Retired teacher Pat Murphy has long involvement in conservation and environmental causes in Taranaki.

Pat Murphy sees himself as an ordinary person who just wants to makes a difference to his environment.

Murphy is a relative newcomer to the Department of Conservation volunteer ranks, where he is helping the Taranaki Maunga project to re-establish endangered native bird populations in Egmont National Park. The work is being carried out through predator control and endangered native bird releases.

"Most volunteers want to make a difference but I don't do nearly as much as others do for the Taranaki Mounga project," he said.

Pat Murphy Twenty one North Island robin, or toutouwai, were trans-located from Pureora Forest for release in Egmont National Park in May.

The project aimed to establish a predator free sanctuary for bird life within the national park boundary.

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"It is definitely achievable but there is a lot of work on the ground still to be done," he said.

When he was growing up in Putaruru, the nearby bush was devoid of native birdlife, he said.

"It was pretty sterile and there was no work being undertaken in those days to restore bird numbers."

When he was Omata Primary School deputy principal, Murphy involved the students in learning more about the environment.

Murphy worked 12 years at the school, helping students to clear weeds and control predators with trapping programmes, and adding interpretation signs on a small bush reserve near the school which was later recognised, after a student-led initiative, by Taranaki Regional Council as a key natural environment.

"It was an example of small coastal lowland forest and it became a source of high educational value for the students to learn how to enhance it," he said.

But he never set out to be at the front line of restoring the environment after he retired from teaching.

"I've always been a keen tramper and outdoors photographer and the two interests just blend together.

"I've had a long-term love of the bush and mountain, not so much climbing to the top but walking around in the national park."

In 2013 Murphy spent six months on a Royal Society-managed science fellowship working alongside Department of Conservation staff to help increase his knowledge of native plant life, specifically dactylanthus, in the national park.

By the end of the fellowship term he had come to admire the work and passion the department staff went about their tasks.

"It was neat working with people with like minds on a science-focused project," he said.

Two of the projects involved studying the Melicytus drucei plant, and the endangered parasitic Dactylanthus taylorii - the former found only in Taranaki on the edges of the Ahukawakawa swamp near the Pouakai track, and the latter, which relied on other plants for nutrients, and produced nectar-rich flowers liked by possums, and previously short tailed bats.

Murphy worked with DoC staff to build stainless steel cages over the dactylanthus to keep out the possums from gorging on the flower at root level, and and stopping the plants from reproducing by removing their ability to produce seed.

Since becoming a volunteer with Taranaki Maunga he has been involved with North Island robin, or toutouwai, releases, travelling to Pureora Forest to help with pre-feeding the tiny birds before they are translocated to a designated 1000ha predator-free zone within Egmont National Park.

"The pre-feeding and calling-in of the robins is all part of helping them get used to human contact and making them easier to catch," he said.

"I enjoy being involved in helping bring the species back to Taranaki after more than a century, and once they are released in the national park we can continue to monitor them from the first breeding."

The project was helping bring new life back to Mt Taranaki with whio, falcons, and kiwi re-establishing, as well as potential re-establishment of kaka and kakariki.

"It is exciting, and for the first time you can sense the whole conservation effort in the park coming alive.

"There's a big upsurge of school groups wanting to be involved with the project and it feels like we're starting to go somewhere."

The 1000ha block on the northern side of Mt Taranaki is tightly controlled against predators, with traps set up every 50m.

Once released, the robins will provide an anchor for more of the birds to populate the area, he said.

"Rats have decimated the bird life, especially robins, in the park although it hasn't affected tomtit population so much. Even though it is a closely-related species, its nest sites are perhaps less accessible and it is more aggressive than the robin in combating predators."

In spite of a lifetime looking at birds in the national park it is still a "great moment" when an inquisitive robin lands near his boot while tramping, he said.

"It will check you out, it's a special moment I always enjoy."