Both the group and the Council had the shared goal of wanting to develop world class tracks and restore the native forest – developing a cloak of native forest as protection for the riders and the conservation of the area was seen as critical to the long-term success of the park.
The Mākara Peak Supporters even made a vow to plant at least one tree for every metre of new track to offset the impact of bush clearance for track development.
By 2014 the park had grown to 250 hectares with over 40 kilometres of hand-built single tracks and over 35,000 native seedlings planted.
Pests such as goats, sheep, and possums dramatically reduced with volunteers maintaining possum traps, bait stations and mustelid traps, allowing new vegetation to flourish.
Since the early days of the park being established to present day, supporters have planted important species such as kahikatea, miro, matai, rimu, northern rata, tawa, kohekohe, and kamahi – diversifying the forest. When the park was first opened, there were only three podocarps over four metres tall and now there are 212.