Forest & Bird Magazine 354 Nov 2014

ISSUE 354 • NOVEMBER 2014 www.forestandbird.org.nz

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Stingy seas for seabirds Island rat race

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ISSUE 354

• November 2014

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Chief Executive: Hōne McGregor Group Manager Fundraising and Membership (interim): Katherine Monks Group Manager Corporate Services: Julie Watson Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy: Kevin Hackwell Group Manager Conservation and Volunteers: Chris Todd Group Manager Marketing and Communications: Phil Bilbrough General Counsel Legal: Peter Anderson 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) 940-5523 Email: j.miller@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 5 50 years ago

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

Going places

42

In the field

44

Community conservation

48

Forest & Bird lodges

50

Book reviews

6 Conservation news

Battle for our Birds, West Coast logging, Marine appeal, Chatham Rise mining, Great Kererū Count, General election, Otago native fish, Norfolk Island green parrot, Trapdoor spiders, New Conservation Minister, Strategic planning, Kaikoura marine protection, Hauraki Gulf

18

Cover story

25

Amazing facts about …

Seabirds in strife

Falcons

26

Eye spy

Kiwi Conservation Club

Kids build for birds

32

ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER:

40

Otamatuna

Harris Reserve, Bushy Park, Coromandel albatross, Rainy Creek

Winning the rat race

Maria Island eradication anniversary

PO Box 631, Wellington.

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

A climate for change

Fuel for the fire

4 Letters

28

EDITOR: Marina Skinner

38

Our people

Kyle Morrison, Colin Wright, Max Finnie, Forest & Bird managers, Mandy Herrick

Our Big Blue Backyard, Tuatara, Wild Dunedin, North New Zealand, The Naturalist

35

KCC grown-up

Stella McQueen

52

Year index

36

Our partners

53

Parting shot

Honda’s new fleet of cars

Haast’s buttercup by Ian Dench

PREPRESS/PRINTING:

Printlink KEEP UP WITH NATURE

ADVERTISING:

Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & Circulation T 0800 200 064 F (04) 385-7373 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

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editorial

Time for climate solutions Tēnā koutou You may have noticed a new word starting to appear in usage: “Anthropocene”, the age of humans. “Anthropocene” describes the epoch in Earth’s history in which human activity has significantly changed the planet’s ecosystems from impact on biodiversity to effects on the atmosphere, oceans and soils.

We can see the changes caused by human activity all around us – in the depleted oceans, fragmented forests and dirty rivers, in the shrinking glaciers on the West Coast and the main divide and in the increasingly unstable weather. Yet there are some in our communities who persistently refuse to open their eyes to the evidence around them, particularly with regard to climate change.

Climate change deniers misrepresent the scientific consensus or point to changes in solar activity or long-term natural cycles as the cause of the warming climate – anything but admit that human beings could be the cause, for to do so admits the scale of the problem and, more frighteningly, the need for change.

For the record, Forest & Bird accepts the scientific consensus that human-induced climate change is a reality and believes that our Society needs to take action and respond.

That means two things: advocating for reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases and working to protect our biodiversity from the changes that are happening to the biosphere.

Our position is realistic and ethical; realistic because it accepts the evidence from the scientific community and ethical because it’s our responsibility to work to protect our biodiversity from the harmful effects of climate change we have contributed to.

It’s not all gloom, however. A new consensus is forming that reducing greenhouse emissions will be both good for the environment as well as being good for our economy and society. How so? Wasting resources, be it energy, fishery by-catch or fertiliser, is akin to pouring money down the drain. Renewable energy (especially when generated and used locally) is stable in price, eliminates geo-political instability (more wars for oil anyone?) and is getting cheaper by the day (the lowest cost for new generation in some markets already).

Pretending climate change isn’t happening is irrational.

Acknowledging it’s happening but doing the minimum is cowardly. Accepting reality and getting on with developing solutions is the ethical and responsible path.

Ka kite anō

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President

Help needed for Auckland plan The hearings for the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan are under way and will continue throughout 2015. We have several experts already working with us on presenting our submission. However, to present a strong case on Forest & Bird’s key areas we need a few more expert witnesses to assist us next year.

We are looking for a terrestrial ecologist with knowledge of the Auckland region who can provide evidence on the ecological values of certain areas and on the appropriate management of terrestrial biodiversity.

We are also looking for a freshwater ecologist with experience in freshwater management. We are keen to hear from people with relevant qualifications and experience who are willing to provide evidence for Forest & Bird on a pro bono basis.

Please contact Forest & Bird Regional Conservation and Volunteer Manager Nick Beveridge if you can help: n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz

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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 BOARD MEMBERS:

Brent Barrett, Lindsey Britton, Kate Graeme, Tony Dunlop, Ines Stager, Jon 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 Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, 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.

Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine.

ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright.

All rights reserved.

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

The best contribution to the Letters page of the next edition will win a copy of Tuatara: Biology and conservation of a venerable survivor by Alison Cree (Canterbury University Press, $89.99).

Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or e-mail j.harkness@forestandbird.org.nz by December 17.

Spread of lupins Readers may not be aware that Lincoln University is researching Russell lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus agg) as a nitrogen-fixing fodder plant in the high country. Here’s a link to their work on this: http://perfectsheep.co.nz/forage/lupins/ Given the propensity of this plant to succeed and dominate native montane and alpine plant ecosystems and cover braided riverbeds, this initiative is a threat to native biodiversity including birds. It is possible that the high nitrogen fixation expected would be inimical to aquatic fauna. A repeat of the “clever” Pinus contorta erosion control schemes of the past!

Allen Cookson, Oxford This letter is the winner of NZ Wildlife.

Lasting shot What a stunning photo Chris Chadwick took of the two young ruru (moreporks) for Parting shot (May Forest & Bird).

It makes me smile every time I see it. Is there any chance of producing a poster?

Pauline Faiers, Auckland The editor replies: Thank you for your lovely idea. I will consider making use of the Parting shot photos by our members for a poster or another purpose.

Introduced bird pests I whole-heartedly agree with Dawn Taylor (Letters, August Forest & Bird) that pest control is critical to conserving the native flora and fauna of New Zealand. However, I note from Dawn’s letter that after eradicating rats on her block of land the birds that benefited were mostly introduced species (“thrushes, blackbirds, goldfinches, greenfinches”).

I too have noticed that introduced bird species thrive in pest-controlled reserves. These reserves have been established to conserve native flora and fauna and yet the main beneficiaries sometimes appear to be introduced birds. Such birds compete for food, territory and nesting locations with native species as well as potentially acting as vectors of disease and as agents of weed dispersal.

Shouldn’t introduced birds be treated as pests and actively targeted, where feasible, for control or eradication, especially on conservation land?

Stephen Jarvis, Wellington Forest & Bird Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell replies: Introduced mammals pose a vastly greater threat to our native wildlife – killing an estimated 26 million native birds every year – than introduced birds.

It’s far more urgent for the Department of Conservation, Forest & Bird volunteers and others to spend our limited money and time targeting possums, stoats and rats. And while introduced birds gain from reduced predation, populations of our native birds definitely do benefit from pest control.

Correction In the August edition of Forest & Bird magazine on page 26, Margaret Willis’s Auckland garden was described as being in Botany Bay. It should have been Botany Downs.

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| Forest & Bird

Tropical forests a priority Congratulations on the standard achieved for your Polling the Pollies 2014 insert (August Forest & Bird). My only criticism is that the DOC funding, restructuring and lack of resources to review the stewardship land question was sidelined by the 1080 issue.

The August issue of Forest & Bird contained many excellent articles. The climate debate will involve all the usual side issues and the politicians know that most voters could not describe emissions trading schemes or a carbon tax, let alone the pros and cons of each and who pays, which is ultimately the consumer. I see that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has now stated that climate warming may be irreversible.

How absurd it is to concentrate and argue about emission caps and phasing out fossil fuels when we cannot keep oil companies from the pollution and destruction of virgin forests in gorilla, orang-utan, native tribe and ecological reserves.

Instead we should be supporting the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) and Conservation International in saving tropical forests simply because it would have the biggest and most immediate impact on mitigating carbon emissions, reduce the severity of extreme weather conditions and save unique ecological habits.

I therefore request that Forest & Bird consider publicising and endorsing the efforts of the above organisations.

Max Watkins, Auckland The editor replies: Forest & Bird applauds the work of other environmental organisations around the world.

Climate change complaint

WIN A BOOK

Forest & Bird is giving away three copies of Our Big Blue Backyard by Janet Hunt (Random House, $55). To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org.nz Please put Big Blue Backyard 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 Native Birds draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Entries close on December 15.

The winners from the August edition of Forest & Bird are: Native Birds of New Zealand by David Hallett: Roland Stenger (Hamilton), Rebecca Hunter (Nelson), I Cameron (Picton).

Paradise Saved by Dave Butler, Tony Lindsay and Janet Hunt: Kelly Smith (Mangakino), Margaret Peart (Auckland), Graeme Paltridge (Christchurch).

Galapagos of the Antarctic by Rodney Russ and Aleks Teraud: Tom Donoghue (Wellington), Rosaleen Davin (Wellington), Christina Gibbons (Silverdale).

Your books will be posted.

Legacy of pests

I strongly support the views expressed by Francis Palmer (Letters, August Forest & Bird) about the threat of climate change. I have lodged a formal complaint with the New Zealand Press Council over the lack of coverage in a letter to the editors of 23 of 25 newspapers that contrasted the National Party’s election pledge in 2008 (gazetted) to halve New Zealand’s carbon emissions by 2050 (1990 baseline) with its subsequent record of putting New Zealand on track to treble them by 2030 (1990 baseline).

I wonder if Jacqueline Hemmingson (Letters, August Forest & Bird) realises the urgency of the need to tackle our pest and weed problem and also the problem of vanishing species.

It was largely settlers from Europe who brought so many disastrous plants and animals here. Isn’t it right that their descendants accept responsibility for dealing with them?

I make no apology for my “feelings and attitudes”, which have been formed from a Celtic heritage. All heritages have equal value but individuals within these vary.

George Preddey, Wellington

Gillian Pollock, Mapua

50 years ago

Cover Photo – This shows the extremely depleted state of a podocarp/scrub-hardwood forest that has been heavily infested with introduced browsing animals for many years.

Some 80 years ago there were herds of goats near the forest edge; then about 60 years ago deer appeared and opened up the main forest; goats followed them into the forest and, finally about 30 years, opossums came in. Now, over large areas, only the widely spaced canopy trees remain; the shrub tier and ground cover are gone…

But all the damage is not recorded in this stark photo of destruction; for at nesting time dead fledgling birds and smashed eggs are frequently found on the ground. This is no doubt because the opened canopy and the absence of a shrub tier let the wind in.

Forest & Bird, November 1964

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Hills alive with rodents New Zealand’s beech forests are crawling with the progeny of an unusually warm winter in 2013 and the particularly heavy beech-seeding event that followed in autumn this year.

First came the mice and rats, whose populations soared as they ate the beech seeds on the ground. The rats will already be eating the eggs and chicks of our native birds and even some of the adult birds.

But there is worse to come. Female stoats will have delivered their litters of up to 12 kits each (stoats can increase the number of embryos they develop in response to a surplus of prey like rats and mice). The hunting range of a stoat is up to 200 hectares. They can swim more than a kilometre in open water, hunt at day and night and are excellent climbers. Once the stoats have eaten most of the rats and mice, they will switch to eating whatever native species are close to hand.

The consequences of the heavy beech–seeding event will be hitting many native birds, lizards, insects and snails very hard.

But steps are being taken to save native species that face localised extinction. This year the Department of Conservation has dramatically ramped up its aerial 1080 programme to cover about 700,000 hectares where beech seeding has been heavy, where the department’s monitoring shows high predator numbers and where endangered species like kākāriki, mōhua, short-tailed bats and whio are threatened.

The 2014 aerial 1080 programme has been very effective. For example, rat numbers in Fiordland’s Iris Burn were tracking at 72 per cent. After the 1080 drop there they are down to zero. A high number of stoats are expected to

2

have died from eating rat carcasses. Figures are calculated by the number of tracks found in baited monitoring tunnels.

But what about the native birds not ranked on the endangered lists?

Forest & Bird Group Manager of Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell says that essentially they will be getting “hammered”.

“DOC’s Battle for Our Birds is to be commended, of course.

4 But it’s a bare-minimum response to a crisis situation. After this year DOC intends to return to its pre-2014 annual aerial 1080 cycle of around 200,000 hectares, with a modest planned increase of 50,000 hectares a year.

“If we want to give our native wildlife the chance to properly recover we need to be doing a lot more than this. The government has got to fund DOC so that this year’s aerial 1080 drops can become the new baseline for the department’s future pest control operations. As the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says, 1080 is not only safe, it is simply the best tool to keep predators down across whole landscapes.”

Kevin says the science behind DOC’s operations is well-honed. He says the ability of scientists to predict what will happen and where has become highly accurate. As a result of this research, 52 separate aerial operations will be carried out, mostly in the South Island.

The original list was longer, but some operations were dropped when monitoring showed rodent numbers were not likely to increase as expected. These areas included parts of Fiordland – the Upper Hollyford Valley, areas around the Clinton and Arthur rivers, and the peninsulas in Dusky Sound – as well as the Haast Range in South Westland. n Jay Harkness

1 Native birds are getting a better chance of survival in

Kahurangi National Park, where DOC is carrying out 1080 pest control. Photo: Herb Christophers/DOC

2 Rats and stoats prey on endangered short-tailed bats. Photo:

Brian Lloyd

3 A rat in Fiordland’s Eglinton Valley. Photo: DOC 4 1080 is being used in areas where kākāriki are threatened

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by an explosion of mice, rat and stoat numbers. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

Native logging facts revealed Forest & Bird’s concerns about the West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Act, passed by Parliament in June, are proving to be well-founded.

But Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell takes no pleasure in the vindication. “As predicted, logging companies are using the Act as a toehold to get access to our publicly owned and protected native forests,” he says.

“The Act’s supporters made out that Cyclone Ita, which struck the West Coast over Easter weekend, was an unprecedented event, even though there is plenty of evidence that the West Coast’s forest trees are often felled by natural events.

“The Act only allows the loggers to remove trees that were blown over in Cyclone Ita. But now the Department of Conservation wants to sell timber from public conservation land trees that blew over in a second storm in May. “DOC also wants to use the timber from trees that were collected shortly after Cyclone Ita but well before the Act was passed to authorise such removal.”

Rather than returning the timber to the ecosystem, as the law requires, it was trucked out to storage yards around the West Coast and has been prepared for sale.

On the basis of the government’s willingness to allow such logging and the actions of some DOC staff before and since the Act was passed, Kevin also predicts the Act’s impacts could eventually go far beyond the West Coast.

“Rotting timber has a vital part to play in the regeneration of native forests. It relies on the energy stored in dead trees to be passed on – to the extent that it’s often said a dead tree is just as valuable to the ecosystem as a living tree.

