Forest & Bird Magazine 360 Winter 2016

ISSUE 360 • WINTER 2016 www.forestandbird.org.nz

DEFENDING NATURE

PLUS

Tawaki tales

Chasing giants

How we saved a forest

Te Reo o te Taiao

ISSUE 360

• Winter 2016

Te Reo o te Taiao

www.forestandbird.org.nz STAY IN TOUCH Forest & Bird National Office Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington.

PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Tel: (04) 385-7374 FREEPHONE 0800 200 064 EMAIL office@forestandbird.org.nz

Contents

CONTACT A STAFF MEMBER See www.forestandbird. org.nz/our-people for a full list of staff members and their contact details.

6 From

CONTACT A BRANCH See http://www.forestandbird.org. nz/branches for a full list of Forest & Bird branches and their contact details.

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ ForestandBird Watch us on YouTube www.youtube.com/ forestandbird Follow us on Twitter @Forest_and_Bird

2 Editorial 4 Letters

the Chief Executive

Conservation news 8 Sustainable dairying, Best Fish Guide, penguin rescue, KCC membership, fundraising cruise, garden bird survey 10 Wairarapa dam plan, dodgy carbon credits, scholarship winner, health and safety, Kermadec sanctuary, fantastic Forest & Bird Flickr group

Cover story 12 Defending nature 14 Vote Conservation, Freshwater for Life

Forest collapse 16 How we saved a forest

Our projects 30 North-West Wildlink relaunch

Young conservationist 32 Sir Peter Blake Auckland Islands expedition

Community conservation 35 Hall’s Arboretum, Thames

Conservation in the city 36 Ode to nature

Predator-free New Zealand 38 ZIP project, Marlborough Sounds

In the field 40 Fabulous feathers

Our partners 44 Native plant heroes

Citizen Science

JOIN FOREST & BIRD

Climate disruption

Call 0800 200 064 or email membership@forestandbird.org.nz or go to www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus

18 Forest & Bird’s climate roadshow

45 10th annual Garden Bird Survey 46 Garden Bird Survey 2016 form

Amazing facts

Going places

Forest & Bird would like to thank Honda New Zealand for its ongoing support

19 Kea in winter

Conservation in history 20 Forest & Bird’s 360th issue

Battle for our birds

48 Tramping Te Araroa 52 Book reviews

Parting shot IBC Black-fronted terns with skink

22 Time for DOC to rethink 26 EDITOR

Caroline Wood MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS

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

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

Printlink FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

Seabirds 24 Tawaki tales 43 Chatham Island albatross

Biodiversity 26 Chasing giants: springtails 50 Bioblitz moth controversy

Our people

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

28 The Rob Fenwick interview 42 Tom Hay obituary, new faces at Forest & Bird

Membership & circulation enquiries T 0800 200 064 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

COVER SHOT Kōtuku/white heron at Tomahawk Lagoon, which is located at the western end of the Otago Peninsula and within the city limits of Dunedin. Image courtesy of Craig McKenzie, see www.flickr.com/photos/craigmckenzie/ for more of his wonderful images.

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Editorial

ANDREW CUTLER

Tackling the big issues

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923)

How to succeed in a changing world? That was the question discussed at a recent meeting of community conservation groups from across New Zealand.

It’s a tough question to answer simply or easily. Some “successes” can be easily measured or planned for: dollars raised, trees planted, pests killed, hours worked.

Other things are harder: the health of a patch of bush or area of ocean, or the resilience of a species.

The hardest areas to measure are big issues such as mitigating and then reversing climate change, or reducing then eliminating the pollution of freshwater in our lakes and rivers, estuaries and wetlands.

For very good reasons, community conservation groups tend to focus on smaller, achievable successes. They’re easy to start and maintain, they can achieve rapid and tangible results and they don’t offend anyone.

Numbers vary, but by some counts there are now several thousand community conservation groups restoring rivers, planting trees and trapping pests. There are a smaller number of medium-sized organisations building fenced sanctuaries, protecting species and undertaking region-wide conservation plans.

But we should ask some hard questions about this type of success. For example, how sustainable are these projects when faced with sea level and temperature rises that threaten coastlines, increase drought and flood threats, and increase the likelihood pests and weeds will spread and breed more prolifically?

An unscientific survey of the websites of the organisations at the meeting revealed that few reference or discuss the big issues of climate change, freshwater pollution, agricultural intensification or the use of toxins to control pests.

Why these subjects are off-limits is hard to say – not wishing to appear “political”, difficulty raising funds from government or local agencies, or just a wish to focus on the local and the positive. Whatever the reason, we need this “see no evil” attitude to change. For conservation to be successful, we need to link the work of local groups to the big conservation issues of our time.

Members of Forest & Bird are already doing their bit on the big issues. Our climate response campaign will roll out in local branches and regions in coming months. Many thousands of you have also written and made submissions on the big issues of freshwater standards and marine protection.

Solving these issues will take many years, but by confronting the challenges of a changing world and taking action large and small we’re all making our contribution.

Registered Office at Level 1, 90 Ghuznee Street, Wellington.

PATRON

His Excellency Lieutenant General the Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae, Governor-General of New Zealand CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Hōne McGregor PRESIDENT

Andrew Cutler TREASURER

Graham Bellamy BOARD MEMBERS

Brent Barrett, Lindsey Britton, Tony Dunlop, Karen Field, Kate Graeme, Mark Hanger, Marc Slade CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS

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

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, Fraser Ross, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, David Underwood

Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005.

Registration No CC26943.

