Forest & Bird Magazine 344 May 2012

ISSUE 344 • MAY 2012 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Keeping track of

albatrosses How science can help seabirds

PLUS

Denniston BioBlitz

Trading in nature

Pest-free vision

Don’t just see it, feel it.

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ISSUE 344

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. General Manager: Mike Britton Advocacy Manager: Kevin Hackwell Services Manager: Julie Watson North Island Conservation Manager: Mark Bellingham South Island Conservation Manager: Chris Todd Communications Manager: Marina Skinner Central Office: Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington.

PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Tel: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web: www.forestandbird.org.nz Auckland Office: 34A Charlotte Street, Eden Terrace, Auckland, PO Box 108 055, Symonds St, Auckland 1150.

Tel: (09) 302 0203, Fax: (09) 303 4548 Email: n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz Christchurch Office: Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005.

Registration No. CC26943.

Tiaki Taiao www.forestandbird.org.nz

Contents 2 Editorial 4 Letters 5 50 years ago 7 Conservation news

38

Balancing act

42

Going places

45

Future for nature

Biodiversity offsetting

Greenstone and Routeburn valleys

Denniston, Best Fish Guide, stranded turtles, Garden Bird Survey results, Face up to the Future conference, Kererü Count, In brief

A sustainable Forest & Bird

46

Pest-free NZ

14 Soapbox

50

Backyard conservation

16 Cover story

53

Pacific

22 Secret life of Denniston

54

Death sentence for Täne Mahuta

26 Garden Bird Survey

Kauri dieback disease

28 Nature of tomorrow

When plants go bad

Maui’s dolphins depend on us

Southern flight paths

Arthur C Clarke’s guide to conservation planning

DIY wetlands

Henderson Island rat project

BioBlitz at the plateau

58 In the field

Survey form

Kathy Ombler on the future for tourism and conservation

31 Amazing facts about …

Black-eyed geckos

60 Community conservation Avon River vision, Köhï Point saved, Aongatete pest work, BLICCF fund

64

Book reviews

May Adams

Wild Buddies … and Baddies; Wild Heart, Hook, Line and Blinkers; Know Your New Zealand Fishes; A Photographic Guide to Birds of New Zealand 2nd edition; Birds of Melanesia

35 Rangatahi

68

Parting shot

32 Our people EDITOR: Marina Skinner

• May 2012

Hermann Frank, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, conservation farmers

PO Box 631, Wellington.

T (04) 801-2761 F (04) 385-7373 E m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz

34 Proud to be a member

DEPUTY EDITOR: David Brooks

Epiphyte researchers

T (04) 801-2763 E d.brooks@forestandbird.org.nz

36

Mänuka by Stephen Conn

River kaitiaki

Millan Ruka on patrol

ART DIRECTOR /DESIGNER:

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

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COVER SHOT White-capped albatross. Photo: David Hallett

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editorial

Anger is an energy S

ometimes it’s important to get angry. Forest & Bird members have achieved some great things because they got grumpy about issues like habitat destruction or unsustainable fisheries.

But anger isn’t a fashionable emotion, and those in positions of power love to depict conservationists as negative when we oppose vested interests. We’re seeing this tactic right now over our campaign against coal mining on the Denniston Plateau.

Aristotle considered anger could be an appropriate emotion. He wrote: “The man [sic] who is angry at the right things and with the right people, and, further, as he ought, when he ought, and as long as he ought, is praised.”

Members of Forest & Bird are part of an honourable tradition of the right people getting angry about the right things. From the anti-slavery movement to the anti-apartheid movement, positive anger has helped improve society. Both globally and locally the conservation movement has achieved significant success but, sadly, there is still much to get angry about. For example, critically endangered species like the New Zealand sea lion and Maui’s and Hector’s dolphin still die in fishing nets because commercial and recreational fishing interests refuse to change their behaviours.

As John Lydon, (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols] sang: “Anger is an energy.” The challenge ahead is how best to harness the positive energy that anger can generate.

It’s getting harder to influence change through protest alone. The business people whose interests are driven by the multi-millions at stake from mines or unsustainable fishing are deaf to the voice of the street and often have back-door access to the corridors of power.

The privatisation of assets or sale to overseas owners also makes influencing owners harder.

The limitations of protest increasingly mean we’ve got to use tools like legal action, lobbying at national and local levels, using media and holding events to achieve our goals.

Thousands got angry and marched in Auckland against mining on conservation land. We’re still angry but now we’re using legal action, lobbying and events like the BioBlitz to stop the obliteration of Denniston Plateau.

It’s up to us to channel our anger on behalf of nature so that species like the Maui’s dolphin don’t become extinct in a generation. Stay mad!

Ngä mihi nui

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President

Andrew Cutler with Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar at Wellington’s Oriental Bay to publicise the threat to New Zealand sea lions by sub-Antarctic squid fishing.

2

| Forest & Bird

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Level One, 90 Ghuznee Street, Wellington.

PATRON: His Excellency

Lieutenant General the Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae, GovernorGeneral of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT:

Andrew Cutler DEPUTY PRESIDENT:

Mark Hanger IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT:

Barry Wards NATIONAL TREASURER:

Graham Bellamy CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS:

Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS:

Brent Barrett, Lindsey Britton, Craig Potton, Ines Stager, John Wenham DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS:

Bill Ballantine, Stan Butcher, Ken Catt, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Margaret Peace, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, Gordon Stephenson, David Underwood

Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Forest & Bird is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and is the New Zealand partner of BirdLife International. • 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 sourced from responsibly managed forests.

• The magazine is bulk mailed in biodegradable cellulose film, which is made from wood pulp sourced from managed plantations. • Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384.

Copyright. All rights reserved.

Leave a gift in your will

that will last forever A gift to Forest & Bird will protect our unique native animals and plants, not just for today or tomorrow but for generations to come. For a copy of our bequests brochure or to discuss leaving a gift in your will, please contact our Supporter Relations Manager at 0800 200 064, or by emailing legacy@forestandbird.org.nz.

Thank you.

www.forestandbird.org.nz/bequests

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

The best contribution to the Letters page of the August issue will win a copy of A Photographic Guide to Birds of New Zealand 2nd ed by Geoff Moon with Lynnette Moon (New Holland, $25.99). Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or e-mail m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz by June 20.

Pest control tips

The trouble with fish

Friends of Rotoiti, the community conservation group based at St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes National Park, recently celebrated 10 years of partnership with the Department of Conservation controlling pests to support the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project. This is equivalent to 3800 volunteer days and has resulted in the removal of over 16,000 pests.

We have considerable experience in trapping and trap design using Victor, DOC 200, DOC 250 and Sentinel traps and have developed some innovative modifications to the DOC best-practice stoat/rat box (see www.predatortraps. com for the design). The design is so effective and user friendly that DOC Nelson Lakes has contracted us to build nearly 100 for use in the park. We also sell these boxes with DOC 200 traps to the public.

We have trialled alternative bait to eggs over 26 months and found this polymer bait as effective as eggs at catching stoats and twice as effective at catching rats. The bait available from www.traps.co.nz, is cost effective, easier to handle and lasts up to eight weeks in the field. We attach the bait to a stainless steel screw fitted to the box lid positioned just above the normal egg cradle to minimise mouse interference.

We have considerable experience in possum capture using the Sentinel trap available from www.nopests.co.nz and have developed a simple retaining pin and safety clip for this trap.

We are keen to share our extensive knowledge and experience. Please contact Friends of Rotoiti Coordinator Petr Carter at the St Arnaud Area Office on 03 5211806 or pcarter@doc.govt.nz

Thank you for drawing attention to New Zealand’s unsustainable fishing practices (February Forest & Bird) and updating Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide. It is regrettable, however, that neither suggested that we could reduce or eliminate our consumption of fish to reduce the environmental impact of fishing.

Some dieticians recommend eating fish instead of red meat because of the high levels of essential fatty acids (EFAs) omega-3 and 6 and lower cholesterol found in fish.

However, the two EFAs are easily obtained from a balanced plant-based diet. Certain plant-based foods, for example flaxseed (linseed), can have up to 10 times more EFAs per gram than wild salmon. Plant-based foods do not contain cholesterol.

Large, older predatory fish (including albacore tuna in the Best Fish Guide’s green zone) contain significant levels of contaminants such as mercury, dioxins and PCBs, due to biomagnification up the food chain; the US Food and Drug Administration recommends limiting consumption of these fish.

Marine animals are sensitive, intelligent beings and feel pain. Deep-sea fish undergo excruciating decompression when brought to the surface, which often ruptures their swim bladders and pops their eyes out. If this doesn’t kill them, they are suffocated, crushed or hacked to death.

Millions of people flourish on exclusively plant-based diets. Reducing fish and meat from our diets is always a sounder ecological, nutritional and moral choice.

Peter Hale, St Arnaud This letter is the winner of Grahame Sydney’s Central Otago.

Dougal and Andrew Macbeth, Christchurch The Best Fish Guide is in the process of assessing farmed seafood. Farming salmon is a form of factory farming and is exceedingly cruel. It is as bad as Tegel’s farming of chickens in mass enclosures. Most modern farming is cruel and everybody should be concerned by the methods used.

If we are going to eat animals, we should see they are happy while they are alive. We have degenerated morally into ill-treating them so we can have cheap food. Our world population has increased so astronomically that there are just too many of us to be happily fed.

People who are desperate enough for food that they have to treat fish atrociously by keeping large numbers of them in cages will also be desperate enough to eat the last fish in the sea.

Stephen Conn, Nelson

Friends of Rotoiti’s modified stoat trap.

4

| Forest & Bird

I find it strange that Forest & Bird should extend its interests to fish, both in New Zealand waters and in Antarctica.

After all, there are plenty of fish to go round both for humans and birds. It is difficult to police local waters let alone Antarctic waters. Greenpeace had little success in stopping Japanese ships from killing whales in an Antarctic whale sanctuary.

If a particular species becomes overfished, this does not mean the species is doomed to extinction. If the commercial viability for fishing this species vanishes, the ensuing period of non-fishing will allow the species to regenerate to its former numbers.

There is little possibility of myself or anyone else being able to eat the last fish. I get my fish at my local supermarket. It is not a matter of using the preferred fish from Forest & Bird recommendations. It is more a matter of seeing what is on offer and making a purchase if the fish available is to my liking.

David R Currie, Lower Hutt Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar replies: Forest & Bird’s interests extend to all our native wildlife and landscapes. The fact that New Zealand is a hot spot for seabirds – 25 per cent of the world’s seabird species visit our waters – shows the extent to which our wildlife across sea, sky and land are inextricably entwined.

The Quota Management System should in theory stop fishing species to extinction. But 56 per cent of fisheries we assessed have never had a quantitative stock assessment or have an unknown stock status. Without knowing how many fish we’ve got, it’s impossible to set a fishing quota to ensure species survival.

Our concerns consider the wider ecological picture.

Regardless of whether we’re down to eating the last fish, Forest & Bird maintains it is unacceptable to use fishing methods that destroy the marine environment and accidentally kill our already threatened wildlife.

50 years ago

2

1 1 A New Zealand egg-case. Photo: Phil Bendle 2 A South African egg-case. Photo: Bryce McQuillan

NZ v SA praying mantises I read with interest the article about New Zealand and South African praying mantises (February Forest & Bird).

The two photos will be very helpful in correctly identifying the praying mantises that we frequently see at home.

Graeme Hill also referred to his “cleaning out ... their egg-cases” but unfortunately there was not a corresponding pair of New Zealand and South African praying mantis egg-case photos. It would be a shame to mistakenly squash the wrong ones. Perhaps that could be rectified in the next issue of Forest & Bird.

David Penman, Auckland Graeme Hill replies: The New Zealand mantis egg-case, from which 20 or so fully formed but tiny critters will emerge in spring, is a most tidy piece of insect architecture.

It is oval with an upper surface showing delicately wavy figures-of-eight, a pattern much like those fancy collars that Queen Elizabeth I and Walter Raleigh are depicted wearing. They are usually brown.

The Springbok egg-case is a puffy-white, rather untidy, oblong pavlova and is frequently found firmly glued into crevices and corners of wood and concrete.

Stoats and weasels The spread of stoats into almost every corner of the country is causing concern to all who love their native birds. For instance, stoats are known to be present in the areas where the survivors of the käkäpö and the takahë are found and those implacable little killers form a terrible threat to these rare birds. Stoats, weasels, and ferrets are all mustelids, and all are killers. Few animals will kill for the love of killing, and after their hunger is satisfied, but the mustelids will do just that, as many a poultry keeper who has lost a coop full of chickens in a single night knows only too well.

Dr. L. Hartman, of the Fats Research Laboratory, Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington, has been carrying out research on the stoats and weasels, but his efforts have been hampered by not having a few female animals to use for breeding purposes. … Members able to supply suitable animals should communicate with Dr. Hartman at the above address; and those who have noted large numbers of mustelids, or damage done by them, are invited to write to the Society and tell us about their observations.

Forest & Bird, May 1962

Forest & Bird

| 5

Marine reserve extension We are encouraged to read that Forest & Bird advocates expanding marine reserves (November Forest & Bird). The Forest & Bird Motu Manawa Restoration Group (a joint sub-committee of Forest & Bird’s Waitematä and Central Auckland branches) has advocated to the Department of Conservation and the Waterview Connection Project Board of Inquiry that the Motu Manawa (Pollen Island) Marine Reserve should be expanded to include much more of the Waterview Inlet in Auckland’s inner Waitematä Harbour.

We believe the eastern foreshore and seabed of Te Atatü Peninsula should be added to the marine reserve’s total area, which at present amounts to about 500 hectares abutting Waterview and Rosebank Peninsula.

The extension proposed would protect more Waterview Inlet intertidal mudflats, tidal channels, mangrove swamp, saltmarsh and shellbanks, all features that are of environmental importance for birds, fish, and invertebrates in the Waitematä Harbour.

We note that Forest & Bird is an entity qualified to apply for establishment (and extension) of a marine reserve under Section 5 (1) of the Marine Reserves Act 1971, and we believe the Society should actively work to support and facilitate expansion of the Motu Manawa (Pollen Island) Marine Reserve as we advocate.

Michael Coote and Kent Xie, Forest & Bird Motu Manawa Restoration Group, Auckland

Safe havens for lizards At our recent Forest & Bird committee meeting, it was brought to our attention that the article on Open Bay Islands skinks (November Forest & Bird) implies extremely well where these skinks can be found. While we appreciate the usually excellent articles in this magazine, we think that it is unfortunate, reckless and unnecessary to give out this information. It would not detract from the article in any way if it was less obvious where to source, poach or pinch these endangered skinks.

Denise Bruns, Secretary, Central Otago-Lakes Branch Forest & Bird is mindful of the need to protect the skinks from poachers. The story had full co-operation from DOC staff and other experts, and they were happy that we did not reveal enough information to identify the rock stacks. – Editor

6

| Forest & Bird

Kererü tale hard to swallow I snapped this photo of a kererü eating plums in my son’s backyard in the Te Awanga-Cape Kidnappers area. After reading your article about kererü (February Forest & Bird), I thought I’d show the swallowing ability of this bird.

Gaye Watts, New Plymouth

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Wild Buddies… and Baddies by Nic Vallance and Rod Morris (New Holland, $21). See the book review on page 64. To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org.nz Please put Wild Buddies in the subject line and include your name and address in the email.

Or put your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to Wild Buddies draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on June 12.

Wild Buddies… and Baddies: Friendships and unusual relationships in nature is available from Forest & Bird’s online shop at www.forestandbird. org.nz or send a cheque for $21 (includes packaging and post in New Zealand) to Wild Buddies Book, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

conservation

news

Climate change counts for Denniston F

orest & Bird has raised climate change as an issue in its challenge to the open-cast coal mine planned for the Denniston Plateau. Lawyers for Forest & Bird and the West Coast Environment Network appeared in the Environment Court in Christchurch in late March to argue that the effects on climate change from burning coal mined at Escarpment mines on the Denniston Plateau and Solid Energy’s Mt William North Mine can be considered under the Resource Management Act. Sir Geoffrey Palmer SC represented the West Coast Environment Network. Tom Bennion and Peter Anderson appeared for Forest & Bird.

Sir Geoffrey said climate change was the most profound environmental threat ever to face human society and the most difficult to solve.

He argued that the words of the RMA did not preclude consideration of climate change effects in this situation.

He said that if the effects of burning the coal were not considered under the RMA there was a risk that they would never be considered. This would drain the RMA of all ability to consider climate change, an unexpected and surprising outcome given the RMA is New Zealand’s principal piece of environmental legislation and such an outcome would be inconsistent with our international legal obligations.

On the other side, coal mining companies Buller Coal (owned by Bathurst Resources) and Solid Energy, supported by the West Coast Regional Council and the Buller District Council, argued that considering the effects on climate change from burning the coal would be contrary to the purpose of a 2004 amendment to the RMA. On March 21, 200 members of Forest & Bird and other environmental groups protested outside Bathurst Resources’ Wellington office when Prime Minister John Key

officiated at the office opening. Conservation Advocate Nicola Toki criticised the Prime Minister’s endorsement of Bathurst. “The Prime Minister has made it very clear that he supports the activities of Bathurst Resources on New Zealand’s public conservation land, and we are concerned that his actions are intended to influence the Department of Conservation into agreeing to access for the mine.”

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Book your cruise today!

www.360discovery.co.nz 0800 360 3472 Forest & Bird

| 7

conservation

news

Dishing up the best fish H

ave you used your Best Fish Guide yet? Have you been on the verge of picking out your usual hoki fillet, checked your guide, and gone for the tarakihi instead?

Great. Because that’s exactly the sort of informed, ethical decision we’re encouraging through our Best Fish Guide in the hope that our commercial fisheries will become more ecologically sustainable.

About 50,000 copies of the new Best Fish Guide have already been distributed. Many have been downloaded as a mobile phone application, generously developed for free by Resn.

New Zealand Listener food columnist Lauraine Jacobs was spot on when she said at the launch in February that the next challenge is to get New Zealanders actually eating the more sustainable, but often less popular, species.

Why? Because New Zealanders love their (worst choice) snapper, hoki and orange roughy. And when was the last time you saw (better choice) kingfish or fresh päua at the supermarket?

Lauraine commented on the prevalence of less popular “brown” fish that rank well in the guide. “Anchovies, sardines (pilchards), mackerel – there’s hardly any New Zealanders and certainly not many chefs who have a clue about how to cook them.

“It’s all very well saying this is the best choice, but you need to cook it and you’ve got to convince chefs to put it on their menus and we’ve got to convince shops that sell fish to stock these things. It’s not going to happen unless consumers actually ask for them.”

Forest & Bird received one email expressing frustration at the Best Fish Guide. The gentleman wrote: “Kahawai?

I’ve never heard of it ... We buy things in boxes at the supermarket.”

Exactly. This is why we need to ask supermarkets to stock these more sustainable species. Or perhaps scout around fish markets and fresh fish shops, where you’re more likely to come across

smoked kahawai fillets. We need to exercise our consumer power if we want commercial fisheries and the government to work towards a more sustainable industry.

To help you out, we asked 12 top New Zealand chefs to contribute recipes using Best Fish Guide-friendly species.

You’ll find them on our website and as part of the Best Fish Guide iPhone app. While produced by celebrity chefs like Al Brown and Peta Mathias, each recipe is designed with ordinary Kiwi cooks in mind.

Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar says the Best Fish Guide doesn’t make shopping for seafood difficult or more expensive. It’s as simple as asking those behind the supermarket fish counter what tuna species is on sale. Skipjack or albacore tuna? Yes please. Bigeye or southern bluefin? No thanks. Our Best Fish Guide website and mobile phone app also suggest seafood alternatives for some of the unsustainable species.

That way, if your recipe calls for a fish from the red list, you can easily swap it for a better choice with a similar taste and texture.

That’s the good thing about the Best Fish Guide. It’s easy to use. Those little everyday choices can make a big difference. n Jolene Williams www.bestfishguide.org.nz

Rugby star Conrad Smith, left, and chef Shaun Clouston whip up a gourmet kingfish curry in less than 20 minutes at the Best Fish Guide launch. See www.bestfishguide. org.nz for the recipe.

Photos: Billie Win

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Close watch for stranded turtles T

he number of turtle strandings reported in the past year has doubled, with 12 injured or ill turtles spotted on New Zealand’s northern beaches. It is thought this year’s cold summer has contributed to the rise in strandings, however, Kelly Tarlton’s aquarist Matthew Harvey hopes that greater public awareness and increased reporting may have also bumped up numbers.

All five turtle species found in our waters are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, though very little is known about their numbers, migratory routes or life cycle.

None of the species that pass through New Zealand waters nest here, so any turtle spotted on our beaches is either sick or injured.

Auckland Kelly Tarlton’s has been taking in stranded turtles for the past 20 years and typically receives about six turtles a year. Cold shock, malnutrition, boat strike, entanglement or swallowing marine debris brings these turtles into their care.

People are encouraged to call the Department of Conservation if they spot a stranded turtle, and DOC will alert Kelly Tarlton’s – New Zealand’s sole sea turtle nursing unit.

“We mainly just work with sea turtles and sometimes rehabilitate the odd sea snake,” says Matthew. “We’ve been known to house crabs and sunfish, however, we often don’t have the facilities to handle larger animals.”

Each turtle patient eats on average 400-500 grams of fish and squid each day, and, combined with x-rays, vet fees and drugs, this adds up to about $5000 a turtle.

In the past Kelly Tarlton’s has worked with sea turtle researcher and PhD student Dan Godoy to track the turtles after release but the funding for these $3000 satellite tags has been patchy, so very few have been fitted with trackers.

In February, the team at Kelly Tarlton’s released an endangered green turtle and a critically endangered hawksbill turtle into the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve. They’re two of the 12 turtles Kelly Tarlton’s has cared for during the past year. Photo: Mandy Herrick

One loggerhead turtle was last spotted three-quarters of the way to South America, and another green turtle headed north for New Caledonia.

For the past six years, Godoy has focused his research on the distribution of our endangered green turtle through information gathered from strandings and sightings, however, the picture is still murky.

“In the past, the documentation of sightings and stranded animals has been patchy, partly because they were always regarded as rare visitors, so part of my work is to develop a better picture of the population here. I’m also looking at human impacts, which can pose a serious threat to their survival. It was slow going at first but now more and more people are making observations, which is fantastic.” n Mandy Herrick

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Kokako - image c/o Simon Fordham/Naturepix

www.360discovery.co.nz 0800 360 3472 Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Sparrows oust silvereyes W

here have all the silvereyes gone? That’s the question being asked by many participants of last year’s New Zealand Garden Bird Survey. The dainty little native topped the 2010 survey but in 2011 the national average of silvereyes more than halved.

