Forest & Bird Magazine 348 May 2013

ISSUE 348 • MAY 2013 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Frogs from the dinosaur era PLUS

Homegrown nature lover

Tracking down NZ storm petrels

NZ’s most mobile birds

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NEW!

ISSUE 348

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 Tce, 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: Unit 4/Level 1, 245 St Asaph St, Christchurch.

PO Box 2516, Christchurch 8140.

Tel: (03) 940-5522 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 6 Conservation news

Proud to be a member

Your support, Birdman Wellington

18 Cover story Soapbox

24

Denniston Plateau

28

The cat among the pigeons

The fight continues

Hands-on conservation

The easiest species to translocate

33 Amazing facts about … black tunnel web spiders

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

34 Garden Bird Survey Fill in your form

Membership & Circulation T 0800 200 064 F (04) 385-7373 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

51

Growing a nature lover

52

Fast-forward to the past

56

Going places

58

In the field

60

Community conservation

63

Observations

64

Book reviews

Grown-up KCC member Nicole Masters

Graeme Hill on high price of cutting costs

Above the Treeline, Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees, Coastal Fishes of New Zealand, Where to Watch Birds in Canterbury, Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird

Our people

Daniel and Mandy Shand, John Turnbull, KCC co-ordinators, Gordon Stephenson KEEP UP WITH NATURE

Printlink Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz

One big family

90 years of Forest & Bird

Central Otago kärearea by John Douglas

It’s about New Zealand

PREPRESS/PRINTING:

ADVERTISING:

48

68 Parting shot

36 Nature of tomorrow 39

Shared vision for taonga

Waitangi Tribunal’s flora and fauna claim, Wai 262

Kererü Count, Aongatete riflemen, Dunedin robins, Kaipüpü Point transformation

32 Birds on the move

ART DIRECTOR /DESIGNER:

44

Ann Graeme on the frontline

Marine biology for beginners

PO Box 631, Wellington.

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

Our partners

Otago Peninsula’s wildlife

NZ the way we like it

31

43

Predator-free NZ vision

Maud Island’s old-timers

22

Rangatahi

The Co-operative Bank, Forest & Bird playing cards

DOC cuts, Forest & Bird by numbers, West Coast marine reserves, CITES protection for sharks, Best Fish Guide, Bat discovery, Ross Sea hope, Drought impact, Freshwater reform, Dairying accord, NZ storm petrel, Fiordland call-in, Garden Bird Survey, Wise Response

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42

Rachel van Heugten and wëtä

Trouble with our feline friends

EDITOR: Marina Skinner

• May 2013

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ ForestandBird

Watch us on YouTube www.youtube.com/ forestandbird

Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/ Forest_and_Bird

Sign up to Forest & Bird eNews Fresh conservation news delivered to your inbox 6 times a year. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz COVER SHOT The Maud Island frog, Leiopelma pakeka, would have hopped under the feet of dinosaurs.

Photo: Rob Suisted/www.naturespic.com

editorial

A vision that’s endured “

T

he past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The narrator of L P Harley’s novel The Go-Between is speaking of the golden English summer of 1900, but he could equally be referring to New Zealand in the early 20th century.

To a time-traveller the New Zealand of March 1923 would be a shock. Across the North Island we would see burnt ruins of great forests and everywhere sawmills would be hard at work extracting ancient trees for housing or butter-boxes. In the South Island high country we would see herds of deer grazing tussock down to bare ground and we might meet observant people concerned about the growing effects of the “opossum nuisance”.

We could stop and talk to men and women who had seen and heard huia, (extinct 16 years before in 1907), the North Island takahë (1900), North Island thrush or piopio (1902) and the laughing owl (1914). A few might express concern about the decline of native species and forests but most would say that the replacement of ancient native species by their “vigorous” European cousins was part of a natural process.

It was in this unsympathetic setting that Captain Val Sanderson and Sir Thomas Mackenzie held a meeting in Wellington on March 28, 1923 to form the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society. The aims of the Society were “to advocate and obtain the efficient protection and preservation of our native birds, establish a bird day for our schools and achieve unity of control of all wildlife”.

Over the next 90 years the organisation that Sanderson and Mackenzie created changed New Zealand. We have played a leading role in almost all the important conservation achievements in this country, from protecting native forests to playing a vital role in the creation of the Department of Conservation.

Most importantly, conservation is now the concern and passion, of a wide cross-section of New Zealanders. With around 80,000 members and supporters, we represent people of all political, social and ethnic backgrounds and we are larger than any political party (probably larger than all combined). We are widely respected as New Zealand’s voice for nature.

Who knows what the next 90 years will bring? The determination and foresight that Sanderson and Mackenzie showed is still needed today as we confront challenges like mining on conservation land or the global threat of climate change. Nor are we safely past the age of extinction: Maui’s dolphins and many other species are perilously close to the edge.

As we celebrate our 90th anniversary we have much to be proud of and more to fight for but let’s take a moment to remember the foresight of Ernest Valentine Sanderson and Sir Thomas Noble Mackenzie.

Ngä mihi nui

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President

Forest & Bird AGM and dinner The 2013 annual general meeting and Council meeting will be on Saturday 29 June at Comfort Hotel Wellington, 213-223 Cuba Street, Wellington. The Sanderson Memorial Dinner, with Dr Gerry McSweeney as speaker, will be held in the evening at the Beehive, Parliament buildings. All members are invited to attend.

More information: www.forestandbird.org.nz, office@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 385 7374

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| 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 NATIONAL TREASURER:

Graham Bellamy CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS:

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

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

Bill Ballantine, Stan Butcher, Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra LeeVercoe, 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.

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 edition will win a copy of Above the Treeline: A nature guide to alpine New Zealand by Alan Mark (Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99) Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or e-mail m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz by June 20.

Mangroves’ many assets

We can solve cat problem It is time for all Forest & Bird members to proactively control a major bird predator – the cat. This will be more difficult than donating to save dolphins or signing petitions for conserving threatened land. It will require courage and I admire Gareth Morgan for publicising this issue.

We as individual members and collectively need to do more. First we must stop the release of desexed strays.

Strays kill birds and are nobody’s pets. Limiting the number of cats on properties should be next.

I was brought up with cats and I like cats but they kill birds and lizards. Cat protectors find arguments and myths to support their passion, for instance, in urban areas there are not many native birds so only introduced species are killed. When we moved to the Hutt Valley 40 years ago fantails were seen daily near the eastern hills. Now they are seen rarely as their fluttering antics make them irresistible to the laziest of domestic moggies. Skinks and geckos were commonplace here 40 years ago but I doubt any are left to protect.

Cat owners do not know what their pet kills. Many bird corpses are found in our large urban garden. Numbers of aggressive tüï have increased since neighbours and the council have planted native trees but we fear for the timid bellbirds and grey warblers that visit us.

Our primary objective is to protect birds. This is irreconcilable with uncontrolled cat populations. We should support sensible control measures, including bells on collars, restricting cats’ nocturnal ventures outside, advocate for microchipping and euthanasia of unwanted strays. 1.4 million cats is way too many.

Vivien Pohl, Lower Hutt This letter is the winner of Shelter from the Storm.

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| Forest & Bird

I was interested in Mark Bellingham’s article concerning the endangered fairy terns at Mangawhai (February Forest & Bird) and the lack of appreciation for mangroves by some residents. At Auckland Tech geology classes in the early 1970s my daughter and I learned of the risk of sea erosion to a narrow country like New Zealand. We were taught that mangroves balanced that risk of land loss by building up more land, so being crucial to New Zealand’s very existence.

Since then I have also read in New Scientist magazine that mangroves are the best tree for gobbling up carbon dioxide. So not only do they supply habitat for small fish and shrimps for fairy tern fledglings but are also invaluable to the global environment.

Julie Peel, Waiuku

Märahau’s tame sparrows I thought Sheila Budgen (February Forest & Bird) and other readers would be interested to hear about the tame sparrows of Märahau.

About eight years ago I was sitting by the shelter at the start of the Abel Tasman National Park track eating a sandwich when a sparrow hopped on my hand and started eating the sandwich.

About six months ago I was eating cashew nuts there when a sparrow came up to my hand and started eating the nuts from between my fingers.

I have never known sparrows to do this anywhere else. They usually associate mankind with nasties like cats I expect, but presumably the parent sparrows were passing on their tame nature to their offspring. I would guess that there are no cats there. They were as tame as the bush robins that occasionally hop all over you when you sit down to rest in the bush.

Stephen Conn, Nelson

Support for Vanuatu Like Sue Blaikie (February Forest & Bird), we too are proud to be Forest & Bird members and involved in the Vatthe conservation project in Vanuatu. We have volunteered there on two occasions. So we are dismayed to read the editor’s response to her letter that Forest & Bird is “not able to continue substantial support for this project”.

Many conservation projects have been launched in Vanuatu and have sunk without trace when outside assistance was withdrawn. The Vatthe project has not only survived for nearly 20 years but gone from strength to strength, thanks to the guiding hand of Sue Maturin under the auspices of Forest & Bird.

Not only does the project protect the largest native forest left in Vanuatu but the initiative of our volunteers has found a way to beat back the smothering infestation of the big leaf creeper. Other organisations now ask Forest & Bird’s advice to deal with this widespread problem.

What will happen if Forest & Bird abandons its support of this project? The most optimistic outcome is that “empowered Vanuatuans” will carry it on. The reality is that without outside diplomacy, parochial interests will take precedence, the activities of the project will wither and the loggers will win the day. There will no doubt be associated social and environmental costs. This will be a betrayal of our commitment to conservation and to the Ni Vanuatu community.

Gary and Marlene Ware, Tauranga

50 years ago

WIN a Forest & Bird lapel pin To celebrate our 90th birthday, we are giving away 10 Forest & Bird lapel pins.

To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz Please put Lapel pin 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 Lapel pin draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on June 20.

The winner of Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees in the February edition of Forest & Bird is Margaret Garrett of Wellington.

Forest & Bird lapel pins are for sale at Forest & Bird’s online shop at https://secure.forestandbird.org.nz/ shop or send a cheque for $5 (includes packaging and post in New Zealand) to Merchandise, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Updates and corrections The caption on page 62 of the February edition of Forest & Bird showed a view from Mangemangeroa Reserve of Hauraki Gulf, not Manukau Harbour.

The winning letter writer (page 4) in the February edition was Peter Nixon.

The Rangatahi article in the February edition (page 45) was about budding young conservationist Jessica Le Grice, who planned to spend the summer assisting a Masters project to release kärearea in the Hünua Ranges near Auckland thanks to a BayerBoost Scholarship.

Unfortunately, the juvenile kärearea chicks did not arrive during Jessica’s scholarship-sponsored internship. She still maintained a hands-on role in the project, building hack boxes, monitoring birds and undertaking pest control.

Jessica hopes to be involved as a volunteer when the juveniles are released at a later date.

Water: By an Old Timer Unfortunately too many folk today take a plentiful and pure water supply for granted and I fear many badly misuse it; but it will not always be so because one of the big problems the peoples of the world will have to face in the years ahead will be the provision of pure water to meet the demands of greatly increased populations associated with the tremendous demands for water made by modern industry….

New Zealand has been blessed with a wonderful water supply, but it should always be remembered that it is not inexhaustible. Every effort should be made to prevent pollution and to see that our great steep water-catchment hills are never denuded of their native bush. No other covering is so effective in regulating the raindrops where they fall and thereby preserving our soils and water.

Forest & Bird, May 1963

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

NZ shows DOC some love O

ften something is not appreciated until it is under threat, if not gone. The Department of Conservation is currently under serious threat. But Forest & Bird’s national Love DOC Day on April 11 was far from solemn (or funereal). Rather, it was a celebration of all that the department and its dedicated staff do for this country and the people who live here and visit.

People marked Love DOC Day by baking cakes, emailing short messages (which were copied to sticky PostIt notes and fixed to the windows of DOC offices by Forest & Bird staff) or by sticking up their own messages at DOC offices. The overall message was that people love the work the department’s staff do and the government must fund DOC so it can successfully carry out its important functions.

The government has cut $54 million from DOC’s budget over the past four years. As a result DOC has already lost more than 10 per cent of its workforce. In March another 140 positions were put on the line. But it seems the 140 positions are only part of the story. As this edition of Forest & Bird was going to print, our field officers were working to establish how many of DOC’s technical staff – in addition to the overall 140

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Cartoon: Chris Slane

positions being lost – will be replaced by others whose job descriptions will involve attracting corporate sponsorship and recruiting volunteers rather than doing hands on work .

The department is seeking more volunteers to do the work of its paid staff. Forest & Bird greatly appreciates the value of volunteers. Most of the work done in Forest & Bird’s name is done by our volunteers, who have dedication, resourcefulness and passion in spades.

But for DOC, which is responsible for a third of New Zealand’s terrestrial land area – much of which is incredibly remote – there is no substitute for trained, full-time, paid professionals to save endangered species, lay traps in the back country, live for months on an outlying island or fight a bush fire.

The changes at the department will impact on every aspect of what DOC does, including habitat protection, pest control, mounting search and rescue operations and fighting rural fires. The cuts will curtail the work done in looking after endangered species, walking tracks, tourist facilities, historic places and national parks. The cuts will

undermine the cornerstone of New Zealand’s multi-billiondollar clean, green brand, which supports our secondbiggest export earner – tourism.

All this makes the government’s justification for the cuts – that they are a part of wider state service belt-tightening – seem like a false economy. The justification gets even thinner when you consider that the government’s favourite agencies, such as the former Crown Minerals, have enjoyed massive budget increases since 2008.

Apart from the economic arguments, attacking DOC is an attack on what makes New Zealand such a unique and special place to live. And that’s why the response to our appeal to show DOC the love was so strong.

Forest & Bird will continue this year to campaign to get the government to recognise the value of the crucial work DOC does and to properly fund it. n Jay Harkness

Forest & Bird by numbers After 90 years…

80,000 50 30+

members and supporters

branches

full-time staff

3

Helping Forest & Bird help little blue penguins

$5 from every little blue penguin adult tee, merino & sweatshirt goes directly to Forest & Bird Places for Penguins project

4 1 One Post-it note left in Twizel.

2 Public Service Association National Secretary Brenda Pilott

adds her Post-it note in Wellington. Photo: Marina Skinner

3 Twizel Area School children show DOC some love. Photo:

Tanya Coles

4 Dunedin City Councillor Jinty MacTavish brought a cake for

DOC. Photo: Sue Maturin

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Aid for shark finning ban T

he fight to ban shark finning in New Zealand was given a boost recently when an international environmental agreement increased protection measures of three shark species found in New Zealand waters.

The Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) met in Bangkok in March and as part of several new measures added hammerhead sharks, porbeagles and oceanic whitetip sharks to its Appendix II. International trade of Appendix II species requires permits, which are issued only if the trade will not be detrimental to the species’ survival.

The international agreement does not override member countries’ domestic fisheries laws. However, Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar said the change demonstrates there is a widely recognised need to protect our shark species against unsustainable trade.

“Shark finning is hugely unsustainable and is contributing to the decline of many of New Zealand’s shark species. Hopefully, CITES’ reclassification of these species will remind the government that by continuing to allow this unsustainable practice we’re putting our sharks at risk of extinction,” she said.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is currently reviewing it national policy on sharks. Forest & Bird has been working with the ministry during the review and hopes the updated policy will take a decisive stance by banning shark finning.

How you can help

Sign Forest & Bird’s shark fin pledge at www.forestandbird.org.nz

The hammerhead shark is one of the three shark species to come under greater international protection measures. Photo: Terry Goss/Marine Photobank

Marine reserves fall short I

n March Conservation Minister Nick Smith announced that he had approved five new marine reserves for the West Coast – Kahurangi, Punakaiki, Ökarito, Tauparikaka and Hautai. That may sound like good news, but as usual, the devil was in the detail.

Even if they pass into law in their entirety, none of the reserves will be big enough to contain an entire ecosystem.

One covers only 16 hectares. Another only reaches five kilometres from shore, so fails to incorporate any species that only inhabit deeper waters.

New Zealand urgently needs a network of marine reserves that will encompass all the variety found in our local marine environments. Forest & Bird is campaigning for 30 per cent of our territorial and economic waters combined to be given reserve status. Currently only 0.3

per cent of these areas are protected. This will increase by a tenth of a per cent, to 0.4 per cent, when some gazetted reserves around the sub-Antarctic islands enter into law.

By contrast, a third of New Zealand’s land area is managed for conservation. Just as these areas bring conservation and economic benefits, it is clear that a similar proportion of marine reserves would bring similar gains. New Zealand’s ecology, tourism industry and its commercial and recreational fishers would all see marked benefits. Studies – including one carried out on the Great Barrier Reef and published by the US National Academy of Sciences – show that marine reserves have a positive spillover effect on their surrounding waters.

Forest & Bird welcomes any extra protection for native habitats but wants measures be meaningful.

Tiritiri Matangi Island Enjoy a day trip to a magical island called Tiritiri Matangi. From the moment you step onto the island to the moment you leave, you will be entranced by the serenade of gentle birdsong and the lush native bush. Tiritiri Matangi boasts around 300,000 native trees, 12 of New Zealand’s endangered bird species and 3 reptile species. There are numerous walking tracks throughout the island which vary in length and fitness levels. Book your cruise today!

Kokako - image c/o Simon Fordham/Naturepix 8

| Forest & Bird

www.360discovery.co.nz 0800 360 3472

IN BRIEF Updated Best Fish Guide: Forest & Bird will soon launch the first Best Fish Guide that includes help choosing ecofriendly farmed seafood. The guide will have aquaculture species Pacific oysters, mussels, salmon and päua.

The aquaculture part of the guide has divided New Zealand into six regions. Aquaculture occurs around the country but the ecological impact of marine farming can vary between regions so that a seafood species farmed in one region may be a more eco-friendly choice than from another.

Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar says most of the new additions to the guide rate as “best” or “better” seafood choices. “Our assessment found that most aquaculture seafood is good to eat, which is good news if you enjoy seafood and want to make better choices.”

Members will receive a copy of the new Best Fish Guide in the August edition of Forest & Bird magazine.

Help Support Forest & Bird by purchasing the new 2013 | 2014 Entertainment™ Book!

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D’Urville Island bats found: Forest & Bird Top of the South Field Officer Debs Martin and scientist Brian Lloyd discovered a large colony of nationally critical South Island long-tailed bats, or pekapeka, on D’Urville Island, in the Marlborough Sounds last summer.

Debs and Brian were thrilled to find such a thriving colony, which they estimated to be hundreds strong.

“This find dramatically increases the chances of saving the species from extinction,” says Debs. D’Urville Island is free of possums and ship rats, which is probably part of the reason the local colony is so strong.

The species is hard to study. The bats feed only at night and roost high in the forest canopy. Only 10 other colonies are known to exist, with total numbers about 5000 and falling.

This season’s survey, of which the expedition was a part, was made possible by the estate of the late Colin Iles.

New Zealand has another bat species: the endangered lesser short-tailed bat. The greater short-tailed bat lived on islands off Stewart Island but was last seen in 1967 after ship rats landed on the islands.

