Forest & Bird Magazine 364 Winter 2017

ISSUE 364 • WINTER 2017 www.forestandbird.org.nz

New Zealand needs

LIVEABLE RIVERS PLUS Why do we do it?

Earth’s last wilderness

Nature in crisis

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ISSUE 364

• Winter 2017

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Contents Editorial

Profile

2 Hear our voices 4 Letters

34 The Dame Georgina Mace interview

Conservation news

Threatened species

6 7 8 9 10

Coal mining Denniston Bad year for seabirds Native forest logging row Remembering Charleston Forest Garden Bird Survey, Cruise for a Cause, KCC’s new name, Autumn appeal update

Cover story 12 The fight for fresh water 14 We need liveable rivers 18 What’s killing the swamp forest?

Save our seas

Biodiversity in crisis

Caroline Wood MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS

E editor@forestandbird.org.nz

41 What’s up DOC?

18 Antarctica – Earth’s last wilderness

42 Seeking the swamp boomers

General election 2017

44 High Country intensification

20 Vote for nature

Defending nature 22 Motiti appeal

New Zealand’s not for sale 24 Protecting Auckland’s natural treasures

Our people EDITOR

36 Penguins under pressure

Agency capture Our partners 45 Weta wonders

Seabirds 46 Petrels of the rainforest

Climate disruption 49 Zero Carbon Act

26 Why I support Forest & Bird 40 Sanderson’s fight for nature

Going places

Conservation volunteers

In the field

28 Why do we do it?

52 Sparrow smarts

Forest & Bird project

Conservation in history

50 Night nature on Kāpiti Island

ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER

Rob Di Leva, Dileva Design E rob@dileva.co.nz PRINTING

Webstar FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & circulation enquiries T 0800 200 064 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

30 Shh…Fernbirds

54 Robert C Bruce

Young conservationist

Obituaries

32 Wild Eyes

56 Judy Piesse, Ken Mason

Predator free

Parting shot

33 Kākāriki are coming

IBC Native hibiscus

COVER SHOT A pair of critically endangered black stilt/kakī. Photo: Rob Suisted/www.naturespic.com

Forest & Bird

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Editorial MARK HANGER

Hear our voices In April, a longstanding member said to me he thought Forest & Bird was getting a bit too political. I was perplexed.

Forest & Bird has always been political! We are not politically aligned and never have been, but for 94 years now we have fought, lobbied, marched, and stood up for the natural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Over the years, our members have done whatever it takes (within reason and within the law) to ensure our natural areas, at-risk species, threatened landscapes, and marine environments are protected and well managed. I am proud of what our predecessors and forebears achieved.

Not to be political would meant that we, as a society, were not doing our utmost to protect the unique natural environment we are fortunate enough to call home.

Recently, a prominent cabinet minister also said we Mark Hanger were getting political. GREAT! He at least heard what we were saying even if he didn’t like our message. Maybe it’s a compliment when a politician says we are getting political.

We need to increase our public profile so MPs and Ministers of the Crown can’t ignore us. Now, we are becoming more vocal. But we are also becoming more astute in maximising our impact, ensuring those in positions of power hear our voice for nature.

So I don’t apologise for the society getting more vocal and, in some people’s view, more political. We will continue to act responsibly and in a measured way, but we will not be silent while our forests, wetlands, tussocklands, and oceans continue to be degraded, destroyed, or mismanaged.

It’s our duty as conservationists to speak or write to, and lobby, those men and women who make key decisions about our land and ocean’s wellbeing. It is also our duty as a society to ensure wider Aotearoa New Zealand is aware of what is happening in the natural world and the impact key political decisions could have on the environment.

During recent weeks, we have seen mainstream media increasingly picking up conservation matters and exploring them further. This happens when Forest & Bird, and others like us, highlight the issues in the first instance and provide the background and fact-based evidence for such programmes and articles to be written and aired.

It is my fervent hope that you will continue to see Forest & Bird’s staff, members, and supporters speaking out in the public arena on issues core to our conservation values.

Ka kite anō Mark Hanger Forest & Bird President Perehitini, Te Reo o te Taiao

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street, Wellington 6011.

PATRON Her Excellency The Rt Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor-General of New Zealand CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Kevin Hague PRESIDENT

Mark Hanger TREASURER

Graham Bellamy BOARD MEMBERS

Brent Barrett, Lindsey Britton, Tony Dunlop, Kate Graeme, James Muir, John Oates, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS

Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS:

Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton, Fraser Ross, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, David Underwood Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No CC26943.

Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird.

Forest & Bird AGM and Conference There’s still time to sign up to attend Forest & Bird’s 2017 Annual General Meeting and Council meeting, which takes place on 23–25 June 2017 at the CQ Comfort Hotel, Cuba Street, Wellington. The two-day programme will focus on key conservation issues ahead of this year’s general election.

Speakers will talk about Forest & Bird’s current campaigns, and guest speakers will talk about the challenges facing nature, our fresh water, and oceans.

For more information and to register, see www.forestandbird.org.nz.

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Forest & Bird is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper made from FSC® certified wood fibre and pulp sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine.

ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright.

All rights reserved.

Letters Forest & Bird welcomes your feedback on conservation topics. Please send letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address, and daytime phone number. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or publish them in full.

The best contribution to the Letters page of the next issue will win a copy of Fiordland by Andris Apse, Potton & Burton, $79.99 hardback, a photographic tribute to Fiordland by one of New Zealand's pre-eminent landscape photographers.

Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 August 2017.

Earthquake reshape

Go easy on the earth

The radical reshaping of my neighbourhood that occurred on 14 November 2016 shortly after midnight has produced a large number of new wetlands along the coast north of Clarence. Earthquakes cause major upheavals to the land and also to everyone’s lives. It is a gross understatement to say that life is challenging at the moment. After the initial shock of the event, there comes a period of trying to figure out what the new normal is and where your life will fit into it.

One of the tactics I have been using is to seek joy in the beauty of the new coastline and all the new landforms that have appeared. This shot was taken at the Tirohanga lagoon, which was formed when the Kēkerengū fault lifted and twisted the land. Spoonbills are not unheard of along this coast, but they are not common. One of the wonderful things about having no traffic on this section of SH1 is that the road makes a fantastic level platform to set up a tripod and take photos of the new visitors to our area. I loved being able to stand on the road undisturbed by traffic and enjoy this visitor to our glorious new neighbourhood.

Walkers enjoying reserves are increasingly concerned about the adverse impacts of mountain biking on native and introduced vegetation, the supporting soils, and personal safety. Examples include: • loss of amenity, and the feeling of intimacy with nature, when tracks are widened and smoothed, and track-side vegetation is cut back to increase sight lines • feeling of insecurity experienced by walkers when mountain-bikers fail to give way • formation of tracks, parallel to existing tracks, to provide alternative routes for mountain bikers, which increase the impacts of tracks on plant communities and soils • failure of agencies to apprehend and prosecute people who, without public consultation and agency approval, cut vegetation and disturb soils to make tracks on legally protected land.

With the arrival of electric bikes, the destructive impacts on vegetation and soils along tracks will surely increase. Go easy on the earth!

Chris Horne, Wellington

Bridget Jessep, Clarence Best letter winner

Record rātā Well done Paul Stanley Ward for rediscovering the Karapoti rātā (Spring 2016). At nearly 5m in diameter, this magnificent tree, however, may not be “the largest recorded rata in New Zealand”. According to a 1941 publication Lower Hutt Past and Present, Samuel Brees, recorded in 1847 there was a rātā on a hilltop near the Hutt Valley measuring 56ft in circumference. If my maths is correct, the Brees’ rātā would have had a diameter of 5.35m. What marvels of nature we have lost!

David Lee, Wellington *Do you have a favourite old native tree in your neighbourhood or visited a special tree in your travels around New Zealand? Share your memories with editor@ forestandbird.org.nz for a future story in the magazine.

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Gift that keeps on giving I just wanted to say that the enormous generosity of Grant and Marilyn Nelson is indeed inspiring (Autumn 2017).

While we are not in a position to donate at present, my husband and I, as a result of reading the article about them, have agreed that we will give some serious thought (and action when the time comes) to leaving significant (healthy amounts though not in the order of the Nelsons’ donation!) to our favourite charities in our wills. Forest & Bird is of course right up there. Thank you for the wonderful work that Forest & Bird does, and thank God for people like the Nelsons. *Name on request, Auckland

Morepork or ruru?

It seems an anomaly that we refer to some of our native birds (and other flora and fauna) by their Māori name, kōkako (blue wattle crow), pūkeko (swamp hen), tūī (parson bird), weka (bush hen), and others by their Pākehā name, bellbird (korimako), fantail (pīwakawaka), morepork (ruru), robin (toutouwai). What with Forest & Bird running the very successful Bird of the Year competition, could the magazine set a trend and refer to all our native birds by their Māori name/Pākehā name if need be, which in turn increases our vocabulary in the Māori language?

Grant Svendsen, Hamilton

Good points Grant. We try to use Māori and Pākehā names where space permits, otherwise we go with the name in most common use – Editor's note

Dirty dairying The ill-heath of Aotearoa rivers and lakes is undeniable.

The Manawatu River is probably the most polluted in New Zealand, just as Lake Horowhenua is the most polluted Lake in the North Island. The main contributor to this water degradation is dirty dairying. Some responsible dairy farmers have fenced off areas adjacent to rivers and streams on their farms. The irresponsible ones have allowed their dairy herd to drink, then wee and poo in rivers and streams.

Dr Nick Smith, in my opinion, is doing a poor job of managing this important environmental problem. Just ask Dr Mike Joy, the freshwater ecologist from Massey University, he knows more about the disgusting state of our so-called freshwater waterways than any one else in New Zealand. He will give you a very different version from that of Dr Nick Smith!

Brian Collins, Wellington

Divestment movement The Sierra Club, the oldest US conservation organisation, now has a clear policy of divestment in relation to fossil fuel companies and affiliated organisations. I would like to see the society take up a similar position to the Sierra Club.

Our Board recently circulated a draft Forest & Bird policy on the acceptance of donations and sponsorships.

This is intended to be a “living document”’. I hope likeminded members might urge our Board to join the global divestment movement by not accepting donations or making investments linked to fossil fuel extraction or native forest destruction.

Sue Fitchett, Waiheke Island Forest & Bird already has policy not to invest in fossil fuel companies and the proposed sponsorship and donations policy is also clear that we wouldn’t accept donations from such companies – Editor’s note.

50 years ago

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away three copies of New Zealand’s Great White Sharks by Alison Ballance, Potton & Burton, RRP $29.99. Awardwinning natural history writer and broadcaster Alison Ballance uses science to paint a new portrait of great white sharks.

To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz. Please put SHARKS in the subject line and include your name and address in the email. Or put your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to SHARKS draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 August 2017.

The winners of Hauraki Gulf, by Raewyn Peart, were Barbara Garden, of Auckland, and Lesley Ayers, of Tauranga.

Backyard bugs I wish Bryce McQuillan and Angela Simpson well in their ambitious project to photograph every invertebrate species in New Zealand (Autumn 2017). Their photos could contribute to another important project – an internet factsheet for each New Zealand invertebrate species. Well at least as many as we can.

There are now over 70 factsheets in the recently reactivated series Interesting Insects and other Invertebrates. See http://nzacfactsheets.landcareresearch. co.nz/Index.html.

Nicholas Martin, Auckland

Waipoua Forest Sanctuary Must Be Preserved In the early days kauri forests, once covering millions of acres, were felled and burned until a pitifully small remnant only remains, and of these the best are in the Waipoua area. On 2 July 1952, His Excellency the Governor General, Lord Freyberg, proclaimed Waipoua Forest a Forest Sanctuary, to be preserved in its natural state for all time for scientific and like purposes. The status of Forest Sanctuary can only be lifted by special act of Parliament.

But even now certain tourist interests are advocating exploitation of Waipoua.

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society has for some years pressed for the acquisition and development of large areas in the Far North for recreational purposes.

In the right places provisions of tourist and recreational facilities has our complete support, but Waipoua is not one of those places.

Forest & Bird, number 163, May 1967.

Forest & Bird

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Conservation news Whareatea West on the Denniston plateau is protected public conservation land, but the government is making secret plans to make it available for opencast mining.

Did anyone ask you if this was OK?

The most significant area for biodiversity on the Denniston plateau could be opened up for opencast coal mining. By Caitlin Carew.

Once again the fight is on to save the unique and outstanding landscapes of the West Coast’s Denniston plateau from being destroyed by coal mining.

Forest & Bird is calling on the government to make public a secret cross-department plan that would specially protected public conservation areas available to a privately owned coal mining company.

“We’ve become aware of secret plans developed for the Ministers of Conservation, Energy and Resources, and Economic Development to identify areas for coal mining and areas for protection,” said Forest & Bird’s Chief Executive Kevin Hague.

A conservation area known as Whareatea West, on the Denniston plateau, is proposed for opencast coal mining.

Further north, another area with extremely high conservation values, the spectacular Deep Creek, in the upper Waimangaroa, is proposed for protection from opencast mining, but not necessarily from underground mining.

Forest & Bird believes government agencies are lining up these areas for a new coal company called BT Mining, a joint venture between Bathurst Resources and Talley’s Group.

“This is public conservation land and the most ecologically valuable area on the plateau – without Whareatea West, the integrity of the whole plateau is lost,” says Mr Hague.

“Why is the Minister of Conservation, rather than publicly advocating for the protection of conservation land, instead working in secret to make that land available to destroy for private profit?

“We want to know exactly what’s being planned, and when and how the public will be consulted.”

Forest & Bird is also aware of plans for a haul road (as wide as a four-lane highway) to connect mining on the Denniston plateau to the processing facilities at Stockton.

This will traverse the upper-mid Waimangaroa valley, with 6

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a series of opencast and underground mines along the way. The road and associated mines will destroy the last of a unique red tussock landscape on the plateau.

Forest & Bird estimates the emissions resulting from the potential new coal mines could put as much CO2 into the atmosphere as another three million cars for the next 20 years.

“This plan is disastrous from a conservation perspective.

These coal measure landscapes are unique and outstanding, and have extremely high biodiversity values.

A number of threatened bird species live there, as well as many rare plant and invertebrate species,” says Mr Hague.

“We’ve already lost part of Denniston to Bathurst’s mothballed Escarpment mine. It’s time to protect what’s left.”

TE KUHA UPDATE Legal action by Forest & Bird has prompted a U-turn from the Buller District Council over the proposed Te Kuha opencast coal mine, near Westport. The council decided in April to rescind a preliminary decision it made last September, allowing Rangitira Developments Ltd access to Westport’s protected water conservation reserve for the mine.

The mining company has since sought a declaration in the High Court regarding the interpretation of the Reserves Act 1977 and the Crown Minerals Act 1991, including the extent to which the council is required to protect the natural features of the water conservation reserve.

Forest & Bird revealed in March how the proposed mine at Te Kuha would see the pristine upper slopes of the site in the Papahua Ranges significantly modified, including hilltop removal, the destruction of ancient trees, and loss of 12ha of conservation land.

Bad year

White-capped albatross: an estimated 301 were killed by surface longline hooks in the 2015/16 fishing year. Photo: Craig McKenzie

for seabirds

The government department in charge of regulating fishing-related seabird deaths has admitted 2016 was a “bad year” for albatross and petrels. By Geoff Keey.

Worrying figures obtained by Forest & Bird’s marine team reveal an estimated 1000 albatross, petrel, and shearwater deaths in the surface longline fishery during the 2015/16 fishing year.

The Ministry for Primary Industries released the figures after we submitted an Official Information Act request for the latest bycatch numbers.

In a letter to Forest & Bird, Dave Turner, Director of Fisheries Management, wrote: “MPI acknowleges that 2016 was a particularly bad year for seabird interaction in the surface longline fishery and included some wellpublicised incidents of high mortality and non-compliance with mandatory mitigation measures.”

Seabird bycatch rates in all New Zealand trawl fisheries have changed little since 2002/03. And bycatch rates in the bottom longline fishery are not coming down either.

Forest & Bird is calling on MPI to set a zero bycatch target for seabird deaths.

Our seabird advocate Karen Baird said the figures show there is an urgent need for MPI to take more action to protect seabirds.

She said: “MPI and industry should adopt a goal of zero bycatch. We don’t kill kiwi, so why kill albatross?

“The terrible loss of albatross and petrels last year, and the lack of real action to protect them, are symptoms of an agency that has become too cosy with the industry it’s supposed to regulate.

“MPI needs to decide whether it is an industry promotor or industry regulator. It can’t do both.”

The Southern royal albatross breeds in our sub-Antarctic Islands but is vulnerable to fisheries bycatch in New Zealand and South American waters. Photo: David Hallett

Albatross and petrel bycatch* Species

Observed deaths

Estimated deaths

White-capped albatross

41

301

Buller’s albatross

29

213

Southern Buller’s albatross

28

206

Westland petrel

12

88

Wandering albatross

8

58

Black petrel

7

51

Common diving petrel

3

22

Black-browed albatross

2

14

Shearwaters

2

14

Southern royal albatross

2

14

Antipodean albatross

1

7

Unidentified albatross

1

7

Grey-backed storm petrel

1

7

Storm petrel

1

7

138

1009

TOTAL

*For the 2015/16 year (commercial surface longline fishery) **Calculation of estimated deaths is from observed deaths multiplied by the number of hooks set and divided by the number of hooks observed.

SEABIRDS IN CRISIS Throughout New Zealand, 80% of our native birds are threatened with extinction. This includes 17 seabird species at risk of being wiped out because of commercial fishing.

New Zealand adopted a National Plan of Action on Seabirds in 2012 to protect seabirds, including albatross and petrels. But key tasks to achieve the National Plan of Action on Seabirds haven’t been completed.

For example, only two action plans for very high risk birds have been produced – one for black petrel (estimated 51 deaths last year) and the other for Antipodean albatross (seven deaths).

