Forest & Bird Magazine Issue 371 Autumn 2019

ISSUE 371 • AUTUMN 2019 www.forestandbird.org.nz

WONDERFUL WETLANDS PLUS

Warming forests

Stop the killing

Fungi fun

ISSUE 371

• Autumn 2019

www.forestandbird.org.nz

STAY IN TOUCH Forest & Bird National Office Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street PO Box 631, Wellington 6011.

TEL 04 385 7374 FREEPHONE 0800 200 064 EMAIL office@forestandbird.org.nz

Contents Editorial

Tourism

CONTACT A BRANCH See www.forestandbird.org.nz/ branches for a full list of our 50+ Forest & Bird branches.

Conservation news

Birdlife International

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ ForestandBird Post to Instagram and tag @forestandbird Follow us on Twitter @Forest_and_Bird Watch us on YouTube

2 End of tenure review 4-6 Letters 7 8 10 11 12 14

36 Park plans halted 46 Oparara update 37 Tackling seabird bycatch

The year ahead Zero Bycatch Goal Drylands park hope RMA reforms Monster mast coming News shorts

Focus on flora

38 Myrtle rust invasion

In the field

44 Why I love mangroves

Cover story

Our partners

16 Our vanishing wetlands 18 Peat wetland mining win

47 Healthpak’s sustainable packaging

Young conservationists

Community

19 Be With a Tree Week 26 Youth hubs take flight

48 Guardians of Aotearoa

Predator-free NZ

50 Mynamar’s Mergui Archipelago

Going places

20 Warming forests

Books

www.youtube.com/ forestandbird

52 Call of the Reed Warbler

Our people

53 Mystery donor 54 Obituary 55 Classifieds

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EDITOR

Caroline Wood MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS

E editor@forestandbird.org.nz ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER

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

Webstar www.webstar.co.nz 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

Forest & Bird projects 22 South-East Wildlink 34 How to catch a bat

Canterbury tales 56 Wakanui wonderful

Parting shot

IBC Banded dotterel

Biodiversity

24 Fungi fun 40 Natural treasures

Climate

28 Carbon farming 30 Record temperatures

Defending nature

31 Significant Natural Areas

Dawn chorus 32 Bird strike 43 Manu magic

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COVER SHOT Native freshwater kōaro (Galaxis brevipinnis), one of New Zealand’s

five threatened whitebait species. Photo: Rob Suisted PAPER ENVELOPE Male redfin bully (Gobiomorphus huttoni), Broad Bay, Otago Peninsula. Photo: Rod Morris

Editorial MARK HANGER

Tenure review travesty Members of the public expect Crown land to be managed for the public good.

Responsible management should never have involved transferring vast swathes of Crown land into private ownership with no benefit whatsoever to the average New Zealander.

But that is what happened when tenure review came into being in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1998 with the passing of the Crown Pastoral Land Act. At the time, some 27% of the entire country was leased or licensed to farmers from the Crown. The intent of the Act was to do what was best for the country, allow sustainable farming into the future, and gain protection for significant tracts of land with conservation values.

But it had the opposite consequence. The Crown ended up effectively privatising publicly owned land thereby allowing it to be developed for private economic gain.

Many of the best bits of the country’s high country – the parts with high scenic values – are today owned by a few wealthy individuals who can afford it. Meanwhile farmers leasing land without scenic values have not made such windfall profits and continue to farm in a challenging landscape.

It is true that some high country conservation parks have been established, notably Haketere in inland Canterbury and Oteake in Central Otago. But the failures over the past 20 years swamp the successes of the tenure review process.

Thousands of hectares of land that was once owned by all of us have been privatised, and then sub-divided for development. Foreign buyers, private companies, and property speculators have benefited at the expense of the New Zealand public. In one area $62m worth of Crown land was subsequently resold for more than $300m.

These profitable land deals also led to agricultural intensification, worsening water quality, and other impacts on iconic landscapes in some of the country’s spectacular and most-visited regions. There has been very little ecological gain as a whole.

The Minister of Conservation has announced an end to the tenure review process, fulfilling an election promise, and Forest & Bird welcomes this move.

There remain, however, 30 further pastoral leases already in the tenure review process. If we are to learn anything from the last two decades of tenure review, it is that the process was flawed, vastly tilted in favour of a few, and of little benefit to the New Zealand public.

Surely the process should also stop for these final 30 leases? Aotearoa New Zealand can little afford a continuation of this travesty in our high country.

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

FOREST & BIRD’S 2019 CONFERENCE We’ve set the date for this year’s Forest & Bird conference, focusing on the theme of “courageous conservation”. It will take place from 29–30 June at Te Papa in Wellington. We’re still working on the programme and speakers, but if you plan on attending you can register at www.forestandbird.org.nz.

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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

Alan Chow BOARD MEMBERS

Chris Barker, Kate Graeme, James Muir, John Oates, Monica Peters, Te Atarangi Sayers, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS

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

Graham Bellamy, Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, 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 is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper made from FSC® certified wood fibre and pulp from responsible sources. The brown envelopes used to mail the magazine are made from FSC paper from responsible sources.

Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine.

ISSN 0015-7384 (Print), ISSN 2624-1307 (Online).

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 will receive a copy of Down the Bay by Philip Simpson, a fascinating account of the history of Abel Tasman National Park. Please send letters to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 May 2019.

Natural capital

Worryingly wasteful

Thank you Ann Graeme for your article on natural capital (Spring 2018). This is an excellent consideration of ecosystem services and should be read by every Member of Parliament, every council member and every land owner in the country. The Waikato Regional Council is ahead of most others in putting a monetary value on their forests and freshwater. It should be mandatory that every fiscal benefit to any business is at least equalled by restoration of places in each region that are degraded. Long-term plans and annual plans have to allow for effective restoration of habitats.

Greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change, like many other environmental problems, should be thought of as symptoms of underlying problems – the world is overpopulated, and we use and waste too many resources, particularly in affluent countries like New Zealand.

Wasting less is easy. If what you have is still working properly, keep it. Is that upgrade of the smartphone, TV, computer really needed? Do the advantages of the new purchase justify the use of resources to produce it? Yes, this also applies to a new smaller or electric car or bike.

Recycling can save resources but often doesn’t. Are the resources used shown to give a net saving? Encouragingly, if population pressure and waste are addressed, the benefits are seen almost at once. Greenhouse gas accumulations inevitably take a much longer time to be reduced. This doesn’t mean that reducing emissions is unimportant. However, it is essential to realise that it is even more important to address population pressure and waste, and to do it now.

Gillian Pollock, Nelson

Time to put nature first I was delighted to read the President’s editorial “Browsing mammals out of control” (Summer 2018) because for far too long Forest & Bird has been ignoring the damage that browsing mammals do to our native vegetation.

In my younger days, I was a strong supporter of past president Mr Roy Nelson who wrote the booklet Deer and Resulting Devastation in New Zealand. It was published in 1979 with the subtitle: A review of the concern and evidence presented over the last 100 years. In its 71 pages, Mr Nelson details the battles that the society [and others before it] have fought to control these browsing animals, usually with fierce opposition from the Deerstalkers Association. I fully agree with Mark Hanger that recreational hunting has failed to effectively control browsing animals and that new control initiatives are not targeting these ungulates. I recommend that Forest & Bird resumes its actions to control browsing animals and have deer repellents removed from 1080 pellets immediately.

Our conservation estate is not a hunters’ playground, and it is indeed “Time to put nature first”.

Dr Nick C Lambrechtsen QSM, Wellington Editor’s note: Forest & Bird has always advocated for deer repellent to be removed from 1080 bait. When deer repellent is added to 1080 pellets, we think hunters should pay the additional cost rather than the Department of Conservation having to use taxpayer funds.

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Chris Pope, Dunedin

Eco felons Should the ice caps completely melt and sea levels rise one to six meters from warming water expansion, will our great-great-grandchildren remember the 21st century culprits (us) who committed the eco felony? I would like to refresh a few statistics: There were 38 million commercial flights in 2018 and 40 million expected in 2019. Each 747 plane uses 10–11 tonnes of fossil fuel per hour (or 4.2 litres per second) and carries a full load of 240,000 litres. Could someone enlighten me why New Zealand would want to lower fuel prices? And why we would encourage more tourists to fly to our lonely outpost? Money, buildings, and assets won’t be enough to show the great-greatgrandchildren as the “ends justifying the means”. I suggest we urgently reduce New Zealand’s animal stock to 50% of the current total, and push that down each year, and ban most toxic gas-emitting flights to New Zealand to encourage the use of renewable fuels like wind and sail, electricity and hydrogen. Our thin atmosphere, a bare eight kilometres up, cannot withstand the human onslaught of business greed, tourists, and companies churning out even more machinery that gobbles up more fossil fuel.

Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri

Forest diversity matters One of the cover stories in the summer 2018 issue was headlined “All our forests should look like this”. The article highlighted the rich diversity of noisy birds after treatment with 1080. However, the photo showed a shrub-free beech forest with ground covered with low mosses. This may be typical of beech forests, but would be a disaster in other parts of New Zealand. Our Auckland forests are rich with shrubs, many bearing berries that are also good for birds. The wide variety of ground-dwelling herbs and shrubs and the many epiphytes also support a rich diversity of invertebrates and microorganisms. We need a diversity of forest habitats, preferably all of them free from mammalian invaders.

Nicholas Martin, Auckland

Can we save hoiho?

As all your members well know, some of our native birds are facing extinction. When our early aviator Richard Pearce flew above his Timaru farm, the last bush moa was seen in Martin’s Bay, deep in our South Island’s West Coast. Then followed the huia bird with its distinctive white-tipped tail feathers much prized by Māori. A few days before Christmas 2018, National Radio’s Morning Report played a near-perfect mimic of birdsong of this now extinct native bird. Radio New Zealand has told me it can’t be played regularly as it’s not the original huia birdsong! What do your readers think? But it is hoiho that is in real strife as there are only a few breeding pairs left on the coast in the Catlins. One of these yellow-eyed penguins appears on one side of our $5 note. It is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rarest birds. Your writer Caroline Wood shows with great clarity the plight of this little penguin. Let’s all strive to increase the number of breeding pairs, so this bird can remain on one side of our $5 note until 2020 and beyond.

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Guardians of Aotearoa – Protecting New Zealand’s Legacies by Johanna Knox (RRP $59.99) David Bateman Ltd, see page 48 for details.

To enter, email your entry to draw@forestandbird. org.nz, put GUARDIANS in the subject line, and include your name and address in the email. Or write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to GUARDIANS draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 May 2019.

The winners of Aotea Great Barrier, Land and People

by Chris Morton & Peter Malcouronne were Nicolina Newcombe, of Hamilton, and Alastair McKenzie, of Auckland.

The winners of Potton & Burton’s CHRISTMAS BOOKS reader competition were Selwyn Hodder, of Auckland, and Kerrie Waterworth, of Wanaka.

The winner of Evolve Jewellery’s signature bracelet and Forest & Bird charm was Erin Scott, of Christchurch.

Brian Collins, Wellington

Takahē tales I walked the Heaphy Track, in Kahurangi National Park, in February but was told by rangers it was unlikely I would see any takahē. This made the sudden appearance of a pair of these amazing birds on the track between Saxon and James McKay huts extra special. One stayed on the path for some time eating grasses and seemingly unfazed by four trampers taking its photograph.

Seeing these taonga birds in the wild made me appreciate all the work and money that goes into saving a species from extinction. The birds I saw were returned to Kahurangi last year after a 100year absence. This translocation was only made possible following sustained predator control over many years, including Battle for our Birds’ aerial 1080 operations and a large trapping network.

Words and photos: Chris Moir

Forest & Bird

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Letters Waiheke wonders

Best letter winner

On behalf of the Hauraki Gulf Islands Forest & Bird branch, I’d like to extend my thanks to Duncan Bamfield for his compliments on Atawhai Whenua Reserve, Waiheke Island, (Winter 2016). I’ve been lucky enough to have been a paid worker for this branch for more than 10 years and have poured much of my heart and soul into this reserve after beginning my time with the late Don Chapple. Don envisioned this 17ha project from the beginning and worked on it full-time for 13 years until the age of 75. On this eroded old pasture we’ve battled slips and huge weed infestations after most of the 25-year-old mānuka collapsed of old age. We’re now infilling the gaps with kānuka which is a better long-term protector, especially of mātai and tānekaha. Hundreds of volunteers have been involved in this project over the years. Sometimes as we toil away in the bush we wonder if our work will be acknowledged, knowing that most of it will never be seen by anyone. But the long-term outcome definitely will. And that’s why we do it. To keep our vision alive to carry on telling the story once we’re gone.

Lincoln Jackson, Onetangi, Waiheke Island

Gene editing risky Good on the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage for ensuring DOC and Predator-Free New Zealand prioritise

safe, ethical and humane research into alternatives to aerial 1080, new trapping options, lures, and poisons to benefit our precious native birds.

The Minister has wisely required both organisations not to undertake research into controversial and risky genetically modified organisms (including “gene edited” and “gene drive”), to protect our biosecurity, unique biodiversity, and existing valuable GE-free status.

“There would be serious risk to New Zealand’s environmental reputation if there were field trials here using gene technology,” she said in a NZ Herald article last December.

“Gene editing is an unproven technology for predator control. Gene technologies are problematic and untested and have significant risks. They have no social licence to operate. There is a lot at stake and there is a need for the utmost caution.

“There would be serious questions around the risks to NZ’s GE-free reputation from being associated with any field trials of gene technology.”

Gene drives are an incredibly risky technology and all the research so far suggests that they won’t even work in mammalian populations, as resistance will quickly develop.

Forest & Bird has a strong precautionary GE/GMO policy – this needs to be retained and strengthened.

Linda Zelka Grammer, West Coast Branch

WIN

A LUXURY LODGE WEEKEND WORTH $1,950!

Forest & Bird supporters Vince and Kathy Moores searched for years before finding a bare block of land surrounded by bird-filled ancient podocarp forest and native bush. It offered the perfect spot to build the sustainable boutique luxury lodge of their dreams near Mangawhai, north of Auckland. The build, which featured on the popular television programme Grand Designs, was a labour of love.

At times the significant project brought heartache and financial stress, but the couple didn’t give up and Te Arai Lodge opened last December, see www.tearailodge.co.nz.

As part their ongoing support of Forest & Bird, Vince

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and Kathy are offering an exclusive magazine reader giveaway. The lucky winner will enjoy a one-night stay for two people in a premier suite including dinner, bed, and breakfast, valued at $1950. The prize can be taken between 1 October and 30 November 2019, subject to availability. To enter, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz, put TE ARAI in the subject line, and include your name and address in the email. Or write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to TE ARAI draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 May 2019.

COURAGEOUS CONSERVATION

Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague sets out some conservation priorities for 2019 and there’s plenty to do!

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s I write this, on one of the hottest days of the year in one of New Zealand’s warmest summers, the West Coast District Council’s submission on the Zero Carbon Act is asking for “more proof” of climate change!

Sometimes I need to remind myself that the conservation war is never quite won and this year it looks like we need to be prepared to campaign again in areas we thought were behind us.

The record high temperatures around the country and recent fires in Nelson are yet more reminders of the urgent need to bring forward meaningful and swift action on climate change. This makes the delay in bringing the Zero Carbon Bill to Parliament not only frustrating, but morally irresponsible, and we’re urging the Government get on with the process. It’s also why we supported the School Strike 4 Climate NZ. There is other unfinished business from 2018. Ocean protection needs to go from a proposal to a reality and we need the fishing industry and Government to commit to zero bycatch. You will have seen in the media how we have stepped up our campaign to demand cameras on fishing vessels, as well as an end to destructive fishing methods like set nets in areas where our critically endangered marine mammals and birds live and breed.

Freshwater is always a major focus for us and we are gearing up for a busy year advocating for stronger national regulations for our rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Tom Kay, one of our regional managers, recently presented Forest & Bird’s evidence about the importance of protecting the Ngarururo River with a Water Conservation Order (WCO).

Despite the fact that river pollution is now New

Zealanders’ number one concern, according to recent Colmar Brunton survey for Fish & Game, some in the agriculture and horticulture sectors bristle at any thought of a WCO, a pollution tax, or any compromise that would see a return to clean healthy freshwater for everyone to enjoy.

With a monster mega-mast coming this year, Forest & Bird is focusing on making the public aware of the timecritical need for additional government funding to pay for landscape-scale 1080 operations to stop local extinctions of endemic species like mohua, whio, kākāriki, kiwi, rock wrens, Powelliphanta snails, and bats from the tsunami of rats, mice, and stoats coming their way.

These are challenges that we have confronted before but each time we face them we are wiser, smarter, and have the experience to see them off. Together Forest & Bird’s members, supporters, donors, and staff make a formidable team and one I’m very proud of.

At times during 2019 we will have to change up a gear and get in front of politicians with all our supporters and make sure that they’re hearing the voice of nature. This is a historic time for New Zealand and Forest & Bird is leading the march for landscape-scale protection and restoration across the whole of Aotearoa.

Let’s be courageous.

Together.

Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

➎ nationally critical Antipodean

The past three months have seen a series of reports of endangered animals being killed by the fishing industry, including:

albatross killed by longlines.

➐ nationally endangered Hector’s dolphins dying in trawl nets.

Photo: Neil Fitzgerald

➍ nationally critical New Zealand sea lions died in commercial fishing nets

HOW MANY IS TOO MANY?

Photo: Jake Osborne

Photo: Rob Suisted

Megan Hubscher explains why Forest & Bird is launching a Zero Bycatch Goal to protect endangered seabirds and marine mammals from fishing impacts.

Hundreds of marine mammals and thousands of seabirds die every year in nets and on hooks. For some ocean animals, like Hector’s dolphins, the Antipodean albatross, and hoiho/yellow-eyed penguins, this bycatch rate is more than their population can sustain. Yet the death toll is allowed to continue.