“Birds like kiwi can nest in hollow fallen trunks and the timber is devoured by a host of insects that native birds eat,” Kevin says.

Many Forest & Bird members fought the introduction of the Bill by emailing MPs to ask them not to support the Bill.

Now Forest & Bird is carefully monitoring how the new law is implemented.

Documents released under the Official Information Act in September reveal that the Ministry for Primary Industries told previous Conservation Minister Nick Smith that there was unlikely to be a market for the low-value beech timber felled by Cyclone Ita. Despite this, he justified passing the Bill under urgency – denying the public the opportunity to have a say – on the grounds that the beech timber had to be recovered quickly before sap stain and pinhole borer rendered it unsellable.

The Ministry’s advice was right on the money: by October no companies had shown any interest in tendering for the right to remove any beech.

Kevin says time will prove that the attitude of some in DOC – that selling windfall timber is a sensible way to fund the department’s activities – is a dangerously short-sighted view. In the meantime, Forest & Bird will do its best to limit the damage that will be done.

Rotting trees play a vital part in native forest regeneration. Photo: Craig Potton

Marine appeal nets good result Forest & Bird’s recent appeal to raise money for our work in advocating for a network of marine reserves throughout New Zealand’s waters has raised more than $56,000. If you were one of those who donated to the appeal, thank you very much for your added generosity, on top of what you already give to Forest & Bird.

One person alone donated $2400. Another raised $36.60, which is remarkable because the donor is only seven years old!

Our current appeal is raising money for our efforts in seabird conservation. You can read more about those on page 18.

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Tāiko at risk from seabed mining Forest & Bird is working to protect endangered seabirds and marine life on the Chatham Rise, off the eastern coast of the South Island.

We are involved in the Environment Protection Agency hearing considering whether to allow phosphate mining on the seabed on the Chatham Rise, a long strip of ocean floor that is important for seabirds and marine life.

This case is significant because of the ecological importance of the location and because it sets a precedent as one for the first cases of its type under the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012 (the EEZ Act).

The Chatham Rise is a broad submarine ridge that extends 1200 kilometres from Banks Peninsula to the Chatham Islands. It is internationally significant because it attracts a large number and range of seabirds. Some are rare, including five nationally critical seabirds. The Chatham Island tāiko, of which only about 20 breeding pairs remain, is found in the area. The seabed also has important biodiversity including threatened corals and unique animal communities.

The EEZ Act introduced to the marine environment a regime like the Resource Management Act (RMA). A marine

consent is required for certain activities in the marine environment in much the same way a resource consent is required under the RMA for activities on land. The purpose of both acts is sustainable management. However, the precautionary approach is written into the EEZ so caution and environmental protection comes first if there is inadequate or incomplete information. This direction is absent from the RMA. It was pivotal in a different Board of Inquiry that in June declined an application by Trans Tasman Resources to mine ironsand off the Taranaki coast.

The requirement to favour environmental protection and caution if information is uncertain or incomplete is central to Forest & Bird’s case on Chatham Rock Phosphate. Our key issues of concern are possible effects on the marine environment and seabirds.

The company’s proposed approach to mining is to remove the top layer of seafloor about 450 metres below the water’s surface, pipe it to a ship, remove the phosphate nodules and return the unwanted material to the sea.

The removal of the seabed would have obvious impacts.

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Ironically, a large portion of the mining area is a benthic protection zone, which protects the seafloor from bottom trawling but not from mining.

Tow Lines

Forest & Bird wants to protect Chatham Island tāiko and other nationally critical seabirds that are found in an area where seafloor mining is proposed. Photo: Graeme Taylor 400mm water depth (approx)

Ironically, a large portion of the mining area is a benthic protection zone, which protects the seafloor from bottom trawling but not from mining.

The effects of suspended and deposited sediment on marine life from the returned material are also of concern.

There is significant uncertainty about these effects but they could occur over hundreds of square kilometres of ocean.

Seabirds could be harmed, too, with the key risk from light attraction. Many birds are attracted to white lights and can be killed or injured in collisions with ships and related structures. The Chatham Island tāiko is of particular concern because the loss of one breeding bird could hasten the species’ extinction. Green lighting has proved effective elsewhere but it is unknown whether it will be effective on the Chatham Rise.

Based on the known effects on the area mined and the significant uncertainty about the effects from suspended and deposited sediment on the marine environment and the risk to seabirds from light attraction, Forest & Bird has asked that consent be declined.

The hearing is expected to end in November with a decision due by December 18. n Peter Anderson

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Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

A good year for kererū More than 14,000 kererū were counted during the nationwide Great Kererū Count from September 22 to October 5. Observers made 7100 reports, compared with 2036 reports last year.

Five people counted flocks of at least 100 birds, and Forest & Bird Old Blue award recipient Arthur Hinds even reported one flock of 170 kererū on his farm on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Kererū in flight. Photo: Luke Rosamond

Forest & Bird Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell says if the kererū population is recovering, it’s likely that good predator control will be the reason.

Arthur echoes this. He is sure the aerial 1080 predator control being carried out between Tairua and Hot Water Beach by the Whenuakite Care Group – of which he is a member – is why he’s recently seen so many kererū.

Because kererū are the only bird species left in New Zealand with a gape wide enough to swallow the berries of tawa, pūriri, miro and karaka, more kererū would lead to more of these trees. Kererū are also known as wood pigeons or as kūkupa in Northland.

Kevin warns that it would take a more systematic study over several years to confirm a population increase. He says it can be assumed that the population is nowhere near where it should be or where it would have once been.

The Great Kererū Count was run by Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club, with the support of WWF New Zealand and kererū advocates Kererū Discovery. Kiwi Conservation Club Manager Tiff Stewart says the count has been a great way to encourage people to learn about a gorgeous native bird, and she has also been amazed to discover how greatly loved kererū are by people of all ages.

A vote for nature Forest & Bird’s members, branches and staff played an active role in the run-up to this year’s general election.

Between July and early September, 19 Forest & Bird branches held political candidate events. These gave a worthwhile insight into the conservation policies – and thinking – of the parties represented. In all areas the turnout from both candidates and the public was strong.

The events were also an opportunity for the candidates to hear about the value of conservation to New Zealanders.

Branches and staff worked together during July and August to put up On the Block “For Sale” signs up and down the country. These brought home to many how the rights to drill, mine and frack across vast expanses of New Zealand’s conservation land and drill and mine huge areas of seabed within our Exclusive Economic Zone are being sold off in great haste.

Forest & Bird was also one of the groups that supported the Climate Voter initiative. Between June and September more than 60,000 voters pledged to consider the climate when they cast their vote in the general election.

Soon after it was launched, the Electoral Commission said Climate Voter was an election advertisement and therefore subject to a range of legal requirements. The Climate Voter groups did not agree that this was the case so asked the High Court for a judgement. The court gave what amounted to a vindication on some crucial points of law. The lawyer for the Climate Voter initiative, Dr Matthew Palmer QC, says the court’s judgment accepted the core 10

| Forest & Bird

legal arguments made by the Climate Voter groups.

“The ruling confirms the core legal argument that the Electoral Act was not intended to capture normal issuesbased advocacy. It upholds the right for websites to promote an issue as long as they do not encourage people to vote for or against a party or type of party.”

While the court accepted the core legal arguments of the Climate Voter groups, it pointed to two particular aspects of the Climate Voter website that meant it could not make the declarations sought. The Climate Voter groups quickly made the changes to the website to accommodate the court’s concerns.

In early September Forest & Bird’s branches and staff held the Love Nature: Vote 2014 poll, in which more than 4000 people told us – and the political parties – which conservation issues they rated as the most important. Fiftyfive per cent said the quality of our lakes and rivers was one of their top three concerns. More than half included deep sea drilling and just under half gave a vote to the need to transition to clean energy.

Forest & Bird’s Briefing to Incoming Ministers was released in early September. This document drew on the organisation’s depth and breadth of expertise on conservation matters to communicate to MPs and the new government where the Society believes conservation action is needed most urgently.

People from all parts of Forest & Bird have now begun engaging with the new National-led government.

conservation

news

Otago fish floundering Otago’s native fish are in crisis. The latest Department of Conservation-appointed review has found the region has the highest number of threatened native freshwater fish in the country. Of the 12 freshwater fish species under threat in the region, four are in the highest possible threat category.

Another six have been classified as nationally endangered and two are nationally vulnerable. Worse yet, three of these species are only found in Otago.

The news is not surprising given the barrage of threats: habitat loss, land use changes, water abstraction, degraded water quality and migration barriers. But according to DOC Otago freshwater ranger Pete Ravenscroft, it is the increased movement of trout into new sites that is having the most devastating impact.

“Trout habitat is still naturally expanding into new waterways, without human assistance ... to the detriment of our native fish,” he says.

Unlike their whitebait counterparts, these galaxiids don’t migrate, which makes safeguarding their few habitats even more critical. Pete says it is even more imperative for the longer-living species, which can live up to 20 years. “They have big eggs and low fecundity. It doesn’t take much to impact on the species,” he says.

Otago has lost 20 per cent of its rare fish in the past 13 years. The Clutha flathead galaxias has been hit especially hard. Threats have reduced the population of this unique species by 60 per cent, and the survivors are limited to waterways across just 12 hectares of land.

Pete says if the current rate of loss continues, the Clutha flathead and the Central Otago roundhead galaxias could

become extinct within the next 20 years. “Something has to be done now to prevent future losses,” he says.

One immediate solution for Otago’s endangered fish is to remove trout from galaxiids’ habitat and set up fish barriers to keep them out. Pete stresses this does not interfere with recreational angling. “We’re not talking about the wholesale removal of trout. Galaxiids are confined to the odd population in discrete locations. Most of these rivers are a metre wide ... and have no value to recreational fishing.”

Fish and Game is working with DOC to create these troutfree habitats. In fact, Fish and Game Otago region chief executive Niall Watson says the organisation has gone a step further and put forward its own proposals to DOC to reduce the possibility of reinvasion.

In addition, most of these streams pass through private land, which means rescue efforts cannot come from DOC alone.

Thankfully, word is getting around about Otago’s unique native freshwater fish and the increasing need to protect them. Community groups such as Otago Regional Council, water user groups, landowners and iwi are heeding the call to act.

Pete says without community support even more of our native freshwater fish would have disappeared, but insists a lot more needs to be done to counter the “biodiversity crisis going on in our rivers”.

DOC has proposed other measures such as protecting habitat, enhancing water quality and improving fish passage.

The department has also undertaken a review of its three freshwater fish recovery plans and groups to pinpoint what is working, what is not and what can be done in the future.

Lan Pham, director of education and conservation charity Working Waters Trust, is keen to get more people talking about galaxiids. “These fish have their own unique stories and are found nowhere else in the world. The tragedy is we are losing these incredible species before we even get to know them,” she says. n Jolene Williams 1 Six endangered Central Otago roundhead galaxias found in

the belly of a brown trout. Photo: Daniel Jack

2 Dusky galaxiid.

1

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| Forest & Bird

Photo: DOC

Norfolk parrot bounces back A year of intensive population recovery work has increased numbers of Norfolk Island green parrots. But the critically endangered species isn’t out of the woods just yet.

In July 2013 there were between 46 and 93 green parrots left, down from an estimated 240 individuals in 2010. Massey University ecology researcher and lecturer Dr Luis Ortiz-Catedral says habitat is a large part of the problem. “The green parrot prefers to use nesting hollows in native trees. Predation by cats and rats and competition for nesting hollows by introduced bird species and bees meant the green parrot was easy prey and could be eaten or displaced from its habitat.”

He says the parrots’ plight was worsened by a gender skew, with only 10 confirmed records of adult females.

Norfolk Island National Park’s Abigail Smith developed an assisted breeding programme to boost numbers, largely by “deal[ing] with the introduced crimson rosellas, starlings and rats that interfere with incubating females”.

More than 75 predator-proof nesting sites were constructed and rigorously monitored, existing predator controls improved and a control programme for feral birds was initiated with the help of the Norfolk Island government.

The results, so far, are remarkable. There are now 78 predator-resistant nest sites for the green parrot, with 11

active nests. Abigail says the last winter has “by far [been] the most productive winter breeding for the species on record”, with 51 chicks fledging, of which 25 are female.

Luis attributes the success to the close collaboration between managers and rangers on the ground, and visiting overseas scientists.

He hopes with more funding the project will continue to work towards the species’ longterm survival. n Jolene Williams Numbers of Norfolk Island green parrots are increasing after intensive pest control. Photo: Luis OrtizCatedral

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conservation

news

Spiders needed for study PhD student Vikki Smith is hoping Forest & Bird members can help with her research of trapdoor spiders.

The Lincoln University student is studying the evolutionary biology and conservation ecology of New Zealand’s endemic trapdoor spider genus, Cantuaria, and she would love Forest & Bird members to send her any spiders they find.

“My main interest is what the history of trapdoor spiders can tell us about New Zealand’s history,” says Vikki.

“Geology, evolutionary biology and ecology can all be harnessed to increase our understanding of the past. In the process, I am discovering new species, exploring their evolutionary pathways and finding their habitat preferences.”

Vikki is building a dated phylogeny (a sort of family tree) for Cantuaria to see how far back their lineage goes before it joins with their closest relatives in Australia. Conclusions based on the phylogeny can be compared to the modern ecology of Cantuaria. For example, if they diverged from Australian species only recently, and therefore probably dispersed to New Zealand over the Tasman Sea, Vikki would expect them to be able to adapt to a wide range of habitat preferences.

“Learning about their evolutionary history and ecology will also help to support conservation efforts,” she says. The genus’s dispersal ability will indicate their ability to bounce back from habitat destruction, and uncovering their habitat

1 1 Cantuaria dendyi.

2

Photo: Bryce McQuillan

preferences will show which areas need to be preserved for the benefit of Cantuaria.

Vikki has collected some trapdoor spiders but she needs to have a good representative sample. “If you have found a trapdoor spider, for example, by digging one up or finding a male that has wandered into your house, please get in touch with me.”

There are 42 currently known species in the genus Cantuaria, however, about 20 species remain undiscovered.

After leaving their mothers’ burrows, Cantuaria spiderlings move only a short distance before digging their own holes.

Females remain in the same burrow for life and adult males leave to search short distances for females. How, then, did these trapdoor spiders come to be widely distributed in New Zealand, Vikki wonders.

Cantuaria have thick-set bodies, ranging in colour from light brown to dark grey. They vary in size from 5mm to 3cm.

They are important predators in our native grasslands and forests. They eat beetles, or any other arthropod that walks by, leaving the remains underground to decompose and enrich the soil.

Their dense populations form minefields for insects, with well-camouflaged burrows set only a few centimetres apart. Any beetle walking into an area covered by Cantuaria burrows has a slim chance of walking out again.

The spiders also take their turn as prey: male Cantuaria are fat and nutritious, and can be eaten by birds, lizards, and other predators.