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

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President Perehitini, Te Reo o te Taiao Andrew with Old Blue Winner Craig McKenzie at last year's conference.

Annual General Meeting Forest & Bird’s 93rd Annual General Meeting and conference takes place in Wellington at the end of June. Join us for two days of talks and workshops about climate change, engaging youth in conservation and other topical issues. There’s still time to register to come along to all, or some, of the events. *The conference and AGM will run over the weekend of June 25–27 at the CQ Hotel, Cuba Street, Wellington. See the full programme at www.forestandbird.org.nz/agm.

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

Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine.

ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright.

All rights reserved.

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

The best contribution to the Letters page of the next issue will win Seabirds of the World by renowned wildlife photographer David Tipling (New Holland), RRP $45. He captures the rarely seen world of oceanic birds in all its glory from Antarctica to the Arctic.

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

Four climate solutions

Climate change nonsense

The climate problem cannot be solved without:

I do get tired of reading garbage about climate change.

Climate change targets are based on a completely false premise that climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Climate change is a natural function, predominately influenced by the sun. The projections of rising temperatures are based on computer models that are manipulated to give the results required by the IPCC, ie that climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Climate change is a natural phenomenon, and the approach of Forest & Bird should be to offer evidence that this is the case rather than publish nonsense gleaned from politicians and the mainstream media. Although El Niño may be giving higher temperatures over the current summer, prior to this there had been no warming for over 18 years.

1. Reducing human population. The easiest way to lower fertility is to educate and empower women. There should be generous incentives to start a small family not earlier than a mother’s 25th birthday. Ecological economists have shown that the maximum human population that Earth can sustain in a state of wellbeing is between 1 and 2 billion.

2. Changing the current fractional reserve monetary system to state-created debt-free money. The present debt-based system collapses without economic growth and is inherently unstable. The number of economists who recognise this is growing, but neoclassical economics still rules the roost. Continuing economic growth generates increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Developing sustainable technology to (a) produce and shape metals and produce cement, (b) harness solar, (c) create tidal and wave energy, (d) devise economic methods of extracting biofuel from microalgae and other plants.

4. Forming powerful association(s) of trading nations committed to moving towards zero or negative net carbon emissions. Such international treaty partners will adhere to their standards without fear of punishment from nations outside the treaty group. This contrasts with likely TPPA suits opposing Earth-friendly initiatives.

Allen Cookson, Canterbury

Meat ban off menu I would like to respond to the letter by Emily Hunter (Meatfree Mondays, Autumn issue). Yes, it is true that ruminants emit a lot of greenhouse gases, but many people do not realise that pasture-fed stock (most beef cattle and sheep in New Zealand) are eating grass that has used carbon dioxide to grow. Much of our information on agricultural emissions comes from American data, where the majority of animals are raised in feed lots, eating soy and grain and other annual crops that have been grown with a huge amount of fossil fuels. In New Zealand, the case is completely different: long-term pastures sequester carbon in the soil, in the same way as trees. Sustainable agriculture is part of the solution not part of the problem. And, if you’re not eating meat, think about how much fossil fuel is used to grow the grains and pulses you eat. They are annual crops requiring soil cultivation each year (resulting in considerable CO2 loss). Then there’s the huge emissions of methane that come from rice paddies.

Mary Ralston, Rakaia 4

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Nigel R Sutton, Havelock North

Flat earth solutions no fix I was amazed at the naivety of (Dr) Allan Brown’s letter expounding the attributes of nuclear power. Has he not heard of Chernobyl? Perhaps he has been too busy swotting up on the merits of a Flat Earth!

Admittedly a New Zealand Chernobyl would do wonders to stem the Auckland property prices and allow perfect breeding opportunities for the three-headed Russian stoat.

Yours in disbelief Steve Turpin, Palmerston North

Sea spider specimens The item Sea Spider Hunt in the Autumn 2016 Forest & Bird magazine caught my eye. During marine surveys in the Hauraki Gulf over the last 20 years by Dr Bruce Hayward and myself, we have found single specimens of Desis marina living intertidally at 17 beaches, including the Tamaki Estuary, Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Waiheke, Tiri Tiri Matangi, Great Barrier Islands and Coromandel Peninsula. They were also recorded from three beaches on the Manukau Harbour.

As well as crevices under rock, they favour homes deep in oyster clumps at the apex of dead shells. Sometimes the air pocket is augmented by bubbles carried down through the water on the spider’s legs. During low tide, the spider emerges to hunt sand hoppers and even fish. So this spider is not rare, just rarely found!

Margaret Morley, Auckland

Moa bone worries Your article about moa bones being taken and sold in the most recent magazine (Autumn 2016) was very good.

Thank you for pointing out this growing problem. My partner and I are cavers and occasionally guide film crews into caves to make documentaries about New Zealand’s natural and geological history. Recently we guided a German film crew. They had made a plaster moa bone so that they could hold it in the filming and get a close up view without touching or damaging any real ones in the cave. They were incredibly conscientious about it and careful when in the cave. However, their fake bone did not look very much like the real ones so as a joke we got our smartphones out and went on Trade Me expecting that we wouldn’t find anything. To our surprise and horror, there were moa bones for sale! I wouldn’t have imagined it before seeing that. In the end, they used CGI techniques in their studio back home to bring a moa to life for their viewers and no bones were touched. Shortly after that experience, your article came out, which was very timely for us and great to bring the issue into the light for others who wouldn’t imagine such a thing.

