Bushy Park is a unique remnant of the lowland rainforest that once covered this part of the country. Although most of the surounding country was cleared for farming, the Moore family took care to preserve this piece of forest for posterity.
It is only 10 minutes from State Highway Three and 20 minutes from Wanganui, and this ease of access makes it available to all.
Unlike much of the rest of the country, Bushy Park was never milled or
burned, so it retains it's ancient native trees. An ongoing programme
of predator control and the construction of a predator proof fence
right around the forest, helped by the efforts of adjacent land-owners,
has resulted in the elimination of stoats, possums, cats and other
threats to the wildlife and the forest, so the natural cycle of life in
the forest is not disrupted by imported pests. This predator control is
ongoing.
Visitors to the forest are able to see New Zealand as it was before the
arrival of man, and this is the true beauty of Bushy Park. It is not
the length, or degree of difficulty of the walks, that keeps people
returning, but the tranquillity and peace of the bush and the sound of
thousands of unthreatened native birds.
Much of the forest can be accessed by a network of walks, varying in
length from a few minutes to more than an hour, and from easy to
moderate difficulty.
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