A further five species are in the very high risk category and another four in the high risk category. None of these nine species have an action plan in place. *See p36 for our special penguin report and p46 for our story about Westland petrels and the multiple threats they face on land and at sea.

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Conservation news Harvesting windblown logs at Lake Brunner, West Coast, 2014. Photo: Kevin Hackwell

Mad plan to log native forests

Forest & Bird is calling on a West Coast council to veto plans to log untouched native forest on publicly owned land. By Caroline Wood.

A West Coast council is assessing an application to start logging native forests on publicly owned land – 20 years after the controversial practice was stopped by the former government.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn announced in March that the council was considering a plan to “sustainably harvest” native trees in council-owned forests at Mt Buckley, Mt Sewell, and Cashmere Bay. He said a company called New Zealand Sustainable Forest Products Ltd had approached the council with a registration of interest to harvest one forest in exchange for the council being paid a percentage of the yield.

Kokshoorn ackowleged the idea was controversial, so the council decided to ask the public for its views.

“It [the proposed logging] was a sustainable programme of cutting down trees at the end of their life cycle. Instead of letting them fall and rot, they would be removed by helicopter and replaced by younger trees coming up through the large canopy. You don’t even need to replant them,” Kokshoorn was quoted as saying.

As opposition to the proposal grew, Kokshoorn suggested swapping the forests threatened with logging for Department of Conservation land elsewhere or for DOC to buy the forests.

“Kokshoorn made it clear the land is now for sale. He doesn’t care what happens to it,” says Kathy Gilbert, chairperson of Forest & Bird’s West Coast branch.

“Our forests are not for sale and we shouldn’t be having to fight to protect them once again. The same council received millions of dollars in compensation to protect forests from logging in 2000. The $120 million regionwide package that conservation groups fought for was to

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enable economic development – an opportunity for new growth away from those damaging boom and bust historic industries.

“Council reserves are now often managed by the locals who live nearby and love them. It’s time councils acted on long-term plans that protect our best assets, the natural assets that are ours.”

“Forest & Bird has made a submission and a supplementary submission opposing the plans and signalling the council may have broken the rules by not carrying out a proper public consultation in accordance with the Local Government Act 2002.”

Campaigns and Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says the council's logging plan would set a dangerous precedent.

“It would be madness to start native forest logging again on public land at a time when people across the country are desperately replanting and trying to bring our remaining native forests back to life by carrying out pest control.

“Logging native forests can never be done in an ecologically sustainable way.”

After initial submissions, the council modified its Statement of Proposal, giving more information about what it was planning and extending the consultation period until early May. But Forest & Bird says the council still hasn’t provided enough details about the exact location and extent of native forest that may be covered by the proposal, what sort of logging techniques would be used, or how much infrastructure, such as roads, will be needed.

At the time of writing, more than 15,000 submissions had been received by Grey District Council opposing the logging.

LEGENDARY LOGGING PROTEST Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has paid tribute to activists who occupied Charleston Forest 20 years ago in an action that led to a nationwide campaign to protect native forests along the West Coast from chainsaws.

In a video from New York, Ms Clark describes the Charleston Forest occupation as an event “…that goes down in the legend of non-violent action in New Zealand, to stop logging of our native forest”.

She says: “I salute all of those who were brave enough to defy the forces against them, to occupy the forests and to say ‘enough’. And I’m just proud that I was in a position, with the support of a government I led, to do something about bringing that logging to an end.”

In 1997, government company Timberlands West Coast Ltd was logging rimu and planned to massively expand native tawhai/beech forest logging in publicly owned native forests. A five-month protest occupation of Charleston Forest, near Westport, drew national attention to the issue. Among those climbing trees was Forest & Bird’s northern advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer.

The protest led to a national campaign that involved many New Zealanders throughout the country.

A coalition of the Buller Conservation Group, Forest & Bird, and Native Forest Action campaigned hard. A little campaign office was set up in Nelson Helen Clark. that ran on love and donations from Photo: Wikipedia people who cared.

In 2000, the Labour government agreed to pay West Coast council authorities a $120 million development package to assist the local economy, and the native forest logging by Timberlands ended.

“We fought them on the beech and rimu logging, and won,” says Dean Baigent-Mercer, who was a national spokesperson during the campaign.

“But it seems business interests lie in wait for opportunities to kick off native forest logging again. There are new logging proposals for West Coast council nature reserves, which, if approved, would set a precedent to open up public land once more for native forest logging.

“It is an act of extremely bad faith against the public as well as an environmental betrayal at a time in history where we need rainforests more than ever.”

India’s dawn chorus Join us for a fully escorted, small-group, bird-lovers and wildlife tour in north east India.

India’s diversity of habitat types and altitudes give it a rich bird life. It has over 1200 bird species including 70 raptors, 30 duck and geese species, and 8 stork varieties.

“About 20 of us had sneaked into Charleston Forest under dark and drizzle to the call of great-spotted kiwi a few nights before. A few navigated by compass and maps, the rest of us had no idea where we were, whether we’d get lost, be attacked, fall down a bank, or be successful. It wasn’t glamorous. It got the heart racing and it was bloody wet. It was the beginning of something that changed everyone who was involved...”

Read Dean Baigent-Mercer’s eyewitness blog When we stopped native logging at http://bit.ly/2q4t8uB.

We visit 5 magnificent National Parks: in the Himalayas, the Ganges Plains and on the Deccan Plateau. In November we will also see masses of migratory birds from north Asia. And wildlife, including tigers, is a bonus.

& Contact: colourindia.co.nz | elight@kiwilink.co.nz 09 422 0111 | 021 235 3932

Conservation news

Bird count time This year’s New Zealand Garden Bird Survey runs from 24 June to 2 July 2017, and everyone is urged to help monitor how our friendly neighbourhood birds are doing.

During the last decade, more than 1 million birds have been counted nationally in the popular survey, which is run

by Landcare Research and supported by Forest & Bird. This year, we are not publishing a tally sheet in the magazine because the trend over recent years has been for people to complete the survey online.

You can find an easy-to-use bird identification guide, tally sheet, and online survey form at http://gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz.

Last year’s mild winter weather meant fewer birds of several species were counted in 2016 than in previous surveys, says survey coordinator Eric Spurr.

Silvereye, chaffinch, goldfinch, and greenfinch numbers were the lowest on record, and house sparrow numbers were the third lowest.

“It’s likely the mild weather meant more food was available in the surrounding countryside, so birds didn’t need to come into gardens in search of food as they would normally do in colder winters,” he said.

The 10 most commonly found species in 2016 were similar to those in 2015, except the goldfinch dropped out and the song thrush returned.

Please take an hour to help, grab a pencil, a child, friend, or just yourself – it’s time to get out and count those garden birds! *The secret life of sparrows, see p52.

Doubtful Sound Cruise for a Cause

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EARLY BIRD OFFER! Jump aboard with us and discover the pristine wilderness of Doubtful Sound, cruising through breathtaking scenery and getting up close to the dolphins, fur seals, and tawaki that call this remote fiord home. We are very grateful to Real Journeys for choosing Forest & Bird as its Cruise for a Cause for the second year running. Thanks to your generous support, last year’s Real Journeys Milford Sound fundraising voyage raised more than $16,000 for KCC. This year’s journey takes a lucky group of Forest & Bird guests to Doubtful Sound on Saturday 2 September 2017, where you will join the Fiordland Navigator for a magical overnight cruise. Our chief executive Kevin Hague will be on board sharing his vision for conservation and every dollar of your ticket price will go towards Forest & Bird’s vital predator-free work.

For more information, visit http://www.forestandbird. org.nz/realjourneys. Early bird tickets are now on sale priced $500 adult/$250 child. The price rises to $600/$300 from 19 June 2017. Call Real Journeys today on 0800 656501 or visit www. realjourneys.co.nz/ds-cruise-for-acause to make your booking.

Make sure you mention Forest & Bird Cruise for a Cause.

KCC’s new name Our Kiwi Conservation Club has a new te reo Māori name – Hakuturi Toa. Hakuturi refers to the mythical forest guardians in the story of Rātā. They were the myriad of small flying and crawling creatures from the bush. The Hakuturi rose up together to protect the tree felled by Rātā by putting it back together. Toa translates to strong or courageous.

This name and new logo (pictured) was introduced to KCC members in the autumn issue of Wild Things.

KCC will continue to increase the use of te reo in all its communication channels. The new logo will be appearing as we reprint our marketing materials.

Sarah and Rebecca, the KCC team

AUTUMN APPEAL UPDATE Forest & Bird’s fundraising team would like to thank all our amazing members and supporters who made a donation to recent appeal. Our autumn fundraising drive Nature’s Not For Sale has hit more than $120,000 and is still growing. It’s our best-performing appeal since 2011.

Fundraiser Grace Marshall said: “Our supporters love nature and are amazingly generous in supporting our work. Thank you to those of you who made a donation. We really appreciate your support. Together, we will continue our vital conservation work defending public land from being sold off, and fighting proposals to allow mining in high value conservation areas that would evict native species, such as the West Coast green gecko and speckled skink.”

Did you know you can claim back 33% of the total amount you donate to approved charitable causes? It’s easy and quick to do, and donations made to Forest & Bird qualify for this tax relief. You can also apply for a rebate going back four years, see www.ird.govt.nz and search for ‘Tax credit for donations’. To make a donation to the appeal, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/notforsale.

Cover story Aerial view of Ohau B power station, Benmore Range, Lake Benmore, and Meridian Energy Waitaki hydro scheme.

Photo: One Shot/Arno Gasteiger

THE FIGHT FOR

FRESH WATER

The politics of fresh water are pretty murky, but there are signs the government is starting to listen to Forest & Bird and other environmental groups fighting to clean up our waterways. By Caroline Wood.

After the publication of the third damning independent report into the sad state of New Zealand’s waterways, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy made a startling comment.

“It will be challenging for the dairy industry to grow.

There’s no way that we can double the number of cows in New Zealand. One big opportunity the dairy industry does have is about increasing the value, not the volume,” he was reported as saying in April.

This comment, from a government minister who has previously dismissed environmental concerns about the dairying industry, took some political commentators by surprise.

Is it possible that, in the face of incontrovertible science contained in a string of damning science-based reports,

TIMELINE

the government is beginning to change its tune on how many is too many when it comes to dairy cows and their impact on the state of our waterways?

The environmental degradation of our rivers, streams, springs, lakes, and aquifers has become a hot political issue in a way that was unimaginable this time last year.

Chief Executive Kevin Hague believes the government is finally taking notice of the fact that New Zealanders care deeply about their rivers and lakes and want immediate and decisive action to improve them.

He said: “Nathan Guy has been resolute over the years in his pretty much blanket dismissal of any environmental issue, so this seems like a bit of a sea change for this particular government minister. He is signalling to the irresponsible farmers that it’s the end of the golden weather.

FEBRUARY

MARCH

The government publishes its Clean Water discussion document for public consultation. The weak targets are widely criticised by environmental groups and freshwater experts. Forest & Bird quickly condemns the proposed new swimmable standards, warning New Zealanders they lock in current levels of water pollution and allow for a five-fold increase in the chance of getting sick from swimming in a river.

Forest & Bird releases a series of maps showing that 90% of New Zealand’s rivers and streams will not be covered by the government’s new “swimmable” standard. Three days later, we walk out of the Land and Water Forum in protest at the government ignoring the collaborative forum’s science-based “bottom line” targets.

Later in March, the OECD calls for agriculture to be brought into the

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Emissions Trading Scheme in its first comprehensive environmental review for 10 years. The same day, a UK-based consultancy, Vivid Economics, publishes a plan commissioned by cross-party MPs outlining how New Zealand can do its part to keep global warming under a 2°C increase. It concludes we need to cut livestock numbers and plant more trees.

Prime Minister Bill English tells media that the government won’t be shrinking milking herds in a hurry.

Benmore Irrigation Company wanted to double its irrigation area and discharge nitrates onto land. Forest & Bird made a submission against the proposal, and Environment Canterbury turned down the resource consent in December because of the effects on landscape, water equality, and local ecology. An appeal in the Environment Court was recently withdrawn. Peter Anderson, Forest & Bird’s legal counsel, said Benmore was a large irrigation scheme that would have destroyed at least 1200ha and probably 2500ha of significant indigenous vegetation.

"It's great news that the threat of destruction has been removed from this vast outstanding landscape, which is home to many threatened plants and animals," he said.

“What will the government do? It seems like they will make some significant changes to their proposed National Policy Statement on Fresh Water. They will be gambling that this will be enough to quieten the concerns.”

But Mr Hague believes the government’s solutions are unlikely to meet the minimum ecological standards that Forest & Bird and other conservation groups are demanding.

“We need bolder action,” he says. “The number of cows in New Zealand need to be reduced, and certain soil and land types, where dairying isn’t possible in an

The science is clear – New Zealand's fresh waters are under stress because of what we do in and around them.

Sir Peter Gluckman

Dry river beds and deadly cynobacteria are making our rivers and lakes unliveable for nature and unswimmable for people.

APRIL The government’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman publishes the New Zealand’s fresh waters report. It paints a depressing picture: “While the public understandably might hope for rapid restoration of water quality across all rivers and lakes in New Zealand, this is unrealistic and scientifically impossible,” writes Sir Peter. He says there are no silver bullets and multiple actions are needed, requiring partnerships across all sectors,

For every 10 dairy cows in 1994, New Zealand now has 17.

The largest numbers are in Waikato (1.76 million), followed by Canterbury (1.25 million) and Southland (0.73 million).

environmentally sustainable way, need to be converted into something else.

“We are part of a coalition of other organisations that are concerned about freshwater issues. We’re working together to make sure these become general election issues, with the goal of forcing our political parties to make a commitment to urgent and decisive action.

“Our rivers are in crisis right now. They are dead and dying right now. The government has been taking small hesitant actions. This needs to change. It’s time for decisive and bold action.”

Did anybody ask you if this was ok?

Our once-pristine rivers and lakes are clogged with nitrates, sediments, and poisonous algae and will take decades to clean up. The clean stuff is being piped into profits for someone’s pockets. Our rivers are running dry because too much water is being taken for irrigation. This in turn allows more intensive farming and creates a feedback loop that is degrading our fresh water still further.

New Zealand’s fresh water is in crisis. Urgent action is needed now. With your support, Forest & Bird will continue to advocate for fresh water and demand change. We want to stop over-allocation and nutrient pollution, stop public funding of new irrigation schemes that lead to intensive agriculture, and set limits on the number of cows based on the ecological capacity of land and water.

Please donate to our appeal at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ fightforfreshwater.

including government, iwi, citizens, and businesses, including farmers.

Later in April, the landmark report Our Fresh Water 2017 from the Ministry of the Environment and Statistics NZ is published. It measures the quality of New Zealand’s waterways, including biodiversity and cultural health. It reveals a 69% increase in dairy cattle numbers between 1994 and 2015, and that nitrogen levels at more than half of monitored river sites are getting worse.

MAY After delays, the government releases a report from NIWA containing new scientific analysis that reveals the proposed new swimmable target is worse than the existing one. This contradicts government claims and proves Forest & Bird’s original assessment in February was correct. The government extends the submission period for two weeks to allow people to respond to this new information.

What next for fresh water?

Cover story

SWIMMABLE

but for whom?

The threatened and declining shortjaw kōkopu, photographed in a Taranaki stream with Wayne Hutchison. Photo: Rob Suisted

Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen explains why we need to put ecological health first if our rivers are to be liveable – for nature as well as people.

New Zealand is home to a lot of dairy cows, more than 6.5 million of them. To put this into perspective, there are only 9.3 million dairy cows in the whole of the United States, a country 35 times our land area. Here, the number of dairy cows has risen by 69% nationally during the past two decades, with some regions such as Canterbury, Southland, and Nelson seeing an incredible 500% increase.

We cannot sustain this growth.

Dairying in New Zealand has taken and diverted water for irrigation at a rate that has doubled every decade since the 1970s. Given that only 65% of current water consents are being used, imagine the impact on freshwater ecosystems if all the water consented was actually taken out of our rivers? Over-allocation has become the norm, and instream flows aren’t being properly protected with devastating effects (see overleaf).

A slew of media stories and scientific reports since the beginning of this year have talked extensively about New Zealand’s freshwater problems and links to intensive dairying. This “news”, which isn’t new at all, may be hard to take for some in the industry who believe it must grow at any cost.

With most of our native species in decline, the government’s proposed new swimmability and stockfencing targets are just patching small leaks while the pollution-pot is endlessly overflowing. It’s time to get on with the urgent task of cleaning up our waterways, so they are ecologically healthy as well as being safe for swimming.

One of the key actions Forest & Bird is seeking is a proper regulatory framework. We recently made a detailed submission on the government’s Clean Water 2017 package, which hit the headlines in February with its promised new “swimmable” standards.

The government’s “90% of rivers swimmable by 2040” 14

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

target should have an asterisk that reads: *terms and conditions apply because most of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes won’t be eligible. NIWA recently revealed the target will be worse than the current swimmable standard, as Forest & Bird had argued since February. And the target doesn’t even make it into the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management that forms part of the Clean Water package – so it’s not legally binding.

The shambles over the government’s swimmable targets demonstrates the dangers of basing freshwater policy on a marketing slogan rather than scientific rigour. The scientific research should have be carried out before the policy was made, not after submissions closed.

Forest & Bird was pleased to see mention of other freshwater health indicators such as macroinvertebrate community index (MCI), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), and dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP). But we are disappointed there are no limits or guidance to regional councils about optimum levels or what levels would indicate an “unhealthy” freshwater ecosystem. It seems the

Koura/native crayfish are one of the fascinating creatures who live in our fragile freshwater world. Photo: Rob Suisted

government couldn’t commit to a bottom line.

The minimum ecological standards that do exist for nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus remain unchanged. They are still toxic thresholds. This is unacceptable given this regulatory framework is meant to protect ecological health. At these “bottom lines”, the ecological health of a waterway is long gone. Perhaps the government was so busy with the empty talk of swimmability, it forgot about ecosystem health.