This is why Forest & Bird is calling for a Zero Bycatch Goal in our fisheries.

We’d like to see a new way of thinking about bycatch of protected species based on the principle that “we only catch what we eat”. Adopting this approach would drive major reductions in the deaths of protected marine species. Responsible commercial fishers who back the goal will commit to supporting scientifically proven technologies to reduce bycatch deaths, including putting cameras on boats.

The tools and methods exist right now to greatly reduce bycatch of our wildlife. We should support and expect skippers and crew to fish only for fish, and strive to bring their bycatch rates as close to zero as possible.

In many instances, this will mean using the international best practice in bycatch mitigation techniques. It would mean not fishing at times and locations known to be preferred by endangered species, like hoiho, and using safe fishing methods designed to catch the target fish 8

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species, rather than all species, as set nets do.

A Zero Bycatch Goal will also require human or electronic observers on all boats. The evidence is clear that cameras or observers on boats greatly increase the accuracy of reporting, and allows early intervention where reporting discrepancies are spotted.

Under the existing system such discrepancies (where bycatch numbers are unexpectedly low) indicate that seabirds, dolphins, fish, corals, and turtles are quietly “disappearing” overboard without being reported. This illegal activity is so prevalent it’s become accepted as normal, which has led to the point where the Government spends millions of dollars of public funds developing complex algorithms that estimate the amount of unreported marine bycatch.

Unsurprisingly, this method isn’t working. At least 13 species of seabirds are at risk of extinction because of fishing, including the Antipodean albatross. Other endangered species, including New Zealand sea lions, Hector’s dolphins, and hoiho are also being regularly killed.

The commercial fishing industry is managed on trust.

We trust skippers to tell us when things go wrong and they catch endangered seabirds or marine mammals, we trust them to not deliberately break the law, we should be able to trust their bosses onshore to run systems that protect

the environment as much as their profits, and we trust that the regulatory system that oversees all this is designed and resourced well enough to do what it’s supposed to.

Currently, even when fishers do the right thing and report bycatch kills, we are still left with the fact that these protected animals’ deaths are effectively sanctioned by the current regulations. It is clear that this system is broken, and New Zealand’s Government and fishing industry are desperately failing our marine environment as a result.

Just as the Predator Free 2050 aspirational goal has helped galvanise policy and strategy for conservation on land, a Zero Bycatch Goal would provide clear ambition and intent for our marine animals.

New Zealand could have coastal seas teeming with marine mammals and seabirds, and a healthy, profitable fishing industry too, but to allow that we need to change a way of thinking that leads to thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. We don’t allow accidental kiwi deaths at the hands of the commercial industries, and the same principle should be put in action at sea as well.

STOPPING THE ROT A letter from fishing industry heavyweights including Sealord, Talley’s, the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen, and Te Ohu Kaimoana to Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has revealed the extent of behind-thescenes pressure to prevent cameras on boats.

It was sent at the same time that the industry group Seafood New Zealand was running a television advertising campaign promising the public they were “guardians” of the ocean and leading the world in sustainable practices.

The letter, dated 27 July 2018 and released to Forest & Bird under the Official Information Act, states: “The purpose of this letter is to dismiss any suggestion that the New Zealand seafood industry… has anything less than overwhelming opposition to your Ministry’s current proposal for cameras.”

In February this year, Minister Stuart Nash delayed the roll out of cameras on boats until a consultation on changes to fisheries management has been completed.

Forest & Bird’s marine advocate Karen Baird says: “The fishing industry has been spending lots of money promising every New Zealander they would be more transparent, while some of the industry’s biggest players were working behind the scenes to make sure that never happens.

“This is an industry that kills thousands of seabirds and hundreds of marine mammals each year, and smashes up ancient corals. It throws unwanted fish overboard. Most of this happens out of sight because there are no cameras or observers on most vessels.”

Meanwhile, even small countries in the Pacific are rolling out cameras on boats. Fiji has more than 50% of its fleet covered with electronic monitoring. When cameras were put on boats in Australia the fishing industry became much more honest – admitting catching nearly eight times the number of seabirds, more than seven times the number of marine mammals, and three times the number of turtles, as well as admitting to discarding up to six times the amount of fish than they had previously reported.

HELP US DEFEND YOUR OCEANS New Zealand has always viewed bycatch deaths as the sad but inevitable consequence of putting seafood on the table. But the reality is most of these animals could have been spared, using existing seabird and marine mammal mitigation technologies.

Please support our campaign to get cameras on boats and reduce bycatch deaths to zero. Together we can encourage skippers and crew to do their bit to protect our endangered marine species. See https://www. forestandbird.org.nz/support-us/appeals/zero-bycatch.

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Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

DRYLANDS PARK HOPE

Wairepo Kettleholes, Mackenzie Country.

Photo: Shellie Evans/CC

Forest & Bird is hoping to finally get a Mackenzie Basin drylands park over the line following the end of tenure review in the high country.

An end to tenure review gives us the best chance in a generation to finally create a drylands park in the heart of the Mackenzie Basin, says Jen Miller, Forest & Bird conservation and advocacy manager.

Over the past 20 years, tenure review has allowed thousands of hectares of extraordinarily special dryland landscapes to be privatised. In February the Government announced it would end tenure review and continue to manage the remaining 1.2 million hectares of pastoral lease land.

Research shows that while most of the alpine landscapes which went through tenure review went into conservation land, the vast majority of the basin floors were put into private hands.

“We’ve argued for many years that not only is tenure review a spectacularly bad deal for New Zealanders, it’s been terrible for our natural environment,” says Jen.

“We’ve already lost 70% of our dryland habitat. This is a landscape with an astounding array of biological diversity – including kakī, the rarest wading bird in the world, and many other species endemic to the area. And yet in the last decade we’ve let more of it become dairy farms.”

Forest & Bird has been campaigning for many years for the establishment of a Mackenzie Basin Conservation Park – something that is already Labour Party policy – as the nucleus of a wider landscape-scale drylands protection.

We hope the Government will now get on with it before it’s too late. In 1990, 3% of the Mackenzie Basin floor’s 228,000ha had been developed. By 2016, a third (33%) had gone. During the same year, 110 applications were made to take water for irrigation purposes in the basin.

Since 2016, the greening of the Mackenzie for intensive dairying has accelerated. Alarmingly, this greening has extended into the special landscapes located in the northern part of the basin.

As well as ending tenure review, the Government’s proposed reforms include better management of the remaining South Island high country leases.

“Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) has managed pastoral leases very poorly, allowing discretionary consents which breach regional environmental laws and destroy native vegetation,” says Jen. “We’d like to see an overhaul of this, with priority given to the protection of native plants and animals, rather than farm development.”

MAKE A SUBMISSION: Adult kakī. Photo: Dave Murray

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Have your say on the future management of Crown pastoral land, see http://bit.ly/2NHy8iJ for the Government’s discussion paper and make a submission. The consultation closes on 12 April 2019.

RMA REFORMS The Government has announced a raft of proposed changes to the Resource Management Act. Some of these are things that Forest & Bird has long campaigned for and we should consider this a success, says Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp.

Stage 1 includes relatively minor reforms that generally reverse changes made by the previous National Government (see right). Stage 2 covers more comprehensive – and significant – changes. These include a “strong and specific” direction to take into account the effects of activities on climate change and reviewing urban tree protection.

There is growing consensus that wider reform of the resource management system – rather than just tinkering with the Act – is required, says Sally.

The Environmental Defence Society has recently released a series of reports that consider what a new resource management system might look like, which Forest & Bird is considering carefully. The National Party has also said it intends to release for public consideration its own draft bill to amend the RMA this year.

The Government’s stage 1 proposals include: • Enabling the Environment Court to review resource consent notification decisions – this is fantastic, because currently Forest & Bird can only challenge notification decisions by judicial review in the High Court.

• Removing the Minister’s power to directly override regional or district rules – we strongly opposed this power when it was introduced in 2017.

Greater protection for urban trees could be introduced under Stage 2 RMA reforms. Photo: Many Mullin

• Reinstatement of the ability to appeal subdivision consent decisions.

• Repeal of a restriction on the ability of submitters to appeal matters that were not raised in their original submission (for example, matters raised by other submitters). Forest & Bird established the law on this in a 2014 decision (Forest & Bird v Simons Pass Station) but the 2017 changes narrowed our scope down to matters raised in our original submission. Now the Simons Pass approach should be reinstated.

• Reinstating the ability to charge financial contributions.

• Enabling review of conditions of multiple consents (for example all consents in a sub-catchment). This will help in land and water planning to ensure consents don’t lock in degradation prior to limits being set.

• Allowing the regulation of high-risk land use activities to achieve water quality outcomes. We expect this to pave the way for things the Government is already considering like a moratorium on new dairy conversions in at-risk catchments.

• Enabling the new RMA oversight unit at the Environmental Protection Authority to take enforcement action.

Forest & Bird will continue to advocate for strong protections in any changes to New Zealand’s environmental laws.

APPROVED

Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

MONSTER MAST COMING

Forest & Bird is calling on the Government to provide an additional $20m funding to deal with this year’s unusually severe masting event. By Caroline Wood During February, the Department of Conservation was analysing the data from huge quantities of seed collected from native forests across the country to work out how bad this year’s mega-mast is going to be.

The situation is looking very worrying. Based on available data to the end of February, the mega-mast will involve a double whammy from beech and podocarp forests. Not only that, the mass seeding and fruiting will take place across almost the whole country, not just parts of it, which is unusual.

Forest & Bird fears – based on DOC’s initial data – that this could be the worst mega-mast in a generation, much bigger than the 2016 event and possibly worse than the 2000/01 one.

In 2001, some populations of critically endangered species were wiped out. For example the only known population of mohua north of Canterbury disappeared at Mt Stokes, in the Marlborough Sounds. DOC deployed its best practice ground-based trapping regime to protect the mohua, but they were overwhelmed by the plague of rat and stoats following that year’s massive autumn masting event.

Timely and sustained aerial 1080 operations can protect vast, remote, and rugged areas from localised extinctions, but DOC doesn’t currently have enough funding in its budget to protect even its “top priority” list of sites, let alone the majority of the country’s public conservation estate, from the impacts of a masting event of this scale.

This means that places like Tongariro Forest, with its nationally significant populations of whio and North Island brown kiwi, won’t get any DOC-funded 1080 predator control. The same goes for most of the North Island mountain forests from the Raukumara Ranges in the northeast to the Tararua and Remutaka Ranges in the south, as

Forest & Bird fears whio in the Tongariro Forest will be decimated by a tsunami of rats and stoats.

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well as the inland Whanganui and south-western Waikato beech forests.

In the South Island, the forests and mountains of the north-east (Nelson Lakes to Marlborough Sounds including Mt Richmond Forest Park), as well as big chunks of North Westland, Buller, South Westland, Fiordland, and Southland also look set to miss out.

Forest & Bird calculates that DOC needs at least double the existing $20m for predator control in its baseline budget in the 2019/2020 year to protect the most vulnerable sites. It currently has enough money in its budget to cover only 20% of the five-million-hectare conservation estate.

Forest & Bird’s chief conservation advisor Kevin Hackwell said: “DOC urgently needs extra resources to deal with the fact that this is a particularly severe event. It is significantly bigger than the recent mast events that DOC has responded to. This year the masting taking place in most of our beech forests will coincide with the podocarps also fruiting heavily.

“There’s currently around $20m in the baseline budget for predator control. That’s enough to do about a million hectares, but DOC’s priority list alone has 1.5 million hectares and that doesn’t include the many other places with nationally and regionally important populations of vulnerable and endangered native species that will require significant predator control in order for them not to be decimated.

“They should be protected too, the only reason they won’t be is the lack of resources to do it.

“These places will get hammered without predator control. Their birds, bats, lizards, and insects will get hammered. There will be nowhere that will be safe. In many places, years of hard work by community groups doing ground-based predator control to save local species and allow the reintroduction of previously lost vulnerable species will be set back.

“If DOC doesn’t receive extra funding to increase its capacity to respond, most of the country will have no help at all.”

We won’t do a 180 on 1080. It’s the only thing giving our wildlife a fighting chance against the megamast. Please support Forest & Bird’s Saving Nature fundraising appeal by making a donation today at www.forestandbird.org.nz/savingnature.

DOC needs at least $20m for emergency predator control or most of the conservation estate will have no help at all.

BEECH

2019

BEECH

2016

The Tararuas are set to be hammered by the 2019 mega-mast unless DOC gets emergency predator-control funding. Photo: Jake Osborne

BEECH

2018

These maps show the predicted severity of the 2019 mega-mast. The scale of the seed fall in 2019 (first red map) is off the charts when compared with the most recent significant mast in 2016. The third map shows a normal year (2018). Maps: courtesy of DOC

WHAT IS A MAST?

Beech flowers at Mt Ruapehu in November 2018. Photo: Anne Kempthorne

Local extinctions of mohua, bats, and other endangered species are likely in forests that don’t get aerial 1080 operations. Photo: Jake Osborne

Every few years native plants, from beech and rimu, through to cabbage trees and tussocks, have a frenzy of very heavy flowering with a bumper crop of seed and fruit. These are commonly known as mast years.

A masting happens when there is a 1.5˚C increase in average temperature between two summers. With warmer temperatures, we are having more frequent mast events. Previously bumper years of plenty helped native bird, bat, and insect populations boom. They made up for the lean years where there wasn’t as much food.

But since the introduction of mammalian predators, these masting events, which create huge amounts of food in our native forests, trigger a tsunami of rats and mice, which is quickly followed by a plague of stoats.

By late winter and early spring, when the seed and fruit either germinate or have been eaten, the rats and stoats turn to native species for food.

Are you worried about the mega-mast threatening one of your conservation projects? Email editor@ forestandbird.org.nz with your examples.

Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

TE KUHA HEADS TO SUPREME COURT Coal mining company Rangatira Developments has been given leave to appeal Te Kuha in the Supreme Court.

In a landmark decision last October, the Appeal Court agreed with Forest & Bird’s argument that councils need to protect the special features of conservation reserves and not allow them to be destroyed in the name of economic development, in this case an open-cast coal mine.

The decision was significant because it meant that all council reserves throughout New Zealand would also be protected from mining.

Forest & Bird has been using a number of different legal avenues to try to stop the proposed Te Kuha mine development destroying pristine ancient forest and rare

Free e-book with online renewal If you renew your Forest & Bird membership online during 2019, you will receive a complimentary copy of Portraits of New Zealand Native Birds. This beautiful e-book has been donated to us by photographer and author John Elmer Lee in memory of his wife Constance. It contains more than 250 photographic portraits of native and migratory birds with descriptions supported by excerpts from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961.

Fundraising and membership manager Jess Winchester is hoping more members will renew online to free up funds that can then be spent on frontline conservation initiatives.

She said “It’s quick, simple, and secure to renew through the Forest & Bird website using your credit or debit card.

It means more of our members’ subscription dollars can be spent where they matter most – protecting and restoring nature in New Zealand.”

To renew your membership online go to www.forestandbird.org.nz/renew.

Time for a change?

The cabbage tree/tī kōuka next to Dennis Mansfield’s deck in the Waitakeres is a popular feeding spot at this time of year.

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coal plateau habitat near Westport.

Buller District Council gave mining company Rangitira Developments Ltd access to the Westport Water Conservation Reserve, to be developed as part of the overall Te Kuha mine footprint.

Thanks to the Forest & Bird members and supporters who donated to our Te Kuha fundraiser, Peter Anderson appeared in the Court of Appeal to argue that the Council needed to protect the special features of the reserve – and the Appeal Court judges agreed, ruling that the Reserves Act takes precedence over the Crown Minerals Act. Now, however, this point of law is set to be tested in the Supreme Court later this year.

Renew online and receive a free e-book full of lovely bird photos like this one of a kōtuku/white heron.

Forest & Bird is consulting on whether to make the society more democratic by changing the way we vote people onto the Board. Should we retain the status quo or allow general members to vote for all (or some) Board positions? Or should the Council system be disbanded all together?

We’d love to know what you think! In April we will be emailing branches and a random sample of individual members with a link to an online survey asking for feedback on five different voting options.

If you have any questions or comments, please email Monica Peters, Electoral Working Party lead, m.peters@forestandbird.org.nz.

Ngaruroro WCO hearings In February, Forest & Bird presented evidence to a Special Tribunal considering whether to grant a Water Conservation Order (WCO) over the Ngaruroro River. We want it to be recognised and protected for its outstanding values.

“New Zealand has very few rivers like the Ngaruroro.

It’s one of the only braided rivers in the North Island and is outstanding habitat for native birds and fish,” says Tom Kay, Forest & Bird’s Lower North Island regional manager.

Threatened bird species that rely on the lower river and estuary include kōtuku/white heron, the Australasian bittern, banded dotterel, and the black-billed gull – the most endangered gull in the world. The Ngaruroro is also popular with Hawke’s Bay residents and visitors who swim, raft, and kayak there every summer.

A hearing for the upper part of the Ngaruroro River was

Countdown campaign Countdown has launched a new advertising campaign featuring our very own Tom Kay, Lower North Island regional manager, as the face of Forest & Bird. The supermarket giant is raising money for three national charities, including Forest & Bird, and is running a campaign to encourage customers to swipe their Onecard and vote for their favourite charity when they shop. There’s heaps of prizes to be won by its customers and Countdown will donate up to $100,000 to the three charities based on votes.

The campaign runs for a while so if you’re shopping in Countdown don’t forget to “swipe for Forest & Bird” and help raise money for our vital conservation work.

held in 2018. The February hearings considered evidence relating to the lower section of the river, from Whanawhana to the coast.

The Ngaruroro has very high water quality right through its lower reaches.