Survey organiser Eric Spurr says many factors can cause a decline but the most likely reason is the mild winter last year. “A lack of snow and frosts may have meant there was still plenty of natural food around in forested areas so birds weren’t forced into gardens in search of food.”

He points out numbers of silvereyes also decreased from the first survey in 2007 until 2009, though he suspects the cause then was the spread of avian pox.

With silvereyes relegated to second place, it comes as no surprise that house sparrows were the most common bird species spotted in New Zealand gardens for 2011. On average, 13 sparrows were recorded per garden during the survey, which asked New Zealanders to record the number of each bird species to visit their garden, school or park over an hour.

Starlings, blackbirds and mynas took out third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Tüï and fantails were the only other natives to make the top 10.

Results showed a marked regional difference.

Tüï were the sixth most common species nationally but they ranked a lowly 28th in Canterbury. And Eric says several other species’ distributions showed a clear north-south variance. For example, silvereyes were much more common in Southland, Otago and Canterbury than other regions further north.

Overall, 85 species were recorded from a total of 3089 surveys. One respondent recorded a little blue penguin under the floor of her house in Paekäkäriki on the Kapiti Coast. Another discovered a New Zealand falcon disrupted usual bird activity during the survey. “The survey was shortened by the kärearea zooming through – everything disappeared for 20 minutes or so,” the participant wrote.

Other more unusual species included the red-crowned parakeet, rifleman, stitchbird, a tufted guineafowl, shining cuckoo and Australasian crested grebe.

Others noted some birds’ unusual behaviour, especially

around food choices. One grey warbler was seen eating apple-and-cinnamon cake placed outside to feed house sparrows. Eric says this is very unusual behaviour. “Grey warblers normally eat insects, though they do occasionally eat small berries. Also, cinnamon is normally repellent to birds.”

Chaffinches, which usually feast on seeds, invertebrates and berries, were seen eating fat-balls, and some house sparrows were, unusually, spotted drinking from sugarwater feeders.

The long-term aim of the survey is to determine trends of bird numbers, with a particular interest in native species.

Eric says it’s still too early to establish whether results show normal fluctuations or are indicators of long-term trends.

This year’s survey will be held between 30 June and 8 July. See page 26-27 for the survey form or visit www. landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/gardenbird n Jolene Williams

Top 10 species (average number of birds per garden)

Regional top 10 species

2010

2011

Tüï rank sixth in the national average of garden birds. Photo: Alex Scott

Species

Auckland

Wellington

Canterbury

Otago

Silvereye

13.2 House sparrow

13

House sparrow

13.2

14.1

10.4

9.3

House sparrow

12.6 Silvereye

5.5

Silvereye

3.5

4.1

9

9.2

Starling

2.8 Starling

2.5

Starling

1.3

3.1

3.5

2.6

Blackbird

2.7 Blackbird

2.4

Blackbird

2.1

2.7

2.4

2.1

Chaffinch

1.2 Myna

1.7

Myna

3

0.01

0

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Facing the future

Accidents cAn hAppen to Anyone

F

orest & Bird’s annual conference in June will challenge New Zealanders to share ideas about a better future for nature and how to get there. Conference organiser and Conservation Advocate Claire Browning will bring together conservationists and other prominent New Zealanders to share their visions of the future during the Saturday sessions of the June 15-17 conference at Te Papa in Wellington.

Businessman and philanthropist Gareth Morgan will ensure a stimulating start with his keynote speech in the morning. Farming representatives – including Federated Farmers President Bruce Wills – will discuss how they see their industry contributing to a greener New Zealand and share stories about efforts by some farmers to protect the environment. Biological dairy farmer Jeff Williams will describe his success in managing his land naturally.

The Department of Conservation’s strategy of forging closer ties with business is a contentious issue.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright and DOC Director-General Al Morrison are sure to stir debate with their ideas about the ways business can contribute to conservation.

The impact of predators on our native animal life remains one of our top conservation challenges.

Conservation Advocate Nicola Toki will discuss a vision for a predator-free New Zealand, which was promoted by prominent scientist Sir Paul Callaghan in the months leading up to his recent death.

Collaboration between conservationists and Mäori will be discussed by Tamati Kruger of Ngäi Tühoe, and other sessions during the day include caring for our biodiversity outside protected areas, the future of our marine areas and collaborative management of our environment.

A seminar on biodiversity offsetting will run on Friday afternoon.

Up to six young conservationists will take centre stage on Friday night, sharing their vision for the New Zealand Face up to they want to inherit and protect in the Future a session facilitated by comedian Te Radar (pictured). Applicants are being asked to make a short YouTube video that tells us about the New Zealand they want to see Nature of tomorrow and the role they want to play in creating it.

CONFERENCE 2012

For information on registering for the conference, the young conservationist session, the conference programme and other information, go to www. faceuptothefuture.org.nz.

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Forest & Bird

| 11

conservation

news

Schools flock to Kererü Count F

orest & Bird’s first Kererü Count recorded 2148 sightings from all over the country, and project co-ordinator Jenny Lynch says the survey looks set to become an annual event.

Schools were particularly keen to get on board during the nine-day bird count. Mount Biggs School near Fielding incorporated the count into the school camp. Principal Raewyn Marshall says the younger children were especially eager to take part in the national project. “They thought it was wonderful that we were part of something bigger. They were really keen, they just wanted to see one every day.”

The survey was also added to lessons at the rural Northland school Te Kura O Hana Maria. Principal Maraea Herbert says it provided an opportunity for students to appreciate the kererü, or kükupa as they are known in Northland, which live in the forests surrounding the school.

Jenny says most kids know about kiwi and käkäpö but they are less familiar Keegan Sutton gets close to a kererü at with kererü. “Kererü Ngä Manu Nature Reserve. Photo: Ngä don’t have such Manu Nature Reserve

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a high profile. But the Kererü Count shows that although they’re still quite common, they’re really important for forest health. They’re the only bird that can spread the seeds of some of our native trees, which then provide habitats for other birds. It teaches people to value kererü as a species and for their role in the forest.”

Survey results will be shared with community groups, councils and national organisations such as the Department of Conservation to be integrated with conservation projects dedicated to boosting kererü numbers.

Survey highlights n

Total number of kererü – 2148 City sightings: Auckland – 165, Wellington – 116, Dunedin – 197 n Urban centres - 52%, towns and rural centres – 48% n North Island – 63%, South Island – 37% n A flock of 40 spotted on the West Coast and a flock of 70 spotted in Otago n Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki had disproportionately low numbers n Püriri, karaka, köwhai, cabbage trees are most commonly eaten native plants n Tree lucerne and plum trees are most commonly eaten non-native plants n

In brief Maui’s dolphin alarm: Forest & Bird is gravely concerned at the slide towards extinction of Maui’s dolphins, and in April encouraged people to make submissions to the government to increase protection measures. In March, it was estimated the population has dropped to 55 animals. Forest & Bird is calling for the government to expand the ban on gill nets to where Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins are found around New Zealand’s coast, including harbours and out to a depth of 100 metres.

Sea lions need help: Forest & Bird has an online petition asking the government to urgently review the management of New Zealand sea lions to stop their population decline.

Sea lion numbers have halved in the past 12 years. Research shows that if the trend continues, by 2035 not enough breeding pairs will be left to ensure the species’ survival.

Sign the petition at www.forestandbird.org.nz Mackenzie Country appeals: Forest & Bird has lodged appeals on the decisions to grant consent to allow irrigation at Simon Hill and Simons Pass stations near Lake Pükaki in the Mackenzie Country. These appeals are to protect the stations’ indigenous plants, which will be destroyed by irrigation, and the outstanding landscape values and ecology in the rivers and streams. This is an important part of Forest & Bird’s Save the Mackenzie campaign, which has also involved becoming a party to several appeals by irrigators who have been declined consent for irrigation.

Forest & Bird has also lodged a notice to be a party to the Mackenzie District Plan change relating to the landscape of the Mackenzie Country, known as PC13.

NZ animals phone app: For instant information about New Zealand’s animals, Ryan Ghisi of Kiwipedia has created a mobile phone application – NZ Fauna – that can be downloaded to smartphones, iPads and iPods. Ryan enlisted Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Nicola Toki and bug man Ruud Kleinpaste to present the information. He is working on another app for New Zealand plants.

See http://tinyurl.com/7as9pjx Fiordland fiords protection: The Fiordland Marine Guardians are calling for World Heritage status for the waters and seabed of the fiords, or Te Moana o Atawhenua. The land beside the waters of Fiordland is already protected as Te Wähipounamu-South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. The guardians have proposed this protection as part of the Department of Conservation’s consultation on the Southland Conservation Management Strategy (CMS).

Forest & Bird members will get the chance to support the proposal when the draft CMS opens for submissions soon.

Kermadec art exhibition: A voyage to the Kermadec Islands last year inspired artworks being exhibited in Auckland until July 1. The show by nine leading artists is at the Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum at the Viaduct Harbour. Forest & Bird is supporting a campaign to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary around the Kermadecs.

BirdLife Australia launched: Australia has a stronger organisation for protecting its birds after the launch of BirdLife Australia on January 1. The new organisation comes after the merger of Birds Australia and Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA). Birds Australia was the BirdLife International partner. Forest & Bird is the New Zealand partner of BirdLife International. See www.birdlife.org.au

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Know your New Zealand Fishes by Jenny and Tony Enderby (New Holland, $35.99). See the book review on page 65.

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

Entries close on June 12.

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Email: sales@nopests.co.nz Deadly serious about pests Forest & Bird

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soapbox

Dolphins depend on us New Zealanders will be judged harshly if the Maui’s dolphin becomes extinct. We could be doing more to make sure this doesn’t happen, argues Katrina Subedar.

M

aui’s dolphins are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world and they are only found in New Zealand.

What would it say about us if they disappeared forever?

We should all be shocked by the recent news that the estimated population of Maui’s dolphins has dropped to only 55 individuals aged more than one year in the latest Department of Conservation estimate. Our Maui’s dolphins are edging towards the point of no return.

They became genetically distinct thousands of years ago after establishing themselves in North Island coastal waters and becoming separated from their close relatives, Hector’s dolphins, which inhabit waters around much of the South Island. Maui’s are now generally found along the west coast of the North Island from Dargaville in Northland to Taranaki in the south.

Rarity is not the only feature that distinguishes Maui’s dolphins. They grow to about 1.7 metres long and weigh about 50 kilograms, compared with the common bottlenose dolphin, which can grow to nearly four metres. A rounded dorsal fin, distinct grey, black and white colouring and a short snout add to what makes Maui’s special.

Unfortunately, the females of both Maui’s and Hector’s are slow breeders. They don’t reach sexual maturity until they are seven to nine years and will give birth to a calf once every two to four years during their lifespan of up to 25 years. The loss of any females could be potentially devastating for the species and any recovery is sure to be slow.

1 The Department of Conservation’s latest

population estimate for Maui’s dolphins is just 55. Photo: Peter Langlands

2 Katrina Subedar

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Their rapid decline can be dated to the beginning of the 1970s when fishers started using monofilament nylon gill nets. Since then, the number of Maui’s dolphins has dropped from about 1000, and the number of Hector’s has slumped from 30,000 to about 7000.

Research suggests Maui’s dolphins can sustain only one human-induced death – which means fishing nets – once every 10 to 23 years if they are to avoid extinction.

In November last year a dead Maui’s dolphin was found in the Manukau Harbour and in January another was reported killed in a fishing net off the Taranaki coast. This means there can be no human-induced deaths for up to 46 years if a further decline in Maui’s numbers is to be prevented.

Even then, the situation is likely to be even more dire because the deaths of these critically endangered mammals are under-reported. There have been virtually no independent observers on fishing boats to monitor Maui’s dolphins since 2008 when the first gill net bans were put in place. Without observers, we don’t know exactly how many dolphins are being killed and dumped.

There has been some welcome progress in facing up to the dire situation for Maui’s and Hector’s, with protection measures introduced in 2008. But these measures have not been enough to halt the slide towards extinction of both Maui’s and Hector’s. The government reacted to the latest news of a plunge in numbers of Maui’s by promising to introduce interim protection measures pending a review of the Threat Management Plan, which has been brought forward to this year.

Fisheries officials have in the past refused to recognise the existence of Maui’s dolphins off the Taranaki coast but the death in January was sad proof that this assumption was wrong. Now the government has agreed to extend the gill net ban out to four nautical miles off the Taranaki coast as far south as Hawera. Again, this is welcome but the situation is now so critical for Maui’s dolphins that we have to pull out all the stops.

Maui’s dolphins are found in waters – including harbours – anywhere up to 100 metres deep, so our gill net bans must be expanded to cover all these areas. Comparing the areas where gill net bans are in place with areas where the dolphins may be found shows only a small part of their potential habitat is covered and this must change if we are to turn around the slide towards extinction. It’s not rocket science we need to increase protection immediately.

China has been criticised for allowing the extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji. The reaction would be much worse if New Zealanders – who pride ourselves on caring for our wildlife and natural places – were responsible for the disappearance of Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins.

Katrina Subedar is Forest & Bird’s Marine Conservation Advocate.

Tracking seabirds is revolutionising what we know about the lives of our ocean wanderers. Chris Gaskin asks scientists working with albatrosses in New Zealand what they are learning about these remarkable creatures and how it can be used to improve their survival chances.

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COVER STORY

M

id-ocean, big seas, strong wind, albatrosses for company. With their majestic, seemingly effortless flight, they easily keep pace with our boat. These ocean wanderers are remarkably mobile. Finding food at sea is no easy task, and when birds have chicks to feed they need to cover ocean quickly: search, find, feed and return.

Once chicks have fledged, adults and chicks disperse widely away from breeding islands following different patterns by species, sex and often age. The Great Southern Ocean is their domain.

What we knew about albatross distribution once came mostly from sightings from ships at sea. In recent years our knowledge of where they go and what they are doing out there has increased dramatically through the use of birdborne tracking devices.

Albatrosses are the most ocean-going, or pelagic, of seabirds and, together with other seabirds, are excellent indicators of the health of the world’s oceans. The tracking work undertaken by scientists in New Zealand is funded in the main to investigate population dynamics and how albatrosses overlap with fisheries activities, but the overriding research goal is conserving these magnificent seabirds.

Twelve of the world’s 22 albatross species breed in New Zealand, most on the Chatham, Bounty, Antipodes, Campbell, Auckland and Snares island groups. They are some of the world’s wildest and most remote places, and do not offer easy working conditions. Canterbury Museum researcher Paul Scofield says: “It is dangerous and potentially deadly on the Pyramid [in the Chatham Islands].

Only fit people that are really good in the outdoors should be there and even then there is a small but significant chance of injury or death.” The loss of a scientist swept off the Tasmanian islet of Pedra Branca by a huge wave in 2003 is a grim reminder that health and safety should be a top priority.

Eighteen of the world’s albatross species are threatened with extinction. BirdLife International – Forest & Bird’s global partner – estimates that one albatross dies every

2 Globally threatened seabird density 0 9 18

1 Campbell albatrosses. Photo: Hadoram Shirihai © Tubenoses

of the World

2 This density map showing tracking of threatened seabirds in the

southern oceans highlights New Zealand’s position as a global hot spot for seabirds. Map: Procellariiform Tracking Database, BirdLife International

activities to determine the extent of overlap between foraging Buller’s albatrosses and various fisheries.

A further goal for these researchers has been to accurately estimate the population sizes for albatrosses.

Research by Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott on subAntarctic Adams and Antipodes islands showed that both populations of wandering albatrosses were increasing up until 2004, when both study areas had about 200 nests.

“Now there are about 100 nests in each of the study areas.

Population modelling for the Adams Island population shows that the decline is not just in the number of nests,

flight paths five minutes, and fisheries-related deaths or by-catch top the shortlist of concerns.

NIWA scientist Paul Sagar resurrected Buller’s albatross research on the Snares islands in 1992 because he was concerned about the effects of by-catch on the population.

Earlier work from 1989 alerted him to the issue, but it took a year or so to get the necessary logistical support to mount an expedition. Fast-forward to 2012 and a NIWA team is compiling a detailed analysis of GPS tracks and fishing

but also in the number of birds – there are half as many as there used to be,” Graeme says.

Populations of some other New Zealand albatross species are also declining but the relatively small Chatham albatross population is stable and Campbell albatrosses could be increasing.

Tracking analyses and population studies are signalling other areas of concern, according to Graeme and Kath.

“Nesting success in both populations of wandering Forest & Bird

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albatross on Auckland and Antipodes islands has plummeted. The birds seem to be short of food. We don’t know why but global climate change is probably the most likely explanation.”

Such findings highlight the need for further work in new research projects and current programmes. The scientists believe long-term studies are essential. “The issue with long-lived birds subject to big climate changes is that you may not detect what’s troubling them with only a few years’ work,” says Graeme. “In our case, the birds were doing fine for the first 10 to 15 years of our study but, exactly when the fishing industry’s Conservation Services Levy finished funding us, the albatrosses did a big crash. If we had stopped when the funding ran out we would not have detected this big crash.”

NIWA scientist David Thompson says: “Trying to better understand what albatrosses tell us about the marine systems will still be an important endeavour for many years to come. However, it will become impossible to plan to answer the hard questions without surety of long-term research funding.”

Lorna Deppe, a young University of Canterbury PhD student from Germany, shares their concerns. “I feel worried with all the exploitation of the seas happening around us and so much still to learn. But I also feel positive because a lot of people care and fight for them and are raising awareness. Mitigation measures have to be implemented, which must make quite a difference if applied broadly. As long as things are happening, I’m keeping positive.”

Chris Gaskin is contracted to Forest & Bird, advocating for Marine Important Bird Areas for New Zealand’s seabirds.

3 3 Paul Sagar and David Thompson banding a Campbell albatross, Campbell Island. Photo: Henk Haazen 4 GPS tracks from 25 white-capped albatrosses tagged at the Auckland Islands. Tracks are colour-coded by sex and overlaid on regional bathymetry and a density map of fishing vessel distribution. This density map was generated using all vessel monitoring system (VMS) points from non-steaming squid trawlers during the same time period as when the albatrosses were tagged and tracked. (Published with permission from the Marine Ecology Progress Series) 5 Chatham albatross with chick on nest. Photo: Lorna Deppe

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4

AUCKLAND ISLANDS

Science’s track record Researchers use three types of tracking gear to record data at different scales, says NIWA scientist Leigh Torres.

“Global Positioning System tags [transmitters] give us finescale data – accurate points every couple of minutes – but only last for less than three weeks. Satellite tags give us meso-scale data – a few points every day for a few months that are accurate to between one and 25 kilometres.

Geolocator tags give us large-scale data – one point every 12 hours for over a year with accuracy of 100 kilometres.”

Breeding birds are used so gear can be retrieved when they return to nest.

Satellite transmitters provide information anytime over the internet. “Back on the mainland you can look anytime you like and see where your birds are just a few hours ago. This is real armchair biology, truly fascinating,” says Graeme Elliott.

Geolocator loggers have to be retrieved to get the data.

“It’s always a huge relief to see data downloaded from the tags, and a huge disappointment otherwise,” says Leigh.

“We invest so much time, energy and money on tags and deployments that when they don’t work it can be deflating.

My favourite part is plotting the tracking data on a map and investigating their distributions patterns. It’s always a mystery where a bird will go so seeing their tracks on a map is like solving a little mystery every time.”

In 1995, when NIWA’s Paul Sagar and his team first deployed satellite tags on Buller’s albatrosses at the Snares Islands, they learned for the first time that during incubation, off-duty birds travelled hundreds of kilometres to forage off Tasmania or over the Chatham Rise.

Leigh says: “Through our fine-scale GPS tracks, I have been amazed at the variability in foraging destinations by individual albatrosses and between years. They can feed in different habitats depending on what conditions are best and where prey is most available. Therefore, predicting their destinations relative to environmental fluctuations can be very challenging.” However, patterns have emerged, with different species, or the same species from different islands, showing clear foraging preferences over large-scale areas.

COVER STORY

5 Forest & Bird

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All in a day’s work G

etting to the remote islands where albatrosses nest is often a challenge for scientists. Landing on the Pyramid and the other Chatham outlying islands is not for the faint-hearted, says PhD student Lorna Deppe.

“Jumping off the moving front bow of a wee fishing boat on to a slippery rock is rather scary, and you certainly appreciate it if your skipper knows his stuff.”

Once ashore, the new arrivals get acquainted with the locals pretty quickly. The best landing site at Antipodes Island for Graeme Elliott and Kath Walker is below an erectcrested penguin colony. “You have to haul all the gear up through the colony, which is a literally shitty business. The penguins are mostly tolerant but the odd one takes a bite,” says Graeme.

At South-west Cape on the Auckland Islands, Leigh Torres and her colleagues walk along the shore avoiding surf and New Zealand sea lions. “It’s then a trudge up a large hill through tussock, sea lions and swamp. Finally we climb steeply down the other side via a crevice and rope ladder to a cluster of squawking albatrosses atop pedestals precariously perched on the sea cliff.” On the Pyramid, where everything is sloping, great care is needed, says Lorna. “As soon as the weather becomes wet it turns into quite dangerous terrain, with lichens, but especially bird poo, making the rocks slippery as soap.”

Researchers can stay in huts on most islands. The old meteorological station on Campbell Island makes for an impressive research and conservation base, with a network of small huts at some key sites. Snares Island also has a 6

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comfortable base at Station Point, amid tree daisy forest.

On Adams Island, Kath and Graeme finally got a hut built for their albatross work after several years of camping.

Antipodes Island has two huts for conservation work – an old castaway hut built in about 1890 and a hut built by Lands and Survey in 1978. The Antipodes Island study area for Kath and Graeme is only about 20 minutes’ walk from the hut, but on Adams it’s a long hike over the top of the island then most of the way down the other side.

On Campbell Island, field workers trek to Bull Rock, at the north end of the island, sometimes getting blown off their feet in exposed places.

Albatrosses are big birds, weighing 2.5-9 kilograms and with wing spans up to 3.5 metres. “Bird welfare is my number one goal,” stresses Canterbury Museum’s Paul Scofield. “We try to use birds only once for any device attachment. Each bird is different and some just refuse to co-operate so are left alone.”

Fast reflexes and intuition are needed to catch and handle birds without injuring the bird or scientist.

“Handling them boils down to not letting the large, powerful and hooked bill anywhere near any exposed skin, which in the sub-Antarctic usually means your face and hands,” warns David Thompson, from NIWA. Despite the daunting size of the wandering albatrosses that Kath and Graeme work with, the birds are relatively easy to handle.