It didn’t forget about “economic wellbeing” though. This term has been inserted throughout the legislation implying the economy has a right for protection that is on par with the environment. But this sort of thinking got us into the mess we are in now. We need to put nature first otherwise all we will see is more environmental degradation.

The government has introduced a Freshwater Improvement Fund set at $100 million. But there’s a catch.

If any Forest & Bird branch has successfully applied for this grant, we salute you on finding the matching funds needed of more than $200,000. Then there’s the Irrigation Acceleration Fund, which has $400 million earmarked for irrigation schemes. Let’s do the maths: for every $4 of

With only about 100 birds left in the world, kakī, are in crisis.

Once widespread throughout New Zealand, the endemic black stilt /kakī is now restricted to the braided rivers and wetlands of the Mackenzie Basin, South Canterbury, where they favour the shallow waters of invertebrate-rich side streams and pools. Photo: Rob Suisted

polluting incentives, we get $1 of clean up funds..

Besides bold action and meaningful targets, there is something else big missing from the government’s freshwater focus: the health of our aquifers. Despite 80% of New Zealand’s fresh water being under the ground, and surface water depending on this groundwater, there is no provision for its protection. Forest & Bird finds this to be a frightening oversight. The deadly campylobacter outbreak in Hawke’s Bay was caused by failure to properly protect the aquifer.

Groundwater is not just an untapped resource, it is home to some wonderfuly gnarly invertebrates. It is suspected that different waters contain different taxa of invertebrates. Much work is still needed to fully understand the biological component of groundwater ecosystems and how the presence of these invertebrates contributes to the water quality above and below ground.

Our economy depends on the environment and will only thrive sustainably when nature does. We need stronger, properly enforced regulations based on state-of-the-art science not empty buzz words like “swimmable”. We need to make our river, lake, and wetland habitats liveable for all living things, great and small.

Busting 3 freshwater myths Myth 1: Urban is to blame Urban pollution is an issue, but it is not the issue. Most towns and cities are downstream and coastal, so in these places you see the effects of accumulative pollution, mostly from rural environments. There are 40 million animals in New Zealand. Currently, people are outnumbered by livestock 10 to 1. The country’s dairy cows produce 10 to 15 times more excrement than a human. While a healthy urban freshwater ecosystem is an undeniable priority, let’s not blame our nation’s pollution woes on the city kids.

Myth 2: Swimmable is the answer Swimmable for whom? Fish don’t have a choice: they need “liveable” rivers. And let’s not forget the other fascinating critters who make up our freshwater world. The water snails and koura, mayfly, lacewings, caddis flies, and crabs. The water fleas and eels, horse hair worms, stoneflies, flatworms, and diving beetles, and so many more. Our plants and birds also depend on healthy, liveable rivers, streams, springs, lakes, and wetlands.

Myth 3: Stock fencing will fix our rivers While we see great value in getting stock out of the waterways, it isn’t a silver bullet. Each soil type in-situ with its local climate and hydrology will characterise how much nitrogen a soil can break down and how much water a soil can hold. Once these capacities are exceeded, pollution starts to enter the surface water or the groundwater, bypassing fences. Fences may alleviate the symptom, but they won’t cure the illness, which is caused by too many cows.

Threatened with/at risk of extinction

31% Plants Meet Annabeth Cohen

72% Fish

34%

Invertebrates

It’s an honour to be part of the team working to restore te wai o Aotearoa.

I’m extremely grateful to The Grant & Marilyn Nelson Endowment Fund, which has made my freshwater advocate role possible. I look forward to working with the branches on actions we can take at a local and regional level to help our rivers, lakes and wetlands. You can contact me on a.cohen@ forestandbird.org.nz.

What’s killing the swamp forest?

Cover story

What's killing the swamp forest?

Drone image from February 2017 showing dead and dying trees in rare remnant swamp forest near Pirinoa, Wairarapa. Photo: Anthony Griffin

The sudden collapse of a rare forest remnant in the Wairarapa illustrates the fragility of our wetlands in the face of New Zealand’s current water crisis.

Worried landowners are investigating the cause of a sudden die-off in a rare remnant of swamp forest in South Wairarapa.

A total of 249 trees died in one sudden burst in a protected forest area of only 1.9ha. The dead trees include 24 kahikatea with girths at chest height up to 1.4m, likely to be 300 years old or more.

The swamp forest remnant is protected under a Queen Elizabeth Trust (QE2) covenant and was formerly recognised by the Greater Wellington Regional Council as a Key Native Ecosystem (KNE).

The concerned owners of the land, Barrie Cook and Sarah Barton, have been trying to work out the source of the problem so the remaining trees can be saved.

The swamp forest is in the Whakatomotomo Valley, in the southern Wairarapa, next to the small Turanganui River that drains the western slopes of the Aorangi Range. It’s one of only two forest remnants of its kind in the lower Whakatomotomo Valley.

The first signs the trees were in serious trouble came in 2015, when considerable kiekie vine die-off along with supplejack at the southern end was noticed. During the 2015 summer, some rimu outside of the covenant showed signs of stress. One is now dead, and the others are struggling.

In June 2016, a Google Earth image showed for the first time an area of dead and dying trees, mainly pukatea, at the southern end, but no obvious signs of damage to the big kahikatea.

But the die-back continued, and the kahikatea were next to succumb, with drone footage taken in February 2017 showing the once magnificent trees dead at canopy level.

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Alarmed at what was happening, the owners contacted the QE2 Trust's Wairarapa representative and plant expert Trevor Thompson, who, suggested carrying out a full tree survey, which was done in November 2016. Apart from the kahikatea, most of the affected trees are pukatea and swamp maire.

Trevor and the owners believe one or more factors are causing the collapse: Climate factors: Eastern Wairarapa experiences regular droughts, including the one that extended from the summer of 2014/15 through the following winter to the summer of 2015/16. Was this sufficiently prolonged and severe to kill the trees? Overall, is it a consequence of climate change? But if the trees had survived previous droughts throughout their long life, why would they be dying now?

Historical factors: Much effort over the years has been made to make the land in the valley more suitable for farming, including some channelling of the river and drainage of paddocks. A local man pointed out that, 30 years ago, he had dug ditches to drain the once swampy paddocks off the southern corner of the forest. Back then, he proposed that his ditch network should feed into a natural channel in the forest to continue to channel water to the forest. This did not happen. Was this enough in itself to start pushing the forest towards the brink?

Water take: The groundwater in the narrow valley is contained within what Greater Wellington District Council calls Turanganui Aquifer 1. It is fed by water moving down the valley in the Turanganui River and through the gravels and by rainwater. From this comes water for domestic use, general farm use, and specific consented use for irrigation.

Could excessive water take be causing the problem?

More action needed There are four water consents in the valley. Two are for irrigating crops on two sheep and beef farms, although one of these consents has not been enacted. A third is for a small lifestyle farm’s irrigation system. The fourth is for a dairy farm located just down the valley from the forest.

The regional council advises the current allocation of water from the river gravels in the valley is 960,240m3/year from the four consents.

On the books is an allowed allocation limit of 1.1 million m3/year. The council says this limit was set in the 1990s, and it no longer considers it a safe yield. Unfortunately, the council doesn’t have much hydrogeological information for the area and there is no long-term monitoring of river levels or groundwater levels.

Regional council staff visited in May to see the problems first hand. They have undertaken to monitor water levels in the aquifer and take into account the needs of the swamp forest remnant.

With a bit of luck, the prompt action by QE2 and its lobbying of the council will result in a proper diagnosis of the problem.

If the result is agreement that it is just natural processes at work, then the forest will be left to adapt as best it can.

If it is agreed that man-made factors may be at play, then any mitigation procedures available must be urgently considered.

The fragility of our swamp forests is amply demonstrated in this case. Here we have a swift and devastating response to a much-reduced water level, when irrigation and drought likely combined to cause a major number of tree deaths.

Clearly, the regulatory authorities have little current ability to monitor the environmental effects of irrigation.

In instances such as this, a much more robust system of picking up negative impacts in a timely manner in times of drought needs to be in place.

The regional council's rules say people must stop taking water when the river ceases flowing at a bridge downstream of this sensitive area. Surely, none of our rivers should cease flowing before irrigation is stopped?

Trevor Thompson, QE2’s Wairarapa representative.

Swamp forests – wetland giants Kahikatea is the dominant swamp forest species and our tallest native tree growing to heights of 60m or more, with trunks measuring up to 2m across. Dating back to the Jurassic Period, they are able to live for 500 years or more. Today, only 2% of kahikatea forest is thought to remain, says DOC. Healthy swamp forest is home to secretive birds such as the Australasian bittern, marsh crake, spotless crake, and banded rail, and may support native eels and various species of kokopu and mudfish.

Pictured is one of the huge kahikatea in the 4.5ha White Pine Bush Scenic Reserve, once part of an extensive kahikatea-dominated forest and swamp between Awakeri and Taneatua, in the Bay of Plenty. Much of the original forest was cut down because of historical demand for kahikatea boxes to export butter and, more recently, because of agricultural demand for the fertile soils in which the trees grow. Photo: Caroline Wood

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09 307 8005 fullers.co.nz Forest & Bird

| 17

Save our seas

Earth’s last

wilderness

Emperor penguin, Coulman Island

James Muir, who recently travelled to Antarctica with Heritage Expeditions, explains why it’s vital to protect the Southern Ocean from further exploitation. Photos by Gavin Klee.

I

ndefinitely wild, mysterious, and full of fascinating creatures, the Antarctic – and, in particular, its oceans – are the last great mystery. In February, I explored this wondrous place, voyaging to Antarctica’s Ross Sea with Heritage Expeditions.

Sailing to the end of the Earth, into one of the most remote and inhospitable places imaginable, is an experience in itself. Leaving Invercargill and spending 10 days at sea made all of us aware of the ocean’s expanse and multiformity. It also made me question how this wilderness is protected and what is being done to preserve our Southern Ocean territory.

On the surface, Antarctica is a land of ice and rock, with little indication of the flourish of living things, but, beneath the surface, the ocean is bursting with life. Brightly coloured seastars, sponges, and bottom-dwelling creatures of all shapes and sizes blanket the sea floor. Unusual fish, with clear white blood and anti-freeze in their bodies, range throughout the water column. Penguins, seabirds, seals, and whales abound amid the ice floes, foraging in krill-rich waters.

A major driver of Southern Ocean biodiversity is its Weddell seal, Franklin Island.

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geography. Seamounts are scattered throughout, and these raised seafloor areas provide the foundation for remarkably productive and biologically rich regions. The waters surrounding most of the Southern Ocean islands are also hotspots for marine biodiversity and provide critical breeding grounds with important foraging areas for predators.

Of all the regions in the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea represents one of the last relatively untouched places on Earth. Its nutrient-rich waters are the most productive in the Antarctic, leading to huge plankton and krill blooms that support vast numbers of fish, seals, penguins, and whales.

Cruising these waters onboard the Akademik Shokalskiy, we got to witness some true spectacles of nature.

Humpback, minke, fin, and blue whales breaching next to the ship, pods of orca, Weddell seals singing to us as we explored the coastline, and thousands of delightfully curious penguins.

It is experiences like this that punctuate our oceanic wandering with excitement and wonder. Viewing sea life at the surface always draws my thoughts beneath. What unseen life and life forces are at work to bring this moment to the surface?

There are 4000m of water beneath the ship and many life forms that contribute to the dynamic ecosystem driving life to the surface. The Ross Sea supports 95 fish species, and more than a third of all Adélie penguins make their home there, along with 30% of all Antarctic petrels and one quarter of the world’s emperor penguins. Also found here are a genetically distinct population of orcas referred to as “ecotype-C” that may be specially adapted to feed on Antarctic toothfish, the top fish predator of the Ross Sea. Antarctic toothfish fill a similar role to sharks in other ecosystems, but fishing interests from several countries have steadily been removing them from the ecosystem.

Whereas most Antarctic fish species rarely get larger than 60cm, Ross Sea toothfish can grow to more than 2m in length and more than 150kg in mass. It is a long-lived species, slow to mature, and the current rate of fishing amounts to “mining” this fish for human consumption.

Visiting the southern continent had a huge impact on me.

I found a new appreciation for the Earth, and especially the ocean. I don’t think anyone can come home from Antarctica without a burning desire of one day returning to see this wild place again. In this ultimate unfathomable space, we discover ourselves, humbled and in awe of nature.

James Muir is a biologist and award-winning natural history filmmaker, living in Coromandel. James has worked in bird behavioural ecology studies worldwide and is also a board member of Forest & Bird. Check out his Antarctica video at www.forestandbird.org.nz.

The world’s largest MPA Humpback whales off Balleny Islands.

L

ast October, consensus was reached on a New Zealand/ United States proposal to establish a huge marine protected area (MPA) in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.

The agreement will come into force on 1 December 2017.

The Ross Sea MPA covers 1.55 million km2, of which 72%, is fully protected (no fishing is permitted). It will be the largest MPA in the world.

New Zealand and the US first came together to propose the MPA in 2012 and worked in partnership to gain agreement from the 23 other member countries of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

This is a significant achievement and represents a major contribution to global marine protection. However, like many conservation agreements, it comes with compromise.

The Antarctic toothfish is likely to be reduced to 50% of its original population level with this MPA in place. This means certain reductions in populations of large predators such as orca.

SAIL TO ANTARCTICA Want to go where James went and experience the world’s last great wilderness? See www.heritage-expeditions.com for upcoming Forest & Bird fundraising cruises. It’s a great way to experience adventure and wildlife with a group of like-minded people. A portion of your fare will go towards supporting our vital conservation work.

Emperor penguin, Terra Nova Bay.

Without further protections, the Southern Ocean faces an uncertain future. Climate change and resulting variations in temperature, currents, and ice dynamics could unravel this complex ecosystem. Fishing overexploitation has persisting effects, with most whale species, seals, and many fish species yet to fully recover.

The Ross Sea MPA will help phase out some of the immediate threats to the Southern Ocean ecosystem, but this area makes up only a small portion of total Antarctic waters. Many more regions require formal protection and proposals are already being made for MPAs over the Weddell Sea and East Antarctic Ocean.

A network of large MPAs and marine reserves that connects these ocean processes across space and time is the most effective and powerful tool to ensure long-term resilience of Antarctica, the last great wilderness frontier.

References: Antarctic Ocean Alliance; Mapping Progress Towards Antarctic Marine Protection, www.mfat.govt.nz/en/environment/antarctica/rosssea-region-marineprotected-area.

Forest & Bird

| 19

General Election 2017

VOTE FOR

NATURE With a general election coming up in September, Forest & Bird hopes nature and conservation will be high on the political agenda.

Most New Zealanders love the outdoors and wildlife, and if asked most will tell you that we must protect them. It is an important part of our national identity.

But when asked about the most important issue facing New Zealand, environmental issues, including natural disasters, are at the bottom of the list at 8%, well below economic and social issues, according to a recent Roy Morgan poll.

Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague says dispelling the myth that New Zealand is protecting its biodiversity is one of our organisation’s biggest challenges.

“Many New Zealanders think nature is adequately protected, probably because of the stories they read about conservation ‘successes’: a few kiwis reintroduced successfully here, a picture of kōkako chicks there. They don’t see the 1000 forgotten species that are heading straight towards extinction.

“We are the largest independent conservation organisation in New Zealand, but we’re outgunned by a constant stream of ’good news’ environmental stories produced by the government. This is a big challenge for us, especially in an election year. We must lift conservation onto the political agenda.

“Political parties poll people continuously, but if people think it’s all fine nature ranks low in their priorities. And party political strategists conclude that it is politically safe to ignore the issue.

“We hope Forest & Bird’s supporters can help us spread the truth about what is going on in our environment. All of us can be a voice for nature in an election year.”

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WHO SPEAKS FOR NATURE? Neither of our two main political parties put conservation high on their political agendas.

As Minister of Conservation, Maggie Barry ranks 16 out of 20 in National’s Cabinet rankings. She is also Minster for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Minister for Seniors.

Labour’s conservation spokesperson is Nanaia Mahuta. At the time of writing, her last media release on conservation issues was in January 2017, and no conservation or environmental policies could be found Labour’s website.

As the general election campaign gets into gear, we’re asking our supporters to help spread the word that:

NATURE IS IN

CRISIS AGENCIES ARE CAPTURED

NATURE IS UP FOR

GRABS

Nearly 900 species are threatened with extinction and another 2000 are at risk of joining them. This includes 80% of our birds, 88% of our lizards, 72% of freshwater fish, and 100% of our frogs.

Government agencies and local councils are heavily influenced by industry interests and failing to do their job of upholding New Zealand’s environmental laws – think ECan, LINZ and DOC allowing farmers to illegally develop land on the margins of braided rivers (p6, Autumn 2017) and MPI ignoring fish dumping (p7).

Our natural environment is being sold off, developed, and destroyed for private profit. Think Te Kuha and the Denniston Plateau in the South Island (p6), Ruahine Forest Park in Hawke’s Bay (p27), and Point England reserve in Auckland (p25).

Illustration: Sharon Murdoch, cartoonist of the year, Canon Media Awards 2017.

CONVERSATIONS THAT COUNT Below is a brief summary of what Forest & Bird would like the next government to do to fix New Zealand’s degrading environment.

FRESH WATER Our rivers, lakes, springs, and aquifers are in crisis. Only 10% of wetlands remain and two-thirds of 160 monitored rivers are not safe for swimming. Councils are letting farmers pollute rivers and aquifers, and take more than their fair share of New Zealand’s water. Councils and government agencies are too close to agri-business interests.

Our fresh water is polluted, in trouble, and degrading fast, but this can be reversed. We need strong rules to protect the environment, and agencies must enforce them.

CLIMATE Storms, fires, droughts, and floods caused by climate change have devastating consequences for native species already under pressure from habitat loss and predation.

Food is becoming scarce for threatened seabirds, and the sea is becoming more acidic.