“This is now really unusual for a lowland river in New Zealand,” adds Tom. A WCO would protect the outstanding characteristics of the river and allow uses compatible with those characteristics. The proposed WCO is compatible with sustainable rural activities, he says.

Forest & Bird lodged the WCO application in 2015 alongside Fish & Game, Operation Pātiki, Ngāti Hori ki Kohupatiki, Whitewater New Zealand, and Jetboating New Zealand.

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

20 days, departing 14 October 2019.

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.

We visit 5 magnificent National Parks: in the Himalayas, the Ganges Plains and on the Deccan Plateau. In this season 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 Forest & Bird

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Cover story Waituna Lagoon in Southland is part of one of the largest remaining wetland complexes in New Zealand. Photo: Shellie Evans/CC

OUR VANISHING WETLANDS Wetlands are still disappearing at an alarming rate in New Zealand and Forest & Bird is particularly concerned about their destruction on private land. By Caroline Wood.

To mark World Wetlands Day last month, Forest & Bird released aerial images of wetlands disappearing on private land at an alarming rate.

The photographs, which were taken in Southland, show a number of wetlands outside of public conservation land that have been completely or partly lost in the eight years from 2007–2015.

Southland’s vanishing wetlands are not an isolated example. Since 2001, at least 13% of New Zealand’s freshwater wetlands have been damaged or destroyed. This includes 214 wetlands that are completely gone and another 746 that were partially destroyed between 2001 and 2016.

“This is our national shame. The rate and extent of wetland destruction in New Zealand has been recognised as among the highest in the world,” says Annabeth Cohen, Forest & Bird’s Freshwater advocate.

“New Zealanders may think wetland loss is a thing of the past, but recent reports confirm that we are still losing wetlands every day.”

More than 15% of wetlands in Auckland, Waikato, Gisborne, Manawatu-Whanganui, Wellington, Marlborough, and Canterbury have been damaged (reduced in size) or destroyed, see the map right.

A third of New Zealand’s remaining wetlands are on private land and Annabeth says these are the ones that are most in danger of being drained and destroyed.

Regional councils are tasked with protecting wetlands in their region. But the currently inadequate national freshwater regulations means councils’ regional plans are very inconsistent. Some allow wetlands to be drained, 16

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cleared of vegetation, or opened up to livestock. Other councils are doing a better job.

The National Policy Statement (NPS) on Freshwater Management is being reviewed by the Environment Minister David Parker this year. Forest & Bird believes this provides the most immediate opportunity to strengthen protection of our remaining wetlands.

“We’re calling on the Government to show leadership.

We’d like Minister Parker to stop further destruction by

Northland 7%

WETLAND LOSS BY REGION Auckland 20% This map shows by region the percentage of wetlands Waikato 15% that have been partially destroyed (reduced in size) Bay of Plenty 8% from 2001 to 2016. This Gisborne 18% doesn’t include the 214 wetlands that have been Taranaki 8% Hawke’s Bay 3% completely destroyed over the same period.

Manawatu-Whanganui 17% Official figures Nelson & Tasman 4% showing wetland loss have not been Wellington 37% kept since 2016.

Marlborough 20%

Canterbury 29% West Coast 12%

Otago 9% Southland 8%

In 2007

and in 2015

An example of wetland loss on private land in Southland between 2007 and 2015. Once a wetland reaches a “tipping point” of being less than 30% of its original extent, species disappear more quickly from it. Photo: Ecosouth, courtesy of Environment Southland

requiring regional councils to properly map and protect their wetlands, including reporting on wetland loss and quality changes,” says Annabeth.

“We also call on the Minister to set a goal for councils to double the wetlands in their region, by restoring wetlands that have been degraded or destroyed.”

The draft NPS on Indigenous Biodiversity, which has been developed by key stakeholders including Forest & Bird, contains recommendations that would also provide greater protections for wetlands.

WETLANDS ON PRIVATE LAND The table below shows Forest & Bird’s estimate of private land wetlands by region. This data will contain a degree of inaccuracy due to the imprecise knowledge of wetlands on private land. Data sources available on request.

Region

Total freshwater wetlands (ha)

% on private land

Auckland Region

2,483

72%

Bay of Plenty Region

3,254

78%

Canterbury Region

19,340

48%

Gisborne Region

903

97%

Hawke’s Bay Region

2,438

97%

Manawatu-Whanganui Region

6,925

70%

Marlborough Region

1,307

53%

Nelson-Tasman Region

5,137

16%

Northland Region

14,052

46%

Otago Region

23,784

46%

Southland Region

46,825

24%

Taranaki Region

2,949

53%

Waikato Region

27,857

38%

Wellington Region

2,752

57%

West Coast Region

83,971

14%

National

243,976

32%

RESTORATION TIME We need every single wetland we’ve got – and more – if our native bird and fish species are going to stand a chance in the face of climate change.

Healthy wetlands help protect people and wildlife from the impacts of climate change. For example, they act as coastal buffers, shielding our lowlands from storm surges. They reduce floods and relieve droughts, as well as absorbing and storing carbon.

One-fifth of New Zealand’s land mass was once covered by wetlands, but 90% have been destroyed. This means every wetland we have left is significant, says Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen.

While New Zealand is home to many wetlands of national and international significance, the protection of small wetlands, less than 10ha in size, is also critical.

“We must protect them all. The first step is to halt their ongoing destruction, then we need to restore the wetlands that are in a poor state by replanting, and clearing out pest plants and animals,” says Annabeth.

Forest & Bird would love to see the Government set an ambitious wetland restoration goal – to double New Zealand’s existing wetlands. We would be in a much better place with respect to climate change if we did.

Travis wetland is an award-winning ecological restoration project in the suburb of Burwood in Christchurch. It covers 116ha of land formerly drained and used as a dairy farm. Photo: Shellie Evans/CC

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Cover story The Kaimaumau-Motutangi wetland complex in Northland. Peat forms slowly at a rate of one millimetre a year so it could take thousands of years for the peat destroyed by mining to regenerate. Photo: Toby Ricketts

WIN ON PEAT WETLAND MINING PLAN A company planning to mine a significant peat wetland in Northland has surrendered its resource consents following legal action by Forest & Bird and the Department of Conservation.

The Kaimaumau-Motutangi wetland complex, north of Kaitaia, was ranked as the second most important wetland in Northland following an analysis undertaken for Northland Regional Council in 2011.

Despite this, last March the Council granted consent (without public notification) to Resin and Wax Holdings Ltd to dam and dig up 404ha of the wetland to extract kauri resin and wax. The mining plan involved the extracted peat being dried, shredded, processed, and returned to the site. Rehabilitation was only proposed for part of the affected area, with plans to convert other areas to agriculture.

Forest & Bird applied for judicial review of the Council’s decision in the High Court last October, partly because the resource consents weren’t notified. The Department of Conservation later filed its own legal action, raising many of the same issues.

In December the council conceded it made a technical mistake in processing the consents and said it wouldn’t be defending the court action. The consents were then surrendered.

Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp said that while this represented a win because Forest & Bird had achieved its goal of overturning the consents, it was disappointing the Council did not accept any of the complaints raised in the two legal actions against it.

“This means the Council may well make the same decision (and mistakes) again. It’s dissatisfying as we would have liked a ruling on some of the other mistakes the Council made, including ignoring the New Zealand Coastal Policy statement and misunderstanding its obligation to protect wetlands,” she said.

“However, Forest & Bird had to withdraw its judicial review after the Council threatened to sue for indemnity legal costs if we continued to have these questions resolved by the Court.”

About 95% of Northland’s original wetlands have been destroyed, making Kaimaumau even more special. Most of the Kaimaumau wetland, including much of the area 18

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earmarked for mining, qualifies as a “significant natural area” under Northland’s regional plan. It is home to rare species including matuku-hūrepo/Australasian bittern), native orchids, black mudfish, and is a stronghold for mātātā/fernbird. These species are all highly vulnerable to habitat loss.

OUR FISHY FRIENDS NEED CONNECTED HABITATS

Kōaro. Photo: Rob Suisted

Short-finned eels, giant kōkopu, banded kōkopu, short-jawed kōkopu, īnanga, and kōaro (the five whitebait species) are some of the native fish that live in wetlands for some of their lives. These fish are diadromous – they travel between fresh and salt water. To complete their lifecycles, they journey to and from the sea along rivers, streams, and drains.

The whitebait species’ eggs hatch in autumn and the larvae are washed out to sea. Six months later, as juveniles, they return to streams and wetlands, some migrating over 100km upstream from the sea.

Juvenile kōkopu and kōaro can even climb up damp rocks alongside steep waterfalls to reach sheltered streams and wetland habitats. Colonisation of restored aquatic habitats by fish is only possible if they are linked to other habitats via rivers, streams, or ditches. In other words, creating an isolated pond within a wetland is unlikely to result in fish being found there.

Source: Wetland Restoration handbook, Landcare Research, see https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz

BE WITH A TREE WEEK 2019 31 MAY–9 JUNE

Get ready for Kiwi Conservation Club’s Be With a Tree Week and help us celebrate Aotearoa’s amazing giants (and pygmies) of the bush, city, or your own backyard.

There will be 10 tree-themed challenges for children and adults to take part in over 10 days. For example, you can vote for your favourite tree or spend time seeking out a new species you haven’t seen before. Take a photo of your completed challenge and share on Facebook or Instagram.

The Kiwi Conservation Club team is working with lots of partners, including Garden to Table, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, Enviroschools Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui and The New Zealand Arboricultural Association, to promote Be With a Tree Week.

We hope it will build on the success of last year’s inaugural event and involve even more people.

KCC manager Sarah Satterthwaite says: “The idea is to have lots of fun while becoming more aware of the trees around you and their importance. Trees are linked with our identity, hold memories, provide a habitat, are a source of sustenance and help our climate. They are very remarkable living entities and we want to celebrate how wonderful they are!”

The challenges kick off on 31 May and run until 9 June. For information about how you, your family, school, or branch can get involved in Be With a Tree Week, see KCC’s website http://kcc.org.nz/

We're hoping lots of people will try Forest & Bird’s 10-tree challenge over 10 days. Photo: Jeremy Wood

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Kimberley Discovery

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15 Day Camping Tour – Departs Broome 12th June 2019 Enjoy a wonderful outback experience as we discover the Kimberley’s wildlife, spectacular outback scenery, Aboriginal history and many of the wonderfully refreshing waterholes. We explore Purnululu N.P, the many gorges of the Gibb River Rd, Home Valley and Mornington Stations. Tour also includes Geikie Gorge and Ord River cruises.

Tanami Expedition (Broome to Alice Springs)

12 day Camping Tour – Departs Broome 11th July 2019 This trip is packed with highlights including the Southern Kimberley, The Ramsar wetland “Lake Gregory”, Wolf Creek Crater, The Tanami Road and Newhaven Sanctuary.

Join us and discover the wildlife as we travel from the Broome on the Kimberley coast through the remote Tanami Desert to Alice Springs in central Australia.

The trip offers a range of habitat including a variety of gorges, lake systems, desert plus the wildlife that is found at each of these points.

Western Explorer

14 Day Camping Tour - Departs Broome 30th July 2019 Highlights – Karijini N.P, Mt Augustus and Kennedy Ranges.

This trip is designed to coincide with the Pilbara wildflower season and provides the opportunity to explore the wonderful Karijini, Mt Augustus and Kennedy Range National Parks.

• Informative naturalist leaders • Small groups (6 – 12 participants) • Private charters available • Fully accommodated & camping tours

Easy Camping ^WeIntroducing have introduced THE EASY CAMPING concept on a couple of our tours in 2019. This will make the whole camping experience more enjoyable. No more erecting tents, beds or un-packing camping equipment. Just pick up your bag and either spend time exploring the campsite or freshening up and relaxing before dinner.

South Australian Flinders Ranges and Lake Eyre Expedition

11 Day Accommodation / Camping Tour – Departs Adelaide 2nd July 2019 This tour is a must do for all who long to experience the Australian Outback. We will cover some of South Australia’s most historic outback locations in the spectacular Southern Flinders Ranges and around Lake Eyre. In the South we explore Wilpena Pound and its surrounds. In the North we visit Arkaroola Sanctuary where we one of the highlights will be the spectacular, Ridge Top Tour. Around Lake Eyre we visit Maree, Cowards Springs, William Creek and Coober Pedy. Both regions offer an opportunity for a wide range of wildlife sightings. The tour accommodation is a mixture of Motel / Cabin accommodation and camping.

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Forest & Bird

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Predator-free NZ

Our cold beech forests are critical refuges that are shrinking as the climate changes.

WARMING FORESTS

Beech forest, Beresford Range, the Catlins. Photo: Caroline Wood

As our forests warm, ship rats will move into new areas.

Lynley Hargreaves investigates what that will mean for our most precious “deep endemics” such as mohua and kiwi.

Mohua love tall trees. But the small, insectivorous, yellowheaded birds don’t tend to exist at low altitude, where the tallest trees are. That’s because, up until a certain altitude, they have been eaten by all the rats. In a sense, mohua are already climate refugees.

“It’s painfully obvious that there’s a really strong relationship between rat abundance and altitude,” says the Department of Conservation’s Dr Graeme Elliott.

He says it’s highly likely that as the climate warms the “rat line” – above which the rodents are mostly absent – will move upslope, shrinking the currently cooler refuges where vulnerable species like mohua are still able to survive.

“Warming forests are a huge worry,” agrees Landcare Research’s Dr Susan Walker, who is leading a new five-year Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) research project aimed at transforming the effectiveness of

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large-scale forest restoration.

“What our data shows is just how much ship rats love Dr Susan Walker is leading a warmth,” she says. project aimed at forecasting predator threats.

She is referring to the Department of Conservation database, which has hundreds of thousands of rodent tracking records. Analysis shows that, regardless of the type of trees, more warmth means more rats (see right).

For example, at the mouth of the Heaphy River, near the coast, a rat-tracking tunnel is likely to show rat footprints 80% of the time. Further south by Lake Paringa, which is a colder habitat, it’s 40–50%.

A warming climate is also likely to lead to more megamast years, where the food provided by mass fruiting of beech trees leads to explosions of predator numbers.

More warmth may also mean higher levels of rats between mast years where currently, in cold beech forest, the rodents are virtually absent.

“Our cold beech forests, which are masting this year, are critical refuges that are shrinking as the climate changes,” says Susan Walker.

This is not of equal concern to all native species.

Instead, it’s the birds that have evolved in isolation the longest, our “deep endemics”, that will suffer the most when rat levels rise.

By using data from two Ornithological Society of New Zealand databases, across the approximately 25-year gap from the 1970s to the early 2000s, Walker and others discovered some concerning trends.

Deep endemic species – kiwi, kākā, rifleman, mohua and rock wren – dropped more in numbers when compared with more recent arrivals such as silver eye or shining cuckoo.

“It’s a takeover by the species that have arrived most recently,” says Susan Walker, “Homogenisation, where ecosystems lose their uniqueness, is real.”

The bird atlas data also showed that deep endemic forest birds are more dependent on large areas of undeveloped forest. Within those forests, deep endemic birds are still disappearing – but this trend is fastest in the forests that are warmest.

“By the 1970s, endemic forest birds were already confined to the coldest forests. Loss was much slower in the South Island, but they’re still emptying out,” says Susan Walker.

“Crucially now, it’s the deepest endemics that depend most on the coldest forest.”

This is yet another reason why it’s extremely important to keep warming to 1.5˚C degrees says Forest & Bird climate advocate Adelia Hallett, who says the impacts can already be seen in the warmest parts of New Zealand.

“As the world warms, more of the country will experience what we see in Northland now: bigger explosions of rats, possums, and other pests.

“If we go beyond 1.5˚C warming – to 2˚C degrees – the effects on nature will be at least twice as bad. We have to get our heads around ecosystems changing fast and make plans for how we’re going to deal with that.”

In cold beech forest, with its relatively well understood pest and masting cycles, protecting those deep endemic

Deep endemic bird species like rifleman depend most on the coldest forests. Photo: Jake Osborne/CC

Rock wren, an ancient alpine species, is particularly vulnerable to local extinctions following predation. Photo: Craig McKenzie

Warmer forests are more likely to be “continuously ratty”. These maps show how temperature impacts on rats – class A forests (yellow) have the fewest rats while Class F forests (red) have the most.

birds like kiwi means doing pest control in reasonably predictable cycles.

But cold beech forest makes up only about a third of New Zealand forest. Warmer, and non-beech forests, are much more complicated to manage.

Rats play a complex role – not only eating birds, but suppressing mice, supporting populations of stoats, and doing better when possums are suppressed. And in warm, productive forests, rats often bounce back from pest control within six months.

“Really, we don’t have a large-scale solution for that yet,” says Susan Walker. “Possums are the easy ones. We need to keep a hold on ship rats – the most successful mammal on the planet.”

The MBIE-funded research, which began collecting baseline data from pilot projects in the field this summer, aims to forecast predator threats in a whole range of environments.

“Then what we need is good pest control at large scale in remaining habitats,” says Susan Walker.

“There are so many places that are teetering on the brink,” adds Graeme Elliott. These are places that still have populations of kākā, kea, whio, and native land snails.

Because there are a hundred other places with similar values, very few of them receive any pest control.

“Doing pest control over the whole South Island is not ridiculous, a much grander plan is possible,” he says.

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Forest & Bird project

WILDLINK WONDERS

Nicky Auld with South-East Wildlink project manager Naomi Harrison. Photo Melissa Irace

Melissa Irace meets some of the people helping to create predator-free corridors of native bush for South-East Wildlink, Forest & Bird’s new landscape-scale restoration project in South Auckland.

I’m gripping onto the roll bars of “the mule” as we bump along the precarious angles of Nicky and Mark Auld’s working farm at Brookby, just five minutes from Manurewa in South Auckland.