Lauren Kelley, Christchurch Best letter winner

Waiheke win Regarding your Waiheke Win article (Autumn 2016). As an octogenarian and with Winston Peters’ gold card in my hand, I took the ferry recently to Waiheke to renew a visit I made with my family about 10 years ago. To walk from the ferry up the hill to Oneroa (some 1km distance) was a sheer delight.

Since my last visit, the bare hills were transformed into a glade of blossoming native bush. No doubt Forest & Bird was responsible for this transformation, which is now shared by all the hundreds who take the ferry to Waiheke.

Your work in the national interest cannot be overemphasised.

Duncan Bamfield, Auckland

93 years ago

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Ultimate Wildlife Destinations

by Samantha Wilson (New Holland), RRP $34.99.

To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz. Please put Ultimate Wildlife Destinations 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 Ultimate Wildlife Destinations draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 August.

The winners of the Fish Poster draw were Andrew Laidlaw of Masterton and D&V Podmore of Picton. The winners of the Vanishing Nature prize draw were Phil Murray of Clyde, Judith Beirne of Wellington and Rosaleen McCarthy of Parkhurst. Your prizes have been sent.

WIN

A $99 JEWELLERY VOUCHER

Stone Arrow Jewellery is a small business located next to Abel Tasman National Park. Nick Feint’s designs are inspired by nature. He uses recycled sterling silver, copper and glass, and his business has won a sustainability award.

Nick is offering a $99 voucher for THREE lucky readers. To be in to win, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org.nz. Please put Stone Arrow 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 Stone Arrow draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on 1 August.

For every order received during the next three months, Nick will donate 20 percent of the value to our work. See www.stonearrow.co.nz, and use the code “forestandbird” at checkout.

Welcome to our 360th issue Forest & Bird’s journal is New Zealand’s longest-running conservation magazine, having been published continuously since 1923. We decided to celebrate our 360th issue by going back to the beginning and finding out why our founder Captain Val Sanderson set up and edited the society’s first magazine, (see p22/23).

The first magazine we have in our archives is pictured here. Bulletin 6 was published in 1924 and was called Birds. In 1933, the journal changed its name to Forest & Bird.

The first five numbers of Birds were issued as printed letters or cyclostyled sheets. We don’t have them in our library collection but we’d love to track them down.

Please contact editor@forestandbird.org.nz if you have any information that could help us find them.

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From the Chief Executive HŌNE MCGREGOR

Kaiwhakahaere Matua Te Reo o te Taiao

Creating a better future Reaching the 360th issue of Forest & Bird magazine is evidence of the enduring power of conservation as an idea and of the emotional pull of nature in our lives.

Some of the issues our predecessors faced in the 1920s are still depressingly familiar – for example, the impact of predators and habitat loss.

Problems such as climate disruption have become familiar to us much more recently, but the connection people have with nature has been a constant since the magazine’s first issue in 1924. Those early members were advocates for nature, as are our 70,000 members and supporters today.

One of the most important looming threats to nature today is climate change. Last year, we joined other organisations in the People’s Climate March in November.

Our voices were among more than 30,000 who demanded the Government set a bold target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We will continue to work with others to ensure New Zealand plays its part in tackling climate disruption. Our priorities will include ensuring the Emissions Trading Scheme becomes an effective tool for reducing our emissions and the removal of the current subsidies for polluters.

Turning around our rapidly declining freshwater quality is another important priority where Forest & Bird has been working with others. One of the main ways we have been doing this is by taking part in the Land and Water Forum during the last seven years.

Our Campaigns and Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell is a key member and trustee of the forum, which brings together all the stakeholders in freshwater, including iwi, industry, farming, scientists and environmentalists.

It’s been a long process building a consensus. But we still believe it is an important part of our wider work to turn around declining freshwater quality. We don’t want more badly damaged ecosystems, our native fish driven to extinction or more than half of our lowland rivers remaining unsafe for swimming.

Forest & Bird played a big part in getting the government to accept a key indicator for measuring the ecological health of freshwater, and you can find out more in our article on p15. There’s still a long way to go in achieving better freshwater quality throughout New Zealand, but we believe the Land and Water Forum reinforces our other work aimed at achieving that goal.

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

The lodge offers warm, comfortable accommodation and

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

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

a visit. To make a booking, contact Sharon at National

are cafes and restaurants in the village, which is just a

Office and she will be delighted to help. Members receive

10-minute walk. You can find interesting and varied day

subsidised rates. Photo: Bryce McQuillan

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Conservation news

KCC membership drive

OUR KIDS ARE REALLY INSPIRED BY NATURE.

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Our Kiwi Conservation Club has launched an advertising campaign and membership drive. You may already have seen one of the new advertisements or a story in your local paper.

KCC manager Sarah Satterthwaite says the campaign encourages families to link up with their local KCC branch and find out what’s going on in their area.

She said: “We want to increase membership nationally, but we started by targeting specific geographic regions, including Auckland, Tauranga and South Canterbury.

“We wanted to promote the idea of getting kids out into nature and how KCC can help with that. We had editorials in local newspapers where our local KCC coordinator outlined details of their recent events to show some of the activities available. We also ran competitions to give away five free memberships.”

Two new KCC advertisements were created especially for the membership drive and have been published in selected local newspapers.

KCC has more than 30 branches and more than 5,000 individual members. It costs only $24 per year to join, and annual membership includes four issues of Wild Things magazine. See www.kcc.org.nz to join up your child, grandchild or young family friend.

So sign up yours to Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club and give them the opportunity to explore, engage and develop a passion for nature.

Visit kcc.org.nz and join the club.