21/03/13

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www.nopests.co.nz Phone 0800 111 466 Rabbits • Possums • Rats • All other pests

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

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conservation

news

Ross Sea sanctuary gets tick T

he new Secretary of State for the United States, John Kerry, publicly backed the joint New Zealand-US proposal for a marine protected area in the Ross Sea at a screening of The Last Ocean movie in Washington DC in late March.

Diplomatic efforts to create Ross Sea and East Antarctic marine protected areas are gaining pace as countries prepare for negotiations in Bremerhaven in Germany in July.

Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) partner the Pew Environment Group hosted a screening of Christchurch film-maker Peter Young’s movie about the Ross Sea in Washington DC in March. New Zealand ambassador to the US Mike Moore and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr joined Kerry in making strong calls for Antarctic marine protection.

“The Ross Sea… is a natural laboratory. And we disrespect it at our peril, as we do the rest of the ocean,” Kerry told the audience of diplomats and officials. “The environment there is so extreme, as we know, that it’s difficult to live as a penguin or a killer whale or a seal but

The Ross Sea has more than a third of the world population of Adelie penguins. Photo: John Weller

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they’ve adapted. And in their adaptation we’ve learned what a remarkably diverse and productive ecosystem it is.”

The near-pristine Ross Sea is one of the last open-ocean, continental shelf ecosystems in which the food web has not been subjected to serious or permanent change as a result of human activities.

The region is home to sizable populations of top predators including large fish, seabirds, penguins, seals and whales. The Ross Sea supports large proportions of the world’s populations of some of the most well-known Antarctic species, including more than a third of the world population of Adelie penguins, more than a quarter of the world population of Emperor penguins and 45 per cent of the Southern Pacific population of Weddell seals.

Forest & Bird is a member of the alliance, which has called for 3.6 million square kilometres to be protected as a no-take reserve, based on the work of scientists, governments and NGOs over the past five years highlighting the environmental importance of the region.

The alliance has identified 19 key Southern Ocean habitats that deserve protection. The current Ross Sea proposal, a compromise between two proposals put forward by the US and New Zealand governments, calls for 1.6 million square kilometres of the region to be protected as a no-take marine reserve as well as some additional zones. The alliance supports the adoption of this proposal at the coming Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in Germany and believes it should be built on over time to include additional areas to fully protect this pristine environment.

The next international meeting likely to discuss the Ross Sea and East Antarctic marine reserve proposals is the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Brussels in late May. Although marine reserves are not formally on the agenda at the consultative meeting, some countries attending the meeting have signalled they intend holding informal discussions on the proposals. n Geoff Keey

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2 1 An almost dry tarn in the Paparoa Ranges on the West Coast.

Photos: Jared White

2 The remains of a dead köura, or freshwater crayfish, in a dry tarn.

Wildlife suffer in drought T

he extraordinarily dry summer weather that stretched well into autumn didn’t just impact on farmers or the gross domestic product. There were plenty of signs that our native forests and wildlife suffered badly too.

In the North Island young dehydrated kiwi were found wandering into open areas in search of water. There were even reports of kiwi entering people’s homes. These probably point to further problems in the bush since evidence from past droughts suggests that kiwi can starve when the ground dries hard because they cannot probe it with their beaks.

In some areas freshwater levels fell dramatically, at the expense of the animals that live in them.

At the Forest & Bird-managed Ark in the Park in Auckland’s Waitäkere Ranges sub-canopy trees wilted as the drought lingered.

Increasingly extreme weather is predicted to become the norm, as carbon dioxide emissions continue to climb.

Climate change poses a huge threat to New Zealand’s natural heritage. It is likely to see an increase in the number of introduced pests and predators as New Zealand’s climate becomes more to their liking. Sea-level rise could wipe out whole estuarine and coastal habitats. And species endemic to, or likely to be isolated in, single habitats or a small number of sites could easily disappear as conditions in those areas change.

A prime example of one such host-habitat exists on Mt Moehau, at the northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

Its sub-alpine scrublands are home to several species found nowhere else, including the Moehau stag beetle. These animals are highly unlikely to survive prolonged warmer temperatures and would be extremely difficult to relocate.

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conservation

news

Reform refreshes waterways F

orest & Bird was pleased with most of the government’s freshwater reform proposals announced in March.

The proposals generally follow the recommendations of the Land and Water Forum, on which Advocacy

Makarora River in Otago. The freshwater reform proposals mainly follow recommendations from the Land and Water Forum. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

Manager Kevin Hackwell represented Forest & Bird. The forum reported to the government late last year.

Forest & Bird is surprised that the proposed reforms have failed to pick up the detail of the Land and Water Forum’s important recommendations on how to deal with our waterways most at risk from pollution. “Similar Land and Water Forum recommendations about how to deal with catchments approaching or exceeding water take limits have been adopted. This makes it even more curious that the government did not pick up the similar suite of recommendations about protecting water quality where limits on pollution discharges are approached or exceeded,” Kevin says.

Initially, Forest & Bird was also concerned about the Government’s proposals to significantly weaken how we protect our most outstanding waterways, which are currently protected by Water Conservation Orders (WCOs). “Water Conservation Orders are the freshwater equivalents of national parks. Some of our rivers and lakes are so nationally significant that they deserve protection for generations to come,” Kevin says.

But in April, Environment Minister Amy Adams announced that due

to the feedback she’d had the government would be leaving WCOs as they were. This is very good news and Forest & Bird sincerely hopes this commitment will be kept.

“The Land and Water Forum did not recommend limiting Water Conservation Orders. In fact the forum suggested changes to strengthen Water Conservation Orders by ensuring that nearby land use does not harm the values – often water quality – the orders protect,” Kevin says.

“Like our national parks, the rivers and lakes protected by Water Conservation Orders not only protect the quality of habitat for animals but they often provide significant economic benefit through tourism, recreation and commercial fishing.”

On the positive side, Forest & Bird applauds key proposed reforms to improve the efficiency of water use. “This is crucial to our ability to deal with droughts and the impact of climate change. Greater efficiency will allow others to make use of water.

We hope to see good management practice toolkits developed by all sectors to help water users meet the regulations.”

A short public consultation process about the freshwater reform and the RMA was held in March and April.

Bar raised for dairy farmers I

n February Dairy NZ announced a draft new Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord to replace the 2003 Clean Streams Accord that expired last year. The new accord will cover all dairy companies, not just Fonterra as under the previous agreement.

“The key thing that 10 years of the Clean Streams Accord has shown is that if providing encouragement and assistance fails, it is important that the poor performers are penalised for not meeting their requirements,” Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says.

“The latest report from the Clean

12

| Forest & Bird

Streams Accord showed 11 per cent of all dairy farmers are still seriously breaching their effluent discharge rules and consent conditions. Fonterra has learnt that having penalties for non-compliance encourages those who consistently fail to meet targets to lift their game.

“The new Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord will cover almost every dairy farmer in the country. That should be better for the environment as we’ll see more efforts everywhere to reduce nutrient run-off and exclude dairy cattle from waterways and drains,” Kevin says.

The new accord has been released for feedback from farmers and other stakeholders.

conservation

news

Storm petrel breeding near Auckland R

esearchers were elated to find the sparrow-sized New Zealand storm petrel, thought extinct until 2003, breeding on Little Barrier Island (Hauturu) in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The team of researchers, led by Chris Gaskin, Important Bird Area (IBA) programme co-ordinator for Forest & Bird and Dr Matt Rayner from the University of Auckland, found the breeding site 50 kilometres from Auckland city during an expedition last summer.

The seabird is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and finding breeding sites is vital for their conservation.

Three specimens of the diminutive 35-gram seabirds were collected off New Zealand in the 1800s and are in museums overseas. Since its rediscovery in 2003 there has been speculation about where the storm petrel breeds.

The team camped on the Poor Knights Islands, Mokohinau Islands and Little Barrier Island and used radio receivers to zero in on the breeding site. “It’s like looking for a needle in the haystack,” says Chris.

A critical breakthrough came last year when the project team found brood (incubation) patches on birds caught at sea. This showed when New Zealand storm petrels incubate their eggs and the best time to find breeding birds on land.

This year 24 birds were caught at sea using specially designed net guns and small one-gram radio transmitters were fitted to each bird. Automated receivers narrowed down the search. Team members at a remote camp on the north coast of Little Barrier Island and from boats used handheld receivers and spotlights. They confirmed that birds were coming ashore under the cover of darkness and moving inland. Birds were also detected from other parts of the island, including the summit ridges, and the search area was moved.

The prospect of looking all over the island for the birds was daunting. Team members Forest & Bird Otago/ Southland Field Officer Sue Maturin and partner Graeme Loh picked up a signal of a bird in the forest and others were able to get a clear fix on the site.

“That site is being monitored. It is very fragile,” says Matt.

“We are using automated equipment for the most part and maintaining a hands-off approach, although team members visiting the vicinity have also been keeping watch.”

Chris says other birds have been discovered on the ground. “Team members have seen these small pelagic seabirds flying in kauri and hard beech forest at night,” he says. The island’s DOC ranger, Richard Walle, found a second breeding site further up the same valley during daytime searches using telemetry.

Aerial surveys tried to establish the distribution and size of the population but turned up nothing new. Members of the research team will spend time on the rugged, forestclad island until late May when chicks leave the island at the end of their breeding season.

“Finding these breeding sites is a brilliant result for our dedicated and enthusiastic team,” says Chris. “It’s been hard

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| Forest & Bird

1 1 Dr Steffi Ismar in February

with the first New Zealand storm petrel captured on land. Photo Martin Berg

2 Karen Baird measures a

New Zealand storm petrel.

Photo Steffi Ismar

3 Dr Matt Rayner, left, and

Chris Gaskin. Photo: Neil Fitzgerald

3 going back to our day jobs – team members volunteered their time. There will be more to discover about these birds.

This season’s work is far from finished; and we’re already looking ahead to future research work.”

Locating the breeding ground is internationally significant and further highlights the importance of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park as a globally significant biodiversity hotspot.

The project was funded this year by grants from BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund, Forest & Bird Central Auckland Branch, Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, The Little Barrier Island Hauturu Supporters Trust and ASB Trust, Auckland Council and Peter Harrison/Zegrahm Expeditions, with further support from the Department of Conservation, Hauraki Gulf Forum and Landcare Research.

2

IN BRIEF Fiordland projects called in: Forest & Bird is pleased Conservation Minister Nick Smith has decided to assess whether or not a tunnel should be built beneath the Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks to open up access to Milford Sound and whether a monorail and associated roads should be built through the Snowdon Forest, between Lake Mavora and Te Anau.

“Both schemes would spoil important parts of some of New Zealand’s most treasured landscapes, and are incompatible with the purpose of the existence of national parks and of Te Wähipounamu – the World Heritage site that covers much of south-west New Zealand,” says Forest & Bird’s Otago/Southland Field Officer Sue Maturin. “If the Minister takes an objective look at the proposals, as he has said he will do, then there will be only one possible outcome,” says Sue. Pushing for sustainability: The Wise Response group, chaired by Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador Sir

Alan Mark, was launched in March.

The group is asking Parliament to carry out a risk assessment across five areas critical to our wellbeing and, if necessary, develop strategies with cross-party and public support to confront these challenges.

Wise Response’s concerns focus on the unsustainable way we’ve been treating Earth and its resources. Wise Response supporters include top business people, environmentalists, health practitioners, scientists, academics, artists and engineers.

Conservation Advocate Claire Browning says Forest & Bird will be joining the Wise Response group in throwing down a public challenge to the government.

2013 Garden Bird Survey: People are again asked to brave the winter weather and count the number of birds in their gardens for this year’s Garden Bird Survey from June 29 to July 7.

The house sparrow topped last year’s survey, with an average 12.4 birds

counted in each garden, compared with 12.7 in 2011. Silvereyes came second at 9.7 (6.1 in 2011). Organiser Eric Spurr speculated that the reason for the higher number of silvereyes was because the early winter forced them out of forests and into gardens in search of food.

A Garden Bird Survey form is on page 35 or go to gardenbirdsurvey. landcareresearch.co.nz

The native silvereye was the second-most common bird in last year’s nationwide Garden Bird Survey. Photo: Jackie Whitehead

Forest & Bird

| 15

proud to be a

member

Thank you for your support I

“ am exceedingly grateful that Forest & Bird exists and is active and effective. I find it heartening and encouraging to be part of a movement of citizens who care passionately about our land and who understand the concepts of precaution and sustainability.”

These warm words came from one of many supporters who recently wrote to tell us why they continue to back Forest & Bird.

Our Forest & Bird member continued: “Thanks for spearheading the campaign to maintain sound RMA provisions, needed even more to restrain a government that thinks nothing of undermining environmental values and appears not to realise that that undermines an international trading and tourism reputation.”

Our fundraising appeal letter earlier this year asked people to tell us why they support Forest & Bird. We are very grateful for everyone who took the time to write to us.

Your comments are very heartening and help staff gain an understanding of the conservation concerns you have now and for the future.

We’d like to share some other messages from members in coming editions of Forest & Bird this year.

We greatly appreciate the many people who contributed to our Voice for Nature appeal earlier this year. We received more than $35,000, which will go towards the work of our conservation advocates and field staff as voices for nature. Forest & Bird is speaking more forcefully right now as significant changes to key pieces of environmental law are considered in Parliament and around New Zealand.

If these changes are made, they will undermine laws that have supported our environment for 20 years.

Birdman Wellington makes a splash F

orest & Bird fundraising took flight during the Birdman Wellington contest in January. More than 40 entrants raised nearly $5000 through friends and family for Forest & Bird before taking a leap off Taranaki Wharf in front of thousands of spectators.

This was the first time Forest & Bird has been involved in the iconic annual event held on Wellington Anniversary Day, after teaming up with event organiser Capital Productions. Several children took part in the Birdkidz section jumping from a lower sea-level platform.

“We were delighted with the community’s response and with the entrants, who went all out to entertain the crowd and raise money for Forest & Bird,” said Forest & Bird Fundraiser and contest organiser Helen Ward.

“This type of event-based fundraising, where individuals and teams raise money on a charity’s behalf, is on the rise in New Zealand and has the potential to raise significant funds for Forest & Bird in the future.

“We are very grateful to judges Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, comedian Raybon Kan and Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra members Sam Auger, Bek Coogan and Megan Salole.”

Forest & Bird hopes to be part of Birdman Wellington in 2014.

WITH THANKS TO:

16

| Forest & Bird

John Irving won the award for best individual costume.

Photo: Masanori Udagawa

Maud Island’s

old-timers 1 18

| Forest & Bird

COVER STORY One of New Zealand’s four native frog species lives longer than any other frog in the world. David Brooks uncovers some surprising facts about the frogs found only on Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

M

aud Island frogs have changed little since the time dinosaurs roamed the world. The endemic New Zealand species is the longest lived wild frog in the world. But for its public profile it is a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Discovered in the 1940s on an island in Pelorus Sound in Marlborough, these tiny dark brown frogs have been regularly studied by scientists since the mid-1970s.

Associate Professor Ben Bell of Victoria University’s School of Biological Sciences has returned to the island to monitor the population at least once a year since 1982, leading efforts that have uncovered some remarkable facts. “Maud Island stands out now as probably the world’s longest-run study of the longest-lived wild frogs,” Ben says.

Maud Island frogs, Leiopelma pakeka, can live to about 40 years but from adulthood they can remain within an area just a few metres across for decades. Ben will often find the same frog sitting near the same rock year after year.

“The oldest one I have been monitoring is called Xena and when I last caught her in May last year she was estimated to be 40 years old. Once they get to 35 years, we give them a name. Among the others we’ve also got ones called Wellington and Gollum,” he says.

The frogs grow to 50mm long and live under leaf littercovered rocks in a mature bush remnant. Their lifetime range extends to only about 30 square metres, with the centre of their range shifting by only 1.3 metres every 10 years. They are unlikely to feature in a TV show about the world’s most fearsome predators – when they emerge in the evening to feed, they will sit placidly and wait for a spider, beetle or other invertebrate prey to walk by before pouncing.

Their sedentary lifestyle makes them particularly easy to study. “You can go out at night and just pick one up and then put it down in the same spot and it will just continue sitting there,” says Associate Professor Phil Bishop, the leader of the Otago University frog group.

Along with the other three surviving native New Zealand frogs, or pepeketua, Maud Island frogs are members of the Leiopelmatidae family. When New Zealand was still part of the ancient super-continent of Gondwana, Leiopelmatidae split off from the branch that later developed into modern frogs. “They diverged from the other lineage of amphibians 180 million years ago, so frogs very similar to Leiopelma would have been hopping around the feet of dinosaurs.

They are a very different frog from all other modern frogs,” says Phil.

If you have seen or heard a frog in New Zealand, it is almost certainly one of three introduced Australian species – brown tree frog, green and golden bell frog and southern bell frog. All our native frogs are found in relatively small numbers in isolated areas and their nocturnal habits, lack of regular calling and camouflage make them hard to find.

Unlike modern frogs, our native species lack an external eardrum and don’t make regular croaking sounds. They don’t have tadpoles. Young froglets emerge almost fully formed from eggs and are carried around on the backs of their fathers until fully developed, apart from the semiaquatic Hochstetter’s frog, which hatches at an earlier stage of development.

The Maud Island frog and the closely related Hamilton’s frog, which was also reduced to one small predator-free island in the Marlborough Sounds, would once have been found throughout most of New Zealand. Like many of our other native creatures, they evolved without mammal predators and were decimated by rats, stoats and other pests after human settlement. Although the numbers of frogs on Maud Island are fairly healthy at up to 40,000, the danger of relying on one small island for the future of a species is obvious. Disease or a natural disaster could easily lead to extinction if all the frogs were at one site.

A hundred frogs were transferred to another part of Maud Island in the mid-1980s and the population at the new site has since doubled. In the Marlborough Sounds another successful translocation took place to Motuara Island in 1997, followed by a less successful move to Long Island in 2006.

Phil says poor habitat and possible predation by kiwi – to which a small pioneer population might be vulnerable – may have been at the root of the Long Island failure.

Motuara’s habitat has been favourable and the frogs were initially surrounded by a kiwi-proof fence.

Sixty frogs were also 2 transferred to Wellington’s Zealandia fenced sanctuary in 2006 with another 100 going there in December last year.

Of the initial transfer, 29 1 The sedentary lifestyle of

Maud Island frogs makes them easy to study. Photo: Phil Bishop

2 Ben Bell has monitored

frogs since 1982.

3 ‘They are a very different

frog from all other modern frogs,’ says Phil Bishop.

3 Forest & Bird

| 19

frogs were released into the open and the rest were placed in enclosures. Those in enclosures did well and although there were fears the 29 in the open had all died – possibly predated by kiwi and mice – recent indications suggest that some did survive.

The chytrid fungus has been responsible for dramatic population declines of frog species in the Americas, Australia and Caribbean. It may have also played a role in the dramatic fall in numbers of Archey’s frogs through disease in the Coromandel from the mid-1990s. Our native species are thought to have some resistance to infection from the fungus but it remains a threat, particularly if a more virulent hybrid develops, Phil says.

