Whangārei Heads · Aotearoa New Zealand
Heads Habitat
Environmental management,
for the land you love and the species that depend on it.
Tailored, trusted, reliable, regular - connecting your property to the wider restoration effort.
What will thrive because you were here? The next conservation gains won't come from reserves alone. They'll come from connecting the land between them. Every property we work on helps habitat connectivity and creates ecological corridors. By subscribing, you're joining a movement and leaving a legacy for future generations. You care about your land, but you may not have the time, equipment or specialist knowledge to manage it consistently. Heads Habitat takes care of the practical work for you.
Talk to us about your property
021 556 638
Call or text Hadden
Heads Habitat is a community conservation collective.
We make it easy for private landowners to join the wider conservation effort through tailored, ongoing care for their land. From pest animal and plant control to ecological assessments and planting plans, every service contributes to landscape-scale biodiversity restoration - protecting 20 years of hard-won conservation gains by connecting the private land between existing public land projects.You gain a healthier property, less pressure from invasive weeds and pests, and the confidence that your land is contributing to something much larger.
No time?
We handle the regular servicing.
What we do
With over ten years in the field at Whangārei Heads, we already know which trap works on which ridge, and which weed is actually the priority this season. Heads Habitat's primary goal is restoring biodiversity throughout the peninsula, giving our unique species a fighting chance - without interrupting your work or life.Pests don't respect protected public land boundaries so we provide a holistic, convenient, professional pest plant and animal control service for private landowners, lifestyle block owners, and community groups across Whangārei Heads.What you spend here works twice: funding landscape-scale conservation, and paying local people to do it. Your money flows directly back into the community.
Not sure what you need?
We'll assess the property and install a practical management system.
Services
Predator Control
Professional design, installation, and ongoing servicing of rat and mustelid traps and bait station networks using appropriate documentation, processes, certificates and insurance.Pest Plant Management
Identification, mapping, and targeted control of invasive weed species before they spread - from mothplant and wild ginger to pampas and privet.Ecological Planning
A practical planting and habitat plan suited to your land. Site assessments, planting plans, biodiversity baseline reports, landscape-level pest management plans, and grant-ready documentationCommunity Facilitation
Connecting landowners, hapū, councils, and community groups to achieve coordinated, landscape-scale outcomes across the whole peninsula.
Transparent pricing. No surprises.
How is this priced? Our field rate is $85/hour, comparable with current NZ conservation contracting benchmarks. For context, Horizons Regional Council's 2026 restoration planning guidance allows $80/hour for contracted labour (not including vehicle use, equipment, consumables and reporting).A Heads Habitat subscription includes:
- Initial property assessment
- Tailored device plan
- Installation or checking of existing devices
- Scheduled servicing
- Bait and consumables
- Maintenance and replacement advice
- A simple progress update
- Local ecological knowledge
Want more than just pest control?
Your property becomes part of a connected restoration effort.
Why It Matters
Your property doesn't exist in isolation - this place is worth protecting for future generations. Whangārei Heads is one of the North Island's most significant landscapes, home to species found nowhere else on earth. Predator control on private land is the missing link - even the best reserve work can be undone without it.Stats:
- 84.8%. Most of the Heads remains outside the threshold for effective predator suppression.
- 6,444 hectares, Manaia is Northland’s smallest ecological district - yet Whangārei Heads ranks among New Zealand's most biodiversity-rich areas.
- 80 → 1,300+ Kiwi Recovery (2001 → 2025).
A powerful example of what sustained conservation can achieve.
- 160+ DOC identified more than 160 Threatened, At Risk or regionally significant species/taxa across the ecological district.
- Protecting the gains. Decades of public, philanthropic and community investment have gone into restoring Whangārei Heads. Protecting that investment means extending conservation beyond reserve boundaries.
About
Heads Habitat is run by people who have spent over ten years in the field at Whangārei Heads - not behind a desk.This isn't a franchise or a generic pest control company. It's a locally rooted service, built on genuine field knowledge, trusted relationships with tangata whenua and community groups, and a deep understanding of what this landscape needs to recover.
Heads Habitat operates within all relevant regulatory requirements, and works alongside DOC, PFW, NRC, iwi and hapū, and Northland's conservation trusts - including contract work with Bream Head Te Whara Conservation Trust and Weed Action Whangārei Heads.GrowSafe Certified · First Aid · CSL Holders · ArcGIS Pro · Diploma in Environmental Management · Firearms Licence · Chainsaw Certified · 4WD Operations · Te Tiriti Training · 10+ Years Field Experience · Northland-based
Connections & Affiliations
Heads Habitat helps protect previous investment by reducing reinvasion and acts as an independent link between landowners, community organisations, councils and conservation agencies.Contracting to:
• Bream Head Te Whara Conservation Trust
• Weed Action Whangārei HeadsVolunteering with:
• Reotahi Landcare
• Manaia LandcareIn active dialogue with:
• Predator Free Whangārei / Northland Regional Council
• Backyard Kiwi
• Department of Conservation Whangarei & Wellington
• Kiwi Coast
Contact
Talk to us about your property
021 556 638
Call or text HaddenWhether you’re a residential landowner wanting to do your bit, a lifestyle block owner looking for professional ongoing management, or a community group needing strategic support - we’d love to hear from you.
Examples of recent work:
GIS spatial analysis by Hadden Morrison, NorthTec - June 2026
This study mapped predator control coverage across all 9,280 hectares of Whangārei Heads, combining data from seven different organisations into a single landscape-wide picture for the first time. The finding behind Heads Habitat: 84.8% of the landscape falls below the minimum device density needed for effective rodent and mustelid suppression, with coverage clustered almost entirely around a handful of organisational boundaries - leaving unmanaged corridors where predators can reinvade faster than volunteers can keep up.
The gap isn't effort. It's coordination - and critically, the study found that most of the area still needing coverage sits on private land, which no agency can act on without a landowner's consent. That's exactly the gap Heads Habitat exists to close.
StoryMap produced by Hadden Morrison for WANHRT - August 2026
Weed Action's landscape-scale mahi protects reserves and public conservation land across the Heads - but the site-by-site data tells a consistent story: healthy native forest, and a "buffer area" under constant pressure from weeds spreading in from the land around it, much of it private. In 2025–2026 alone, Weed Action directly engaged 79 landowners and supported 40 properties in the Parua Bay Privet Buffer, because a reserve boundary means nothing to a weed.
It's the same gap Heads Habitat exists to close on the animal pest side. Protecting the reserve isn't enough if the land next to it is left unmanaged - coordinated, property-by-property work on private land is what actually holds the gains reserves have already made.
A full vegetation and ecological survey conducted as independent fieldwork for NorthTec's Conservation Biology paper, mapping 19 distinct vegetation units across the property - from kahikatea and kauri forest through to wetland and shrubland habitat. Ecological Assessments and Restoration Plans: knowing what's growing on a property before recommending what to do about it.