Cantuaria species have adapted to be successful in an ancient New Zealand, with large tracts of continuous, undisturbed habitat. Their populations were separated by mountains and braided rivers. Humans have added barriers, however, and introduced predators such as mice and rats may threaten males trying to move between populations.

The slow spread of Cantuaria populations places them in danger of being unable to recover from habitat loss and fragmentation. Individual populations may shrink and lose genetic diversity as a result.

If you find a trapdoor spider, contact Vikki at Vikki.Smith@lincolnuni.ac.nz or text 022 412 9544.

2 Vikki Smith in the field looking for trapdoor spiders.

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| Forest & Bird

Minister welcomed Forest & Bird President Andrew Cutler welcomed the appointment of Maggie Barry as Conservation Minister in the new Cabinet line-up.

“At a national level we look forward to working with you and the new Government on the many issues that affect our natural environment,” Andrew says. “Your immediate support for wide-scale pest control using 1080 is greatly appreciated, and it is our view that further extension of DOC’s control programme is one of the most cost-effective means of protecting our forests that we have.

“I also hope we can work together to make progress on other important matters such as improved legislation for creating marine protected areas, the long overdue reclassification of some stewardship land into the conservation estate (the subject of another excellent report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment) and protecting (and restoring) the quality of water in our streams, rivers and lakes.”

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Eye on the future The conservation threats that Forest & Bird seeks to overcome, the ways in which it does that and its organisational priorities are all being reassessed as part of the scheduled review of Forest & Bird’s strategic plan. Key to developing (or in this case reviewing) a plan is to look a long way forward and think about what the key issues will be, and will we be in a position to address them.

The review is being led by Forest & Bird’s board and facilitated by staff. Initial discussions about topics and directions and the intent of the strategic plan have already occurred at the North Island and South Island gatherings and over the next few months we will be asking for more feedback from our branches.

Our broad timeline for completion of the strategic plan is to complete the first draft of the review in the next couple of months, ask for feedback, and then begin work on the second draft in March next year. The aim is for the updated strategic plan to be presented at next year’s June AGM.

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Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Gains for Kaikōura coast Kaikōura’s coastal area is now better protected after more than 20 years of work by Forest & Bird’s Kaikōura branch.

The Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Act was passed in July, and will improve marine protection in the area.

Forest & Bird Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell says the Kaikōura branch worked hard on Te Korowai over many years to achieve the best possible outcome for marine conservation around Kaikōura.

The branch in 1989 initiated the proposal for a marine reserve on the Kaikōura Coast, through local surveys choosing the Kaikōura Peninsula as the best option, says branch secretary Barry Dunnett. A committee of interest groups was set up, including Forest & Bird, the local rūnanga, tourist operators, commercial and recreational fishers and the Department of Conservation, with Barry as chair.

In February 1992 a reserve was formally proposed.

“Then followed a long and frustrating period of review by a succession of ministers,” says Barry.

In 2005 the Te Korowai o Te Tai o Marokura group was set up to consider marine protection on the Kaikōura coast.

“Te Korowai was never an official marine protected areas forum, such as the West Coast Marine Protection Forum,” says Barry, who was a member of the group. “As the elected representative for Kaikōura Forest & Bird branch, I was warned about this and its implications but the group was an excellent platform for improving the marine environment off the Kaikōura coast, which – wonderful as it is – suffers from increasing threats of over-fishing and other pressures.

“Despite the small voice for conservation on Te Korowai, I shared the feeling of the branch that it was well worth putting energy into the process and, nine-plus years later, we have achieved a Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Act, with a raft of provisions.”

Among the gains are a whale sanctuary, taiapure and mātaitai areas (traditional Māori fishing grounds), a marine reserve covering parts of the Kaikōura Canyon and a corridor to the coastline, and fisheries regulation changes, which are more restrictive and conservative than other areas.

“Te Korowai, warts and all, was a wonderful example of a local bunch of people coming together with widely different views and agendas and, through goodwill and compromise, achieving some fine results,” says Barry.

He shares the concerns of some people about the size and shape of the marine reserve. “There is a strong need to ensure that similar groups trying to protect their local marine environment are more balanced in composition between conservation, marine science and extractors.”

Barry is optimistic about the future. “Te Korowai recommended that the taiapure advisory committee, about to be set up, would protect for 25 years one or more areas on the Kaikōura Peninsula, of a size to protect a wide range of marine life. Fisheries regulations allow this device and we hope that the present rāhui will be incorporated in a much wider area of protection – a marine reserve by another name.”

Kevin Hackwell believes the process would have been better if the government’s Marine Protected Areas policy and implementation standard had been used. “There was a need for a genuinely representative marine reserve with simple, enforceable boundaries,” he says.

Forest & Bird will stay involved through the Kaikōura Marine Guardians set up to monitor the new marine management.

“The legislation includes the requirement for a review in 10 years,” says Kevin. “We look forward to that review implementing the government’s Marine Protected Areas policy and by using good scientific rationale and criteria to determine any further changes to the Kaikōura marine protection initiatives, and particularly the marine reserve.”

Barry says the review will offer an opportunity to increase the size of the marine reserve. “Forest & Bird strongly advocates baseline studies by DOC inside and outside the reserve as early as possible to help the science around justifying a bigger reserve.”

1 2 1 A humpback whale

breaching off the Kaikōura coast. Photos: Ailsa Howard

2 A New Zealand white-

capped albatross with a sea perch.

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| Forest & Bird

3 Members of Te Korowai o Te

Tai o Marokura group.

Hauraki Gulf needs action A report released in late October by the Hauraki Gulf Forum confirmed what many Aucklanders know – the health of the Hauraki Gulf is in a downward spiral. The report was an update of one released in 2011.

Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Goddard – who is also a member of the Sea Change group, which is creating a spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf – says the report cannot be filed away and ignored. She says it should be acknowledged as further proof that the gulf needs a spatial plan.

Like its predecessor, the 2014 State of the Hauraki Gulf Report reflects decades of neglect. Pollutants like nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metals, overfishing, habitat damage and introduced underwater pests like the Mediterranean fan worm are all placing a heavy load on the gulf’s 1.2 million hectares. Kina barrens, sediment-clouded water and bare rock are replacing seaweed forests.

Katrina says the report contains good news about predator control on the gulf’s islands but little good news from below the waves.

The spatial plan that the Sea Change working groups will deliver must represent the interests of everyone who uses the gulf. Katrina says all Sea Change participants agree it is essential that the gulf continues to facilitate a large share of the region’s economic activity.

She says one recently proposed solution to the problem of overfishing and competition between commercial and recreational fishers in the gulf underlines the need for a spatial plan. Before the election then Conservation Minister Nick Smith floated the idea of setting up a type of recreational park in which commercial fishing would be banned but recreational fishing could continue.

Katrina says such a ban would never deliver the solutions promised by the minister. She says the differences between the Tawharanui marine reserve and Mimiwhangata marine park on the upper east coast of the North Island show why.

No fishing has been allowed in Tawharanui since 1981.

Commercial fishing has been banned in Mimiwhangata marine park since 1994 but most recreational fishing is still allowed.

Tawharanui has high numbers of large species like snapper and crayfish and extensive seaweed forests. By contrast, there are few large fish inside Mimiwhangata marine park. Forest & Bird is working with the local iwi and hapu to put in place a rāhui to address Mimiwhangata’s shortcomings.

Katrina says the inclusive strategic approach of a spatial plan is the only way to get the change that’s needed. n Jay Harkness

Kina barrens are becoming more common in the Hauraki Gulf.

Photo: Roger Grace

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Trouble at New Zealand’s wandering albatrosses are fighting for their lives and scientists believe climate change could be the cause. By Marina Skinner.

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| Forest & Bird

COVER STORY

W

andering albatrosses are creatures of myth and poetry – roaming over the planet’s loneliest seas, their massive wings soaring for hours on ocean winds. They seem to embody a magnificent melancholia.

For New Zealand’s endemic wandering albatrosses, life doesn’t just appear hard, it is hard. In 2005 the populations of the two sub-species – the Antipodean wandering albatross and Gibson’s wandering albatross – crashed, and they are only slowly recovering. In 2012, due to the steepness of the decline, both were classified as nationally critical threatened species, and Department of Conservation scientists Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott are trying to work out what is going wrong.

They have found that since the 2005 crash the birds are searching for food over more of the Southern Ocean than they used to and now often go to places they only rarely or never visited and their breeding success and survival is lower than it was before the crash. “Despite working harder, they’re worse off,” says Graeme.

The Antipodean wandering albatross, which nests mainly on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island, 850 kilometres southeast of Stewart Island, largely forages in the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand, along the edge of the Chatham Rise, in Antarctic waters and, in non-breeding years, off the coast of Chile. In contrast, the Gibson’s wandering albatross, which breeds on the Auckland Islands about 500km south of the mainland, mainly forages in the Tasman Sea west of New Zealand and off the south-eastern and south-western coast of Australia and Tasmania.

Kath and Graeme have been travelling to the subAntarctic islands to monitor the birds since 1991. In 2005/6 they observed an alarming change in the size of the breeding populations of both sub-species, with high mortality, particularly of females. The number of pairs attempting to breed in any season plummeted and few of those that did breed were successful. As a result, the populations of both sub-species nearly halved between 2005 and 2008.

sea

So, is the fishing industry responsible for the dramatic population crash? “We started doing this work originally because wandering albatrosses were being caught in longline fisheries,” says Graeme. “They are a rare but regular by-catch on boats fishing for southern blue-finned tuna and swordfish using surface long-lines. These lines are baited with one of the albatross’s main food – squid – and the birds get hooked eating the squid baits, dragged underwater when the lines sink, and the albatrosses drown.”

In 2004 swordfish were brought into New Zealand’s quota management system. Fifty-one wandering

1 Gibson’s wandering albatrosses. Photo: davidhallett.co.nz 2 An Antipodean albatross drowned after being caught on a

fishing hook. Photo: Projeto Tamar Brazil Marine Photobank

albatrosses were caught in a single voyage by the first observed large fishing boat targeting swordfish using day-time line-setting near the Kermadec Trench in October 2006. Soon after that daytime setting of long-lines was banned in New Zealand waters and the problem decreased there. However, unregulated and mostly unobserved and under-reported long-line fleets from Spain and Taiwan, among others, have continued some daytime setting for swordfish while fishing in the international waters of the western Pacific. It is likely New Zealand wandering albatrosses are among the by-catch.

Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird says two forms of by-catch mitigation are now required in international waters in the southern oceans where these albatrosses live. “This requirement came into force in July this year, under the auspices of the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission,” she says. “Use of bird scaring lines, night setting and weighted lines are internationally recognised as best practice for protecting albatrosses.

Recent compliance flights by Royal New Zealand Air Force Orions indicate that at least some of the Spanish fleet are now using the required mitigation. This will make a huge difference to chances of survival for our albatrosses.”

But there’s more to the problem. While by-catch in new fisheries could help explain sharply falling survival rates, it couldn’t explain the greatly reduced rate of breeding success, even among pairs where both partners were still alive.

“We end up concluding that although some of the increased mortality that we have observed in the last seven years might be caused by increased fisheries by-catch, something else is going on,” says Graeme. Kath and Graeme belive the explanation is complex and probably related to large-scale fluctuations in ocean temperatures and to a subsequent reduction in available food.

Significant climate change-induced warming of the oceans both west and east of New Zealand has been reported in the last few years, with strengthening wind Forest & Bird

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COVER STORY

systems driving warm currents towards the pole. The rise in the temperature of the western Tasman Sea, in which Gibson’s wandering albatrosses principally forage, has been particularly rapid – two to three times the average global rate – and temperatures there are now two degrees Celsius higher than 60 years ago. The western Tasman Sea has been described as the hottest of five global ocean hotspots particularly sensitive to climate change.

Tasmania’s great kelp forests are dying because the East Australian current has been strengthening, pushing warmer, less productive waters 350km further south and bringing with it species such as sea urchins which have eaten out the kelp, causing the loss of the marine species the kelp forests sheltered. Changes in one part of an ecosystem always affect others, particularly top predators such as wandering albatrosses.

In a 2013 report, the couple say: “The combination of increased foraging range and poor breeding success suggests that these albatrosses are foraging more widely for a smaller amount of food, which in turn suggests a collapse in the abundance of the squid and fish populations they prey on, or at least a change in their distribution.”

Kath says New Zealand wandering albatrosses may become the southern hemisphere equivalent of the polar bear, a beautiful warning of how human-induced climate change can have disastrous consequences not just on humans but on less culpable species with whom we share the planet.

Southern adventures Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott first went to sub-Antarctic Adams Island in 1989 to try and find the elusive Auckland Island rail, and while there counted the wandering albatrosses on the island. “There was almost nothing known about the size of New Zealand wandering albatross populations, or how they were faring so we decided to find out for ourselves,” says Kath.

The Nelson-based couple have returned to New Zealand’s very deep south every summer since to study the albatrosses, each time taking a couple of months’ leave from their DOC jobs. Mostly they’ve done the work as volunteers but grants covered their costs from 1996 to 2005.

They now have a good picture of the wandering albatrosses after more than 20 years counting the birds, banding them, recording their breeding success and survival, and putting electronic tags on them to track where they travel at sea.

It’s never smooth sailing to the sub-Antarctic islands, especially on the small boats on which Kath and Graeme usually sail, as the islands are in the roaring 40s. “I’m not a great sailor,” says Kath. “I usually go through three days of intense seasickness to get there. Nothing helps.”

But the islands’ wild landscapes and the birds make the trips worthwhile. “The islands are the way New Zealand was,” says Kath.

Name games It’s hard keeping up with the names of New Zealand’s wandering albatrosses.

Wandering albatrosses (deep sea foragers) and royal albatrosses (continental shelf foragers) comprise the two groups of really large great albatrosses. There are four species of wandering albatrosses, all inhabiting the Southern Ocean, with three breeding in the south Atlantic and south Indian oceans, and one in the Pacific Ocean in the New Zealand sub-Antarctic.

Right now the New Zealand species, Diomedea antipodensis, is treated as two sub-species: the Antipodean wandering albatross, Diomedea antipodensis antipodensis (breeding on Antipodes Island, with a few nests on Campbell and Chatham islands) and Gibson’s wandering albatross, Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni (breeding in the Auckland Island group, mainly on Adams Island).

However, the two New Zealand populations were formerly described as two separate species, and were relegated to sub-specific status only recently based on genetic data. Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott have subsequently gathered morphological and biological data suggesting that, while closely related, the two have diverged relatively recently. They think it likely the two sub-species will eventually go back to being two separate species.

20

| Forest & Bird

Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott have been keeping a close eye on wandering albatrosses since their first visit to the Auckland Islands more than 20 years ago.

Seabird Central New Zealand’s land and seas are extremely important for seabirds. We have: 86 Breeding species.

36

Endemic breeding species – the highest number of any country. These species breed nowhere else.