Sustainable dairying report While it is good to see progress being made by dairy farmers on many environmental issues, a report released in April also highlights how this good work is being let down by large numbers of farmers in some areas, says Forest & Bird.

Some regions continue to have high rates of significant non-compliance in effluent management, and a lack of standard monitoring systems by regional councils casts doubt on the reliability of some of the more positive-looking figures.

“It’s very disappointing after all these years that there are still some parts of the country with high rates of significant non-compliance with their dairy effluent systems,” said Forest & Bird Campaigns and Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell.

“Northland and Auckland are still reporting that one in five farms is significantly non-compliant in their effluent practices.”

The Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord Progress report showed that 21 percent of 963 Northland farms monitored and 19 percent of the 168 monitored Auckland farms were significantly non-compliant. Breaches included inadequate storage facilities, overflowing sumps and untreated effluent being discharged into rivers.

In some regions, a proportion of farmers only were monitored. In Waikato, for example, just 10 percent of dairy farms were monitored and advance notice is given for those farm inspections. A quarter of New Zealand’s dairy farms are in Waikato, where the non-compliance rate was recorded at three percent in the latest survey.

“We suspect the real rate of serious non-compliance in the Waikato is actually a lot higher than the stated figure,” Kevin Hackwell added.

Forest & Bird’s fundraising cruise Real Journeys has chosen to support Forest & Bird and is generously donating a Milford Sound overnight cruise this September to help us raise vital funds.

All proceeds from this journey to one of the most most stunning places on earth will be used to support the work of Kiwi Conservation Club and help us grow the conservation leaders of tomorrow.

Departing from the Milford Sound wharf on 17 September 2016, the cruise style will be relaxed, allowing plenty of time to view the fiord’s spectacular waterfalls, rainforest, mountains and wildlife.

Keep your eyes peeled for seals, dolphins and the quirky tawaki penguins whose chicks will just be starting to hatch.

Tickets are extremely limited for this very special spring cruise so get in quick. Every dollar made through ticket sales will be donated to Forest & Bird.

For more information visit www.forestandbird.org.nz/realjourneys.

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Would you eat the last fish?

You don’t need to – thanks to Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide. The new version of the popular guide is due to be released later this year.

There will be lots of interactive features in the Best Fish Guide 2017, including delicious recipes. Using the free mobile phone app, you will be able to see which fish are the most sustainably caught and given the “green light” to eat. The app will offer alternatives if your fish choice is in the “red” zone. It will link back to the Forest & Bird website, where you can learn more about each species, how it’s fished and any major ecological concerns.

Information in the guide comes from a robust assessment using the best available information that is independently reviewed by marine scientists. The guide assesses marine fisheries, farmed seafood and for the first time it will assess freshwater fish, such as whitebait. It will also look at regional differences in stock levels and fishing methods.

The guide is intended to help direct consumers towards sustainably fished seafood, while encouraging improvements to New Zealand’s fishing practices and returning our oceans to healthy abundance. You can read more about this in our next issue!

Garden Bird Survey New Zealanders are being asked head into their backyards for the 10th annual Garden Bird Survey, which runs from 25 June to 3 July.

New Zealand’s rarer birds, such as kiwi, kākā and kōkako, are monitored by the Department of Conservation, but the annual Garden Bird Survey is a great way to see how more common species’ numbers are trending.

“People can help by counting how many birds they see in their own gardens. The information they collect will act as an early warning system should these species start declining,” said Eric Spurr, who co-ordinates the Garden Bird Survey.

Please take part in this year’s survey and be part of New Zealand’s longest-running citizen science project!

The survey form is on p46.

How many silvereyes will you find in your garden? Photo: Mike Ashbee

Vet Lisa Argilla treats the rescued female penguin. Photo: Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust

Yellow-eyed penguin rescue There was a happy ending for this injured Southland yellow-eyed penguin. She was released back into the wild at Forest & Bird’s Te Rere reserve, near Waikawa, in April, after nearly three months of rehabilitation.

The penguin, who was in a weak and severely wounded condition, was rescued by caretaker Fergus Sutherland and other reserve staff and volunteers.

Surgery was required to repair a wound in the bird’s thigh, probably from a barracouta bite, and skin grafted to allow feathers to grow back on the scar. This work was done by volunteer veterinary surgeon Lisa Argilla in her temporary surgery at Otago Polytechnic. The penguin spent a period of rehabilitation at Penguin Place on the Otago Peninsula, where she was pampered through her crucial moult period.

Fergus Sutherland, of Southland Branch Forest & Bird, described the moments after she was returned to the wild: “She was released near the spot that she had been originally rescued. On leaving her carrying cage, she trotted off and immediately joined another penguin.

During the next few minutes, there were many greeting calls. It can easily be imagined that there was surprise, excitement and much catching up to do.”

The past two years have been particularly bad for yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago and Southland coasts. Their food supply at sea appears to be reduced, and they have suffered and died from barracouta attacks. As a result, they raised few chicks and their overall numbers have dropped until there are now fewer than 1,000 yellow-eyed penguins on the mainland.

Rehabilitation work done by many people involved with penguins has gone some way to reducing their losses. Saving individual birds, especially adult female breeders, has become highly significant for the threatened population of the world’s rarest penguin. *Tawaki tales: find out about New Zealand’s elusive “forest” penguins on p24.

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Conservation news

Concerns over Wairarapa dam plan Forest & Bird has expressed concern about plans to subsidise a large water-storage scheme in the Wairarapa with $804,000 of public money.