“Birds that have never been handled before are completely trusting. Some are even curious and will walk up to you,” says Graeme.

COVER STORY

6 Joy and Paul Sagar with a Buller’s

albatross banded in 1972. Photo: Leigh Torres

7 Seabirds follow a foreign fishing boat

off the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand. Photo: Kim Westerskov

8 An albatross caught on a fishing hook.

Photo: Projeto Tamar Brazil Marine Photobank

Seabirds – catch of the day N

ew Zealand should be the world leader in reducing seabird by-catch. After all, New Zealand is regarded internationally as the seabird capital of the world. The statistics embarrass us: n New Zealand has the greatest diversity of seabird species in the world – 140 of the world’s 350 species occur in our waters. n New Zealand has the highest number of endemic seabird species – 33. The next highest (Ecuador, Mexico, St Helena/UK) is five. n Sadly, New Zealand has the highest number of threatened species breeding here.

However, with about 14,000 albatrosses and thousands of other seabirds estimated killed by fisheries in New Zealand waters each year, how seriously are we taking our responsibilities? What of our much-vaunted “sustainable” national fishery? Or are our fishing fleets at war with our marine environment, endangering our precious seabird species and marine mammals in the process?

New Zealand has a responsibility to care – both a moral one and as a result of international agreements such as the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries as well as our domestic legislation.

Albatrosses and many petrels are opportunists, attracted to fishing boats by bait, offal or fish discards. Birds target baits when long lines are set, and become hooked and drown. In trawl fisheries, the main cause of death is by hitting warp cables and getting tangled in the nets as birds try to pull fish out.

A draft “Seabird Policy” released by the Ministry of Fisheries last year was tossed out after submissions from New Zealand NGOs, including Forest & Bird, and supported by BirdLife International, pointed out that it did not meet the UN’s FOA Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries guidelines on what is required for a National Plan of Action for seabirds (NPAO-S). We are still waiting for a new draft, which we hope will revert to the required NPOA-S containing a clear roadmap for the future on how New Zealand is going to stop killing seabirds.

So, are our fishing boats taking all reasonable steps to reduce by-catch within our EEZ? And what is the level of compliance in implementing regulated and voluntary mitigation measures? Does this reflect international best practice as advocated by Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)? The statistics suggest New Zealand has a long way to go to achieving international best practice.

Forest & Bird works closely with BirdLife International to advocate for reduction of by-catch in the world’s fisheries and maintains a database of tracking studies. You can access this data base online and find out where many species go – www.seabirdtracking.org n Karen Baird Help Forest & Bird work to reduce numbers of seabirds caught by fisheries.

Donate to www.forestandbird.org.nz/by-catch

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1

Secret life of Scientists and volunteers swarmed over the West Coast Denniston Plateau one weekend in March during a BioBlitz to find the special plants and animals there.

David Brooks joined the BioBlitz teams.

T

he unique landscape and natural treasures of Denniston Plateau quickly won over the 150 scientists and volunteers who took part in Forest & Bird’s weekend BioBlitz in March. The plateau – lying northeast of Westport on the West Coast – is home to a series of rare ecosystems. Plants and animals enjoy an unusual level of protection because introduced predators have struggled to become established in the harsh environment.

Natural history filmmaker, photographer and author Rod Morris likens the plateau to one of the Department of Conservation’s mainland islands – areas where intensive predator control is carried out to restore as much as possible the native wildlife previously driven out by rats, stoats, possums and other introduced pests.

“Denniston is like a mainland island already. Why would you tamper with that?” he said at the end of the March 2-4 BioBlitz, at which 12 teams fanned out over the plateau to

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investigate everything from birds to liverworts and lizards to wetas.

The idea of a BioBlitz arose during a winter trip to Denniston last year, when Forest & Bird was considering how to respond to the announcement that Bathurst Resources had been granted resource consent for a 200-hectare open-cast coal mine and processing facilities on the plateau. Debs Martin, Forest & Bird’s Top of the South Field Officer and leader of our campaign to protect Denniston, said she and others involved in the campaign realised how little had been done to document the plateau’s flora and fauna. That information will be an important part of Forest & Bird’s campaign to create a 5900-hectare reserve on the plateau and nearby areas and for our appeal in the Environment Court against the granting of resource consents for the mine.

“We thought the BioBlitz would be a good way of

3

2

4 1 Denniston Plateau, with Mt Rochfort in the background. Photo:

Fraser Chrichton

2 The endangered carnivorous land snail Powelliphanta Patrickensis.

Photo: Fraser Chrichton

3 Rod Morris (right) discusses a find with members of his team during

the BioBlitz. Photo: David Brooks

getting enthusiastic people together, including scientists, and to gather information to make available to the public,” says Debs. “No similar work has been done before at Denniston for small wildlife, excluding the Powelliphanta patrickensis land snails, so we thought it would be a good way of raising awareness and increasing knowledge of what is on the plateau.”

The response to the call for volunteers ahead of the BioBlitz was overwhelming, says Debs, who led the team organising the event. “During our initial planning, I was thinking it would be good to get 20 to 30 people. We ended up getting that many from the West Coast alone.

The response was phenomenal and we are so grateful to everyone who took part.”

More than 20 scientists gave up their weekend for the BioBlitz, including experts in moths and butterflies, lichens, lizards, wetas, weevils and many other specialities.

4 Scientist Peter Johns examine specimens found on the plateau.

Photo: Peter Langlands

Among them were eminent biologist and Forest & Bird Ambassador Sir Alan Mark, and George Gibbs, who wrote the history of life in New Zealand, Ghosts of Gondwana.

The BioBlitz team gathered in a hall at Waimangaroa at the foot of Denniston hill on Friday evening as a storm brewed off the coast. Later in the evening, rain and wind lashed the coast as the first two teams headed on to the plateau to place night vision cameras and search for nocturnal species.

But as the forecast “weather bomb” continued to batter much of the country on Saturday, the sky cleared over Denniston and the teams enjoyed two days of rare fine weather.

After the weekend, there remained plenty of follow up work for scientists to collate their results. But it was already Forest & Bird

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5 6

BioBlitz highlights The BioBlitz revealed the rich diversity of life on Denniston Plateau. Some final results are still being collated, tested and confirmed, but significant finds so far include: n 127 vascular plants and 78 non-vascular plants, with many others to be confirmed. n 14 birds, including the threatened great spotted kiwi and at-risk New Zealand pipit, South Island fernbird and western weka. n Two species of gecko, with a skink species yet to be confirmed. n The rare Helm’s butterfly. n More than 40 diatoms, a type of algae.

Among the plants, North Westland snow tussock, Chionochloa juncea, is found nowhere except on the Denniston and Stockton plateaus. Also found was a subspecies of the endemic eyebright, Euphrasia wettsteiniana, that is yet to be described.

Many other species are still being confirmed, including more than 200 invertebrates, including a probable new species of moth and a jumping spider. Other previously undescribed spiders were also found.

7

clear that Denniston is unlike anywhere else, except for the nearby Stockton Plateau, much of which has already been dug up or set aside for mining.

From the coastal strip 600 metres below, you wouldn’t even know Denniston Plateau is there. After driving up the bush-clad hill, change comes suddenly as you reach the crest and enter the historic and largely abandoned township of Denniston. To the north, south and east lies a rolling landscape dominated by pygmy vegetation that often doesn’t even reach knee height.

But in the sheltered gorges, gullies, and stream beds, tall scrub and forest can be found. To the north lies the rainforest-clad Waimangaroa Gorge and to the east the bush-clad Mt William. In all, the plateau contains at least 18 distinctive ecosystems.

Many of the volunteers spoke of the thrill of being able to work alongside eminent scientists in an extraordinary landscape. For Christchurch volunteer Mark Campbell, the diversity of life on the plateau was a revelation. “It’s more scenic than I had been expecting, I was expecting it to be bleak and windswept. But once you’re up there, you can’t take a step without finding something interesting.”

Some areas are dominated by sandstone pavement and boulders overlying the coal seam. In the most exposed areas, manuka and other plants take the path of least resistance against the fierce winds, clinging flat to the ground. Hidden beneath the mat of vegetation, pools of water and little stream beds are found in many areas.

Entomologist Brian Patrick led a team, including his son Hamish, who found at least 60 species of moths and 24

| Forest & Bird

butterflies, including the rare and beautiful Helm’s butterfly.

Lizard expert Marieke Lettink was the centre of attention with her lizard-detecting border collie-cross Manu, who proved her worth on the first morning by sniffing out a West Coast green gecko. “I’m so happy to find this gecko with my dog. This is the holy grail for me,” Marieke said.

Frances Mountier of Wellington is a climate change campaigner and was a member of the Save Happy Valley Coalition, which campaigned to try to stop a coal mine being approved not far from Denniston Plateau. “I have always been into direct action, this is direct action and direct science. It would be fantastic if we succeeded in getting a reserve here,” she said.

Sir Alan said the BioBlitz came at a critical time in trying to save Denniston from the same fate as Stockton Plateau. “The area is under threat and information must be collated to be released in defence of the natural values of Denniston Plateau. This is a very special area of very high diversity in terms of plant cover and different types of plant communities created by the unique climate and geology,” he said.

The need to save Denniston Plateau struck home forcefully for Rod Morris on the Sunday when he could view the entire area from the air. “I went up in a helicopter, and had a gob-smacking view in 3D over the entire plateau – it was all there in full view. It was so clear to me how important it was to try to stop this plateau becoming the same as Stockton.”

For updates on BioBlitz species found and how you can help save Denniston, see www.forestandbird.org.nz

DENNISTON WESTPORT

MT AUGUSTUS •

HAPPY VALLEY

DENNISTON

UPPER TOP OF INCLINE WAIMANGAROA VALLEY

8 DENNISTON PLATEAU

•

0

1

2 km

MT ROCHFORT

AREA PROPOSED FOR PROTECTION

9

5 Skink and gecko expert Marieke Lettink with her lizard sniffing dog

Manu. Photo: Peter Langlands

6 A West Coast green gecko. Photo: David Brooks 7 A koura, or freshwater crayfish. Photo: Peter Langlands 8 Volunteer Frances Mountier at Trent Stream on Denniston Plateau.

Photo: David Brooks

9 Volunteers on the

plateau. Photo: Fraser Crichton

10 A western weka.

Photo: Peter Langlands

10

PUBLIC CONSERVATION LAND

UNALLOCATED CROWN LAND

STOCKTON MINE

A home for good Forest & Bird’s proposed 5900-hectare reserve would include publically owned land on Denniston Plateau, and adjacent areas in the upper Waimangaroa Gorge, southern Stockton Plateau and Mt William Range.

Under the proposal, the reserve would be protected under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act – a list of areas, such as national parks and reserves, where mining is banned. The reserve would exclude areas currently being mined and private land.

Stockton Plateau is already being extensively mined, leaving Denniston Plateau as the only remaining example in New Zealand of the ecosystems associated with elevated coal measure plateaus. Denniston includes a 1138-hectare wetland of national significance, which supports the threatened fernbird and many other species. It also is an important habitat for Powelliphanta patrickensis carnivorous land snails.

Mt William Range provides excellent habitat for great spotted kiwi, and is an outstanding natural landscape with shrublands, tall forest and bluff outcrops. The spectacular Waimangaroa River gorge separates the Stockton and Denniston plateaus and drains streams from the southern slopes of Stockton, which are home to freshwater crayfish (koura).

The southern slopes of the Stockton Plateau contain some of the best remaining large landscapes of historically rare sandstone erosion pavements and acidic boulder fields. Also found there is Deep Stream, surrounded by an important habitat for both great spotted kiwi and Powelliphanta patrickensis.

To donate to our campaign to save the Denniston Plateau, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/support-us Forest & Bird

| 25

Who’s in your garden?

New Zealand

Aotearoa

GARDEN BIRD

SURVEY 2012 30 June - 8 July Landcare Research and Forest & Bird are asking for the public’s help again this year in spotting birds in New Zealand gardens. Taking part is easy – spend just 1 hour (that’s 1 hour only) sometime between 30 June and 8 July looking for birds in your garden, parks or school grounds. For each species you detect, record the largest number you see (or hear) at any one time. Please count not just tick the species you observe. The easy to follow guide below will help you identify most birds you are likely to see.

Then fill in and return the survey form opposite or enter your results online (which helps us to process the results faster and more easily) at: www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/ gardenbird/

Photographs by: Andrew Walmsley Tom Marshall Craig MacKenzie Brian Massa Roger South www.istock.com

Regularly updated survey results will be available on the same website, and will provide valuable information about bird populations, giving scientists an indication of which species may be in decline, helping guide conservation efforts for the future.

Bird Guide

(not to scale) Small birds 15cm or less

Medium-sized birds

Large birds

House Sparrow (m)

House Sparrow (f)

Yellowhammer (m)

Yellowhammer (f)

Eastern Rosella

Tui

Kereru

Greenfinch (m)

Greenfinch (f)

Goldfinch

Dunnock

Song Thrush

Bellbird

Magpie

Chaffinch (m)

Chaffinch (f)

Redpoll

Fantail

Myna

Starling

Red-billed Gull

Silvereye

Welcome Swallow

Grey Warbler

Blackbird (f)

Blackbird (m)

Black-backed Gull

Rural Park

Rural garden

Rural School

Urban School

Children (<18)

Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Master (circle)

Adults

Please note: we will not give or sell your details to anyone else, we require them so we can contact you if necessary to clarify your results. If you prefer us not to contact you again, please tick here

Email

Tel

Surname

First name

Contact Details

How many took part?

More than 600 m2

400-600 m (e.g. up to 20×30m)

2

200-400 m2 (e.g. up to 20×20m)

100-200 m2 (e.g. up to 10×20m)

Up to 100 m2 (e.g. up to 10×10m)

Area searched for birds (exc.birds flying overhead)

List major trees in your garden (on separate sheet)

Urban Park

Urban garden

Description of survey area (please tick one)

Region

Postcode

Town/City

Suburb

Number & Street

Physical address where you did the survey:

Survey Details

Please re-fold leaflet and tape along edge before posting

Fix Stamp here

Eric Spurr New Zealand Garden Bird Survey 145 Ashley St Rangiora 7400

Start Time

Myna Red-billed Gull Rock Pigeon Rosella (Eastern) Silvereye Song Thrush Starling Tui Welcome Swallow Yellowhammer

Blackbird Black-backed Gull Chaffinch Dunnock Fantail Goldfinch Greenfinch Grey Warbler House Sparrow Kereru

Fruit

Yes

Yes Yes

No Do you have a water-bath for birds?

N/A

Other (please describe)

Fat

No

Sugar-water

Bread

No

Did your survey area include the area where you feed birds? (please tick)

Seeds

If yes, what? (please tick)

Do you feed birds? (please tick)

Other species counted during the hour (give number)

Magpie

Bellbird

For each species record the largest number seen (or heard) at any one time – NOT the total number over the hour – do not enter zeros

Survey Date

Please do the survey for 1 hour only, sometime between 30 Jun & 8 Jul 2012

Tourist traps

1

Our tourism industry – and New Zealand’s biggest export earner – is essentially based around our conservation estate. With funding cuts to DOC, a potential Chinese influx, tunnelling, damming, mining, commercial partnerships and rising fuel prices, Kathy Ombler asks what the future holds for tourism and conservation.

B

urgeoning tourist numbers once alarmed conservationists since our national parks and conservation treasures are the big draw cards.

And conservation was an anathema to many tourism operators. “We’d show you those [endangered] nesting waders over there, but bloody DOC won’t let us near them,” said the driver/tour guide passing a RAMSAR wetland site 15 years ago.

We’ve moved on.

Fiordland tourism pioneer Les Hutchins once said that conservation is the cornerstone of New Zealand’s tourism industry. Others caught on. Tourism companies began doing conservation work – stoat trapping, tree planting, kiwi hatching, fundraising for conservation projects, educating, advocating. Just marketing ploys, said the cynics. So what? Tourism companies today, big and small, are involved in so many conservation programmes it has to be making a difference.

Our nature tourism companies have also become world class, educational and intelligent, says Dave Bamford of TRC Tourism, international consultant on sustainable tourism development. He names tourism ventures based

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| Forest & Bird

around Kaikoura, the sub-Antarctic Islands, Kapiti Island and Hokianga’s tiny Footprints Waipoua as examples.

Wildlife parks have evolved. Take Rainbow Springs, and the outstanding conservation success of Kiwi Encounter where, to date, more than 1000 kiwi eggs from the wild have been hatched and young kiwi nurtured. Even the park’s massive new ride, the Big Splash, presents an educational “eco tour” using modern technology to tell the story of New Zealand’s ecological evolution.

The guardians of our natural heritage today are the people running nature tourism operations out there, says Gerry McSweeney, Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador and owner of Wilderness Lodges. “Instead of the public servant you have the Catlins Wildlife Trekkers, the White Heron Sanctuaries, the Okarito Nature Tours, the Real Journeys and more, who are mostly supporting conservation work. The government has gone into a facilitator’s role, testing the limits of non-compliance.”

It seems we’ve moved on again, or is that back?

Department of Conservation funds have been slashed and protection measures revoked to foster commercial development. There’s government talk of mines, a dam

NATURE OF TOMORROW There are huge benefits for the tourism industry to be engaged in conservation partnership but it has to be very carefully managed. They have to be partnerships without compromise.

Mark Hanger and a tunnel, and “commercial partnerships” with tourism companies. The symbiotic relationship between tourism and conservation is now not only recognised, it has become more important than ever. Where will it lead?

The economy is clouding this government’s view about the conservation estate and it’s a short-term view, says Mark Hanger, nature tourism operator for the past 27 years and Forest & Bird Executive member. “Tourism companies are putting back into conservation but whether the management of our conservation estate and national treasures should rely on that is a different matter.

There are huge benefits for the tourism industry to be engaged in conservation partnership but it has to be very carefully managed. They have to be partnerships without compromise. That’s the difficulty we have.”

The dilemma is that individuals in DOC see the tourism industry as a means to get out of the core role of advocacy, adds Bamford. “I’m talking about the example of moving out of education and dropping summer programmes for New Zealanders on holiday. That’s an incredibly backward step if you want young New Zealanders to learn and understand the benefits of conservation and outdoor recreation. Tourism companies will only pick up the highvolume or value part of that.

“There is also the dilemma of confusing issues such as development impacts of tourism (and on tourism) such as the Dart tunnel, compared with low-impact, sustainable nature tourism products.”

The Dart tunnel proposal fosters the myth that all travel to Piopiotahi/Milford Sound must begin and end at Queenstown, our holy grail of tourism that pays huge homage to fuel-thirsty jet boats, helicopters and coaches.

It’s the full bling, says Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell, yet the jet boats and helicopters rely on our lakes, mountains and clean green New Zealand branding to attract their visitors.

“The future is going to be very different. It’s not going to be about pumping people in and out of Milford Sound, not 30 buses parked at a waterfall running their diesel engines waiting for their passengers to take their photos. People are going to pay more to get here so they are going to look for a high-value experience, to see our natural species in a good environment.”

Slowing down is a positive trend, says McSweeney. “The one-night stay is becoming three. People are coming [to our lodges] for walking and kayaking, not to pass through overnight. Just as the slow food movement has transformed a lot of dining styles, I see ‘slow travel’ as recapturing past traditions of engaging with people and places you visit. It is a lot more demanding, and interactive, than filling a jet boat or helicopter and buzzing them around.”

He says this growing niche includes whole families catching up in their busy lives. Happily, it seems the trend

also applies to Chinese tourists, the current darlings of marketing arm Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) and more known for coach tours and shopping. Last year 145,000 Chinese visited New Zealand, 25,000 more than in 2007. However their holiday stay averaged just 6.1 days, compared with that of longer-haul markets Germany (44 days), United Kingdom (27 days) and United States (14.6 days).

Nevertheless, an increasing number of travellers from China are self-organised and slowing down, says Dr Wolfgang Art, director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. “New Chinese tourists are arriving in more diverse locations and staying longer than just a snap shot. They are more likely to add special-interest sights and activities to their itineraries.”

1 Slow, low-impact tourism … walkers enjoy lunch on the Hollyford

track in Fiordland.

2 Visitors discover the Northland coast.

2 Forest & Bird

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3

People are going to pay more to get here so they are going to look for a high-value experience, to see our natural species in a good environment.

Kevin Hackwell Bamford agrees, and sees Asian markets per se as increasingly interested in nature tourism and wildlife.

“Wildlife tours are growing in Asia and this will overflow to New Zealand. Nature tourism packaged to meet the needs of Asian markets is a definite growth area. They want to see wildlife in a controlled and managed environment without any adventure focus, which helps lessen environmental impacts. They don’t want a free for all spotting penguins on an Otago beach.”

Northland Conservation Board member and Dive!

Tutukaka’s Jeroen Jongejans see a huge future in marine tourism. In 1980, Jongejans received death threats from fishermen when he advocated for creation of the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve, and he’s been advocating for marine protection ever since. He believes the dreadful track record in the way the oceans have been treated has created an appetite to turn things around.

“We are fortunate in New Zealand we haven’t stuffed it up completely, so we have the opportunity for economic and environmental benefits to go hand in hand. With new legislation imminent regarding the set up of marine reserves I can see a huge focus on the marine environment.

Greater interaction, understanding and participation will help us educate our visitors. The biodiversity of the oceans, the huge variety in product offerings and the employment of a lot of people in this sector, to provide world-class interpretation and service, will further enhance and sustain a healthy tourism industry in New Zealand.”

Rodney Russ, of Heritage Expeditions, is similarly optimistic. He foresees a traveller reaction against the predictable, risk-adverse experiences of the big 30

| Forest & Bird

consortiums now controlling expedition cruising, which he says seek profits first and pay lip service to conservation.

“Travellers want to push boundaries, they want experiences that sensitise them and they want meaningful messages.

It is an invitation to be innovative and [accordingly] new business opportunities have emerged.”

The Sub-Antarctic Islands World Heritage Site is a perfect platform for thoughtful conservation messages about the importance of terrestrial/oceanic interrelationships, he says. “We talk about and promote marine protected areas now whereas a few years ago we didn’t even dare believe we could protect significant areas of our oceans.”

Russ is also positive about the future of private/public partnerships. “We are receiving some exciting overtures with a shared vision of [conservation] outcomes, which include research, management and advocacy. We have come of age and are finally being taken seriously as a partner.”

Back on land, the advent of big tourism consortiums also preys on McSweeney’s mind. “Whether it’s cruise ships or campervan companies, the big players are getting bigger.