If we help nature, it can protect us from the worst effects of climate change. New Zealand needs a nationwide plan to cut emissions, alongside an increase to DOC’s budget to restore environmental resilience.

OCEANS Less than 0.5% of our marine environment is protected.

Seabird and marine mammal bycatch deaths, habitat destruction, and fish stock depletion are causing undersea ecosystems to collapse. Oceans are open for business and exploitation by mining, oil, and gas companies. The Ministry for Primary Industries has been captured by fishing interests.

The government should set a target of zero bycatch and restore ocean ecosystems with more marine reserves, a review of the Quota Management System, and stronger fishing rules & enforcement.

BIODIVERSITY Nature is in crisis: Habitat loss, predators, weeds, and climate change are tipping our native wildlife towards extinction. Only 10% of conservation land gets multispecies pest control. Publicly owned conservation land is up for grabs for economic development and private profit.

A cash-strapped Department of Conservation is forced to rely on corporate sponsorship.

The government needs to double DOC’s budget to halt and reverse biodiversity loss on public land. We need strong rules to protect biodiversity on private land.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? n n n n n

Talk to friends, family, work colleagues, and local groups about conservation issues.

Repeat our key campaign messages, see www.votefornature.org.nz.

Discuss local situations and their solutions online, with your local candidate, or in local media Encourage people to join the movement at www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus.

Donate to Forest & Bird and help us get a better deal for nature www.forestandbird.org.nz/donate.

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Defending nature

Underwater panorama near the stern end of the Rena shipwreck at 35 metres on the Astrolabe Reef.

The fish life is prolific similar to the Poor Knights marine reserve, in Northland, says photographer Darryl Torckler.

MOTITI APPEAL Can the Resource Management Act help save our oceans? By Penny Wardle.

A landmark ruling that confirms local councils have the power to protect threatened seabed ecosystems hangs in the balance.

At the time of writing, Forest & Bird lawyers were preparing to appear in the High Court alongside the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust to defend the right of local authorities to prevent ongoing destruction of threatened undersea ecosystems.

In a precedent-setting decision announced last December, the Environment Court ruled that the Resource Management Act (RMA) allows councils to include rules in their regional plans that control fishing activities for the purpose of protecting marine biodiversity, significant habitats, or natural character, or recognising and providing for Māori relationships with the ocean and taonga species.

However, the celebration was short-lived because the government appealed the ruling. Its lawyers argue that central government manages fishing, under the Fisheries Act, and that management by local authorities is not available under the RMA. Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp said that, if upheld, the original Environment Court decision will provide local 22

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authorities with an important tool for marine biodiversity protection.

“If we win, conservation-minded groups and individuals, along with iwi, will be able to seek controls on fishing activities if the evidence supports such control is necessary for protecting marine habitats and biodiversity under the RMA. “However, a loss would mean that fishing activities can be regulated only by central government, irrespective of the purpose of that regulation.”

The original Environment Court case was prompted by the Ministry of Primary Industries’ lack of action on an application to protect the Astrolabe Reef after the wreck of the Rena off Tauranga in 2011.

A fishing zone was created around Astrolabe-Otaiti Reef, enabling taonga species to recover from the oil spillage.

Five years later, that was lifted and the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust, iwi, and Forest & Bird looked to a reluctant Bay of Plenty Regional Council to provide longer-term protection through its new resource management plan.

A number of local councils have applied to join the proceedings, some supporting Motiti Rohe Moana Trust and Forest & Bird’s position, others in opposition.

What lies beneath The astounding undersea ecosystems of the Marlborough Sounds urgently need protection.

Standing alongside Forest & Bird and the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust at the Supreme Court hearing will be Marlborough District Council.

The council, which administers 10% of New Zealand’s coastline, is defending rules in its new Marlborough Environment Plan that prohibit seabed disturbance by dredging, trawling, and anchoring in ecologically significant marine sites. The aim is to protect fragile remnants of Sounds marine ecosystems at risk of being lost forever.

Council environment committee chairman David Oddie said the beauty of the Marlborough Sounds was, unfortunately, surface deep.

“Hop in a boat, the water is blue, the sun is sparkling on the surface, the bush comes down to the water’s edge, it looks fantastic,” he says. “You have no idea what’s happening underneath.”

Scientists engaged by Marlborough District Council and the Department of Conservation surveyed just under 3% of the 725,637ha Marlborough Sounds seabed in 2011.

Their report describes astounding undersea ecosystems including coral-like bryozoans, endemic chitons with a fleshy girdle covered in short spines, giant lampshells that carry feed to their mouths using cilia, giant tubeworm mounds, and beds of coral-like rhodoliths.

Three years later, in 2014, nine of 21 sites ranked as “significant” had decreased by 71%, an area equivalent to Blenheim and its suburbs.

Marlborough District Council coastal scientist Steve Urlich says seabed ecosystems nationally have been under significant pressure in the 25 years the RMA has been in force. An equivalent area to the Brazilian Amazon forest was being compromised by lack of clarity about whether central or local government was responsible for management.

Last year, the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand released Our Marine Environment, the first in a series of six-monthly environmental reports written at arm’s length from the government.

Hydroid colony, Tory Channel. Photo: Rob Davidson

Seabed dredging, bottom-trawling, sedimentation, and marine pests were identified as being major challenges seriously threatening benefits the marine environment could offer people living today and into the future.

The report’s conclusions were so dire that Dr Urlich expected a ministerial taskforce to investigate. Instead, the government decided to appeal a legal decision giving councils a clear mandate to act on coastal marine degradation.

“An abundance of marine species has been transformed to scarcity in two or three generations,” Dr Urlich says.

“This is a huge-scale environmental issue that we have the power to solve.”

Seabed protection was not anti-fishing, because looking after habitats also looked after fish, he added.

NEW ZEALAND SHOW US YOUR NZ Join us at

www.iamnewzealand.co.nz

Anchor damage to rhodoliths in the Marlborough Sounds.

Rhodoliths are colorful, unattached, branching, marine red algae that resemble coral. Photo: Rob Davidson

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Nature’s not for sale

Protecting Auckland’s natural treasures Government agencies should be doing more to stop Auckland’s precious biodiversity hotspots from being lost forever. By Melissa Irace.

Last year, Forest & Bird made an Official Information Act request to Auckland Council to find out how many resource consents to remove native biodiversity on Significant Ecological Areas (SEAs) council staff had issued during the past two years.

SEAs play an important role in sustaining Auckland’s unique and threatened native plants and animals, according to a fact sheet published by the council. SEAs are protected under the Resource Management Act and the new Auckland Unitary Plan.

In the same fact sheet, we see the disclaimer: “Council also recognises that protection must be balanced against individual property owners’ rights to use and manage their land.”

Forest & Bird believes Auckland’s housing and transport crises will lead to more specially protected public

conservation land “grabs” as well as the loss of biodiversity on private land. We are fighting to protect many ecological hotspots that local councils, transport agencies, private developers, or central government want to develop, as you can see in the case studies below.

These show how Auckland Council is failing to do its job of protecting nature in the city. On the one hand, the council says land within the North-West Wildlink is a high priority for protection, while on the other it grants consents for precious native bush along the route of North-West Wildlink to be removed.

And the answer to our OIA request? The council said it didn’t know how many SEA resource consents there have been. Its computer systems don’t allow such a search, and it would be too costly to look look through all the applications manually.

The lower part of Ann's Creek. Photo: NZTA

Variable oystercatchers. Photo: Jessica Budd

➊ East–West Road Link

➋ Ayrlies, Whitford Peninsula

How is Forest & Bird involved?

Forest & Bird’s legal team has lodged an official submission questioning whether adequate consideration has been given to alternative sites, routes, and methods of doing the work.

Submissions will be heard in June.

How is Forest & Bird involved?

For a long time, members of the South Auckland branch of Forest & Bird have been monitoring the area – measuring the success of the breeding seasons and controlling predators in the nearby areas. They are currently putting pressure on Auckland Council to have the application publicly notified.

What’s threatened?

A proposed new road, including cycle and pedestrian paths, will go through Pikes Point and over Anns Creek, both significant ecological areas that form part of the South-East Wildlink wildlife corridor. The volcanic boulder fields support lava flow vegetation at Anns Creek and along the foreshore of the Māngere Inlet. These are the last remaining areas of this scarce ecosystem type left in Auckland. Anns Creek is the only remaining area in Auckland where native shrubs, herbs, and ferns, including threatened volcanic Pellaea falcata fern, grow on lava. It is also home to three threatened members of the geranium family.

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What’s threatened?

This coastal area in South Auckland adjoins a reserve and is a nesting site for threatened northern New Zealand dotterel and variable oystercatchers. It is also a very important area for godwits and red knots, who roost there in their thousands in the summer months. It provides a critical buffer zone to the feeding ground for these birds. A housing development proposal for just 14 lifestyle blocks on the Whitford shoreline by Ayrlies Estates was sent to Auckland Council and is being treated as non-notifiable. This means it can just be reviewed by planners and does not require any public consultation.

Motu Manawa, Te Atatu Peninsula The Motu Manawa-Pollen Island Marine Reserve is Auckland’s last great natural wetland area.

Despite being right next to a busy motorway, it is a roosting site for hundreds of migratory shorebirds as well as home to secretive fernbirds and banded rails. But in 2010, the New Zealand Transport Agency proposed taking 1ha of the marine reserve to allow a SH16 causeway to be raised and widened.

How was Forest & Bird involved?

For seven years, Forest & Bird’s Motu Manawa Restoration Group, representing the Waitakere and Central Auckland branches, negotiated the best possible outcomes for nature around the table with the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Department of Conservation.

We weren’t able to stop the road widening, but wins included fernbird-friendly plantings, observation bays along the cycleway, interpretive signage, and safer public access to the Pollen Island Scientific Reserve so visitors could enjoy the native biodiversity of the area.

Nukumea Scenic Reserve. Photo: Philip Wrigley

Point England. Photo: Shaun Lee

➌ Hall Farm, near Orewa

➍ Point England, East Auckland

How is Forest & Bird involved?

The Hibiscus Coast Branch of Forest & Bird raised the issue in local media and lodged a submission to Auckland Council highlighting the importance of the reserve area and the stream.

As a result, the developers have started working with Forest & Bird’s Auckland regional office to discuss the environmental impacts and mitigations. A decision on whether the subdivision will go ahead is expected later this year.

How is Forest & Bird involved?

Forest & Bird has worked with local conservation groups to raise public awareness of the issue through traditional and social media, and made a submission opposing the Point England Development Enabling Bill. At the time of writing, we were awaiting the bill’s second hearing in Parliament. We will continue to fight for the best possible outcome for nature.

What’s threatened?

A large high-density subdivision of 575 houses is proposed in the open countryside known as Hall Farm, west of Orewa on State Highway 1. The area had previously been designated for low density housing because of its location next to Nukumea Scenic Reserve, one of the last vestiges of indigenous bush in the area, and an important element in the North-West Wildlink.

What’s threatened?

Last December, the government announced its intention to lift the public reserve status on 12ha of land in Point England, Auckland, and sell it off for a housing development. This would compromise a valuable nesting area for the threatened northern New Zealand dotterel and the primary high tide roosting area for up to 90% of the remaining shorebirds in the Tāmaki Estuary, including the critically endangered shore plover.

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MEMBER SINCE 200,000,000 B.C.

Forest & Bird has been defending New Zealand’s natural environment since 1923. In that time, we have campaigned for the protection of some of our most precious wildlife and wild places, planted hundreds of thousands of trees, removed millions of predators, and created safe forests so our native birds can return.

As New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organisation, we speak up for the rivers, oceans, and forests in your local community and defend vanishing nature in courtrooms and councils throughout the country. But Forest & Bird is needed now more than ever. Nature is in crisis, and our environment is degrading around us. With your support, we can do more

Ogilvy/FAB0222 R

to protect the natural world. Join us today at www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus.

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Our people

Defending nature Forest & Bird supporter Pauline Kroef explains why she helped fund Forest & Bird’s legal costs in the Ruahine Forest Park Supreme Court appeal.

Why do you think this case is so important?

Like many New Zealanders, I value our country’s unique natural heritage. I am proud of our national parks and conservation estate, with their emphasis on conserving biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and recreational values for the benefit of all. In the past, we have felt assured to know that these special places were protected and had a guardian and a champion in our Department of Conservation. However, the Ruataniwha case represents a worrying erosion of these protections. Rather than serving as guardian, DOC appears intent on facilitating the handover of public conservation land for private development. A serious precedent could be established with a government-endorsed privatisation of the public conservation estate, as other land swap requests are waiting in the wings. The role of defender of our commonly held natural heritage has fallen to Forest & Bird.

What do you hope your support of Forest & Bird will achieve for New Zealand?

I hope that through my support, and that of others, Forest & Bird can continue to challenge the ill-advised decisions we are currently seeing around the protection of our conservation estate. I hope this case will also raise awareness of the need for vigilance so public pressure can be brought to bear on those making policy decisions.

I support Forest & Bird’s advocacy for stronger and more consistent safeguards for precariously protected stewardship land. I believe this work is vital and urgent.

What do you think makes Forest & Bird different to other conservation charities?

Forest & Bird is unique in that it has been part of New Zealand’s story for generations. Its name has become synonymous with a love of nature and the great outdoors.

Funded entirely by public support, Forest & Bird’s long history of celebrating our natural environment and giving nature a voice has engendered trust, respect, and goodwill. In supporting Forest & Bird, we proudly become part of this story.

“ As ecosystem disruption and habitat loss accelerate, support for Forest & Bird's independent advocacy is more urgent than ever.”

D-DAY FOR THE DAM? At the time of writing, Forest & Bird was awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court on the legality of the Ruahine Forest Park land swap. If we win, the Ruataniwha Dam's future is uncertain because this land is pivotal to the creation of the scheme's 7km-long irrigation reservoir in the foothills of the Ruahine Range.

If we lose, it would create a legal precedent that lets over

a million hectares of conservation land in New Zealand be traded away and destroyed by business interests.

In a separate development, newly elected councillors on Hawke’s Bay Regional Council were due to meet on 31 May to decide the future of the $300 dam project following an internal 436-page review setting out its many economic and environmental risks for council ratepayers.

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Conservation volunteers Jean Fleming became an environmental volunteer after retiring to the Kāpiti Coast in 2015.

Why do we do it?

Jean Fleming unpacks the motivations of environmental volunteers in New Zealand.

Waking in my new home on that first morning, I jumped out of bed and flung open the doors to the deck, breathing in the sounds and smells of life at Waikanae Beach. Immediately, there was a peel of tūī calls from the tall gums across the road and, as I listened, a riroriro started up its hesitant call right beside me. I knew then that my new life on the Kāpiti Coast was going to be just fine.

I moved back to Waikanae Beach in early 2015, having spent more than 20 years as an academic in Dunedin. The place had changed a bit since my childhood and, it struck me, for the better. Tall pōhutukawa and banksia trees flowered all summer, and there were restored wetlands thriving where, as kids, we’d galloped our ponies around a go-cart racetrack on the Waikanae estuary. The biggest surprise was the number and diversity of birds now calling the Kāpiti Coast home.

Within a couple of months of arrival, I had been asked to lead a team restoring the streams on the Queen Elizabeth Park farm, as part of the Kāpiti Biodiversity Project, and had also been appointed a Trustee of the Ngā Manu Nature Reserve at Waikanae. It has been a steep learning curve from health scientist and science communicator to environmental volunteer.

I had to learn the basics of riparian planting: what trees to purchase, when to plant, how to deal with weed and grass growth, and how to measure the stream health through fish and invertebrate surveys. At Ngā Manu, the nearby 28

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

expressway and the encroachment of housing developments made me think about pest control in a different way, and I learnt how Ngā Manu fitted into a number of nearby bush remnants as part of a key native ecosystem.

Both projects depend on the constant energy and hard work of volunteers, who turn up in all weathers, with smiles on their faces and their hi-viz vests on, to dig holes on the stream banks, establish traplines up steep escarpments and check them regularly, monitor lizard numbers, and establish homes for weta or little blue penguins. These wonderful new friends got me thinking. What drove them?

What did they get out of their environmental work and what would make their experience better?

My academic past tapped me on the shoulder, and before I knew it I had set up an online survey on the motivations of environmental volunteers. I quickly realised I needed the experiences from volunteers throughout the country, both for the numbers and also for the diversity of environmental projects that people contributed to. I made the survey simple and open, with 10 questions, including gender, age, and education. The results were remarkably consistent, from Northland to Rakiura. To date, more than 270 people have responded, but the survey www. surveymonkey.com/r/Y89TCYG will remain open until the end of the year. If you haven’t responded yet, please do.

From the findings (see right), I conclude that, if organisations want to improve the experience of their environmental volunteers, the first step is to acknowledge the experience and expertise of those who volunteer. The volunteers who responded to this survey are not people who are working for a “free lunch”. Goodwill, willingness to collaborate and share skills, and a love of New Zealand’s fauna and flora characterise the responses.

Volunteers want to be respected for their hard work but also for who they are. After all, we are all working together to make New Zealand a better place for its endangered flora and fauna, as well as its human population.

The Kapiti Biodiversity Project's Tuesday nursery group pricking out seedlings. Photo: Jean Fleming

KEY FINDINGS REASONS FOR VOLUNTEERING

WHO VOLUNTEERS?

Retired

Desire

Community

Local

Interest

Love

Wanted

Biodiversity

Project

Conservation

Environment

0

Native/Nature

4 2

Reasons for volunteering. Being wanted and love were unexpectedly high motivators.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? Responses to the question “What do you get out of being a volunteer?” are shown below. Volunteers enjoyed meeting “like-minded” or “interesting” new friends and clearly got satisfaction from the work they did. Volunteering was seen as a social activity, bringing better physical and mental health through doing, learning, seeing, contributing, and being active outdoors.

“Meeting a group of like-minded passionate people and being outdoors.”