Like other frogs, our native species need a moist environment to survive, and climate change poses a major long-term threat. “We really have got to think very carefully about their distribution in terms of climate change and whether they are in the best places for the future,” Ben says. “Over the longer term, we may have to look at predator-free sites in areas such as Fiordland or South Westland because if the climate is going to get drier, more stress will be put on the frog populations.”

Although much has been learned about Maud Island frogs, Ben and Phil agree much more research is needed to strengthen conservation efforts. More needs to be learned about their breeding behaviour, the chemical signals believed to be their main form of communication and why Archey’s and Hochstetter’s frogs have coped better with predators than Hamilton’s or Maud Island frogs.

A higher public profile leading to pressure for more resources for saving our unique frogs would also help.

After all, their pedigree is just as long and distinguished as the more famous dinosaur age relic, the tuatara.

Climate change will put more stress on populations of Maud Island and other native frogs. Photo: Phil Bishop

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| Forest & Bird

Global decline When 1400 scientists gathered at the first World Congress of Herpetology in Britain in 1989, many were saying the same thing: “I went to work on my frogs this year and I couldn’t find any.”

Otago University’s Phil Bishop says this set the ball rolling for research that confirmed there was an alarming worldwide decline in the populations of frogs and other amphibians, such as toads and salamanders. In 2011 Phil was appointed chief scientist of the Amphibian Survival Alliance, a global group aiming to arrest and reverse the disastrous decline.

Reports of falling frog numbers dated back to the 1950s in the United States, Puerto Rico and Australia.

Similar news of severe declines later came from Central and South America and, alarmingly, these included seemingly pristine areas.

Data from 936 amphibian populations across the world indicated the decline had been global since 1990.The reasons for the decline are still not entirely clear but they are likely to be a combination of habitat destruction, pollution, predation and disease, climate change, an increase in UV radiation, over-exploitation and the global pet trade.

Phil says the alliance will soon launch a new initiative called Leapfrog as part of efforts to get more public engagement in the crisis facing frogs and other amphibians. “Our major initiative is going to be land purchase, buying areas of high amphibian diversity to make sure they’re not turned into shopping centres and things like that,” he says.

To find out more about the alliance go to: www.amphibiansurvivalalliance.org

COVER STORY

Three surviving relatives There were at least seven native New Zealand frog species until about 1000 years ago but now only Maud Island frogs and three others remain because of the impact of humans and the predators they brought with them.

HOCHSTETTER’S FROG (Leiopelma hochstetteri) Coromandel Peninsula

Auckland •

East Cape Waikato

is the most widespread of the remaining species and is found in at least 10 populations scattered in the upper half of the North Island, including the central North Island, Coromandel, Great Barrier Island and the Raukümara Ranges, north of Gisborne. Unlike the other New Zealand frogs, they are semi-aquatic and shelter during the day near the edge of streams. The species also differs in being stockier in build, having partially webbed feet and its mostly dark brown skin appears more warty than the others.

ARCHEY’S FROG (Leiopelma archeyi) is found only in

Hochstetter’s frog Hochstetter’s and Archey’s frog

Marlborough Sounds

Hamilton’s frog • Wellington

Maud Island frog

the Coromandel and the Whareorino Forest, west of Te Küiti. It is the smallest of our native frogs, growing up to 38mm long and lives in moist native forest at an altitude between 400 and 1000 metres. Observations

by Ben Bell and his research team showed a dramatic 88 per cent decline in their numbers between 1996 and 2001, with disease being the most likely cause. Numbers have since steadied but remain low and the species is ranked as critically endangered by the IUCN.

HAMILTON’S FROG (Leiopelma hamiltoni) is one of Stephens Island

the world’s most endangered frogs, with about 300 on Stephens Island in Cook Strait. It is very similar to the Maud Island frog and its status as a separate species is being reconsidered but it differs from its close relative in being slightly smaller with some differences in colouration.

Maud Island

If you find any native frogs, please leave them in peace but report their location to your local DOC office.

Forest & Bird

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soapbox

New Zealand the way we like it We can thank the RMA for the existence of many natural areas. But other special places will be less safe if government plans to skew the RMA towards economic development go ahead, says Kevin Hackwell. his is a crucial year for the Resource Management Act (RMA) and for much of what makes this country such a great place to live.

Public submissions on what the government intends to do to the RMA closed last month. The government is now drafting a bill that could kneecap the legislation that has played a big part in the ability of Forest & Bird – and many others – to be an effective voice for nature since the RMA became law in 1991.

The government says it wants the changes passed by Christmas, and Forest & Bird has a major campaign under way to stop those changes happening (see page 36).

Why is it so important that the RMA remains intact?

It has a lot to do with fairness. Every development project impinges on the environment, which is the common property of all four million New Zealanders. Yet development normally benefits a particular segment of the community or just a few individuals.

This includes state infrastructure projects. The users of a new road, for instance, will benefit from it much more than, say, future generations of New Zealanders, or those New Zealanders who live in a different part of the country. But New Zealand’s natural heritage will typically be affected.

That is why the RMA has at its heart a requirement that those who wish to use the country’s biological and physical resources have a responsibility to avoid, remedy or mitigate the environmental effects of their development.

Sometimes this means something is stopped, such as, we hope, the open-cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau. But when you look at the statistics it’s actually very rare for this to happen. The RMA allows ordinary New Zealanders to have their say and as a result the proposal is often improved – for the benefit of all.

A proposed act of environmental vandalism that eventually came to coin (for New Zealand anyway) the term “eco-viaduct” is a good example of how the RMA works. Transit New Zealand, as it was known then, planned

an extension to State Highway One from Örewa to Pühoi, north of Auckland. It had a lot of relatively unspoilt natural features to contend with. One was the Waiwera estuary and the bush-clad Johnstone’s Hill beside it.

Transit’s engineers decided to make a giant cutting through the middle of Johnstone’s Hill and to use the rock to build a causeway for the motorway across the nearby estuary. Transit’s original plan would have silted the estuary, spoilt the look of it, cut through native wildlife habitat and destroyed the decades-old bush on the side of the hill.

The RMA provided the framework for Forest & Bird to challenge Transit’s plan. The result was a vastly improved project. Transit built two tunnels through Johnstone’s Hill, instead of blasting a cutting, and built two bridges above the estuary, rather than the causeway. The bridges have since been described as “eco-viaducts”. The bridge-tunnel combination even won a sustainability award in 2009.

Despite the government’s scaremongering, the RMA has not been the ruin of New Zealand’s economy. Far from it.

The biggest economic growth in New Zealand’s post-war history has occurred since the RMA became law in 1991.

At the same time New Zealand’s relative “purity” has been capitalised on and turned into a brand estimated

by Interbrand in 2005 to be worth US$13 billion (NZ$11.1 billion) annually. This might well not have happened were it not for the RMA, which allows collective wisdom to interface with the interests of the few.

This is why the RMA’s focus must remain on the protection of New Zealand’s natural and physical environment. It is also why the community must insist that the government backs off from its plans to erode the Act’s core environmental protections.

We won’t be able to force the government to give up on its plans for the RMA without your help. I sincerely hope you help.

Kevin Hackwell is Forest & Bird’s Advocacy Manager.

The bridge and tunnels above the Waiwera estuary and through the bush-clad Johnstone’s Hill were built after earlier, more environmentally destructive plans were challenged under the RMA.

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| Forest & Bird

Photo: Northern Gateway Alliance

T

YOUR WINTER GETAWAY STARTS HERE

Bookings are now open for Forest & Bird’s Mount Ruapehu Lodge in Whakapapa Village.

Stay at our comfortable, familyfriendly 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.

Forest & Bird

| 23

The latest court decision about the Denniston Plateau is more positive than at first glance. By Jolene Williams.

T

he three little words – “consent is likely” – in the Environment Court’s 120-page interim report initially read as an almighty blow for the Denniston Plateau.

Bathurst Resources’ bid to mine 150ha of the spectacular West Coast plateau was, on paper at least, one step closer to becoming a reality.

But we read on. Consent is likely, but the court decision, chaired by Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook continued: “… much will ultimately turn on whether appropriate conditions can be worked out and whether some others can be offered by the applicant on a volunteered basis”.

Can there ever be appropriate mitigation conditions that will allow this open-cast mine to go ahead? Forest & Bird believes the answer is no. And we’re confident the Australian mining company will be unable to find such “appropriate conditions”. Denniston is too precious to mine.

Habitats for velvet worms, dwarf rätä, great spotted kiwi, geckos and the newly discovered Avatar moth will be lost if the mine goes ahead. The court is aware of this and its decision was at pains to point out that “this case is quite finely balanced, rather as was found by the first instance hearing commissioners”.

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| Forest & Bird

Bathurst Resources chief executive Hamish Bohannan remains confident the mine will go ahead. He told media after the interim decision was announced: “Bathurst ... will respond to the court’s request to finalise the details of conditions so development can start as soon as possible.”

However, Forest & Bird’s Denniston spokesperson, Debs Martin, says it’s positive news that the court recognised that values of Denniston Plateau are very high and “will be lost if mining goes ahead”.

“The court also agreed with our case that after mining has ceased, the forests and sandstone pavements of the plateau will be much less rich and diverse than they are now,” Debs says.

That means any such “appropriate conditions” that allow the mine to go ahead will have to reach a high threshold.

The court has since asked the parties, including Forest & Bird, to identify the issues to be resolved and a process for resolving them. The primary issues are, of course, the conditions and whether these are improved to such a point that the court is willing to grant consent. This process could involve negotiation, mediation or hearing.

In another turn, the court announced shortly before its interim decision that the environmental effects of the adjacent

2

1 3

Sullivan Mine would not be taken into account. Forest & Bird has lodged an appeal against this decision. Debs says it’s a small legal point, “but one with significant ramifications”.

The proposed 134ha open-cast mine at Sullivan is near Bathurst’s proposed mine site, which would see a combined area of nearly 300ha of this unique and precious area lost to mining.

We’ve also lodged an appeal on some of the Environment Court’s final rulings that constituted part of its interim decision. Having the court decline Bathurst’s consents to mine remains the central legal issue and despite the interim decision Debs and the team will continue the battle.

Whatever the outcome of the court’s next decision, the mine cannot proceed without receiving an access arrangement from the Minister of Conservation. Unlike the Environment Court, the Minister cannot consider economic benefits of mining when making a decision. With that out of the equation, Forest & Bird hopes the “finely balanced case” will swing in our favour.

Debs says Forest & Bird will continue to advocate for creating a 5900ha reserve on the plateau. This is not some pipe dream. The West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board added its weight to the cause last year when it recommended the New Zealand Conservation Authority reclassify the plateau as Schedule 4 land.

The entire Save Denniston campaign team has been amazed by the generous support from its members and

allies beyond Forest & Bird. Branches have donated to our Save Denniston campaign, gathered petition signatures, held information evenings, attracted media attention, attended hearings and offered words and emails of support. Debs says the public’s support has been nothing short of “empowering”.

“We really need that public support. Getting areas protected is always going to be a long battle, and now we’re asking supporters to stay with us.

“Denniston is one of those places. We just can’t give up.”

1 Forest & Bird wants Denniston protected by a 5900ha reserve.

Photo: Bryce McQuillan

2 The plateau is often shrouded in mist.

Photo: Rebecca Scelly

3 Southern rätä flowering in

February on the plateau.

Photo: Rebecca Scelly

4 A forest gecko at

Denniston. Photo: Bryce McQuillan

4

5 Visit Denniston Plateau before it’s too late. Photos: Bryce

McQuillan

6 One of the plateau’s spider species.

How you can help The campaign to Save the Denniston is very much powered by the public, and there are many ways you and your branch can help. You can: n Write a letter about the issue to your local paper n Talk to your local MP n Sign the online Save the Denniston petition on the Forest & Bird website, www.forestandbird.org.nz n Collect petition signatures the next time your branch holds an information stall n Donate to the Save the Denniston campaign through the Forest & Bird website n Buy a signed, limited-edition Craig Potton print ($50, $150 or $1000) with all money going directly to the Save the Denniston campaign at www.savethedennistonplateau.org.nz n Comment on and share Denniston-related posts on the Forest & Bird Facebook page n Watch one of our “Save the Denniston Plateau” videos on YouTube and share it with your friends

5

Nothing like being there People often remark that you never really get the real sense of the Denniston Plateau until you’ve been there, up to 1000 metres above sea level and exploring its weird, wonderful landscape.

So when Forest & Bird field officer Debs Martin led a group of 20 keen Forest & Bird members up to the plateau in February she wasn’t surprised to hear similar comments.

“One of the guys just said to me ‘I’ve seen it. I get it now,’ ” Debs said.

Joanna Santa Barbara from Motueka said: “One almost feels like tiptoeing through the unique and ancient landscape.”

Some participants travelled from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for the weekend getaway.

Debs and renowned nature photographer Rod Morris led the group around the plateau’s diverse ecosystems.

“We looked at the stunted forests, the red tussocklands and wetlands. We saw geckos and Powelliphanta snails and fossilised rocks in Conglomerate Stream. We saw fernbirds hiding in the shrublands and expansive sandstone pavements when we walked through the area where Bathurst Resources is planning to expand the mine.”

Rod also shared his photographic expertise during the trip.

The field trip aimed to give people a better, more intimate understanding of the plateau and why it must be saved from becoming an open-cast coal mine.

Forest & Bird is investigating developing a mobile phone app and downloadable information to assist self-guided tours as well as running future field trips with Forest & Bird’s West Coast branch. Debs urges people not to delay a visit given the looming threat of the open-cast mine.

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| Forest & Bird

Please contact Forest & Bird Communications Officer Jolene Williams if you would like petition templates at (04) 803 1020 or j.williams@forestandbird.org.nz

6

Every year, Wildbase Hospital treats around 300 sick and injured native animals, half of which are classified as endangered.

There is no other dedicated facility in New Zealand for these precious patients and without our charitable care, many would die.

Plans for a new, state-of-the-art hospital for Wildbase are underway but we need your help to make it a reality. Your generous donation will allow us to radically improve the care and subsequent survival rate of some of our most vulnerable species and eliminate the need for us to make some heartbreaking decisions.

However a severe lack of space and adequate facilities mean that some animals cannot be given the care they require, or cannot be accepted at all. Sadly, euthanasia is sometimes the only viable option. But it is avoidable.

TRACTA40211-FB

There are several easy ways to donate below and you can find out more about New Zealand’s only dedicated wildlife hospital at wildbase.massey.ac.nz. Thanks for your generosity.

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ONLINE PLEASE GO TO HTTP://FOUNDATION.MASSEY.AC.NZ AND

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BY CHEQUE PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO THE MASSEY UNIVERSITY

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PRIVATE BAG 11222, PALMERSTON NORTH 4442, NZ

Photo: Rob Suisted/www.naturespic.com

I

n a move that must have triggered a thousand dinner party arguments, economist and conservationist Gareth Morgan launched a campaign in January that advocates, among other things, restricting cats to their home properties and not replacing pet cats after they die because of the damage cats do to native wildlife.

Morgan’s campaign also encourages owners to de-sex their cats, and to put bells on their cat’s collars.

The launch of the Cats to Go campaign was covered extensively. Media attention focussed on the anger many felt towards Morgan, for what they saw as his erroneous assertions about the destruction cats create and his intrusion on their right to keep the kind of pet they like. The SPCA fiercely criticised Morgan’s stand, telling him to butt out of people’s lives.

Much of the reaction was probably sparked by Morgan’s signature inflammatory style – which also created discussion when he spoke at Forest & Bird’s Face up to the Future conference last year. Morgan’s adjunct campaign to stop the SPCA from catching, de-sexing and releasing

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| Forest & Bird

feral cats also clashed with the views of many supporters of the SPCA. Some hard decisions are required. In the long term it comes down to either New Zealand’s native animals or the cats – we can’t really have both. In the short term there’s a clear case for cat owners to take far more responsibility for their pet’s destructive potential.

There’s no doubting that cats make good pets. Cats have personality. They’ll usually provide at least a decade of companionship and in their younger years at least they’ll provide a lot of entertainment.

As a result New Zealanders love cats. In urban areas, there is an average of 220 domestic cats per square kilometre.

Even Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell – our native animals’ biggest fan – has room in his heart for a cat, Bolly, which was rescued from a roadside as a kitten.

But Hackwell says he has no delusions about the threat cats like his pose.

“Domestic cats, particularly when they are young, are

The cat among the pigeons

Cats and the damage they do to our native animals have been hitting the headlines. Jay Harkness looks at why cats are such a problem and why that’s so painful to acknowledge.

often great hunters. We had to put a bell on ours to reduce the number of lizards and birds she kept killing. And in our forests feral cats are significant predators, after rats and stoats,” Hackwell says.

“We know from the history books that cats have taken a terrible toll on New Zealand’s natural environment. For instance, the Stephens Island lighthouse-keeper’s cat caused the extinction of the island’s eponymous wren.

“While many people accept that feral cats are highly destructive, they tend to say that their pet domestic cats don’t catch birds. But the research tells us that cats often don’t bring their prey home and so owners aren’t to know what their cat is getting up to.

“Others have argued that their cats catch rats, an even more destructive predator when it comes to native animals.

But there are other much more effective ways of keeping rats down around your home besides using cats,” Hackwell says. “My cat is older now and I’m the one who catches all the rats around our section.”

Some may ask what gives humans the right to play God

with other living creatures. Humans have been playing God since we first set foot on these islands. We introduced pests and predators, such as cats. Having seeded the problem, it is our unpleasant duty to rectify it. If we don’t, and leave nature to find its own balance, cats – and all our other introduced predators – will kill off many more of the animals that evolved here.

Many Forest & Bird members are already very effectively playing God with their pest control programmes, bringing species such as kiwi and kökako back to areas where predators had previously made them locally extinct. Central and local government spend millions of dollars on pest control. With its trap, neuter and release policy, the SPCA is undermining this community restoration work. Overseas evidence points to partially managed colonies not ever decreasing in numbers because people see them as a good place to dump unwanted animals, only adding to the threat these animals pose to our native wildlife. www.garethsworld.com/catstogo Forest & Bird

| 29

19 million

Vital statistics

T

here is ample evidence from around the world of the damage domestic cats do when out hunting. The most relevant to the debate in New Zealand is work in Dunedin in 2010 by Dr Yolanda van Heezik and Dr Christoph Matthaei of the University of Otago.

The year-long study of 208 cats in urban Dunedin found they killed more birds, skinks, geckos and wëtä than rats or mice. Birds (including exotic birds) and invertebrates formed most of the count (26 per cent for each). Mice made up 23 per cent and lizards 11 per cent. Native birds made up 6 per cent of the total. Overall, 43 per cent of the animals killed were native to New Zealand.

The study also found that species like fantails only existed in urban areas because populations were restocked with birds from outlying areas after cats killed the urban birds.

The study was based on owners’ reports on what their cats had killed. The results are conservative because cats don’t always bring their prey home. However, the average number of animals reported killed was 13.4 animals per year Some of the remains of at per cat. Using this, we least 102 bats that a feral cat can estimate that New caught during seven days at a bat roost in Rangataua Forest Zealand’s 1.4 million before being captured. domestic cats alone kill at least 18.76 million animals a year, including 1.12 million native birds.