“Wairarapa already has significant environmental problems from current land use practices. Lake Wairarapa is classed as ‘supertrophic’ and is one of the most polluted shallow coastal lakes in New Zealand. The Ruamahanga River also suffers significant faecal contamination from agricultural and urban areas,” says Forest & Bird’s Regional Manager for Wairarapa, Amelia Geary.

Before the downturn in dairy prices, there were already

View of Wairarapa farmland with the Ruamahanga River valley in the distance. Photo: Caroline Wood

significant questions about the economic viability of the proposed water storage scheme. Forest & Bird says that it is hard to understand why the Government is prepared to spend so much taxpayer money encouraging more intensive dairy operations.

“As Landcorp made clear recently, the model of intensive, environmentally damaging milk production is coming to an end. Smart farmers are investing in valueadded models, not further intensification based on expensive irrigation and water storage schemes like this one,” says Amelia.

In March, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy announced new investments totalling $1.6 million from MPI’s Irrigation Acceleration Fund. The three irrigation projects receiving funding are in the Wairarapa ($804,000), Hawke’s Bay ($575,000) and Gisborne ($250,000). The funding will support the development of irrigation proposals to the stage where they are investment ready, said Mr Guy. Water Wairarapa is currently assessing the feasibility of two schemes. Tividale would be located on the confluence of the Tauweru River and Mangapurupuru Stream. Black Creek’s main dam would be on Black Creek, a tributary of the Waingawa River, with a second dam on the Wakamoekau Creek, a tributary of the Waipoua River. All are tributaries of the Ruamahanga River.

Fantastic Flickr This little chap was photographed in the hand-rearing room at Codfish Island/Whenua Hou during this year’s bumper kākāpō breeding season. It was taken by Jake Osborne in March and is one of more than 7,500 images on Forest & Bird’s Flickr feed.

Our Flickr group is open to anyone who wants to document or celebrate New Zealand’s natural environment. By adding your photos or videos, you will help to illustrate the wilderness areas and creatures that we hold dear.

It’s open to anyone to browse or add their images. Go to www.flickr.com/ groups/1421477@N21/ and check out the latest images.

Health & Safety first The health and safety of Forest & Bird’s volunteers and staff is a top priority, and new practices and policies are being introduced to align with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act that came into force in April.

The Board has adopted a vision statement “Working for nature is safe, healthy and enjoyable”, and a Forest & Bird Health and Safety Charter has been drawn up. This will be the guiding document for all health and safety-related policies and processes within the organisation.

“We know the value our people contribute to Forest & Bird, and we want to ensure they continue to do so, knowing 10

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that their wellbeing and safety is our number one priority,” says HR advisor Susan James, who is leading the project.

Forest & Bird has recently invested in Vault, an online cloud service that will hold all health and safety information in one place. This will allow the Board to maintain full oversight of hazards and risks within the organisation.

Everyone will be updated along the way, and full training will be given on how to use Vault. If you have any questions about the new legislation, or health and safety in general, contact Susan James or see www.forestandbird. org.nz/healthandsafety.

Dodgy carbon credits Forest & Bird says the Emissions Trading Scheme should be overhauled in light of a new report that reveals New Zealand is meeting its climate change obligations by relying on dodgy carbon credits.

The Morgan Foundation’s report reveals that New Zealand has been the biggest user of Ukrainian and Russian “hot air” carbon credits as a percentage of national emissions. The carbon credits aren’t backed by real emission reductions, and the report says they may be linked to organised crime.

“Our Government is undercutting New Zealand’s future by allowing use of carbon credits that the Morgan Report identifies as fraudulent and linked to organised crime,” says Forest & Bird’s climate advocate Geoff Keey.

“Forest & Bird is looking to Paula Bennett to deliver a new plan to cut New Zealand’s emissions that includes a strong carbon price, is independently overseen and is linked to a national carbon budget. Getting rid of dodgy carbon credits would be a great first step.”

The report follows earlier Ministry for the Environment reports that showed the Emissions Trading Scheme has done little to encourage polluters to reduce their emissions.

“Nature in New Zealand needs strong action on climate change. The disruption caused by climate change is likely to be very damaging to New Zealand’s native plants and animals,” added Geoff. *Forest & Bird launches climate roadshow, see p20.

Deep sea biodiversity: The black-smoker Brothers is on the caldera wall of Brothers Seamount on the southern Kermadec ridge, at a depth of 1500m.

Credit: JAMSTECGNS-NIWA

What’s going on in the

Kermadecs?

Arguments about the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary are largely to do with whether or not the Government has the right to create marine protection in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

It’s important to know that the EEZ around New Zealand does not “belong” to New Zealand. It’s an area of ocean space over which we have a set of rights and obligations through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This international agreement established New Zealand's right to sustainably manage our EEZ, alongside an obligation to preserve and protect our marine environment.

Any other considerations, such as fishing rights, are subject to this. If you have any questions, please email Anton at a.vanhelden@forestandbird.org.nz.

Forest & Bird’s scholarship winner Forest & Bird’s first winner of a $15,000 university scholarship for young environmental leaders, Sian Moffitt, has already packed a lot into her 18 years. Sian has represented New Zealand in rock climbing, taken part in a Sir Peter Blake Youth EnviroLeaders programme and initiated environment projects in her home town of Taupo.

Forest & Bird’s new scholarship is aimed at encouraging the development of future conservation leaders, says Marketing and Communications Manager Phil Bilbrough.

“I’m sure Sian will be a great advocate for conservation, and we’re pleased to be able to help her achieve her goals,” Phil said.

Sian’s interest in conservation started when her grandmother enrolled her in Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club as a child. “I loved going on bush walks and getting out in nature. Nana was a huge influence on me learning to love nature,” says Sian.