14 million Pairs of breeding seabirds (an estimate).

1/3

Of the world’s seabird species in our Exclusive Economic Zone.

46%

Of New Zealand’s breeding seabird species are threatened – more than any other country in the world.

What’s the catch?

1

We love our seabirds and we love our seafood. But fishing is killing thousands of seabirds every year. Marina Skinner looks at the problems and solutions for our ocean wanderers.

N

ew Zealand was once honeycombed with the burrows of black petrels and other seabirds. In summer the night skies would thicken as hundreds of thousands of black petrels (tāiko) returned to land. These birds were found throughout the North Island and the top of the South Island but living on the ground made them an easy meal for the rats, cats, pigs and stoats that people brought to New Zealand.

Today it’s estimated that just 2700 breeding pairs of black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) remain, and they breed only on Great Barrier (Aotea) and Little Barrier (Hauturu) islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

“Black petrels are lovely birds to watch,” says Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird, who specialises in seabird conservation. “They have glossy black plumage with matching legs and they can dive many metres for their food. Boaties often see them in the outer Hauraki Gulf.”

The Department of Conservation ranks the species as nationally vulnerable and the already small population is declining. The main threat to the black petrel today is from commercial and recreational fishing using baited lines from boats. The birds seem to feed both during the day and at night, diving for fish and squid. Hungry birds may also target fishing boats, and recent research by Biz Bell from

Wildlife Management International suggests they can dive up to 34 metres, increasing the risk of grabbing a baited hook on its way down. It’s a dangerous strategy, and birds are likely to get hooked and drown.

“Forest & Bird doesn’t want to see the black petrel pushed any closer to extinction,” says Karen, “and we know that fishers can make changes that stop the birds becoming by-catch.”

Forest & Bird is part of the Black Petrel Working Group, a collaborative forum trying to improve prospects for this species and other vulnerable seabirds such as the fleshfooted shearwater. Members of the group span fishing and environmental interests, and they have developed practical actions to reduce the number of seabirds harmed during fishing.

On October 30 Forest & Bird joined Hauraki Gulf fishers, iwi, government officials and other environmental groups at Leigh to welcome the black petrels back from their annual journey from South American waters, where they spend the non-breeding season.

1 Black petrels breed only on Great Barrier (Aotea) and Little

Barrier (Hauturu) islands, and their small population is declining. The main threat to them is from commercial and recreational fishing using baited lines from boats. Photo: davidhallet.co.nz Forest & Bird

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COVER STORY

Representatives, including Forest & Bird Chief Executive Hōne McGregor, signed the Black Petrel Pledge, which outlines a four-year plan to stop seabirds getting caught by fishers and support research about the black petrel population.

The pledge aims to: n Strengthen seabird smart fishing practices to avoid harming black petrels across all fishers in the Hauraki area (known as the fishing area FMA 1). n Look for ongoing ways to improve how we avoid catching black petrels while fishing. n Help develop electronic monitoring cameras on fishing vessels to prove our methods are in place and working. n Support research into black petrel biology to better understand the status and trend of the remaining populations.

The Black Petrel Working Group wants the FMA1 fisheries area in the Hauraki Gulf to be a model for fisheries and seabird management for other areas of New Zealand and internationally, says Karen, who is on the working group.

“Preventing seabirds from being caught is relatively straightforward. There are international best practice guidelines, which include using bird scaring lines or tori lines, weighted lines and offal management.”

She reckons that commercial and recreational fishers can markedly reduce the chances of catching birds by maintaining clean boats. This means not discarding offal or unused baits over the side and putting fish away quickly to avoid attracting attention.

Seabirds are coming under attack on many fronts from threats caused by humans. The figures for annual potential seabird deaths in New Zealand fisheries are alarming. The black petrel was the worst-affected species in the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)’s 2013 Seabird Risk Assessment, which estimates seabird by-catch (annual potential fatalities). For 2012/13 the estimated number of potential fatalities was 1440 black petrels.

The risks for seabirds at sea: n Birds taking baited hooks from long lines, and drowning. n Birds hitting warp cables or getting tangled in the nets of trawl fisheries. n Birds flying into ships at night, attracted by bright lights. n Stormwater run-off or other pollutants, including oil, contaminating the marine environment. n Potential impacts from increasing offshore development projects such as oil and deep sea mining and marine wind farms.

2

3 n

Birds swallowing or getting tangled in plastic rubbish.

A lack of prey due to competition with fisheries. n Degraded habitat due to fishing practices including bottom trawling. n Changes in ocean temperatures and currents, which affect prey quantity and distribution. n Ocean acidification through the ocean absorbing higher levels of carbon dioxide, which is affecting many marine plants and animals.

Risks on land include: n Attacks on nesting and roosting birds by introduced predators, including rats, stoats and cats. n Loss of nesting habitat through coastal development, erosion and weeds. n Illegal harvesting of seabirds, such as tītī/muttonbirds. n Accidental nest destruction by people and dogs. n Land-based wind farms.

A new National Plan of Action – Seabirds was completed last year and aims to reduce seabird by-catch over the coming five years. Karen represented Forest & Bird on the Seabird Advisory Group set up by MPI to draft the new plan and she is on the stakeholder group monitoring its effectiveness. n

Our most endangered Eleven seabirds are identified as nationally critical in DOC’s 2012 threat classification:

Antipodean wandering albatross 22

| Forest & Bird

Gibson’s wandering albatross

Salvin’s mollymawk

“We’ve got a long way to go in reducing seabird bycatch,” she says. “Nineteen out of 70 seabird species in New Zealand are at risk of extinction through commercial fishing. To make progress, we need clear and measurable targets in five-year plans and annual plans for each commercial fishery.”

Forest & Bird this year published New Zealand Seabirds: Important Bird Areas and Conservation, which identifies the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) that support seabirds on land and in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Chris Gaskin, who prepared the publication, says the 210 IBAs are globally significant. They include sites on land where seabirds breed or roost, inland river sites where some gulls and terns breed, coastal areas and marine hotspots where birds feed.

“The study identifies the areas that warrant immediate protection to safeguard the seabirds that rely on them for their survival,” says Chris. “The study is a resource for communities wanting to safeguard their local IBAs and birdlife.”

Karen says Forest & Bird developed the publication for community groups, including Forest & Bird branches, iwi groups, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for Primary Industries, councils and businesses.

“We’ve recognised sites that are well known for their seabirds, such as Cape Kidnappers, Farewell Spit and Otago Peninsula. But sometimes people forget the significance for seabirds of braided riverbeds in the east and southern South Island. These riverbeds are the only places where black-fronted terns breed, for instance.”

Karen’s seabird advocacy work is not restricted to New Zealand. She works on the BirdLife International Marine Programme (BIMP), which is developing new ways to help the fishing industry reduce and, ideally, eliminate seabird by-catch. “Through my international work I get to see the whole picture,” she says. “We can do all the work to protect seabirds in New Zealand but they fly off to other parts of the world, so it’s important to see the impact of fisheries globally.”

The BirdLife programme has focused on improving the world’s five tuna fisheries, which cause most albatross deaths through use of long-lines with hooks. “For the last two years we’ve been making sure conservation and management plans are in place for each of the commissions responsible for the tuna fisheries,” says Karen. “We need to get them up to international best practice in mitigating seabird by-catch and improve data reporting and gathering requirements.”

Eastern rockhopper penguin

Black-billed gull

4 2 BirdLife has worked with Fishtek to develop line weights and

a hook pod device that covers hooks until they sink below the depth where a bird could dive and try to grab the bait.

Photo: Karen Baird

3 A white-capped albatross killed when it hit a trawl cable.

Photo: Ministry for Primary Industries

4 The Buller’s shearwater is one species of seabird sometimes

killed by recreational fishers. Photo: davidhallet.co.nz

White tern chick

Photos by David Hallett, Craig McKenzie, Kyle Morrison, L Faulquier, Ed Jenkins, Igor Debski, Graeme Taylor

Kermadec white-faced storm petrel Forest & Bird

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COVER STORY

Forest & Bird wants 1 Meaningful steps to stop seabirds being caught by fishers. Targets and programmes need to be developed so the 2013 National Plan of Action for seabirds delivers its goals within five years.

2 Important Bird Areas for seabirds are recognised by all national, regional and local planning documents that affect the environment.

Seabird of the Year 5 Karen has helped make conservation gains with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

In 2012 it agreed to measures that will help significantly cut seabird by-catch. All long-line vessels in the South Pacific must now use two mitigation measures when fishing in areas where albatrosses are found. They must choose from bird streamers to scare birds away from the hooks, adding weights to hooks to make them sink more quickly, or setting hooks at night when most birds are less active.

BirdLife has been working with a British company, Fishtek, to develop line weights and a hook pod device that covers hooks until they sink below the depth where a bird could dive and try to grab the bait.

In New Zealand, recreational fishing is also surprisingly harmful to seabirds. A survey of recreational fishers in New Zealand’s north-eastern region found they catch 10,000 birds every year.

Karen says that after the Rena oil spill in 2011 bird scientist Alan Tennyson necropsied many non-oiled dead birds collected on Bay of Plenty beaches. He found most had died of starvation but all the flesh-footed shearwaters and some Buller’s shearwaters and sooty shearwaters had been killed by amateur fishing activities. Amateur fishing hooks were found in the birds and some deaths were from broken wings and crushed skulls.

“We need to teach fishers how to avoid catching birds and how to safely release them from hooks,” says Karen.

She is hopeful that we can provide a better future for our seabirds. “We are starting to make progress but we have a long way to go.”

5 Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird is working

This year Forest & Bird is turning the spotlight on seabirds in our annual Bird of the Year poll. We are asking people to vote for their favourite seabird during the three-week poll, which closes on November 24.

We’re highlighting seabirds to remind New Zealanders of how significant our land and seas are for seabirds and to point out the many threats these specialised birds face.

Vote at www.seabirdoftheyear.org.nz #votenzseabird

How you can help Please donate to Forest & Bird’s Christmas Seabird Appeal and give our seabirds a fighting chance at survival.

While we enjoy a Kiwi summer, let’s make sure our seabirds experience brighter days.

With 36 endemic species, New Zealand may be the seabird capital of the world but we also have more endangered species than anywhere else on the planet.

You can help make sure Forest & Bird’s vital work on the ground, identifying marine Important Bird Areas isn’t in vain. For the sake of the black petrel and our most endangered seabirds, we want to use this information to protect their habitats and bring about positive, sustainable change.

With your help, we can.

Please make a gift to our Christmas Seabird Appeal by visiting www.forestandbird/christmasseabirdappeal

on new ways to help the fishing industry cut seabird by-catch in New Zealand and international waters.

NZ fairy tern 24

| Forest & Bird

Chatham Island shag

Pitt Island shag

Chatham Island taiko

Specialists in Nature Tours since 1986 w Informative naturalist/botanist leaders w Small groups (6 – 12 participants) w Fully accommodated & camping tours

New Zealand South Island Wildlife & Wilderness Expedition 15 Day Accommodated Tour – Departs 13th February 2015 This unforgettable tour looks at the natural history of the breathtakingly beautiful lower South Island and Stewart Island.

Sri Lanka Wildlife, History & Culture

18 Day Accommodated Tour – Departs 16th March 2015 Experience the exotic birdlife and natural riches of this enchanting island.

Pilbara Reef & Ranges Expedition

Amazing facts about…

FALCONS

By Michelle Harnett

Photo: Wingspan​

“Fast and furious” sums up New Zealand’s only indigenous raptor. The falcon, or kārearea (Falco novaeseelandiae), reaches speeds of 200kmh as it dives on its prey. Falcons almost always take live prey and their diet is varied: big insects, birds including duck and kererū, rabbits and hares. Not only are falcons fast, they are deadly efficient. Some prey can weigh six times more than the average 500 g female falcon. (Females are larger than males.)

Kārearea are also very aggressive and defend their territories zealously. Humans who get too close to falcon nests run the risk of having their hair parted with a sharp talon. Magpies and harrier hawks, or kāhu, are chased away and falcons have even been seen trying to attack light aircraft.

Falco novaeseelandiae is a variable species and three different forms have been described. The bush falcon is found in forests in the central North Island and the upper South Island. Slightly larger, the eastern falcon is found in open areas in the South Island. The southern falcon makes its home in Fiordland and the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands.

Although widespread, they are rare, with perhaps 10,000 throughout the country. The raptors usually seen are Australasian harrier hawks. Kāhu the hawk is almost twice the size of a bush falcon and uses its 1.5-metre wing span to soar and glide as it searches for prey and carrion. Falcons have wings that angle back like an arrow. In flight they are almost always actively hunting, sometimes swooping low to surprise their prey.

Falcons are threatened. Their habit of nesting in a simple scrape in the ground exposes eggs, chicks and the female falcon to stoats and cats. Humans are another major threat. Falcons are illegally shot, accidentally poisoned and sometimes electrocuted on power poles.

Every day at 2pm at Wingspan on the outskirts of Rotorua the falcons wow with their speed and agility – perfect ambassadors for this amazing bird.

15 Day Camping tour – Departs 11th April 2015 Experience Ningaloo Reef, Abrolhos Islands & Karijini National Park.

South Australian Outback Expedition

16 Day Camping Tour – Departs Adelaide 4th May 2015 Visit some of Australia’s most spectacular outback locations in the Lake Eyre Basin.

Central Australian Expedition

14 Day Camping Tour Departs 26th May 2015 Join us as we explore West MacDonnell Ranges, Sandy Blight Junction Road, Gary Junction Road and Newhaven Sanctuary

South West Endemics Birding Tour

8 Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Perth 9th May 2015 Australia’s South West region is considered an Endemic Bird Area (EBA) by Birdlife International, the region has over 280 native bird species found here, 12 of which are endemic.

Visit our website & sign up for our email newsletter for the details of our full 2014 tour program.

Phone: (61 8) 9330 6066 Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au Email: coates@iinet.net.au GSA Coates Tours Licence no 9ta1135/36

Forest & Bird

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1

3

2

KCC kids build for birds Children at St Joseph’s School in Waitara are so keen to bring back the native birds in their area that they built 18 traps to get rid of introduced predators.

The year four and five pupils have a Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) class membership, says teacher Mel Quigley.

“We are lucky in Waitara we have a variety of birds – tūī, kererū, fantails. However, our learning has led to research and discussions on the decline of birds seen in Taranaki.

After talking to Mike Tapp from DOC, the children also understood the effect of stoats, rats, cats and mice on the native bird populations.”

The children’s parents helped build the timber traps, which are of different sizes and are to catch stoats, rats and possums. “I decided to make it a home project as I am a

true believer in education starts at home,” says Mel. She is very proud of the children. “They blew all my expectations,” she says. “The best thing about this was having parents come in and say they enjoyed spending time with their children, getting dirty, having fun and learning something themselves.”

The children will put their traps to work in Waitara to protect the birdlife.

