The latest edition of Forest & Bird’s quarterly magazine. Learn more about the magazine and become a member.
‘The story of one,’ in the current edition of Forest & Bird’s quarterly magazine, is just one of 31 stories unearthed by writers in the UK, US and NZ as part of 26 Plants, with the Wildlife Trusts and Bloomsbury Festival, back in 2023.
Our relationship with Forest & Bird, New Zealand’s largest and oldest independent conservation charity (https://www.forestandbird.org.nz), dates back to 2019 with 26 Trees. Since then we’ve collaborated on 26 Habitats NZ in 2021 and Forest & Bird’s Centennial in 2023. In each project, writers teamed up with artists to tell the story of an endangered habitat chosen by Forest & Bird, allowing us to shine the poetic light where it was needed most, adding our own words to ‘New Zealand’s independent voice for nature’.
Its new campaign this year will take 50+ species and places at risk of climate change and explain what we can do to help them survive and thrive. For this edition, editor and 26 friend, Caroline Wood had identified freshwater and wetlands as a critical topic. With a special focus on Whangamarino, 26 Plants was a natural fit with a magical illustration by Bristol-based artist, Georgia Hughes offering an intimate encounter with this elusive plant most of us will never see.
In Caroline’s accompanying features, we find out just how important wetlands are; how they protect communities from flooding, act as carbon sinks, and provide safe homes for native species. We also learn how protecting and rewetting them provides a proven nature-based climate solution, providing natural firebreaks and buffer zones to mitigate against wildfires. Although a natural phenomenon, conditions for wildfires are becoming measurably worse around the world. In a sobering stat, over 90% of New Zealand’s historic wetlands have been drained to make way for homes, farming and other land uses.
Shockingly, her editorial also reveals that, in October 2024, just months after ‘The story of one’ was written, a wild fire tore through the internationally designated Whangamarino, burning through 1,000 of its 7,000 hectares in nine days. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Department of Conservation and mana whenua , the fire was brought under control before it reached the cluster of tiny orchids in its path. That, though, is pretty much the only good news. The blaze released 96,000 -181,800 tonnes of greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere, heightening the risk of future wildfires.
In a further development, as the magazine was landing in members’ mailboxes, a major new three-yearly report by New Zealand’s ministry of the environment was published. Collating stats, data and research, it revealed a worrying outlook for unique species and declining water health.
So already ‘The story of one’ has a sequel. Our stories are written but still unfolding, our poems, essays and illustrations a moment in time, like a sample taken from the forest. And just as nature is connected in a myriad of known and unknown ways, so too are we – to it, to each other, to the world. The story of one is really the story of all of us.
– Jayne Workman