Nature’s Symphony- a visual journey through our Forests, by Marilyn Rea-Menzies

Walking through the local bush here in the Buller – West Coast of the South Island, I am always blown away by the details, the lichens, the forest floor, the fungi and the epiphytes growing on many of the large trees. It is hard to take it all in as there is so much to see. My camera goes pretty much everywhere with me and my photographs are often the starting point for my work.

I spent the first two years of life in the middle of the bush at Rahui where my father was a bushman and we lived in a cabin in the logging camp there. I do not have any actual memories of this time as I was so small, but my love of nature and the bush surely stems from this early start in life.

New Zealand’s forest ecosystems are unique and before people reached this country, more than 80% of the land was covered in lush, dense native forest and shrublands. Now they are second most threatened forests in the world and house only 5% of their original habitat. Our forests are home to 5% of our endemic species and are home to at least 1500 plants which are not found anywhere else in the world. Introduced wild animals such as deer, chamois, pigs, tahr and goats eat and damage the native plants and habitats, while introduced possums, cats, rats and stoats compete with our native birdlife for food and habitat. They also eat the eggs and young and attach the adults.