The Urewera ecological districts form a vast, rugged forested heart of the central North Island. Waimana is dominated by steep valleys of the Whakatāne and Waimana Rivers, cloaked mainly in rimu–tawa forest with pockets of beech, supporting blue duck, kiwi, kokako and parakeets. Ikawhenua is more dissected, with extensive podocarp–beech forests, including large tracts of red and silver beech, and is home to kiwi, falcon and the lesser short-tailed bat. Waikaremoana, with its dramatic lakes and ranges, holds the most diverse birdlife, including rare parakeet populations, falcon, robin and brown kiwi, and was once the last refuge of extinct species such as huia and piopio. Together, these districts protect some of the largest remaining native forests in the North Island, though areas have been modified by farming and logging on their fringes.