The future of tourism and conservation is about the little communities getting benefits, the communities who save their forests, it’s the environmental pay-off for not being able to log anymore.”

Bamford is more relaxed. “I think we will see the continuation of responsible large players at one end, for example Real Journeys and Explore New Zealand, and at the other we’ll see mergers and acquisitions of smaller operators. Nature tourism and national park tourism will

Photo: G R Parrish/DOC

continue to be strongly New Zealand owned. We will see mergers but it will be locals who see and understand the opportunities, not international investors.”

In any case, it could all be academic. Take a longer, say, 20-year view, and the cost of carbon and getting people to New Zealand will be an issue, says Hackwell. “It’s amazing how absent in action the tourism industry has been on this, though it’s been good to see Air New Zealand at the forefront of investigating biofuels. Of all the countries that need to be sustainable it’s New Zealand.

“It’s going to be about branding and that’s not going to be about zipping around in jet boats. It will be getting here on bio-fuels and seeing a really sustainable country.”

Geoff Gabites, of small group walking and cycling tour company Adventure South, sees our future visitors coming from Australia and the Pacific Rim. “The price of fuel will continue to grow and eventually very long haul travel will decline, unless we find alternative fuel.”

Susan Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University and Lincoln University, thinks we have our collective head in the sand. “Oil prices are increasing and not only tourism but the whole economy depends on cheap oil. If oil prices increase, economies all around the

Amazing facts about…

BLACK-EYED GECKOS

By Michelle Harnett

I

mported autumn colours have faded across the land.

Snow is covering the high peaks of the Kaiköura ranges, the white expanses contrasting with the stark seawardfacing, rocky cliffs. Safely hidden in the crevices of this harsh environment, enigmatic black-eyed geckos (Hoplodactylus kahutarae) are hunkering down for winter.

The distant ancestors of New Zealand’s 80-ish species of endemic geckos and skinks were present when the land separated from Gondwana about 80 million years ago.

Local geckos have some of the most primitive anatomy in the world, but that does not mean they have stayed still evolutionarily. Geckos have adapted to live just about everywhere in New Zealand, from the seashore to forests to the high alpine regions inhabited by the black-eyed gecko.

world suffer, and this is exactly the environment that’s not conducive to tourism, let along long-distance travel.”

Becken is stunned the government is showing no concern about peak oil when some experts predict we have a window of 10 years at most to radically change.

“What surprises me is the political debate on carbon taxes and the absence of discussion on our dependence on oil.

Decarbonising tourism is the answer to both. Renewable energy sources, smart transport networks and rethinking of our markets are our future options.

“What about attracting people for a three or sixmonth stay, for example, a sabbatical? We should also acknowledge that (and allocate resources for) domestic tourism will be critical and will increasingly become the bread and butter of the industry,” she says.

Kathy Ombler is a Wellington-based freelance journalist and author specialising in conservation and nature tourism.

Her books include Where to Watch Birds in New Zealand and Walking Wellington.

3 Heritage Expeditions pushes conservation messages in its

expeditions to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands.

Photo: David Hallett

Nocturnal and living in remote and inaccessible places, the black-eyed gecko was unknown until 1970. The best way to find it is at night, watching for torchlight reflecting from their black eyes. Why their eyes are black is unknown but, like all geckos, their transparent eyelids are fused together and they have to lick their eyes with their long tongues to keep them moist.

In common with other New Zealand lizards living in cold, harsh conditions, black-eyed geckos give birth to live young (usually twins) in late spring/early summer every second year. They are also likely to be very long lived (New Zealand geckos can live for 20 years or more).

The biggest mystery surrounding black-eyed geckos is how they survive more than 1300 metres above the sea in places where snow can fall in summer. One suggestion is that the geckos take advantage of natural passive solar heating. Their exposed, rocky homes warm up in the sun, store the heat and release it slowly during the night.

It is not easy to find out more about black-eyed geckos.

Lizard experts have to climb mountains, cope with difficult terrain and search for them at night. No one knows how big the black-eyed gecko population is, or how far it spreads.

Black-eyed geckos have also been discovered on Mt Arthur in Kahurangi National Park in Nelson and it seems likely that the geckos may be spread quite widely through the mountains of the upper South Island.

The lack of knowledge about black-eyed geckos makes it difficult to establish if they are under threat or endangered. Their high mountain hidey-holes might keep them safe from rats and other introduced predators.

The recent discovery of the unique alpine black-eyed gecko emphasises just how little we know about the world we live in. Perhaps the most amazing fact of all is that New Zealand is still full of hidden treasures waiting to be found.

Forest & Bird

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our people

Lizard man shares lessons H

ermann Frank is known in Timaru for teaching local school children with special needs. But the Forest & Bird South Canterbury branch committee member has another role as a lizard researcher, for which he traipses the local countryside peering under rocks to find rare and, rather inconveniently, hidden skinks and geckos.

Hermann’s foray into researching lizards began in 2008 when he received a teacher fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand. The fellowship enabled him to forego classroom duties and undertake a year-long study of lizards in South Canterbury’s limestone areas. It was pioneering work. Little was known about lizard populations in the area as there were few accidental observations and fossil records gave only sketchy and outdated information on local species.

Hermann’s work attempted to rectify that. And three years after the fellowship he’s still learning more about lizards in the area, their habitats and ways to keep them safe.

His lizard research came from a broader love for the environment. “I’ve had an interest in the natural environment and natural history for most of my adult life,” he says. In his native country he was involved in various conservation projects, which proved invaluable for his fellowship research.

“I’ve been involved in similar things in Germany, like projects for owls and bird counts. I set up a working group for bats in the region where I lived, and did a similar sort of research for dragonflies. I knew a little bit about what to look for and data collection, so it wasn’t new in that sense.

But I hadn’t done anything in New Zealand at that stage.”

1

Lizards, he says, are a new interest and the subject of his first conservation project since moving to New Zealand 20 years ago. “In Germany we don’t have as many lizards as we have here in New Zealand. My interest has developed over the years ... I didn’t know much about them, so I wanted to know more.”

He used three methods to survey lizards in limestone areas of South Canterbury. In the first, artificial lizard retreats were distributed across nearly 50 farms. Each of the 300 “retreats”, made from stacked layers of roofing material, was inspected twice at two separate locations.

Hermann also spent hours searching for basking lizards, and peering under rocks and down cracks in limestone cliffs, across 2500 hectares of private land.

He was supported in his work by herpetologist Marieke Lettink, his mentor Deborah Wilson from Landcare, plus a small group of students and Forest & Bird members.

Three species were observed in the area – the common skink, McCann’s skink and the Southern Alps gecko.

Hermann also mapped the location, abundance, immediate environment and species of each observed lizard. A fourth species, the rare jewelled gecko, has gone from the limestone habitat, but three small populations were found in bush remnants elsewhere.

Although back in the classroom, Hermann hasn’t given up researching lizards. His work established the loss of habitats, primarily through land development, is the main threat to lizards. So he’s shifted his focus to retaining and protecting their habitats. A large part of that is talking to landowners and making them aware that there are resident lizards that need protecting. He also explains that removing stone piles and using toxic sprays to kill weeds can destroy lizard habitats.

He’s hoping to persuade landowners to find alternatives, or tell him months before destroying the habitats, so he can catch the lizards and move them to a safe place.

His work is certainly bringing geckos and skinks into the spotlight. In 2009 the South Canterbury Museum exhibited his findings, and he’s currently working with the Timaru District Council to develop a management plan for some council-owned properties to provide better lizard habitats.

Top of the list is turning a disused council-owned quarry into a lizard reserve.

Hermann regularly gives up part of his weekend to squeeze in his lizard work. “It’s the joy of observing lizards, and other animals and plants, in their natural environment and the concern that we might lose more of them that keeps me motivated. They need people to advocate for them,” he says. n Jolene Williams 1 McCann’s skink is one of three lizards Hermann Frank has turned up

in South Canterbury. Photo: Hermann Frank

2

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| Forest & Bird

2 Hermann Frank is helping South Cantabrians protect the skinks and

geckos in their region.

When a PM led Forest & Bird S

ir Thomas Mackenzie had greater success as Forest & Bird’s first president than he ever did as prime minister.

He held New Zealand’s top seat for less than four months, compared with seven years at the helm of what was then known as the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society.

Throughout his career the Dunedin-raised Scottish immigrant combined his love for politics and nature, and as a result helped raise conservation issues to a parliamentary level.

At Sir Thomas’ suggestion, Captain Valentine Sanderson formed the Native Bird Protection Society in 1923. History credits the captain as the Society’s founder, and he was certainly a driving force in the early years and later as president. But it was his conservationist comrade who was first elected to front the Society, which later became the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.

The Society tried to protect native birds by raising awareness and appreciation. From the onset it adopted a strong stance against the introduction of new birds and animals.

Part of its mission was to bring changes on a national level by lobbying the government for legislative change. In 1927 the Society voiced opposition against the Department of Internal Affairs’ efforts to transfer South Island native birds to North Island reserves without considering the possibility of hybridisation. The Society’s complaints stopped the transfers.

Sir Thomas’ career also included surveying, farming and commerce, but his active interest in the wilderness also earned him the title “explorer”.

He was a member of various expeditions in Fiordland and the Catlins. He helped open the Milford Track, found the Mackenzie Pass in what is now Fiordland National Park and was the first person to try to map an overland route to Dusky Sound.

Historian Tom Brooking said Sir Thomas “had a genuine love of the wilderness, and found the joy of discovering the unknown provided the perfect escape from the tedium of politics”. But Sir Thomas frequently entwined the two, using political channels to advance conservation interests.

As early as 1894 he suggested Fiordland should be made a national park, criticised the Liberals for opening bush

Acquisitions was proud to be involved with the ‘A Celebration of New Zealand Birds’ event held in London recently.

reserves for settlement and argued that seals and various native birds should be protected. In 1922 he tried to add pükeko and paradise ducks to the protected list.

By the time he was elected president of the Native Bird Protection Society, Sir Thomas had already held numerous posts in local and central government, including a brief stint as Prime Minister in 1912, High Commissioner in London and a delegate at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Sir Thomas’ career was most concentrated on conservation during the 1920s, and he remained president of the Native Bird Protection Society until his death in 1930.

Captain Sanderson wrote in the Society’s bulletin on 15 May 1930: “The demise of our late President, the Hon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, has been very unfortunate ... during all his lifetime, including the time when he lay on his death bed, his great activity and zeal in the interests of our native birds has been marked.” n Jolene Williams

Sir Thomas Mackenzie (centre) with politicians James Craigie and Thomas Buxton on a walking tour about 1910. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library/ PA1-o-306-47

Antics 15cm Bird

with Real Sound

22.99

$

www.acquisitions.co.nz

RESTORING THE BALANCE Accredited as a sustainable vineyard and winery under the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand program, we are currently in conversion to organic viticulture – further minimising our impact on the land and bringing things back into balance.

Forest & Bird

| 33

proud to be a

member

Northerners get the message F

ar North Forest & Bird member May Adams really is giving nature a voice. Whether talking to people in the street or distributing Forest & Bird magazines, the longstanding member has made it her mission to help spread Forest & Bird’s message in the Far North.

May and her husband Glynne travel to Kerikeri from their rural south Hokianga property two to three times a year to bring Forest & Bird to the public. In Kerikeri, they set up a public display outside a New World supermarket, put up posters and distribute Forest & Bird leaflets. They’re also on hand to answer questions about the Society and collect donations.

May says her drive has helped bring in new members.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people and I think a lot of people have become members because they can ask questions [while I’m there].

“Collecting money, that’s not the main thing – it’s the distribution of those scientifically resourced Forest & Bird articles which change public consciousness. Massdisseminated information can often not be well researched and so confuses people in this age of over-abundant information.”

The retired teacher is also thinking about the next generation and regularly requests surplus KCC Wild Things magazines from head office. She delivers them and any spare posters to schools and marae in the area. “This is a

much poorer zone,” she says, “and they have been much appreciated. With the magazines, children can see the logic of why we need to protect our wildlife.” She posts petitions and membership forms to the region’s bigger libraries in Kerikeri, Kaitäia and Kaikohe.

Forest & Bird Supporter Relations Manager Rebecca Scelly is blown away

by May’s generous deeds. “She’s done all of this off her own bat, she’s never been asked. She’s one of our little gems.”

May’s much more modest. “I don’t do much. These are quite simple ideas.

These are little things one can do from home that can really make a big difference.”

If you have a story to tell about why you joined Forest & Bird or why you’re proud to be part of Forest & Bird, please let us know. Send your letter (up to 200 words) to Marina Skinner, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or to m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz Members who appear on this page will receive a copy of the beautiful hardback Kermadec: Nine Artists Explore the South Pacific.

Farmers with conservation focus I

t’s backyard conservation with a difference. The difference, for organic dry stock farm owners Ian Brennan and Trisha Wren, is some 87 hectares and a 100-year plan. The Forest & Bird members bought the degraded farm near Cambridge after moving from Scotland in 2005.

The former computer programmers saw it as the ideal place to live, work, connect with their conservation roots and ultimately give something back to nature. Their first job was to fence 16 hectares of remnant forest and place it under a QEII covenant. Since then, they’ve planted

Trisha Wren and Ian Brennan in their native plant nursery.

Photo: Heidi Quinn

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8000 native trees on marginal land and they plan further plantings on 32 hectares of land too steep to farm.

One of their long-term goals is to create a sustainable native timber lot. “Native forest will provide permanent habitat and erosion control,” Ian says. “If managed correctly, it could also provide a sustainable income using selective logging.”

Individual trees will be removed using low-impact logging techniques, rather than clear felling. “What we’re trying to recreate is 32 hectares of forest ecosystem. The first of these trees won’t be cut for timber until 80 years hence, and then a maximum of 12.5 per cent of the trees will be felled in any 10-year period.”

Ian and Trisha have created three ponds to attract wetland wildlife and started a plant nursery. They’re planting native strips on pasture for habitats and stock shelter, and they’ve converted an old woolshed into country cottage-style accommodation.

Ian and Trish are determined to keep the landscape true to its natural character. “I want people to be able to stand anywhere on the farm and know they’re in New Zealand,” says Ian. “Having more birds and frogs – the wildlife, that’s what motivates me.”

More information: www.cassiesfarm.co.nz

rangatahi our future

Students seek out high life Two students failed to keep their feet on the ground during their research into native epiphytes. By Jolene Williams.

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ew ecology students get the privilege of being suspended 20 metres in the air in the name of science.

But for University of Waikato graduates Catherine Bryan and Fiona Clarkson, “tree climbing”, with the help of a harness and ropes, was a vital component for their Master’s theses that delved into the world of epiphytes.

Catherine, 24, and Fiona, 26, have each spent the last two years investigating epiphytes in the Waikato region.

Typically found in the forks of canopy trees, some up to 40 metres off the ground, it’s easy to see why little research has been done in New Zealand about these plant species that perch and grow on others.

Fiona’s thesis focused on the distribution of the endemic shrub epiphyte Pittosporum cornifolium in the Waikato region. “I started looking at the historical research where it had been growing and checking to see if it was still there,” she says. Fiona could only locate two populations in Waikato, out of 15 that had been known to grow in the region.

She then compared the genetic make-up of the local population with those growing in Taranaki forests, and was not surprised to find they were genetically different.

Fiona’s research confirms the once abundant Pittosporum cornifolium populations have dwindled over the last 40 years and it highlights the importance of eco-sourcing seeds for future restoration work. This will ensure the seeds used in restoration projects will have the optimum genetic blueprint for the region’s environment.

Catherine’s research focused on epiphytes in urban forest restoration. “We know how to bring canopy trees back, and we know how to bring shrubs back, but we don’t know enough about how to get epiphytes back.” She discovered 40 per cent of epiphytes that occur in the wider region’s forests were missing in remnants around Hamilton, and identified the species with the greatest decline.

She also studied the physiology of the shrub epiphyte Griselinia lucida and found it has effective adaptations to cope with drought-prone canopy habitats Epiphytes are an often forgotten part of native forests, but Fiona says they’re just as important as other plants.

“They contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as food, habitat and nesting materials for native wildlife.” Catherine adds: “We are studying them because not many people know about epiphytes and when people attempt forest restoration, epiphytes are often left out.”

They’ve already presented their findings to 11 interested groups, including the New Zealand Ecology Society’s annual conference last year, where they won awards for the best and runner-up student presentations.

Hamilton City Council has picked up their work and earlier this year agreed to trial an epiphyte restoration in the city’s forest reserves. The idea is to bring back two of the native shrub epiphytes that have disappeared from the

city’s forests. The pair planted about 40 epiphyte plants in the forks of trees, some with the help of nails and straps, and will monitor the conditions of the plants throughout the year. This research will help establish best-practice planting methods so other councils and restoration groups can bring epiphytes back to city forests.

Tree climbing aside, it was exciting work for Catherine and Fiona, with both admitting to a love for the outdoors.

They also enjoyed being on the forefront of discovery – finding out what needs to be done to bring epiphytes back to urban forests.

Catherine says the attraction of studying epiphytes was partly due to the intrinsic value of their research. “We’re both passionate about New Zealand forests and nothing had been done to answer the questions we had. We knew that our information would be taken up.”

Fiona Clarkson, left, and Catherine Bryan swapped the classroom for the outdoors to research the often forgotten epiphyte plants. Photo: Rachel Thomson

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River kaitiaki

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After bringing Northland’s polluted rivers to New Zealanders’ attention, Millan Ruka inspired the setting up of a network of watchdogs for the rest of the nation’s degraded waterways. By David Brooks.

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rmed with a GPS camera, a boat and a keen eye, Northland man Millan Ruka devotes much of his spare time to documenting the rapid decline in the health of his beloved local rivers – a problem some would prefer swept under the carpet. From his shallowdraft jet boat or distinctive purple kayak, Millan records cows defecating and urinating into rivers, and stripping vegetation from river banks, and bloated cattle carcasses fouling the water.

The 61-year-old building assessor presents his evidence to the Northland Regional Council, which is responsible for the health of the region’s waterways. But the council says there is little it can do – it has no rules requiring fences to keep cattle away from the rivers and banks.

Millan is not easily deterred and his campaign has increasingly attracted local and national attention to the problems that have been turning Northland’s rivers into muddy ditches. “We need to fence the rivers and streams, that’s the only thing that will improve water quality in our rivers, to move stock off the river banks,” Millan says.

He also wants independent river patrollers and a set of standards for protecting river banks from stock. Northland Regional Council needs to accept its responsibility for the health of the waterways and make fencing of rivers compulsory, he says.

He calculates he has spent $80,000 of his own money documenting the damage to Northland’s rivers, along with countless hours patrolling the rivers, presenting his evidence to the regional council and in front of the computer, compiling reports and communicating his findings. Millan keeps vigil over an area that includes the upper Wairua River and its tributaries, including the Waiotu and Mangakähia rivers. The Wairua is the main feeder of the Wairoa River, which flows through Dargaville and eventually into the Kaipara, the largest harbour in

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the southern hemisphere and a vital nursery for snapper, kahawai, gurnard and other fish.

Water quality in Northland’s rivers has declined sharply in recent decades and the region’s dairy farmers have had one of the poorest records of compliance with the voluntary Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. Millan has known the region’s rivers since he was a boy and is saddened they no longer run clear and full of life. The decline intensified after the 1970s when the Hikurangi Swamp was drained and the land converted to dairying and beef farming.

He acknowledges the economic importance of dairy and beef farmers but says this does not mean farmers can ignore their environment responsibilities. “There are lots of good farmers but some bad ones too and we have to ensure they do the right thing for our rivers and streams.”

Millan and his wife and children lived for nearly a decade in Papua New Guinea from 1987 and he had looked forward to returning home and taking his young sons on the rivers he had enjoyed as a boy. “When we got back I did a trip with my sons on the Mangakähia and Wairua rivers to go duck shooting. They were very polluted, we hardly saw any ducks and the boys weren’t interested really.

The river was in such a bad state, it was like going down a ditch, the cattle had been stripping the banks, and there was slippage all along the bare banks where all the willows had been poisoned by farmers.”

Another incident that spurred him into action was the death of an old eel, up to 60 years old, living in a creek near his house. He had been feeding the eel for about a year when it was killed by waste tipped into the creek. “I was upset about that – these tuna [eels] have the same kind of lifespan we do.”

Eels are our rivers’ equivalent of the canary in the coalmine and their decline was one of the first signs for Millan that the local waterways were in trouble. The

draining of swamp land, the development of dairy and beef farming and the expansion of the Wairua Power Station have all contributed to their decline.

He decided in 2010 to set up a trust, which led to his setting up of Environment River Patrol Aotearoa to focus on river and stream pollution. He overcame some initial wariness from his hapu, Te Uriroroi, and other hapu in the area, by convincing them he was working for the welfare of their rivers.

The voluntary Dairy and Clean Streams Accord involving regional councils, farmers, the government and Fonterra has not been effective in helping to clean up rivers. An audit this year showed the accord’s progress reports were overstating the amount of riverbank fencing done by farmers, prompting dairy giant Fonterra to make fencing compulsory for all the farmers supplying it with milk.

“It is great that dairy is getting compulsory fencing but what about beef? In Northland there are 275,000 dairy cattle and 465,000 beef cattle. Farmers will be able to replace dairy cattle with beef on the river banks,” Millan says.

His campaign has drawn local and national attention and led to others wanting to set up river patrol groups around the country to document the decline of water quality in our rivers and streams. A meeting in late March in Wellington was held to set up an a national grouping of river patrols.

Grant Muir was one of those keen to join the new group.

The Wairarapa farmer, artist and businessman has become well known through the documentary River Dog, filmed by his son James. It shows the work Grant is doing at the Pahaoa River in the Wairarapa to stop damage caused by cattle owned by neighbouring farmers.

Millan’s Mäori ancestry is an important part of why he feels the need to act as a kaitiaki (guardian) for his local rivers, though he recognises that many Päkehä are equally passionate about our rivers. “My ancestors would be ashamed if I did not stand up and do something about it.

We have to act as kaitiaki for our tüpuna [ancestors].”

2 1 The Wairoa is the largest river in Northland, and is fed by the

Manganui and Wairua rivers. Photo: David Brooks

2 Millan Ruka on the Wairua River. Photo: Millan Ruka 3 Dairy cows on the banks of the Whakapara River. Photo: Millan Ruka

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Down the drain The decline of the water quality of Northland’s rivers is being seen throughout much of New Zealand, especially in lowland areas. Forest & Bird is highlighting the worsening quality of our freshwater and some of the actions we must take to improve the situation through our Freshwater for Life campaign.