It’s these steep sides and gullies that we need to be thankful for though. Without them, the whole area would have been logged years ago and made into pasture land or absorbed into Auckland’s ever-widening rural/urban sprawl.

Instead, there are still large pockets of stunning native bush that are classified as “significant ecological areas” by Auckland Council. They’re fragmented but at least they are there. The one we’re about to visit covers 35 acres and I’m here to find out more about how Forest & Bird’s SouthEast Wildlink project is helping landowners like Nicky and her husband Mark.

The couple have joined the project to protect, preserve, and enhance native wildlife on their land. They’re also connecting with others to do the same – providing a corridor of safe bush refuges for birds to fly between in search of food and nesting habitat. This includes seven or eight kākā, a species very rarely seen in mainland Auckland but now, according to Nicky and her neighbours, happily flying around 24/7 for about six months of the year during the winter months.

Nicky, who’s originally from Kaiapoi, in Canterbury, “where there’s hardly any bush at all”, has applied to Auckland Council for help with predator control in the past, but says our South-East Wildlink project has really upped their game.

“We had no idea how many traps we needed and how much time and expense was required to do things right before South-East Wildlink started. Now we have Naomi helping us, the maps she has created – with GPS tagging 22

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of all the bait stations – have been really helpful.”

Naomi Harrison is Forest & Bird’s project manager for the South-East Wildlink, which started in September 2017 with grants from Auckland Council’s Regional Environment and Natural Heritage Fund 2016-2017. The project aims to have 30 landowners involved by 2020 and there are already 16 on board.

Naomi says that landowners are often hampered by lack of time and/or being unaware about the presence of introduced predators on their property.

“We use wax tag monitoring to detect the presence of possums and rats on a property, which helps people realise that there is a problem. We put out wax tag lines on 11 properties in 2018 that confirmed their presence,” says Naomi.

“We’ve also done two sets of bird counts – and recorded 30 bird species – so people know there’s something on their land that is worth protecting. I’ve also run a couple of information sessions for locals – recruiting more people and giving them advice on pest animal control.”

Back at the Auld’s farm, Nicky is passionate about getting as many of her neighbours on board as possible.

She held a neighbourhood morning tea at her home, which was a great opportunity to meet and connect with neighbours and start building a South-East Wildlink community.

“If we all just do a little bit more, we can achieve a lot,” she says.

“One neighbour asked about the birds that are making such a big racket – they had no idea it was kākā and how lucky we are to have them. Now whenever we meet we’re always swapping tips about baiting and talking about the birdlife we’re seeing, it’s wonderful.”

Funding the project has been an issue. Forest & Bird’s

Projects and volunteers manager David Bowden wants to provide free traps and bait to the landowners taking part but hasn’t as yet been successful. “There’s just too many people applying for too few funds,” he explains.

A couple of days later I’m out with Murray Gleeson, chair of Forest & Bird’s South Auckland branch. Our volunteers have been rat baiting and trapping at their two reserves – the 20-acre Olive Davis Reserve and the 37-acre Ngaheretuku Reserve plus 120 acres of adjoining bush – for many years. The local branch has just been awarded $3,000 from Forest & Bird’s Horner Fund to pay for Goodnature traps in Ngaheretuku Reserve, although at the moment it is closed to try to protect the trees there from kauri dieback disease.

According to Murray, a landscape-scale project like the South-East Wildlink is a great way to increase the public’s awareness of the need for pest control.

“Having more landowners on board will really improve the health of the birdlife and regenerate the whole forest,” he says.

Murray proudly shows me a couple of pūriri berries, unadulterated by rodent teeth, a testament to the branch’s hard work trapping for rats over many years.

“If there were rats here these berries would be bitten, they love them.”

Murray Gleeson checks a trap on one of Forest & Bird’s Auckland reserves. Photo: Melissa Irace

Before I left Brookby with the Aulds, we were rewarded with a daytime sighting of a ruru/morepork. It sat in the branches and stared at us. We stared back. It was a magical moment.

If you are interested in joining South-East Wildlink or you would like to make a gift towards buying traps and bait for the project’s predator control efforts, please email Naomi at n.harrison@ forestandbird.org.nz.

PROTECTING AUCKLAND’S NATURAL TREASURES South-East Wildlink was the brainchild of Forest & Bird’s South Auckland branch and our Auckland regional manager Nick Beveridge. It aims to promote the movement of wildlife across South Auckland by connecting and protecting patches and strips of native vegetation between the branch’s two reserves and Totara Park,

the Auckland Botanic Gardens, and Clevedon Scenic Reserve. The bigger vision is a landscape-scale one – the aim is to eventually connect the Hunua Ranges and then the Waitakere Ranges, which is part of the NorthWest Wildlink. For more information see https://www. forestandbird.org.nz/projects/south-east-wildlink.

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Biodiversity

FUNGI FUN 1

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Match these names to the images: velvet foot, devil’s fingers, wolf-fart puffball, fairies bonnets, alpine jelly cone, 24

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To celebrate the season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness” we are featuring some of Aotearoa’s more eyecatching forest fungi. A quick quiz – each of these mushrooms has a common name, can you match the names to the 12 photos? The names are listed below the images and the answers are on page 53. Thanks to nature photographer Bernard Spragg for sharing his stunning images with us.

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fly agaric, sulfur tuft, wine glass fungus, earthstars, basket fungi, false morel, turkey tail fungus.

SEE ANSWERS ON PAGE 53

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Young conservationists

YOUTH HUBS TAKE FLIGHT

Auckland Youth Hub’s Kaya Shlomi and Sacha Knight.

Our new youth hubs are about empowering 21st century conservation heroes, as Rebecca Browne explains.

Young people are crucial to conservation – you could call them a force to be unleashed! They’ve got a strong grasp on sustainability and a real personal stake in it. They are already contributing huge amounts of new enthusiasm, ideas, technical savvy, and passion to our work. And, even better, they are reaching, engaging, and making an impact on people outside Forest & Bird’s usual networks.

Our young people want to take up the mantle of saving the planet today – not tomorrow – and through our national youth network we are championing this. As Forest & Bird Youth heads into its second year, we have some 50–60 volunteers aged 14–25 years taking action together across the country.

How does it work? In essence, each hub is organised “by youth, with youth, for youth”.

They form and run smaller groups or “hubs of activity”, focusing on the conservation-related things that matter most to them – places, species, issues, solutions, or skills – in the way or ways they think will make the biggest difference.

Some hubs meet up in person, while others work together solely online. Our young people connect, inform, and activate for nature through youth-run social media channels that they can access wherever they are or go.

As Forest & Bird’s investment is in young people and 26

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their development, the way each youth hub works is fine-tuned by its members to meet their specific needs, preferences, and requirements. This will depend on the activities they are focusing on, which could be as diverse as a beach clean-up event, a winter planting project, or working together to get the Zero Carbon Act passed. The various groupings – and regroupings – of youth are fluid and flexible.

Whilst all hubs do things a bit differently, developing their leadership skills, and improving access, engagement, and opportunities for themselves and other young conservationists is a shared priority. They are also keen to link up with Forest & Bird and KCC branches, and other organisations with similar interests.

Our youth hub programme is funded through a national Forest & Bird Youth Fund, and supported by a youth advisor based at National Office.

It’s certainly a very different approach than we are used to, but it’s working incredibly well. So much has been achieved already (see right). Just imagine what we’ll see as our young people continue to develop, and our network grows even further.

Rebecca Browne is Forest & Bird’s KCC and youth advisor.

Authentic youth-led spaces Our Auckland Hub is passionate about restoration, so its members are leading a designated project at Albany’s Hosking Reserve for young conservationsists to get hands-on experience.

With the mentorship of Forest & Bird North Shore, they’ve created a top-notch restoration plan, and started implementing it too.

Auckland Hub volunteers in action.

Changing the conversation There is a lingering misconception out there that conservation careers are only for science majors, but our Wellington Hub has been putting the record straight. Their 2018 networking event, Ngā Here: Many Connections got more than 100 young people and 30 local organisations talking. It demonstrated some of the variety of conservation roles in our sector, and kick-started new relationships.

Did you notice that the background of the Seven Sharp studio changed at the end of 2018?

That’s down to our Christchurch Hub! After getting involved in a “Lose the Lupins” working bee up at Arthur’s Pass in support of Forest & Bird’s North Canterbury branch, the group’s social media caught the attention of one of the show’s reporters, helping inspire a story and some serious reflection on the promotion of these pesky plants.

Sian Moffitt, Wellington Hub.

Conservation is relevant (and fun) “Conservation is for youth” is the big message of the Manawatū Hub. In partnership with Forest & Bird’s Manawatū branch, they have developed and delivered social activities that encouraged young people to showcase their creativity, learning, and expertise. These included conservation quizzes, talks, trips, and photo competitions.

Yu Heng, Canterbury Youth Hub.

Manawatū youth engaging with KCC kids.

Taking Forest & Bird to the world Climate change is the big issue on the mind of our Dunedin Hub, so they’re representing Forest & Bird Youth as part of an international Youth Climate Change campaign focused on urging China to improve its emissions policies.

Our Forest & Bird Youth Hubs have a busy year ahead. Keep an eye out! You will be hearing directly, and regularly, from these forces for nature about their upcoming events, projects, advocacy and campaigns.

Dunedin Hub’s Adam Currie (front left).

Want to get involved in Forest & Bird Youth?

For more information, see https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/our-community/forest-bird-youth.

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Climate

CARBON FARMING

Marlene and Patrick Anderson.

Photo: Luke Anderson

Harry Broad visits a couple trying to “carbon farm” their land back to a natural landscape.

“We are trying to leave a legacy here for society and our kids. It’s land that should probably never have been cleared in the first place and eventually we want to return the whole 800ha of the farm into natives,” says Marlene Anderson.

The key part of the farming pattern now is their determination to pursue carbon farming of exotic species to fund the transition into a fully replenished native landscape.

Marlene and husband Patrick decided to abandon the wilds of suburban Wadestown and secure jobs in 1987 and shift to a hard hill country farm up the back of Shannon and alongside the Mangaore stream.

“Patrick had always had a hankering to either go farming or sailing but I see myself as more of a land girl. So we looked at lifestyle blocks for two or three years and we asked the people why were they selling? Well they said we get home in the dark, we pour money into it there is not enough time and we are not productive,” she recalls.

So they started looking for something that was more productive and more challenging and they certainly found it on this tough country behind Shannon. They ran a flock of Perendale sheep but declined to run any cattle because of the impact they make on the waterways.

So how did they learn about farming?

“Quickly,” they both laugh.

“We had a mentor from Te Horo, a chap named Gary Biggs and he was a born teacher. He’d won the Golden Shears and been a shearing instructor. So we started asking him questions and he got very interested in helping us.”

Back then, the farm already had over 300ha in mature native cutover forest.

“Over the back it is kāmahi, rimu, tōtara, and red beech and it’s quite mixed on the front, we’ve got 30 species of native trees that will grow over five metres. It was probably

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logged in the 1920s, you can see the vestiges of the old logging sites and there is a pit over there for pit sawing,” says Patrick.

It was never a hugely profitable place to farm and for many years they raised three kids on an income that was below the unemployment benefit. Although there were always benefits like free firewood that townies might struggle to attain and they also have vegetable gardens.

Another attraction of the farm was that there was nobody farming upstream so the water runs clear and is something of a haven for native species.

“I guess our conservation path was shaped by Mike Joy turning up when he was still a student and this would have been in the early 1990s. He was doing a survey of all the steams and finding out what native fish there were in them.

He found more native fish in our Mangaore stream than in any of the other streams.

“We didn’t see him for another 10 years and he then popped up in his cheery way and said, ‘Remember me?’.

He bought a master’s student, Amber McEwan, with him and she did a really good thesis on what happened to the native fish in winter,” says Marlene.

“The Manawatu River is quite polluted and when they are swimming upstream and see our clean water they do a right turn and come up here,” says Patrick.

Among the native fish species are the whitebait species of banded and short-jawed kōkopu, and the kōaro, as well as torrent fish, the red-finned bully, and the long-finned eel.

So why the move into carbon farming?

“When the carbon thing came up we did some figures on what forestry we had. We already had 70ha of pre1990 forest which meant we had to get into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

“It was one of the things we looked at early on, what

Carbon farming is more profitable for us now than sheep farming. Money really does grow on trees. was the right land use for this class of country? With carbon now at more than $25 a tonne, we will always earn more out of carbon than we will out of livestock.

“A hectare of radiata absorbs 30 tonnes of carbon annually, that is the average over their 30-year rotation.

For natives it is between 6 and 12 tonnes for the first 100 years.

“We did all our own calculations we didn’t need a consultant. I went down to a full-day seminar for consultants and some of them were asking more basic questions than I was,” says Marlene.

While they have logged some of the original pine blocks, the philosophy has been to use the income from the planned planting of eucalypts and radiata to pay for the transition into natives and to rely largely on natural regeneration.

They planted two blocks of radiata in 1994/95 totalling 30ha and are planting up to 65ha of eucalypts, all of which will be registered under the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative, which currently enables landowners to receive carbon units through the creation of permanent forests.

“It’s a rules-based system and you’ve got to follow them. A lot of the rules are set by the Kyoto Protocol, but I have to say the Ministry of Primary Industries has been very helpful in providing advice and information,” says Marlene.

“The 300ha of existing native we can’t claim, it was already protected and was on steep land. The line in the sand was pre-1990. You’ve got to have new forest,” says Marlene.

But the couple did get into the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative for the 77ha of native regeneration they have growing along the banks of the Mangaore stream. Much of that is natural regeneration with some strategic plantings to encourage the bigger trees.

Things were looking good until the price of carbon plummeted from $20 a tonne to just one dollar following the previous government’s changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme and the global financial crisis.

“That was disastrous for us and while that has changed

The Andersons are slowly returning their whole farm back to native forest.

now, I reckon it put our plans back 10 years,” says Marlene.

“It certainly slowed us down and we would have completed our planting plans by now, but we will get there.

“Carbon farming is still more profitable for us now than sheep farming. The only sheep remaining are a mob of 400 being run on land leased by a neighbour.

“There is a lively market now for carbon trading and it’s just like the share markets. I can do the transfer out of my account and into the broker’s account and three days later we get the credit. Money really does grow on trees,” laughs Marlene.

“From our exotics we are harvesting just over 2000 credits a year and 800 credits from the natives block.

But a property of this size in a high rainfall area costs a lot to maintain, such as the 22km of tracks, fencing costs, and so on.

“We still have a big problem with deer grazing the trees and hunters coming in, some of whom don’t like shooting hinds, but we say we are into pest eradication here, not managing the herds.

“The NZ Farmer magazine is full of complaints about people having to “sacrifice” land for trees. But I belong to a women’s farming discussion group and on just about every farm we walk onto, the farmer will identify a paddock that should be in trees, because it’s too wet or hard to muster.”

It has been a struggle for this resourceful couple and on any material assessment, they should have stayed in town.

But it was never about the money, it has been more about the quiet but real satisfaction gained from not just surviving but thriving in a landscape that will eventually return to its original forest cover.

The pioneering regenerative farmers of Australia, see page 52.

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Climate

RECORDS FALL LEFT, RIGHT, AND CENTRE NIWA has released its climate summary for 2018 and it makes sobering reading, says Adelia Hallett, Forest & Bird’s climate advocate, who summarises the key figures here. n n n n

n n

The year 2018 was the second-equal hottest year on record in New Zealand.

The 2017-18 summer was the hottest on record.

Four of the past six years have been among the warmest on record. Warming trends are important for nature.

Last year also marked a new record for the warmest minimum temperatures, previously held by 2016. This is important because of the impact it can have on breeding/flowering.

A “marine heatwave” saw average sea temperatures 2–4˚C above normal.

Intensified weather patterns, with big storms but soil moisture either well below average or above average.

This illustrates what climate change is doing in Aotearoa, intensifying everything and putting ecosystems under greater and greater pressure.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on global warming last year told us we must keep warming to no more than 1.5˚C and that it’s not too late to do it – but it means that global emissions must peak next year and decline sharply by 2030.

In New Zealand, the Government is gearing up to pass two important pieces of climate law this year: • The Zero Carbon Act – setting New Zealand’s zerocarbon goal into law, creating carbon budgets, and

establishing an impartial Climate Commission.

• A review of the Emissions Trading Scheme – increasing carbon prices, making it easier to claim credits for carbon stored in native forests, and possibly making the agricultural sector responsible for its emissions.

It’s a defining year for the climate – the year in which we decide whether we do or don’t do what it takes to protect nature and ourselves from runaway climate change. → We would like to hear what climate change impacts members are seeing, please contact editor@ forestandbird.org.nz with any examples of its effects on nature in your backyard.

ARCHEY’S FROG MINING RISK Oceana Gold should stop drilling for gold and silver on public conservation land, says Forest & Bird.

The company recently announced it had found gold and silver within Coromandel Forest Park and plans more drilling on the site, which is home for the critically endangered Archey’s frog.

“The Government has already announced that there will be no new mines on public conservation land,” says Dr Rebecca Stirnemann, central North Island manager for Forest & Bird.

“Even before the election, this area was subject to a separate promise that it would be added to Schedule 4 and mining would not occur. So what’s the point of continuing with drilling when the company won’t be able to mine?”

Forest & Bird says that exploratory drilling programmes have an unacceptable environmental impact. When our staff visited the site in 2017, we saw large areas in this forest that had been cleared for accommodation and drill rigs.

“Archey’s frogs are one of the most critically endangered frogs in the world. They don’t leap, hardly ever chirp, and are notoriously hard to spot. Mining contractors could simply walk over them. The risk from any kind of mining in this area is too great,” says Dr Stirnemann.

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“There is also an unacceptable risk of the company bringing kauri dieback disease into this area, which is currently free of the disease.