“Knowing that I am helping to save some species from extinction. Working with like-minded people. Keeping my mind and body active.”

BENEFITS OF VOLUNTEERING % responses

25 20 15 10

Future

Active

Giving

Contributing

Knowing

Making

Learning

Enjoy

0

Doing

5 Seeing

Survey respondents were asked for the reasons they became a volunteer in their main environmental project.

Analysis revealed regular use of terms such as environment, conservation, and native or nature but also more unexpected terms such as wanted, love, local, or community.

“Being a voice for nature – curbing the tide of extinctions.”

“Feeling like I am making a positive difference.”

“I am retired and it is time to give back to the community.”

12 10 8 6

Satisfaction

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

% responses

14

Meeting people

More than a third of respondents were retired. The next biggest group were professionals or tradespeople (21%), followed by managers (12%), and those in education (10%). More than 4% of respondents were farmers.

Volunteers were highly educated, with more than 30% having some form of tertiary qualification and 50% having postgraduate training, including 12% with a Masters degree and 8% with a PhD. More women than men responded to the survey, with a gender ratio of about 60:40 female to male.

Respondents covered a broad range of ages, but nearly a third of respondents were in the 65–74 years old category reflecting the greater time available for volunteering in retirement. Of those surveyed, 70% did other kinds of volunteer work as well.

Just under 30% of respondents said they were not members of any conservation, environmental, or wildlife societies or organisations. Only 3% listed Forest & Bird projects as their main volunteering activity, but a further 17% listed Forest & Bird projects as a secondary activity, and 54% stated they belonged to the society, by far the largest percentage of any organisation. Forest & Bird plays a major communication role in the lives of this cohort of New Zealanders.

Benefits of environmental volunteering. The social aspect was seen as important.

Live, laugh, share – volunteer Forest & Bird would like to take this opportunity to thank our thousands of hardworking volunteers in all corners of New Zealand. Our vital conservation work couldn’t happen without your efforts.

Forest & Bird’s Chief Executive Kevin Hague said: “I have been visiting branches across the country recently and have been humbled by the commitment to saving nature I have witnessed from our many unpaid volunteers.

“Unquestionably, without these dedicated volunteers, Forest & Bird would not be able to undertake the breadth and depth of work we do. Their work is extraordinary and important, whether it’s setting traplines, weeding, planting, making a submission, raising issues with local media, or helping with administrative tasks in National Office.

“Together we are stronger, and our members, donors, staff, and supporters are working side by side to seek a better and more secure future for New Zealand’s natural heritage. Thank you to the many thousands of you that do this work for nothing else but the love of nature.”

For more information about National Volunteers Week, visit www.nationalvolunteerweek.nz.

National Volunteer Week 18-24 June 2017

#NVW2017

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Forest & Bird project ANOTHER

Forest & Bird NATURE WINFOR

Shh... fernbirds are here

Photo: Duncan Watson

A secretive wetland bird has returned to Pauatahanui, one of Forest & Bird’s reserves. David Brooks was there to see them arrive at their new home.

More than three decades of work to restore Forest & Bird’s Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve north of Wellington has been crowned with the translocation of rare fernbirds to the rehabilitated wetland.

Once home to cattleyards, farm land, a go-cart track, playing fields, and demolition spoil, the Pautahanui reserve contains the most significant saltmarsh wetland in the lower North Island. Since April, it has also become the southernmost North Island habitat for the small, secretive fernbird.

The transfer from Lake Rotokare Scenic Reserve in Taranaki took place in April over three days, with a total of 22 fernbirds released into the reserve. The kaitiakitanga or guardianship of the birds was formally transferred by the Ngāti Tupaia hapū from South Taranaki to local iwi Ngāti Toa in a ceremony just before the first 10 birds were released on 20 April.

As the boxes were opened, the sparrow-sized birds with their long, ragged tails fluttered into nearby bushes, some landing in saltmarsh ribbonwood less than a metre from their boxes as they took in their new surroundings.

Chairman of the Forest & Bird Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve management committee Robin Chesterfield looked on with satisfaction as the last of the birds flew into the saltmarsh. Robin has been involved in the reserve since

Photo: David Brooks

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the 1980s, playing a prominent role in the restoration and predator control that has made the fernbird reintroduction possible.

“In the saltmarsh area, we’ve had to do very little, but we’ve enhanced the freshwater area to encourage growth of freshwater species, and the coastal forest area was started from scratch,” he says.

Former Forest & Bird president Tony Ellis was one of the driving forces behind the reserve from the late 1970s.

Later, the government agreed to establish the reserve and pass day-to-day management control to Forest & Bird.

The management committee was set up in 1984, and restoration got under way in the same year.

Another long-serving member of the management committee, Wanda Tate, has been involved for nearly 25 years. She recalls the challenges of the restoration, given the reserve is prone to flooding and has a water table that rises and falls sharply between winter and summer.

“We are very vulnerable to natural events, but you want the area to be as self-sustaining as possible. We have to find plants that can cope with being in ground that is virtually submerged in winter and completely dried out in summer,” Wanda says.

Just under half of the reserve’s area of nearly 50ha is saltmarsh on the edge of the Pauatahanui Inlet. Backing on

Photo: Lee Barry

to the saltmarsh are areas of coastal shrub and freshwater swamp, with regenerating coastal forest on the reserve fringes.

A boardwalk takes visitors through the saltmarsh to a hide at the mouth of the Pauatahanui Stream, where coastal birds such as shags, spur-winged plovers, whitefaced herons, and sometimes godwits and royal spoonbills gather to feed and rest. Ponds dug out in the early days of the reserve, including one inside what used to be a go-kart track, attract birds such as pied stilts, shovelers, welcome swallows, paradise shelducks, and kingfishers.

The regenerating bush areas contain tūī, fantails, and grey warblers, among others.

The reserve is a popular place for a walk or picnic for people from around Porirua, the Hutt Valley, and Wellington. “Rather than just being a wildlife reserve, it has become very much a community amenity,” says Wanda.

Large numbers of volunteers took part in the initial development of the reserve. These days, about 20 to 25 active volunteers are involved in weeding, planting, predator trapping, and other maintenance work. All bring their own skills, including a doctor who dissects trapped stoats to find out what they’ve been eating. Most are retired, and the committee is always looking out for new volunteers as well as gratefully accepting help from corporate volunteer groups and New Zealand Conservation Volunteers.

The call of spotless crakes has been heard in the reserve for the first time since the 1980s. The return of these birds, another rarely seen secretive wetland dweller, is a hopeful sign that fernbirds will also successfully become re-established.

The Department of Conservation supported the April translocation, and Wellington Forest & Bird branches provided much of the funding, along with contributions from The Horner Fund, Hutt Mana Charitable Trust, Pelorus Trust, and Trust House Foundation.

The translocated fernbirds come from a bush area rather than saltmarsh, and one potential concern is that some may disperse from the reserve to look for more familiar vegetation. They will be carefully monitored to see how well they become established during the first 18 months to two years.

If all goes well, the management committee hopes to boost the number of translocated fernbirds to 40, the recommended number to create a self-sustaining population. Translocation consultant Kevin Parker, who led the transfer, believes the reserve has the potential to build a population of about 200 fernbirds.

Photo: Lee Barry

FERNBIRD FACTS New Zealand fernbirds are found in swampy areas throughout New Zealand, although the draining of 90 percent of wetlands since European settlement has drastically decreased their range and introduced predators have also taken a heavy toll.

They are difficult to see, because of their camouflage and preference for dense wetland shrublands, but they have distinctive “u-tick” calls between pairs.

Wanda and Robin would like anyone who sees the birds at the reserve to report them to the committee at pauatahanuireservecommittee@outlook.com. They are urging visitors not to approach the birds, especially in the next few months as they develop their territories and become settled.

Photo: David Brooks

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Young conservationist

Nature missions for Kiwi kids could see them turn into the conservationists of tomorrow, as Paul Stanley Ward explains.

New Zealand kids face a nature aroha crisis. Researching Wild Eyes, we’ve met kids who are unable to identify common animals such as tūī or a duck, or have never been to a beach, river, or forest. The ideal of a free-roaming Kiwi childhood is a myth for many kids. Arguably, there’s never been a more urgent time to connect tamariki with their environment.

Along with physical and mental health benefits, connection with nature is crucial for fostering the scientists, conservationists, and kaitiaki of the future. To paraphrase Dave Attenborough: Kiwis will only protect what they care about, and will only care about what they’ve experienced.

Children have near-universal access to screens (where they are fed endless playlists), yet until last month we had no Aotearoa-specific digital platforms encouraging them into the outdoors. Nearly all of their entertainment and educational online options are international products.

Enter Wild Eyes! A major new initiative that aims to get Kiwi kids off screens and engaged in NZ nature and the environment ... using screens!

The Wild Eyes website provides digital incentives to complete 22 fun out-in-their-real-backyard nature missions (see panel). Wild Eyes’ missions are designed for family, weekend, or holiday activities, and to be accessible either at home or in the classroom.

Users upload photos of their completed missions to the website, where they can describe their creation or use a suite of tawaki emojis to favourite others’ photos. Wild Eyes aims to appeal to kids of the Instagram and Minecraft generation, enabling them to learn, share, and express engagement with their environment in a safe online space.

Wild Eyes has “national project” funding from NZ 32

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On Air’s Digital Media Fund and from MBIE’s Curious Minds science innovation fund. The activities are curriculum-friendly and developed with the input of the Science Learning Hub. Supporters include Forest & Bird, Manaiakalani, PredatorFree New Zealand Trust, and Enviroschools.

The initiative was launched in April 2017 on What Now and with Kiwi Conservation Club. Check out KCC’s Wild Things winter issue for the next Wild Eyes mission. During its first month, thousands of Kiwi kids – and their parents, grandparents, and mates – have opened their wild eyes. The gallery of mission uploads includes velvet worms, kiwi, mud monsters, kawakawa tea parties, and backyard bivvies.

The beauty of Wild Eyes is that every photo uploaded to the website is evidence a child has gone outside and/or engaged with New Zealand’s nature.

Make sure the next “www” your child types is www. wildeyes.co.nz and help turn square eyes into wild eyes! *Paul Stanley Ward is a Wellington writer, conservationist, and dad to Estella (9) and Sylvie (7). He produced Wild Eyes in partnership with Vicky Pope, a film producer and mum to Max (5).

Fake a Giant Moa Discovery Each Wild Eyes mission provides an instructional template that kids can take where their inspiration leads them. In “Fake a Giant Moa Discovery”, kids have to prove to science and the internet that they’ve discovered a moa in their backyard. Uploads of “proof” have included giant papier-mâché eggs, bones photographed at imaginative angles, muddy moa-prints with news headline graphics, powerpoint presentations, and an alarming amount of coprolite (that may actually be dog poo!).

Predator-free

Kākāriki are coming Forty kākāriki will be released in the Far North this winter, as our Northland Advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer explains.

Project Island Song is a shared vision for the restoration of an archipelago rich in native flora and fauna for all to enjoy.

The seven wonders of Ipipiri are the pest-free islands located in the eastern Bay of Islands. Years of work between local hapū Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha, the Department of Conservation, landowners, and community group the Guardians of the Bay of Islands saw these seven islands become pest-mammal free in 2009.

Recent years have seen pāteke/brown teal, tīeke/ saddlebacks, pōpokotea/whitehead, and toutouwai/robins released. And they haven’t wasted any time in breeding.

It’s now common to see tīeke moving in groups and hunting bugs on the leggy trunks of kānuka.

This winter, it’s the red-crown parakeet’s turn. Up to 40 kākāriki will be bought over from Hauturu/Little Barrier Island for release on Ipipiri.

Kākāriki frequently feed on the ground and nest in dry holes in trees and banks. On the mainland, rats, stoats, cats, and possums wiped them out, and logging and burning of native forests destroyed ancient trees favored for nesting.

The last mainland Northland kākāriki were heard in the early 1980s. Fortunately, kākāriki remained on a few pestfree islands near Whangarei, and some occasionally fly across to the mainland.

Except for pāteke, the native bird species re-introduced so far will not leave the islands, but with the wide-ranging red-crowned kākāriki there is no guarantee they will stay put.

Kākāriki can have multiple broods from the start of spring to the end of summer, so the aim is to create viable island kākāriki populations that head over to the adjacent coastal land.

To prepare, a comprehensive halo of coastland pest control initiatives from Tapeka Point to Rakaumangamanga/Cape Brett has been established.

Inland, Russell State Forest is also set to come under a 20year pest control management plan.

Before the pests were killed, replanting was well under way. For years, local volunteers at the Kerikeri Shadehouse, a native plant restoration nursery supported by the Far North branch of Forest & Bird, have been growing ecosourced native plants from seed.

Photo: Bernard Spragg

Forest & Bird member and Old Blue recipient Rod Brown has coordinated work at the nursery, growing and transporting the plants out to the islands and plantings. More than 35,000 native plants have been reared and planted out on Waewaetorea, Moturua, and Urupukapuka islands. These include pōhutukawa, taraire, tītoki, tūrepo/milk tree, and rare northern coastal trees, tawāpou and coastal maire along with kakabeak and purple flowered koru.

Many of these plant species have taken a hammering by possums throughout Northland.

The islands are open sanctuaries, and keeping them pest free has not been without its challenges. Recent incursions include a pet cat swimming ashore from a yacht and rat arrivals. One rat stowed away on a dingy and was dispatched on a beach thanks to the lightening reflexes of a volunteer armed with a spade.

Last summer’s surprise was the discovery of a Pacific gecko, but most missing native species need a hand, and Project Island Song has 16 on the wish-to-return list.

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Profile The New Zealand giraffe weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis).

Its Māori name, tuwhaipapa, derives from the Māori god of newly made canoes. L. barbicornis is New Zealand’s longest beetle. Photo: Steve Reekie/New Zealand Wild

Our changing world Leading British ecologist Dame Georgina Mace explains how people’s attitudes towards conservation have changed during the past 50 years. Words by David Brooks.

Does nature conservation mean protecting our wild places, reducing human threats to nature, or recognising humanity’s dependence on nature for its own survival in a fast-changing world? Conservation is all of those things, according to distinguished British ecologist and conservation scientist Dame Georgina Mace.

The Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems and Director of University College London’s Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research visited New Zealand earlier this year to give the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s 2017 Rutherford Memorial Lecture in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin.

Mace led the process to develop threat criteria for listing species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species in the late 1980s and 1990s. She has also been involved in developing policies related to biodiversity loss and ecosystem management in Britain and for national and international organisations.

She says there have been changes to the way conservation is framed, which has seen conservation ideology move through four phases during the past 50 years.

Until the end of the 1960s, conservation policies centred on “nature for itself” – protecting wilderness areas and individual species. In the following two decades, “nature despite people” focused on human threats to species and habitats.

By the 1990s, there was more attention on the ecosystem services nature provides to people, such as 34

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clean water and flood mitigation. Mace characterises this shift in attention to ecosystems (rather than species) as a focus on “nature for people”.

Most recently, she says, there has been a greater recognition of the inter-dependence of humans and nature in a more subtle and less utilitarian “nature and people” focus, which combines the three previous stages.

“I think the rate at which people are dominating the earth, it’s better to be realistic about that and to manage that interaction rather than put fences around nature and kind of set it aside,” she says.

“We’re changing the world very rapidly through climate change, land use, pollutants, and in other ways, so we can’t believe we can keep nature as it was in 1960 or 1900.

“The more I’ve understood about wild systems and ecosystems, they are pretty good at adapting and moving with the times. You just have to avoid making it impossible for them to persist.”

Protected areas are worth having but conservation also belongs in cities and other places where people live.

“If you have this interaction between nature and people, where they get to see it, be part of it, and can see it changing, they want to take care of it.”

Mace’s focus on applying science to conservation has the aim of ensuring resources go where they are most needed and demonstrating how protecting nature is crucial for people as well as for nature itself. Protecting ecosystems is important because of the services they provide to people – and species are important because, if we lose them, they are gone for ever.

If you have this interaction between nature and people, where they get to see it, be part of it, and can see it changing, they want to take care of it.

Having said that, Mace admits conservation is not only about science. There are also value-based judgements, such as whether to only protect endemic species or ones that have an economic benefit – for example, species that encourage tourism.

“I used to think there was a scientific truth to determining the most important species to conserve, but there isn’t really a scientific answer. There are some species that we like and want to keep. I would be very upset if there were no elephants – how could we live with ourselves if there were no elephants?”

In New Zealand, the 2016 Public Perceptions of New Zealand’s Environment survey released earlier this year identified kiwi as the top priority for protection, ahead of other species much closer to extinction such as kākāpō or Maui’s dolphin.

“If it turns out that people value kiwi because it’s the national bird, it’s emblematic, then that’s a legitimate thing to do,” Mace says.

As for the Predator-Free New Zealand goal of eradicating stoats, rats, and possums from the entire country by 2050, Mace says it is the kind of big visionary

project that can inspire people. She adds that investing in a big eradication programme could be more effective in the long term than having to maintain predator-control programmes for ever.

“When I first heard about it I thought ‘that’s Dame Georgina Mace says the crazy, that’s such an focus of conservation has shifted ambitious project’, but I from preservation to resilience. think it’s great to have a Photo: Supplied really big vision like that.

Once you set a goal like that, you find the technology and resources may appear to achieve it.” *David Brooks met Dame Georgina Mace during her visit to New Zealand to deliver the 2017 Rutherford Memorial Lecture How should we value nature in a humandominated world?

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He will show you this nature lovers paradise in seven days what would take you eight weeks to discover on your own.

Western Explorer Expedition 14 Day Camping Tour – Departs Broome 12 August 2017 .

This trip is designed to coincide with the Pilbara wildflower season. See a variety of ephemeral plant species including Brunonia and Everlasting Daisies as well as perennials such as Cassias & Eremophilas.

Explore the wonderful Karijini, Mt Augustus & Kennedy Range National Parks.