A study in the United States using kitty cameras showed that domestic cats on average only bring back to their owners one in five of their kills. If this figure was similar in New Zealand the actual number of native birds killed by domestic cats would be a lot higher.

The researchers carried out an adjunct survey using 37 cats known to be prolific hunters. Placing bells on the cats halved the number of birds caught. Without collars, the cats caught 378 animals, including 82 birds, but only 41 birds were caught when the cats wore bells.

And that’s just domestic cats. Feral cats do far more damage. One was filmed killing 102 short-tailed bats in the Rangataua forest, near Mt Ruapehu, in just seven days in 2010. All feral cats owe their existence to someone’s pet cat – one that was taken on holiday but ran off before it was time to leave.

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18

17

16

Serial killers

15

14

13

This year, New Zealand’s

12

1.4 million cats will kill

18.76 8.2

million

11

10

animals.

million

will be native invertebrates, lizards and birds.

9

8

7

6

1.4

MILLION

5

4

3

2

1

The figures are based on Dr Yolanda van Heezik’s and Dr Christoph Matthaei’s 2010 Dunedin study of the prey cats brought home.

hands-on conservation

Marine biology for beginners Jolene Williams looks at how we can all help build a better picture of what’s happening on our shores.

P

oking around for sponges and starfish may not sound like your regular leisure time activity. But that’s exactly what the new Marine Metre Squared project hopes to get Kiwis doing to better understand the living things on our rocky shores.

The University of Otago’s New Zealand Marine Studies Centre launched the nationwide Marine Metre Squared project in March. The idea is to encourage Kiwis of all ages to get involved in the long-term monitoring of the marine environment to build up an online database of rocky shore life.

Using a free fold-out picture chart, participants identify and record the species within a one metre squared patch on a rocky shore. The results are then entered on to the userfriendly website.

It’s hoped people will return to the same general spot, perhaps every school break, every season or every summer holiday, to repeat the survey.

Over time, the database will chronicle the changing story of biodiversity, distribution and abundance of our seashore animals and plants. It may also act as an early warning system of environmental impacts caused by new coastal developments.

New Zealand Marine Study Centre programme director Sally Carson says the citizen science project holds huge educational potential. It already has support from high schools as its aims converge with the New Zealand Curriculum.

“We know there are lots of schools already doing rocky shore surveys,” Sally says. “But [the results] just sit in a teacher’s drawer and never get seen again. The key thing is to upload the data on to the website and then you can compare it over time.

“On the website participants will be able to store, map and graph their own data for comparison between seasons, regions and species, and compare what is in their patch with other people’s,” she says.

The website is more than just a virtual filing cabinet. There is a plethora of free resources online, including posters, classroom tools, kids’ colouring booklets and species identification guides. There’s also a discussion forum so you can chat to others about your finds or seek help identifying

2 curious species. There’s space to upload blogs and photos, and comment on the Marine Centre’s Twitter newsfeed.

Sally insists the Marine Metre Squared project is appropriate for any age. “I think it’s got a really wide application. It will be used by scientists, NIWA, schools. But we also want families, and groups like Forest & Bird and KCC, and any other community group that is concerned about degradation of the local shore [to get involved].”

She says the project can be made easier for younger participants by moving further up the shoreline where there are fewer species or by only counting the easily identifiable ones.

A group of Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinators took part in the Marine Metre Squared project during the recent KCC co-ordinators’ annual gathering in Dunedin. Under Sally’s guidance, 30 adults spent half an hour combing metre-squared patches in small groups. The activity prompted lots of discussion, despite most not having special knowledge on marine ecology. The raised awareness of the shared wealth of life hidden among the rocks had some treading with greater care.

KCC West Coast co-ordinator Inger Perkins is keen to try the project with her KCC group. “They’ll love it. It’s a really good fit for kids. It will enable them to discover what’s on their local beach and really discover more than just what’s obvious.”

The KCC co-ordinators will confirm that it’s not just children who get a kick out of discovering things. Sally says there’s a lot to gain on a personal level. “It’s developing some great science skills and there’s lots of maths in there. It raises lots of questions and can prompt creative thinking and art.

“Increased awareness is huge ... [and] caring for the environment. There’s the whole connectedness of our seashore neighbourhood and we should not only know about it, we should feel connected.” www.mm2.net.nz 1 KCC co-ordinator Ana Karipa, left, gets a hand identifying species

from Sally Carson of the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre.

2 Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinators, from left, Kathryn

1

Richards, Justine Carson-Iles, Tiff Stewart and Ann Brabant use the free guides to help identify species in their metre-squared plot. Photos: Jolene Williams

Forest & Bird

| 31

Birds on the

move

1

Shifting small groups of endangered native birds to new and safer places has helped save several species from extinction. Jolene Williams looks at which species have made the easiest move.

W

hich New Zealand bird species has the highest success rate when it’s moved to a new location?

Go on, have a guess. The conservationists and bird experts gathered in a small meeting room at the Department of Conservation’s head office offered a few suggestions. Weka? Saddlebacks? Kiwi?

Colin Miskelly, Te Papa’s terrestrial vertebrates curator, had the answer. Whiteheads.

But until recently, it was anyone’s guess. No one had ever assessed and evaluated the successes and failures of all bird translocations in New Zealand. Records were piecemeal, often unpublished and spread across various studies.

But in January 2012 Colin, with the help of former DOC scientist Ralph Powlesland, set out to change that. They began a quest to document the history of native bird translocations in New Zealand and analyse the success of each.

Over 10 months the pair compiled a database that numbered 475 translocations of 55 bird species and spanned from 1863 to 2012.

It was a mammoth task, but one Colin says was of great interest to himself and many in the field.

Translocating birds is fraught with challenges. Failure was frequent in the pioneering years and it wasn’t until the 1960s, with the development of mist nets, that translocations started achieving greater success.

Even now there’s no guarantee translocated birds will not disperse on their own accord or predators won’t muscle in on the new sites.

Forty-four per cent of all bird translocations were deemed successful. Bellbirds, for the record, have never been successfully translocated. Of the 79 translocations of weka, only eight have proved fruitful.

Why have whiteheads been successful? That answer

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requires more research, but Colin suspects it’s because whiteheads are a flocking species and so have less intraspecific aggression than more territorial species. With territorial species “individuals low in the pecking order get pushed out of the core habitat, which in the case of translocations may mean that they move beyond [protected areas]”.

Colin insists translocations are “one of the success stories of New Zealand conservation”. Without them, we’d be without little spotted kiwi, buff weka, black stilts, käkäpö, South Island saddlebacks and black robins.

Fourteen other native bird species would have a higher threat status.

New Zealand’s history of bird translocations has its roots in 1863 when Governor Sir George Grey released native birds, alongside zebras and monkeys, on Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf in an attempt to turn it into an “earthly paradise”.

Yet it was the efforts of conservationist Richard Henry from 1895 to 1907 that are credited as the first bird translocations undertaken explicitly for conservation. During this period Henry transferred 474 käkäpö, little spotted kiwi and South Island brown kiwi to islands in Dusky and Breaksea sounds.

Unfortunately, most of his Herculean efforts were undone when stoats invaded the islands and killed the newly resident birds.

The few translocation attempts that followed over the next 50 years met with little success. They weren’t entirely unhelpful as they highlighted the importance of ongoing predator control and the value of translocating larger number of individuals.

The fate of New Zealand’s bird translocations was turned on its head in 1964 when the New Zealand Wildlife Service successfully translocated North Island saddlebacks

using new methods to catch and move the birds.

Within seven months those same methods were employed for the urgent translocation of South Island saddlebacks after ship rats invaded their only habitat on Big South Cape Island and its neighbouring islands.

The rescue saved South Island saddlebacks from certain extinction. Today numbers are still low but they are, as Colin says, “the poster child for successful translocations”.

There have been an increased number of translocations every decade since the 1970s. The 1980s saw the first involvement of private investors and independent groups

Most commonly translocated species SPECIES

No of translocations

North Island weka

79

Brown teal

34

North Island robin

30

like Forest & Bird. In the 1990s DOC started translocating bird species to mainland islands, and the numbers of translocation attempts has skyrocketed in recent years.

“The huge effort in the last decade is very much to do with conservation groups and private individuals complementing what DOC is doing,” Colin says. The heightened interest has seen community groups, trusts and private landowners increasingly take the lead in planning, funding and undertaking translocations. And with it, sanctuaries like Zealandia have become popular and safe places that promise a better return on translocations.

With such a diverse range of interest groups attempting bird translocations, it’s important to have a resource like this survey to help inform translocations from the onset.

A better understanding of what works and why will bring greater success and, of course, put more birds back into our forests.

Translocated species with highest success rates Whitehead

86%

Yellowhead

80%

SI saddleback

75%

Sites with highest number of successful translocations Tiritiri Matangi

11

Zealandia/Karori Sanctuary

9

Kapiti Island

7

Mana Island

6

Amazing facts about…

BLACK TUNNEL WEB

SPIDERS

Photo: Bryce McQuillan www.brycephotography.co.nz

By Michelle Harnett

W

ith eight hairy legs, a fused head and thorax, an abdomen sporting two spiky spinnerets (for spinning silk) and a body that can grow 30mm or more, it is not hard to see the family resemblance between black tunnel web spiders (Porrhothle antipodianna) and their tarantula relatives.

Endemic to New Zealand, tunnel web spiders can be found under logs, rocks and woodpiles throughout the country. As their name suggests, the spiders line their burrows with silken tunnels that spill out to form built-in

1 Whiteheads are the most

successfully translocated birds, perhaps because they are flocking birds.

Photo: David Brooks

2 Colin Miskelley’s earlier

role with DOC gave him firsthand experience undertaking bird translocations, here with a Chatham Island snipe.

Photo: Kate McAlpine

2

front door steps. At night, they sit at their tunnel entrances waiting. They are not fussy eaters – the remains of bumble bees, wasps, millipedes, slaters, beetles and even garden snails have been found in spider tunnels.

Snails are unusual prey for spiders. They are slippery and able to retreat into their shells to escape but that does not seem to deter tunnel web spiders. Spiders have been observed to strike, burying their fangs in the flesh of the snail and holding on tightly as the snail pulls back into its shell, spewing foamy slime. If a spider can tolerate being covered in slime, it eventually exhausts its prey. After 30 minutes or more a successful spider is able to pull the snail from its shell and feed at length.

Sometimes the tables are turned and the spiders become the prey. The black hunting wasp (Salius monarchus) will enter a spider’s burrow, sting it then drag the spider’s body to a safe place and deposit an egg in it. Occasionally a spider can fight off a hunting wasp, but the odds are in favour of the wasp.

Tunnel web spiders found in the bush or under backyard woodpiles are best left alone. Threatened spiders can rear up in an aggressive display. Anything foolish enough not to run away is at risk of being bitten and getting a dose of toxic venom. A two-second bite from a spider can kill a mouse. The spiders will also bite humans. Their bite has been described as “mild” and “similar to a bee sting” but it’s probably not worth putting it to the test.

Forest & Bird

| 33

Female house sparrow

Who’s in your garden?

New Zealand

GARDEN BIRD

©Andrea Lightfoot

SURVEY 2013

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

©Andrea Lightfoot

Male house sparrow

Aotearoa

29 June - 7 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 29June and 7 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 the same 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: http://gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz 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?

Describe

Lawn & trees >5m

Lawn & shrubs <5m

Other

Lawn & flowerbeds

Was search area

More than 600 m2

400-600 m2 (e.g. up to 20×30m)

200-400 m2 (e.g. up to 20×20m)

100-200 m2 (e.g. up to 10×20m)

Up to 100 m (e.g. up to 10×10m)

2

Area searched for birds (except birds flying overhead)

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 47 Brixton Rd Manly Whangaparaoa 0930

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

Sugar-water

Bread

Do you have a water-bath for birds?

No Fat

Fruit

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

N/A

Other (please describe)

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 the same time – NOT the total number over the hour – do not enter zeros

Survey Date

Please do the survey for 1 hour only, sometime between 29 Jun & 7 Jul 2013

It’s about

New Zealand

1

Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Claire Browning is writing a new chapter in our New Zealand story. This one has a happy ending.

D

ame Anne Salmond, Sanderson speaker at Forest & Bird’s Face Up to the Future conference, and 2013 New Zealander of the Year, thinks “New Zealanders are ready for their leaders to come up with a big idea” (New Zealand Herald, February 8, 2013).

Meanwhile, the government seems single-minded in its pursuit of growth and jobs, drilling for oil and gas, and encouraging minerals prospecting and mining of coal.

These represent two very different versions of our story, at a time when New Zealand stands at another historical cross-road.

The Rainbow Warrior’s symbolic return to New Zealand last summer, as she sailed from Matauri Bay to the subAntarctic Auckland Islands and practised non-violent resistance protest strategies in the Pegasus Basin, marks another fight for our country’s soul.

Jobs are being used to justify all sorts of things. Most recently, new Conservation Minister Nick Smith made clear jobs would be a consideration for him in decision-making on Fiordland’s tunnel and monorail proposals.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce is leading his colleagues’ stampede away from our $13.6 billion, market-leading, inconveniently untrue brand, 100% Pure New Zealand – saying that as part of his Business Growth Agenda, government will repackage it as a “New Zealand story”.

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| Forest & Bird

Forest & Bird and colleagues, Greenpeace among them, are taking up Mr Joyce’s challenge to write a New Zealand story. Because we think it’s our story: a story that’s already owned by environmentalists – and New Zealanders.

It’s time to stand up proud and claim it.

This is about policy, not politics. Ministers are making the wrong policy choices, driven by poor priorities, which can only deliver bad outcomes for the things Forest & Bird stands up to defend on behalf of New Zealanders.

They’re also wrong in their dismissal of government critics as anti-jobs-and-growth-and-change, “deeply unhelpful” and “not really New Zealand”.

We’re proud to be among those critics, demanding change and defending New Zealand values. We want change for good, change that works, change that makes Kiwis pioneers again.

We’re proud to stand for something different to the government’s current lack of ambition and commitment to last century’s failed way of doing things.

In an opinion piece for The Press (December 21, 2012), Sir Geoffrey Palmer described the government’s treatment of “carping and moaning” Cantabrians as leaving “a toxic taste in the constitutional mouth” (“carping and moaning” were Gerry Brownlee’s words).

For another three years the removal of the democratic

NATURE OF TOMORROW right to vote for Environment Canterbury’s councillors will be the price of irrigation development. Documents released under the Official Information Act and Ministers’ own public statements show that this was the reason the government suspended democracy and restricted water appeal rights in Canterbury.

Of all the tools Forest & Bird uses in its work, the RMA is among the most important.

The Resource Management Reform Bill at select committee now would see an axe taken to planning protections for trees. The trees are an example of how it’s not about the “RMA”. It’s the rivers we swim in, the air we breathe, the landscapes and biodiversity we treasure - the innumerable health and amenity benefits from shade, beauty, shelter for wildlife, and ecosystem services that trees bring to our communities.

These are only the first of what will be much more devastating RMA changes in 2013, with Environment Minister Amy Adams keen to “go back to first principles”.

Confident that the Act is working well for environmental protection, she’s now focused on ripping out its heart undermining its core philosophy, rewriting key sections, removing important principles - and challenging the ground-breaking consensus that has stood for a quarter century, since Simon Upton and Sir Geoffrey Palmer agreed in 1991 upon the Act’s basic frame.

In the guise of planning efficiency, what is proposed would see unprecedented Ministerial powers to override years of plan development with the local community and just impose a change to the plan with no checks or balances, such as Environment Court oversight, or public submissions.

The National Park management plan for Fiordland, developed by the New Zealand Conservation Authority through an extensive public consultation process, has likewise been ignored by the Department of Conservation in considering that the tunnel might proceed.

These are ideas that hark back to the Think Big era, when lobbying by a foreign investor might see direct Ministerial amendment of local planning laws.

Government might declare by regulation that certain types of proposals – mining and mineral exploitation, for example – must not be notified, so

Our place, where we live, isn’t a tradable commodity sold cheap every time we need a few more jobs. communities would have no say in their resource consent. It would let Ministers choose when the environment counted less than their next job creation or infrastructure project.

Much of the constitutional sleight of hand we are seeing is about a government giving itself the ability to trample on things that belong to all of us, in pursuit of elusive growth and jobs at any cost.

These aren’t New Zealand values: the democratic values defended by Kate Sheppard or Sir Peter Blake, who died an environmental advocate and campaigner, writing of his anger at how profit was being put first. “Nothing escapes,” he wrote. “Everything is taken. Everything. The next lagoon follows – then the next – then the next.” (New Zealand Herald, December 3, 2011).

In 2010 – when 50,000 of us filled Auckland’s Queen Street, holding banners that read “Ours, not mine” – we were saying the same.

Although I’ve written about it before, what follows bears repeating. In 2012, surveyed by DOC on conservation attitudes, 69 per cent of New Zealanders agreed conservation is at the heart of what it means to be a New Zealander. 73 per cent thought conservation should be considered in all key decisions about New Zealand’s future.

77 per cent agreed that spending money on conservation is a good investment in the prosperity and well-being of New Zealanders.

Fiddling while iconic species are dying, the government is not keeping faith with these values.

In 2009 the government pledged $4.7 million for a five-year programme to help fight kauri dieback. In 2013, there will not be another funding bid, leaving kauri’s future uncertain.

1 Changes to the Resource

Management Act threaten our trees, which contribute innumerable health and amenity benefits from shade, beauty, shelter for wildlife and ecosystem services. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

2 We have 55 Mäui’s dolphins

left on Earth but our fishers are not required to stop using gill nets in the waters where they are found.

2 Forest & Bird

| 37

Matauri Bay at dawn. The return of the Rainbow Warrior III to New Zealand waters echoes a time when we stood up for something we believed in. We were nuclear-free and proud. Photo: Nigel Marple/Greenpeace

If Mäui’s dolphins go, New Zealand would join China as the only countries to have allowed the extinction of a critically endangered cetacean species because fishers were not required in time to take their nets out of waters inhabited by the remaining 55 dolphins. At the time of writing, Threat Management Plan decisions were awaited that had been repeatedly postponed.

Ninety per cent of our lowland rivers are unfit for swimming, toxic to humans and animals. Yet a roughly 6 per cent profit reduction – or less intensive (but potentially more profitable) farming methods to protect and restore water quality – is proving unacceptable to farmers.

DOC, enduring ongoing restructuring and job losses, manages one-third of terrestrial New Zealand and marine protected areas on around the same budget as the Hamilton City Council.

Meanwhile, tourism will be boosted in the budget by $158 million. “Too big to fail” Solid Energy, which has destroyed the Stockton Plateau, removing mountain tops and assigning the giant Powelliphanta Augustus land snail to fridges, is $389 million in debt and looks in line for a government bailout. At the same time, under the Emissions Trading Scheme (described by Parliamentary Environment Commissioner Jan Wright as a “farce”), had we not simply withdrawn from Kyoto, New Zealanders would be subsidising greenhouse gas polluters to the tune of billions of dollars.