“The mining company should exit Coromandel Forest Park now, before more damage is done to this forest and the endangered species living there.”

Archey’s frog.

Photo: Neil Fitzgerald

Defending nature The Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park is classified as “nationally significant” while areas of native habitat scrub on the foothills of the Kaimai Mamaku range are “locally significant” under Waikato’s SNA plan. Photo: Wairere Falls, Kaimai Range, Flickr/CC

PROTECTING NATURE ON PRIVATE LAND

Caitlin Carew looks at the benefits of mapping and protecting Significant Natural Areas on private land.

In recent years, a number of councils around the country have successfully identified areas of important native habitat known as Significant Natural Areas (or SNAs), resulting in better protection of nature on private as well as public land.

Councils in the Wellington region are required to identify and map SNAs under the Regional Policy Statement. But in the case of Hutt City Council, things didn’t go smoothly and last year a group of Lower Hutt landowners protested the Council’s attempt to identify and map SNAs on private land, which led to it backing down.

Forest & Bird’s legal team is preparing to go to court later this year to hold Hutt City Council to its legal obligations. In 2016 we won a similar case against New Plymouth District Council.

Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp says that while New Zealand is blessed with large areas of protected public land, many threatened species and ecosystems are now only found on private land.

“Protecting native wildlife on both private and public land is essential if nature is to survive and thrive. The SNA process recognises and provides a higher level of protection for native vegetation or habitats that meet predefined criteria. At this stage, the exact criteria and rules vary between councils. The community is always involved in creating the policies and rules that apply to identified areas.”

Many councils around the country, including Auckland, have successfully identified and mapped SNAs on private land. There it has provided a tool to protect natural bush remnants that support biodiversity and help make Auckland attractive and liveable.

Sally points out that landowners are still able to carry out a range of activities on their properties. “Land has still been developed. Property prices haven’t plummeted,” she says.

Lower North Island regional manager Tom Kay agrees, saying the SNA process has worked well on the Kāpiti coast, and has started on a great note in Porirua.

“People relish the opportunity to learn more about threatened plants and wildlife on their property and get some help to look after them,” he says.

How does it work in practice? Broadly speaking, if an SNA is identified on your property, it’s likely that vegetation clearance will be discouraged. But exceptions can be made, for example to create and maintain cleared areas around buildings, reduce fire risk, and enhance conservation and recreation. Many residents can also access special council support in the form of funding, advice, or rate rebates to restore their patch of bush.

The draft National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity, which was recently presented to the Government by stakeholders including Forest & Bird, contains a key recommendation that the Government should direct councils to map Significant Natural Areas.

If the Government accepts this recommendation, then SNA identification will become a requirement nationwide.

“SNAs are a huge opportunity for us to make the places we live in more attractive and restore nature at the same time”, adds Tom Kay. “With genuine engagement and flexibility from councils and Waikato Regional an open-minded and enthusiastic Council provides a handy approach from local communities, guide for landowners about its SNA process. we can all reap the benefits.”

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Dawn chorus

A China Eastern Airbus A330 with a flock of birds at London Heathrow Airport. Photo: Wikipedia/CC

COLLISION COURSE Birds and planes make unhappy companions, as Amy Lewis found out when she investigated the incidence of “bird strikes” in New Zealand.

When the cases are packed, check-in is complete and your seatbelt is fastened, it’s likely you’ve nothing else on your mind but the adventure ahead. The cabin crew conduct the safety demonstration and while it may get passengers thinking about onboard safety, most won’t consider the threat posed by and to others that share the sky. Advanced technologies will ensure plane-to-plane collision is virtually impossible but what about making impact with less predictable high-fliers, ie birds?

Determining the number of collisions between birds and aeroplanes – known as bird strikes – occurring worldwide annually is difficult due to discrepancies in how such incidents are reported.

“Full transparency is not achieved yet, certainly not around the globe. Some countries show a far better reporting and transparency culture than others,” says executive director of the World Birdstrike Association Rob van Eekeren.

A Bird Incident Rate Report from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, which looked at the 12-month moving average strike rate per 10,000 aircraft movements, shows there were an average of 3.8 on-aerodrome bird strikes per quarter at New Zealand’s airports between 2015 and the end of 2017. However, as the CAA has incomplete or no data for some airports, this is a rough estimate.

Something that is universally agreed upon is that bird strikes pose a great safety risk to aviation, particularly if the birds are large or flying in a flock.

Perhaps the most high-profile example of this is that of US Airways Flight 1549, whose pilot was forced to make an emergency water landing on the Hudson River following a collision with a flock of Canada geese. The 2016 film Sully was created to commemorate this dramatic landing.

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“The incident on the Hudson is a very good example [of a bird strike] where thankfully nobody was killed that has refocused the industry,” says Tim Morris, manager of Airport Operations at Christchurch Airport.

“People now understand the importance of keeping birds and aeroplanes in different places.”

Many measures are enacted to avoid bird strikes but understandably, they’re taken predominantly with airline passengers in mind. How can we balance human safety and the protection of our wildlife?

There are several methods New Zealand’s airports use to reduce the risk of bird strike with bird culling being the absolute last resort. For example, Christchurch Airport spends approximately $300,000 annually on a combination of mitigation measures, including a short-grass policy which makes the airfield less attractive to birds.

“Our on-airfield programme involves having two wildlife officers on-site seven days a week. They perform a range of activities, such as surveying birds to understand the patterns and type of birds coming here,” explains Morris.

“We also use pyrotechnics similar to orchards and vineyards. At the very end of that scale is the lethal means we may need to use.”

Christchurch also has an off-airfield programme which involves working with ornithologists, local councillors, and researchers. They’ve recently started a study with Canterbury University that aims to gain a better understanding of the movements of Canada geese.

Auckland Airport also utilises a number of grass-length control measures and bird-scare tactics. However, these measures often don’t fool birds for long, as ecologist and bird-strike consultant John Dowding explains.

“At Auckland airport, they tried putting up a series

of posts with tape attached to the top which is meant to mimic flames. That worked for a short time but then birds came to see it wasn’t a threat,” says Dowding, who has also been involved in bird-strike mitigation at Christchurch airport.

“There’s a constant problem with birds becoming habituated to those techniques.”

Solving this problem was crucial. Based next to a large tidal estuary, where many wading birds feed, Auckland Airport historically had problems during high tide when birds crossed runways to roost on the airport’s flat land. To resolve this, a site at nearby Wiroa Island was enhanced in order to make it an attractive alternative for roosting.

“Now we have large numbers of oystercatchers roosting there and not crossing the runway,” explains Dowding.

Monitoring change is a key component of any bir-strike prevention plan, according to Dowding, who notes that birds may change their flight patterns and habitats over decades, making bird control challenging.

Tim Morris agrees: “The Christchurch earthquake displaced large populations of various bird types. They moved nesting grounds and it disrupted their feeding patterns.”

The recent growth of dairy farming in the area has attracted birds to the area due to the availability of food, he added.

Operations manager at Marlborough Airport Steve Holtum says he has also noticed changes in bird behaviour in recent years. For example, the loss of natural habitat near the airport has driven Australian spur-winged plovers to nest in short grass by the runway. To deter birds, the airport has a wildlife plan with measures such as reducing food supply for birds through grass management and utilising bird-scare techniques. Again, culling them is a last resort.

New technologies can help airport managers in their efforts to mitigate bird-strike incidents. One successful example is home-grown grass technology system Avanex.

Developed by New Zealand scientists, these grasses have been bred with a special fungus known as endophytes that produce high levels of alkaloids.

This grass acts as a harmless deterrent to birds both directly, as grass-eating birds feel sick after consuming it, and indirectly, as it detracts insects which certain bird species consume. First trialled at Christchurch, Auckland

A bird smashed into the windscreen of this light aircraft coming into land at Show Low Airport, Arizona, USA.

Birds close to a plane coming into land at Auckland Airport in 2013.

and Hamilton airports, it has since been adopted elsewhere.

While research and discussions continue, it’s clear that bird-strike mitigation is a complex challenge with no silver bullet. Each airport needs its own management plan to deal with the species and problems specific to their local area, says Tim Morris.

While runway safety is aviation’s single biggest challenge, van Eekeren says bird strikes are the most complex issue to deal with.

“It not only relates to the more than 100-year-old aviation sector, but also to the 200-million-year evolution of birds. Nature adapts. We as humans have to respect that and find ways to balance both,” he said.

BIRD STRIKE Bird strikes on aeroplanes are just one aspect of a much greater problem, says New Zealand ecologist John Dowding. Collisionrelated bird deaths can take many forms, including banging into buildings, windows, power lines, wind turbines, and vehicles, and he suspects we likely “underestimate the risk of bird collision with anything” in New Zealand.

“The disturbing part is, we don’t know how bad it is,” he says. “For different types of collisions, we only see the tip of the iceberg.”

In the USA, a 2005 study compared different forms of avian collision mortality and found that buildings, power lines, and cats are the forms resulting in the most deaths, while aeroplanes were at the bottom of the list.

However, when all forms of collision are combined, they could serve a devastating blow to bird populations according to Dowding, particularly when coupled with evolutionary changes. In New Zealand and other isolated islands, many bird species have evolved to live longer, which in turn means they have slowed their reproductive rate.

“They reduce the number of eggs they lay and don’t breed until they are older,” he says. “If you introduce something that increases the mortality of adults, the population will be in decline. You are killing them off before they have the chance to replace themselves in population”.

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Forest & Bird project

Female long-tailed bat with a tiny radio transmitter on its back ready to be released back into the forest.

Photo: Laura Keown

How to catch a bat Laura Keown heads to Forest & Bird’s bat recovery project in Marlborough to learn how to trap and tag a long-tailed bat – in the name of conservation of course!

I was brimming with anticipation when four of us set off to check bat traps before dawn in Marlborough’s Rai Valley.

As we drove the short journey to Carluke Scenic Reserve, and carried bat-tracking equipment into the bush in the darkness, everyone’s hopes were running high, even though we knew catching a bat would be hard.

But we were lucky! At the very first harp trap we checked, Bat Recovery Project manager Gillian Dennis anounced we had caught one! We were ecstatic, but we had to collect ourselves for the serious business of processing and tracking this special – and critically endangered – creature.

Forest & Bird’s bat monitoring started in December and ran through the whole of January. It is the first season of a three-year research programme to learn more about the long-tailed bat populations in the Pelorus and Rai Valley areas of Marlborough, in particular where they roost and whether their populations are increasing.

After fears they would only be able to tag a handful of bats, Gillian Dennis and her team were delighted to catch 18 bats over the summer. And they have identified a new population of long-tailed bats in the Brown River area, north of Pelorus, an exciting new find.

Debs Martin, Forest & Bird’s regional manager for the Top of the South Island, founded the Bat Recovery Project more than a decade ago, and has been involved in protecting the population of long-tailed bats at Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, or Te Hoiere, ever since. Her dedicated team of volunteer trappers protect the bat population from the rats and stoats that would otherwise decimate their numbers.

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Their work is about to get much harder with this year’s mega-mast (mass seeding and fruiting event that will lead to an explosion in the number of predators). All the signs are that this year’s masting event is going to be so big that it could threaten the local population with extinction.

Hopefully the bat-monitoring project will help. Primarily funded by the Department of Conservation and the Rata Foundation, Forest & Bird’s generous supporters also contributed more than $7,000 to the project’s overall costs.

The aim was to catch bats during their summer breeding season, and track them to their roost sites, high in the mixed beech-podocarp forest canopy, which can then be prioritised for predator control by Debs’ trapping volunteers.

“The process of catching a bat starts with using acoustic monitors in the sites where we think bats could be, and also that we think are good places to put up bat traps,” explains Gillian Dennis.

“After a few nights of recording, we can look at the monitors to see how much bat activity there is. If it’s a busy site, we’ll set up a specially designed harp trap.”

Harp traps have fine lines running vertically through a large metal frame, much like the strings of a harp.

“The idea is that the bats won’t detect the strings in the harp trap with their echo-location calls, and when they fly into them they’ll fall down into a catch bag where they’re safely tucked away until we come around and check the trap.”

If the bat that’s caught is large enough, they’ll have a tiny radio transmitter (that weighs less than a gram) put on their back with a dab of glue.

“That transmitter, which is only 6% of the bat’s weight, naturally falls off after about 10 days, so it doesn’t bother the bat,” she says.

When caught, the bat has its age and sex recorded and gets a permanent ID band put onto its forearm before being released to fly home.

“We radio track the bats to find out where they’re roosting. If we find a tree with a roost that’s trappable, then we can set up another harp trap to catch the bats as they emerge for the evening. This gives us a lot more information about the population,” says Gillian.

But catching bats takes a lot of patience too.

“Probably more than half the time the traps are empty,” Gillian says.

“It partly depends where the bats have roosted and where they’re active. It might take a few nights before a bat appears in your trap. I’ve always got my fingers crossed.”

Forest & Bird volunteer Michael North has been working on the Bat Recovery Project for the past eight years, and says the recent discovery of bats in the Rai Valley’s Brown River Reserve changes everything.

“The Department of Conservation hasn’t been doing predator control in this reserve – it wasn’t known that there are endangered species here,” Michael says.

“Now that we know they’re roosting and breeding here we can do more to protect them.”

The first season of catching bats has achieved a great deal but has also faced some challenges. For example, the team weren’t able to catch any bats in the Pelorus Reserve.

“The bats there tend to stay up really high, and there’s a lack of good trapping sites where the trees help to funnel them down to our harp traps,” says Gillian.

“We’re going to try again next season, and hopefully we can use some acoustic lures to entice them down to the level of the traps.”

“We want to learn about the demographics of the population and whether the predator control being carried out in the area is effective.”

As my night with the bats turned to dawn, we released the adult female bat with her newly fitted transmitter to fly back to the roost.

You can find out more and make a donation to Forest & Bird’s bat protection work through our Givealittle page, http://bit.ly/2zDqlf3.

Laura Keown with two harp traps at Brown River Reserve. Photo: Gillian Dennis

The team walked out of the bush buzzing with excitement. Debs was thrilled with her first close encounter with one of the long-tailed bats she’s been working to protect for 15 years.

As we passed a popular camping ground just over the river, we reflected on how the campers there probably have no idea that there is an incredibly rare native species silently swooping in the nearby forest every night.

Perhaps the most enchanting thing about getting up close and personal to a long-tailed bat is imagining how many times one of these amazing mammals may have passed you in the night – and you never knew they were there.

Our popular soft toy bats are back in the Forest & Bird shop and are available for “adoption”, see https:// shop.forestandbird.org.nz/gifts.

Michael North, Debs Martin, and Gillian Dennis watch as bats emerge from a roost tree. Photo: Laura Keown

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Tourism

Tourists walking on Franz Josef Glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Photo: Flickr/CC

PARK PLANS PROBLEM

Forest & Bird and two mountain clubs have taken the unusual step of writing to the Director General of Conservation about the proposed development of two iconic national parks. By Lynley Hargreaves.

More helicopters, an enormous gondola, and letting dogs into the National Park. When the draft Westland Tai Poutini National Park and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park management plans were released last year, conservationists were understandably concerned.

In Westland Tai Poutini National Park, an “amenity area” was proposed for a gondola up the side of Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere that would have involved the destruction of an unspecified amount of native plants and trees.

The draft plan also increased helicopter flights and switched from specific landing sites in the alpine area to a much wider landing “zone”. It suggested allowing dogs on some national park tracks, a proposal Forest & Bird believes to be unworkable, unlawful, and risky for groundnesting birds such as penguins.

When Forest & Bird asked its members to make submissions against the proposals, more than 700 people responded. Others filled in submission forms directly on the Department of Conservation website and altogether more than 1300 people and groups had their say on the Westland management plan.

By February, as submissions were due to close, it became clear the proposals for Westland were symptoms of a wider problem. The draft Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park management plan also favoured commercial tourism development over nature protection.

Forest & Bird believes both plans to be the start of a worrying new trend – that of DOC allowing commercial developments to override the parks’ natural values.

Westland Tai Poutini and Aoraki/Mount Cook national parks stretch from our highest mountain peaks down to our coastal lowlands and are home to a huge number of

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threatened native species, including the jewelled gecko, critically endangered kakī and kōtuku, and New Zealand’s rarest kiwi.

“These national parks, part of Te Wāhipounamu/SouthWest New Zealand World Heritage Area, contain the largest and least modified natural ecosystems in New Zealand,” says Nicky Snoyink, Forest & Bird’s regional manager for Canterbury and the West Coast.

“They include landscapes and natural features of such distinctive quality that their preservation is in the national, if not international, interest. This preservation should not be “balanced” against economic development that favours tourism over the parks’ intrinsic natural values.”

In February, Forest & Bird along with the Federated Mountain Clubs and the New Zealand Alpine Club, took the unusual step of writing to the Director General of Conservation asking that both plans be rewritten.

“These management plans are important to get right.

They are the guiding documents on what you can and can’t do in a national park. If allowed to go ahead in their current form, this will set a precedent for other parks,” adds Nicky.

“When there are already more than a million visitors a year between the two parks, and numbers are increasing, it’s increasingly important to hold the line.”

The process of approving the two plans was recently “paused” to consider a Supreme Court ruling that DOC must give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi when granting concessions, including consideration of preferential concession opportunities for iwi.

Forest & Bird will continue to advocate strongly for both plans to be redrafted so they properly reflect the preservation of both national parks’ natural values and comply with the law.

Birdlife International

TACKLING SEABIRD BYCATCH A group of Fijian women are doing their bit to stop critically endangered seabirds being killed by longline tuna fishers in the Pacific.

It may seem like an odd job but for many of the women involved in the making of bird-scaring lines, it means putting food on the table. The start of this innovative bycatch mitigation project in Suva, Fiji, could not have come at a better time for this group of local ladies.