1 Ben Franklin, 8, got a ground-level view.

2 Shikera Lucas, 9, created a colourful trap.

3 Building a trap was a practical way Athyn Neil, 8, could help

native birds. Photos: Mel Quigley

An Eco-Retreat

Forest & Bird’s fabulous Ruapehu Lodge is a wonderful spot for a summer weekend.

The Tongariro Crossing is nearby, as well as many other spectacular day walks in Tongariro National Park.

Summer off-peak rates now apply. Check out www.forestandbird.org. nz/ruapehulodge for more information.

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APROPOS 30132

ON +OFF FREE

5 Year Servic Includ 5 Y e e d ar Roa e Plan* with e *Visit h very n onda.c dside 5 Year o.nz fo ew CR Assist r Servic Warra e Plan V sold terms nty before and co nditio ns.

30 Nov ember 2014.

Winning the

rat race

1

For 50 years New Zealand has been leading the challenge to liberate our island wildlife from rats. By Jolene Williams.

S

ix quid doesn’t sound much but in 1960 it bought Forest & Bird member Alistair McDonald and friends the tools to wipe out all the rats on a small island in the Hauraki Gulf.

This small but significant conservation success some 50 years ago brought together scientists, environmentalists and community stakeholders for a day-long symposium in September.

About 180 guests gathered at the University of Auckland to hear about New Zealand’s world-leading success at rodent eradication over the past 50 years. Among the speakers were several pioneers such as the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) ecology division’s Rowley Taylor and Bruce Thomas, and the Wildlife Service’s Brian Bell. And while tipping their hats to past successes, the gathering also contemplated the hopes, the hurdles and the potential heroes for the future.

New Zealand’s impressive reputation on the world stage rang throughout the day. We are pioneers of rat eradication, says conservationist/ecologist and symposium organiser Dr James Russell. The world looks to us for techniques, technologies, research and management solutions to rid islands of invasive predators such as rats.

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“Since the 1990s [other countries] have been copying us and our eradications. They’ve always been paying attention to us, and we’ve always been keeping on the cutting edge,” James says.

In 1959 Alistair discovered some 900 dead white-faced storm petrels, freshly ravaged by rats on Maria (Ruapuke) Island, north-east of Rangitoto Island. The following year, Alistair received a £5 grant from the Wildlife Services and £1 from Forest & Bird to fund a rat control operation and protect the island’s resident storm petrels.

With assistance from a young Wildlife Service ranger, the late Don Merton, Alistair and fellow Auckland Forest & Bird members laid rat poison across the island. The project exceeded expectations. The island-wide poison baiting did more than control the rat population, it successfully wiped them out. And in 1964, after two extensive searches for signs of rats, Maria Island was declared 100 per cent free of rats. The storm petrels were safe.

It was a watershed moment for rat eradication, not just for New Zealand but for the world. No other island on the planet had been completely cleared of rats. This success spawned further rat eradication projects on our other islands. Despite the constant stream of critics who thought

MARIA ISLAND • • MOTUTAPU ISLAND • RANGITOTO ISLAND WAIHEKE ISLAND •

AUCKLAND

HAURAKI GULF

1 In 1988 rats were cleared from 170-hectare Breaksea Island in

Fiordland. Photo: Don Merton

2 Rats eat chicks and eggs in nests. Photo: Ngā Manu Images

2

it could not be done, conservationists continued their quest and proved them wrong.

In the 50 years that followed Maria Island, aspirations to eradicate rats and other predators from even bigger islands spurred more research, new technologies and the adoption of new strategies.

As a result, the size of islands we have been able to make rat-free has exponentially increased. In the 1970s, 32-hectare Tītī Island in the Marlborough Sounds became the next-largest island to become rat free. Following Wildlife Service work, in 1988 Rowley and Bruce, working with the new Department of Conservation (DOC) cleared all rats from the 170-hectare Breaksea Island in Fiordland. The following decade saw the complete eradication of rats from all 1965 hectares of Kapiti Island.

Each eradication project comes with a unique set of challenges, and none had quite so many or was as daunting as DOC’s plan to eradicate rats from sub-Antarctic Campbell Island. At 11,300 hectares, the project was unprecedented in scale. DOC also had to contend with the logistics of being 700 kilometres from the mainland, harsh weather conditions and the rugged landscape.

It took more than 20 years of planning, had a budget of $2.6 million and required the co-operation of the nation’s air force and navy, Metservice, four helicopter operations,

two shipping companies and numerous other agencies and individuals. None of it was in vain. In 2005 Campbell Island was declared rat-free.

DOC is rightly proud of the achievement. The project was closely followed by conservationists around the world and many projects previously thought impossible were now considered feasible. Other eradication projects overseas followed and according to the DOC website the department is “today ... regarded as a world leader in the area of pest removal and is routinely called upon by other countries to offer advice and assistance on eradication programmes”.

Fifty years ago, a mere 0.5 per cent of our islands were clear of mammalian predators. Today, the number sits at 10 per cent. James says 10 per cent is no small feat. “Ten per cent takes a lot of effort,” he says. “It’s something that any other country in the world would look enviously at.”

With such an illustrious track record the natural question to ask is “where next?” The answer could be Stewart Island or Great Barrier Island (Aotea). Both islands are inhabited, which James says adds a new level of complexity.

Predator-Free New Zealand is looking even further down the track, to a day when all predators will be eradicated countrywide. No one is shying away from the ambitiousness of the idea. Even its founding visionary, the late Sir Paul Forest & Bird

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Since the 1990s [other countries] have been copying us and our eradications. They’ve always been paying attention to us, and we’ve always been keeping on the cutting edge.

James Russell

3 Callaghan, said: “It’s crazy and ambitious, but I think it might be worth a shot.”

The idea has both supporters and critics. But the symposium showed that rat eradication projects have always faced scepticism. For example, while efforts were being made to exterminate rats from Breaksea Island, a conference was under way at which scientists said it could not be done. The more recent pest eradication projects on Rangitoto and Motutapu islands similarly had nonbelievers.

Island Conservation’s Richard Griffiths said with 120,000 visitors annually, Rangitoto and Motutapu islands are highly susceptible to reinvasion. Critics of the 2009 project said the rats would be back within a week of eradication. The project required a new approach – such as compulsory biosecurity standards for commercial operators, public education and regular surveillance – if it was going to ward off reinvasion. Five years on the islands’ rat population remains zero.

The rules of rodent eradication are changing as we look to bigger, more complex projects. The symposium has shown that New Zealanders have the experience, the attitude and the ingenuity to make it happen. Take pride, the world is watching.

4

3 A helicopter bucket being loaded with Brodifacoum during

the rat eradication of sub-Antarctic Campbell Island. Photo DOC

4 Ten per cent of New Zealand’s islands are free of mammal

predators, says Dr James Russell.

4 Rat attacks on white-faced storm petrels on Maria Island,

north-east of Rangitoto Island, spurred Forest & Bird member Alistair McDonald to organise a rat eradication in 1960. Photo: davidhallett.co.nz

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5

$50 makes a big difference.

Please visit forestandbird.org.nz/joinus today.

FAB0194/Ogilvy

our people

Researcher reveals climate impacts A study by PhD candidate Kyle Morrison has found that rockhopper penguins could be casualties of changes in climate.

Kyle, of Wellington, studied the eastern sub-species of southern rockhopper penguins on sub-Antarctic Campbell Island. The Campbell population declined by an alarming 94 per cent between 1942 and 1984, and other populations at the sub-Antarctic Auckland and Antipodes islands also dropped. The Department of Conservation ranks them as nationally critical.

Rockhopper penguins are top predators that roam widely so they are a biological indicator of changes to the marine ecosystem. Their widespread and dramatic population declines signal major changes happening in the Southern Ocean. The leading hypothesis to explain the species’ rapid decline is that global warming of the oceans has altered the amount or availability of the penguins’ food supply, resulting in poor reproductive success or higher mortality rates of juveniles or adults.

In the past 30 years the global population of the southern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) has declined by 30–55 per cent, resulting in a global threat ranking of vulnerable. Campbell Island, New Zealand’s southern-most sub-Antarctic territory, had the world’s largest population of the eastern sub-species (E. c. filholi) of southern rockhopper penguin until the dramatic decline between 1942 and 1984. There is international concern for this species as the rate of decline at other colonies may have accelerated in recent years.

1 Kyle Morrison in

the field. Photo: Ray Buchheit

2 A southern rockhopper

penguin and chick.

Photo: Kyle Morrison

Kyle and colleagues at NIWA and Massey University used digital imagery analysis software to count penguins and compare colony area in photographs of Campbell Island’s seven largest rockhopper colonies. They estimated that the population declined by 21.8 per cent from 1984 to 2012, from 42,528 to 33,239 breeding pairs. This represents an annual percentage rate of decline of 0.8 per cent, considerably slower than the decline of 2.2 per cent per year estimated from 1942 to 1984.

The recent decline appears to have been from 1984 to 1996, with most colonies being stable or increasing from 1996 to 2012. In the latter period sea-surface temperatures were cooler and less variable than during the period of decline, suggesting increased marine productivity and food availability resulted in the recent positive trend.

An exception is the colony in Penguin Bay, which declined by 60 per cent from 1984 to 2012. Kyle’s research identified high predation rates as the likely explanation for the continued decline at Penguin Bay. Brown skuas killed or scavenged eggs and penguin chicks.

Insufficient food at sea is still probably the main cause of the overall population decline. The body masses of adults measured at each stage of breeding are generally lower than at colonies elsewhere in the Southern Ocean, indicating that poor foraging conditions are probably lowering reproductive success and survival rates.

Funding from the JS Watson Trust paid for stable isotope analysis of penguin blood samples to investigate how diet quality influences chick growth. This research tested the hypothesis that a higher-trophic level diet, consisting of more fish and squid/octopus than krill, would result in adults and chicks of greater body mass. In contrast, the results revealed that chicks grew faster in a year when females fed them more krill.

Following an autumn when sea-surface temperatures around Campbell Island were especially cold and a spring when they were warmer than normal, breeding penguins were of lower body mass and their chicks grew more slowly when being fed higher-trophic level prey less often. Small penguin chicks are less likely to survive to recruit into the breeding population.

This pattern provides strong evidence that rockhopper penguins are vulnerable to climate variability affecting the quantity and quality of their food supply at Campbell Island. Kyle’s study has provided new information vital to an understanding of the penguins’ ecology and population viability in a changing climate.

Forest & Bird administers the JS Watson Trust, which makes grants, of up to $5000 each, towards nature conservation projects. Applications for the next round of grants are due on April 17, 2015.

Email office@forestandbird.org.nz or phone 04 385 7374 for an application form.

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Tireless Taranaki treasurer North Taranaki Forest & Bird member Colin Wright died in June, aged 77, after many years of hard work for conservation.

Colin contributed his accounting skills to Forest & Bird’s North Taranaki branch as the long-serving treasurer.

He had a particular interest in Te Wairoa Reserve off State Highway 3A, which has the only accessible intact

North Taranaki branch chair Carolyn Brough presented Colin Wright with a certificate of appreciation when he retired as branch treasurer.

coastal forest remnant in north Taranaki and is protected by a QEII covenant.

Colin was a hard-working, regular member of working bees at the reserve. He was always first at the working bees and even in his last month, despite shortness of breath, sawed down some pest acacias.

Forest & Bird member George Mason said at Colin’s funeral that Colin became involved with Taranaki alpine club members while doing first aid training in the 1950s. As he became less directly involved in alpine expeditions, he continued his interest in tramping training.

Being aware of Colin’s insulin dependent diabetes, his tramping mates noted the signs that necessitated a snack break during these trips. Soon Colin would have recovered and be “off like a rocket”, with no memory of his previous condition.

Colin was secretary of the Taranaki Diabetic Association.

He was awarded the rare Sir Charles Burns award for someone who has lived with insulin dependent diabetes for 50 years.

During the 1980s Colin joined annual trips organised

by Ros and Chris Beech to Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi national parks.

Other notable trips with Colin included Little and Great Barrier islands, the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and the Stirling Range, South Australia.

Colin will be remembered as a great companion who shared his experience and humour with all Forest & Bird and Alpine Club members. His gentle, dry sense of humour leavened many a long day or working bee. n North Taranaki branch

Member for 78 years Max Finnie was one of Forest & Bird’s most loyal supporters, joining in 1936 and continuing his membership until his death in August.

“He saved his pennies and he joined when he was eight years old,” says Max’s daughter, Rosalind Dick.

Max grew up on a farm at Saddle Hill, near Dunedin, and returned to farm the property after his father died in the mid-1990s.

Rosalind says her father always loved birds and would not own a cat to protect the birds on his properties. “Birds came first,” she says. “He did his own little things for conservation.”

Rosalind is following in her father’s footsteps and continuing as a Forest & Bird member.

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our people

New structure for growth Forest & Bird Chief Executive Hōne McGregor completed his review of the organisation’s professional structure and announced a new leadership team in September.

“The new structure will drive a more robust organisation and is part of Forest & Bird’s strategy for growth,” Hone says. “We are laying the foundations to increase our income, which will support our regional conservation initiatives.

“Forest & Bird’s new staff structure will enable us to move toward our goals of one united Society, greater efficiency in our operations and a balance between raising funds and achieving conservation outcomes.”

Five new groups have been created: n Fundraising and Membership

Chief Executive Hōne McGregor

Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell

Group Manager Fundraising and Membership (interim) Katherine Monks

n

Corporate Services Campaigns and Advocacy n Conservation and Volunteers n Marketing and Communications Hōne’s new leadership team comprises Group Manager Fundraising and Membership (interim) Katherine Monks, Group Manager Corporate Services Julie Watson, Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell, Group Manager Conservation and Volunteers Chris Todd, Group Manager Marketing and Communications Phil Bilbrough and General Counsel Legal Peter Anderson.

Some new positions have been created within the groups, and recruitment will take place in coming months. n

Group Manager Corporate Services Julie Watson

Group Manager Conservation and Volunteers Chris Todd

Creative conservationist Communications advisor Mandy Herrick finished at Forest & Bird in October after more than six years in her role. Mandy was based in Auckland for most of her time at Forest & Bird, and managed the content of Forest & Bird and Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) websites.

Mandy made many short videos for Forest & Bird campaigns, created graphics and helped organise events, including Love DOC Day last year. She managed the Bird of the Year poll for several years, and helped build its popularity in social media. Her talents extended to making seafood dishes to promote Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide and joining a synchronised swimming team to perform for Sea Week.

“Mandy is creative and committed to conservation,” Forest & Bird Communications Manager Marina Skinner says. “She put in many extra hours for Forest & Bird, and outside the office she became a volunteer KCC co-ordinator this year. And many of us remember her making a splash in the Birdman contest in Wellington last year.”

Mandy has headed to the Galapagos Islands for three months to volunteer with the Charles Darwin Foundation.

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Group Manager Marketing and Communications Phil Bilbrough

General Counsel Legal Peter Anderson

GROWN-UP

Rivers rule her life Former KCC member Stella McQueen has grown a childhood fascination with freshwater animals into a career. By Marina Skinner.