Costa Rica Wildlife Safari 17 Day Accom Tour – Departs San Jose 3 November 2017 Costa Rica is a small country but is huge on nature which is why it holds legendary status when it comes to the world's greatest nature destinations. Tropical birds, jungle wildlife ,rain forests, cloud forests and much more.

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Great Western Woodlands & Helena Aurora Ranges 12 Day Camping Tour – Departs Perth 16 September 2017 Join us and experience the diverse wildlife and spectacular wildflowers of the world’s largest temperate woodland, the historic woodlines (where timber cutters operated from 1899 to 1964) and the ironstone Helena Aurora Ranges which are currently under threat of being mined.

Christmas & Cocos Islands 12 Day Accom Tour – Departs Perth 21 November 2017 Explore the wildlife& history of these two diverse islands.

Search for the Frigate bird, Abbotts Booby & the Golden Bosun bird. The tour is timed to see one of the worlds most amazing sights, the Red Crab migration. All this combined with rain forest walks makes this tour a naturalist wonderland.

Contact us for our full 2017 tour program: • Free Call: 1800 676 016 • Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au • Email coates@iinet.net.au

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Special Report

Penguins under pressure Forest & Bird wants urgent action to protect New Zealand’s at-risk penguins. By Caroline Wood and Karen Baird.

Little penguin. Photo: Richard Robinson

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New Zealand is home to a third of the world’s penguin species. In fact, we are the guardians of more kinds of penguin than any other country on the planet. It’s a pretty awesome responsibility but one fraught with challenges.

Everyone loves penguins. They look super cute, and some of them even dance, but unfortunately they are also on a knife-edge. Five of New Zealand’s six species are in trouble and could be wiped out by a combination of many threats, including predators, commercial fishing, disease, climate change, and human activity.

Penguins are the second most threatened group of seabirds in the world, with 10 of 18 species at risk of extinction. This is why Forest & Bird has joined a global initiative led by Birdlife International to help save the world’s penguins – with our focus being on New Zealand’s penguins (see overleaf).

Most at-risk in New Zealand is the yellow-eyed penguin which last week had its threat status elevated by the Department of Conservation to nationally endangered.

You’d think, being guardians of a third of the world's penguins, New Zealand’s government would be racing to help them. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We don’t even have a national plan to protect our six penguin species.

Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague says: “Penguins are not being adequately managed in New Zealand. There is no overall coordination, no national plan, and, as a result, our penguins are in crisis. Five of them could be wiped off the earth – that’s a quarter of the world’s penguin species.

“The chronically under-funded Department of Conservation hasn’t been given enough resources to do its job, and other agencies are also failing our penguins. The time for action is now, not in two, five, or 10 years time, when it could be too late.” *See overleaf for more about the threats New Zealand’s six penguin species face.

Forest & Bird’s penguin report Forest & Bird has written a discussion document Reversing The Penguin Decline in New Zealand, which provides an up-to-date analysis of the state of penguin populations on the New Zealand mainland and sub-Antarctic islands.

Our seabird advocate Karen Baird travelled around New Zealand last year visiting penguin projects run by Forest & Bird and other conservation groups. She also talked to the country’s top penguin experts, who shared their latest research about current threats and ideas about how we can better protect our penguins.

Karen’s report, which was prepared on behalf of Birdlife International, identifies opportunities for new penguin conservation projects and includes a draft list of priority initiatives. We will be consulting with our penguin partners before finalising these. Forest & Bird’s current fundraising drive will help fund some priority initiatives, including employing a national penguin coordinator. See www. forestandbird.org.nz/penguins for the full report.

Cleaned up little penguins being released in the Bay of Plenty following the Rena oil spill in 2011. Photo: Kim Westerskov

FIVE PENGUIN PRIORITIES Forest & Bird is calling for meaningful and coordinated action to protect our threatened penguins including: 1 A national Penguin Recovery Group established and administered by the Department of Conservation.

The group would facilitate a more coordinated and collaborative approach to penguin conservation.

2 The eradication of pigs and cats on Auckland Island (to protect eastern rockhopper and yellow-eyed penguins), and cats and rats from Stewart Island (yellow-eyed penguin and tawaki).

3 Marine Protected Areas established around penguin colonies, at a minimum in areas identified as Important Bird Areas, to restrict fisheries’ activity in foraging areas and reduce impacts from oil exploration and drilling around breeding and foraging habitat.

4 Adequate biosecurity measures to stop predator invasions and contingency plans in place for all penguin breeding islands in the Sub-Antarctic, including regular biosecurity monitoring.

5 Regular surveys of all New Zealand penguin species to monitor population trends and success of conservation/recovery interventions, including a full national survey for little penguins and tawaki.

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Special Report

Fiordland crested penguin/tawaki.

Photo: Craig McKenzie

TIPPING POINT Penguins face a multitude of threats and need more protection to survive.

During a penguin survey last year, a project team witnessed the devastating effects of stoats on the forestdwelling tawaki living at Jackson Head, on the West Coast.

“Within a matter of days, almost all the eggs and chicks of the entire penguin colony – about 150 breeding pairs – were wiped out by stoats,” said leading tawaki researcher Thomas Mattern.

But the story was very different at Milford Sound, where researchers believe 100 pairs are thriving thanks to ongoing predator control.

“Stoat trapping in Milford Sound has enabled the population there to thrive. However, without any predator control in place, the reproductive output of tawaki at Jackson Head was close to zero for the second year in a row,” adds Mattern.

Predator control is the most pressing issue faced by all of our penguin species. We need more of it on the mainland and on the remaining remote/large offshore islands that are not predator free.

Penguins are also very vulnerable to fisheries bycatch, especially from set nets where yellow-eyed penguins and little penguins/kororā have been captured over many years. Tawaki are also known to be caught in set nets, although the extent of the impact is not known because of the very low observer coverage in the set-net fisheries.

Disease is increasingly seen as a major threat to depressed and stressed penguin populations, such as the mainland populations of yellow-eyed penguin. Disease has rarely been investigated in other penguin species.

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Factors that influence food supply are not well understood but include marine habitat destruction from fishing trawlers and potential competition with commercial fisheries for food species.

Increasingly, the impacts of climate disruption on ocean productivity are affecting penguins’ food supply.

A moulting yelloweyed penguin sits next to a rabbit at at Kātiki Historic Reserve, near Moeraki, Otago, in April. Photographer Martin Sanders also saw a black cat eating a freshly killed rabbit nearby. He raised his concerns about the lack of protection for the penguins in this reserve, but, at the time of writing, he had not received a reply from the cashstrapped Department of Conservation.

Photo: Martin Sanders

PENGUIN REPORT CARD PROTECTING PENGUINS IN OUR BACKYARD Forest & Bird’s volunteers play an important role in penguin protection throughout the country.

Every weekend, come rain or shine, they are doing the hard yards – protecting penguins through predator control, monitoring, annual surveys, raising awareness, and fundraising.

Forest & Bird owns Te Rere, a remote reserve in the Caitlins run by volunteers determined to save New Zealand’s most at-risk species, the yellow-eyed penguin.

Our Wellington branch set up the Places for Penguins in 2007, and volunteers are currently working hard to trap, monitor, and protect the little penguin ahead of this year’s breeding season.

Here is a snapshot of some of the other work our Forest & Bird branches have been doing recently: n South Otago branch: Predator trapping and revegetation at key penguin habitats, plus annual penguin surveys. n Waiheke branch: Predator control, nest box production, nest monitoring, advocacy. n Kāpiti-Mana branch: Penguin project established in 2015 with Kāpiti Coast Biodiversity Project. n North Canterbury branch: Annual penguin survey. n North Taranaki: Advocacy for penguin welfare. n South Canterbury branch: Penguin minding (protection from tourists!). *To join your local Forest & Bird branch, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus.

#PROTECT A PENGUIN Forest & Bird has joined with our global partner Birdlife International to campaign for penguins worldwide.

Fundraising manager Jess Winchester said: “With your help, we can employ a national penguin coordinator. They will draw up a national plan that will prioritise the most important practical things we can do to save our penguins and lobby the government for action.

Any funds left over will go towards our other important penguin conservation work.

“We are stronger together, and by taking part in Birdlife’s Global Penguin Campaign we are part of a worldwide voice that is defending nature. Just think what we can achieve together.

This work is urgently needed.

Please help us protect a penguin today at https://penguin.birdlife.org/nz.

NEW ZEALAND’S MAINLAND PENGUINS

YELLOW-EYED PENGUIN/HOIHO The world’s second-rarest penguin. The mainland population of the endemic yelloweyed penguin has suffered significant declines in the last two to three years, while the trend of the sub-Antarctic population is not known because of a lack of survey data. Estimated population: 1700 breeding pairs, true number unknown.

Threat status: Nationally endangered.

FIORDLAND CRESTED PENGUIN/ TAWAKI Tawaki is New Zealand’s second most at-risk species. They live in remote, difficult to access places so the population trend is difficult to ascertain. Estimated population: Thought to be between 5500 and 7000, in decline since the 1950s. Threat status: Nationally vulnerable.

LITTLE PENGUIN/KORORĀ The smallest and most widespread penguin species in New Zealand, little penguins are known to be especially vulnerable to the impacts of oil spills, expanding oil and gas exploration, and increasing shipping traffic. Estimated population: Local population unknown, declining globally. Threat status: At risk declining.

NEW ZEALAND’S SUB-ANTARCTIC SPECIES

EASTERN ROCKHOPPER PENGUIN The world’s three species of rockhopper penguins have seen a catastrophic decline around the southern hemisphere. Causes in New Zealand appear to be linked to oceanic warming and cooling periods affecting food supply. The Campbell Island population, once the largest in New Zealand, crashed by 94% from 800,000 to just 51,500 from 1942 to 1985. Estimated population: Unknown, declining. Threat status: Nationally vulnerable.

ERECT-CRESTED PENGUIN The least studied penguin in New Zealand, erect-crested penguins recently disappeared as a breeding species from Campbell Island possibly because of impacts from mammals but also potentially from the same changes in the marine environment that are affecting rockhopper penguins. Only breeds on the Antipodes and Bounty Islands. Estimated population: About 68,500 pairs worldwide, declining. Threat status: At risk declining.

SNARES CRESTED PENGUIN Endemic to the 300ha Snares Island Group, these are the only penguins probably not suffering declines, but they are vulnerable to other threats, such as oil pollution and fisheries, because of their limited range. Estimated population: 31,000 breeding pairs, apparently stable population. Threat status: Recovering.

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Our people

Fighting for nature Auckland Museum has published a new online profile of Forest & Bird founder Captain Val Sanderson, focusing on his military record. It explains how the skills and knowledge picked up fighting in two wars would later become invaluable as he built a movement to protect nature in New Zealand. Thanks to Auckland Museum’s Dan Millar, who wrote the profile, for sharing it with us.

A remarkable New Zealander, Captain Ernest Valentine “Val” Sanderson emerged from two wars to become a leading figure in the fight to protect New Zealand’s natural heritage. Using skills and leadership gained through war, he was a key founder of what became the Royal Forest & Bird Society. Fronting national conservation efforts for three decades, he was instrumental in fostering greater appreciation for New Zealand’s environment.

Born in Dunedin in 1866 and raised in Wellington, Sanderson first served in the South African War (1899– 1902) where he excelled as a Quartermaster-Sergeant for the No. 12 Company (Wellington section), 5th contingent, New Zealand Mounted Rifles. With a talent for administration, and an “exceptional capacity for hard work”, he worked as an insurance clerk and went on to found successful business ventures while serving as a parttime soldier in the Territorials.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Sanderson again sought to enlist, amending his age by five years to be under the age limit of 45. After a number of applications, he was finally accepted and sent to Egypt.

There he served again as a Quartermaster and Honourary Captain, first for the third reinforcements, Otago Infantry Battalion, and then at the General Base Depot.

His command and organisational abilities were to become invaluable after the war as he went on to found the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, later known as the Royal Forest & Bird Society.

Motivated by a sense of duty over the ongoing natural degradation of Kāpiti Island since before the First World War, he Auckland Museum’s profile almost single-handedly includes images of some of the society’s early magazines built the organisation into from 1934 that the museum New Zealand’s leading holds in its collection. Captain environmental protection Sanderson was founder editor of the journal, seeing it as a vital group. way to promote its messages Bringing a military and drum up new members for determination to the the fledgling society.

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Captain Val Sanderson served in two wars before leading efforts to save New Zealand’s natural heritage with the Royal Forest & Bird Society. Photo by kind permission of his daughter Nancy Jordan

fight for nature, he had a “single-minded devotion to preserving was what left of the flora and fauna of Old New Zealand” (Obit., Evening Post, 1945). Comparing the stark landscapes of Egypt and Gallipoli to New Zealand may well have influenced this as farms continued to replace native forest across the country.

As conservation issues become ever more critical, we should remember the leadership and foresight of servicemen like Captain Sanderson who emerged from war to work tirelessly for the benefit of future generations.

Dan Millar, Auckland War Museum, May 2017 *Check out Auckland Museum’s awesome natural history collection next time you are in the city. For more information, see www.aucklandmuseum.com.

Threatened species Peripatus, or velvet worms, are unusual animals of the forest floor. They are called “living fossils” because they are remarkably unchanged from 500 million years ago.

Photo: Bryce McQuillan

What’s up DOC? New money for the Department of Conservation is welcome but more should be spent on saving threatened species.

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry released her draft Threatened Species Strategy in May, but there was no new money to fund the plan.

Next day came the announcement of $76 million for the Department of Conservation over four years – for toilets, car parks, huts, and tracks.

Forest & Bird says more funding for the Department of Conservation to deal with the impacts of tourism is a useful start, but it’s not enough and won’t help our struggling threatened species.

“While DOC urgently needs help to cope with the enormous pressures created by the uncontrolled tourism boom, it also needs to be properly funded to do its core work, which is protecting our native wildlife and habitats,” says Forest & Bird’s Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell.

“The extra $19 million a year for DOC pales into insignificance when contrasted with the $53 million the government is spending on a single New Zealand promotion at an international expo in Doha in 2020.

“The government can find the big bucks to bring more tourists here, but DOC gets chicken feed to cope with the pressures brought about by that influx.

“We’ve seen the same mistakes made with the rapid expansion of the dairy industry and the resulting water crisis. With the tourism boom, the government is again prioritising volume not value, and when that happens the environment pays the price.”

Forest & Bird gave the government’s new Threatened Species Strategy a four out of ten score, saying it will not do enough to reverse the crisis affecting New Zealand’s native species.

The government proposes to increase the populations of 150 of the best-known species and develop a management plan for a further 350. But there are another 370 species facing extinction and another 2000 classified “at risk”, which

obviously need help but will not be covered by the strategy.

“New Zealand’s native wildlife is in crisis. Without an overhaul of key government agencies and a doubling of the Department of Conservation’s budget to 1% of the government’s overall spend, we will lose many more of our native species permanently, in our lifetime,” adds Kevin Hackwell.

“It is great that the Minister of Conservation has committed to increasing landscape-scale predator control.

However, this would apply only to 20% of our conservation forests. All of our forests need regular predator control.

“The proposed strategy has many worthy actions in it, but it fails to address the root causes of New Zealand’s environmental crisis. The government is pursuing its business growth agenda at a huge cost to the environment and our unique species.”

Forest & Bird says the actions of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Ministry for Primary Industries, and Land Information New Zealand are encouraging environmental destruction. They’re captured by industry agendas and are continually failing to protect nature under their care.

With less than 1% of our marine space protected in a reserve and many of our seabirds and marine mammals facing extinction, the strategy fails to address the need to include our off-shore ocean in the proposed Marine Protected Areas bill, and the need for MPI to better regulate and enforce its fisheries’ bycatch rules.

“Our conservation estate is home to some of the world’s most remarkable plants and animals, the source of most of our swimmable rivers and lakes, and the basis of New Zealand’s international brand. It’s absurd that as a country we spend so little protecting it,” added Mr Hackwell. * Submissions on the draft Threatened Species Strategy close on 31 July 2017, see www.doc.govt.nz.

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Biodiversity in crisis

Emma Williams and conservation dog Kimi search for the secretive and rarely seen Australasian bittern.

Ongoing habitat loss is their greatest threat, although predators, poor water quality, and reduced food availability may have contributed to population declines. Photo: Lauren Buchholz

Seeking the swamp boomers On a small lake in central Hawke’s Bay, the quest is on to find one of New Zealand’s least understood species before it vanishes forever. By Lauren Buchholz The first boom came as a surprise.

As I navigated my kayak through the marshy northern reaches of Lake Whatuma, I could hear the whistling of dried raupō, the slap of water against the kayak’s hull, the high, eerie calls of black swans.

Then, in a pitch so low I could almost feel it, a boom reverberated from the reeds. It was the throaty call of a male Australasian bittern.

A few metres from my boat, bittern scientist Dr Emma Williams steered her kayak towards the sound. A sleek black Labrador-cross was in the bow of the boat, tail wagging beneath her fluorescent “Conservation Dogs” coat.

“Good girl, Kimi,” said Emma, pushing reeds aside as the pair disappeared into the raupō.

Emma, a wetland bird expert, is at the forefront of Australasian bittern research in New Zealand. Known as matuku to Māori, these heron-sized birds sport striped plumage that mimics the raupō-filled wetlands in which they live.

Bitterns will “freeze” rather than fly on being discovered, pointing their long, thin beaks skyward and swaying for better camouflage. Spotting a bittern can feel 42

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like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack – if the needle were the colour of straw.

The team of volunteers accompanying Emma’s search at Lake Whatuma was prepared for the challenge. We went during the spring mating season, when males of this usually silent species can be heard “booming” from their territories. The sound is created by the bird deeply inhaling and then deflating a bagpipe-like sac near its throat. The resulting booms helped us locate the bitterns’ hideouts.

As well as the bitterns’ calls, we had Kimi. The first conservation dog in Australasia trained to track bitterns, Kimi has a nose for scents raupō couldn’t conceal. She stood at attention and sniffed for birds as Emma pushed their kayak through the reeds.