BirdLife International’s Common Oceans Port-based Outreach (PBO) pilot project, based in Fiji, aims to tackle seabird bycatch on the high seas by tuna longline fleets, and particularly the Chinese fleets operating out of Suva’s port. The project’s port-based outreach officer James Nagan talks with the captain and crew on their vessels and provides bycatch awareness materials to the fishermen.

He also explains the seabird bycatch mitigation measures that are required on vessels operating in this part of the Pacific Ocean, where many globally endangered seabirds are found.

The captains were particularly interested in using birdscaring lines (BSLs), one of the three required seabird bycatch mitigation measures in this fishery. These act like

“scarecrows” deterring seabirds away from the danger zone behind a vessel where the fishing hooks are set. They are easy to build and use, and are cost-effective devices with streamers that flap in the wind and have proven highly successful in many fisheries around the world.

But these devices were not readily available anywhere in Fiji so it was challenging for James to advocate their use when he was talking with the captains and crew. After months of interactions with the Chinese fishing boats that berth in Suva, James and his BirdLife team decided to take action and make BSLs available to the vessels that fish beyond 30 degrees south.

The bird-scaring line project was launched and New Zealander Dave Goad was invited to travel to Fiji to show James and a local women’s group how to construct BSLs. The women’s group was involved as part of the project’s commitment to give back to the community. It is based on a similar model first piloted in South Africa.

The women are from a Methodist church in Makoi, Nasinu, a suburb just outside Suva. Many of them are widowed, sole breadwinners, or come from struggling families that live in squatter areas. This means the project has social as well as environmental benefits.

Widow Kinisimere Batisaresare, who is one of the group’s members, said: “The money I earn from making birdscaring lines has help me to buy basic food items for my family. The project is a blessing to my family. Vinaka (thank you).”

The women’s group has completed more than 20 BSLs which are currently being promoted to vessels that need them. All proceeds from these sales Fijian women were shown how will be used to buy more to make bird-scaring lines by materials for BSLs, creating Kiwi Dave Goad. more employment for the group’s members.

Karen Baird, who is Forest & Bird’s seabird advocate and BirdLife’s representative in the Pacific, said: “This is a wonderful project because it touches the lives of these women and at the same time helps make BSLs readily available to fishing vessels in the Pacific.

“We are particularly concerned about our critically endangered Antipodean albatross whose range extends into these sub-tropical latitudes and The first lines being handed over to the Chinese Winfull overlaps with high densities Fishing Company Ltd, a of these fishing vessels. We subsidiary of Golden Ocean, hope this project will save which purchased the first 10 BSLs for its longline tuna fleet. their lives.”

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Focus on flora

The myrtle rust invasion of Aotearoa

Robert Beresford, from the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, answers your questions about myrtle rust and the risks it poses to our native flora.

What is myrtle rust and where has it been detected?

The myrtle rust pathogen (Austropuccinia psidii) is, like other rust fungi, a specialised plant parasite. Its spores can only infect host plants in the myrtle family, the Myrtaceae.

Fortunately, only about 10% of the 3000-odd myrtle species worldwide are susceptible to attack, but for the highly susceptible ones, the impact can be devastating.

The signs of myrtle rust infection are the masses of bright yellow, powdery urediniospores on infected leaves and shoots, and dieback of the growing shoots. Myrtle rust survives only on living plants and only attacks very new growth, including leaves, stems, and flowers, as they emerge.

Given warm, moist conditions, a high spore load and a flush of new growth, rust infection can destroy shoots and repeated attack over several years can kill even mature trees.

Myrtle rust is thought to have blown to New Zealand across the Tasman Sea from Australia, where it arrived in 2010. It originated in Brazil and has now been recorded in more than 20 countries. Since arriving here in May 2017, it has spread to most areas of the North Island, except some eastern areas, and to the northern tip of the South Island. Taranaki has so far had the greatest number of infected sites.

Which plants are at risk?

The Myrtaceae is a very diverse group, from forest giants like our northern rātā and

Australia’s blue gum, to fruit trees like guava and feijoa, and to spices, like cloves and allspice. New Zealand has about 30 native myrtles and many more introduced ones, like lilly pilly and bottle brush. Although all our native myrtles are potentially at risk, ramarama has proven to be particularly susceptible. Pōhutukawa and rātā are also susceptible, but have been less affected, to date.

Fortunately, mānuka and kānuka have so far appeared relatively resistant. Of the more common introduced myrtles, feijoa is resistant, and some genetic types of lilly pilly are highly susceptible. What the overall impact of myrtle rust will be in New Zealand is still unknown, but the scientific community is very concerned because of the severe impact it has had in Australia, including possible extinction of some rare species that are highly susceptible.

What is the role of climate in its spread and which areas are most at risk of getting it next?

Fortunately, New Zealand’s temperate climate is not always suitable for myrtle rust infection, unlike the tropical areas where it originates, and this may help to limit the impact here. During our winter, myrtle rust becomes less active, particularly further south. Climatic modelling shows the highest risk north of a line between East Cape and Cape Egmont, and most myrtle rust detections have been in this northern zone. Risk declines with cooling temperatures further south and at higher altitude. Most infection occurs during warm, moist conditions from spring to autumn (October to April). A time delay between infection and symptom appearance (the latent period) means new infections are most likely to be noticed from November to June. Some regions with predicted moderate or high risk are yet to be invaded, including southern Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa and the South Island’s West Coast. It is very likely that these areas will be invaded during 2019, depending on the presence of susceptible hosts.

What myrtle rust research is being carried out in New Zealand?

Even before myrtle rust arrived in Aotearoa, a substantial Government-funded research effort had begun. Because of the potential impact on taonga species, this effort is continuing to increase, with MPI, DOC, Plant & Food Research, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Scion and NIWA all involved. Close collaboration with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and 38

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MYRTLE RUST SPREAD

The map shows low, medium and high risk zones for myrtle rust spread based on weather modelling by Plant & Food Research and NIWA. The blue circles show the regions where myrtle rust has already been detected (source: MPI).

“We really need the public’s help to track the spread and impact of myrtle rust,” said Robert Beresford of New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research.

the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries allows us to benefit from Australia’s experience. Key areas of research include climatic risk assessment, screening susceptibility of New Zealand myrtles, seed banking against possible loss of species in the wild, understanding ecological impacts, sequencing the genome of A. psidii, understanding host genetic resistance, and developing control options to protect taonga trees. Myrtle rust is an unwanted organism, and a major step forward occurred in October 2017 when MPI and the Environmental Protection Authority cleared the way for approved experimental field work to be done in New Zealand in the areas where myrtle rust is present.

some natural areas, although most detections to date have been in urban and managed areas. From now on, public notifications will be crucial for tracking the spread and impact of myrtle rust. Fortunately, a smartphone app, called Myrtle Rust Reporter, allows members of the public to map susceptible myrtle species in their neighbourhood, and to report whether or not they are infected. Try downloading it, it’s easy to use. For tracking spread, you need to report both instances where plants are infected and instances where susceptible plants are not infected.

You therefore need to accurately identify both myrtle rust symptoms and susceptible species. Myrtle Rust Reporter can help with this through a link to the iNaturalist NZ community. There is also a lot of helpful information about myrtle rust on the MPI website, http://bit.ly/2H2MHMB.

Why do you need the public’s help to monitor spread?

Our information on myrtle rust spread has come mostly from surveillance carried out by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), but unfortunately that ended in August 2018. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has surveyed

Natural distribution of some of New Zealand’s native Myrtaceae at risk of myrtle rust Throughout New Zealand

North Island and northern South Island only

Northern North Island only

Mānuka Leptospermum scoparium

Ramarama Lophomyrtus bullata

Pōhutukawa Metrosideros excelsa (South to GisborneWaitara)

Kānuka Kunzea ericoides

Maire tawaki Syzygium maire (only in swampy forests)

Kermadec pōhutukawa Metrosideros kermadecensis (only Kermadec Islands; closely related to other Polynesian Metrosideros spp.)

Rōhutu Lophomyrtus obcordata

Northern rātā Metrosideros robusta (particularly Urewera; south to Westport)

Southern rātā Metrosideros umbellata (mainly South Island West Coast; north to Whangarei)

Northwest Nelson rātā Metrosideros parkinsonii (climber in forest; upright tree in open areas)

Here and left, myrtle rust on ramarama.

Photo: Plant & Food Research

Whangarei Department of Conservation staff collecting seed at Bream Head to safeguard the threatened Carmine rātā (Metrosideros carminea) from myrtle rust. Photo: DOC

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Biodiversity

Kiribati Warrior by Bruce Mahalski made using crushed bone for the face and thousands of small bones from rabbits, possums, ferrets, stoats, a cat, and small birds.

Photo: Michael Hall

NATURAL TREASURES Conservationist, collector, artist, and founder of the Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery Bruce Mahalski explains how nature is protected even after it’s dead.

Have you ever picked up a feather or a shell or a skull while you’ve been out walking in the bush or on the beach? Most seaside baches have probably got an old whale bone or a seal skull or something similar lying around, sometimes picked up by an adult, sometimes by a younger member of the family. For many of us, these natural taonga awaken our curiosities as well as providing a tangible link to the natural world.

But did you know you might be breaking the law if you pick up any part of a dead native animal?

Many of us are aware that most native animals (except for black-backed gulls and pukeko) are completely protected and there’s no way we’d ever kill one on purpose.

Section 3 of the New Zealand Wildlife Act (1953) states that “all wildlife” is “absolutely protected.” This means all native mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds, as well as some marine life such as corals and some species of sharks. Even widely distributed seabirds, such as broad-billed prions and sooty shearwaters, are protected by the Wildlife Act. The Department of Conservation (DOC), which is responsible for policing the Act, says its intention is to cover animals irrespective of whether they’re alive or dead. It would like us to leave any bone (or other part of an animal) in its place so that it can continue to exist within the complex web of interactions in the natural world.

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All biological material is recycled by natural processes and some small organisms might feed on what seems to us to be a clean bone and as well as sustaining itself it might feed some of its mineral content back into the system for further uptake by other species. Some collectors think that this interpretation goes a bit too far.

“I really don’t think I’m damaging the local ecology if I pick up a bone or a feather. If I removed a whole dead animal that would be different but by the time an animal’s been reduced to bones, most of the recycling has already been done,” one local bone collector told me.

Certainly, if everyone picked up every single bone that washed up daily on a particular beach it may well have some local ecological impact, but that’s unlikely to happen.

Only a few people are interested enough to take home some part of a dead animal. These amateur collectors are often people who already have a high regard for the environment, or they are children and their experience will help them gain awareness of the natural world.

So what can you do if you find a seal skull or kauri snail shell?

You have three options. You can hang onto it and forget you read this.

You can hand it in to your local DOC office which might be able to find some education/cultural use for it but if it’s a common native animal in good condition, it’s unlikely they or your local museum will want it. Or you can try and get a permit to legally hold onto it.

White Circle #3 by Bruce Mahalski. Photo: Michael Hall

It’s not easy getting a permit. You’ve got to have a very good reason and if you’re not affiliated with a museum, iwi, conservation group, or educational institution you’re unlikely to succeed. If your application fails, DOC might want you to give them the object(s) you tried to get a permit for.

Some permits are free while others can cost hundreds of dollars. If you get one, it doesn’t entitle you to “own” the material because all native species remains are permanently vested with the Crown under the Wildlife Act. The permit gives you permission to hold onto it for a five or 10-year duration. It’s prohibited to try and sell the object and most auction sites, including Trade Me, should try to stop this.

What about non-native animals such as rabbits and rooks? They are not protected under the Act and anyone can legally possess their remains (see Section 5 of the Wildlife Act for a list). But approval is needed to collect anything from public conservation land, even the remains of non-native species.

You can legally pick up moa bones and other fossils on private land where you have the permission of the owner, but it is against the law to pick up moa bones on public conservation land or from an archaeological site.

Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act (2014) and any collection from a site constitutes modifying or destroying that site.

I’m fully aware that there are some serious ethical issues around the collecting of biological material but I hope that by being a responsible collector I can use my collection to raise awareness about conservation and animal rights.

Personally I think no one wants to see another animal become extinct because they became worth more dead than alive.

Stranded blue whale in Golden Bay. Photo: Hayden and Suzanne Miller

MARINE MAMMAL REMAINS The laws around the collecting of the remains of marine mammal remains are governed by the Marine Mammals Protection Act (1978). Marine mammals are revered as taonga by iwi who will often claim the remains of stranded animals, such as whales, for traditional cultural purposes.

The iwi’s precise role in determining what happens to them may differ around the country depending on treaty settlements and local agreements between DOC and iwi.

If you find a bone of a marine mammal or a tooth, or a piece of ambergris that has already separated naturally from a marine mammal, you can take this home – but you must notify your local DOC office of the find and give details of the time, place, and circumstances under which the find was made. If your find is deemed to be especially scientifically or culturally valuable, DOC may ask that it is referred on to another agency.

If you find a dead dolphin or a whale, you should inform your local DOC office straight away who will get in touch with the local iwi. If you come across a sick or stranded marine animal, the best thing to do is to call DOC's emergency hotline on 0800 362 468 and report what you have found.

THE BONE MAN

Bruce Mahalski with one of his bone artworks.Photo: David White

I can’t remember exactly why I first started collecting. It’s easiest to just put the blame on my parents. My father started off collecting insects when he was in the army in Malaysia after World War Two and later collected skulls, fossils, and antique swords. Mum was also quite serious about fossils, particularly when she was young, and she had a nice collection. When I was about eight I started filling up old chocolate boxes with biological curiosities, mostly shells, bones, and fossils to begin with. Later I started skinning the odd dead animal and occasionally buying specimens.

I kept collecting as I got older and when my parents died, I inherited their collections too. Nowadays I mainly collect skulls, and ethnological art, but I also collect bones to make art. You might even have seen some of my elaborate bone sculptures? People might think I am a bit ghoulish but I’m not that way at all. I see bones as the embodiment of life, not death. If you found a bone on Mars you wouldn’t be sad. You’d be jumping for joy knowing you weren’t alone in the vast expanse of the universe.

Bruce’s Museum of Natural Mystery is at 61 Royal Terrace, Dunedin.

For more information and to buy his new book about his bone art, which is called Seeds of Life, see http://www.mahalski.org.

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Dawn chorus

MANU MAGIC

We talk to Aro about their new album celebrating Aotearoa’s wonderful birdlife.

Emily and Charles Looker, who make up the pop duo Aro, have released a new album called Manu inspired by the melodies, rhythms, and stories of Aotearoa’s native birds.

The 10 tracks, each named after a different species, plays on their characteristics and some of their significances for Māori to convey messages about life and identity.

What inspired Manu?

Manu began with a conversation about traditional Māori methods of composing waiata (song). Our (Māori) ancestors were inspired by the sounds of their environments, which were mostly natural at the time. We simply put that method into practice today, using the technologies available to us now. We also wanted to include the narrative that came with each bird, from a Māori and a scientific perspective, their characteristics, behaviour, and habitat etc.

Are you worried about what’s happening to native birds in terms of habitat loss and predators?

Yes, we are. One example we are aware of is the kererū, which appears on our album teaching us about “all things in moderation”. Kererū are the only birds that can ingest particular native seeds. To hear that it is still endangered is a scary thing to consider, not only for the loss of a beautiful bird but also for the loss of our native tree species – things that only exist here in our own country!

Do you hope your music will help raise awareness of the need to look after them better?

Yes. Whatungarongaro te tāngata, toitū te whenua. Man will perish, but the land will live on. With the current rate of trying to make gains off our whenua, we may end up losing a piece of ourselves. Māori, and other indigenous peoples, have always known that our natural environments can teach

us so much about ourselves, our situations, and how we can respond, so it is with the nature of our album. Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au. I am the land, the land is me.

How did you choose which 10 birds to feature on the album?

We decided to let the album come to us as organically as possible. Simply, the first bird songs that caught our attention made it on the album. The first manu we heard was a tūī on top of Te Ipu o Mataoho (Mt Eden, Auckland), in July 2017. The last was a tauhou, or silvereye, in Arrowtown, in May 2018. When we heard a new bird song that caught our attention, we would research the bird, talk to different people about them, and read and remember stories as well.

Aro’s sound is Aotearoa New Zealand pop, with a range of other influences including RnB, jazz, and kapa haka. The duo has just embarked on a tour, travelling from Whangarei to Stewart Island, celebrating the release of the album, which is sung in te reo Māori and English, and sharing their stories of our native manu. The tour runs until 5 May, see https://aromusic.co.nz for details.

READER COMPETITION We have two copies of Manu (RRP $20) to give away to two lucky readers. To enter, email draw@forestandbird.org.nz, put MANU in the subject line, and include your name and address in the email. Or write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to MANU draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Entries close 1 May 2019.

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In the field

One species that benefits from spreading mangroves is the shy banded rail, which feeds almost exclusively in their shelter. Photo: Neil Foster

WHY I LOVE MANGROVES

Ann Graeme looks at the leafy lifeguards of our northern shores and how they can help protect humans and nature in a warming world.

Mangroves grow where the land meets the sea and the tide ebbs and flows. When storms surge around their trunks they stand, anchored by their sprawling roots, leafy lifeguards defending the land from the sea. They are nature’s guardians of the soft shores, sheltering the salt marsh behind them and the land beyond. Mangroves also defend the sea from the land. Mangroves collect mud. This is their least loved, but perhaps their most redeeming feature.

Mangroves are spreading. As the climate warms, warmer water and fewer frosts are letting seedlings survive where previously they would have perished. Our intensive land use, cutting down pine forests in steep catchments, increasing stock numbers in paddocks, and baring the land with sprawling subdivisions is adding to the silt in the estuaries and providing mangroves with the opportunity to take root. In synchrony with climate warming, mangroves are expanding their range.

More mangroves grow where once were open flats.