Stella McQueen was a nature nut as a child. “I had to hide my interest from other kids, otherwise I would get teased,” she says. “As a toddler I was obsessed with snails. Then I found snails lived in freshwater. The idea that they can breathe under water I found really weird. I got into goldfish as a teenager, then I discovered native freshwater fish.”

Stella joined KCC when she was about 11, and she enjoyed the trips and everything she learned about native wildlife and the environment. Stella and her parents also went to Forest & Bird talks, planting days and trips.

A tree planting at Bushy Park, Forest & Bird’s reserve near Whanganui, was especially memorable. “I saw a particular type of spider for the first time,” she says. “I felt a sense of ownership of those trees at Bushy Park. When you get your hands dirty when planting you have a sense of ownership.”

Stella, 34, is now a freshwater fish specialist, working in the field and writing about the native fish she’s so passionate about. She has shared her knowledge in two books. The New Zealand Native Freshwater Aquarium was published in December 2010 and A Photographic Guide to Freshwater Fishes of New Zealand came out late last year.

To research the photographic guide she packed up her house and moved into a campervan, stopping at rivers and lakes around New Zealand. After she finished the research she couldn’t bring herself to move back to a proper house so she’s still living in the campervan, which is usually parked in Whanganui. It’s a useful way to get to the rivers where she surveys fish and other wildlife on contracts for the Department of Conservation.

She’s surveyed native freshwater fish in Taranaki, updating the records of galaxiids, the main species of whitebait caught and eaten. Stella has surveyed tributaries of the Whanganui River, where she kept running into waterfalls, which are a handicap for most – though not all – native fish. She has also surveyed pest fish in Motueka.

Her love of native wildlife extends to birds, and this spring she’s surveying Whangamarino wetland, in the Waikato, for fernbirds and spotless crakes.

Stella took a circuitous route towards a career in native fish. She studied medieval history for her BA, then became a dental assistant. After writing her aquarium guide, she returned to university to study ecology, thanks to encouragement from Massey University freshwater ecologist Mike Joy. Stella grabs any opportunity to share her concerns about freshwater fish, including whitebaiting. “Whitebaiting is just another nail in the coffin for freshwater fish,” she says.

“Everything we are doing to the land is destroying the rivers, from taking the bush off to putting pipes and drains in. People can’t see the damage they are doing to the rivers.

“Most of our waterways look just fine to the casual observer. However, when you know what to look for you

can see that there are hardly any fish left, that most of the aquatic insects left are tolerant of poor water quality, the stones are covered in slime and the hiding places between the stones are filled up with sediment. If the problems with our rivers were highly visible to anyone looking at a stream then the country would be up in arms demanding real change.”

Stella once kept aquariums of native freshwater fish at home but it’s a little more difficult since she hit the road in her campervan. “One day I will have a house with a really big aquarium,” she says.

Ask Stella about her favourite native fish and she complains that there are too many. “Major favourites would be bullies, which are super common but also real characters and great to watch in the aquarium, and mudfish, because any fish that can be out of water for months at a time deserves some serious respect.”

In her mid-20s Stella joined Forest & Bird. For three to four years she was a committee member of the Manawatū branch, and led KCC trips spotlighting at night and hunting for bugs in leaf litter.

Stella has happy memories of being a KCC kid. “It seems such a positive, fun and educational thing for kids. It seems a great organisation getting kids out there, getting them muddy and learning with other kids.”

Stella McQueen with a native kōaro – equal to the longest recorded – in Kahurangi National Park. Photo: Ivan Rogers

KCC today The Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) is Forest & Bird’s club for children. To join KCC or see what current KCC kids do, see www.kcc.org.nz

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Our partners

Honda keeps us moving Honda New Zealand this year upgraded Forest & Bird’s fleet with a new batch of Honda cars for staff to use in our conservation work.

The new models are a mixture of Euro Civics, which are a five-door hatch, and CRVs. These are larger wagons with the extra ground clearance needed for the challenging site visits often made by staff.

Forest & Bird Regional Conservation and Volunteer Manager Nick Beveridge drives a CRV on his regular field trips around the Auckland region. He says the CRV is the ideal vehicle for his job and that the car has already been well-tested.

“The higher suspension is great, for instance, when I need to deliver bait stations up a farm track. The CRV also has a good-sized boot, which gives it added versatility.

“Another really useful feature is the Bluetooth capability.

It enables me to stay in touch with the office much more easily as I’m able to use the phone while driving – unless, of course, I’m somewhere where there’s no

cellphone reception,” Nick says.

Honda New Zealand National Sales and Marketing Manager Nadine Bell says: “Honda’s founder had a strong vision to ‘leave blue skies for our children’. As a result, Honda is involved in global and local initiatives to support our environment. That’s why we are proud to sponsor the great work that Forest & Bird does.”

Honda’s Jo Wheeler created a new set of graphics for the cars. They cleverly showcase some of the stand-out native species Forest & Bird is working to protect.

Honda is a long-standing and generous supporter of Forest & Bird, says Forest & Bird Chief Executive Hōne McGregor. “Forest & Bird is extremely grateful for the fleet of Honda vehicles,” he says.

“The cars enable our staff in the field to in drive in safety and comfort to carry out their conservation work and stay in touch with our volunteers. With Honda’s support, Forest & Bird can use more of our donations on directly protecting nature.”

1 1 Forest & Bird Regional Conservation and Volunteer Manager

Nick Beveridge and Colleen Pilcher set up a bait station at Ark in the Park in the Waitākere Ranges. Colleen lives near the Ark and is carrying out predator control on her own property and organising other property owners to do the same to protect native birds moving beyond the Ark’s boundaries. Photo: Mandy Herrick

2 A Honda CRV at Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge in October.

Photo: Phil Bilbrough

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| Forest & Bird

2

Things Welcome

Birds to your garden

Heaps of puzzles & activities

WoIoNl c zes pri

KCC is Forest & Bird’s kids’ club. Each KCC kid gets 4 Wild Things magazines a year and in some areas can join KCC group trips. KCC is fun and has been inspiring kids for over 20 years.

Join your kids up at www.forestandbird.org.nz/kcc now.

Forest & Bird

| 37

A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE

Fuel for the fire

1

Well-considered planning is vital to counter, rather than exacerbate, the impacts of a changing climate on our native wildlife, Jolene Williams discovers.

T

here are serious questions about the future of our native biodiversity as climate change increasingly alters the environmental landscape. Scientists can predict with some certainty the rate of changes in annual temperatures, rising sea levels and glacial retreats associated with climate disruption but determining how exactly these incremental changes will impact on our biodiversity is much harder to predict.

Throw into the mix the more frequent surprise events such as flash floods, heat waves and natural fires. Perhaps the one thing we can be certain of is uncertainty.

Landcare Research senior scientist Matt McGlone and researcher Susan Walker dispelled some of that uncertainty in their 2011 report for the Department of Conservation by outlining the potential effects of climate change on our terrestrial biodiversity.

They assert that climatic changes such as warmer weather, fewer frosts and reduced snow mass will largely favour the introduced species that evolved in warmer climates. The biggest threats for our native biodiversity are, perhaps unsurprisingly, an increase of the exact same

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threats they are facing now: mammalian predators, exotic weeds and the subsequent degradation of habitat.

But what may come as a surprise are the additional threats from efforts already in place to mitigate climate change. The very things we’re doing to stop the threats from climate change can themselves be a threat to our indigenous plants and animals. In fact, the report says: “it seems likely that damage to New Zealand’s biodiversity from its mitigation and adaption activities will be greater than damage from climate change itself over the next 50 years”.

Neither scientist is suggesting New Zealand pulls back its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nor the development of mitigation and adaptation measures.

But rather these measures need to be well planned and executed to avoid doing more environmental harm than good.

For example, establishing new tracts of exotic forest seems like a straightforward way to offset our carbon emissions, and there can be additional benefits such as expanded habitats and relieving predation pressures.

It seems likely that damage to New Zealand’s biodiversity from its mitigation and adaption activities will be greater than damage from climate change itself over the next 50 years Matt McGlone and Susan Walker But Susan and Matt say even this simple mitigation effort requires careful consideration to avoid threatening native biodiversity.

Wilding pines, for example, displace native animals and can radically alter ecosystem processes, while other species have negative effects on stream flow and biodiversity.

Furthermore, commercial exotic plantations are routinely felled, ultimately destroying many biodiversity gains they may have achieved.

Ecologist Wren Green considers hard engineering structures such as concrete seawalls to protect land and development from rising sea levels in his 2014 report on biodiversity and the effect of climate change responses.

Examples locally and overseas demonstrate poorly planned seawalls can have devastating effects on coastal ecosystems by disrupting natural coastal processes and wiping out intertidal habitats and their species.

Wren notes the irony that “these same systems [that are destroyed] provide the best adaptation mechanism against rising sea levels”. Coastal vegetation provides a natural buffer against large wave action and tidal surges, protecting land further ashore. As climate disruption brings more frequent and larger storms, these buffer zones are even more vital to the survival of our coastal ecosystems.

Forest & Bird Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy Kevin Hackwell says better solutions are more often the ones that work with, not against, the natural environment.

“The hard engineering solutions often don’t work. You’re engineering for now but the sad fact is we are facing sea level changes and more intensive storm events. Nature will usually prove more powerful than we are.”

He points to instances in Europe where stop banks were raised higher to counter more frequent, more intense flooding. “It seemed an obvious solution, but all it did was cause problems,” he says. “It channelled the water faster so you got greater flows. When you had a big flood you got more disastrous flooding downstream, and you got it quicker.” Then when the higher stop banks eventually broke, you get a higher level of flooding behind them, he says.

Kevin says more appropriate mitigation methods could be extending wetlands that naturally soak up water, deliberately allow the flood water into floodplain areas set aside to take the peak volumes off the flood events.

Alternatively, increased predator control in the catchments would allow for more undergrowth, litter and humus, and in turn increase the soil’s ability to absorb excess water.

These suggestions are by no means silver bullet solutions. But they do take into account the wider and long-term ecological impact and have a positive effect on biodiversity. And as the DOC reports show, we need to consider these aspects when fighting climate disruption effects. They make the whole system more resilient. If we don’t, we may find many solutions create a whole other set of problems for our native biodiversity.

2 1 Coastal areas are under severe risk from rising sea levels

and wilder weather. Photo: Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management

2 Planting exotic forests as a mitigation against climate

change can create unintended problems, such as wilding conifers. Photo: Matt Thomson

3 Dune planting is a soft engineering option that helps

mitigate the effects of encroaching sea levels and enhances rather than degrades local biodiversity. Photo: Willemijn Vermaat

3 Forest & Bird

| 39

going places

Singing the kōkako’s praises

1

Paul Stanley Ward tracks down some heavy-duty pop stars in a forest that’s light on introduced predators.

P

ioneer explorer Charlie Douglas wrote of kōkako: “Their notes are very few, but the sweetest and most mellow toned I ever heard a bird produce.”

A couple of years back I’d bemoaned to the Department of Conservation’s Darren Peters that you have as much chance of seeing a hobbit as a kōkako in Aotearoa’s remnant forest. Darren urged me to check out Otamatuna, in Te Urewera Mainland Island (TUMI).

I’d never heard of TUMI. Google revealed it as New Zealand’s largest mainland island, where pests are intensively controlled, and home to kōkako and other iconic native species: whio, brown kiwi and mistletoe. Since the early 1990s it has been a testing ground for predator control and research, with intensive ground trapping by DOC and local contractors.

A mate, ecologist Tim Park, was keen for a look too.

Schedules cleared, and the plant geek and kōkako obsessive found themselves a long way from a Wellington craft beer.

Our mission into the heart of Otamatuna began at the new Tūhoe HQ in Tāneatua. An aunty gave us an impromptu tour of the impressive state-of-the-art

40

| Forest & Bird

sustainable building and we saw symbols honouring the mauri, or life force, of Te Urewera forest. On the road out of town we said kia ora to ex-Māori warden Spady before leaving the tar seal to christen our shiny black Holden rental.

Ten minutes after climbing up from Matahī Valley Road a rustle in the rewarewa tops revealed a kōkako pair: bounding about like squirrels, with Zorro masks and polished steel cloaks. Magic. The park is a kōkako stronghold, with more than 100 pairs (from eight in 1994).

It’s fairly rugged hill country but the June weather was kind and the ground — carpeted in miro and hīnau berries — was dry. At dusk our head torches spotlit a ruru duo silently dogfighting. At the hut we delved into books about the mainland island and kōkako saviours like the late Jeff Hudson. Kiwi called all night.

The next day we took a tiki tour down the deep gut of a stoat line to Waiiti Stream. We unwittingly flushed out a whio, then puffed up the spur to the ridge that our maps told us was a blue-wattled crow boulevard.

After a night in a cosy hut the morning sun lifted the curtain on a stunning kōkako duet. A singer on each side of

the track made for plangent surround sound. This was the dawn chorus of eco fables. Half a dozen kōkako encounters later, Tim and I had permanent grins and strained necks.

Sweet and mellow indeed, Charlie.

Along with a kākā shredding up a rimu like an axe-man at Fieldays, there were kererū, rearea (the Tūhoe name for the bellbird), tūī, toutouwai (robins), miromiro (tomtits) and tītiti pounamu (riflemen). On a nature buzz, we skidded home down the track (which trampers coming the other way call “the wall”) to the Lions Hut. Seeing the forest floor in such rude health was awesome.

With tall logging dodgers — rimu, tawa, miro, rewarewa and rātā – dominating, it was a revelation to see the results of all the conservation mahi. And the eviscerated (by pigs) possums hanging from traps gave the operation a touch of Game of Thrones gothic.

The experience prompted big picture musing. Are such encounters possible in urban environments? In Wellington’s Polhill Gully, kākā and tīeke (saddlebacks) are spilling over Zealandia sanctuary fence into backyards. Last month a kārearea (falcon) hunting a starling above Newtown School impressed my six-year-old daughter’s class.

When I reported back to thank Darren for the opportunity, he replied: “Nice for you to witness what permanent pest suppression does for our bush friends.”

Too right, Darren – not just nice but inspirational.

• WHAKATANE TĀNEATUA OTAMATUNA

GISBORNE • LAKE WAIKAREMOANA

4 2

3 1 Te Urewera has about 100 pairs of kokako. Photo: www.

davidhallett.co.nz

2 A ruru, or morepork, at dusk. Photos: Paul Stanley Ward 3 A miromiro (tomtit).

4 Otamatuna’s rugged hill country.

Getting there Directions:

We flew from Wellington to Rotorua.

From Rotorua it’s an hour to Tāneatua on State Highway 30, then 45 minutes down the Waimana Valley. From Auckland it’s a three hour and 45 minute drive to Tāneatua.