When paddling became impossible, Emma jumped into the thigh-deep water and follow Kimi through the raupō. I paddled out into the lake with one of the other volunteers to keep an eye out for flushed birds. We excitedly called Emma on the radio when a disgruntled male bittern emerged in front of us: “You found one!” we said.

During this trip, Emma was searching male bitterns’ territories to locate females and their nests as part of her

doctorate for Massey University. Her goal was to capture and attach a transmitter to a female or chick, which would provide data on these elusive birds and fill in some longstanding research gaps. Unfortunately, while we heard and spotted several male bitterns, we were unsuccessful at finding females this year.

Bitterns are notoriously difficult to study, and data on the species is limited. What is known is that 90% of bitterns’ wetland habitats have been destroyed and that ongoing habitat loss remains their biggest threat.

An estimated 900 Australasian bitterns remain in New Zealand, with about 1000 living in Australia and 50 in New Caledonia.

“Bitterns are ranked as a nationally-critical species in New Zealand,” Emma told me. “That’s the same threat level as kākāpō. Kiwi and kōkako are more common.”

Unfortunately, bitterns receive nowhere near the same amount of attention as their famous counterparts. Emma isn’t sure whether this has more to do with their elusive nature or with the fact they thrive in habitats humans tend to marginalise.

Even a national stronghold for the species – the Waikato’s renowned Whangamarino wetland – is routinely flooded and drained for agriculture, drowning territories as well as nests. In the face of such massive fluctuations, Emma grimly expects this population to disappear within a couple of years.

“In 2010, it was common to hear 50 or more bittern calls at Whangamarino within a 15-minute period,” said Emma.

“Our biggest problem was that there were too many calls and birds for observers to keep track of! Now we’re lucky if we find seven birds in the entire 7100ha wetland.”

Emma believes that awareness can change attitudes.

She continues her work as a consultant with Massey University, Ducks Unlimited, and DOC’s Arawai Kākāriki wetland restoration programme. With the assistance of partners including local Forest & Bird branches, Emma is increasing what’s known about bitterns in the hopes of giving them a story as compelling as that of kiwi or kākāpō.

“Bitterns appeal to people because, even though they’re so rare, they’re also very accessible,” she says. “You can hear them in the wetlands near your town, and they’re often found on people’s farms,” she added.

Or even closer. Emma is fond of recounting the story of a juvenile bittern that wandered into a suburban Christchurch garage. The very confused homeowner brought the bird to local bird rehabilitator Jackie Stevenson. “I think I’ve got a kiwi,” the owner said.

“No,” said Jackie, “you have something even better.”

Juvenile female: If disturbed, bitterns adopt a still posture, commonly known as the “freeze” pose. It allows the bird to blend perfectly into most wetland environments while maintaining good surveillance of its surroundings. Photo: Emma Williams

Canary in a wetland Bitterns are a potential indicator of wetland health because they depend on the presence of high quality and ecologically diverse habitats and rich food supplies.

When Europeans arrived, they were abundant, but now it is rare to see more than one at a time. Bitterns are also found in Australia and New Caledonia, but populations there have declined dramatically and they are now classed globally as endangered.

In New Zealand, they are mainly found in wetlands of Northland, Waikato, the East Coast of the North Island, and the West Coast of the South Island. They feed, mostly at night, on fish, eels, frogs, freshwater crayfish, and aquatic insects.

Matuku are important to Māori. They appear in language as part of legends, stories, early pictures, and metaphor, and there are numerous place names referring to them. They were important for food, and their feathers were used for ceremonial decoration.

Source: Department of Conservation

Bittern numbers in New Zealand declined greatly after 90% of their wetland habitat was destroyed to create farmland and towns.

Photo: Neil Robert Hutton

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Agency capture

High Country intensification

Forest & Bird is concerned about extensive ‘greening’ at an iconic High Country station. By Caroline Wood.

The stunning high country landscape of Flock Hill station was the setting for a climatic battle scene in the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is popular with tourists seeking a remote high country farming experience.

Now a different battle is brewing at the sprawling station, near Cass in Canterbury, which includes regionally significant wetlands and sweeping limestone terraces, home to a number of rare species and threatened habitats.

Forest & Bird sent a letter to Selwyn District Council in May expressing concerns about what appeared to be extensive pasture development occurring on parts of the station have high natural values.

The American investors, who lease the farm from the University of Canterbury, have previously stated in an Overseas Investment Office application they want to expand their farming operation by clearing high value native vegetation to make way for more green paddocks and livestock.

Jen Miller, Forest & Bird’s Canterbury and West Coast Regional Manager, said: “We are concerned about the degree of development that’s occurring at Flock Hill. I recently drove past and noticed that tussocks have been cleared next to the road (pictured above).

“We don’t think this clearance has had consent, and we’re asking the council to investigate possible noncompliance. We have anecdotal reports that some of the areas being cleared have significant vegetation with high natural values.

“This is a large high country sheep station with high conservation values. It’s an awesome property, but over the years wilding pines have been allowed to run rampant.

Extensive wilding removal has occurred, which is good, but sadly a great deal of the areas cleared are being oversown with exotic pasture.

“Pasture intensification to provide for increased numbers of stock, primarily sheep and cattle, is of increasing concern in our high country. Sadly, these fragile ecosystems cannot cope with the changes.”

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FLOCK HILL FENCE ROW A row has broken out over $44,000 of ratepayers’ money being used to pay for a 6km fence at Flock Hill Station.

The local Selwyn/Waihora zone committee approved the $44,000 grant, which is part of an Environment Canterbury programme that funds biodiversity initiatives. The fence would run alongside Cave Stream and stop animals entering a 35ha wetland. Supporters say it will protect an ecologically sensitive area on private land.

But Forest & Bird and other conservation groups say Environment Canterbury is effectively subsidising the privately owned farm to expand its livestock operation.

Last year, the leaseholders applied for a consent from Selwyn District Council to clear vegetation ahead of intensification. As part of that application, the stream would have needed to be fenced off. The consent application was subsequently withdrawn.

In May, ECan reviewed the grant decision after concerns were raised about potential ecological impacts in the sensitive catchment area. And at a recent zone committee meeting, iwi representatives expressed concern they had not been properly informed of the decision. It was also revealed that committee members had not taken the time to visit the site before agreeing to give $44,000 of ratepayers’ money for the fence. The grant decision has been deferred to allow for a site visit to happen.

Jen Miller said: “We’re, along with others, are opposed to ratepayers paying for the fence. Why do they need a fence there? The only reason it would be required is to exclude stock from the stream.”

Our partners

WETA WONDERS

For a team of digital artists who have catapulted some of the world’s favourite characters from page to screen, what better campaign to support than one that will ensure the survival of a species?

Jess Winchester finds out out why little blue penguins have a very special effect on Weta Digital.

Around Wellington’s South Coast, penguins can be seen body surfing towards the beach as darkness starts to fall, often taking a tumble as a wave catches them unawares at the shore.

They march doggedly towards their nest boxes.

Penguins often mate for life, and you can see them turning to check on their mate’s progress and patiently waiting for a loved one to arrive.

“There aren’t many people in the world that have one of New Zealand’s most special seabird species living right on their doorstep,” says David Wright, Chief Operating Officer of Weta Digital, which is based in the capital.

“We’re lucky to be surrounded by a stunning coastline and native bush. Its preservation and rehabilitation is a duty that is shared by all of us, and we take the responsibility seriously.”

A colony of little penguins/ kororā has recently become the responsibility of the Weta Digital crew, who regularly volunteer at Forest & Bird’s Places for Penguins project.

Weta employees are given the rare opportunity to be hands-on in the protection of this very special bird.

They are helping by monitoring nest boxes, planting native vegetation, and clearing rubbish to minimise the threats that are posed to the world’s David Wright smallest penguin.

Miramar Peninsula has a population of less than 2500 people but is home to a whole film industry empire. Weta Digital established its reputation for cutting-edge visual effects with work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and has recently completed work on Pete’s Dragon. Both movies placed New Zealand’s wild places firmly on the world map.

Weta’s crew come from every corner of New Zealand and more than 40 countries around the world. They work on some of the biggest visual effects films in the business, and, on their days off, many of them love to get out and explore some of the nature on their doorstep.

“Volunteering with Places for Penguins gives us an opportunity to be better connected to our land and to give back to the community in a tangible way,” David explains.

“The little penguins remind us we are not the only ones who need a safe and healthy place to raise our families.

Our community is made up of many parts that are all important no matter how big or small.”

Little penguins are native to New Zealand, but their population is in decline with the most significant threat being predation from dogs, cats, and ferrets.

As well as donating time and energy to help save these chatty little birds, Weta Digital recently decided to make an annual donation towards Places for Penguins and Forest & Bird’s work to coordinate a national recovery plan to protect all six species of New Zealand penguins. *To find out more about Forest & Bird’s Places for Penguins project, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/ places-for-penguins.

Would you like to make protecting the environment your business? Please contact Jess Winchester on 04 801 2210.

Forest & Bird

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Seabirds The petrels breed in burrows, trampling by numerous tiny feet prevents seedling growth and leaf litter is dragged underground to be used as nesting material. Photo: Kerry-Jayne Wilson

Petrels of the

rainforest The Westland petrel faces multiple threats on land and sea, as Kerry-Jayne Wilson, of the West Coast Penguin Trust, explains.

In the tangled rainforests near Punakaiki, there lives a most unusual seabird. The largest of all burrow-breeding petrels, the Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica) has a story of discovery as unique as the bird its self. This may be the only bird brought to the attention of science by primary school children. They listened to a nature talk in 1945 on National Radio by Dr Bob Falla (later Sir Robert), in which he described Māori going to the Titi islands to collect muttonbirds in autumn. The children from Barrytown School wrote to Falla telling him how their fathers went muttonbirding in November. Falla, knowing of no winterbreeding petrel investigated, and was led to the birds by the (illegal) muttonbirding fathers.

When nesting, Westland petrels are restricted to hills just south of Punakaiki. But, like other petrels, they range far and wide when seeking food. While breeding between April and November, they mostly forage off the South Island West Coast, often venturing into Cook Strait then south to Kaikoura, and less often elsewhere around central

Westland petrel colonies are dynamic. Here, soil creep and undermining by the birds digging their burrows has resulted in the odd angle of these trees. Photo: Kerry-Jayne Wilson

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New Zealand. They favour the Continental Shelf edge, in water depths of 200–800 metres. Between breeding seasons, Westland petrels migrate to South America, where they feed in the rich Humboldt Current off Chile, with a few rounding Cape Horn onto the Patagonian shelf.

Before people introduced rats, stoats, cats, and other predators to New Zealand, petrels of many kinds nested in their millions on the North and South Island mainlands.

Sadly, few remain, and only the Westland petrel was large enough and feisty enough to survive in lowland areas alongside introduced predators.

On land, goats trample their burrows, possums browse their forest habitat, and fledglings are disorientated by the lights of Punakaiki and other West Coast towns, where downed birds are killed by dogs, traffic, and other threats in the urban jungle. Their commute between sea and colony takes them over the coastal highway where powerline strike is yet another threat.

There are natural hazards also – treefall and landslides periodically destroy parts of some colonies. In 2014, the West Coast was hit by ex-tropical cyclone Ita, which caused extensive damage to most of the colonies we have surveyed. Half of one of our study colonies was destroyed by a single landslide.

Nor are they safe at sea. The Westland petrel is the tenth most at-risk seabird species from fisheries bycatch in New Zealand waters, and we have virtually no information on bycatch in South American seas. Worldwide, seabirds face the growing threat from climate change. The presence of plastics in the ocean is now ubiquitous, and it seems inevitable that many of our seabirds, including Westland petrels, will eventually be affected by the insidious accumulation of plastic waste.

A report, funded by the Brian Mason Trust and published by the West Coast Penguin Trust, reviewed the ecology and evaluated the threats to Westland petrels. We hope this will help direct conservation of these magnificent rainforest dwelling seabirds. The report is available online at http://bit.ly/2rxp5FD.

Westland petrel colonies The Westland petrel breeds during winter in broadleaf/ podocarp rainforest on coastal hills near Punakaiki on the West Coast of the South Island. Before human arrival, 16 species of Procellariiformes (albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm petrels) bred on the New Zealand mainland.

The Westland petrel colonies are the best remaining mainland examples of a seabird-dominated ecosystem.

In these ecosystems, the seabirds are keystone species, enriching the soils with their guano plus dead eggs, chicks, and adults, resulting in high levels of soil nitrogen and phosphorous. These elements then move through the terrestrial and freshwater food chains.

Seabird-dominated ecosystems were once common on the New Zealand mainland, but, other than the Westland petrel colonies, these lowland ecosystems remain only on some offshore islands. Westland petrel conservation is about more than just the species, also at risk is the last lowland example of a seabird-dominated ecosystem on the mainland.

Kerry-Jayne Wilson with a Westland petrel. Photo: Sue Waugh

AÂ bare rock face that contained half of a Westland petrel study colony before Cyclone Ita in 2014. Landslides occur about once a decade. Photo: Kerry-Jayne Wilson

Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge is a great place to visit any time of year.

The lodge offers warm, comfortable accommodation

day tramps in the area, and DOC’s visitor centre is well

and is only a short drive from the Whakapapa ski field.

worth a visit. To make a booking, contact National Office

There are cafes and restaurants in the village, which is

0800 200 064 and we will be delighted to help. Members

just a 10-minute walk. You can find interesting and varied

receive subsidised rates. Photo: Bryce McQuillan

Forest & Bird

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Buy solar power not panels and remove the upfront costs of going solar.

With solarZero, for qualifying homeowners there is no upfront cost to go solar, you simply pay a fixed monthly rate for solar energy services once the system is installed.

Your energy retailer may ask you to cover the cost of changing to a two way meter. This tends to cost between $60-$220 depending on your retailer.

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1

23/02/17 3:05 pm

Climate disruption

Launch of Zero Carbon Act

Tasman glacier – New Zealand’s largest and longest – shrank so rapidly that its meltwater formed a new lake towarsd the end of the twentieth century. Global warming is melting the glaciers of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, potentially damaging local tourism, water resources, and biodiversity. Photo: Kimball Chen

Can our politicians put aside politics to make New Zealand carbon free?

Adelia Hallett hopes so.

New Zealand’s young people are stepping up to do what should have been done 30 years ago – take real action on climate change.

The youth climate action group Generation Zero – supported by Forest & Bird and others – has launched a Zero Carbon Act, a piece of draft legislation making it compulsory for future governments to make New Zealand carbon-neutral by 2050.

It would require the government to set five-yearly carbon budgets in line with achieving the 2050 target. The targets would be overseen by an independent group of experts known as the Climate Commission, which would report to Parliament.

It’s not surprising that it’s the younger generation leading the way, because, for every year we delay cutting emissions, the job gets harder for them.

The world has been trying for nearly 30 years to agree on emissions cuts that will prevent catastrophic global warming.

Scientists have warned that we must get to zero net emissions (that’s the total or gross amount of emissions a year, minus the carbon stored in trees and soils) by shortly after 2050 if we are to have even a two-thirds chance of keeping warming below 2°C. The Paris Agreement of 2015 – which New Zealand, along with most other countries, has signed and ratified – aims to meet that 2°C goal.

But actions speak louder than words, and the emissions pledge and emissions reductions plan we have made so far are more in line with global warming of about 4°C. Generation Zero isn’t the only organisation to say we need to make a clear commitment to the kind of emissions cuts we really need to make, but it is the first to take the idea to the people in a non-partisan way.

As part of the campaign, Generation Zero is asking all New Zealanders to sign a petition asking the next Parliament to make the Zero Carbon Act law.

Forest & Bird is supporting the Zero Carbon Act and the petition, because cutting emissions is the most effective thing we can do to reduce the impact of climate change on nature.

Already, New Zealand’s natural environment is being affected by climate change. The major flooding that hit the country in April not only affected people but also destroyed the homes and habitats of native species.

We have heard a lot from some people about the economic costs of taking action on climate change. Now we’re starting to see the costs – not only to the economy but also to society and to nature – of not taking action.

Are the people who say we don’t need to cut emissions prepared to put their hands in their pockets to pay for the damage we are seeing in the Bay of Plenty?

We’d like to think we can trust that our politicians are taking this seriously, and there are signs that they are starting to listen.

But, politicians being what they are, we suspect it’s best to make sure they know that this is what the country wants them to do.

Forest & Bird and Generation Zero are hoping that every party contesting this year’s general election will put politics aside on this issue and make a commitment to supporting the Zero Carbon Act. Because the longer we leave it, the harder it’s going to be, and, as Zero Carbon Act spokesperson Lisa McLaren says, climate change is bigger than politics. *Please show your support by signing the petition at http://zerocarbonact.nz/signon/.

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Going places Little-spotted kiwi.

Photo: Sallie Basset

Night nature Caitlin Carew takes her family to Kāpiti Island for an overnight adventure.

We were barely off the boat, walking up the front steps of the lodge, and already Kāpiti’s incredible bird life was on display. A bedraggled weka hopped out of a water trough and skulked off as we approached. Three kākā hopped around in a big pōhutukawa tree overhanging the deck, peering at us with great interest.

A tīeke/saddleback launched into song, so familiar from Radio NZ’s morning birdcall, but rarely heard in real-life. A takahē wandered past on the lawn.

The international visitors scrambled for their cameras, and my six-year-old nature nerd stood gaping, not sure where to look first.

I’d visited Kāpiti Island nature reserve many years earlier, just for the day, but I’d always wanted to stay overnight – to hear the little spotted kiwi calling and

Waiorua Bay in evening light. Photo: Caitlin Carew

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experience the dawn chorus. So when our family had the opportunity to stay with Kāpiti Island Nature Tours, which offers accommodation run by the Māori owners of the land at the island’s northern end, we jumped at it.