More silt allows mangroves to grow where once were sandy beaches. The estuaries are changing, and not for the better in the memories of those living in seaside communities. The open water area is shrinking and sandy beaches are disappearing. People blame the mangroves.

Destroying them is a quick fix but it leaves impoverished mud, not new sandy beaches. In many northern harbours, an awkward truce has been reached. Mature mangroves are largely tolerated but their spreading seedlings are removed, preventing the mangrove forests from expanding.

This is a short-sighted compromise. Seedling protection should be a priority. On the other side of the world, in Florida, mangrove expansion is being welcomed in the face of rising sea levels and costly hurricanes. Biologists

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have found that not only are mangroves expanding with warmer temperatures but, by collecting silt, they are also able to raise bed levels to keep pace with sea level rise.

Last August the Journal of Ecology called the study’s results “a ray of sunshine in the climate change forecast”.

In the south east of the United States, local governments are considering the benefits of mangroves as natural coastal barriers.

The same principles are at work here in New Zealand.

Sturdy mangroves dissipate the energy of storm surges.

When the storm in January 2018 sent huge surges down the Firth of Thames, much of the wave energy was dissipated in the wall of mangroves bordering the Hauraki Plains. Scientists calculated that the waves’ height was diminished by two thirds after they passed through 100 metres of mangroves. As a consequence, stop banks were not breached and farmland was protected. Other shores with less or no mangrove barriers were inundated.

As sea levels rise and storms worsen, mangroves will provide some natural defence for low-lying coastal land.

In the immediate future, mangroves could be our saviours.

Like King Canute, they try and hold back the sea. Unlike King Canute, they are to some degree successful. To coastal communities and farms, mangroves can provide a cost-effective buffer from the increasing fury of storms.

But even mangroves will eventually drown as sea levels rise. Only those migrated with the rising sea level into the saltmarsh will hold and the saltmarsh itself, finding the higher sea level untenable, will have to retreat.

This is the future we need to be planning for. For their sake and for ours, we need mangroves, we need mangrove seedlings, and we need to ensure there is room for them in the future.

MANGROVE MANAGEMENT BILL Our native mangroves are currently managed by regional councils under the Resource Management Act (RMA). The Mangrove Bill, initiated by the Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki District Councils, sought to clear the mangroves within their catchments without RMA constraints that protect our natural environment. More than 1000 supporters including Forest & Bird, Waikato University and NIWA scientists, iwi, and other concerned New Zealanders opposed the Bill.

Following Forest & Bird and others’ submissions, the Bill was significantly revised. Parliament’s governance administration committee proposed it be restricted to Whangamata Harbour, rather than all of the ThamesCoromandel and Hauraki districts. It also recommended the Bill be subject to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (which protects indigenous species, habitats, and natural defenses from coastal hazards) and it should have a sunset clause of five years. This is a mangrovesaving result.

WHAT ABOUT WADING BIRDS? Mangroves can tolerate growing in salt water and oxygen-starved mud because they can breathe through their aerial roots. These roots, the mangrove trunks, and the mud create a highly productive ecosystem based on microscopic bacteria and algae. These feed young fish, flounder, mullet, and parore at high tide. On the falling tide, they are swept out to feed the sea snails, shellfish, and worms, which in turn provide food for the birds on the open estuary beyond. So rich are these mud and sand flats that migratory birds fly across the world to the banquet they provide. The largest flocks come to the mangrove-fringed estuaries and harbours of the north.

Detractors claim that mangroves are spreading at the expense of these wading-bird habitats. This is not so. Mangrove expansion is limited by the tide and the vast sand and mud flats where godwits and other birds feed will never become mangrove habitat unless they are smothered and raised by silt. Studies show that there is more than enough area to feed our wading bird populations. It is likely the extra nutrient flowing from the mangroves enhances the estuaries’ productivity and is a bonus to the birds. Locally, migratory wading birds face the loss of their high-tide roosts through rising sea levels. But their most immediate threat is the draining and reclamation of vital resting and feeding places along their northern migration route.

Avicennia marina is the only mangrove species found in New Zealand. They grow between Northland and the Bay of Plenty. Photo: NIWA

“A big thank you to everyone who submitted on behalf of our mangrove forests – they are safer today because of you,” says Dr Rebecca Stirnemann, Waikato and Coromandel regional manager.

Hauraki District Council has now walked away from the Bill and Forest & Bird has written to ThamesCoromandel District Council asking it to withdraw the Bill from Parliament and work on managing its mangroves with stakeholders and Waikato Regional Council using existing RMA legislation.

Mangrove ecosystems are beautiful as well as useful to humans. Photo: Michelle Martin

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Tourism

Worries over Oparara development

Oparara arches.

Photo: Neil Silverwood

Forest & Bird remains concerned about plans to expand visitor numbers at one of New Zealand’s most fragile and untouched cave sites. By David Brooks.

Plans to develop tourism at the Oparara Basin, in Kahurangi National Park, have been scaled back after consultations with Forest & Bird and other environmentalists. But concerns remain that the area’s delicate karst cave systems, limestone arches, and rare wildlife could be irreparably damaged if protection does not remain the top priority.

Forest & Bird’s Canterbury and Westland regional manager Nicky Snoyink says the Department of Conservation must strictly enforce the preservation demanded by current legislation and the national park plan.

“We’ve expressed our concerns to DOC and the Nelson Marlborough Conservation Board (which covers Kahurangi National Park) and we‘d like to think they’ve taken them into consideration. I understand they will be consulting us and others as they develop their plans,” she says.

Neil Silverwood, a photographer and caving expert who regularly visits Oparara, fears the impact of heavy tourism promotion on the basin and nearby caves. “We need to find out what is the maximum number of tourists Oparara can take and keep it around that number,” he says.

A winding and narrow 12km unsealed access road north of Karamea leads to the Oparara and Moria Gate Arches and the Mirror Tarn, a reflective pool. Another 3km up the road is a car park for the specially protected Honeycomb Hill Caves, which can only be visited in a guided tour, and the publicly-accessible Box Canyon and Crazy Paving Caves.

DOC turned down some of the ideas in a development proposal by Tourism West Coast last year, including an elevated walkway through the Oparara Arch. The latest plan approved by DOC focuses on improving the accidentprone access road and upgrading walking tracks and visitor information in the basin. The work is to be funded by $5.6 million from the Government’s Provincial Development Fund and DOC will carry out detailed planning and an assessment of environmental effects.

DOC says about 15,000 people visit Oparara annually, a figure that has been rising due to heavy promotion

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year estimated a target of nearly 67,000 visitors by 2021, although DOC responded that 40,000 visitors within five years was a more realistic figure. Neil believes the lower estimate could still overwhelm the area’s natural values.

The Honeycomb Hill Caves’ specially protected status means access is only allowed as part of approved guided tours because of its fragile cave system and rare sub-fossils including moa and Haast’s eagle bones. Nevertheless, in a bizarre incident in January a family reportedly ignored signs and entered the caves with a pet goat.

Neil argues closing off at least part of the access road and stationing a ranger at Oparara would help protect the caves’ treasures. “We need to put protection of the basin and the caves first. We want to create a sustainable experience so tourists can still see it while ensuring the place isn’t destroyed,” he says.

The Box Canyon and Crazy Paving Caves contain the largest known population of rare Nelson cave spiders (Spelungula cavernicola), New Zealand’s largest and only protected spider. Neil Silverwood says visitors like to take selfie photos with the spiders, which have a leg span of up to 13cm, and their population is declining.

“When I went there 15 years ago, I could walk into Crazy Paving and you would see 10 or 15 Spelungula spiders straight away but the last four or five times going there we could only find one or two if we were lucky.”

Our partners

ECOSTICK LAUNCHES Forest & Bird’s partners Health Pak spent three years developing an innovative new line of packaging to reduce the amount of plastic waste going into the environment.

Plastic waste and New Zealand’s poor recycling facilities have been getting a lot of attention recently and many people have been looking to packaging manufacturers to come up with solutions to both problems.

Forest & Bird’s partner Health Pak is trying to do just that, spending nearly three years developing what it says is a globally unique line of packaging for hotel and motel toiletries that should help reduce waste and the current pressure on recycling centres.

The company’s new ecostick product, which is designed to break down in landfills, will be launched in April and will appear first on its Forest & Bird range of toiletries.

Health Pak, which is one of New Zealand’s largest contract packaging companies, has been supporting Forest & Bird for over half a decade. It contributes a proportion of sales from its Forest & Bird range of products to help fund our conservation work.

Managing director Toby Whyte says supporting Forest & Bird is a really tangible way of being able to directly help the environment.

The Forest & Bird range of toiletries, along with most of the company’s other liquid bathroom products, are biodegradable and until now have been packaged in recyclable plastic bottles. Despite being recyclable, the bottles almost always end up in landfills and Health Pak wanted to provide a viable packaging alternative, says Toby.

He estimates around 13 million bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and bath gel could be used by New Zealand hotels every year and almost all are dumped. “A hotel doesn’t have the manpower to empty out all the shampoo and other products that are left and recycle the bottles. I think there is a desire by hotels and motels to change but the products have to be fit for purpose.”

Even when there is an intention to recycle, New Zealand’s recycling facilities are very limited and the waste often ends up in landfills anyway.

Large dispensers of bathroom products are sometimes used to reduce waste but guests generally disapprove of them, perceiving them to be cheap and unhygienic.

Health Pak hopes the ecostick will help reduce waste in our landfills and plans to introduce it to other toiletry ranges after the initial launch with the Forest & Bird line.

“We’ve invested an enormous amount of

money to make this work and we’re going to be pushing it as hard as we can,” says Toby.

“Most of the product is paper which is naturally degradable, and the thin plastic sealant on the inside of the pack has an additive which enhances its breakdown specifically within landfill conditions.

“The additive attracts microbes in the landfill which breaks down the sealant in the same way as organic waste.

It’s a very different technology to other additives like oxo-degradables, which don’t breakdown in landfill and also just fragment as opposed to truly degrading. The rate of decomposition will vary depending on conditions at individual landfills, but an indication is anywhere from three to 10 years as opposed to hundreds of years for other products without the additive.”

Health Pak is one of the only manufacturers of hotel amenities left in Australasia and for more than a decade it has focused on providing more environmentally friendly options. That’s why Toby is especially proud that ecostick is being launched with the Forest & Bird range.

“We are delighted to partner with a company that’s constantly looking at how it can reduce the impact it has on the environment and we look forward to supporting them on their sustainability journey,” says Forest & Bird’s relationships manager Jo Prestwood.

Ecostick (centre) is now part of the Forest & Bird range.

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Community

PROTECTING NEW ZEALAND’S LEGACIES

Writing Guardians of Aotearoa, I was driven by fierce admiration for the many hard-working environmental, cultural, and social guardians in this country – and also by curiosity. What lessons could I learn from them? Each interview with a “guardian” contained its own gold, but there were commonalities too:

➊ Conviction trumps fear

The people in Guardians have pushed through personal fears as well as tough circumstances to get their work done. Many describe holding a belief in what’s right that is so strong they feel they have no option but to act. And when exhaustion or self-doubt threaten, they grip those convictions even more tightly to get themselves through.

➋ The environmental is indivisible from the social and cultural

Johanna Knox on five lessons she learned while researching her latest book Guardians of Aotearoa. Photos

by Jess Charlton.

Johanna Knox and Jess Charlton found working on the book gave them hope for the future.

Environmental and indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata.

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I did, briefly, try to write this book about environmental guardianship alone. I gave up fast. Many interviewees expressed a world view where that divide made no sense. For Māori in particular, human well-being and that of the natural world are indivisible. Climate advocate Trish Tupou recounts the way her deepening concern for the planet was entwined with her quest to reclaim her Tongan cultural identity. While freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy talks about his partner Alli Hewitt, a psychologist, saying: “She’s fighting for kids that have had shit upbringings. I’m dealing with stuffed rivers. This neo-liberal model is to blame for both ... a few people taking everything and making life worse for everyone else. Social and environmental are linked completely.”

➌ Humility: a double-edged sword

Many interviewees acknowledged colleagues and mentors. Wingspan founder Debbie Stewart did. So did Pia Bennett, a Rena disaster clean-up leader, as well as ‘Bat Lady’ Catriona Gower; kaitieki Tina Ngata; Chinese Conservation Trust founder Estella Hin Ling Lee; farmers Alec and Marian Milne; and more. For these guardians, fostering collaboration and appreciating other people’s

Falconer and founder of Wingspan National Bird of Prey Centre Debbie Stewart.

Fulbright scholar, climate advocate, and speaker Trish Tupou.

work has been vital to their effectiveness. The flipside?

Some were uncomfortable talking about their own achievements. It’s a feeling many readers will relate to.

Yet, as Tina Ngata says, we mustn’t let humility keep us too quiet: “We perceive speaking out as arrogance.”

But, “If you’re going to keep your experiences and struggles and triumphs to yourself, you are, I think, denying everybody a great opportunity to progress through your experiences, for them to inspire others.”

➍ Forest & Bird nurtures community

Unsurprisingly, many interviewees had Forest & Bird connections! From marine advocate Anton van Helden, retired Chief Kiwi Ann Graeme, to the remarkable members of Young Birders New Zealand, there is a lot of love for the organisation in the pages of this book. One Forest & Bird stalwart featured is the legendary Andy Dennis. When he passed away in 2016, I hadn’t gathered enough information from him to finish his chapter, so I talked with people close to him: Craig Potton, Debs Martin, Nicky Hager, Mary Fisher, Shaun Barnett, and others, as well as Andy’s sister Sarah Dennis. Their words combined to build a poignant portrait of a man who dedicated his life to the wilderness. I think, also, they reveal the way that organisations like Forest & Bird can foster enduring communities of friends and colleagues, where people become bound together by a common cause.

Anton van Helden was known as the “Whale Man” at Te Papa, where he was the sole marine mammal specialist. He built up a body of knowledge that was unique in the world and helped researchers investigate many of the Earth’s most poorly known whales. Today he works as a marine advocate for Forest & Bird.

➎ Hold onto hope

Photographer Jess Charlton found working on Guardians as much of a privilege as I did. She says: “It was an awesome experience to meet and photograph the environmental activists in the book. When they talk about their areas of expertise, their faces light up and you can see the aroha and determination in their eyes.

This is what gives me hope that our taonga will be protected for future generations.”

Johanna Knox is a writer, researcher, and former editor of Forest & Bird’s Wild Things magazine.

50 years ago

Writer, educator, and Kiwi Conservation Club leader Ann Graeme influenced thousands of young environmentalists through her 21 years of pioneering work leading Forest & Bird’s children’s wing. She is still deeply involved in conservation in the Bay of Plenty where she lives.

Changes in Wildlife Management and Control Recommended The Wildlife Act 1953 imposed on sportsmen licensed to kill animals the responsibility for ensuring the protection of all absolutely protected wildlife...In theory the plan seemed reasonable: in practice over 15 years it has proved to be a dismal failure. We therefore joined with a large number of others in requesting the Deputy Prime Minister to authorise an independent investigation into the whole of wildlife control.

In all the Commission prepared 32 recommendations... these included one that there should be a National Wildlife Service and a Minister in Charge of Wildlife and a National Wildlife Commission of three permant members. Acceptance of the Commission’s recommendations by the Government would end the present fragmented, haphazard system and be beneficial to sportsmen as well as to protected wildlife.

Forest & Bird magazine, February 1969 Forest & Bird

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Going places

ASIA’S LAST ISLAND Regarded as one of the last untouched regions in Asia, Myanmar’s isolated Mergui Archipelago is slowly opening up with new conservation-led tourism initiatives, as Keith Lyons discovers.

There are white soft-sand beaches on the islands of the Mergui Archipelago where no one has set foot. Largely uninhabited – and unknown – the archipelago’s 800 islands in the Andaman Sea, off the coast of southern Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, are scattered across an area 100 times the size of the Bay of Islands.

In centuries past, these islands sheltered ships (and pirates) plying the Indian-Asian sea trade routes but in recent times no one could access this vast region. It was only in the late 1990s that the Burmese military first allowed foreigners in on expensive chartered live-aboard dive boats from Thailand. Those intrepid divers boasted about seagrassgrazing dugongs and the extensive coral reefs teeming with tropical fish, whale sharks, and migrating whales. There was talk of diving with manta rays, and a swim-through to a secret lagoon packed with docile nurse sharks.

As Myanmar moved towards democracy earlier this decade, tourism has slowly opened up. With lush evergreen forest cloaking the limestone and granite islands, fringing coral reefs creating white-sand coves, and picture-perfect turquoise warm waters, there is something appealing about the island paradise. It is not just abundance and diversity of life on land and in the sea, but the absence of mass tourism holiday-maker hordes seen further south in Thailand.

Wa Ale Resort is located within the Lampi Marine National

Thor Jensen and Annika Dose prepare structures for reef restoration trials on Boulder Island. Photo: David van Driessche

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Park, established in 1996. Among the endangered species found in the park is the world’s smallest hoofed animal, the mouse deer, while one of the 250 bird species recorded is the Nicobar pigeon, a surviving relative of the dodo.

It was a landmark event when the first guests set foot on soft sand at the long sweeping beach at Wa Ale Resort (https://waaleresort.com) late last year. In 2016, long before the 11 luxury tented villas and two treehouses were erected, the resort worked with under-resourced government departments and the Wildlife Conservation Society (https://www.wcs.org) to protect and secure nesting sites for endangered sea turtles. Even though the resort is within a nationally protected area, previously nests were raided and the turtle eggs sold on the black market.

“The protecting of more than 40 nests is saving an estimated 4000 sea turtles,” says resort founder Christopher Kingsley of Benchmade Asia Myanmar.

“Biologists found that the leatherback turtles on the island were a species that have disappeared from the mainland. Now, at certain times, our guests will be able to watch these turtles on their nocturnal journeys between the sea and the dunes.”