Is this the kind of “balance” you want?

The Rainbow Warrior sailing back into port echoes a time when we made energy choices: not to pursue, and to actively oppose, a nuclear future. It echoes a time when we stood up for a thing we believed in, a time that made us nuclear-free and proud.

Now, as we did then on nuclear disarmament, New Zealand should be meeting commitments on climate change; taking a moral position as leaders and persuaders on clean energy; being brave, and showing our ingenuity, because it pays dividends in the end.

We should be demanding evidence-based policy, which 38

| Forest & Bird

we haven’t seen from this government in its made-up numbers on mining in national parks; its pattern of ignoring science on climate, freshwater, Mäui’s dolphins and sea lions; the Environment Minister’s reliance on scanty RMA anecdote and spin.

It’s important that promises made internationally on climate, conservation, and the “100% Pure New Zealand” brand are kept. We can argue about whether it’s “100% pure environment”, “pure New Zealand”, or “pure you”, but either way, Kiwis keep their word. It’s that kind of international integrity and leadership that lets us punch above our weight. Our place, where we live, isn’t a tradable commodity sold cheap every time we need a few more jobs, as the values elicited by DOC’s survey show. “[It’s] time to define who we are” suggested the Herald on Sunday editorial late last year.

We agree. We need to look after our nature in 2013 – remember what makes us proud.

This is a campaign for the environment. But it’s more than being just about “the environment”. It’s about us – about New Zealand.

2013 will see Forest & Bird in campaign mode, joining other NGOs and activists, including a new “100% possible” campaign by 350 Aotearoa/Generation Zero, and the Wise Response appeal from 100 prominent New Zealanders from across disciplines – academia, business, science, literature – led by Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador Sir Alan Mark.

Coinciding with the Rainbow Warrior’s tour, Greenpeace put out a green economy report, which is an example of Dame Anne Salmond’s “big idea”: a vision for energy independence, four times as many jobs and New Zealand as the first in the world to have a renewable source of transport fuel.

Dame Anne has long been a teller of New Zealand stories.

Already, the Wise Response alliance has been styled “the great and the good” but really it’s people like us.

These are the first stirrings of a movement that can take us forward.

our people

Farm and forest in harmony T

he judges of the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards recognised smart and sustainable land use when they awarded Daniel and Mandy Shand two prizes at the national farmers’ competition last year.

The Shands’ 7400 hectares of tough, high country land near Lewis Pass is hardly a farmer’s dream. Their property traverses native bush to sub-alpine terrain, with winding rivers and hills stretching 1700 metres above sea level.

Their 6800ha of open farmland is used to farm sheep and beef but the challenge to use the rest of the land while make a living forced the Forest & Bird members to get creative.

With 5000ha of native bush and stunning high country landscapes, tourism was an obvious venture. “We looked at lots of options like mountain biking trails and horse trekking but we came up with a walking track because it seemed like the most suitable venture given the landscape’s terrain and distance and difficulty,” says Daniel.

The couple spent more than two years constructing a 30-kilometre walking track around the high country station and many more months controlling weeds and pests to support native wildlife. Their efforts have paid off, and their popular three-day Hurunui High Country Track now attracts more than 700 visitors a year.

The Shands have also established an apiculture business.

Mandy says: “We chose honey so we could leave areas of mänuka and känuka [intact] that we believed were not financially or environmentally sustainable for sheep and beef farming.” Their 350 beehives annually produce 10 tonnes of honeydew and mänuka honey, some of which is sold locally under their own Hurunui High Country label.

It was this “intelligent, balanced diversification ... [that] helped the farm to achieve financial sustainability” and impressed the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards judges.

They noted the Shands’ “intelligent management of fragile soils, the deliberate lack of grazing pressure on valuable native areas and the excellent use of capital invested in difficult land”.

Mandy and Daniel’s interest in enhancing environmental values has proved good for business. Before buying the property from Daniel’s parents in 2005, the young couple spent two winters possum hunting on the station. The intensive pest control has encouraged more native birdlife to the area, which has heightened the popularity of the tourist walking track.

“The birdlife is going great,” Daniel says. “It’s the biggest thing people rave about. We’ve got a lot more tüï and wood pigeons. New Zealand falcons are still there and people comment on how many bellbirds there are.”

Caring for land is in Daniel’s blood. His aunt Lesley is a Distinguished Life Member of Forest & Bird, Old Blue and long-standing chair of the North Canterbury branch. His aunt Diana has worked many years with the International Union for Conservation Network.

Daniel has been a Forest & Bird member since joining KCC aged six and says that through his family members “[we kids] have been made aware of things from an early

age so we think about stuff before we do it”.

Mandy, too, grew up with an appreciation for the environment. She lived on a sheep and beef farm near Waimate and spent her younger days helping on the farm and holidaying in Fiordland and on Stewart Island. She also has a love for the marine world, and became a scuba diving instructor at the age of 18.

Key to their drive towards sustainability is the amazingly simple idea to use the land for what it is naturally designed.

Daniel is convinced that the old attitudes of farming are changing. He says many farmers are thinking more carefully about how to best use land and recognise there are both financial and environmental advantages in diversification.

“It’s not that farmers don’t want to be sustainable.

They just weren’t aware of some of the consequences, such as the effects of large amounts of nitrogen and superphosphate.

“Large numbers of intensive farmers are voluntarily fencing waterways, carrying out targeted fertiliser distribution based on nutrient budgets as well as replanting and protecting areas of native trees,” Daniel says.

The Shands are living proof that these initiatives can work – for the betterment of business and the environment. n Jolene Williams

Mandy, Amalia (6), Hugh (3), and Daniel Shand at their awardwinning sustainable farm.

Forest & Bird

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our people

High country guardian C

entral Otago Forest & Bird member John Turnbull died on January 13 at the age of 92, leaving a legacy of environmental protection for the high country.

John was a long-time chair of the Central Otago-Lakes branch and was awarded a Forest & Bird Old Blue in 1997.

He was closely involved in high country tenure review, visiting properties around Otago and beyond, gathering information for submissions.

John was well-known for his intrepid (but safe) fourwheel-driving skills and his enthusiasm. “He was always an early riser and if you were away on a field trip with him he could bring you a pot of porridge at five o’clock in the morning, which wasn’t always exactly what you wanted,” Forest & Bird Otago-Southland Field Officer Sue Maturin said. “He had a memory like a steel trap and he knew the history of all the runs and the names of all the peaks. He was passionate about the need to look after the land.”

In his younger days John was a sheep farmer, which helped later when negotiating with farmers for Forest & Bird.

“He was vigilant about good public access,” Sue said. “He had a great love of tramping and wanted future generations to have the same opportunities. I always thought of him as a wonderful role model to younger people.”

In 1956 John won a returned serviceman ballot farm in North Otago and farmed there until the 1980s, when he

John Turnbull and Forest & Bird Otago-Southland Field Officer Sue Maturin. Photo: Andrew Penniket

and his late wife Nancy retired to a one-room cottage in Makarora. In the early 1990s John built a house in Häwea.

John became much more of a conservationist after he retired from farming. “He had been keen on farm forestry and burned more than a few tussocks while developing his farm in North Otago,” his son Ian said. “Then he realised going around with a box of matches wasn’t the best way to treat red tussocks.” n Caroline Harker, Wanaka Sun

KCC kids kitted out K

iwi Conservation Clubs around the country have some new gear to play with next time members are exploring the wild. Thanks to funding from Pub Charity, every KCC branch has received a field kit that includes a set of pond nets, insect viewers, magnifying glasses, scissors and guidebooks to identify plants, insects and birds.

South Auckland KCC co-ordinator Rosemary Cotman said receiving the kit “felt like Christmas”, and Eastern Bay of Plenty KCC co-ordinator Wei Mei Leong said the new field kit will be “a great asset for our club”.

“We will use the bug catchers during a bug hunt, and the nets and magnifying glasses will be useful when we do the Marine Metre Squared project,” Wei Mei said. The kits also include two adultsized high-visibility vests, which anyone who’s taken children on a bush walk will know are invaluable for keeping everyone together.

KCC co-ordinators Belinda McEwen, Joanna Rodgers, Janica Amoore, Helen McCormick and Chris Hurst get their first look at the new KCC field kits.

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Doctorate honours covenant founder I

t was a Christmas present Gordon Stephenson never would have guessed. When the Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member opened up the envelope in front of family last Christmas he was “absolutely speechless” to discover an invitation to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Waikato.

The 88-year-old received the honorary doctorate for his lengthy and ongoing contribution to the environment. The long list of environmental achievements leaves no doubt that this semi-retired South Waikato farmer well deserves the accolade.

His 25 years as a Forest & Bird member, including stints on both the South Waikato branch committee and the National Executive, merely hints at a lifetime of environmental achievements.

One of Gordon’s earliest achievements, and the one he’s most proud of, is instigating QEII covenants. His idea was formed when four businessmen bought a block of land near his Waotu farm in 1971. They felled the 40 hectares of native bush and promptly resold the property. Gordon and his wife Celia were shocked and started to wonder what would happen to their bush if the farm was sold.

As the national chairperson of Federated Farmers’ dairy section, he began discussing with his peers his idea for a scheme that enabled farmers to protect precious ecosystems in perpetuity.

It took about seven years of talking to farmers, government officials and other stakeholders to get the support he needed. In 1977 the government established the QEII National Trust. He distinctly remembers hearing the news. “I was tramping in north-west Nelson. When I came out of the bush there was a message waiting for me: get to Wellington for the launch of the trust. I had to fly out of Karamea, change out of my tramping clothes and get to Government House,” he says with a laugh.

Gordon and Celia’s own patch of native bush was the first to be protected under the trust.

Despite opposition from lawyers and councils and predictions the scheme would fizzle, farmers around the country took to the scheme. Today more than 3500 covenants have more than 100,000ha of land protected under a QEII covenant.

Gordon has remained fervently active in conservation.

He helped initiate the National Wetland Trust, and through his role on the Environment Council was key to getting people to notice wetlands. He also sat on the Waikato Conservation Board, Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, New Zealand Landcare Trust and the South Island High Country Review Committee. In 1992 he and Celia were jointly awarded DOC’s Loder Cup, and in 1998 Gordon became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

He also founded the Farm Environmental Awards in 1992 to encourage farmers to balance farm productivity with environmental protection. The competition began at a regional level, but is now the pre-eminent national awards for sustainable farming.

Gordon Stephenson has made an outstanding contribution to conservation and sustainable farming. Photo: Waikato Times

University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says Gordon is a great example of someone who selflessly gives time and skills for the public good. “He has led by example in so many areas and what he has achieved is absolutely remarkable.”

Age is slowing down Gordon’s conservation crusades.

He still works his “rather special” 4ha of native bush and carries out pest control on a nearby property, but laments “it’s not as much as I’d like to”.

There’s still plenty to do, especially as the global population continues to explode. “In my lifetime the population of the world has tripled. The implications of that flow through everything, from climate change to resource management to overfishing, you name it.” We need to look at the root of the problems rather than trying to deal with the consequences, he says. Ever the humble farmer, Gordon says that too will be a legacy.

“I’m leaving my children and my grandchildren with what my generation failed to do ... find solutions.” n Jolene Williams Forest & Bird

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rangatahi our future

Mission to save rare wëtä A PhD student finds wëtä just as special as New Zealand’s more cute and cuddly creatures. And her genetic study could give one endangered wëtä species a better chance of survival. By Sarah-Jane O’Connor.

U

niversity of Canterbury PhD student Rachel van Heugten is passionate about wëtä. She started researching Canterbury tree wëtä for a Master’s thesis and has grown the project into a pioneering PhD. Rachel, 24, is studying two species of tree wëtä: the Canterbury tree wëtä (Hemideina femorata), which is found throughout Canterbury from Kaiköura to Geraldine, and its comrade the Banks Peninsula tree wëtä (Hemideina ricta), which is in eastern Banks Peninsula and is in danger of extinction because of its restricted range.

Hybridisation with the more common Canterbury tree wëtä could put H. ricta – the rarest of New Zealand’s seven species of tree wëtä – at increased risk of extinction.

When a rare species hybridises with a common species, there is a risk that the rare species’ genes will be “swamped” by the common species, leading to the loss of “pure” individuals of the rare species and its eventual extinction.

Researchers knew the two species could interbreed but they thought the offspring were infertile and there was no risk of genetic swamping. Rachel has found evidence to the contrary. Using microsatellites – highly variable segments of DNA – allows Rachel to examine minute genetic differences 1

1 Two adult Canterbury tree

wëtä (Hemideina femorata).

Photo: Rachel van Heugten

2 University of Canterbury

2

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PhD student Rachel van Heugten holds an adult female Banks Peninsula tree wëtä (Hemideina ricta).

Photo: Roddy Hale

between individuals. Identifying DNA sequences that are unique to each species has allowed her to identify hybrids: individuals that show up as having half their genetic information from each parent species.

Rachel has found individuals that show different frequencies of each parent’s information, indicating that some hybrids are fertile and able to breed. The results are still promising for H. ricta, though. Of 301 individuals that Rachel has genotyped, only four show this evidence of hybrid ancestry, suggesting the two species generally avoid hybridising.

The question that Rachel is now investigating – and that led her to a PhD – is why don’t the two species hybridise more often? She is seeking to answer that through breeding experiments with captive wëtä.

Rachel keeps the captive wëtä in a reversed day-night cycle so she can observe the nocturnal insects during the day. By putting different pairs together, Rachel plans to document mating attempts and whether females refuse males from the opposite species more often than those from the same species. Any resulting eggs will be hatched to see if there are differences in success between hybrids and non-hybrids.

Convincing the Department of Conservation to let her capture the rare Banks Peninsula wëtä was not easy but now that Rachel has permission she hopes to be able to breed the species in captivity – something she believes has not yet been done successfully. The captive individuals will be returned to the wild, including any successfully captivereared individuals.

The biggest threats to wëtä species are loss of habitat and predators. Pre-human predators, like tuatara, would normally hunt by sight so sitting still would be an effective tactic for wëtä to avoid being found. “Now we have nocturnal mammals which hunt by smell, such as cats and rats, so sitting still isn’t much help anymore,” Rachel says.

She hopes her research will help other species too, since many of the threats they face are the same.

It may be easier to gain funding and public interest for cute and cuddly endangered species but research like Rachel’s brings attention to less familiar species such as the Banks Peninsula tree wëtä. “I think that New Zealand’s native birds and lizards get a lot of love from the public, but not so much with our native insects,” she says. “Our insects are often just as unique and charismatic.”

Rachel admits she probably didn’t think through the fact she’d be “studying a nocturnal species that lives at the tops of hills”. However, knowing that she is helping save a species makes her feel like she’s “actually doing something worthwhile”.

Our partners

In for the long haul “

W

e’re unique in New Zealand. There’s a genuineness and authenticity about what we do and we see value in the longer term.” The words could easily have come from any Forest & Bird member.

But the words come from Bruce McLachlan, chief executive of The Co-operative Bank and enthusiastic Forest & Bird supporter. For those unconvinced that a bank can hold similar values to a not-for-profit conservation

The Co-operative Bank’s Bruce McLachlan, left, and Forest & Bird’s Mike Britton.

organisation, consider his next words: “Forest & Bird tries to represent views of a lot of New Zealanders and it takes a very metered, sensible view. It’s very much in line with how we see ourselves. We don’t want to be seen as extreme.

We believe our uniqueness is being mainstream but having a point of difference.”

The partnership between the organisations is a perfect fit that benefits both parties. Our members are eligible for a special banking package, and bank staff are invited to volunteer for local Forest & Bird projects.

The Co-operative Bank aims to help fund some of Forest & Bird’s national campaigns, and when we ran our Birdman Wellington fundraiser earlier this year the bank’s Wellington staff were the first ones to enter a team.

In return, the partnership enables The Co-operative Bank to talk directly to Kiwis who appreciate the very values Bruce was talking about.

Founded in 1928, The Co-Operative Bank is nearly as old as us. But since changing its name in 2011 the Kiwi-owned bank is trying to gain a stronger foothold in a market dominated by foreign-owned, big-name banks that Bruce says, with concern from a New Zealand perspective, earn a profit of more than $3 billion a year.

As a co-operative the bank is owned by its members so its goals are about really caring for its customers. It’s not about making a quick profit now, he says, but financial security in the long-term.

Forest & Bird shares the same view about the long-term security of our natural environment.

Stacking the deck A

n ambition to use design to change the world led Wellington designer Jacqui Stuart to create a pack of playing cards to raise money for Forest & Bird. Jacqui put the call out on Facebook last year and as a result 50 designers, illustrators and artists collaborated to create a pack of custom illustrated cards.

“I used Facebook entirely to organise the project. I think it’s exciting – the ability to connect with people with similar interests and motivations.”

The design brief for the Forest & Bird cards was that the image for the face of the card be based on New Zealand native plants and animals and follow a set colour scheme.

Design with a Purpose is the name behind Jacqui’s mission to use design to change the world. “Hopefully over time we can make a real difference, not just with the work but also with the way people see design.

I want people to realise that design is a powerful tool, not just making stuff pretty for no apparent reason,” says Jacqui.

After covering printing costs, Jacqui is donating 100 per cent of the profits to Forest & Bird.

The cards are for sale at www.freewebstore.org/designwithpurposenz for $25 per pack.

Designer Jacqui Stuart with the Forest & Bird deck of cards. Each card is an individual work of art.

Forest & Bird

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Shared vision for

taonga

1

The Waitangi Tribunal has reported back on the ground-breaking flora and fauna claim (Wai 262). David Young evaluates the report and its impacts for Mäori, conservation and New Zealand.

S

ince the current government’s policy is to ignore almost everything it cannot make a buck out of, it is unlikely that arguably the most important report produced by the Waitangi Tribunal will get much traction for a while. However, the flora and fauna claim (Wai 262) offers conservationists a new way forward in conservationMäori relations that, with commitment by both parties, can only be beneficial for the environment.

It took 20 years from claim to the report publication, Te Taumata Tuarua, in July 2011. Nearly two years later a government response is still awaited. The final document is a readable, 250-page, illustrated digest subtitled Te Taumata Tuatahi.

The report opens with a narrative. It posits the idea of two waves of settlers, each having to come to terms with the biodiversity of an initially wondrous and unfamiliar land. At its heart is the concept of mätauranga Mäori

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– the evolving, ever-deepening knowledge based on the relationship between Mäori and all aspects of the landscape in which they lived. This is about biodiversity as well as the whakapapa and other holistic conceptual frameworks by which Mäori culture traditionally embraces the living world.

Mäori took time and loss of species to build a mutual, sustainable relationship with nature but long before Europeans arrived this became a pervasive world view.

Any early Native Land Court minute book from anywhere in the country will reveal, for example, that the practice of rähui, a prohibition on access or use upheld by mana and enforced by tapu, was widely used as a means of ensuring sustainable customary harvest.

The advent of European settlement caused further, rapid losses of forests, wetlands, freshwater habitats and natural coastal environments, not to mention further species loss.