The problems we are highlighting include: n Surveys show New Zealanders believe declining freshwater quality is our most important environmental issue. n If present trends continue, most of our native freshwater species will be extinct by 2050. n Despite a big decline in numbers, longfin eels and the five native fish species that make up whitebait can still be commercially harvested. n 90 per cent of our wetlands – which act as a purifying system for water and are home to a profusion of native plant and animal species – have already been drained. n The amount of nitrogen fertiliser used by New Zealand farmers has jumped eightfold in two decades. n The size of the national dairy herd has risen from 4 million in 1995 to 6.2 million last year, and the national beef herd stood at 3.9 million in 2011. n Inadequate sewerage and stormwater systems mean many of our towns and cities are polluting our waterways. n In some areas, too much water is being extracted from rivers for irrigation, leaving inadequate flows.

4 A dead cow at the confluence of the Whakapara, Waiotu and Wairua

rivers. Photo: Millan Ruka

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Balancing ‘Conservation net losses’, ‘net gains’ and ‘biodiversity offsetting’ are being bandied about in a new era in which the economic value of nature is being measured. But are we trading away our natural heritage? Jolene Williams investigates.

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ike it or not, biodiversity offsetting is part of our future.

With a growing population and finite resources, conservation is increasingly being squeezed as energy companies, developers and governments look to make a quick buck.

Biodiversity offsetting is a measure that essentially permits developments that sacrifice the conservation values of one area – by damming a river or developing a commercial ski field, for example – in return for improved conservation values of another. The primary aim is to carry out developments while achieving no net loss or preferably a net gain for biodiversity.

Put another way, a developer will take your apple and give you an orange for your trouble.

All well and good if you treasure oranges, but what if your apple was indigenous and critically endangered?

What if your apple was actually a little spotted kiwi – would you swap?

Biodiversity offsetting is not a new concept.

Internationally, it’s been around for decades under various names. But only in the last 10 years or so has the term come into popular use and the concept gained currency.

Offsetting in New Zealand is still in the early stages but rapidly developing, according to Forest & Bird solicitor Peter Anderson. We don’t yet have formal legislation, but the Environment Court has for some time accepted biodiversity offsets within certain parameters. The parameters are continually evolving as more cases go through the court.

The courts are using the Ministry for the Environment’s draft National Policy Statement (NPS) on Indigenous Biodiversity. Though the NPS is yet to be finalised, it will eventually provide the legal framework for biodiversity offsetting – by describing when and how offsetting can be applied, and if it can be applied at all.

The NPS makes clear that offsetting is to be the last option for developers, who must first attempt to avoid, remedy then mitigate adverse environmental impacts.

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act

Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says theoretically offsets are no bad thing. No net loss – or a conservation gain even – certainly sounds like a win for nature. But he’s sceptical because if environmental impacts cannot be “adequately mitigated” as the NPS stipulates, then perhaps the development shouldn’t happen at all.

“We’ve got these companies wanting to use it to argue for major developments that they would otherwise lose. The Resource Management Act would say no, the Environment Court would say no. My biggest concern is companies will misuse it because they want someone to say yes,” Kevin says.

Take, for example, Bathurst Resources’ plan to mine the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast. The Australian mining company is prepared to pour money into conservation projects to gain support for its bid to decimate the environmentally unique Denniston Plateau.

Chief executive Hamish Bohannan told the New Zealand Herald, “We share a passion to protect New Zealand’s conservation” and the company will put “significant effort” into rehabilitating and protecting flora and fauna. He promises the company will “deliver environmental benefits that exceed impacts”.

Mr Bohannan proclaims his oranges are more valuable than our apples. Those apples, by the way, are rare and nationally significant ecosystems, home to unique species like the West Coast green gecko, giant land snails and bonsai rata.

Kevin says Bathurst’s offsetting deal would nullify the very foundation of the aim to achieve “no net loss” of biodiversity. “Denniston Plateau is a unique environment and [Bathurst Resources] is going to blow it up and bulldoze it. The site will be completely and utterly damaged. It doesn’t matter how good [the compensation] is, there’s nothing they can do to replace the unique things they will inevitably destroy. It will never be the same again.”

Quite simply, it shouldn’t happen.

Kevin also raises the potential for developers to misuse biodiversity offsetting. For instance, Bathurst’s’ compensation package may seem pretty good at face value, but underlying factors mask its true merit.

The company has proposed to fund 5620 hectares of predator control in the Heaphy River catchment area for the next 35 years as part of its deal. Kevin says the Department of Conservation had previously signalled a commitment to this work. So where is the “net gain”? The environment on the West Coast doesn’t win. DOC does because it saves a few pennies.

Furthermore, there’s no guarantee Bathurst will operate for the next 35 years. What will happen to pest control if the company goes bust? And when Bathurst terminates funding in 35 years, then what?

Peter says offsetting is not all doom and gloom.

“A project going ahead with offsets is better than the project going ahead without.” So the environmental outcome is better with the offset, if the project was going to get the green light anyway, he says.

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Some argue biodiversity offsetting can potentially bring ecological benefits – more conservation areas under protection, for example, or improved understanding of the existing biodiversity before project development. Kevin says international experience indicates this is unlikely to be the case. There’s been little auditing of the success of biodiversity offsets. And where this has occurred in the United States, 40 per cent of the offsets were found not to exist and only about a third of those that did protected the agreed values.

Like Kevin, Peter’s concerned about the practical application of offsetting. It’s important the conservation values in the affected area are measured very carefully, he says. You can’t simply destroy one ecosystem, or part of it, and restore another. The whole ecological make-up needs to be considered in all its complexity. Look beyond the beech trees and you’ll see scattered totara, layers of bush under the canopy and wildlife inhabiting these areas. A broad brush approach, he says, just won’t do.

There needs to be a detailed evaluation of the affected ecosystems. And from there, an offset developed to ensure an equal or positive net result for the environment.

Peter anticipates considerable debate will arise, both in the Environment Court and elsewhere, about where biodiversity offsets are appropriate and where they are not.

Some argue biodiversity offsetting is less appropriate in New Zealand than other countries because of its rich biodiversity and near pristine habitats. Kevin says:

“Overseas, almost every habitat has been modified at some stage in the past ... Its applicability is less here, because we do have more ecosystems that haven’t been grossly modified.”

In 2009, Department of Conservation director-general Al Morrison acknowledged the difficulties of applying biodiversity offsetting, but recognised its permanent stake in future conservation. “It is not possible to put a market price on all of nature’s services. They do not fit neatly within conventional economic modelling. But we do know the price is not zero,” he says.

His words are both reassuring and ominous. They insinuate biodiversity offsets will not be applied carelessly, but notes there is a price for our environment.

DOC is managing a programme that investigates the feasibility of biodiversity offsetting in New Zealand. It says a shared vision of companies, communities, environmental groups and the government will be necessary to realise the “potentially large” benefits of offsetting.

Forest & Bird is developing its own biodiversity offsetting strategies because, as General Manager Mike Britton says, the Society will be a major player in its future application in New Zealand. “Forest & Bird is one of the organisations most actively engaged in resource management planning and the consideration of resource use applications. We’ll be making our voice for nature very strong in future discussions, to ensure the protection of biodiversity is the outcome.

Forest & Bird is one of the organisations most actively engaged in resource management planning and the consideration of resource use applications.

We’ll be making our voice for nature very strong in future discussions, to ensure the protection of biodiversity is the outcome.

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“We’ll also need to promote within the community the value of biodiversity and the value of conservation land so that New Zealanders understand what can be lost.”

Mike says Forest & Bird will keep a close eye on development proposals that include biodiversity offsetting.

And, like our appeals against mining Denniston and damming the Mökihinui River, we’re not afraid to challenge large-scale developments that threaten our environment.

Mining and power companies may have led the initial charge in offsetting, but Forest & Bird is determined to step into the arena. The future of our environment is at stake.

1 A weka on Denniston Plateau. Photo: Peter Langlands 2 Trapping for pests. Photo: DOC 3 Could any offer compensate for the loss of the West Coast’s

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Mökihinui River, on which Meridian Energy wants to build an 80-metre-high dam? Photo: Ian Trafford/iantraffordphotos.com

Cases in point

4 North Canterbury’s Mt Cass, the site for a new wind farm.

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Mt Cass wind farm: MainPower gained resource consent from the Environment Court in December 2011 to erect up to 67 turbines on a site at Mt Cass in North Canterbury. The court noted the site will spread across 24 hectares of limestone ecosystem, which, though “not pristine”, had “high species abundance, richness and diversity”. As part of the court ruling, MainPower agreed to a biodiversity offset that would protect 127 hectares of predominantly native shrubland and forest in a limestone-based ecosystem in the same area.

Transmission Gully motorway: The New Zealand Transport Agency project will use offsets to mitigate the adverse environmental effects of building a new motorway from Tawa to Kapiti Coast. The project will require several stream crossings and diversions, which would have been against the Wellington Regional Freshwater Plan. However NZTA successfully applied to have the plan modified to allow offsets for this project. The altered plan allows NZTA to offset adverse effects on streams where damage can’t be avoided and on-site mitigation can’t occur. This is likely to include restoring farmed catchments to native vegetation.

Tricks of the trade What is biodiversity offsetting? Is it a trade-off or a rip-off? Learn more about biodiversity offsetting in New Zealand at a special afternoon seminar at Forest & Bird’s Face up to the Future conference on June 15 at Te Papa in Wellington.

Keynote speakers will discuss how biodiversity offsetting is being applied in New Zealand and what it means for the environment.

To register or find out more information, please visit www.faceuptothefuture.org.nz or call 0800 200 064.

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going places

Walking on air Marina Skinner takes the easy option on a guided walk through the Greenstone and Routeburn valleys.

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s the 20 walkers pulled on modest backpacks, four guides loaded theirs with vacuum-packed slabs of meat and gently squashed bags of wholegrain bread. Burdened by a towering pack, guide Scott still set a brisk pace from the Greenstone Valley car park.

The rest of us spread out along the Greenstone track, and after a couple of hours found Scottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pack beside the track. We scrambled up a grassy bank and found him boiling a kettle in Ultimate Hikesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; private shelter.

Robins appeared beneath sun-washed beech trees and we held their attention by scuffing the leaf litter to uncover insects. A couple of riflemen clung to the tree trunks.

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Out of the forest cover we hit a head wind on the Greenstone River flats as we crossed small channels of the river. In parts, slimy didymo coated the rocks, and our guides banned us from rock hopping, warning us that wet boots were better than broken bones.

Hot showers at the private Steele Creek Lodge were luxury for trampers used to basic DOC huts, but the three big bunkrooms were simple enough. The wind nudged the trees near the lodge and the sun hit the tops of the raggedy Ailsa mountains as we tucked into spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread prepared by the multitasking guides.

Our getaway the next morning was slow, with a queue for the one-person swing bridge at the start of the track.

Mist in the red and mountain beech forest turned to drizzle as we moved into the open grasslands of the Greenstone Valley. Across the river, cattle grazed on introduced grasses, which have replaced much of the native tussock, though closer to the hillsides are small bog pines, dracophyllums and low hebes hanging on to the last of their white flowers.

As the mountains on either side of us came closer together, we turned back for a last glimpse of the Greenstone Valley, and headed into the beech forest.

Three kilometres on was McKellar Lodge, our base for the following two nights.

On our “rest” day at the lodge a few of us clambered up the nearby steep hill through damp forest to emerge among the alpine shrubs. The last of the season’s alpine flowers hung in there – a solitary white gentian and a few celmisias, or mountain daisies. But a ferocious wind let us stop only briefly to photograph the top of the Greenstone Valley, Lake McKellar 800 metres below and the surrounding mountains. In the afternoon we headed for a waterfall near the lake, scrambling over toppled beech trees, through glades of ferns and a trail of green-hooded orchids to reach a pretty tumble of water.

Our second breakfast at Lake McKellar Lodge began with 30 seconds of silence for Mitch, a young guide who died nearby that day three years ago. It was a poignant reminder of the dangers of these parts, of the life and death in this harsh landscape.

We skirted Lake McKellar, then continued the gentle climb to our lunch stop at the DOC Howden Hut. Here the Greenstone track meets the Routeburn track – one of New Zealand’s nine official Great Walks. After three days in the quiet Greenstone Valley, we felt like country folk coming to town, especially on the busy path to Key Summit, which is a popular short walk from the Milford Road.

Cloud hid most of the views at the top but we grabbed glimpses of Lake Marian across the Hollyford Valley. An excellent nature trail loops around the summit tarns, with information sheets and signs about the alpine plants there.

Three kilometres on we stopped at the foot of Earland Falls, tipping our heads back to see the 174-metre cascade.

A massive rock fall across the track from a year back tells of the shifting landscape. So do the ribbonwood trees that have sprung up in the wake of snow avalanches.

The deciduous native ribbonwoods reminded the first European explorers – who were following Mäori pounamu 2

3 (greenstone) trails – of fruit orchards back home.

Massive boulders before Lake Mackenzie Lodge were hard on knees that had endured 18 kilometres that day, the last few in cold rain. Lodge managers Arko and Chris greeted us with hot milo and slabs of coconut ice, before we were shown our rooms in the sprawling new complex, which is linked by covered walkways.

The private lodges on the Greenstone track are more than comfortable, but the Routeburn’s are at another level altogether. Forget about bunks, rustic floorboards or spongy couches – we’re talking single beds in small rooms, swanky sofas, massive picture windows and sauna-like drying rooms for hand-washed clothes. For the old-school trampers in our group, it’s over the top. But Ultimate Hikes is meeting a demand for top-notch accommodation, and plans to add en suite bathrooms to its Routeburn lodges, just as it’s done for the Milford track lodges.

Money can’t buy good weather, however, and the rain fell heavily that night. Tiny riflemen announced a better morning, and we set out in sunshine, past a low Lake Mackenzie and out of the forest to Ocean Peak Corner.

An older American couple refused to let fitness or boot troubles get in the way of completing the journey. When Charlene’s soles fell off her old boots, she strapped the uppers into her husband’s giant sandals and she finished the track – amazingly – without injury.

From Ocean Peak Corner, the views to the west unfold – of the Darran Mountains rising from the other side of the Hollyford River below us and, far away, the Tasman Sea at Martins Bay. Snow brought by the southerly the previous night draped several peaks. This landscape is on a grand and unfamiliar scale and, for many of us, made an emotional impact.

We stepped aside for the trampers coming the other way along the narrow track that runs the length of the Hollyford Face. We could fill our water bottles from the icy streams spilling from the slopes, knowing they are free of giardia, and we stopped to savour our surroundings in a tiny sheltered gully filled with flax, spiky spaniards and mountain daisies.

From the shelter at the Harris Saddle a few of us detoured off the main track to Conical Hill, the highest point of our walk. Magically, snow began to fall as we 1 A tarn at Key Summit on the Routeburn track. Photo: Craig Potton 2 Riflemen were often seen on the track. Photo: David Hallett 3 Looking down on Lake Harris. Photo: Craig Potton

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DART RIVER

ROUTEBURN

TRACK looked down on Lake Harris, but we decided it would be unsafe to climb any higher.

• GLENORCHY More snow, hail and sunbursts made an exhilarating cocktail as we descended into the Routeburn Valley. Between the tussock and the massive boulders flung from the peaks were edelweiss, some with tiny white GREENSTONE flowers, Mt Cook lilies and the yellow flowers TRACK QUEENSTOWN • of Mäori onion.

A lone käkä made an appearance, and robins and riflemen kept us company during the six-day walk, along with bellbirds and fantails, but we felt unlucky to see and hear so few birds. Perhaps luck or the weather were to blame but I’d say the rat and two mice I spotted by the track and the feral cat, hedgehog and stoat others saw – in broad Getting there: The Greenstone track starts at the daylight – offered a better explanation. It was disappointing mouth of the Greenstone River on Lake to experience a magnificent landscape without the native Wakatipu. It connects with the Routeburn wildlife that should be there – a bit like watching The Lord of or Caples tracks. The Routeburn track can the Rings with Frodo and Gandalf missing. Stepping up pest be walked in either direction – from the control in both valleys would help.

Routeburn Road end near Glenorchy, or On our final day we left Routeburn Falls Lodge and from Milford Road. followed the Route Burn down to the flats. My mother and I Staying there: Independent walkers can stay at DOC turned off the main track on to the old trail, which hugged the serviced huts on the Greenstone and river. Logs helped us across a small stream, which had once Caples tracks, or at campsites. DOC huts been bridged. Here, many years back, my father took his last on the Routeburn track – one of DOC’s breath while admiring the winter icicles on the bridge.

Great Walks – must be booked. Private This wild place has tested people for centuries as they lodges are for guided walkers. have sought greenstone, trading routes and enjoyment of

nature. It is a place for reflection and joy, and my father – like me – was fortunate to have walked these trails.

Guided walks:

Marina Skinner paid her own way on the Grand Traverse walk.

The six-day Grand Traverse guided walk of the Greenstone and Routeburn tracks is graded moderately difficult and costs from $1560. See www.ultimatehikes.co.nz

At Flooring Xtra, our local roots mean more.

Each of our stores has developed a business from the ground up, founded on honest to goodness local values, assisting people within each local region with their flooring to create better home or business environments.

Now, together as we grow beyond 50 stores nationally, we have a combined will to help better New Zealand’s greater environment. It’s why we have developed a partnership with New Zealand’s largest national conservation charitable organisation, Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.

The environmental programme, which we’ve called ‘Restoring New Zealand’s Forest Floor’, commits regular funding from every local Flooring Xtra store to Forest & Bird.

Because, like you, we’re locals who want to see local environments looking beautiful for generations to come.

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A more secure future for nature B

eing nature’s champion in the 21st century is a hard task – Goliath has never been bigger. There’s real pressure on New Zealanders to sacrifice our natural resources to fuel economic development. Putting forward a case against new coal mines, intensification of land use and huge tourism projects is going to be a huge challenge. To be a credible voice in the debate, we must present a case as well-researched and evidenced as the developers. In many cases, developers stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars and so can afford to throw everything they’ve got at acquiring consents.

Forest & Bird’s cases for nature need really good staff covering a range of expertise – advocates, lawyers, ecologists, researchers, communicators and all the people to keep the machine going. Our local conservation work carried out by branches needs more support, and more resources are needed to keep up with the growing Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) for children. We need everyone who cares about nature to make supporting Forest & Bird the most important thing to do if they want nature’s champion to grow too.

At the same time, we recognise it’s getting harder for ordinary people to make ends meet. For some, an annual subscription fee can become a low priority. That’s why Forest & Bird is following the lead of other charities here and overseas, (including our United Kingdom BirdLife partner, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and asking people to pay what they can afford.

We are asking people who want to do their bit for nature to pay the equivalent of just a cup of coffee a month for a basic membership. That’s $5. And if you can afford it, why not add the cost of a sandwich or a muffin too? That extra bit is tax deductible. This is the Membership Plus package. For those who really want to be a member but cannot afford that much, let us know and we’ll make sure you can still belong and contribute what you can – we want everyone to be part of the Forest & Bird family.

The next category is Nature’s Voice, for which the contribution roughly equals a weekly cup of coffee – or $25 a month. Again, the extra amount above the basic membership is tax deductible.

For nature to prosper we have to introduce children, particularly urban children, to its wonders. Our KCC reaches tens of thousands of children every year. But to grow the club we need support from the wider membership as well as those who have young kids. So for those with KCC-age children or grandchildren, or who just want to help kids learn more about nature we have the Nature’s Future membership at $39 a month, which adds a KCC membership to the usual adult Forest & Bird membership.

With more resources we’ll be able to expand KCC membership, collaborate more with schools, upskill volunteers and give Kiwi families greater opportunities to experience nature firsthand. KCC Officer Jenny Lynch says strengthening KCC will lead to a stronger Forest & Bird.

“It’s about making sure there’s another generation of young conservationists coming through,” Jenny says. “If

you invest in them at a young age, they often hold that interest and those habits for a lifetime.”

Existing members are welcome to stay on their current membership scheme. They can continue paying the same annual rates – and that goes for all adult memberships, discounted senior or student rates and corporate, lifetime or KCC memberships. But existing members can, if they wish, opt into one of the packages under the new membership structure. We stress that the choice is up to you.

Face to face recruiters on the street have been offering Nature’s Future and Nature’s Voice memberships, which, until now, have not been available through our website.

General Manager Mike Britton says the face to face programme has shown conclusively that significant numbers of new supporters are joining up.

Supporter Relations Manager Rebecca Scelly says: “Families are really keen to join the Nature’s Future package, and many of our supporters are commenting that they feel really good directly contributing to conservation projects in New Zealand.”

Mike says the many new members are helping to build a more sustainable Forest & Bird. “With the popularity of regular giving we have acknowledged that this is the key to our financial future.”And that is the key to nature’s future.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Supporter Relations Team on 0800 200 064.

For more information, visit our membership page at www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus

Since 2011 Forest & Bird has: n n n

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Helped in the Rena oil spill clean-up Distributed more than 50,000 Best Fish Guides Administered BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund, which last year distributed $100,000 to community projects in NZ and the wider Pacific Successfully opposed a resource consent to remove mangroves from Mangawhai Harbour, preserving an area crucial to critically endangered fairy terns Introduced 30 kökako and 90 whiteheads into Auckland’s Ark in the Park Launched campaigns and legal appeals to protect the Denniston Plateau from mining, and save the Mökihinui River from a dam Gained better protection of West Coast wetlands Distributed more than 8000 Vote For Nature posters around the country before the general election Organised 150 people for a Denniston BioBlitz Treasured an immeasurable number of hours by members planting over 200,000 trees, setting over 10,000 predator traps, weeding and helping spread Forest & Bird messages

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Arthur C Clarke’s guide to

1

Carolyn King looks boldly at a future where kiwi and other native birds might roam safe from introduced pests.

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iwi are our national icon, yet New Zealand’s five species of kiwi are all seriously at risk. Two are perilously close to extinction, and one has been extinct on the mainland for decades but survives on offshore islands and in Wellington’s Zealandia sanctuary. To lose any one of our kiwi species would be a national catastrophe.

Extraordinary danger calls for an extraordinary response, and over about the last 20 years there has been a massive increase in effort and funding dedicated to reducing the threat to kiwi. Three successive Kiwi Recovery Plans, published by the Department of Conservation, have documented the research, the public involvement and the management plans that have been developed to save the kiwi. Today, says the current Recovery Plan, about 70 community groups actively protect kiwi over a combined 46

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area of 50,000 hectares, in addition to the 70,000 hectares managed by DOC. Yet, it continues, “the fight for kiwi is far from won”.