In high school, she took part in the Kiwi Forever youth environmental programme, spurring her on to start environmental projects at her high school and around Taupo. The experience of joining the Sir Peter Blake

Trust programme last year gave her the impetus to change her career plans to focus on ecology and biodiversity at Victoria University.

Sian said she was very grateful to be chosen as the first winner of the scholarship, which is open to students starting studies in ecology and biodiversity at Victoria University and provides $5,000 a year for three years. “Thank you so much for this. It’s awesome to see you are looking to encourage young people to take a lead in conservation.”

Sian is pictured here in one of Forest & Bird’s fab new t-shirts. Order yours online at www.forestandbird.org.nz.

Cover story

F O R E ST & B I R D I S.

F O R E ST & B I R D I S.

F O R E ST & B I R D I S.

DEFENDING NATURE

Images and part of text from Forest & Bird’s new advertisements that will appear in major magazines and newspapers over the next three months.

For more than 90 years, Forest & Bird has played a vital role in drafting, defining and defending environmental legislation and this year we are busier than ever.

By Caroline Wood.

S

ecuring a future for the environment needs a strong defence at all levels, and Forest & Bird has a proud 93-year history of doing this. We work in every arena from tree planting right up to the Supreme Court, and this is what makes Forest & Bird unique.

From the earliest days, our supporters knew the importance of using legislation to protect nature. Lack of nationwide legal protection for native birds prompted founder Captain Val Sanderson to set up the Society in 1923 with the “object of advocating and obtaining unity of control in all matters concerning wildlife”.

Today, this defence of nature is just as critical. This year, in particular, is shaping up to be a busy one, especially for our in-house legal team and our freshwater, marine and Resource Management Act (RMA) campaigns.

At the time of writing, our legal team was preparing to appear in front of the Court of Appeal on 26 May in a precedent-setting case challenging the Department of Conservation’s decision to swap specially protected conservation land adjoining the Makaroro River in Ruahine Forest Park to pave the way for the Ruataniwha irrigation dam.

The High Court decision that is being appealed could

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set a precedent that threatens the security of more than one million hectares of specially protected conservation land throughout the country. Forest & Bird is fighting to stop that happening.

Earlier in May, Forest & Bird’s environmental laywer Sally Gepp appeared before the Local Government and Environment Committee to argue the case for not watering down the RMA. Forest & Bird made a written submission on the Government’s proposed changes in March, and the select committee was an opportunity to make the case in person and answer MPs’ questions.

A key issue of concern was the proposal to limit the public’s ability to submit on notified consents to particular effects identified by a council. Sally told MPs that this would lead to absurd outcomes where issues that the council is not aware of could not be raised by submitters.

She used several real examples, including a Sally Gepp holding a RMA Forest & Bird submission webinar in September 2013.

on an irrigation project in the Mackenzie Country that was publicly notified because of its impacts on water quality.

The Forest & Bird submission alerted the council to the presence of important native vegetation, including critically threatened native plants that would be destroyed by the proposal.

“Under the amended legislation, Forest & Bird would be unable to submit on the native plant issue if the Council wasn’t already aware of it. Yet an important purpose of the submission process is to bring new information to the table so that these adverse effects can be considered and avoided, remedied or mitigated,” explained Sally.

On climate disruption, Sally told MPs that New Zealand’s planning and consenting process should be required to consider impacts on climate change (effects of activities on climate change cannot currently be considered).

“The Act is all about sustainable management. There is no sustainable management unless New Zealand does its part to combat climate change,” said Sally.

In April, Forest & Bird called on our members and supporters to help us lobby the Government to demand stronger freshwater legal protections. Our campaign succeeded in attracting 3,000 public submissions through the Forest & Bird website. Recently, the Government accepted that toxic levels of nitrogen would not be acceptable as a bottom-line limit for water quality (see our story overleaf), something we have been advocating for many years.

In March, we campaigned to include New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the proposed new Marine Protected Areas Act (MPA). This will ensure there are formal mechanisms to create marine reserves and protected areas across the whole of New Zealand’s marine environment. This resulted in more than 2,000 public submissions through our website. Our marine team has also made detailed submissions on the MPA and Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary.

Thanks to our supporters, Forest & Bird is the only conservation organisation in New Zealand with the people, expertise and resources to do this kind of legal and policy work, says Kevin Hackwell, Campaigns and Advocacy Manager.

“The typical environment of a Forest & Bird member may well be being out in the fresh air, planting things, killing pests, and protecting nature. But it’s important to remember that every month many of our members and staff are also in the law courts, select committees and council committee rooms defending nature using the law, rules or regulations,” he said.

“Our involvement in the legal arena is one of the things Forest & Bird does very well and is uniquely placed to do. We have active and committed members, branches, regional managers, advocacy and legal teams, each with different but complementary roles drafting, defining and defending laws that protect nature.”

Defending nature on this scale is a huge task. For example, since January this year alone, Forest & Bird has: n Contributed to the development of two major new environmental policy statements: a National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity and a National

Forest & Bird is launching a “defending nature” advertising campaign.

Marketing and Communications General Manager Phil Bilbrough explains the thinking behind it.

People outside Forest & Bird don’t always understand the value of our organisation to New Zealand. This may be because we tend to focus on our campaigns, local advocacy, restoration work and legal battles.

I want to make it clear why New Zealand needs Forest & Bird. As an independent community-based conservation organisation, we can, without any bias, speak up for our wildlife and wild places. New Zealanders need to know that we are not, and will not be, influenced by the Government, business, local politics or developers.