For both the Ministry for the Environment and the Department of Conservation, an important principle arising from Treaty jurisprudence is that of “partnership”.

Not only did this tear at ecological systems but also at the fabric of mätauranga Mäori. The way in which the Crown failed to adequately protect “taonga”, a Treaty of Waitangi term, loosely meaning “treasure”, constitutes a major Treaty breach.

Habitat and species loss across lands, estates, forests and fisheries (to use Treaty-translated terms) are well understood

by Forest & Bird members – what this report does is ask us all to consider these losses not only in ecological terms but, like language loss, as having cultural impacts.

The report covers a range of topics including intellectual property rights, genetic and biological resources. For Forest & Bird the most relevant are chapters three and four: “Relationship with the Environment and Taonga” and “The Conservation Estate”.

To begin with chapter four, two key points are made in regard to the Department of Conservation (DOC). One, that in controlling about 30 per cent of remnant “wild New Zealand” in the form of national parks and reserves, DOC holds and controls the landscape where mätauranga Mäori still resides, where kaitiakitanga should still flourish.

Recognising this, DOC’s founding, 1987 legislation – unique among all government agencies – required it to “give effect to the principles of the Treaty”. To that end, it set up its Mäori liaison unit, Kaupapa Atawhai, with a dedicated head office unit and conservancy officers. There was also Mäori representation, expressed in various ways, on conservation boards and the New Zealand Conservation Authority, which remain in place today.

For both the Ministry for the Environment and the Department of Conservation, an important principle arising from Treaty jurisprudence is that of “partnership”.

Despite the advances made when DOC was established and considerable progress within some conservancies, the Waitangi Tribunal found that the concept of full partnership between iwi and this Crown agency had not been fulfilled.

Sometimes relationships made things happen but on their own these can fail as personnel change. This had meant that Mäori were still unable to exercise their kaitiaki role on traditional lands now in DOC’s keeping.

For this to happen two major changes were needed, according to the report. One was structural, requiring iwi to be brought into DOC’s Kura Taiao system at a national level, with conservancy-based Kura Taiao boards that matched the existing conservation board/authority arrangements.

The other change was for government to enable conservation general policy to actually implement the “give effect to the Treaty” DOC legislation, which currently it does not. The result would be that Mäori could again take their place as kaitiaki, exercising an equal role to the department while putting protection and conservation of species first. This approach, which Kevin Prime famously adopted about 20 years ago with Ngäti Hine and their active kükupa (kererü) conservation in Northland, has since been adopted by many Mäori groups with several species.

These make for inspirational reading in the report.

While devolved responsibility for species protection and some harvest – but none involving birds – happens in several places, DOC still retains ultimate decision-making control. Where customary harvest of plants and feathers is permitted, DOC remains the authority.

Other Treaty-compliant measures suggested would be the development of co-governance or co-management systems up to and including national park level. DOC is already training Mäori for that eventuality as rangers.

A prelude to something like co-governance regimes is under way. Last year agreements were made with Ngäi Tühoe, over Te Urewera (National Park), and with Whanganui iwi, allowing the river to have a legal personality like a corporation. Such arrangements have been well tried in Australia and Canada for some 30 years.

2 1 Lake Waikareiti in Te Urewera National Park. Photo: Craig Potton 2 Ngäti Hine have actively protected kükupa (kererü) in Northland

for almost 20 years. Photo: David Brooks

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The other jurisdictions that bear strongly upon conservation interests are the Resource Management Act (RMA) and the Local Government Act. It’s no surprise that the Ministry for the Environment’s original strong commitment to a Mäori presence and capacity within its ranks has, like its earlier promise as a player in environmental regulation and mediation, become diminished by 25 years of government indifference or meddling.

The suggestion that the RMA’s section 8 be amended so decision-makers are required to act consistently with the Treaty, rather than merely taking account of it, will not be sufficient on its own, the Tribunal writes. Instead, a group of

reforms is needed. The aim is to ensure that the RMA allows for kaitiaki control. It suggests enhanced iwi management plans, prepared in consultation with local authorities, to enable control and partnership for formal negotiation with local councils. It sees a need to identify heritage protection authority opportunities for iwi and to set out the iwi’s general resource management priorities for taonga and resources within their rohe, or region. It also outlines ways in which iwi RMA plans can be negotiated or at least remain relevant as part of any district or regional plan or policy statement.

While the report provides real challenges, the opportunities for Mäori to take their place alongside conservation groups and others will, with better law and better structures, ensure better environmental outcomes.

There is but one corollary and it is quite simple. Greater Mäori involvement in the natural world needs to be protected from unbridled corporate or business trammelling – be it a Fonterra or an iwi corporation that may trade its tikanga off against its bottom line. At a time when the disjunction between principle and practice has never been more glaring, the need for law that enables Treaty justice to take hold has become as urgent as the need for law that will ensure inter-generational sustainable practices are the norm, not the exception, for all New Zealanders.

David Young is author of a recent report on the Wai 262 report for Forest & Bird. His work in the area of history and the environment includes Our Islands Our Selves: A History of Conservation in New Zealand.

Mäori carving at Ruatöria. Photo: Craig Potton

Wai 262 why and what n

n

n

n n

46

Wai 262 was the 262nd claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal. It was lodged in 1991 by six claimants.

The claim was about the place of Mäori culture, identity and traditional knowledge in New Zealand’s law, policy and practice. It looked at two streams of knowledge: Mäori traditional knowledge and Western knowledge as they have evolved and interacted in Aotearoa.

It took 20 years to investigate, partly because of its complexity. It was the tribunal’s first all-ofgovernment inquiry.

The report focused on current and future issues rather than past grievances.

Among structural changes raised, the tribunal recommended: • Greater input by Mäori to DOC at a local, practical level and in conservation policy • Developing co-governance or co-management systems up to and including national park level • Reform of the Resource Management Act and Local Government Act to encourage greater partnership between iwi and local authorities

| Forest & Bird

20%

OF RETAIL PRICE GOES

TO FOREST & BIRD

Made from NZ grown and milled sustainable pine, these native species are hand painted and finished and come in recycled gift boxes. Best of all 20% of the retail price goes straight to Forest and Bird.

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Special Banking Package for all Forest & Bird members and supporters.

We’re very excited to be working with Forest & Bird, another New Zealand organisation that believes, we have a vital role to play in supporting the prosperity and sustainability of our country for future generations. Working with Forest & Bird, we’ve set a goal to raise $300,000 over three years to support key environmental projects.

You can help. When you choose The Co-operative Bank, we’ll make a donation directly to Forest & Bird. Check out the details below, and remember to quote Forest & Bird when you pop into your local branch, or call us on 0800 554 559.

Current Account • • • •

No monthly account fee No transaction fees on one account No monthly Telephone banking facility fee No charge to set up Automatic and Bill Payments in the first month

Pre-approved Overdraft* • An initial pre-approved overdraft of up to $1,000 • No establishment fee (saving you $25)

Personal Loan* • 2% p.a. discount off our personal lending rate for unsecured and vehicle loans when you credit your full salary into a transaction account with The Co-operative Bank.

• Half price administration fee (saving you $100) • We’ll donate up to $200 to Forest & Bird when the loan is drawn down

Home Loan* • • • •

0.20% p.a. discount off our standard floating home loan rate 0.20% p.a. discount off any of our standard fixed home loan rates Up to $1,000 towards your costs We’ll donate $350 to Forest & Bird when the loan is drawn down

Savings* • We’ll donate $25 to Forest & Bird when you open a savings account and: – Credit your full salary into a transaction account, or – Set-up a monthly direct credit to the savings account of at least $20 per month.

• Limited to the first 200 accounts opened every 12 months. One donation per customer.

*Product terms and conditions apply. The pre-approved overdraft is subject to a satisfactory credit check. Personal loans must include a minimum of $3,000 of new lending. The home loan offers apply to loans of $100,000 and over and terms and conditions apply. For all lending products, The Co-operative Bank lending criteria, and fees, apply. The home loan discount is not available on Low Equity loans, and a Low Equity interest rate premium will apply. A copy of our Investment Statement and current Disclosure Statement are available from any branch of The Co-operative Bank.

The Co-operative Bank reserves the right to change or withdraw the above offers, which only apply to personal banking accounts, from time to time without prior notice. These offers are not available in conjunction with any other special offers from The Co-operative Bank.

90 years EST. 1923

One big family

1

For more than 30 years summer camps were a much-loved opportunity for Forest & Bird members to share their nature knowledge and plan conservation action. By Marina Skinner.

I

n the baby boom years after World War II, Forest & Bird attracted a growing number of families. With more people living in cities and more time for leisure than previous generations, parents were keen to get their children connecting with nature and enjoying the great outdoors.

An early member of Forest & Bird, Bernard Teague of Wairoa, felt family camps would be a great way to bring members together, and he organised the first one in the summer of 1952/53 at Waikaremoana. Fifty-eight members, including about 14 children, attended the rain-sodden camp.

Several scientific and Forest & Bird leading lights, including Dr John Salmon, Tony Druce, Dr David Bathgate and Mr R H Carter, were at the camp and gave evening talks with slides or films. During the day the happy campers went tramping and boating on Lake Waikaremoana and took snaps for the photographic competition.

The camp was a fun way for children to learn about nature and for adults to catch up with others passionate about conservation. “Our camps were always fun because we all had a common interest,” says botanical artist Audrey Eagle.

Bernard chose Waikaremoana as the location for the first camp because Forest & Bird had for many years been advocating for a national park to protect the Urewera forest and its lakes. Camp members asked the Forest & Bird Executive to pass on to the government congratulations on the announcement of Te Urewera National Park, which opened in 1954.

The following summer even more members – 82, including 27 children – returned to Waikaremoana. This

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camp included outings, talks and slide shows about native plants and birds, films about white herons and gannets, a church service and a performance by a Mäori concert party from Wairoa.

Camp members kept the authorities on their toes.

Norman Dalmer wrote in his 1983 history of Forest & Bird, Birds, Forests and Natural Features of NZ: “At this camp a recommendation was made ‘that the executive protest against the planting of silver poplars on the road through the proposed national park’, and Mr Victor Davies agreed to supply native trees as suitable substitutes.”

The summer camps attracted a growing number of members, with 140 people at the 1959 Rüätoki camp, near Whakatäne, and 135 at the 1960 Arthur’s Pass camp. Some years camps were held at more than one location.

“The camps emphasise the opportunity to have a break which can be enjoyed by all the family; and the opportunity for members to see one another, 1 The 1967 Forest & Bird camp at

Dawson Falls near Mt Taranaki.

2 Bernard Teague was a member of

Forest & Bird’s Council for many years, and initiated family camps and the Sanderson Memorial Address, which is still given at the end of the annual Forest & Bird AGM and Council meeting. He died in 1982, aged 78.

2

and to discuss common interests such as birds, trees, erosion, noxious animals, or nature,” Norman Dalmer commented in his 1983 book, when camps were still being held. “This helps the Society’s atmosphere of one big family out for the common good and improvement of New Zealand, and members get the chance to visit different parts of the country.”

Until 1988, when Forest & Bird launched the Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) for children, the camps were an active way to pass on to children a love of New Zealand’s wildlife. National camps petered out during the mid-1980s, though several branches ran camps for their local members.

Some still do. For a few years Forest & Bird and the Native Forest Action Council jointly organised Easter gatherings at hot spots of conservation activity.

For many members the camps were a high point of the year. “I attended at least 18 [camps] – they were always part of my annual leave,” says longstanding member Joy Ainslie of Lower Hutt. “Joining Forest & Bird all those years ago greatly enriched my life. I met so many wonderful people from all walks of life – all so willing to share their knowledge of our environment.”

See page 58 for Ann Graeme’s historical viewpoint

Who’s who We now know the identity of the four young women featured in the February edition of Forest & Bird. Joy Ainslie of Lower Hutt tells us they were snapped sitting in an old whaling pot on the beach on Kapiti Island during a Forest & Bird daytrip on December 6, 1958.

The photograph appeared in Wellington’s Evening Post newspaper.

She writes: “The four were among many young people who arrived from the UK during the 1950s. They were usually accommodated in YWCA hostels until they were settled here and it was there that the girls became aware of Forest & Bird and the many outdoor activities that were available through the Society.

“Enid and Thurza had known each other in England and arrived on the same ship, where they had become friends with two brothers, John and George Smith, who also joined Forest & Bird. Later Enid married John Smith and Thurza married George Smith. Enid and John and their family of four have all been loyal, active members of Forest & Bird.

John has served on committees over the years.”

Joy Ainslie remembers the four young women as, from left, Claire Kaufmann, Enid Smith, Grace Bennie and Thurza Smith.

Joy writes: “Although I have outlived most of the special people of that day, I have great memories and it has been a great privilege to have known many of those people who helped to lay the foundations of our great Society.”

Who’s who?

Do you recognise any of these people in a photo from Forest & Bird’s archives? Please contact Forest & Bird editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington if you can help.

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Drawn to plants Audrey Eagle – New Zealand’s leading botanical artist – helped launch in 1954 one of Forest & Bird’s earliest branches. She did this with her botanically knowledgeable Hamilton colleagues, including Michael Gudex and Athol Caldwell, both now deceased, and Stewart Gray of Tirau.

They led an active programme of bush walks, talks, camps and work on Waikato conservation issues. Audrey remembers also supporting national campaigns, such as the Manapöuri petition, during the 1960s.

The Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member this month was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Otago.

Audrey was born in New Zealand but moved with her parents to Britain when she was a child. She returned to New Zealand after World War II with her English husband, Harold, and worked in Hamilton.

She started painting as a way to learn about native plants, and their Latin and Mäori names. “I thought if I

paint a plant and look at it for that long I will remember the name,” she says.

Her first book of botanical paintings – Eagle’s Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand in Colour – was published in 1975.

“My husband and I would go everywhere around New Zealand hunting for plants. The family were happy to go camping and swimming where we went.”

Audrey was on Forest & Bird’s Waikato branch committee until 1982, when she and her husband moved to New Plymouth. She continued an active role with the North Taranaki branch. “Forest & Bird meetings were always a joy,” she says.

Audrey is proud of her involvement with Forest & Bird. “Without Forest & Bird we would have lost a lot more forests and all sorts of things,” she says.

4 3 Long-time Forest & Bird

member Margaret Willis, of Botany Downs, shared this photo of Waikato branch members taking a break from tree planting in 1956 at Maungakawa Hill near Cambridge. Photo: Michael Gudex

4 ‘I thought if I paint a plant

3

and look at it for that long I will remember the name,’ says Audrey Eagle.

Glory days

M

embership of Forest & Bird grew dramatically during the 1970s, boosted by the Society’s Save Manapöuri campaign and a new mainstream interest in the environment. In 1970 Forest & Bird had about 8500 members. By 1980 it had 32,000.

Former Southern Hawke’s Bay branch chairperson Pat Menzies, who now lives in Paraparaumu, says the 1970s and early 1980s were golden years for the branch, which was set up in 1960. Members, including many local farmers, were involved in national conservation issues as well as caring for local reserves and going on nature trips.

Pat remembers Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member Guy Salmon visiting Dannevirke to speak about native forest logging at Pureora, west of Lake Taupö. She was impressed that he attracted enough locals to fill the Dannevirke High School hall.

When Pat left Dannevirke in 2004 she couldn’t find a new chair for the branch and it folded.

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Each edition of Forest & Bird this year will feature a story on the Society’s history. More about the people featured here is at www.forestandbird.org.nz If you are a longstanding member with photos or stories about Forest & Bird, please contact Forest & Bird editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@ forestandbird.org.nz, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington.

Growing a nature lover

GROWN-UP

In the first of a series, Jolene Williams tracks down a grown-up Kiwi Conservation Club kid.

N

icole Masters was aged 14 and living in Hong Kong when she received her first Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) magazine. Her grandmother back in New Zealand had signed her up to KCC, the junior branch of Forest & Bird. Although Hong Kong had its share of curious wildlife, the stories in the magazine reminded Nicole of the precious landscapes and beautiful creatures of home.

Nicole’s childhood was burnished by family tramping and camping holidays. Her father, an air force pilot, had a “great love for the bush, and so that love of the bush was born in me very early”.

Fast-forward to the present and the 37-year-old believes KCC helped cultivate a life-long respect for the environment. “It’s fostering that love [for nature]. The environment is an essential foundation for what makes New Zealand unique and KCC helps instil how privileged we are to live here ... it also makes you aware of what we’ve lost.”

Nicole’s early interest in nature has steered her to an unorthodox career path. In 1997 she enrolled at the University of Otago, expecting an ecology degree would lead to a career studying sharks. But somewhere along the way she discovered a passion for soil. “[Ecology] introduced me to plants, from plants to soil, then it was all over really.”

Nicole is an agro-ecologist and has been running her own consultancy business, Integrity Soils, for the past 12 years. Her work takes her to farms, vineyards and orchards in New Zealand and across the ditch, where she dispenses advice and techniques to improve soil management for the betterment of the land’s natural processes.

Her work has recently attracted attention from Beef + Lamb New Zealand and later this year she’s travelling to a

buffalo ranch in the United States, where she’s been invited to talk to ranchers about the relationship between plant roots, grazing and biology to maximise pasture cover.

Nicole’s work is revolutionising the traditional approach to farm management in a way that benefits the environment, the product and farmers’ pockets.

The traditional farming model, she says, is “very leaky”.

“It’s incredibly wasteful. For example, when soluble nutrients are applied to the land, most of it is either lost to the atmosphere or lost in waterways.”

Farmers are often keen to improve their environmental performance, she says. But measures such as riparian planting and fencing waterways are like an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. A better way to improve water quality is to minimise chemical use in the first instance and find sustainable ways to decrease herd size without lowering production.

This is where Nicole’s agro-ecology expertise comes in. Her approach, which analyses soil and works with the natural biological processes on farms, enables farmers to improve productivity while having a positive effect on the environment.

Sustainable, long-term use of land lies at the heart of her teaching. “We lose 11 tonnes of top soil per hectare a year in New Zealand. And that’s just not sustainable,” she says.

“Civilisation is built upon our soil and we have tremendous capacity to degrade it. But equally farmers and growers around the country are grasping the benefits gained from building their soil.”

For more information about KCC, see www.kcc.org.nz

2 1 Ex-KCC kid Nicole Masters travels

the country teaching farmers how to proactively manage soil for better overall environmental health. Photo: Ian Knowles/Beef + Lamb New Zealand

2 Nicole Masters believes KCC

1

helped cultivate a life-long respect for the environment. Photo: Michele Masters

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1

Could we return to the days when native birds â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not possums, stoats and rats â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ruled our forests? The vision of a predator-free New Zealand gives us hope that we might.

By Jay Harkness.

Fast-forward 52

| Forest & Bird

S

pending time in New Zealand’s wild landscapes is an experience like no other. There are myriad plants, an incredibly diverse range of landscapes, dramatic and sudden changes of the weather and signs of an active – and sometimes violent – geology.

But unless you’re behind a fence or on an island with restricted access there’s always something missing.

It might be the birdsong. It might be the native insects.

