Golden Bay Weekly - 26 June 2020

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Friday 26 June 2020

Conservation work resumes

Weed free: Gorse control work at Gouland Downs was fortunately completed long before lock down. Photo: Angus McKenzie, Southern Wilderness. ALISTAIR HUGHES

The full effects of the nation’s recent Covid-19 lockdown will probably be felt well into the future. One aspect concerning conservationists is the management of predators and invasive plants. For two-and-a-half months Department of Conservation (DOC) workers were forced to abandon their stringent pest control programmes and stay away. So, did the mice, rats and weeds play? Dave Winterburn, Takaka District operations manager for the Department of Conservation, has some heartening news. “Even though we couldn’t be out there, our predator traps were still operating and not dependent on people,” he explained. “Checking and re-baiting of many of them is done monthly, so it was a case of just pushing that out by few weeks. The A24 rat control traps are checked every three and six months, so they were unaffected. The lockdown wasn’t really an issue for the trapping programme.” Timing is everything, and this turned out to be another factor in DOC’s favour during the nationwide pandemic measures.

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THE GB WEEKLY, FRIDAY 26 JUNE 2020

to food, as they do every year. And because we were locked down, we were around home more to see them.” On a more positive note, an increase in bird sightings during this period could be due to them moving into towns as traffic diminished. “We were not behaving as we normally do, so as we change our routes and patterns, birds in response change theirs. Or we might have just been seeing more birds because we needed something to occupy us.” James has been especially concerned about predators finding their way to some of the islands in the Abel Tasman National Park, and affecting the native bird life there. “DOC keeps eradicating mice from the islands, but they somehow keep getting back there. So what we do with DOC are studies which have linked the genetics back to the mainland, and what we’re finding is that the mice are really good at hitchhiking on people’s boats.” Unexpectedly, the weeks of national quarantine have actually improved this frustrating situation. Continued on page 3

JO RICHARDS

Leaders from across the Nelson Tasman region have launched a $2.8 million action plan to tackle the immediate economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The Nelson Tasman Economic Response & Regeneration Action Plan was released last week by Project Kōkiri – a collaborative initiative involving Tasman District Council, Nelson City Council, Nelson Regional Development Agency (NRDA), Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce (NTCC), iwi and Government agencies, including the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for Primary Industries and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Coordination of the plan’s implementation will be led by the NRDA and NTCC. The 51-page document details the economic strategy and priorities for the region over the next 12 months, with the stated aim of the project being “…to initiate a response and regeneration that will stimulate the economy, protect and create new jobs and accelerate investment into the region. We will do this by leveraging our advantages around the primary sector, strong liveability proposition and tourism”. In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, economic forecasts predict that the Nelson Tasman economy could contract by $280m (7.9%) over the year to March 2021, with the transport, retail and hospitality industries taking the biggest hit - mainly as a result of the region’s decline in tourism. Almost 1 in 10 jobs (5,300) are expected to be lost, mainly in low-skilled categories, and the local unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 8.6%. In late April, Project Kōkiri submitted a request for $155.4m to the Government’s Crown Infrastructure Fund to finance 14 priority “shovel-ready” projects that would directly employ 2434 people. For its part, TDC is looking to spend $63.7m on capital projects in 2020/2021, compared to the $45.8m in its Long Term Plan 2018-2028. The significant changes for Golden Bay relate to funding the Port Tarakohe upgrade, and potentially fasttracking improvements to the Pohara stormwater network. Over the next three months, Project Kōkiri will assess and prioritise around 100 other project submissions, but also intends to develop a limited number of large projects, as well as exploring ways of attracting hi-tech companies to the region. Collaboration is the key ingredient in the plan, said Tasman Mayor Tim King... Continued on page 3

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“If this had happened to us in November, or December, it would probably have had a worse effect,” admitted Dave. “But we were coming towards the end of our busy period for predator control.” Dr James Russell, conservation biologist at the University of Auckland, confirmed the relatively fortunate timing of the lockdown for predator control. “The good news was that it happened in autumn, which is when the food starts to dwindle, it’s getting a bit colder and the pests are starting to starve,” he says. “Although we had a bit of a prolonged summer, they were starting to die off anyway, through what I call ‘nature’s own pest control.’” With the temperature dropping and food sources diminishing, the behaviour of rodent pests alters every year around this time. This has led to some erroneous reports of increasing pest numbers, but James suggests this is more a case of “observer bias”. “If people were seeing more rats during lockdown, the correct reason is probably because it occurred in autumn, and rats were coming into our houses for warmth and access

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