Staying there:

There are several public DOC huts in the valley, as well as the Lions Hut – www.lionshut.org.nz

Tramping there: See DOC’s website for tracks in Te Urewera – www.doc.govt.nz More information:

Under a unique Treaty of Waitangi settlement, Te Urewera has had its national park status removed and replaced with its ancestral Tūhoe identity.

DOC will continue to administer the park, in partnership with Tūhoe – www.ngaituhoe.iwi.nz Forest & Bird

| 41

In the field ANN GRAEME

Eye spy The eyes have it in the animal kingdom, according to Ann Graeme.

In a world of light, eyes are very useful. They receive and transfer the light reflected off surrounding objects and then the brain can interpret the information as desirable or dangerous. Eyes are so useful that they have evolved over and over again in many different groups of animals. We humans are not alone in having superb and sophisticated eyes.

Sight in its earliest form began when simple animals developed light-sensitive cells. These could inform them of day and night or of sunlight and shade. An earthworm has light-sensitive cells in its skin so it can avoid the sunlight, which would damage its skin.

These light-sensitive cells were the starting point from which eyes developed, step by tiny step. First the lightsensitive cells became grouped into eye spots. The eye spot became depressed into a dimple (which would have protected the cells) and then the dimple deepened to become a pit. Now the structure became a crude eye.

These “pit eyes” are still found in many invertebrates.

Turn over a boulder on the rocky shore and you will see how quickly the limpets and chitins, guided by the pit eyes in their shells, glide over the upturned rock to get back into the shade. (Never leave the rock upturned. The limpets and chitins may escape but all the stuck-on animals will perish.)

The simple pit eye was just the beginning. Next the entrance to the pit became constricted, throwing a narrow beam of light on to the light-sensitive cells inside. This is 42

| Forest & Bird

the technology of the pin-hole camera and it is able to capture an image.

The next step is to cover the aperture of the pit in a clear substance. Initially it might just have protected the lightsensitive cells below but, shaped and thickened, it became a lens. A lens could bend the light so the eye could focus on near or distant objects.

Now an animal could see much more than light and dark. It could see its food or its prey or its enemies.

The best-developed eyes offered their owners such an advantage that the evolution of the eye became, one scientist suggested, like an arms race. There was an explosion of animals possessing eyes in the Cambrian, some 450 million years ago.

It also followed that mobile animals needed their eyes facing the front, and the flood of information the eyes provided needed to be processed by a nerve centre, which also had to be in front. So the eyes and the brain became positioned on the animal’s head.

Now here is a really amazing fact. Many genes are involved in the construction of complex organs and they are orchestrated by master genes. One master gene, called Pax 6, controlled the simple eye that evolved in the Cambrian. Today that same master gene still lays down the blue-print for an eye – any eye – ranging from the simple pit eyes of garden slugs to the compound eyes of insects to the camera eyes of vertebrates like ourselves, squids and

The eyes of the birds, the tuatara and the squid are structurally similar yet have evolved independently. The damselfly’s compound eye is quite different. Photos: Luc Hoogenstein, Vincent Zintzen, Bryce McQuillan, Zealandia octopuses. All these different eyes can be traced back to the pit eyes that evolved in the Cambrian.

The insect’s compound eye is made up of a number of pit eyes called ommatidia. The lenses of the ommatidia are connected to each other and to the insect’s brain. Each ommatidium sends an image from a slightly different angle and the insect’s brain integrates them into a single picture.

This style of eye is very good for seeing close-up things and for detecting movement – which is why it is so hard to swat a fly.

Not all insect eyes are so sophisticated. A woodburrowing beetle larva needs only simple eyes that see light and dark, sufficient to guide it inside a dead tree. But a dragonfly needs high-speed colour images to catch its prey on the wing. It has enormous compound eyes, each made up of 30,000 ommatidia. Just imagine the quality of the image they produce!

Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are all vertebrates, like we are. The squids and octopuses are cephalopods. These two lines of animals diverged from their common ancestor more than 400 million years ago yet both lines, in a remarkable example of evolutionary convergence, have evolved very similar camera eyes. They look much the same and they work much the same but there are telling differences. One of these differences accounts for our blind spot.

In both vertebrates and cephalopods the eye is cup-

shaped with a lens that focuses an image on to the lightsensitive retina at the back. In the vertebrate eye the layer of retinal cells is behind a transparent layer of nerve cells.

The optic nerve collects impulses from these cells and then, on its way to the brain, it has to pass back through the retina. Where it does so there are no retinal cells and a blind spot is created.

In the cephalopod’s eye, the layers of retinal cells and transmitting nerve cells are reversed. Light falls first on the light-sensitive cells, the message is transmitted to the nerve cells behind them and the optic nerve carries it directly to the brain without passing through the retina. So the squid has no blind spot.

The dragonfly, squid and ourselves represent three major trends in the evolution of eyes but there are, and have been, many more. Some were blind alleys (to excuse the pun).

Others led to extraordinary adaptations. You might have thought that jellyfish were not well endowed with eyes but the fearsome box jellyfish has no fewer than 24, of four different types. Besides simple pit eyes and more sophisticated slit eyes they have two sorts of camera eyes, all of which may help the jellyfish discern the shade of the mangrove plants, below which they find little crustaceans to eat.

So it is that eyes are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, despite the myriad paths along which different animals have evolved. One can only marvel at the power of natural selection for eyes.

Forest & Bird

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community

conservation

Ashburton dryland comes to life A treasure trove of dryland plants inland from Ashburton is expanding. A grid of gravel roads running through farmland leads to the 11-hectare Harris Scientific Reserve, near Tinwald. Here, a block of mature kānuka stands in the flat landscape, a rare reminder of the dry shrublands that once covered 200,000ha of the Canterbury Plains.

Forest & Bird’s Ashburton branch administers the reserve through the Ashburton Community Conservation Trust, which the branch established in 2006. Eighteen years earlier farmers Arthur and Shirley Harris covenanted the block, including the strip of mature kānuka interspersed with old-man matagouri and plants unique to the area.

Ashburton branch chair Edith Smith says the reserve is now half-filled with plants sourced in the plains area of the Ashburton district. Last month 60 volunteers planted 1000 seedlings in a day. These included kānuka, grown in the Ashburton District Council nursery from seed from the protected trees, and kōwhai, sourced from a nearby terrace of the Rakaia River.

Environment Canterbury’s Ashburton Water Management Zone Committee covered costs of propagating and growing the kōwhai in the Forest & Bird nursery, with a $5320 grant from its Immediate Steps fund.

The reserve is named after Arthur and Shirley Harris, who bought the farm in 1962, fencing off 2ha of kānuka to provide shelter for stock, then protected the area with a QEII conservation covenant in 1988. The Ashburton District Council bought the Harris farm then handed management of the reserve to the Ashburton Community Conservation Trust.

Christchurch botanist Brian Molloy surveyed the site in 1969, confirming that this is a rare remnant of kānukadominated dry shrubland that once covered gravelly, drought-prone Lismore and Chertsey soils in midCanterbury. Such ecological museum pieces remain under threat from farm irrigation and fertiliser application as well

as stock, fire and pests such as rabbits, hares and possums.

Shirley says her husband spent many happy hours watering, releasing trees from weeds with a knapsack sprayer and helping out at planting days. He died in April, aged 87, never fully recovering from an accident when driving home with a trailer-load of plants for the reserve.

She says close to 100 per cent of seedlings planted at the reserve survive, despite this being a dry and infertile site. This is due to regular watering during the plants’ first summer, a job made easier when the reserve attracted extra funding as a Living Legends project celebrating New Zealand’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The money was spent on three water tanks, a pump and hoses as well as planting days and weed management.

This year the trust was pleased to learn that Living Legends would extend its support for another three years.

A part-time caretaker is being employed for the first time to organise volunteers and ensure plants are watered and weeds removed.

Brian Molloy stays in touch with progress at the Harris Reserve and is impressed at what has been achieved. “It’s a good example of what a community group can do if the land is protected, with support from a district council,” he says. n Penny Wardle

2

1 Ashburton Forest & Bird members Val

Clemens, left, and Edith Smith enjoy the shade of protected kānuka in the Harris Scientific Reserve.

2 Mary Ralston of Methven, left, and

Joyce Giller of Ashburton place seedlings ready for planting, helped by landscaping contractor Doug Lowry.

3 The late Arthur Harris had a passion for

conservation on the dryland reserve on land where he once farmed.

1

44

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3

Environment Canterbury funding for projects Ashburton branch chair Edith Smith encourages people with projects restoring native vegetation and waterways to consider applying to the Environment Canterbury Immediate Steps fund, which this year supported planting at the Harris Scientific Reserve.

Environment Canterbury biodiversity team leader Jo Abbott says about $2.6 million is available in the Immediate Steps fund, shared across 10 Canterbury Water Management Strategy zones plus a regional committee dedicated to important water issues. So far $3.6 million has been allocated across 213 projects, towards 77.1 hectares of plantings and fencing to protect 945ha.

Funding help is also available through the Canterbury Biodiversity Fund, which prioritises projects with existing high values such as native bush and braided rivers, Jo says. The Honda TreeFund, which operates around New Zealand, has a community focus.

More information: ecan.govt.nz/biodiversity or contact the Environment Canterbury biodiversity team at 0800 3254 636

1

2 1 Bushy Park Sanctuary’s population of tīeke, or saddlebacks,

has grown to the point where 40 were transferred to Rotokare Scenic Reserve in Taranaki. Photo: davidhallett.co.nz

2 Rātānui, the massive rātā at Bushy Park. Photo: Aalbert

Rebergen

Tīeke spread their wings The newly named Kunzea serotina in flower. Photo: Kelly Clemens

New names for kānuka Kānuka protected in the Harris Scientific Reserve were this year identified as Kunzea serotina, a newly recognised species.

Department of Conservation botanist Peter de Lange published 15 years of research in August showing there are 10 species of kānuka.

Pre-European Māori and missionary botanist William Colenso separately described several of these. Then in 1983 kānuka – then all known as Kunzea ericoides – and the mānuka Leptospermum sinclairii were merged with three Australian species in the Kunzea genus.

Kunzea serotina are also found on the volcanic plateau in the central North Island, on terrace land between Wānaka and Cromwell in Central Otago and in North Canterbury.

Bushy Park Sanctuary, north of Whanganui, reached a milestone in May when 40 tīeke, or saddlebacks, from Bushy Park were released into Rotokare Scenic Reserve in Taranaki.

A team from Rotokare, headed by Kevin Parker, set up capture facilities, including a small aviary inside an existing one, at Bushy Park. Twenty each of male and female tīeke were then moved to Rotokare, near Eltham.

On May 31, 250 people watched the release of the birds at Rotokare. The Bushy Park birds joined 20 others that had arrived from Little Barrier Island/Hauturu a week earlier.

In 2006, 40 tīeke were introduced to Bushy Park, which is a 100-hectare sanctuary of native forest that was gifted to Forest & Bird in 1962 and is managed on behalf of the people of Whanganui by the Bushy Park Trust. A predatorproof fence was completed in 2005.

Bushy Park Trust chairperson Liz Tennet says the sanctuary’s environment is so benign that the numbers of tīeke quickly grew to more than 300. The tīeke release at Rotokare is thought to be the first time that a mainland sanctuary has had a source population of birds to transfer.

“Reports indicate that the Bushy Park birds have settled well into their new home,” she says.

Forest & Bird

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community

conservation

1

Visitor from the deep south When Lyn and Kevin Robinson surveyed the storm damage from the window of their Whitianga home they were surprised to see a very large bird sitting in their backyard.

“At first we didn’t know what it was,” says Lyn. “Our dog started sniffing it. It opened its beak, which was quite noisy, and the dog ran away. The bird was very calm.”

The Robinsons put the bird in a sack and took it to bird rescue volunteer Annemieke Kregting, in nearby Kuaotunu.

Annemieke cared for the grey-headed mollymawk, which was exhausted after getting caught in the June storm, and waited to learn from the Department of Conservation (DOC) about any information the band on its leg could reveal.

The grey-headed mollymawk is a species of albatross that feeds in the Southern Ocean and is rarely seen near New Zealand’s mainland, according to New Zealand Birds Online. The birds live a solitary life at sea, feeding mainly on squid, and the global IUCN Red List ranks the species as globally endangered. In New Zealand it breeds only on sub-Antarctic Campbell Island and they also breed on several other islands in the Southern Ocean.

DOC marine biodiversity ranger Hayden Smith quickly received an answer about the mollymawk’s history. Its band was Australian, and Australia’s Department of the Environment revealed that it had been banded on subAntarctic Macquarie Island on March 1 this year when it was just a chick. Hayden even received a photo of the fluffy youngster on its cliff-top nest on the wind-battered island, which is an Australian territory halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica.

“It’s pretty awesome that a bird which is likely less than six months’ old is already 2500 kilometres-plus – in 46

| Forest & Bird

a straight line – from where it was banded on Macquarie Island,” Hayden says.

The grey-headed mollymawk quickly recovered from the storm and was released at Rings Beach, near Matarangi, where it headed away for its next adventure.

2 1 DOC marine biodiversity

ranger Hayden Smith with the mollymawk at the release site on the Coromandel Peninsula.

2 Grey-headed mollymawks

live a solitary life at sea, feeding mainly on squid.

3 The grey-headed mollymawk

3

on its nest on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.

West Coast pest mission Forest & Bird’s West Coast branch has received a threeyear, $40,000 Community Conservation Partnership Fund grant for pest control in its Rainy Creek Ecological Restoration Programme.

Rainy Creek’s 1100 hectares of mixed beech/podocarp forest is on public conservation land six kilometres southeast of Reefton, on the true left side of the Īnangahua River.

Red and hard beech, kāmahi and rimu forest are common on the lower slopes, and mountain beech, southern rātā, kāmahi and rimu are on the rounded hilltops. There is also mistletoe – now quite rare in most forests.

It is home to birds including mōhua (yellowheads), kākā, kākāriki, toutouwai (South Island robins), ruru and miromiro (tomtits). Long-tailed bats are also expected to be in the area.

An urgent start to the pest control was needed this winter to combat the pest population explosions expected after the beech mast of last summer. The project will focus on the lower Rainy Creek catchment. In the first year, 100 DOC 200 traps will target stoats and rats, with 100 bait stations for rats.

One hundred possum traps will be added later.

Rainy Creek has previously had predator control, with good results for bird numbers and forest health. The area had one of the most recent sightings, in 2007, of the previously thought extinct South Island kōkako.

The West Coast branch invites people from the Reefton area or Greymouth to help with the project. Branch chair Kathy Gilbert says the Reefton community depends on the mining industry, which tends to wax and wane depending on economic conditions.

“We feel that this project could increase the community sense of well-being by involving them in an ongoing predator control operation, particularly on the strength of the South Island kōkako sighting in this area,” she says. “Here’s an additional focus of interest for this West Coast town.”