Our journey began at Paraparaumu beach where we were warmly welcomed by our hosts Manaaki and Vicky, and asked to check our bags for rodents before boarding the launch. It was a gorgeous calm day for crossing Rau o te Rangi channel, and we spotted common dolphins and fluttering shearwaters.

Waiorua Bay is a picturesque bay, characterised by its stony beach and great piles of driftwood. On the short walk to the lodge, we stopped at a grave site where Manaaki’s ancestor Te Rangihiroa is buried. Te Rangihiroa came to the island in 1820 with Ngāti Toa and defended it in 1824 in a major battle at Waiorua valley.

Right alongside are the graves of former reserve caretakers James and Lena Bennett. Here the two major histories of the island come together – the complex and at times bloody history of Māori occupation and the Crown’s management of most of the island as a nature reserve since 1897.

The whānau here have links to Ngāti Toa, Te Atiawa (Waikanae), and Ngāti Raukawa. They’ve been living on the land at Waiorua since the 1840s and have hung on to it despite enormous pressure from the Crown, who wanted the whole island for the nature sanctuary. They have been running Kāpiti Island Nature Tours for more than 10 years.

The concept of a nature tourism business based at the island’s private land was controversial at first, but now the

whānau and the Department of Conservation work well together and cooperate on conservation projects.

We took the kids down to the beach for a swim, enjoying the clear water and the views of the mainland and the Tararua mountains beyond. We felt pretty lucky to be setting off on a late afternoon walk to Okupe lagoon at a time when the day trippers would be heading off the island.

After dinner, Manaaki told us that there are about 1200–1400 pukupuku/little-spotted kiwi, on the island. Half the national population lives here.

We set out for a guided kiwi walk at 9pm, long after the kids’ usual bedtime. We quietly crept along a track that took us up the Waiorua valley. We left cameras and torches behind and relied on our guides and their red-light torches, which apparently don’t bother the kiwi.

Zoe, our six year old, was captivated by the noisy nightlife all around us. We passed the wetland up the valley and heard the calls of the nocturnal pāteke/brown teal. Just then, the little penguins started up on the coast, adding to the cacophony. Zoe turned to me and said in an excited whisper, “This is night nature!”

At times, our guides would sense a kiwi nearby, and we’d stop and wait silently, with torches off. This happened a couple of times before we got lucky. A rustling in the undergrowth, then Manaaki switched on his red light in time for us to see a pukupuku scampering across the track in front of our feet.

Cheeky kākā are frequent visitors to the lodge. Photo: Caitlin Carew

Getting there Access:

Kāpiti Island Nature Tours offers day trip transport to the island, as well as overnight accommodation, ranging from “glamping” tents to self-contained cabins.

Accommodation: Accommodation includes a guided kiwi walk and all meals.

More information: For more information, see www.kapitiisland.com.

A highlight for Zoe Carew was spotting a kiwi during a guided night walk. Photo: Caitlin Carew

Zoe was beside herself – “A kiwi, a real kiwi!” Sadly, our three year old missed it entirely, asleep on his Dad’s back.

Satisfied with our experience, we left the group and put the kids to bed. The nightlife continued to call, shriek, screech, and rasp all night.

The next day dawned cold and windy. My partner Quentin walked up the ridge to a lookout over the western cliffs, and the rest of us explored tracks closer to our accommodation. Then it was time to farewell our hosts and get on the launch back to the mainland.

Staying overnight on Kāpiti is worth the extra cost.

The warm hospitality and history, the wild and beautiful northern coast, and incredible nightlife make for a really different experience to that offered by a day trip to Rangatira in the middle of the island.

Day tours or overnight kiwi spotting tours Cabins & luxury tents Inspiring bush & coastal walks • Fantastic birdlife Delicious meals & great company HISTORY • CONSERVATION • RECREATION

For info & bookings visit: www.kapitiisland.com 0800 527 484 Forest & Bird

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In the field

Sparrow smarts This ubiquitous tiny bird is king when it comes to successfully adapting to its environment. Ann Graeme explains the secret life of sparrows. Photos by Phil Palmer.

I am watching a sparrow fossicking over the grass on the lawn. His black bib shows he is a male. He is a father too, for when he catches an insect he is mugged by two begging chicks.

Both sparrow parents help on the home front, sitting on the eggs and feeding their chicks and then their fledglings.

A pair will nest and rear chicks several times a year. And when they are not busy with family, they are sociable birds, getting together with other off-duty sparrows.

I like sparrows. They are our most common bird and the one you are most likely to see around your house or in your town. But, like us, they are not native to New Zealand.

Sparrows and people go together. Where people go, sparrows go too. They have followed us, or we have

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brought them, to every continent except Antarctica.

Sparrows are adaptable. They will breed wherever there is an opportunity to stuff twigs and leaves in a cavity and build a nest. They will eat seeds and sandwiches, insects and Indian take-aways, even nectar and nachos, because they are adventurous in sampling new foods. Where a kōkako would look askance at a mango, a sparrow will hop right in.

This versatility is the difference between a specialist species that is adapted to a very specific niche, and a generalist, of which the sparrow must be the epitome. And it is this adaptability that makes sparrows so successful.

When people colonise new lands, they change the natural environment to suit their needs, and these changes often suit sparrows too. In New Zealand, early settlers quickly transformed the countryside from native forest to pasture and crops. The farms flourished but so did some insect species, both native and introduced. The forestdwelling native birds were no help. With no birds to eat them, insects ravaged the grasslands and crops.

In the 1860s, a newspaper records that, in Rangitīkei, a train was brought to a halt, its wheels spinning on tracks greasy with the crushed bodies of armyworm caterpillars, which were crossing the rails to reach a field of oats. While the crew cleaned and sanded the rails, the stationary engine and carriages became covered, inside and out, with thousands of caterpillars.

So house sparrows were introduced, partly from nostalgia for the “old country”, but mainly to control the insect pests. As usual, there were unintended consequences. The sparrows did eat insects, but not enough, and the birds ate the crops as well. The birds multiplied in such numbers that they became pests

themselves. Within 15 years of their introduction, there was a bounty on their heads.

Sparrow numbers subsided and now they are a part of urban and rural life. Although they are not protected by law, they are usually tolerated and often welcomed in our community.

The life of a sparrow is brief. Only one in four fledglings lives to see its first birthday. But those that survive learn from experience and may live for many years.

There is a dark side to the sparrows’ success. They manifest a trend in biodiversity, away from the specialist species intimately adapted to a particular niche, towards the generalist species, able to adapt to an increasingly man-made environment. As we swarm over our planet with our cities and our monocultures of non-native pasture, palm oil, and pine trees, we are squeezing out the biodiversity of the natural world. Once my back yard was a forest with kiwi and kōkako. Now it is home to sparrows.

While I enjoy the sparrows, even more do I welcome tūī and, on very rare occasions, a single kererū or kākā. We must keep working to protect our native biodiversity or our world will become homogeneous and depauperate, and we will all be the poorer. We need more than sparrows in our living world.

SPARROW STORIES

Pegleg and Molly make a great team.

Photo: Anne Young

Members from the North Shore tell me they regularly feed the sparrows on their veranda. While more timid sparrows wait on the railing, a female bird they call Molly comes inside and takes food from their hands. Molly is always accompanied by Pegleg, who has a deformed foot. Pegleg is more cautious, but she takes food from Molly, and Molly lets her. Pegleg and Molly have been together for more than five years and during that time both birds have reared chicks and brought their families to the veranda.

Experiments show that some sparrows are smarter than others, and because the birds like to be in flocks they can all learn from the behaviour of the smartest individual. This may explain the cicada-catching technique of sparrows at Ohiwa. Some of our members there live near native forest. They tell me that, when cicadas are numerous, their driveway sparkles with hundreds of cicada wings. The sparrows have learned to pull them off the hapless insects.

Perhaps one bird learned the technique and the rest copied it, but it effectively grounds the big cicadas so the sparrows can kill and eat them.

I was sitting in the café at Tauranga Airport when a sparrow hopped around my feet. It was looking for crumbs. There was nothing surprising about that, but what the sparrow did next was astonishing. It flew high over the heads of the throng of people towards the big glass entrance doors. As it swooped past the closed doors, they opened, and the sparrow flew out. That sparrow had learned how to trigger the opening mechanism! This behaviour was first recorded in 1990 in the Hamilton bus station. Perhaps it coincides with the increasing number of automatic doors, because now you are quite likely to see sparrows opening the doors of your local supermarket, airport, or art gallery.

Ever wondered...

Why sleeping sparrows don’t fall off branches?

The foot of a perching bird like a sparrow has three toes facing forward and one toe backwards. These toes curl over the branch when the bird perches. A tendon runs down the back of the leg and along each toe. As the bird crouches this tendon is tightened, pulling on the toes so that they clench around the branch. The bird has to wake and stand up to release its grip on the branch.

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Conservation in history

The legacy of Robert C Bruce In 1917, pioneer conservationist and largerthan-life character Robert C Bruce left money in his will for the making of domains or national parks in New Zealand. A century later, the trust fund set up in his name is in robust health, with Forest & Bird among its many beneficiaries, as Professor Vince Neall explains.

Tucked away in a leafy Hunterville park lies a 1923 memorial to Robert C Bruce. It says: “This park is given to the people of New Zealand and to the residents of this district in particular in order that they may have ever before them a beautiful specimen of New Zealand forest life. Mr Bruce came of an ancient Scottish family and although devotedly loyal to the land of his birth, he loved New Zealand no less fervently.”

Robert Cunningham Bruce was a seafarer, gold prospector, author, orator, Rangitikei settler, farmer, conservationist, MHP (Member of the House of Representatives), and benefactor. By all accounts, he was a colourful character, an adventurer who was ahead of his time.

Born in Kelso, in the Scottish Borders, in 1842, Bruce lived some of his childhood years in Ireland and went to sea at the age of 14. Thus began 20 years of wandering that took him to the goldfields in California, Australia, and New Zealand.

After more years at sea, he returned to New Zealand and walked from Wellington up the west coast to the Turakina Valley, where he purchased land. Bruce farmed here, at Ngaruru, from 1877 until his death in Whanganui on 23 April 1917.

Bruce never married and had no descendants. He left his estate to help fund the reforestation and maintenance of New Zealand domains and national parks. Since then, many New Zealanders have benefited from the trust’s activities, particularly in supporting the planting of native trees on public land.

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Image courtesty of the Marton & Districts Historical Society

The first acquisition was the RC Bruce Park south of Hunterville in 1920. Next was the Simpson Scenic Reserve, north of Hunterville, in 1930, and the Bruce Memorial Reserve in the Turakina Valley where he is buried. In April, a commemoration was held there to mark the 100th anniversary of his death.

Today, the Robert C Bruce Trust is administered by Perpetual Guardian, and Forest & Bird beneficiaries include: Bushy Park (1991), Wellington branch’s Matiu/ Somes Island Project (2000) and South Coast Project (2013), and Nelson branch’s Paremata Flat Reserve (2012).

Trust funds were also used to complete the road access (Bruce Road) to the Whakapapa area, where the Chateau Tongariro, the national park headquarters, and Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge are now located. The Trust also financially supported the erection of three trampers’ huts on the banks of Lake Waikaremoana in Te Urewera National Park. A sum was donated to Abel Tasman National Park and to the Mt Aspiring National Park Board towards the costs of establishing a visitors’ centre at Wanaka in 1968.

Since 1968, more than $400,000 of Trust funds have concentrated on supporting university research into New Zealand forests (55%), and the acquisition, reforestation, and maintenance of native forests on public land (45%).

The latter has resulted in partial funding for native tree reforestation projects from Kaitaia in the north to Gore in the south.

The current Trustee has carefully nurtured the Trust’s funds to inflation-proof them, and we can look forward to continuing support for native forest plantings and postgraduate university research projects in New Zealand well into the future. *Vince Neall is Emeritus Professor in Earth Science at Massey University and an Advisory Trustee to the Robert C Bruce Trust.

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LODGES Arethusa Cottage Near Pukenui, Northland Sleeps 6 herbit@xtra.co.nz 03 2191 337

Ruapehu Lodge Whakapapa Village, Tongariro National Park Sleeps 32 office@forestandbird.org.nz 04 385 7374

Mangarākau Swamp Lodge North-west Nelson Sleeps 10 mangarakauswamp@gmail.com 03 524 8266 www.mangarakauswamp.com

Piha, West Auckland Sleeps 5+4 hop0018@slingshot.co.nz 09 812 8064

Waiheke Island Cottage Onetangi Sleeps 8 fb.cottage.onetangi@gmail.com

Matiu/Somes Island house Wellington Harbour Sleeps 8 wellingtonvc@doc.govt.nz 04 384 7770

Tautuku Forest Cabins Ōwaka, Otago Sleeps 16 diana-keith@yrless.co.nz 03 415 8024

*To find our more about our lodges, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/lodges.

Obituaries

Lifelong conservation heroine Clive Monds remembers the amazing conservation legacy of Judy Piesse, who was at the forefront of many key campaigns during a lifetime dedicated to nature.

Regretfully, Judy Piesse slipped from this life on 13 March, aged 89 years.

Judy and husband Arn were great lifelong Forest & Birders, at first in Auckland, where they were big supporters of the national campaigns for Manapouri and the Whirinaki and Pureora forests. Judy was Auckland branch secretary from 1968 for many years. Both Arn and Judy were recipients of the Society’s Old Blue award in 1994.

In the 1970s, Judy, together with Arn, Ronald Lockley, Professor John Morton, Dr Michael Taylor, Chris Barfoot, and others, campaigned to save the sand spit at Glen Innes from being used as Auckland’s main rubbish dump (before the polite days of “landfills”). Their efforts were rewarded with the establishment of the Tahuna Torea Nature Reserve in 1973. Judy no doubt drew on her early work for NZ Women’s Weekly, which stood her in good stead for her

publicity and campaigning work.

Also in the 1970s, Judy and Arn, with Professor Morton and others, worked to establish the Miranda (now Pukorokoro Miranda) Shorebird Centre on the Firth of Thames.

Judy was the first Secretary of the Shorebird Centre.

Judy was forever a great organiser on conservation causes and was instrumental in forming Auckland Minewatch in 1981 to campaign against mining on the Coromandel and other places. Judy chaired Minewatch until she and Arn retired to Te Kouma, Coromandel Harbour, in 1985 and continued to be involved in the anti-mining campaigns in the Coromandel until the present day.

There, they were instrumental in founding the Upper Coromandel Branch of Forest & Bird in 1988, and Arn became a trustee of Barry Brickell’s Driving Creek Wildlife Sanctuary Trust. Both were involved

in the Northern Coromandel Historical Writing Group. Judy became for 15 years the Coromandel correspondent for the local newspaper, the Hauraki Herald.

Ken Mason’s legacy lives on For more than 50 years, Ken Mason was a stalwart of conservation in the coastal Otago region. A recipient of an Old Blue Award in 1991, Ken epitomised the dedication necessary to achieve wins for conservation throughout his life.

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Ken was a dogged worker with boundless energy and was central to many conservation efforts in the area.

Moore’s Bush, a small Forest & Birdowned reserve, and Clouds Forest, in the Leith Valley, were at the heart of his love for podocarp forest, and Ken spent thousands of hours in both locations restoring and protecting their vegetation.

Shoreline vegetation around Tomahawk Lagoon received similar work, as did Quarantine Island in the Otago Harbour. Ken contributed so much to the successful revegetation of the island and loved sharing his knowledge and enjoyment of ecological work with children and adults, particularly the work at KCC Cove.

Further afield, Ken also worked at Forest & Bird’s Lenz Reserve in the

Catlins, which is the society’s largest reserve. The good access, in the form of a long track through the lowland forest at Tautuku, is due in large part to Ken’s drive.

But it is Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club that will live on as Ken’s biggest legacy. He was one of the early KCC coordinators, and for many years ran the Dunedin KCC. He also initiated the Teen Greens and SEA (Students for Environmental Action). Through these groups, he instilled strong environmental values in a generation of Dunedin children, many of whom are now successful forging their own path in society, supported by strong conservation ethics.

Ken Mason passed away on 17 April 2017.

Mark Hanger & Ines Stäger

Parting shot New Zealand’s native hibiscus/puarangi/Hibiscus richardsonii is critically endangered in the wild and only found in pockets of the North Island from Te Paki in the Far North to Hicks Bay, East Cape, including Great Barrier and Mayor Islands.

Puarangi only grows in coastal habitats and is a favourite snack of grazing animals. It likes to grow on recently disturbed ground, such as slip scars, petrel colonies, scree slopes, and under open coastal scrub and forest.

Michael, who is a retired GP from Warkworth, took this close-up shot on Te Paki Coastal Track, near Spirits Bay. Check out his other images on www.flickr.com.

THE COMPETITION We want to see your stunning shots of New Zealand’s nature – native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, animals, or marine and freshwater life.

To enter, just post your photo on Instagram and tag @forestandbird or post your image on the Forest & Bird New Zealand Nature Group page on Flickr.com. You could win a great prize and have your photo published in Forest & Bird magazine.

Don’t use Instagram or Flickr? Send your high res digital file (maximum 7mb) and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

THE PRIZE The lucky winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Weka 2 Hiker Tent (RRP $249). This two-person single room tent is ideal for tramping or hiking. It’s extra lightweight and compact, easily compressing down to fit in a backpack.

The double entrances with vestibules mean you can come and go regardless of the weather direction and keep packs and wet boots separate and dry. With its 4000mm aqua rating, this tent will stand up to riggers of the outdoors, all year round.

The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping.

To view the full range see www.kiwicamping.co.nz

we ARE climbing

Climbers ascend the iconic Grand Sentinel in Sentinel Pass, Banff National Park Photo: ex-Bivouac Staff member John Price / johnpricephotography.ca

For over twenty five years Bivouac Outdoor has been proudly 100% New Zealand owned and committed to providing you with the best outdoor clothing and equipment available in the world. It is the same gear we literally stake our lives on, because we are committed to adventure and we ARE climbing.

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www.bivouac.co.nz