We know from research (Lincoln University’s Perceptions of the Environment report) there is a gulf between New Zealanders’ perception of the health of the environment and the actual health of the environment.

The Government’s narrative emphasises the good news, things such as species recovery programmes, but it’s not the whole story. The truth is that our environment is degrading and that our wild places are being cut away at through a lack of commitment to their protection or poor enforcement. It’s up to Forest & Bird to challenge this narrative.

This advertising campaign aims to establish Forest & Bird’s importance to New Zealand. We are this country’s leading independent conservation organisation, one with an incredible environmental legacy.

As former Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand said in 2009: “It’s hard to imagine New Zealand without the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society.”

Today, Forest & Bird, New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organisation, is needed more than ever before, to speak up and be a voice for nature in our communities.

Forest & Bird

| 13

Cover story

n

n

n

n

n

Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry. Once in place, they will direct the policies and rules contained in regional and district plans.

Submitted on the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme and the Permanent Forests Sink Initiative to give both schemes greater environmental integrity.

Been in mediation on appeals relating to the Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Plan and the Whakatane District Plan, where Forest & Bird is seeking stronger coastal and habitat protections.

Submitted on proposals to establish nationwide regulations to streamline the management of landscape-scale pest control.

Been involved in mediation on the Southland Regional Policy Statement, where we sought stronger protection for coastal areas and freshwater.

Appeared at an Environment Court hearing on irrigation

consents in the Canterbury High Country and been involved in mediation and negotiation on applications in the Mackenzie Basin. n Carried on with Forest & Bird’s business-as-usual work – making sure existing environmental laws, rules and regulations are obeyed by developers and enforced by regional and district councils.

This list is just a snapshot of the work Forest & Bird has been doing to defend nature in the legal and policy arenas since the start of the year. Our members and supporters are vital to this process.

“It’s a bit like a jigsaw: you need all the pieces to finish the puzzle. Our grassroots membership can alert staff to a local environmental issue, such as the Ruataniwha Dam. We can take up that issue not just locally but nationally, and involve our legal team and all our supporters. It talks to our strength,” added Kevin.

VOTE CONSERVATION Have you ever thought about standing for your local or regional council? Our councils make some of the most important decisions about our environment, and it is more important than ever that the voice of nature is heard around the council table.

Council elections are coming up later this year, and leadership is needed for crucial problems such as declining freshwater quality, damaging and unsustainable development and climate disruption. Our branches and members are used to making submissions to councils, but a seat around the council table is even more influential.

Forest & Bird member Russell Tregonning is standing for the Wellington Regional Council on an environmental platform, including improving water quality with swimmable rivers, excluding stock from all water bodies and clean beaches.

He wants Wellington to become a world leader in combating climate disruption, with the regional council basing all its decisions on moving to a low carbon future.

“Such policies would be good for people, good for business and good for future generations,” he said.

Chris Peterson, a Forest & Bird member and seventerm councillor on the Masterton District Council, says in his early days he was something of a lone voice for the environment, but now there is a greater awareness of these issues. “In the past, when I mentioned climate change, there were audible sighs. Now we are looking at implementing a joint energy efficiency policy across the three Wairarapa district councils.”

He encouraged Forest & Bird members and environmentalists to stand for councils in their area. “I think the whole concept of a local council is that you have a forum where all opinions are represented, so definitely the environment and climate change need to be there,” says Chris.

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Nominations for the local elections close on 12 August.

Voting papers will be sent out from 16 September, and voting closes on 8 October. *Are you standing as a conservation councillor? Contact editor@forestandbird.org.nz and share your story.

Wairarapa branch member and district councillor Chris Peterson.

Photo: Caroline Wood

Water for life campaign update

Photo: Craig McKenzie

Early native bird protection The beautiful kōtuku/white heron on our cover and the pūteketeke/Australasian crested grebe on p41 were among the first birds in New Zealand to receive nationwide legal protection.

In 1885, they were added to the native game list (to protect them from hunting), and some authors have suggested that they were our first fully protected birds.

But this is incorrect, according to Te Papa’s bird expert Colin Miskelly. He says the tūī was the country’s first fully protected native bird – receiving nationwide protection in 1878. *Find out more by reading Colin Miskelly’s blog: What was New Zealand’s first fully protected native bird? at blog.tepapa.govt.nz. **Don’t forget to enter our Spot the Feather competition on p41!

Forest & Bird has achieved a significant breakthrough in getting the Government to confirm that toxic levels of nitrogen would not be acceptable as a bottom-line limit for water quality.

We have long been seeking freshwater limits that are set to protect ecological health. The national bottom line for nitrogen is currently set at the point at which it becomes directly toxic to fish.

This inadequate bottom line means that limits in council regional plans can also be set at toxicity. This has occurred, most notably in Canterbury. However, following meetings with Forest & Bird in December and April, Environment Minister Nick Smith wrote to regional councils in April to confirm that lower nitrogen limits would have to be set to ensure freshwater ecosystem health.

“This was an important development because below toxic levels of nitrogen can still damage ecosystem health – for example, by causing excessive growth of algae,” says Advocacy and Campaigns Manager Kevin Hackwell.

The Minister has asked the Land and Water Forum to set the nitrogen limits for ecologicial health.

“Forest & Bird has been working hard with the LWF and the Government to ensure we have robust ways of measuring ecological health and it is good that we now have a stronger basis for setting freshwater quality standards,” says Kevin.