Contact Kathy Gilbert at westcoast.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

2

1 1 John Caygill with a trap at Rainy Creek. Photo Gerald

Freeman

2 Forest & Bird’s West Coast branch is protecting Rainy

Creek’s forest from predators. Photo: Kevin Dash

3 Toutouwai (South Island robins) are found in Rainy Creek’s

forest. Photo: Kevin Dash

3 Forest & Bird

| 47

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Forest & Bird

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1

Wild Dunedin: The natural history of New Zealand’s wildlife capital

Tuatara: Biology and conservation of a venerable survivor

By Neville Peat and Brian Patrick Otago University Press, $40 Reviewed by Tiff Stewart

By Alison Cree Canterbury University Press, $89.99 Reviewed by Ann Graeme

Wild Dunedin is not to be mistaken for a guide book. It is much richer, more in-depth and broader in scope. But be warned: you will begin to itch to go and see some of the animals, plants and places described.

Wild Dunedin achieves an excellent balance. Its wealth of information is well set-out, coherent, comprehensive and enjoyable to read.

Photos and illustrations are plentiful. The pages are also dotted with small, delicious facts, for example, the common tunnelweb spider, Porrhothele antipodiana, was the first New Zealand spider to be scientifically named.

The best feature is that the chapters are logically titled and self-contained. This makes it very easy to reread a chapter before heading out to visit a particular area. And rereading is exactly what I will be doing.

My interest has been piqued, and I’ll be visiting a few new parts of Dunedin this summer, armed with a deeper appreciation for the special landscapes, plants and animals that I might find.

I have to admit that I used to think of tuatara as living fossils, like sleeping dragons marooned in a time capsule from the Mesozoic. But that is just not true, says Dr Alison Cree, author of this definitive book about these iconic reptiles.

The tuatara is indeed the last surviving species of its group – but it is not a dim-witted relic. It is a modern species, conservative in some ways, specialised in others, and was well adapted to living throughout mainland New Zealand as well as on offshore islands – until people arrived. Māori, the first settlers, brought with them kiore, the Pacific rats, and they spelt the beginning of the end for most tuatara.

This is an in-depth, comprehensive and scholarly work, but it is very readable and full of fascinating anecdotes, including: “In the 1890s a pet tuatara, which had the run of the Invercargill Athenaeum, was befriended by the cleaning lady who made a point of dusting it off each morning, along with the furniture.”

Anyone interested in New Zealand’s natural history will enjoy dipping into this book and it is a must for biologists, students, zoo keepers and conservation managers.

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| Forest & Bird

Our Big Blue Backyard: New Zealand’s oceans and marine reserves

North New Zealand: A natural history of the upper North Island

By Janet Hunt Random House, $55 Reviewed by Kirstie Knowles

By Peter Hadden Wairau Press, $69.95 (for sale online) Reviewed by Al Fleming

In this exciting new book, award-winning author Janet Hunt takes the reader on a wonderful adventure through New Zealand’s unique underwater world. Drawing on the expertise of some of our nation’s greatest marine gurus, Our Big Blue Backyard explores the diverse marine ecosystems and the species that inhabit them through our best marine conservation tool – marine reserves.

Marine reserves are areas where, quite simply, we do nothing. We let the inhabitants do whatever they need to do and establish themselves as nature intended.

The book is easy to read and packed with stunning images, covering the history and uniqueness of New Zealand’s marine reserves and their residents from the far north to the deep south and offshore islands.

Included are the tales of marine legends Bill Ballantine, Wade Doak and Roger Grace, alongside the next generation of advocates and educators – leading underwater filmmakers, the Experiencing Marine Reserves team and numerous community groups dedicated to the protection and enhancement of their special marine areas. Not surprisingly, Forest & Bird features quite regularly.

What makes this book doubly exciting is that it accompanies a television series of the same name to be screened later this year. This book will no doubt appeal to a wide audience and, I hope, instil a deep passion for the care and conservation of our special big blue backyard.

Peter Hadden begins his book by digging into our northern region’s geological roots and zones, climatic processes and weather. The region’s native plants and animals – from the dinosaur era to today – follow, with chapters on forests, terrestrial wildlife, the freshwater environment and our coasts.

Hadden is not a scientist of natural history but he’s done his research and as a tramper he’s got to know the area well. His language is perfect for the lay reader, and this work complements other more expert books on New Zealand’s natural history. The book uses great photos and graphics to support the narrative.

It’s the perfect guide for travellers and residents in the northern North Island to dip into to gain a better understanding of the natural features and the wild animals and plants they encounter.

2

The Naturalist

By Thom Conroy Vintage, $37.99 Reviewed by Claire Browning At its best evoking the last days of old New Zealand, The Naturalist is Ernst Dieffenbach’s story: a man who lost his heart to New Zealand, who found his spiritual home but wasn’t ever able to return.

By its end I was glad to have read this book, although sometimes it was dull and plodding travel along the way and its end will break your heart. “You are aware of the urgency to protect the natural wonders of this country ... Each year the whaling hunt brings in less oil, the fisheries provide a smaller catch, and with every passing day another forest is felled,” says Dieffenbach, begging to be allowed to return to make a botanical garden, seeing that the colonial momentum was unstoppable.

With distance and hindsight, there’s a clearer view. The naming of the Tory Channel (“From this day forward, all places in this country shall have two names” ... “too many names ...

Kererū is only kererū.”). Teaching the Māori to write (“With stones my people make marks on everything: the doors, the sand, the trees ... I tell them, Stop! You are defacing it all!”).

The slaughter, by shotgun, of huia who come to a tohunga’s call (the naturalist “filled two specimen bags with huia carcasses, and his spirits were high”).

In Dieffenbach the author paints a picture of a man who wanted his name on the map, dealt an unfairer hand by life than he deserved. Lines that can only be guessed at sometimes seem sketched in with an over-romantic, idealised hand, but author Thom Conroy is right: Dieffenbach’s story should be remembered and told.

1 Sutton Salt Lake in Central Otago. Photo: Neville Peat, from

Wild Dunedin.

2 The submarine walls of the Poor Knights Islands are

vibrant with the colour of encrusting sponges, anemones, nudibranchs, seaweeds and kelp. Photo: Ian Skipworth, from Our Big Blue Backyard.

Forest & Bird

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2014 Index A

AGM, Aug 34 Albatrosses, Nov 18, 46 Antipodean wandering albatross, Nov 16 Ark in the Park, Feb 59, May 50, Aug 17 Art auction, Feb 16 Arthur, Kristina, Feb 34 Ashburton branch, Feb 61, Aug 47, Nov 44 Auckland Unitary Plan, May 9, Aug 14, Nov 2

B

Backyard conservation, Aug 26 Baird, Karen, Nov 16 Ballantine, Bill, May 14 Banks Peninsula, Feb 62 Bannister, Eddie, Feb 35 Barry, Maggie, Nov 15 Battle for our Birds, Nov 6 Bats, Feb 42, May 34, 46 Beech mast, Feb 10, May 17, Nov 6 Bequests, Feb 18 Bellingham, Mark, Feb 37 Beveridge, Nick, Nov 36 Bird of the Year, Feb 17 BirdLife International, Nov 21 Black petrel, Aug 23, Nov 21 Board, Aug 2 Bryde’s whale, Aug 20 Buchanan, Peter, Feb 46, Aug 49 Bushy Park, Nov 45 Butterflies, May 44 By-catch, Nov 16

C

Canterbury water, Aug 14 Carson, Andrea, Aug 36 Carter, Anna, Aug 53 Catlins, Feb 59, Aug 42 Chadwick, Chris, May 53 Challies, Chris, Feb 62 Chatham Islands, May 28 Chatham Rise mining, Nov 8 Chatham tāiko, Nov 8 Chesterfield, Robin, Aug 33 Climate change, Feb 30, May 39, Aug 7, 40, Nov 16, 38 Climate Voter, Aug 7, Nov 10 Clive River, Feb 26 Connolly, Brooke, Feb 50 Conservation Minister, Nov 15 Constantine, Rochelle, Aug 20 Constitution, Aug 34 Cooper, Vaughan, Feb 22 Cunninghame, Francesca, Feb 38 Cutler, Andrew, Nov 15

D

Dactylanthus, May 46 Dench, Ian, Nov 53 Denniston Plateau, Feb 28, May 10, Aug 10 Department of Conservation, Aug 13 Dunnett, Barry, Nov 16

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| Forest & Bird

E

EEZ, Feb 12, Aug 22 Election, May 26, Aug 7, insert, 48, Nov 10 Elliott, Graeme, Nov 16 Executive, Feb 12 Eyes, Nov 42

F

Facebook, Aug 19 Fibonacci numbers, Feb 56 Fiji intern, May 33 Finnie, Max, Nov 33 Fleming, Al, Feb 37 Fundraising, Aug 38 Fungi, Feb 46, Aug 49 Forest & Bird history, Feb 60, Nov 28 Forest & Bird structure, Nov 34 Fracking, Aug 10 Freshwater fish, Nov 12, 35 Freshwater quality standards, Aug 12

G

Galaxiids, Nov 12 Gannet, May 46 Garden Bird Survey, May 16, 36 Gibson’s wandering albatross, Nov 16 Gilbert, Kathy, Nov 47 Goddard, Katrina, Aug 22, Nov 17 Godwit, Feb 68 Graeme, Kate, Aug 35 Great Barrier Island (Aotea), Feb 40, Aug 16 Grey-headed mollymawk, Nov 46

H

Haast’s buttercup, Nov 53 Hackwell, Kevin, May 20, 39, Aug 13, 28, 40, Nov 6, 7, 16, 38 Harris Scientific Reserve, Nov 44 Hastings/Havelock North branch, May 46, Aug 49 Hauraki Gulf, Aug 20, Nov 17, 21, 28 Herrick, Mandy, Nov 34 Hoiho, Aug 46 Honda, May 31, Aug 31, Nov 36 Hurring, Nik, Aug 33 Hurunui River, Feb 19

I

Important Bird Areas, Nov 21 Island pest eradication, Nov 28

J

Johnston, Peter, Feb 46

K

Kākābeak, Feb 16 Kaikōura branch, Nov 16 Kākāpō, May 13 Kānuka, Nov 44 Kārearea, Nov 25 Kererū, Nov 10 King, Stephen, May 23 Kiwi Camping, Feb 45, Aug 31 Kiwi Conservation Club, Feb 38, 45, 62, May 32, 35, Aug 15, 31, 37, 49, Nov 26, 35 Kōkako, Feb 10, May 20, Nov 40

L

Lamont, Don, Feb 35 Lamprey, May 41 Lancewood, Aug 27 Land and Water Forum, May 40, Aug 12 Lenz Reserve, Aug 42 Lichens, Aug 44

M

Mackenzie Country, Feb 17, Aug 14 Maria Island, Nov 28 Marine protection, Feb 12, May 14, Aug 22, Nov 16 Martin, Debs, Feb 28, May 10, 34 Maturin, Sue, May 28, Aug 16 Māui’s dolphin, Feb 15 McCready, Steve, May 33 McDonald, Wilma and Ian, Aug 32 McGregor, Hōne, Feb 36, Nov 36 McQueen, Stella, Nov 35 Medway, David, Feb 35 Menzies, Pat, Aug 36 Mōhua, Feb 17 Monorail, Aug 16 Morrison, Kyle, Nov 32 Muir, James, Aug 37

N

Napier branch, May 46 Nelson-Tasman branch, Aug 46, 47 New Zealand fairy tern, Feb 7 Ngaruroro River, Feb 22 Nina Valley EcoBlitz, May 49 Ninetieth anniversary Forest & Bird, Feb 60 Noble, Ian, Aug 32 Norfolk Island green parrot, Nov 13 North Canterbury branch, May 50 North Taranaki branch, May 48

O

Oil exploration, Feb 30, May 24, Aug 8 O’Neale, Matt, Feb 34 On the Block campaign, Aug 8 Otago native freshwater fish, Nov 12 Otago native plants, May 7 Otago Water Plan, Feb 19 Otamatuna, Nov 40

P

Paris, Ben, Feb 42 Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, May 22, Aug 34 Pāteke, Aug 46 Penguins, Nov 32 Pest control, May 17, Aug 35, Nov 6, 28 Pierce, Simon, May 35 Pīwakawaka, May 16, Potton, Craig, Aug 35 Pureora Forest Park, May 21

Q

Queenstown-Lakes District Council, May 7 Quigley, Mel, Nov 26

R

Rainy Creek, Nov 47 Rats, Nov 28 Ravenscroft, Pete, Nov 12 Resource Management Act, May 12 Rena oil spill, Feb 19 Rewilding, Feb 52 Ruataniwha irrigation, Feb 9, May 8, Aug 14 Ruru, May 53 Russ, Rodney, May 18 Russell, James, Nov 28

S

Sandflies, Feb 45 Seabed mining, Nov 8 Seabird of the Year, Nov 24 Seabirds, May 28, Nov 16 Shark finning, Feb 14, May 19 Smith, Roger, Feb 68 Smith, Vikki, Nov 14 Snoep, Rob, May 33 Snowdon Forest, Aug 16 Southern rockhopper penguin, Nov 32 South Island kōkako, Feb 10 South Otago branch, Aug 35, 42 Spiders, Nov 14 Stewardship land, May 20 Stewart, Tiff, Feb 36 Strategic planning, Nov 15 Sub-Antarctic Islands, May 18, Nov 32 Sutherland, Fergus, Aug 46

T

Taupo branch, May 46 Tautuku Forest Cabins, Aug 42 Te Rere Reserve, Aug 46 Te Urewera, Nov 40 Thompson, Isobel, Aug 36 Thompson, Trevor, Aug 35 Tīeke, Nov 45 Trapdoor spider, Nov 14 Tuatara, Aug 53 Tūī, May 16

U

Ulva Island, May 42 Upper Hutt branch, Feb 61

V

Valu, Mere, May 33

W

Waikato branch, Aug 17 Wairarapa branch, Feb 61 Waitaki branch, May 47 Walker, Kath, Nov 16 Wards, Barry, Aug 35 Water storage dams, May 39 West Coast branch, Nov 47 West Coast wind-blown forest, Aug 28, Nov 7 Wētā, May 48 Whio, Feb 27, Aug 17 White-flippered penguin, Feb 62 White-fronted tern, Feb 58 White tern, Feb 50 Wilson, Hugh, Aug 33 Wright, Colin, Nov 33

Parting shot A

flash of yellow caught Ian Dench’s eye when he was tramping on Mt Brewster, near Haast Pass. Ian, who lives in Wānaka, photographed the Haast’s buttercup, or Ranunculus haastii, during a two-day tramp in the area.

“On the way up to Mt Brewster I saw this magnificent ranunculus.

There were lots of goats and tahr in the area but higher up the vegetation has a better chance,” he said.

Ian, who is a keen photographer of native plants, butterflies and grasshoppers, used a Canon Powershot SX30 camera.

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 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 Jay Harkness at j.harkness@forestandbird.org.nz Winners will be asked for higher-resolution files.

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