Part of the problem is a matter of geography. A model developed by Britta Basse and John McLennan estimated that the minimum reserve area needed for long-term continuation of a self-sustaining population of northern brown kiwi is at least 10,000 hectares. Kiwi chicks born on smaller areas protected by rigorous predator control are likely to survive their first few months but, if not fenced in, they are also liable to disperse into unprotected areas outside. Only large single areas of 10,000 hectares-plus give them enough room to disperse and still remain protected from their main enemies, stoats and ferrets (for chicks) and dogs (for adults).

It may be true that effective multi-species predator control over the very large areas needed by kiwi cannot be done at present, but we should be cautious about concluding that it is impossible.

The problem is that predator control over such a large area is, with present technology, very difficult and expensive. Worse, when successful, it can precipitate consequences: removing stoats alone from their normal average density of three per square kilometre permits numbers of ship rats to increase to higher than their normal average of almost 400/km2 – and even at their average density, ship rats have a proportionately greater chance of encountering a bird’s nest than do stoats.

But removing rats unleashes plagues of mice, and mice at plague numbers can destroy large numbers of the ground invertebrates needed by kiwi; hedgehogs do the same even at normal density. Clearly, effective management must not just control, but actually remove the whole interconnected suite of small mammal predators. In the present state of our technology, to do this long term over even one area of 10,000 hectares could be done only by magic, which in the materialistic world we live in, means it cannot be done.

Should we despair? No, for three reasons suggested

by Arthur C Clarke, the author best known for dozens of science fiction novels, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. If that sounds like a fantastic suggestion, you need to know that Clarke was not only a gifted writer but also a rigorously realistic and perceptive, future-oriented scientist. In his SF writing, Clarke postulated advanced technologies without resorting to flawed engineering concepts or explanations grounded in incorrect science or engineering. He avoided taking cues from current trends in research and engineering, which eventually make many other writers in the SF genre sound outdated. Rather, Clarke presented ultra-advanced technologies limited only by fundamental science.

Clarke formulated three Laws of Prediction, which are: 1 When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.

When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2 The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3 Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The effect of Clarke’s first law is amply demonstrated by the history of rodent eradications in New Zealand. A symposium held in Wellington in 1976, attended by most working scientists of the time interested in rodent biology and protection of wildlife (not all of them elderly!), made an exhaustive review of what was then known about the effects of introduced predators in nature reserves, especially, but not only, rats on offshore islands. The original publication is not widely available, but William Stolzenburg gives an account of the meeting in his new book, Rat Island, and adds a perceptive review of subsequent events.

Ian Atkinson and Brian Bell kicked off the first day by presenting devastating first-hand evidence confirming that the arrival of rats on an island heralds certain doom for naïve endemic birds. The logical prediction, that more extinctions must follow if island birds cannot be protected from rats, was challenged by two of the most senior scientists present, Kazimierz Wodzicki (founder of DSIR Ecology Division) and Sir Robert Falla (founding president of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand). Supporting data from Tony Whitaker and Graham Ramsay on the effects of rats on formerly abundant populations of tuatara and wëtä prompted more sceptical responses.

The second day discussed available methods for managing rats, and ended with the chairman making what Stolzenburg calls “an infamous statement of surrender”, that “… the possibility for complete extermination of New Zealand rodent populations by conventional control methods, even on islands, must be considered remote.

Norway Rat

10,000 –

Possum

Area (ha)

up within the predator-proof fence at Maungatautari.

Photo: Carolyn King

2 The size of islands that can

1000 –

Cat

Goat Pig

Pacific rat

100 –

Rabbit

be cleared of all introduced mammals has increased as eradication techniques have improved with time.

Illustration by C Edkins from the editor’s Introduction to The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, Melbourne).

Mouse

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-

-

-

-

Ship rat

-

10 –

2

1 A brown kiwi chick growing

1915 1920 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

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Nothing that has been said this afternoon …would make me think differently”. This conclusion was pretty much unanimous at the time, and endorsed by reputable scientists for years afterwards. But history has shown that Clarke hit the nail on the head: when established scientists declare that something is impossible, there is a strong chance that they are wrong.

The effects of Clarke’s second law began to appear within only a few years. In the mid-1980s, a small band of visionary conservationists began, against all advice from more cautious heads, to challenge the conclusion of the 1976 meeting. People like Rowley Taylor and Bruce Thomas were dismayed by the pessimistic outcome of the 1976 meeting, until they heard news of the radical improvements to conventional control technologies then emerging in overseas labs, especially the development of secondgeneration toxins such as brodifacoum. They saw the chance to develop the potential of these new toxins, allied with ultra-precise bait distribution, to venture past the limits of the possible into what had been considered impossible.

They acknowledged that there was no evidence to justify attempting a significant island eradication that had until then been only a pipe-dream, since it had never been tried before, but they went ahead anyway. In 1988 they cleared Breaksea Island of Norway rats in a single operation of three weeks.

The result has been the ever-expanding list of successful eradications on larger and larger islands. It was true that large-island eradications were impossible in 1976, but the arrival of a new tool in the form of Talon blocks handled by visionary operators changed that conclusion. Now, 36 years later, and faced with the contemporary equivalent of the same question, we should learn from the wry experience of 3

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those at the 1976 meeting (some still active in conservation research, including myself): it may be true that effective multi-species predator control over the very large areas needed by kiwi cannot be done at present, but we should be cautious about concluding that it is impossible.

The effects of Clarke’s third law will be seen in the future rather than in 1976 or in 1988. For any ordinary person without special training, advanced technology indistinguishable from magic already surrounds us in the modern world. I don’t know how smart phones work– do you? – but luckily the world is not limited by what I can understand. The problem is that most such wonderful gadgets were developed after huge investment by deeppocketed corporates like Apple solely for commercial profit, or as by-products of some massively funded national programme such as the space race of the 1960s. Some of them are incidentally applicable to, or modifiable for, conservation purposes.

Mass-produced, lightweight trail cameras have recently begun to offer a critically important conservation benefit as an economic way to monitor trap evasion by rats, or the productivity and fate of birds’ nests, but their development was driven by demand from hunters. We need other forms of advanced technologies developed to meet our specific conservation aim, to protect kiwi by reliably removing pests long term in huge areas of rugged back country. If he were still here, Clarke would be telling us that, if such magical technology is theoretically attainable, all we need to attain it is the political/social will, and lots of money.

The general view among current conservation biologists and managers is that because effective, largescale predator control is very, very expensive, it must be extremely well justified. That means, we should not

Pest-free vision

4 commit funds to any management programme unless there is evidence that it will produce the intended benefit.

Benefit is, of course, not counted in piles of dead pests, hugely satisfying though that may be, but in benefit to the protected resource – usually measured as whether enough pests have been removed to prevent damage to nesting birds. Damage prevention is essential to protect the remnants of threatened mainland species, especially to kiwi chicks, but in an ideal world it would be a short-term solution only. What we really want is long-term security for our unique native biodiversity.

Suppose Clarke is right for a third time and within, say, another 36 years we had developed that longed-for magical technology, unimaginable now in the same way that clearing Breaksea Island of Norway rats – and even more amazing, Campbell Island – was unimaginable to those at the 1976 meeting.

Suppose further that this magical technology was economically practicable and without unacceptable side effects, making it feasible to envisage large-scale eradication of small mammal pests on critical chunks of the mainland. That would be the point at which, inspired by Taylor and Thomas and their heirs, we would need to seize the opportunity to go beyond the existing evidence and to discover the limits of the possible by venturing a little way past it into the impossible. Then the aim of establishing multiple 10,000-hectare kiwi sanctuaries free of pests might become reality.

Maybe even bigger things could follow.

Dr Carolyn King is associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Waikato.

3 11,300-hectare Campbell Island, 700 kilometres south of Bluff, was

cleared of rats in 2001, at the time the world’s most ambitious rat eradication. Photo: David Hallett

4 All small mammal predators – including stoats, rats and mice – need

to be removed to give native wildlife the greatest chance of survival.

Photo: David Hallett

Tell us what you think Do you believe New Zealand could one day be free of introduced predators? Send your thoughts (up to 200 words) to Marina Skinner, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or email m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz

Most ecologists are aware of the principles of pest control – that we do nothing, control in perpetuity or eradicate. In New Zealand, with its plethora of introduced predators, to do nothing has never been an option (though resources are limited, with only 12 per cent of public conservation land under sustained pest control), and eradication (on a countrywide scale) has always been considered out of the question.

But control in perpetuity means vast amounts of money and time that go on ad infinitum... so how far out of the question would eradication be? That, in essence, was the driver for the Predator Free New Zealand summit Forest & Bird hosted at Ruapehu Lodge in February.

The 19 people who attended the meeting were a group of interested individuals from Forest & Bird, Landcare Research, Animal Health Board, the Department of Conservation, Lincoln, Waikato and Auckland universities.

It's fair to say that most of us were sceptical, but we attempted to suspend our collective disbelief, and embark on a bit of a thought experiment, based on best available technical and scientific information as to the logistics.

What was surprising to almost every participant was that under current technology and methods, and with a view to reaching towards some blue-sky research on a couple of issues (eg mustelids), the concept (in purely scientific terms) of a predator-free New Zealand was considered achievable, given some important and expected advances in technology.

There was healthy debate about a range of techniques, and acknowledgement of a need to wise up on some basic ecology and behaviour of some of our least-known predators, but ultimately everyone agreed that: "Our birdlife everywhere in New Zealand needs urgent protection.

This is possible through a predatorfree New Zealand."

Sir Paul Callaghan, who died in March, considered the concept of a predatorfree New Zealand our version of the Apollo programme, and said in his last lecture "it's crazy and ambitious but I think it might be worth a shot". n Nicola Toki Photo: Tony Jewell

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A wetland

from a puddle

1

While many rural landowners have been draining their swamps, one conservationist has put the plug back in to create a watery home for birdlife. By Jolene Williams.

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raham Booth is somewhat of a pioneer when it comes to creating private wetlands. When the former builder embarked on his retirement project to turn 12 hectares of marginal pasture and pine blocks into a swampy haven, there was very little information available about how to go about it.

Fast-forward a decade and people can go straight to their regional councils, receive financial assistance from the Department of Conservation and draw on expertise of organisations like the National Wetland Trust. Graham’s since made use of the resources, funding and advice.

“But it wasn’t like that 11 years ago. This last decade local bodies have really embraced the idea of wetlands.”

In those early years, he got some good advice from a couple of wetland enthusiasts. But Graham was largely guided by his own initiative and through trial and error for his project north of Ötaki, on the Kapiti Coast. “I knew this had been a wetland in the past and I knew it wasn’t working as pasture. [The previous owner] was siphoning out the water to keep the bottom part of his pasture dry, so if there was an extra amount of rain in the system, it couldn’t cope.

[I knew] it had the potential to be a big body of water.”

You’ve got to ask, though, having reached retirement age, why bother? “I just thought it might be a good

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idea. But if my wife was here, I know what she’d say. She would’ve said I don’t buy anything that isn’t a challenge and has no potential.”

Graham’s first step was to observe the land. It’s sage advice for would-be wetland owners. “Don’t hurry in there,” he says. “Observe the place and see how it ticks over” before devising a plan. And once you have a plan, be prepared to experiment and modify your original ideas.

Resource consents from the council were sought, then earthworks contractors were hired to create 12 small islands for potential habitats in the shallow lake. Graham stresses the importance of creating sloping sides. “They’ve got to be gently sloping sides so birds can access them easily.

You also need an edge for waders like the New Zealand shoveller and pied stilts to feed.”

Graham put an end to siphoning out water and waited for the water level to build up.

All three hectares of pine trees were cleared, and a wide range of natives have either grown naturally or been planted in their place. There are sedges, rushes, flaxes, toetoe, cabbage trees, coprosmas, pittosporums and many others. Lush bush cloaks surrounding hills and the sevenyear-old flaxes reach about five metres high. Graham is thinking long term, and has planted a few kahikatea and

BACKYARD

2

conservation

4

1 ‘I knew this had been a wetland in the past and I knew it

wasn’t working as pasture,’ says Graham Booth. Photo: Jolene Williams

2 A group of 25 to 30 threatened dabchicks have settled in

Graham Booth’s wetland. Photo: David Hallett

3 Pied stilts have made a home in the wetland. Photo: David

Hallett

4 Graham Booth has learnt by trial and error how to create a

wetland on his rural property north of Wellington. Photo: Graham Booth

3 pukatea trees that will form a canopy in 100 years or so.

Planting has been the primary task. It’s taken eight years of solid work to plant several thousand plants. It’s the most time-consuming and expensive part, Graham says, but also the most important to get right.

It’s essential to choose the plants suited to the microenvironment. Plant species that grow well in your area, he suggests. And choose the site carefully. Flaxes and kahikatea, for example, thrive near water but not in it.

The size of seedlings is also important. Younger seedlings are cheaper, but need more attention. So you’ve got to balance any cost savings with how many you’ll lose through weeds, pests and exposure. That’s why Graham grows flax seedlings in his nursery for two years before planting them. Empty milk bottles and a stake provide extra support for vulnerable plants, as well as protection from grazing wildlife, especially pükeko.

If you build a habitat, the birds will come. Game birds, especially, flock to Graham’s wetland when hunting season is in full swing. He wants to attract ones that spread tree seeds as they’ll introduce other local plant species from beyond the wetland and increase the biodiversity. “Once you’ve got a wetland up, all those birds we have came of their own accord. All we’ve done is created a habitat. There are plants emerging now without my planting them.”

It’s attracted a wide range of birds. Swans, ducks, pükeko, kererü, tüï, fantails, New Zealand shovellers, grey teals, pied stilts and Canadian geese are all regular visitors. It’s a good

day if dotterels, royal spoonbills, white-faced herons or shags are spotted, and under the water threatened longfin eels have found a home. Of special note is a group of 25 to 30 threatened dabchicks that have settled in the wetland, and some are breeding there.

Graham has to battle all the usual weed suspects: barberry, blackberry, gorse and old man’s beard. “But you can’t go releasing them all [from weeds and grasses].

You’d never get anything else done. You tend to overplant because you know you’re going to lose some.”

Predators are less of a problem. But Graham endeavours to keep ferrets, stoats and rats in check.

Word has spread and Graham’s retirement project has attracted wider interest. He’s often asked for advice by other landowners keen to create their own wetlands.

Outside groups, including Forest & Bird’s Horowhenua branch and local bird watching groups, have discovered the natural richness of his backyard.

All the wetland will be placed under a QEII covenant to safeguard its future. But now Graham is enjoying the spoils of 12 years’ hard work. “For me there’s quite a spiritual element about it,” he says. “I probably don’t sit back and enjoy it enough, but even just working down there can be a very satisfying thing. Other times I look at it and think I own all this, but I don’t really. I feel like I’m a custodian. I’ve taken responsibility for it.

“It’s a pretty amazing place. It blows me away sometimes.”

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DIY

Create your own wetland: The basics 1 2 3 4

Get talking. Talk to your neighbours and get advice from your regional council. They’ll have experts who can tell you whether you need resource consents or qualify for funding. They often have resources to create private wetlands specific to the area. Your local council, Fish & Game and Department of Conservation may also be able to help.

conservation

6 7

Gather information. Find out the original use of the land and locate water sources. Record on stakes changing water levels throughout the seasons.

Planting. Plant water-edge plants in summer when water levels are low. Clear weeds from the site, and add water, mulch or compost. Plant in the correct zone and with ample space. Ferns, rushes and sedges can be planted three per square metre. Larger plants need 1-1.5 square metres each. Plant in clumps rather than alternating species. Plants that need shelter should be planted 1-2 years later.

Make a plan. Consider the existing layout and try to maintain natural water fluctuations. Divide the area into planting zones: wet and boggy, ponding water, occasionally wet and dry. Research which plants are appropriate for each zone. Consider non-vegetated and gently sloping margins so waterfowl can access the water.

Resource consents. Your regional or district council will tell you which consents are needed.

8

5

Source plants. Try to replicate natural wetlands in your area. Use eco-sourced plants or grow your own from locally grown seedlings.

Photo: Graham Booth

Prepare the site. Earthworks may require resource consents and you should use a qualified contractor for bigger jobs. Create necessary paths, bridges and erect any fences needed to keep out stock. Clear unwanted trees and major weed patches.

Photo: Graham Booth

Maintenance. Be vigilant with weeding, especially during the first three years. Undertake pest control.

Pükeko are protected outside hunting season but their impact on plants can be minimised by planting larger plants or using plastic milk bottles or plastic sleeves held in place with stakes. Keep a photographic record of your progress.

The above guide was compiled from various regional council guides to creating wetlands. For a more comprehensive guide download or buy Wetland Restoration: A Handbook for New Zealand Freshwater Systems from Landcare Research – www.landcareresearch. co.nz/services/biocons/wetlands Photo: Andrew Booth

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pacific

NZ steps up for rat project Life is looking up for Henderson Island seabirds after a massive project to rid it of rodents. By Jolene Williams.

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uying 10kg of dried mashed potato and 2kg of Branston pickle is not a typical task for Forest & Bird staff. But Central North Island Field Officer Al Fleming wasn’t thrown off by the unusual turn of his job when he was asked to get provisions for a multinational rat eradication mission on Henderson Island last year.

The Henderson Island Restoration Project is a joint initiative between the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Pitcairn Island government. RSPB asked Forest & Bird – both are BirdLife International partners – to provide logistical support for the project’s island-wide aerial bait drop and aviculture work.

That is why, last August, Al was given a three-page shopping list of food, basic kitchen supplies, implements, bait and bait traps, which were later delivered to the 15-strong crew of scientists, aviculturists, pilots and operation managers on Henderson Island, more than 5000km away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier in the year, Forest & Bird’s former volunteer co-ordinator, Phil Lodge, put together an even longer list of provisions for the initial shipment, and North Island Conservation Manager Mark Bellingham offered advice to operation managers on which bait traps would be most appropriate.

The aerial bait drop over Henderson Island last August delivered an almighty blow to the resident rodents.

Two helicopters dropped 76 tonnes of poison over the uninhabited island.

The survival of some of the island’s 55 endemic species, including five bird species, depends on the project’s success.

Predation by Pacific rats has brought many species close to extinction. Rats kill an estimated 25,000 petrel chicks a year on the island, and RSPB says that, before the introduction of rats some 800 years ago, the island would have been a sanctuary for a possible five million pairs of seabirds. Now just 40,000 pairs remain. The island has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. It’s the only known breeding site of the endangered Henderson petrel and a worldwide stronghold of the gadfly petrel group.

Bird breeders – or aviculturists – spent five months on the island establishing a captive breeding population of Henderson rails, which were at risk from non-target poisoning.

Although it’s still early days, RSPB is optimistic the poison drop will wipe out the rats. RSPB scientists noted signs of success within three months of the aerial drop.

Scientist Richard Cuthbert said in December: “Before the eradication attempt, almost no Murphy’s petrel chicks escaped rat predation. The latest surveys suggest that since the drop, over 85 per cent of Murphy’s petrel chicks have gone on to fledge. The Henderson reed-warbler has also responded extremely quickly, with counts revealing a five-

fold increase since the bait drop.”

RSPB will continue supporting biosecurity work to prevent rats being accidentally reintroduced, but the official result won’t be known until August 2013 when the team returns for monitoring.

The project is the third-largest island anywhere in the world dedicated to getting rid of rodents. It partnered with two other island restoration projects, sharing a ship and helicopters, which ultimately completed a 27,000km conservation journey, restoring islands in three countries.

Henderson Island Project Co-ordinator Jonathan Hall says: “Working with Forest & Bird was invaluable, as was the partnership with other island eradications under way elsewhere in the Pacific. Not only did the pooling of resources allow significant cost savings, but it also enabled staff to share technical expertise.”

Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton says the project strengthened ties between the BirdLife partners and demonstrated the international community “can actually get together and achieve conservation success”.

He hopes the project will open the door to further cooperative conservation initiatives in the Pacific.

The project went ahead thanks to donors from around the world, including New Zealand, who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

1 1 A helicopter spreads rat

bait on Henderson Island last August. Photos: Richard Cuthbert

2 Chances of survival for

Murphy’s petrel chicks have dramatically increased since the rat eradication.

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Our beloved kauri forests need more help if they are to beat a killer disease.

By Mark Bellingham.

K

auri dieback disease could kill off plans for a Kauri National Park in Northland by eliminating kauri from northern forests. Imagine Waipoua Forest with no Täne Mahuta or Te Matua Ngahere, Puketi Forest with no Te Tangi o te Tüï and no kauri in the WaitäkereRanges Cascades Kauri Park.

Kauri are icons of Aotearoa, and the majesty of kauri is deeply engrained in Mäori and Päkehä culture and history.

On average, kauri grow to 30-40 metres and can live for more than 1000 years, with trunk diameters of several metres. The largest kauri recorded was Kairaru of Tutamoe, with a diameter of 6.4 metres and a height of 65 metres.

The largest kauri alive, Täne Mahuta, has a diameter of 4.6 metres, is 52 metres tall and is 1200-2000 years old.

A pathogen known as Phytophthora taxon Agathis (PTA) could change everything. The pathogen and the disease may have been here for some time, as significant dieback of kauri trees was reported on Great Barrier Island in the 1970s. It wasn’t identified as a disease specific to New Zealand kauri until former Forest & Bird President Dr Peter Maddison and local residents reported it on the Maungaroa Ridge Track near Piha in 2006. These observations were investigated by the late Dr Ross Beever (Landcare Research) and Dr Nick Waipara (now with Auckland Council biosecurity), who confirmed that something new was killing our kauri. In April 2008 it was identified as a new species.

PTA symptoms include yellowing of foliage, canopy thinning, dead branches and tree death. Trees can also develop lesions that bleed resin, often at the bottom of the tree trunk, and the disease has been called collar rot. It kills kauri of all ages and sizes.

The disease has been found in the kauri forests of Northland, including Waipoua, Trounson Kauri Park and Puketi, and in Auckland, including the Waitäkere Ranges, where Auckland Council biosecurity has it under observation at Cascade Kauri, Karekare, Anawhata and Huia. So far the Hünua Ranges are PTA-free.

Recent investigation has found PTA at the site of the old New Zealand Forest Service’s kauri management nurseries, suggesting that the disease may have come in with foreign Agathis species imported by the Forest Service to “improve” our kauri in the 1960s and 70s. This may explain why its closest known relative is a chestnut pathogen from Korea (Phytophthora katsurae). It is believed that PTA is

2 an exotic pathogen, possibly from the tropics. However, nothing at all is known about this particular species overseas.

Kauri damage has only recently been discovered but the disease may have been in New Zealand for many years, as symptoms may take years to become apparent.