Millions of introduced predators – rats, stoats, ferrets, weasels and possums, among them – have taken a terrible toll on the wildlife that once thrived on our land.

But it could be possible to turn back time on the calamity. The predator-free New Zealand concept might sound a bit like world peace – a great idea but impossible to achieve – but the experts agree it would be possible to get rid of all the predators in New Zealand.

What makes them so sure? Numbers. The statistics for what has been achieved on our offshore islands don’t lie.

If the same figures are extrapolated for the mainland, we could be predator-free by 2050 – within the lifetime of many people now.

New Zealanders from government, volunteer and farming backgrounds have a huge amount of practical experience in predator management. This is particularly true when it comes to offshore islands. For a while, New Zealand held the record for the biggest area cleared of rats: on the 11,300-hectare sub-Antarctic Campbell Island.

The predator-free idea started to grow some teeth after Forest & Bird hosted an initial summit of experts in February 2012. The University of Waikato’s Dr Carolyn King wrote about the vision in the May 2012 edition of Forest & Bird magazine.

In December the then Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, opened a predator-free workshop by likening the concept to a famous 1961 speech by President John F Kennedy in which he challenged NASA to put a man on the moon within a decade. Kennedy knew from speaking to NASA’s scientists that the goal was achievable, even if it wasn’t possible at that point. It was mainly a massive upscaling of existing rocket technologies that enabled Neil Armstrong to step on to the moon’s surface in 1969.

Wilkinson’s point was that NASA’s seemingly impossible achievement was like the plan to become predator free.

Wilkinson’s replacement, Dr Nick Smith, is known to also support the plan.

2 The December workshop identified three issues as critical for success.

The first is creating super-lures, which, for example, could attract a stoat or a rat from kilometres away. These are necessary to double-check that all predators have been eliminated after an eradication project.

Second, a huge amount of work is needed to sell the predator-free concept to the public and get communities behind the goal.

The third main area of work will be in eliminating predators from urban areas. Just as armies have to fight differently in towns and cities, so too will conservationists.

Early this year economist and conservationist Gareth Morgan proposed that people keep their cats indoors and not replace them after they die. The subsequent furore gave a hint of the challenges that lie ahead.

Many of the benefits of New Zealand becoming predator free are obvious. The dawn chorus would return, forests would flourish and would be better equipped to withstand predicted changes in climate. We could have native robins in our city parks and tuatara in the back garden.

Other benefits might not be as obvious. There would be big economic advantages for farming – and human health – if rats were eliminated.

Trying to stay on top of the possum problem costs millions of dollars a year. The Department of Conservation

to the past 1 Without predators, native robins could survive in our city parks.

Photo: Bryce McQuillan

2 A rat investigates a kererü nest. Photo: Ngä Manu Images

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spent $13 million on possum control alone in the 2011/2012 year. The Animal Health Board spent $55 million in the same year, mainly to control possums to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

Another huge advantage in being predator free is that New Zealand would become even more tempting to tourists. Think of the wildlife overseas that attracts visitors ... puffins in Scotland, giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands and lions in Kenya. New Zealand’s native animals are no less remarkable. If all – not just a small sample – became commonplace, our appeal to overseas tourists would increase.

Stopping our estimated 30 million possums munching tonnes of foliage every night would be a great way to store carbon.

The greater the achievement in eradicating predators, the greater the opportunities for New Zealand to develop

and sell pest-control technologies overseas. Several companies are already doing this to some extent. Our wildlife might be among the most vulnerable to introduced animals but other countries also have enormous problems with introduced species.

Many of the technologies are not yet on the market but some are getting close. These include a device that uses the same software that plays the Angry Birds game on an iPhone. It detects which pest animal is walking across a pressure-sensitive pad in a trap then sprays the right dose of poison on to the animal. Once the animal licks the poison off, it’s curtains.

Technologies are also using scientists’ knowledge of animal genetics to curtail their population growth.

The skills and commitment of ordinary New Zealanders as well as experts will be needed to bring the predator-free vision to reality.

Ground 10 12 15 23 23 24 24 24 Air 0 0 1 20 28 36 41 47 (n islands)

Cumulative area (ha) 000

35 30 25

Ground Air

20 15 10 5 0

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Cumulative area of islands around New Zealand cleared of all non-native mammals since 1980 using ground-based control methods alone (green bars) or aerial sowing of poison baits (blue bars), which for some islands may have been in combination with ground based methods. Values shown above the graph are the concurrent cumulative tallies of the number of islands cleared using groundbased and aerial methods.

Bellingham et al (2010) NZJ Ecol 34,117

How you can help You can make sure your slice of paradise is predator free. That includes considering not replacing your cat once it dies and doing your own rat control (cats aren’t nearly as good at this as humans).

Find out what is happening in your community to advance the predator-free goal. In Wellington there’s a project to create a predator-free “halo” around Zealandia, the wildlife sanctuary in Karori, to give the birds that fly outside the sanctuary a better chance to survive.

Possums and rats eat birds, chicks and eggs, as well as the plants and insects our native birds feed on. Photo: Ngä Manu Images

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For more information visit www.honda.co.nz/environment

going places

Eyeballing

albatrosses

1

Otago Peninsula’s wildlife deliver on the promises made by a harbour cruise skipper.

By Jolene Williams.

I

t was grey, cold and the inky water of Dunedin Harbour looked less than inviting. Hunkering down in my winter coat and riding the 1.5-metre swells, this wasn’t the “harbour cruise” I was expecting. But I’d been given leave of Forest & Bird’s Wellington office and was not about to moan about the chance to get up close with rarely seen albatrosses.

The harbour cruise out to Otago Peninsula’s Taiaroa Head was part of the Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinators’ annual weekend gathering. About 40 of us were on board the Monarch for a one-hour wildlife tour that promised “unrivalled viewing” of a diversity of wildlife.

That’s no empty promise. Taiaroa Head is the world’s only mainland nesting spot of the endangered northern royal albatross. If not here, you’d have to try your luck in the Chatham or sub-Antarctic Auckland islands. Nine other seabird species nest around the headland, and eight other albatross species are known to the area. It also has the largest mainland colony of Stewart Island shags and the coast is famous for its yellow-eyed penguins.

If that isn’t enough to dazzle an office-bound Forest & Birder, there are the giant petrels, fur seals and their pups, dolphins, variable oystercatchers, royal spoonbills and, on this particular day, a lone little blue penguin swimming past the boat.

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Sometimes Hector’s dolphins and New Zealand sea lions turn up for a show. It’s something to do with the mixing of currents from the sub-tropics and the sub-Antarctics that brings in lots of krill.

The cruise offers a much closer view than you’d get from similar tours on land. The albatrosses sat fat and happy on the water within a couple of metres of the boat.

We watched them take off, running clumsily on the water before their three-metre-long wingspan would catch the wind and they’d take to the sky.

Jesse, the ship’s crewman and co-commentator, spread out his own wingspan and said this was the northern albatrosses’ home. “They spend 85 per cent of their lives alone at sea. Land is just an inconvenience for them.

They only come to shore once every two years to reproduce and nest.”

That’s the beauty of the harbour cruise. It takes you into their territory, their home. They are the masters of this wild spot along a wild coast, and we are their guests.

There’s a sense that we’re in a pretty special spot.

Dunedin city is another world away, obscured by the craggy peninsula. And in the other direction there’s nothing but sea and sky until you reach South America.

Skipper Nigel doesn’t bother with the binoculars dished out to each passenger. Somehow, from his perch at the

Getting there Starting point:

Cruises depart from Wellers Rock on Harrington Point Rd on the Otago Peninsula, about 45 minutes from Dunedin city.

One-hour wildlife The Monarch departs five times a day harbour cruise: during the summer season (Oct-Mar), and once during the winter season (Apr-Sept). Cost: $49 adult, $22 child.

To book:

Monarch Wildlife Cruises and Tours has guided tours of the peninsula, including the one-hour cruise and half and fullday cruise/bus tours. To book, email monarch@wildlife.co.nz or call (03) 477 4276.

2

More information: www.wildlife.co.nz

TAIAROA HEAD •

DUNEDIN

3

helm, he can see, identify and comment on wildlife that would otherwise have been missed.

Nigel’s had 25 years in eco-tourism and certainly knows his stuff. With assistance from Jesse, who has a Masters in conservation biology, Nigel’s easy-going narration allows you to make sense of this other world.

You don’t need to be a birder to enjoy the show as they talk biology in an over-the-fence manner.

I forget now the difference between a white-capped albatross and a southern royal. What I remember is that albatrosses lose more energy sitting on the water – because heat is lost through their big feet – than they do in flight.

I remember too that early whalers called giant petrels “stinkpots” or “bone crushers” because they were known to climb inside whales’ carcasses to scavenge for food.

For the geology buffs, there was some talk about the “early years”, 9-10 million years ago, and the formation of the harbour, and the human history of the land. Nigel pointed out a Ngäi Tahu pa site from the 17th century and the military bunkers used in both world wars that kept watch for invading submarines.

Each cruise is different, according to Jesse. We were lucky that a fishing boat near the harbour entrance had enticed seabirds looking for a free meal. On other days he’s seen hundred of dusky dolphins frolicking in the water. “I’ve seen albatrosses come up so close they wink you in the eye and you can almost touch them.” Like I said, you don’t get that in the office, do you?

4

1 A northern royal albatross

cruises near Taiaroa Head.

Photo: Craig McKenzie

2 Taiaroa Head is the only

mainland place in the world where northern royal albatrosses nest. Photo: Jolene Williams

3 Royal spoonbills nest on the

cliffs below Taiaroa Head.

They can be seen when they fly off to feed. Photo: Craig McKenzie

4 Hector’s dolphins just out

to sea. Photo: Craig McKenzie

5 The Otago coast is known

for its yellow-eyed penguins.

Photo: Craig McKenzie

5

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On the frontline

1

Ann Graeme remembers some of Forest & Bird’s moments of courage and strength as a conservation leader.

W

hen I was a child in the 1950s conservation hadn’t been invented – or not in small-town Tauranga.

Every summer the mushroom clouds would billow from the hills as the Mamaku forests burned. It was the peak of native forest destruction, greater than any decade before or since.

At the time it seemed inevitable. My mother mourned as the forest-fringed margins along the road to Rotorua were burned and replaced with pine trees. It was progress. The pioneer ethic was strong. What use was native forest? Once the timber was logged the forest could make way for cows or sheep or pine trees. It was unpatriotic to deny it.

Forest & Bird voices were lost in the din of chainsaws.

Members planted a tree here or had a picnic in a token remnant of native forest left by the all-powerful Forest Service. It wasn’t until the 70s that a radical and youthful movement arose and challenged the current ethos. This was BFAC, the unlovely acronym of the Beech Forest Action Council, and it came into being to oppose the clearance of South Island beech forests for the paper mills. Soon the tawa forests of the central North Island were also being fed into the hungry maws of the Japanese mills and BFAC became NFAC, the Native Forest Action Council.

They were young and fiery and eloquent. They climbed trees and blocked logging roads, held stormy meetings in logging towns and petitioned Parliament. Forest & Bird was at first wary of these brash newcomers but then, like a matriarch aroused from her sleep, the older organisation awoke, joined in and led the charge.

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Among those early Forest & Bird/NFAC members there were great conservationists – Guy Salmon, Gwenny Davis, Gerry McSweeney, Kevin Smith, Sir Alan Mark, Professor John Morton and more. From the ranks of NFAC protesters came many of the staff of Forest & Bird.

Looking back, the conservation movement was part of the social changes sweeping the Western World, changes that would eventually recognise the rights of women, children and people of all ethnic groups and sexual orientations. The growing conservation ethic challenged the Western, Christian philosophy of man’s dominion over nature and recognised that the natural world had value in itself. It was not just ours to exploit but ours to use wisely and to cherish.

The Save Manapöuri petition sparked a sea change in attitudes to conservation, and Forest & Bird forged ahead, working for the protection of all publicly owned native forests and the establishment of new national parks.

But native forest on private land continued to be destroyed with impunity, usually to make way for pine trees. In 1989 Forest & Bird took up the challenge. With protests and persistence, we negotiated the Tasman Accord. Tasman Forestry agreed to stop destroying native vegetation to plant pine trees and its reward was the promise that conservationists would support Tasman’s timber as sustainable.

Then we extended the negotiations to the other major forestry companies and it became the NZ Forest Accord.

That accord paved the way for the companies to obtain

In the field ANN GRAEME

Forest Stewardship Certification, the international standard for sustainable timber and a valuable asset in a more environmentally conscious world.

Other agreements between conservationists and forest owners followed: the New Zealand Climate Change Accord in 2007 and the accord Eliminating Illegal Forest products in New Zealand in 2008. In 1993 a campaign germinated in the Auckland Forest & Bird office. “Germinated” is the appropriate word here. Increasing numbers of introduced plants were escaping from gardens, becoming naturalised, weedy and invading native ecosystems, and nowhere was the problem more acute than in Auckland. Many of these plants were favoured in gardens and being sold in plant shops.

So the Forest Friendly campaign was born. A list was made of the worst pest plants and people were asked not to grow them, plant shops not to stock them and councils to ban their sale and distribution. Plant shops that complied were presented with a Forest Friendly Award.

That unleashed a storm. Hell hath no fury like a gardener protecting her plants. It is hard now, when every council has its biosecurity staff and its list of pest plants, to visualise the outrage that such a campaign would engender.

Forest & Bird was expanding its role. Not only forests and birds needed protection but all our native ecosystems including the sea, the beaches and the dunes that shelter the land behind. Twenty-five years ago little thought was given to the plants that bind the dunes or the birds that nest above the tide line. Our endemic New Zealand dotterel tried in vain to rear its chicks as people trampled its nests, vehicles crushed its eggs and dogs chased its chicks. Forest & Bird members in Northland, Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty started little dotterel-minding groups, handing out leaflets, putting flimsy fences around dotterel nesting sites and asking people to leave the birds in peace.

Again, there was outrage. Who did these Forest & Birders think they were?

“I’ve always gone fishing/walked the dog/ridden my horse across these dunes! It’s my right to do so!”

But with goodwill and education people began to accept the little birds on the beach and in time became interested in them and proud to be their custodians. Most beach-goers now understand and comply willingly with the modest restrictions. Few would deliberately drive through a dotterel fence as used to happen. Both dotterels and variable oystercatchers now have greater nesting success.

Their numbers are stable and even on the increase, a far cry from the perpetual decline of earlier years.

There is a theme that runs through these stories.

Forest & Bird has always been ahead of accepted

behaviour. We were seen as radical and unreasonable, even called “communist” in an era when “reds under the bed” was still an issue. But with time, education and understanding the community espoused the new ideas and they were taken over and administered by regulatory bodies like councils and the Department of Conservation.

Conservation measures that seemed over the top a decade ago are now the order of the day.

Change only comes from radical ideas, not from middleof-the-road conformists. This is Forest & Bird’s role: to be provocative, to be leaders of the voice for nature. It is not always comfortable. It can be unpleasant. But this is how we change the world, step by step.

From 1988 to 1992 Ann Graeme shared the role of Forest & Bird’s Central North Island Field Officer with her husband Basil.

Unsung heroes Headlines such as the one that greeted the Tasman Accord are rare. A great deal of conservation work is invisible. It involves making submissions to district and regional plans, speaking up for nature against the many strong voices of the developers.

“Developers” is a mischievous word. It suggests improvement; green grass where rushes grow, two cows were one sheep grazed. But such improvement always comes at a cost to nature. To paraphrase American conservationist Aldo Leopold, we live in “a world of wounds”.

If patches of native forest remain, if wetlands stay wet and tussock grass blows brown, it is often due to the diligence of Forest & Bird staff getting them legal protection. Even if the legal provisions are not monitored or managed, without them we have no grounds to stand on.

1 New Zealand dotterels have safer nesting sites on

beaches thanks to Forest & Bird’s work to protect them from being trampled or run over. Photo: David Hallett

2 Forest & Bird branch members from the Bay of Plenty

protesting in 1988 against logging native forests.

Behind them felling had begun in a forest called Rotoiti 5B. The protests led to the Tasman Accord in 1989.

2

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community

conservation

Fruit trees kererü favourites N

ew Zealanders once again showed their love for our native wood pigeon by taking part in the Kiwi Conservation Club’s Kererü Count in February. Interim results show a total of 1073 observations were recorded around the country, with 2394 kererü counted in total.

Much like last year’s inaugural Kererü Count, Auckland, Wellington and Otago emerged as kererü hotspots.

Areas that recorded few sightings were Marlborough, Coromandel and the central North Island.

Higher numbers of kererü were predictably reported in populated areas where there were more people keeping watch, but Kererü Count co-ordinator Ann Graeme says the results demonstrated kererü can thrive in urban areas, particularly those with established gardens and forest remnants.

The high number in urban centres also “reflects the abundance of food, such as püriri and cabbage tree berries, and the plums available in city parks and home gardens at this time of the year”.

Many participants described their kererü visitors as “plump”, “healthy” or “fat”, and others bemoaned their fruit trees were well picked over, providing further proof kererü are doing well in some areas.

The survey results will be shared with councils, conservation groups and the Department of Conservation.

Kererü Discovery Project project co-ordinator Suz Bassett says the survey results are “so valuable” to her work involving the local community in creating suitable habitats for kererü . “The Kererü Count tells us where the birds are and identifies the best areas for us to focus our efforts to increase kererü numbers around Wellington,” she said.

Kererü Count 2013 Total number of kererü

2394

Total number of entries

1073

Top regions

Auckland (609) Wellington (532) Otago (368)

North Island

68%

South Island

32%

Most commonly eaten native plants by kererü

püriri, karaka, tï kouka (cabbage tree)

Most commonly eaten non-native plants by kererü

plum, tree lucerne

Many kererü watchers commented on the “plump” and “fat” kererü that enjoyed garden fruit trees. Photo: Marc Stevenson

Riflemen endorse pest control

Tiny native riflemen cling to tree trunks, where they search for insects.

Photo: David Hallett

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Forest & Bird members were earlier this year surprised by the success of their pest control at Aongatete forest in the Bay of Plenty.

In January they were walking in the forest with members of Katikati Rotary Club – founding partners with Forest & Bird’s Tauranga branch in the Aongatete Forest Restoration Trust. They were astonished to see a family of four riflemen about 200 metres from the Aongatete lodge on a bait station line.

Riflemen are our smallest native birds and they hunt for insects on tree trunks. The sighting was especially exciting since riflemen have seldom been seen in the KaimaiMamaku Ranges.

The trust has been working since 2006 to restore 280 hectares of native forest in the Kaimai-Mamaku Conservation Park between Katikati and Tauranga.

Volunteers monitor 1100 bait stations and stoat traps, and are reducing numbers of rats, possums and stoats.

In return, numbers of many native birds are increasing.

Dunedin robins get fresh start R

obins are locally endangered in Otago. In fact, just over 100 are left on the South Island’s east coast, south of Kaiköura. So it was somewhat alarming when University of Otago scientists approached Dunedin Forest & Bird last August with news that predators had nearly decimated one of the two local populations.