Kingsley believes the “barefoot luxury” resort will enable access to one of the most unspoiled areas in the world.

“We want guests to experience the natural beauty of the archipelago in a way that encourages responsible and sustainable care for the environment,” he adds.

Buildings and walkways are made with wood recycled from old warehouses, monasteries, and boats, and he says strict guidelines included not cutting down large trees, not building on the coral, and no commercial laundry facilities.

More than 20% of resort profits go to a foundation which is protecting habitats and preventing poaching by Burmese fishers and foraging by the islands’ seafaring indigenous Moken people (known as sea gypsies), as well as assisting with healthcare and education in the settlements. The foundation’s pragmatic approach includes providing fuel to fishers so they do not fish inside the island’s ‘no-take’ zone.

Responsible ecotourism is a priority at unspoiled Boulder Bay in the Mergui Archipelago. Photo: David van Driessche https://www. davidvandriessche.com

PARADISE? Protecting, restoring, and educating While the Mergui Archipelago is on the “tentative” list for World Heritage status because it has the least-degraded marine, mangrove, and lowland forest habitats in the Bay of Bengal, there’s an ugly legacy from plundering. Illegal trawling, the use of dynamite fishing, and over-fishing by clandestine Burmese and Thai fishers has depleted fish stocks and left gaping holes in the coral reef.

But there is hope. For example, on Boulder, one of the most easterly outer islands in the archipelago, a unique partnership with European NGO Project Manaia (https:// www.projectmanaia.at) is showing how conservation-led ecotourism works, and that habitat damage can be reversed.

Sponsored and supported over the last three years by the Boulder Bay Eco Resort (https://boulderasia.com), surveys have found a wide diversity of fish, invertebrates, and molluscs. Just off the resort’s main beach, branching plate and sponge corals provide a habitat for brilliantly banded surgeonfish, gliding angelfish, and coral-eating parrotfish. The health of the island’s coral gardens is indicated by the presence of the iconic clownfish (as featured in the movie Finding Nemo), which MYNANMAR lives symbiotically among sea anemones.

In an innovative project, coral nurseries have been established on discarded ropes, and MERGUI old abandoned fishing ARCHIPELAGO traps were repurposed to create new coralgrowing environments in areas damaged by blast fishing and dragging anchors.

Local coral reefs have THAILAND significance beyond their borders. When corals in nearby Thailand

were severely bleached in 2010, polyps from Myanmar helped restore the marine ecosystem.

Researchers Matija Drakulic and Isabelle Ginisty are designing snorkelling trails, identification charts, and educational panels, as well as cleaning rubbish off the coral, and removing ghost fishing nets. Guests at Boulder Island can help Bjorn Burchard next to the with beach clean-ups, learn solar panels that provide about the source of the energy for Boulder Bay Eco rubbish – and what they can Resort. Photo: Keith Lyons do about it.

With its minimal impact, solar generation, and natural material design, Boulder Bay Eco Resort could set the benchmark for other resorts, according to New Zealandborn architect Richard Morris, co-founder of local bamboo design and construction company Pounamu (https://www. pounamu.com.mm).

“There is a lot of development presently proposed for the Mergui Archipelago which could not be considered sustainable, no matter how they try to package it.

Sustainable tourism is a new concept for Myanmar,” he says.

Drawing inspiration from the success of New Zealand’s first marine reserve, Goat Island, the resort’s founder owner Bjorn Burchard wants all fishing prohibited from around the 135 hectare Boulder Island.

“I’m pushing for a ‘no-take’ marine-protected zone, to increase fish stocks and bring back biodiversity so we see more fish abundance and larger fish,” he says.

“There is opportunity here for sensible, sustainable ecotourism. But also a danger that without proper guidelines and management it quickly becomes spoiled like Phuket.” *Keith Lyons (keithlyons.net) is a New Zealand writer covering science, environment, and travel in Asia. The former Forest & Bird staffer contributed to The Best of Myanmar: The Golden Land of Hidden Gems (2017), and was co-author of Opening up Hidden Burma (2018). Keith is currently working on a book about the Mergui Archipelago.

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Books

REGENERATIVE FARMING How some farmers in Australia are pioneering viable alternatives to dominant industrial farming practices. By David Teather.

The “one world” nature of our environment was brought home to Australian farmer and author Charles Massy when he was a university student climbing the Tasman Glacier in 1974. He came across a patch of coruscated ice with a reddish tinge.

Forty years before, millions of tons of topsoil from semi-arid grazing and cropping land in three Australian states had been swept aloft by drought winds, crossed the Tasman Sea, and turned the Southern Alps red.

In his widely acclaimed book, Call of the Reed Warbler: A new agriculture, a new earth, Massy describes fundamental changes in agricultural practices. So great has been the demand for this book since it was published by Queensland University Press in September 2017 that it has been reprinted five times.

Half of all land in New Zealand is currently farmed.

How this farmland is managed profoundly affects the conservation estate. If the fundamental changes in agricultural practices described by Massy were to be widely adopted in Aotearoa, the prospects for nature conservation would be greatly improved.

Massy’s book is complex. Nevertheless, it is easy to read and difficult to put down. He writes engagingly and perceptively about farmers and farming practices, he is a close observer of the natural world, and is suggesting nothing less than an agricultural revolution.

The book focuses on “regenerating five landscape functions” under the headings: solar energy, water, soil minerals, dynamic ecosystems, and the human-social aspect of landscape functioning.

Massy starts with fundamentals. The primary task of the farmer is to maximise the amount of energy captured by photosynthesis. This means maximising the area of green foliage exposed to the sun throughout the year.

The main theme, however, of Call of the Reed Warbler is to explain and demonstrate alternatives to the currently dominant paradigm of industrial agriculture. This drastically simplifies the natural environment, typically replacing it with monocultures that are maintained only by the application of massive amounts of pesticides, artificial fertilisers, and fossil fuels.

Dissatisfied with these shortcomings, Massy draws on his own experience of incrementally modifying his farming practices over several decades. He also presents a wealth of case studies of graziers, broadacre (large-scale crop) farmers, and market gardeners, mostly in Australia but some overseas, who are evolving viable alternatives to the dominant industrial model.

One example is Lana, Tim Wright’s farm on the tablelands of New South Wales. Inspired by Holistic Resource Management, written by Zimbabwean Allan Savory, Tim Wright began subdividing his grazing paddocks in 1990. Today, he has more than 300 paddocks, 52

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averaging 8ha, and plans to make them smaller still.

By better grazing management, particularly in times of drought, he is able to avoid overgrazing and improve grass utilisation. His soils have become deeper, releasing more nutrients and storing more water, and biodiversity has increased.

Massy visited Lana after several years of drought, when most neighbours were moving their sheep and cattle elsewhere. But Lana was still supporting record stock numbers. “I witnessed a farm humming with life, diversity, vibrant energy, much greenness, and an exudation of health.

“Linking to the vegetated hills, shelter belts curved along contours and, in turn, linked to vegetated riparian zones and to open flats and their clumps of timber. One third of Lana consisted of timber belts and forested hills. The result was magnificent biodiversity, across all organism types. Platypi lived in the creeks, and koalas, wallabies, echidnas, kangaroos, possums, marsupial gliders, and a rich variety of birds and other creatures lived and moved across the rest of the farm.”

This complexity of natural and semi-natural ecosystems gives them resilience, both above ground and in the soil. Insects and microbes abound. Complex webs of interdependence act as buffers against sudden changes, giving protection against pests and plagues. Plant cover and porous Charles Massy soils resist physical erosion.

Natural fertility replaces artificial fertilisers. Natural control mechanisms replace pesticides.

Costs and risks are reduced, and long-term resilience is increased.

In sum, better understanding of ecosystem functioning improves farming practices.

As yet, only a minority of farmers are doing things differently, but their numbers are growing rapidly.

For example, practitioners of Allan Savory’s holistic management approach to grazing are managing an estimated 30 million hectares in New Zealand, Tasmania and NSW, Patagonia, the USA, Sweden, and Turkey. *The author, Emeritus Prof David Teather, has been a Forest & Bird member for 45 years and now lives in Canberra.

MYSTERY DONOR We love it when the unexpected happens. Last year Forest & Bird received an anonymous donation of $107,000 into our bank account. There was no paperwork, no name or note. Our accountant contacted the bank in central North Island where the generous gift was made. It turned out a gentleman who wanted to remain anonymous. He entered the bank and asked for five bank cheques, each for a similar sum, made out to five different charities, including us.

We don’t know who our incredibly generous donor is, and we understand he wants to remain anonymous, but should he happen to be reading this article we want him to know that his gift is hugely appreciated and we will make sure it makes a difference for nature.

“Forest & Bird has had many conservation wins over the past 96 years but we couldn’t have achieved any of them without the help of our supporters – whether it’s through making a financial gift, bequest, or volunteering for one of our branches,” says chief executive Kevin Hague.

“This incredibly generous donation will help Forest & Bird implement several critical projects during 2019, including advocating for more money to deal with the impending mega-mast, demanding stronger freshwater

regulations, working to get cameras on fishing boats, and calling for strong measures to combat climate change.” *If you would like to discuss leaving a gift or bequest to support Forest & Bird’s conservation work, call Jo Prestwood on 04 801 2212 or email j.prestwood@ forestandbird.org.nz.

FUNGHI FUN ANSWERS

1 Alpine jelly cone (Guepiniopsis alpina) also known as poor man’s gumdrop. 2 Basket fungi (Ileodictyon cibarium) is native to New Zealand. 3 Devil’s fingers (Clathrus archeri), also known as octopus stinkhorn. 4 Fairies bonnets (Coprinus disseminatus) last only a few days. 5 False morel (Gyromitra tasmanica) is native to New Zealand and poisonous. 6 Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a most conspicuous mushroom. 7 Earthstars (Geastrum) from the family Geastraceae. 8 Sulfur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare), also known as clustered woodlover. 9 Turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor) is a colourful common mushroom. 10 Velvet foot (Flammulina velutipes) also known as the winter mushroom. 11 Wine glass fungus (Podoscypha petalodes) has paper-like funnels on short stalks. 12 Wolf-fart puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) aka pear-shaped puffball and stump puffball.

Tai Haruru Lodge

LODGES Arethusa Cottage Near Pukenui, Northland Sleeps 6 herbit@xtra.co.nz 03 219 1337

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 http://www.mangarakauswamp.com

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

Waiheke Island Cottage Onetangi Sleeps 8 hauraki.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

021 141 0183

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

Tautuku Forest Cabins Owaka, 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.

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Our people

A tribute to John Newton 7 JULY 1945–6 JUNE 2018 John Newton was a lifelong Forest & Bird champion who inspired many generations of children to care for the natural world.

Many primary school children from the Wairarapa and across the country owe their introduction to the magic of the natural world, from coast to bush, to John Newton, who was a particularly gifted and passionate conservationist and teacher.

For John’s students, in a more relaxed time before the constraints of OSH (occupational safety and health), the annual class camp was a highlight and focus of each school year. Even today, years later, people talk of his uncanny ability to inspire his charges, from whatever socioeconomic demographic, with a thirst for learning and for science.

At the same time John was introducing those young minds to Forest & Bird, he was a lifelong champion of the society and a great ambassador for it. So much so that at his funeral and gathering afterwards the Forest & Bird connection came up again and again. Having no membership forms on the pew seats was certainly a lost opportunity!

That long involvement with Forest & Bird saw him embroiled in the major national issues of the time, such as saving the Okarito and Pureora forests. But he also brought the principles and values of those heady campaigns home to the Wairarapa and the contentious local environmental debates there. This included advocating against the so-called “Polder” scheme for Lake Wairarapa Moana – a Netherlands-style plan to construct

large-scale embankments to cut off extensive areas of wetland for pumps to drain and convert to dairy pasture.

That would have severely compromised what is said to be the second most important habitat for our native wading birds in Aotearoa.

There was also the proposal to take water from a major tributary of the Ruamahanga River, the Waingawa, and channel it into a dammed valley to provide the head for a hydroelectric power station – thereby leaving a long stretch of the river with minimal flow. Thanks in part to opposition from Forest & Bird and others the idea was shelved, but a scheme with a similar footprint is again on the table. This time the driver is not electricity but irrigation and the local branch is again involved in trying to stop it happening, with support from Forest & Bird’s national office.

John was a man ahead of his time with a then seemingly preposterous idea to construct a predator-proof fence across much of the top of the South Island, including most of the Marlborough Sounds where John and Rosemary had purchased an isolated haven. What he was advocating then seems now to be not so outlandishly ambitious at all!

John was the high-profile face of Forest & Bird in the Wairarapa for many years. He also served three years on the National Executive, which he regarded as a personal highlight in his life. The society could not have wished for a more committed and capable representative. n Chris Peterson

CROCHET FOR CONSERVATION A big Forest & Bird thank you to Jin Lee, who donated more than $1000 from the sale of her homemade crochet soft toys, including a kererū, to help our conservation projects take off this year.

Jin, who lives in Auckland, said: “Forest & Bird does some exceptional work for everyone in our community, so it was a real privilege for me to be able to contribute to your cause.”

Check out Jin’s latest designs at https://www.instagram. com/jingerjam.

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Forest & Bird

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Canterbury tales

Wakanui wonderful Even scruffy fragmented remnants of native vegetation on the Canterbury Plains are worth saving, says Mary Ralston.

Wakanui is a small gem wedged between the Canterbury Plains and the ocean east of Ashburton. There’s a brackish lagoon fringed with a surprising array of native vegetation, a shingle bank separating the lagoon from the beach, dramatic coastal cliffs, and the pounding Pacific Ocean.

The area was an important mahinga kai site, and nowadays is popular with fishers and visitors.

The vegetation around the lagoon includes flax, raupo, cabbage trees, jointed wire rush (Apodasmia similis), shore ribbonwood (Plagianthus divaricatus), and, significantly, four species of pohuehue (Muehlenbeckia spp.). Smaller species include teasel sedge (Carex dipsacea), dwarf native broom (Carmichaelia corrugata), native bindweed (Calystegia soldanella), native spinach (Tetragonia spp.), and a native ice plant.

In wet years, the lagoon is full and attracts a range of birds. Pied stilts, white-faced herons, and oystercatchers feed at the lagoon edge. Banded dotterels nest on the rocky bank between the lagoon and the beach, and the chicks play Russian roulette with fishers’ vehicles.

Dolphins are sometimes seen out to sea.

The native ecosystem is compromised by weeds and agricultural intensification.

Wakanui Stream feeds the lagoon but has been The common copper butterfly diverted upstream; its Lycaena sp. Photo Val Clemens flow is much reduced and often no longer runs, severely impacting the lagoon and its wetland vegetation. In spring the lagoon is green with algae, no doubt fuelled by nitrates from fertiliser and animals higher up, and there’s plenty of weeds: gorse, pine trees, willows, South African ice plant, and cocksfoot.

But there’s a growing awareness that any pocket of native vegetation on the plains, even if it’s scruffy and fragmented, is significant and worthy of protection and

restoration. After lobbying by members of the Ashburton branch of Forest & Bird, the district Council’s Biodiversity Working Group recognised Wakanui’s value and commissioned a plan for the area’s restoration.

Gorse was sprayed and the exotic ice plant cleared, and Forest & Bird’s Val Clemens showed school children how to collect seeds of the oioi, shore ribbonwood, pohuehue, and the coastal teasel sedge. Seeds of other species were collected and propagated by Council staff. Some exotics were left because they are hosts of pohueue.

Entomologist Brian Patrick studied the invertebrate fauna and was enthusiastic about the area’s native insect diversity. He recorded 52 species of insect; the majority (48) were moths and butterflies from 14 families. Nine of these were pohueue specialists, and another five include pohueue in their diet. Other Native ice plant. Photo: Ngā Manu insects also use this group images of plants. The populations of the Canterbury boulder copper butterfly (Lycaena spp.) and the Rauparaha’s copper butterfly (Lycaena rauparaha) are significant – the latter was once found from north of Christchurch to South Canterbury but is now found in just seven Canterbury sites, including Wakanui.

In May last year the students, several councillors, Council staff, and locals planted, built bollards, and unveiled information boards. It’s been a great example of community collaboration and recognition that these small remnants matter.

It’s an exciting step for biodiversity protection on the plains. Even though the area is small and the environment is harsh – salty winds and hot, dry summers – the restoration effort is valuable, especially for ecosystems like Wakanui that have all but disappeared from the Canterbury coast.

The planting day involved local school children, councillors, Council staff and members of Forest & Bird. Photo: Val Clemens

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Parting shot Jan Solbak took this photo of a tūturiwhatu/banded dotterel and chick at Lake Hāwea, in Otago, last December. He spotted two pairs that had produced live chicks “against the odds” without protection from the many predators, vehicles, and dogs that frequent the lakeside. Jan says he hopes to do some work on addressing these issues ahead of next year’s breeding season.

Despite being the most common small plover of seashores, estuaries, and riverbeds, tūturiwhatu have disappeared from many sites in New Zealand. Classified as nationally vulnerable, the total population is about 50,000 birds and declining, according to http:// nzbirdsonline.org.nz. Key factors in the decline are introduced mammalian predators that prey on most eggs that are laid and many chicks, juveniles, and adults. Habitat loss and human activities have also contributed to displacement of birds at some sites.

The best entry to our Parting Shot nature photo competition will be published in the next issue of Forest & Bird magazine.

Share your photos of native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, marine mammals, fish, and natural landscapes, such as rivers and lakes, and you could be in to win.

To enter, post your image on the Forest & Bird New Zealand Nature Group page on Flickr.com.

Alternatively, send your high-res digital file (maximum 7mb) and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

THE PRIZE This issue’s winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Weka 2 Hiker Tent (RRP $249).

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The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping, for more details see https:// www.kiwicamping.co.nz

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