PTA is spread by soil and soil-water movement, plantto-plant transmission through underground root-to-root contact, and human and animal vectors, such as other soil Phytophthora. PTA does not produce airborne spores. Its motile (swimming) waterborne spores can move through soil waterfilms, streams, ponds and lakes but these spores have not been detected in stream samples from the heavily infested areas of the Waitäkere Ranges. And they don’t survive very long.

Soil-borne spores can survive for longer periods and these appear to move around on footwear, machinery, digging tools and on muddy animals, particularly feral pigs.

Pigs root in the infection zone, disturb kauri roots and can spread spores through their gut into new catchments. Pigs are a significant vector for other soil-borne Phytophthora diseases in many countries.

1 Täne Mahuta in Northland’s Waipoua Forest is the largest kauri alive.

Photo: Catherine Tudhope

2 Kauri dieback kills trees of all ages and sizes.

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How you can help The joint management team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, regional councils and the Department of Conservation has guidelines to minimise PTA spread: n All footwear, tools and equipment/machinery must be totally soil-free when entering a kauri forest. Trigene disinfectant will not kill PTA embedded in soil. n Wheeled or tracked machinery and vehicles are high risk and must be given special attention to ensure they are free of any soil. n Stay away from kauri tree roots as much as possible.

Auckland Council has been the most proactive, requiring foot and vehicle cleaning throughout the Waitäkere Ranges parkland. Most track entrances and intersections have spray bottles and mud cleaning gear, so walkers can keep their footwear clean of kauri PTA. DOC has stepped up its work to protect the internationally important kauri forests in Northland, especially Waipoua, and to stop the disease getting to the Coromandel and Kaimai Range. But muddy tracks are high-risk pathways for spreading PTA, and many poorly maintained tracks in the Waitäkere Ranges are undermining the excellent work by Auckland Council’s biosecurity staff to stop PTA spreading. Across Northland and Auckland, local forest reserve managers are failing to address problems with diseased kauri or stopping the disease getting into their kauri forests.

A major problem is coming from kauri forests on private land in the north. Biosecurity staff have inspected 300 private forest areas and offered assistance in Auckland, but nothing has happened in Northland and it is only starting in the Waikato. All Forest & Bird kauri forest reserves with walking tracks have cleaning stations for boots.

More information: www.kauridieback.org.nz

Diseased kauri can bleed resin from their trunks.

Logging spreads problem MAF’s indigenous forestry group has added to the problems of PTA spreading in private kauri forests.

Forest & Bird members in Northland noticed MAF staff actively encouraging landowners to log remnant forests in Northland, so they requested copies of MAF logging permits. They discovered that the MAF permits had no requirements on logging contractors to clean machinery of mud or restrictions on logging in areas affected by kauri PTA. Compounding this, MAF’s foresters have had no training to identify PTA and seem ignorant of MAF biosecurity procedures to control the disease, even when they share the same office.

Most logging contractors in Northland move around several sites and some come from the central North Island.

The risk of PTA being spread throughout Northland, the Coromandel and Kaimai Range is very high.

The most effective measures to minimise the spread of kauri dieback are through regulations under the Biosecurity Act. Despite MAF biosecurity taking a lead role for four years, they still need to deliver a National Pest Management Strategy or a Pathway Management Plan (under the Biosecurity Act) with disease movement controls

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across the northern North Island to stop PTA spread, and strict controls for PTA in MAF logging permits. Also, the Regional Pest Management Strategies still have no rules for PTA control on private land.

The most effective controls to save private kauri forests may come from Regional Pest Management Strategies under the Biosecurity Act. But there are still no rules for regional councils in any of the Regional Pest Management Strategies either. The joint agency experts are relying on an under-resourced education programme to stop the spread of PTA, but would we rely on an education programme to prevent the spread of a killer disease like smallpox?

As a nation we are in denial about the risks of alien diseases to our precious heritage and our economy. We have been reluctant to stop the spread of pests that pose huge risks to our fragile economy because senior officials and politicians aren’t prepared to control a very small number of people spreading them. We all bear the costs of this with higher taxes. With PTA, we stand to lose our national icons, like Täne Mahuta. This foot-dragging could continue to consign rural areas in Northland to on-going poverty, as their new Kauri National Park is killed off through inaction.

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in the field

1

When plants go bad Weeds are more than simply a nuisance in your garden. They have the potential to wipe out entire communities of native plants. By Ann Graeme.

P

oor, persecuted weeds. We dig and plough and poison them but they keep on growing, trying to bandage the raw earth. That is what a weed would do in its natural environment. Weed species have evolved to grow in unsettled earth and damaged landscapes, and that is the kind of landscape people make.

It may suit the weeds but we don’t want them. We want only our gardens and crops, where the soil is constantly bared and planted with unnatural but useful plant communities. So for thousands of years we have struggled against the plants that strangle our crops and break our backs, until the word “weed” has taken on a malignant meaning.

But it is not the weeds’ fault. A weed is only a plant we think is growing in the “wrong” place. But for every weed species there is a “right” place, in its own ecosystem where it contributes to a living community, where it covers the scars of natural disasters and is overtaken and subdued by other plants in a natural succession.

Weeds are pioneers. They grow quickly, set seed in abundance and spread over the soil surface to beat the competitors. And when people shift species from country to country, a weed has another advantage. It has come from an ecosystem where it was nibbled by insects and kept in check by diseases and competitors. Now it is in a new land, leaving all that baggage behind and is free to become a botanical thug - aggressive, invasive and dangerous. As well as spoiling crops, introduced weeds can wreck whole ecosystems.

Some native plant communities are particularly vulnerable because disturbance – the weeds’ friend – is a natural part of their ecosystem. Marram grass takes root on storm-battered dunes, agapanthus clings to eroding

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cliffs, and willow and lupins choke the ephemeral islands in braided river beds.

Wilding pines are a threat to the high country. These Northern Hemisphere conifers can grow beyond the native beech forest, high up the mountains into the native shrub lands and herb fields where there is no natural competition for tall trespassers.

This is where people must step in. Volunteer pinepullers led by Waikato Forest & Bird weeded the slopes of Ruapehu for more than a decade. Now, with the seed source turned into chips, the mountain is free of pines.

Volunteers are tackling the wilding pines of the South Island too but it is an extensive and huge challenge.

Tall, intact plant communities are slightly less at risk from weed invasions. A native forest is normally difficult for nonnative plants to penetrate but where pests have degraded it, weeds can sneak in. The sunlit gap where a tree fell and deer and goats have eaten the native seedlings offers an opportunity to a wind-blown seed of old man’s beard or a honeysuckle seed in a bird’s dropping.

However, even when the canopy is tight, shade-loving weeds like wandering willie and African club moss can take root and smother native ground plants. In time, the loss of replacement native seedlings will bring a thinning of the canopy, which has the same impact as browsing mammals, letting in exotic vines, shrubs and trees.

The global advance of weed species is leading towards a more homogenised world, where specialised and local species are driven out by Jacks-of-all-places. There will continue to be plenty of life covering the globe, says Stephen Meyer in his book, The End of the Wild, but that life will be different and less diverse. “The wild will give way to the predictable, the common and the usual.”

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3

4

If you think such gloom and doom is an exaggeration, consider these statistics about plants in New Zealand: n There are 2345 native plant species (that’s flowering plants, cone-bearing plants and ferns) n There are about 35,000 exotic (non-native) species n 2375 exotic species have naturalised and live in the wild – that’s more than all the native species n 15-30 new and some not-so new species go wild every year n More than 400 exotic species are serious environmental weeds In the early 1990s botanists, noxious plant officers and conservationists realised that some native ecosystems like dunelands, streamsides and offshore islands might be more endangered by weeds than they were by animal pests. This was a radical idea. Many gardeners and nursery owners furiously repudiated any suggestion that they and their precious plants were the source of most of these invasive weeds.

Forest & Bird led the way. Guided by long-time member Jack Craw, now head of biosecurity at Auckland Council, they initiated the Forest Friendly campaign, rewarding garden centres that did not stock plants known to invade native ecosystems. Despite ruffling a few nursery owners’ feathers, the campaign was very successful and marked the beginning of a new awareness of the potential dangers posed by garden plants.

The Forest Friendly Awards were also the catalyst for legislative change. Not everyone complied with the voluntary award so regional councils and MAF were forced to take official action. Today the National Pest Plant Accord regulates and maintains high standards for nurseries and retailers and the nursery trade is working towards adopting good sustainable practices, thanks in great part to the actions of Forest & Bird.

Regional council biosecurity officers follow strategies to control listed pest plants and keep a sharp look out for new

invaders. Recently Bay of Plenty pest officers found and destroyed a sprawling specimen of kudzu, a species ranked as one of the worst weeds in the world. Just imagine if that had got away.

I know a lot about weeds. I have nurtured so many in my garden. There was ladder fern (which I thought was native), the arum lilies, the toetoe that turned out to be pampas, the pretty agapanthus – the list is long.

It is people like me who are the reason that weeds are so widespread. Eighty per cent of all environmental weeds originated as garden escapes or have been dumped in parks and waterways.

We amateur gardeners like plants that are vigorous and easy to grow but these are the very characteristics a plant needs to become a future weed.

The conflict between garden favourite and invasive weed will continue, particularly as warming climate speeds some garden escapes. But if you care about protecting native New Zealand you will abandon those rampant old friends and consider the alternatives. There are other plants, both native and exotic, which can replace your treasured weeds.

And as conservationists we need to be alert to any strange plant turning up in the bush reserve or on the dunes. We can’t leave it all to the biosecurity officers.

They need our eyes as well, to spot and root out or report intruders and prevent a pioneer weed becoming a plague.

For help, see www.weedbusters.org.nz

1 Agapanthus flowers look pretty but the plants are a weed in the

wild. Photo: Weedbusters

2 Moth plants run rampant. Photo: Weedbusters 3 Wilding pines are a huge challenge in the South Island. Photo:

Weedbusters

4 Pampas grass is often mistaken for native toetoe. Photo: Alistair

McArthur

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community

conservation

River park vision from quake debris F

orest & Bird is standing behind a community drive in Christchurch to turn red zones into green zones by establishing a river park along the banks of the quakeravaged Avon River.

More than 5000 red-zone homes along the AvonÖtakaro River and its tributaries have been too severely damaged by the Christchurch earthquake to be rebuilt as residential properties. The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) has yet to decide what will happen to the abandoned properties, but a group of dedicated locals is very clear in its vision.

The Avon-Ötakaro Network (AvON) is campaigning to turn those red zones into a public reserve and river park.

The green corridor, from the central city to the coast, would preserve the mature trees and gardens on the abandoned properties as well as revegetate river banks. AvON envisions the reserve would link with recreational groups such as kayakers, establish cycle paths and walkways and create community gardens that preserve the heritage value of the well-established home gardens.

Forest & Bird Canterbury/West Coast Field Officer Jen Miller says the river park would be “a wonderful thing for the community”. “We acknowledge the almost unprecedented loss of whole communities and how devastating this must be to those who have no choice but to leave their homes. It would be great to think a beautiful space could be created in the wake of such loss.

“We’re looking at a much greater area [along the river] than what we currently have. Three hundred hectares or so – it’s like another Hagley Park. The environmental benefits are we’d have some whole ecological connections. We’ll be able to bring in more indigenous vegetation, habitats 1

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and native birds, including our river birds. And that’s really important for people in terms of having a sense of place and belonging to New Zealand.

“Christchurch is known as the Garden City. It was originally laid out in a Euro-centric style but there’s been an increase of growing native trees by individuals and council.”

Forest & Bird has signed the AvON charter and Jen is part of the ecology-focused steering group. She says it would be a great opportunity for Forest & Bird members to get involved in some of the hands-on work if the project goes ahead.

CERA is yet to make a firm decision about the land but politicians from the Labour and Green parties have thrown their weight behind the idea.

AvON is hoping a petition with over 18,600 signatures will convince central government to work with Christchurch residents and local authorities to ensure the Avon River red zone becomes a reserve and river park when homeowners have to leave.

The network also hopes a river reserve would become a living memorial to those devastated by the quakes. Amid the rubble, the natural haven would become a place of “comfort and peace”. n Jolene Williams More information: www.avonotakaronetwork.co.nz or the Avon River Park Facebook site 1 The Avon-Ötakaro Network (AvON) aims to create a green zone

beside the Avon River after areas have been deemed uninhabitable after the earthquakes. Photos: David Hallett

2 Forest & Bird Field Officer Jen Miller

Köhï Point is at the top of the photo, at the mouth of the Whakatäne River.

Branch tenacity saves Köhï Point F

orest & Bird’s Eastern Bay of Plenty branch has triumphed in a long-running legal battle to save Whakatäne’s Köhï Point (locally known as “the Heads”) from a multi-storey apartment building more than 50 metres long being built at the foot of the cliff beside the Whakatäne River mouth.

An older residential-scale restaurant is on the site next to Köhï Point Scenic Reserve, which is classified as an Outstanding Natural Landscape (ONL) under the Resource Management Act (RMA). It also adjoins a popular councilowned area at the river mouth. The sandspit across the river is also an ONL. The saga began in 1995 when the Whakatäne District Council sold the lease, then the freehold title in 2002, to local developer Robert Power. The developer then persuaded the council to amend the district plan to enable his eight-storey apartment block to go ahead. Forest & Bird’s submission that this was inappropriate development under the RMA fell on deaf ears. An appeal was lodged on this and other issues in the plan variation, all of which was settled by mediation, except for the Heads site. The developer also appealed the plan variation, seeking fewer restrictions. Ngäti Awa joined Forest & Bird’s appeal and another local group, the Ohiwa Harbour Margins Society (OHMS), also appealed, and a joint case was run between the two societies, led by Forest & Bird branch committee member Linda Conning.

In the meantime, the developer lodged his consent application and commissioners consented to a six-storey building. The developer appealed, seeking a bigger building, and the other parties sought a decline. These appeals were put on hold while the plan appeals were heard. The Environment Court largely upheld the societies’ appeals and lower height limits were set for the site.

This was not the end of the matter as the developer

lodged two further sets of court proceedings, which were unsuccessful. Costs were awarded and paid.

Finally, the consent application was heard last December, after two sessions of unsuccessful mediation last year. By then, OHMS had dropped out, leaving Forest & Bird’s Eastern Bay of Plenty branch to fully fund its case. The council had changed its position, accepting the original Environment Court decision, but its landscape expert was still advising the council that, under certain circumstances, six storeys would be acceptable, and some of the councillors agreed with this. The branch, therefore, had to front its own experts again.

Before the case was heard, the developer withdrew his own appeal, accepting six storeys in a revised design that was still a massive structure. The branch offered to waive any pursuit of costs if the application was withdrawn at that stage, but this was refused, and the court upheld the appeals of Forest & Bird and Ngäti Awa, and cancelled the consent. Forest & Bird is seeking costs.

Branch chair Mark Fort paid tribute to local environmentalist Barry Marshall of OHMS. “Barry’s commitment and support made the branch appeal financially viable – we couldn’t have done it without him.

We are also incredibly grateful to our barrister, Stuart Ryan, who significantly reduced his fees, and to landscape expert Di Lucas, who was also very generous, as well as giving crucial evidence in the case. We also had solid support from the branch committee, who were determined to see this through.”

Funding came from donations, grants and sales from the branch native plant nursery.

The branch also acknowledges the significance of Ngäti Awa’s role in the case, and the benefit to be gained from working alongside tangata whenua.

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community

conservation

Locals help Aongatete birds T

he birds are coming back, says Basil Graeme. His words are music to a conservationist’s ear. The Tauranga Forest & Bird champion is talking about the tüï, kererü, fantails, robins and tomtits that have returned to Aongatete Forest since a community-driven trust began targeted pest control.

Forest & Bird’s Tauranga branch initiated the project in 2006, and with Katikati Rotary Club formed the Aongatete Forest Restoration Trust. The trust brings together community volunteers with a shared goal to restore a 280-hectare patch of heavily degenerated bush. Basil is one of the trust’s organisers and says Forest & Bird members make up most of the 80-strong volunteer base that undertakes pest control up to 12 times a year.

The difference they’ve made has been nothing short of phenomenal. More than 1000 bait stations have been distributed along 50 kilometres of tracks, severely reducing the number of possums, rats and stoats in the western Bay of Plenty forest.

At last count, rats numbered just 2 per cent of creatures recorded in 50 tracking tunnels, and possums were 6 1 per cent. “When we started, possums were 42 per cent, rats were 68 per cent. So although possums are still more than 5 per cent, and our target is below this, we’ve given them a real hammering,” Basil says.

The forest is looking a lot healthier as a result. Gaps in the canopy are closing over. Several seedlings of raukawa have been recorded, tree wëtä and spiders are thriving and a

2 1 Ann Graeme takes a break

from writing the KCC Wild Things magazine to admire the lady slipper orchids in Aongatete Forest.

Photo: Al Fleming

2 Forest & Bird Tauranga

branch member Basil Graeme controlling pests at Aongatete Forest.

Photo: Ann Graeme

3 Volunteers prepare for a

stoat trapping excursion in Aongatete Forest.

Photo: Al Fleming

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forest gecko has been spotted for the first time. And the ultimate sign of progress: “There are fantails all over the place, and pigeons (kererü) are now in small flocks. The birds are coming back.”

Before work began, the forest was collapsing and some plant and animal species had disappeared altogether.

Browsers had all but wiped out raukawa, tawa, rätä and kohekohe. “Things were really bad. There were some species common in the 90s but when I went back in 2005 were gone,” Basil says.

Forest & Bird Central North Island Field Officer Al Fleming says the health of Aongatete Forest is only going to improve as Forest & Bird ramps up its broader Kaimai Mamaku Connection. The campaign, which will create a corridor of restored forest across the Kaimai Range, will expand the trust’s restoration area from 280 hectares to 1000 hectares.

Tauranga Forest & Bird and Bay Trust have already pitched financial support for the project. Their donations have funded 35 new stoat traps to buffer a further 100 hectares around the trust‘s forest margin, and plans are afoot to add rat and possum control.

After discussions with the Department of Conservation it was agreed last December to trial Goodnature self-setting possum traps across another 300 hectares in the forest above Aongatete – one of the four sites chosen nationally for the trial.

The trust is also applying to DOC to reintroduce bird species to Aongatete. North Island weka top the wish list. Kiwi and kökako would be nice, Basil says, but the notoriously curious weka would showcase the benefits of pest control to the public. “Because if you’ve got children at the lodge, they want to see something and weka are very interactive.”

People will see with their own eyes that the birds are coming back. n Jolene Williams

Digging deep on Stewart Island B

irdLife International may be the world’s largest group of conservation organisations, but it hasn’t forgotten the tïtï on Stewart Island. Or New Zealand storm petrels in the Hauraki Gulf. Or the möhua in the South Island.

Every year the BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund (BLICCF) distributes £50,000 (NZ$97,000) to community-based conservation projects in New Zealand and the wider Pacific.

The Stewart Island/Rakiura Community and Environment Trust (SIRCET) was one of 10 groups to receive funding last year. SIRCET project administrator Alina Thiebes says the funds paid for a new burrowscope, an essential piece of equipment to monitor tïtï, also known as sooty shearwaters or muttonbirds.

The monitoring project falls under the umbrella of SIRCET’s Halfmoon Bay Habitat Restoration Project. The wider project aims to increase the native bird numbers, enhance the forest’s health, reduce predation and improve habitats on 210 hectares of bush near Halfmoon Bay. Burrowscoping is undertaken every summer by a professional species monitoring expert and a couple of volunteers. Tïtï live in burrows up to three metres underground, and traditional monitoring methods, such as observing visual clues and sounds at the burrow entrance, are largely inaccurate.

Burrowscopes have an infra-red camera attached to a long hose and a video monitor to display images above ground, allowing them to accurately count the adults, eggs and pre-fledged chicks in the burrow.

Tïtï became one focus for the project after residents reported dead birds mauled by feral cats along Ackers Point, near Halfmoon Bay. Monitoring began in 2005 and

has provided valuable information for the trust to gauge the effects of the restoration project.

Alina is happy to report results from burrowscoping show the tïtï chick survival rate on Ackers Point has jumped from 69 per cent in 2009/10 to 85 per cent in 2010/11. The latest figures show there are 55 breeding pairs, a notable increase from 2005 when there were fewer than 35.

Forest & Bird’s Aalbert Rebergen, who administers the BLICCF fund, says its importance has grown in the costcutting climate of the last few years. It also assists smaller, site-specific projects that may otherwise be overlooked by potential funders. “Take logistics as a starting point,” Aalbert says. “Who else but a Stewart Island community group could undertake a project like the tïtï monitoring on Stewart Island?” n Jolene Williams

Claire Kilner and a volunteer use a burrowscope to monitor local tïtï burrows on Ackers Point on Stewart Island. Photo: SIRCET

Calling applicants

Londoners support NZ conservation

Applications are now open for the 2012/13 funding round. They can be downloaded from www.forestandbird. org.nz/what-we-do/partnerships/ birdlife-international-communityfund and must be received by July 31.

Funding is open to community-based bird conservation projects.

Further information and judging criteria can also be found on the Forest & Bird website.

The BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund is administered by Forest & Bird. For questions about the fund please contact Aalbert Rebergen at a.rebergen@forestandbird.org.nz

Forest & Bird Supporter Relations Manager Rebecca Scelly in March helped organise a combined BirdLife International and Forest & Bird event in London – A Celebration of New Zealand Birds.

Forest & Bird’s London-based members, conservationists and influential expats attended the New Zealand House event, which aimed to secure donors for the BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund.

The fund was founded in 2007 and has been exclusively financed

by British conservationists David and Sarah Gordon. Now BirdLife is looking to get other donors onboard to secure the fund’s future.

Rebecca, who headed the event’s organising committee, said the fund was hugely valuable to community conservation groups. “It empowers local communities, and there are some really important conservation projects being funded.” But finding alternative donors was crucial to sustaining the fund and, ideally, increase its outreach, she said.

Forest & Bird thanks Acquisitions for their support of the event by providing gifts for guests.

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1

Wild Buddies … and Baddies: Friendships and unusual relationships in nature

By Nic Vallance, photographs by Rod Morris New Holland, $21 Reviewed by Marina Skinner Tuatara could do with some image coaching, judging by the bad rap they get in Wild Buddies … and Baddies. Under the heading “Rude reptile house guests”, Nic Vallance (aka Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Nicola Toki) reveals the bad manners our tuatara exhibit as flatmates of the put-upon fairy prions on Stephen’s Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

First, the small seabird digs a burrow, which the tuatara promptly settles into. Then the fairy prion heads out to sea to fish, leaving its eggs or chicks behind, which become a convenient snack for the tuatara that can’t get out of bed for the day. It’s really testing a fairy prion’s good nature.