The news prompted Forest & Bird Deputy President and Dunedin Branch projects co-ordinator Mark Hanger and five other members to begin a trapping project in Silverstream, 10 kilometres north-west of the city.

“The robins [in Otago] are in two separate populations,” Mark explains. “One has about 100 or more. It’s in an area that’s been treated with 1080 and the birds are holding their own. The population in the other area has been declining rapidly in the last few years because of rats and stoats.

There’s been no predator control [through 1080] because it’s within the city’s water catchment.”

Forest & Bird needed to act quickly. “We were down to a couple of breeding pairs. We just had to get something in place quickly,” he says. With funding from the Marjorie Barclay Trust, the branch has been able to buy 50 resetting Good Nature traps. Traps are a short-term measure but the regular pest control carried out by Forest & Bird members since mid-September has already made noticeable gains.

Zoology Masters student Robert Schadewinkel says recent monitoring has shown a significant difference in rat and mice detection rates between sites with and without traps. “The traps are the only explanation for the difference. This is really exciting to see. Now we just have to see some response by increased breeding success,” he says.

Mark’s now keen to find a more long-term solution. The Good Nature traps require regular monitoring and more would be needed to fully cover the area where robins are found. “We also need to more accurately ascertain if we are significantly reducing stoat numbers as it’s likely they are the main culprit in the decline of the robins.” n Jolene Williams

Mark Hanger checks the bait and gas canister on a resettable trap in the Silverstream Valley near Dunedin.

Picton locals transform Kaipüpü I

n 2005 a group of caring Marlborough locals had an idea to turn Kaipüpü Point near Picton into a wildlife sanctuary.

Kaipüpü Point had been ravaged by pests and was choked with weeds.

In March Conservation Minister Nick Smith officially opened the Kaipüpü Point Sounds Wildlife Sanctuary and celebrated the seven years’ hard slog that’s gone into turning the pest-ridden peninsula into a 40-hectare mainland island, complete with walking tracks, a jetty and 600-metre predator-proof fence.

Although not an official Forest & Bird project, Marlborough branch members have made a substantial contribution, helping native bush to regenerate and developing the people-friendly sanctuary. Over the years, they’ve made up a substantial proportion of the Kaipüpü Point Mainland Island Society management committee.

Many regularly pitch in for working bees – weeding, planting and controlling pests – and others fundraise, work on the 2m-high predator-proof fence, educate and run the permanent information site.

The Department of Conservation is one the project’s

original partners, with two-thirds of the sanctuary on DOC land. Dr Smith described the sanctuary as “an outstanding community achievement”.

A poison drop in the sanctuary at the end of last year has so far resulted in no new signs of possums, stoats, rats or cats. Marlborough Forest & Bird branch chairman Andrew John says: “We’re hoping that after we’ve had a long enough period of no pests that we’ll start to bring birds in that you don’t find elsewhere [in the Sounds]. That would be birds like the tomtit, the bush robin and the parakeet.”

Kaipüpü Point Mainland Island Society chairperson Alan Izard says there are “years of further development ahead”.

Andrew, who voluntarily runs the education programme with local schools, says teaching children is the “key” to the sanctuary’s success. He told media earlier this year: “For conservationists in the future, they need to know about the environment and feel enthusiastic about it and need to have the skills to enhance it. When you point out to children that this is what Marlborough used to be like all over they say ‘we never knew’.”

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Member since 200,000,000 B.C.

Thank you for being a member of Forest & Bird. With your support Forest & Bird has protected and restored New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native environment since 1923. In that time we have planted hundreds of thousands of trees and killed millions of predators. We have created safe and healthy forests for our native wildlife to return to. We also speak up for nature to our politicians, in the courts and at forums around New Zealand. Forest & Bird continually looks for ways to make your support go further, and we find that our regular giving memberships reduce administration time and costs. Please convert your annual membership fee to a monthly payment.

You can do that at www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus or call 0800 200 064 for more information.

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Observations GRAEME HILL

High price of cutting costs A

series of science shows has screened on the BBC Knowledge channel recently, hosted by the affable and genuinely interested comedian Dara O’Briain. It’s called Dara O’Briain’s Science Club and is generally a good watch.

One episode addressed extinctions and one of the most infuriating questions to do with conservation was raised.

Should we save the panda or spend the money on more important but less glamorous species? It even came to a show of hands. “Okay. Who would let the panda die? Hands up please!” bellowed smiling Dara in a vaguely un-PC way.

I’m all for black humour but since it’s a science show they should have realised this is not necessarily a yes-no question. Who said it’s one or the other?

How about this for an alternative question about the same subject: “Who wants to save government public relations consultants or save the panda and the other things?”

It was automatically assumed that there are only x dollars for all of conservation. Of course the same illusion appears here in New Zealand. Many people argue that the money spent trying to gently lever the käkäpö from the brink of extinction is ridiculous given what that time, energy and money could be spent on in other more optimistic conservation areas. May I remind those people that $36 million from New Zealand taxpayers was gleefully siphoned off to a private yacht club and that the käkäpö, before human modification and introduced pests, flourished as this land’s third most common bird.

The käkäpö, rather than a hopeless case of evolution going nowhere, has proven to be a tough old bird in the scheme of things.

Dara O’Briain’s show perpetuated an idea that we somehow have no discretion and no ability to decide what we value and how much we value it.

By the same false dichotomy New Zealand’s unique wildlife has been undermined by the recent cuts and restructuring to the Department of Conservation. Conservation Minister Nick Smith stated that other government departments have had to trim and DOC has to do its bit too. Okay, but the bigger question again is what do we value and how much do we value it?

We mustn’t underestimate the value of how our wildlife and the conservation efforts here are perceived overseas.

It is worth literally billions. I recently spoke with biologist Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, and he spent a fair amount of time ignoring his latest book and instead extolling the work that DOC has done. I wonder what he thinks of the direction it is heading now.

I am frequently frustrated by how few New Zealanders genuinely understand how special our remaining biota is. You don’t have to be biologist, either, as it imprints on our sense of identity. Consider summer and that hissing, clapping cacophony of cicadas. Wherever you go in New Zealand that chorus will be a handful of the 57 known species and every single one unique to this land.

One can understand the argument against bloated

governmental bodies and the need for efficiency but cut away at conservation bit by bit and you will find out too late when you’ve gone too far.

In conservation, when a figurative ball gets dropped it could bring real shame upon us ... perhaps a significant failure in the Käkäpö Recovery Programme, which requires a dedicated and focussed team of co-ordinated disciplines, or, because some species are measured in the tens, we drop an irretrievable ball.

Our distinctive native and endemic biota should be apolitical. Nuclear arms, children and Mäori culture have a settled status in both left and right-leaning parties. Our wildlife is vastly more ancient and unique so why doesn’t it have the same status? Our current minister for tourism must realise the added value DOC can deliver if properly funded.

My fervent wish is that one day our wildlife is accorded some sort of legislative status or minimum protection.

You can prove scientifically its value fiscally and its value intrinsically. We also have a duty to preserve it so that in the future it’s still there for people who know much better and much more than we do right now.

Graeme Hill hosts the Weekend Variety Wireless show on Radio Live.

Some people argue that money spent on saving käkäpö would be better spent on other conservation work. Is it a question of one or the other? Photo: David Hallett

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Myrsine from Above the Treeline.

Above the Treeline: A nature guide to alpine New Zealand

By Alan Mark Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99 Reviewed by Ines Stäger Sir Alan Mark needs no introduction in the world of books.

Together with Nancy M Adams, who contributed the beautiful colour paintings, the renowned ecologist and conservationist published the first edition of the very popular New Zealand Alpine Plants back in 1973, with several revisions and reprints to follow.

This latest book is the first field guide dedicated to the New Zealand alpine environment. More than 850 species of flora and fauna are described and illustrated through photographs.

Contributions to the fauna section have come from three experts in their field. Rod Morris describes birds, Mandy Tocher lizards and Brian Patrick invertebrates of alpine areas.

This comprehensive field guide fills an important gap as it includes fauna of the alpine environment, and it covers more than 100 extra species of alpine plants than published in the 1995 edition of New Zealand Alpine Plants.

The flora section describes around 750 vascular plant species, subspecies and varieties, and covers conifers, flowering plants, ferns, mosses, lichen and fungi. About 93 per cent of these plant species are endemic to New Zealand. Interestingly, this equals a third of the entire plant life of this country, and yet mountain environments make up just 10 per cent of the land area.

The introductory chapter clearly explains the geology and the climatic conditions of the alpine environment; it also answers questions on the origin of the flora, distribution patterns, flower colour and scent, and flowering behaviour.

I admit it is hard to look past Nancy Adams’ exquisite colour paintings in New Zealand Alpine Plants, which provided easy identification. However, to use photographs in this guide seems a practical solution to keep it up to date and relatively compact.

This book went on my wish list straight away, and it will be very handy on tramping day trips. On multiple days in an alpine environment I may stick to taking photographs and comparing them with Sir Alan’s authoritative guide back at base. Maybe every alpine hut should have a copy.

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Coastal Fishes of New Zealand

By Malcolm Francis Craig Potton Publishing, $44.99 Reviewed by Katrina Subedar This upgraded edition of Coastal Fishes of New Zealand includes incredible photographs, which make identifying our fish much easier.

Two hundred and twenty one species of fish are featured. In New Zealand so many of our fish are known by different names so I’m glad there is an index of not only common and scientific names but also Mäori names.

The large, half-page photographs are clear. Useful extra photographs show species that display different colourations during different phases of life, such as juvenile versus adult colours, spawning colours and differences between sexes.

It is amazing how many fish species in New Zealand display different colours during different phases of life, and not many guides cover this.

We have many species of wrasse, and the males and females of several common ones look different, so displaying the sexual differences in colour is important. Malcolm Francis has even photographed rare colour displays in species to ensure identification. Pink maomao is a fairly common fish on the east coast of the North Island and, as the name suggests, the fish is pink. However, many people don’t know that they are often not pink but have black markings and yellow spots.

The addition of basic biology and behaviour facts for each species is very informative and at a level everyone can understand. I particularly like the distribution map, which shows where each species is found around New Zealand.

This is a must-have fish guide and a great resource for teachers, students, tourism operators and everyday Kiwis who spend their summers exploring New Zealand’s coasts and want to know what they have seen underwater. I only wish there was a resource as impressive as this for all the different seaweeds found around New Zealand.

Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees

Where to Watch Birds in Canterbury

By John Dawson and Rob Lucas Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99 Reviewed by Ann Graeme

By Nick Allen Ornithological Society of New Zealand (Canterbury region), $29.99 (www.toltechprint.co.nz) Reviewed by David Hallett

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and so it is with a guide book. Will this book enable you to readily identify any native tree?

I set out to test it. Looking at the kawakawa growing outside the front door, I opened the chapter headed “Visual guide to flowering trees”. And there, on the page for “Simple leaves, alternate on stems, smooth margins”, I saw it. Turning to the reference page given, I found a clear description of kawakawa with its distinguishing features, photographs of its habit, its bark, leaves, flowers and fruit and reference to the moth caterpillar that riddles its leaves with holes.

So far, so good. But I already knew the tree was a kawakawa before I looked for it in the book. Maybe it wasn’t a very stringent test. So I took the book to the native tree section of the botanical gardens and found a tree I’d never seen before.

It had a slender trunk, a bit like a lancewood, and the tips of its scrawny branches were crowded with narrow, jagged leaves.

Back to the book. I looked at the pictures under “Simple leaves, alternate on stems”, but it wasn’t there. Then I realised that some of the leaves were less jagged than others so I moved on to the pages illustrating “juvenile and adult foliage”.

There it was – Pittosporum patulum, a nationally endangered plant from the top of the South Island.

This is indeed a comprehensive guide, generous in its descriptions and illustrations and generous too in its inclusion of tree ferns and some smaller trees that might have been excluded as shrubs.

The picture key has limitations but it works. It is quick and easy to use and makes identification accessible to anyone with a keen eye and an inclination to learn about our native trees.

Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird

By Quinn Berentson Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99 Reviewed by Marina Skinner Anyone who ever visited Wellington’s old Dominion Museum will remember the stuffed moa, its outstretched, ostrich-like head almost bumping the ceiling. The museum’s successor, Te Papa, no longer displays the moa but I happily encountered it again a few years ago on a visit to Te Papa’s behind-thescenes building in Tory Street. Its display is now more for its cultural reference than its scientific value because scientists have long since discovered that a moa’s neck would more likely have curved in an S shape and stretched out in front of its body rather than skyward.

We’ve come a long way in our understanding of moa since 19th-century Europeans first came across the massive leg bones and asked their Mäori mates to please explain. In a possible hint of irony, “moa” is also the word for the village fowl elsewhere in Polynesia.

Berentson has a ripping yarn to tell: the tallest bird that’s ever lived, English scientists racing to claim credit in identifying the moa, discovery of abattoir sites where the earliest Mäori settlers would have butchered, cooked and preserved their catches, and DNA analysis that has revealed surprising truths.

It’s estimated most of the nine species of moa would have become extinct a relatively short time after Mäori arrived in

Nick Allen has produced a book that will be essential reading for Canterbury’s local and visiting birders. The book’s 169 pages cover the region from the Clarence River in the north to the Waitaki River in the south and from the Pacific Ocean to the main divide of the Southern Alps.

Flicking through the book reveals the huge diversity of bird life in Canterbury. There’s the giant albatross off Kaiköura and the tiny rock wren, New Zealand’s only truly alpine bird, which inhabits the alpine fields in Arthur’s Pass.

It has good information for each of the 88 birding sites covered, including how to get to the site, a map and a list of birds to be found in three categories – usual, probable and possible.

Many birders have favourite locations and it is sometimes daunting to drive for hours to an unfamiliar location. Nick Allen’s book is invaluable for sharing knowledge acquired by many people over several years.

The annotated list of birds in the back of the book is also a useful tool that links individual species to different sites around Canterbury. I feel that an index would also have been a useful addition.

The book is an ideal size for taking in the field and I am sure that it will become an essential part of every birder’s kit. I hope it will be the catalyst for more books from other regions of New Zealand.

Aotearoa but some people believe the big birds are still out there in some remote valley. They’re not, and their extinction has been matched by the loss of scores more native birds since. These are important lessons for us today.

Moa is an impressive hard-cover production, filled with fascinating photos and illustrations. Its story is even more impressive, based on research from archaeologists and scientists, and completely compelling for the reader who is neither.

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One-stop nature shop For sale at Forest & Bird’s online shop

Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees,

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Craig Potton New Zealand, hardcover collection of photographs ($99.99)

Sirocco: The Rock-star Käkäpö, by Sarah Ell ($35)

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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.

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Parting shot T

his Central Otago kärearea kept a close eye on John Douglas, of Alexandra, when he ventured into its territory. “The first I knew of a falcon in the area was the sound of a bird flying just over my head and landing on a rock edge close by. It all happened when walking up a rocky gorge in one of the many creeks and streams of the Old Man Range. The bird – an eastern falcon, likely a male – stayed on the ledge calling out its warning call and made several more passes, landing on different rock faces each time.”

John used a Canon EOS 550D with a 55-250mm lens on a sport setting.

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If you are a Forest & Bird member and 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 JGP3 worth $159.95. The GorillaPod SLR Zoom is a portable, packable heavy-duty tripod that keeps your camera equipment steady, no matter where you might be.

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, Robert Jones; Secretary, Charlene Fitisemanu, Tel: (09) 570 0824. centralauckland.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Far North Branch: Chairperson, Dean Baigent-Mercer; 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, Corin Gardiner; Secretary, Glenda Came, Tel: (09) 372 3432. 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, William McNatty; Secretary, Barry Wilson. kaipara.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Augusta Macassey-Pickard; Secretary, Lynn Hampton, Tel: (07) 866 2463. mercurybay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Tony Dunlop; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, Tel: (09) 422-3110. 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, Ken Clark; Secretary, Marcia Sowman, Tel (07) 868 8307. thameshauraki.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, vacant; Secretary, vacant. 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 Vincent, 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

Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Debbie Waldin; Secretary, Angelina Smith, Tel: (06) 368 3337. 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, Jennifer Vinton, Tel: (04) 565-1379. LowerHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Paul Demchick; Secretary, Alexandra King, Tel: (06) 354 8370. 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, Jeni Pelvin; Secretary, Secretary, Vacant, dunedin.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Golden Bay Branch: Chairperson, vacant; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Tel: (03) 525 6031. goldenbay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaikoura Branch: Secretary Jody Weir, Tel: 027 8973 444. kaikoura.branch@ forestandbird.org.nz Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Secretary, Lynda Neame, Tel: (03) 578-2013. Marlborough.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, Tel: (07) 886-7456. SouthWaikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Craig Potton; Secretary, Gillian Pollock, Tel: (03) 548-8583. NelsonTasman.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Taupo Branch: Secretary, Laura Dawson, Tel: (07) 378 5975, laura@reap.org.nz

North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Lesley Shand; Secretary, Rachel Hurford, Tel: (03) 337-3132.. northcanterbury.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, David Dowrick; Secretary, Pam Foster, Tel (07) 571-0974. Tauranga.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Bev Nairn, Tel: (07) 533-4247. TePuke.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waihi.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, Tel: (07) 849-3438. Waikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Lower North Island Central Hawke’s Bay Branch: Chairperson, Dan Elderkamp; Secretary, Rose Hay, Tel: (06) 858 8828. Centralhawkesbay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Ian Noble; Secretary, Jennifer Hartley, Tel: (06) 870-3477.

HastingsHavelockNorth.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.

South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, Tel: (03) 686-1494. SouthCanterbury.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Secretary, Jane Young, Tel: (03) 415-8532. SouthOtago.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, Tel: (03) 248-6398. Southland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waitaki Branch: Chairperson, Zuni Steer; Secretary, Chloe Searle, Tel: (03) 437 0127. Waitaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; Secretary, Clare Backes, Tel: (03) 755-8697, WestCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz For branch postal addresses, please see www.forestandbird.org.nz

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, 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.

Exped Ultralite 500 Down Sleeping Bag A featherweight and ultra-compact sleeping bag. Designed as a summer bag but as it is narrow enough to fit inside a Comfort/Waterbloc series bag as a down liner, you can use it year round. Available in four different sizes and in left and right hand zip options. Double tuck-stitch design: 3 layers of fabric, instead of 2, are secured together with the seam fixed beneath the surface. This prevents snags, protects the seams from moisture and is more abrasion resistant

Material:

Temperature according to EN13537: Comfort: 5°C; Limit: -1°C; Extreme: -16°C

- Anatomically shaped easy adjust hood

- 840 loft goose down

- Oversized full length draft tube

- Fill weight: M=470g; L=520g

- Angled and trapezoid foot design

- Packed size: M=20x22cm; L=22x22cm

- Fits body length up to: M=180cm; L=195cm

- Weight: M=760g; L=820g

Medium = $529 | Large = $549 RRP

- Texped PA35 Ripstop-Nylon Features:

QUEEN STREET NEW MARKET SYLVIA PARK ALBANY MEGA-CENTRE TAURANGA HAMILTON PALMERSTON NORTH WELLINGTON TOWER JUNCTION DUNEDIN