Millennium Native Forest Reserve is a publicly accessible five-hectare wetland forest in Masterton protected by a QEII covenant and owned by the Masterton Trust Lands Trust. The Friends of the Millennium Native Forest Reserve, a group that looks after the reserve, was looking for a way to connect to their local community and landed on an idea that was a little bit different – a QR code trail that leads visitors through filmed storytelling about the forest.

The project to set up and film the stories for the QR trail was supported by funding from QEII’s contestable fund, The Stephenson Fund, among other support from their local community groups. “This was a bit of a different project compared to a lot of other projects that we come across for The Stephenson Fund, but it’s cool to see this project come to fruition,” says Madison Genet, QEII’s senior coordinator.

The Friends of the Millennium Native Forest Reserve hosted a screening night for the full Millennium Forest Native Reserve film in late February and held an open day for the QR trail at the reserve the following day. Visitors can now follow the trail through Millennium Forest Native Reserve and scan the QR codes to see videos about the forest on their phones.

Credit for photos: Paul Rushbrook