This is one of Nic’s many shocking stories of the weird relationships in New Zealand nature.

The small volume is written for children, though most adults would learn just as much about parasites, co-evolution, commensalism and mutualism – all terms that are explained in such a fun way that most 10 year olds wouldn’t notice the biology lesson.

There’s a strong conservation thread, especially in the last chapter, which explores what happens when introduced pests – and humans – upset nature’s balance.

Rod Morris’s photos are fascinating, though not always gorgeous – the gordion worm spiralling out of the wëtä’s bottom is a bit yuck – but just what kids love.

Wild Heart: The Possibility of Wilderness in Aotearoa New Zealand Edited by Mick Abbott and Richard Reeve Otago University Press, $45 Reviewed by Claire Browning The whimsically titled Wild Heart reflects on wilderness in New Zealand, in a collection of essays brought to life by anecdotes, photos and poems.

Thanks to Federated Mountain Clubs’ 1981 proposal, New Zealand boasts 11 pristine legally classified wilderness areas.

These are the real untouched parts of New Zealand, our own untamed heart.

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No huts, tracks, bridges, signs, or access other than on foot are allowed in a wilderness area. They must be sufficiently large, taking more than two days to traverse. They are for “remoteness and discovery, challenge, solitude, freedom and romance”.

Wilderness, says this book, teaches those who venture there some important lessons: about self-reliance, being at nature’s mercy, and the importance in life of a few simple things.

“Travelling off-track,” writes one of the contributors, “involves being aware of the precise placement of the whole of myself in relation to the natural world.” Another tells of his “joy in the humble act of slipping on a carefully preserved pair of dry socks”.

There are some sad ironies here. We make them, these areas. If the world was wild, there would be no point. And also, wilderness sells, but commercialisation and consumption are its nemesis.

It touches, in a thought-provoking way for conservationists, on complications for Mäori, who see whenua woven into the fabric of tangata’s being, and as a species among nature, who may seek to live within and sustainably harvest from it, rather than defining and closing off particular areas and absolutely protecting all indigenous species.

And there are New Zealanders’ equally complicated attitudes to wilderness itself. In the 1990s, the Department of Conservation proposed removing a lot of back country infrastructure due to funding pressures, and met a lot of opposition. “If the outdoor community were primarily interested in more wilderness,” one contributor writes in Wild Heart, “they would have embraced it. They did not.”

And yet, it is a fragment at the heart of us all, and even armchair wilderness lovers won’t regret dipping into this thoughtful book.

Hook, Line and Blinkers: Everything Kiwis Never Wanted to Know about Fishing

By Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons $34.99 Reviewed by Mike Britton Here’s the book that everybody interested in fishing and in the marine environment needs to read. The authors challenge many of the myths around fisheries management and marine conservation. Their economic analysis of the folly of “fishing

down” fish stocks and the impacts of bottom trawling underlines why the way the current Quota Management System is managed is delivering depleted fisheries and degraded marine ecosystems. They point to a lack of environmental monitoring and standards governing fishing. Of course, this is most obvious with sea lion and seabird by-catch in our fisheries.

Forest & Bird has tackled these issues since 1986.

Another thorny issue relates to an unlimited recreational fish catch. Morgan and Simmons tackle recreational fishing head on: “We haven’t sorted out the rights of recreational fishers, with the result that the Tragedy of the Commons still operates for inshore fish stocks.” This is having major impacts on coastal fisheries, especially where in the Hauraki Gulf 30 per cent of snapper is non-commercial catch and is increasing as the populations of Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. This catch needs to be managed and, while bag limits can reduce impact, more controversial options to be considered include amateur licensing and some form of recreational quota – real or at least calculated. Only then can we decide how many fish are left to sustain fish populations and marine ecosystems. And for those of us who enjoy sharing their waters.

Chef Al Brown’s endorsement echoes the sentiments of many of us who like to catch and eat fish. We don’t go out fishing so often these days as fish stocks dwindle and we want other fishers to ease off to let our seas recover to a healthier and more productive state.

Know Your New Zealand Fishes

By Jenny and Tony Enderby New Holland, $35 Reviewed by Katrina Subedar Jenny & Tony Enderby’s latest book is great for enthusiastic New Zealanders who like to know what they’re looking at while diving, snorkelling or simply fishing. More than 80 of New Zealand’s best-known fish species are described, and the large one-page colour photographs make identification easy. The text includes the species distribution, appearance, behaviour and diet.

New Zealand’s waters are home to thousands of fish, and the species described in this guide represent a selection from rocky and sandy shores, reefs and even the open water. In addition to these common fish, Jenny and Tony have included a few of those rare sub-tropical fish that occasionally – if we’re lucky – we see washed up on shore or at a prime dive location like the Poor Knights.

This compact, easy-to-read guide would be a fantastic addition to your boat or bach or to take away on a family summer holiday. It’s a great tool to teach your kids about what lives in our waters.

Every bird – native and introduced – found on New Zealand’s land or waters gets a page (sometimes half a page) of description plus at least one beautiful photograph.

For the bird nerd, a more detailed field guide might be required but for the regular nature lover, this delivers all the information needed to identify and learn about our birds. This is a reasonably priced and very helpful guide to keep in your pocket or your car.

Birds of Melanesia (Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia)

By Guy Dutson, illustrated by Richard Allen, Adam Bowley, John Cox and Tony Disley A & C Black Publishers, $99 Reviewed by Aalbert Rebergen Guy Dutson’s excellent new bird guide has the typical Helm Field Guide layout. Following a 50-page introduction is a section where all birds are beautifully illustrated on 86 colour plates, with some basic information on plumage and distribution on the opposing pages. The illustrations of the passerines are especially beautiful. They are arranged in island groups so when you are bird watching in New Caledonia and spot a small passerine bird you only have to look at five colour plates to identify it.

The second half of the book provides detailed descriptions on plumage, voice, habits, conservation status and the geographical range of each bird species. More than 80 endemic bird species in the region are now rare and threatened, with little or nothing being done to protect them. For some birds, for instance the New Caledonian owlet-nightjar and the New Caledonian rail, it may already be too late.

1 A very accommodating fairy prion and a tuatara guest from Wild

Buddies … and Baddies by Nic Vallance. Photo: Rod Morris

2 A yellow moray eel from Know your New Zealand Fishes by Jenny

and Tony Enderby

2

A Photographic Guide to Birds of New Zealand 2nd edition

By Geoff Moon with Lynnette Moon New Holland, $25.99 Reviewed by Marina Skinner It’s hard to go past a bird book with the late Geoff Moon’s name attached to it. The legacy of the elder statesman of bird photography endures in the second edition of this pocket guide, which has been updated with new details about the populations of species, where they’re found, their scientific classifications and Mäori names. Geoff’s widow, Lynnette, oversaw the new edition, assisted by scientist Tim Lovegrove.

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The winners of the draws in the February Forest & Bird magazine are: Kermadec: Nancy Payne, Auckland; Owen Smith, Wellington; Ian Smith, Auckland; and Jackie and Peter Hale, St Arnaud.

Organic Explorer: Pat Kane, Tauranga; Matt Rolfe, Wellington; Beth Watson, Christchurch; and Anne Usherwood, Marton.

Seabird Genius: Jill Hudson, Whängärei; and Brent Dalzell, Hawarden.

Fairy tern coin: Pauline Jones, Geraldine; and Belinda Mulvany, Invercargill.

Your prizes will be posted.

One-stop nature shop For sale at Forest & Bird’s online shop n Kiwi: A natural history, by Isabel Castro, photography by Rod Morris (New Holland, $29.99) n Attracting Birds and Other Wildlife to Your Garden, by Gordon Ell (New Holland, $45) n Kermadec: Nine Artists Explore the South Pacific, edited by Bronwen Golder and Gregory O’Brien ($40) Prices include post and packaging within NZ https://secure.forestandbird.org.nz/shop

A special offer for Forest & Bird readers Wild Encounters Our popular Going Places articles and other nature-themed travel stories from Forest & Bird magazine have been collected together in a handy book edition, Wild Encounters, published by Penguin.

From the rocky shore to dense rainforests, from braided riverbeds to alpine meadows, Wild Encounters is a handy guide to the best place to experience New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places.

Wild Encounters retails for $40, but Forest & Bird readers can purchase this book for just $35, including post and packaging, with $10 from each copy ordered going towards Forest & Bird’s important conservation work.

That means you will receive this beautifully illustrated guide and get to help nature in New Zealand.

Please send a cheque for $35 to: Wild Encounters Forest & Bird PO Box 631 Wellington

YOUR WINTER GETAWAY STARTS HERE

Bookings are now open for Forest & Bird’s Mount Ruapehu Lodge in Whakapapa Village. Stay at our comfortable, family-friendly lodge from where you can hit the slopes, trek the beech forest and keep a look out for resident kiwi or whio. Forest & Bird members receive a discounted rate. Book at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ruapehulodge.

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PHILPROOF

PEST CONTROL PRODUCTS

WIPEOUT: Possums, Rodents, Mustelids, Rabbits Standard & Mini Philproof Bait Stations & Timms Traps Rodent Bait Stations and Block Baits.

Rodent Snap Traps, Fenn Traps (MK4 & 6), Trap Covers – Double or Single Also available: Monitoring Tunnels & Bird Nesting Chambers Phone/Fax 07 859 2943 Mobile 021 270 5896 PO Box 4385, Hamilton 3247 Web: www.philproof.co.nz Email: philproof@gmail.com

Patagonia Highlights Walking in three National Parks.

16 day small group tour departs 8th February 2013

CALL 0800 804 737 www.southernexposuretours.co.nz

New Zealand Birdsong Clock

Bush & Beyond Guided Walks

The Original Kahurangi Guides From Comfortable Lodge stay to Off track wilderness backpacking.

Including: Heaphy and Cobb Valley and much more!

Conservation values PO Box 376, Motueka 7143 T/F: 03 528 9054 E: info@bushandbeyond.co.nz

White Heron Sanctuary Tours

Come with us, RAINFOREST, NATURE and JETBOATING TOURS, all year round. Viewing of nesting colony from September to March. Ph. 0800 52 34 56

www.whiteherontours.co.nz

New Improved, now in stock Iceberg Trail, Greenland

www.bushandbeyond.co.nz

12 NZ bird calls

South America

BIORESEARCHES

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CONSULTING BIOLOGISTS

Light wood surround with glass face 3xAAA batteries Price $89 inc GST and Postage

Environmental Impact Studies

Send cheque and delivery details to Mercury Pots Plus PO Box 72042 Papakura 2244, Auckland Tel 09 298 0955 Fax 09 298 0950 email: mercurypots@xtra.co.nz

www.bankstrack.co.nz

ESTABLISHED 1972

Surveys of Marine, Freshwater & Terrestrial Habitats

www.highplaces.co.nz 0800 305306

South America • Africa Himalayas • Europe

Small Groups + Independent travellers CALL NOW FOR FREE 2012 BROCHURE Latin Link Adventure The South American Specialists 0800 528 465 / info@latinlink.co.nz

www.latinlink.co.nz

Pollution Investigations Resource Consent procedures Archaeological;

An online gallery of original and reproduction antique maps and prints, featuring scenes of New Zealand, birds and botanical prints, perfect as gifts. We ship worldwide.

Historic Places Appraisal bioresearches@bioresearches.co.nz www.bioresearches.co.nz P.O Box 2828 Auckland PH: AUCKLAND 379 9417 Fax (09) 307 6409

STEADY AS A ROCK

with a GorillaPod tripod from Camera & Camera. www.camera-camera.com

Advertise to Forest & Bird readers here Please contact

Karen Condon PHONE 0275 420 338 EMAIL mack.cons@xtra.co.nz

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Parting shot Stephen Conn, of Nelson, captured this mänuka tree at Tinline Bay in Abel Tasman National Park. He walked for about 45 minutes from Märahau before spotting the tree in its extraordinarily precarious position.

Stephen photographed the tree with a Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 camera.

“I am lucky enough to live in Nelson, and visit the Abel Tasman National Park about three times a year,” he says. “The mänuka tree certainly has a splendid situation.”

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If you have a stunning photo that showcases New Zealand’s special native plants or animals, it could be the next Parting Shot.

Each published Parting Shot photo will receive a GorillaPod and ballhead worth $209 from Camera & Camera. The GorillaPod SLR Zoom is a portable, packable heavy-duty tripod that keeps your camera equipment steady, no matter where you might be. It has flexible, wrappable legs that attach to your camera then wrap around virtually any surface.

Please send a low-res digital file and brief details about your photo to Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz Winners will be asked for higher-resolution files.

branch directory

Upper North Island Central Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Anne Fenn; Secretary, Isabel Still, Tel: (09) 528-3986.

CentralAuckland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Far North Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Michael Winch, Tel: (09) 401-7401. FarNorth.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Franklin Branch: Chairperson, Keith Gardner; Secretary, Vacant, Tel: (09) 238-9928. Franklin.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hauraki Islands Branch: Chairperson, Brian Griffiths; Secretary, Vacant, Tel: (09) 372-7662. HaurakiIslands.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hibiscus Coast Branch: Chairperson, Pauline Smith; Secretary, Katie Lucas, Tel: (09) 427-5186. HibiscusCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaipara Branch: Chairperson, Bill McNatty; Secretary, Vacant; Tel: (09) 411-8314. Kaipara.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Eve McCarthy; Secretary, Gus MacasseyPickard, Tel: (07) 866-2463. MercuryBay.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Warwick Massey; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, Tel: (09) 422-9123. MidNorth.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Shore Branch: Chairperson, Richard Hursthouse; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, Tel: (09) 479-2107. NorthShore.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Northern Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, Tel: 022 092 0721. Northern.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Auckland Branch: Chairperson, John Oates; Secretary, Lee O’Leary, Tel: (09) 948-3867. SouthAuckland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Thames-Hauraki Branch: Chairperson, Peter Wood; Secretary, Hazel Genner, Tel: (07) 868-9057. ThamesHauraki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, Tina Morgan; Secretary, Vacant, Tel. (07) 866-6720. UpperCoromandel.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waitakere Branch: Chairperson, Robert Woolf; Secretary, Jan Edmonds, Tel: (09) 833-6241. Waitakere.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch: Chairperson, Mark Fort; Secretary, Lesley Swindells, Tel: (07) 307-0846. EasternBayofPlenty.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Gisborne Branch: Chairperson, Grant Vincent; Secretary, Wendy McLean, Tel: (06) 868-8236. Gisborne.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rotorua Branch: Chairperson, Chair rotates among committee members; Secretaries, Margaret Dick, Tel: (07) 357-2024 or Delight Gartlein Tel: (07) 357-2575. Rotorua.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Ian Noble; Secretary, Jennifer Hartley, Tel: (06) 870-3477.

HastingsHavelockNorth.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Debbie Waldin; Secretary, Belinda McLean, Tel: (06) 364-5573. Horowhenua.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kapiti-Mana Branch: Chairperson, John McLachan; Secretary, Judy Driscoll, Tel: (04) 904-2049. KapitiMana.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Lower Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Russell Bell; Secretary, Vacant, Tel: (04) 380-6130. LowerHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Barbara Arnold; Secretary, Nina Mercer, Tel: (06) 355-0496. Manawatu.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Napier Branch: Chairperson, Neil Eagles; Secretary, Barbara McPherson, Tel: (06) 845-0425. Napier.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Carolyn Brough; Secretary, Shirley Schofield, Tel: (06) 758-3680. NorthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rangitikei Branch: Chairperson, Diana Stewart; Secretary, Dot Mattocks, Tel: (06) 327-8790. Rangitikei.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Dave Digby; Secretary, Carol Digby, Tel: (06) 765 7482. SouthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Barry Wards; Secretary, Fred Fowler, Tel: (04) 569-7187. UpperHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wairarapa Branch: Chairperson, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Peta Campbell, Tel: (06) 377 4882. Wairarapa.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wanganui Branch: Chairperson, Esther Williams; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, Tel: (06) 345-2651. Wanganui.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wellington Branch: Chairperson, Peter Hunt; Secretary, David Ellison, Tel: (04) 233-1010. Wellington.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Island Ashburton Branch: Chairperson, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, Tel: (03) 308-5620. Ashburton.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Central Otago-Lakes Branch: Chairperson, Mark Ayre; Secretary, Denise Bruns, Tel: (03) 443-5462. CentralOtagoLakes.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Dunedin Branch: Chairperson, Janet Ledingham; Secretary, Mark Hanger, Tel: (03) 489-3233. Dunedin.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Golden Bay Branch: Chairperson, Jenny Treloar; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Tel: (03) 525-6031. GoldenBay.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaikoura Branch: Chairperson, Ailsa Howard; Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Tel: (03) 319-5086. Kaikoura.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, Tel: (07) 886-7456. SouthWaikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Secretary, Lynda Neame, Tel: (03) 578-2013. Marlborough.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Taupo Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Vacant, PO Box 1105, Taupo 3351.

Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Craig Potton; Secretary, Gillian Pollock, Tel: (03) 526-6009. NelsonTasman.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, David Dowrick; Secretary, Pam Foster, Tel (07) 571-0974. Tauranga.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Lesley Shand, Secretary, Cathie Brumley, Tel: (03) 3790316. NorthCanterbury.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Bev Nairn, Tel: (07) 533-4247. TePuke.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, Tel: (03) 686-1494. SouthCanterbury.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waihi.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Secretary, Jane Young, Tel: (03) 415-8532. SouthOtago.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, Tel: (07) 849-3438. Waikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, Tel: (03) 248-6398. Southland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Lower North Island

West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; Secretary, Jane Marshall, WestCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz For branch postal addresses, please see www.forestandbird.org.nz

Central Hawkes Bay Branch: Chairperson, Dan Elderkamp; Secretary, Barrie & Judith Bayliss, Tel: (06) 858-8765.

CentralHawkesBay.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

lodge accommodation

Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North. Near Pukenui in wetland reserve. 6 bunks, fully equipped kitchen, separate bathroom outside. For information and bookings, contact Anita Herbert, 71C Totara North Road, RD2 Kaeo, Northland 0479. Tel: 09 405 1720. Email: herbit@xtra.co.nz

Tai Haruru Lodge, Piha, West Auckland A seaside haven set in a large sheltered garden on the rugged West Coast, 38km on sealed roads from central Auckland. Close to store, bush reserves and tracks in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges. Sleeps up to 6 in 1 dble brm, 1 brm and lounge, Lounge has wood burner, dining area and kitchen. Self-contained unit has 4 single beds. Bring food, linen and fuel for fire and BBQ. Off peak rates apply. Booking: Jean and Peter King, 10 La Trobe Track, Karekare, Waitakere City. Tel: (09) 812 8064. Email: hop0018@slingshot.co.nz

Waiheke Island Cottage Located next to our 49ha Wildlife Reserve, 10 mins walk to Onetangi Beach, general stores etc. Sleeps up to 8 in two bedrooms. Lounge, well-equipped kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, laundry. Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland. Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island. Tel: (09) 372-7662.

William Hartree Memorial Lodge, Hawke’s Bay Situated 48km from Napier, 8km past Patoka on the Puketitiri Rd (sealed). The lodge is set amid a 14ha scenic reserve and close to many walks, eg: Kaweka Range, Balls Clearing, hot springs and museum. The lodge accommodates up to 10 people. It has a fully equipped kitchen including stove, refrigerator and microwave plus tile fire, hot showers. Supply your own pillows, linen, sleeping bags etc. For information and bookings please send a stamped addressed envelope to Mike and Linda Hay, 172 Guppy Road, Taradale, Napier 4112. Tel: (06) 8444651.

Email: hayhouse@clear.net.nz.

Ruapehu lodge, Tongariro National Park The newly built lodge is 600 metres from Whakapapa Village. It sleeps 32 people – three bunkrooms sleep 4 each, one sleeps 6 and two upstairs sleeping areas sleep 14. Supply your own bedding and food. Bookings and inquiries to Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington. Tel: (04) 385-7374. Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz

Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour Joint venture accommodation by Lower Hutt Forest and Bird with DOC. A modern family home with kitchen, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and dining room, just 20 mins sailing by ferry

from the centre of Wellington or 10 mins from Days Bay. Ideal place to relax in beautiful surroundings, with accommodation for 8.

Bring your own food and bedding and a torch.

Smoking is banned everywhere on the island, including the house. Forest & Bird members get a 25% discount. For more information, visit www. doc.govt.nz and for bookings, contact the DOC Wellington Visitors Centre at wellingtonvc@doc. govt.nz, ph (04) 384-7770 or mail to PO Box 10420, The Terrace, Wellington 6143.

Mangarakau Swamp Field Centre, North West Nelson Borders Kahurangi National Park and Te Tai Tapu Marine Reserve. New, 10 bed lodge with two bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen. Sleeping bags, towels and food required. Contact Jo-Anne Vaughan – Golden Bay Branch Secretary for details: javn@xtra.co.nz or phone (03) 5256031.

Tautuku Forest Cabins, Otago State Highway 92, Southeast Otago. Situated on Forest and Bird’s 550ha Lenz Reserve 32km south of Owaka. A bush setting, and many lovely beaches nearby provide a wonderful base for exploring the Catlins. The cottage, the cabin and an A-frame sleep 10, 4 and 2 respectively. No animals. For information and rates please send a stamped addressed envelope to the caretaker: Diana Noonan, Mirren St, Papatowai, Owaka, RD2. Tel: (03) 415-8024, fax (03) 415-8244.

Email: diana-keith@yrless.co.nz

With each of our stores stocking over 7500 products from 150 different suppliers, we are able to offer the best performers in each category.

We present cutting edge technology from leading international manufacturers such as Arc’teryx, Berghaus, Black Diamond, Exped, Osprey, Outdoor Research and The North Face. Every item has undergone a selection process during which the product has proven itself to be a top contender in its category.

Arc’teryx Alpha FL Active Shell Fully waterproof, minimalist jacket designed for fast and light alpine adventures. Built using innovative new GORE-TEX® Active Shell for super lightweight, breathable wet-weather protection.

GORE-TEX® Active Shell three-layer construction Micro-seam allowance (1.6 mm) reduces bulk and weight Tiny GORE® seam tape (13 mm) Anatomical shaping for fit and comfort Articulated elbows e3D Ergonomic 3-Dimensional patterning for enhanced comfort and mobility Helmet compatible Storm Hood™ Chest pocket with laminated zip WaterTight™ Vislon front zip Laminated die-cut Velcro® cuff adjusters reduce bulk, and won't catch or tear off Adjustable hem drawcord Reinforced high wear areas Weight: 292gm RRP $599

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