quite extraordinary.

Their local stream, the Maitahi, has been under pressure for some time — the result of years of effluent runoff and a lack of vegetation to filter it. So they decided to do something about it, clearing weeds and planting riparian margins across the catchment.

Their dedicated efforts are helping to nurture the health of the waterway and restore vital shade cover, benefitting not just the wildlife in and around the stream, but the wider community too.

For the past three seasons, they've been supported by Rapid Reforestation, a locally-based volunteer group of all ages who show up to planting days with spades in hand to help get plants in the ground. It's hard mahi, but it's always followed by warm kai.

This is what your support makes possible: people and communities taking action to help the places they call home thrive. by @treesthatcount

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2 months ago

What happens when a community spends more than two decades restoring habitat in and around coastal dunes in Ōtepoti/Dunedin? The world’s rarest sea lion species, the pakakē/ New Zealand sea lion, has more space to move around, shelter, and give birth safely.

Pakakē almost disappeared from the mainland, but around 30 years ago they began to return. And, today, with numbers still increasing, community groups like the Tomahawk Smaills BeachCare Trust have expanded their focus further inland in response – providing forest habitat, too.

The trust is one of several groups enhancing habitat and biodiversity across Dunedin's parks and reserves. This year, they're planting a new site as part of their 'Growing Habitat for NZ Sea Lions' project. Behind the mahi is a remarkable community, volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, with plants grown from an eco-sourced nursery at Smaills Beach.

Over the past four years, Trees That Count funders have helped fund 5,500 native trees for this vital part of the motu. 🌿 by @treesthatcount

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2 months ago

The 2026 planting season is well underway — and across the motu, the people, whānau, communities, project teams, and volunteers behind the mahi have been hard at work, laying the foundations for nature to thrive.

From the far reaches of Te Tai Tokerau to the deep south of Te Waipounamu, every tree donated through Trees That Count finds its roots in a restoration project, backed by those who show up, season after season.

These are just some of the people and places you're supporting when you fund native trees:

🌱 @projectislandsong: an open sanctuary, working to restore the Eastern Bay of Islands to thriving native habitat.

🌱 @tipuwaiariki: mana whenua, community groups, and businesses regenerating land and waterways within the Waiāriki catchment.

🌱 Maitahi Stream Restoration: six families on the Ōkato coast restoring their local stream from sea to source.

🌱 @piakowaihoucatchmenttrust: restoring ecosystems in part of the Waikato where less than 2% of the original forest remains. by @treesthatcount

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2 months ago