But Kevin, who is a key member and trustee of the forum, warns there is a long way to go in achieving better water quality and much will depend on the Government’s response to the forum’s other recommendations. Many have not so far been picked up by the Government. This will need to change to maintain confidence in the process.

See the full story on http://blog.forestandbird.org.nz.

Defend nature Defending nature is becoming more and more about legal battles for our treasured natural world. From the local council committee room to the Supreme Court, at any one time more than 30 cases are being heard in nature’s defence.

With a massive groundswell of support we saved the Mokihinui River from damming in 2012. A case was prepared for court but at the eleventh hour Meridian backed down.

Right now, we are defending existing legislation that will affect your personal right to have a say on decisions affecting your community.

Please make a donation to defend nature www. forestandbird.org.nz/defendnature. Now more than ever, our defence of the environment is critical.

Together we defend New Zealand’s natural world from our oceans and rivers to our precious native species and the very air we breathe.

F O R E ST & B I R D I S.

Forest & Bird

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Forest collapse

Labour of love Roger Parker and Sachie Iida have spent the past six years intensively pest-controlling 78 hectares of native forest in Northland. By Caroline Wood.

W

hen Sachie and Roger bought their beloved native forest at Broadwood in the Far North, it hadn’t seen any pest control for a long time.

There were rats everywhere on the ground and in the trees. Possums too. The couple would be sleeping in the forest and hear the wild pigs crashing through the bush.

“The pests had massacred the place and we had all these skeletal trees,” remembers Roger Parker.

“We’d be sleeping in the forest and hear scuffling and scratching at night. We thought at first it was kiwi, but when we got our torches out we could see the rats. They were running around the trees and scratching on the side of our tent. An ecologist friend said that with that many pests there must be lots of food for them.”

Roger and his wife Sachie, both 48, from Auckland, say they didn’t know much about pest control when they bought their beautiful patch of Northland forest about 1.5 hours from Hokianga Harbour, in 2009.

The long-time Forest & Bird members have always been interested in the outdoors. And with children growing up and becoming more independent, they wanted a project.

Put simply, they wanted to buy a patch of forest and restore it for future generations.

They spent a year looking at 100 different properties.

Most of the places they looked at were mānuka or regrowth forest with most of the big trees logged out.

Then they found an area of rainforest in Broadwood with its giant tōtara, ancient rimu and huge pūriri. But it was 16

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Camping every weekend, Roger and Sachie intensively pest-controlled hundreds of acres by themselves. All photos: Roger Parker

being overwhelmed by rats and possums. It hadn’t had predator control for many years and was on the point of collapse, with “ghost” trees everywhere.

Roger and Sachie bought it intending to look after it, but they didn’t know much about pest control. So they rang the Department of Conservation, which said it couldn’t help because it was private land. The couple turned to the Northern Regional Council for advice. Its Biosecurity Officer Mike Knight put them in touch with Terry Higginson, who has done pest control in the Far North for decades and works with the Kiwi Foundation.

“He came out and he showed us what do to and we have been learning and doing it ever since,” says Roger.

The couple would leave their Auckland home at 4am on Saturday morning on the long drive to the Far North. The land title shows that the forest is 78 hectares measured flat, but it is actually very steep and rough terrain and easily more than 120 hectares to walk it.

“We went up there 43 weekends out of 52 and camped in the forest, setting our traps and putting out bait in hundreds of bait stations,” explains Roger.

We’ve restored a forest that was near collapse. Now it’s refilled with birds, including kiwi, and has green trees everywhere instead of skeletal ones that were there before.

“After nine months, the number of rats, possums and stoats came down. We killed hundreds of possums and thousands of rats. Now, at night, instead of hearing scuffling of rats and scratchy calls of possums everywhere, it’s mostly quiet except for morepork and kiwi calls.”

“After three years, the bird population came back.

There are brown kiwi in small numbers, kererū, tūī, ruru, cuckoos in spring and small forest birds like tomtit, grey warbler and fantails. We used to walk for one hour and not hear a bird, but now you hear birds all around.”

But the couple cannot sit back and relax. The surrounding areas aren’t pest-controlled, which means pests are constantly pouring into Roger and Sachie’s place.

“Re-invasion is the challenge now,” says Roger.

“We now have eco-tourists come. They love it – it’s a rich complex forest. We hope this will help to fund our ongoing pest control efforts,” says Roger.

Roger and Sachie are telling their story after seeing Forest & Bird’s campaign to save the forests of Northland from collapse.

They wanted to show that taking care of the forest and getting rid of the predators can restore ghost forests and bring back green trees, native birds and wildlife.

“We’re not into publicity for it. We’ve done it because we want to have healthy forests and birds for the next generation,” says Roger.

“There are some people working really hard up here and making some progress.”

Roger and Sachie have a lot to be proud of.

For more information about Broadwood, see http:// forestofruru.co.nz.

Commentary Nature rebounds with ongoing multi-species pest control. The changes that Roger and Sachie describe are testament to what an ongoing determined effort by a few people can do. Success happens by taking action.

The drone footage of Northland’s collapsing native forests that Forest & Bird released last year has sparked important conversations in the region, with hapū, community, councils and the Department of Conservation aiming towards action in the bush.

But the underfunding of DOC, institutional paralysis and the loss of capacity from repeated restructures is undermining the work that should have been done.

Forest & Bird is on the ground raising awareness across the Northland region and is campaigning for an increase of $10-$20 million over 10 years for DOC in Northland to turn around the collapse. This funding needs to be new money for DOC overall, because so much has already been stripped from the Department over recent years.

Dean Baigent-Mercer, Forest & Bird’s Far North advocate

BEFORE: Broadwood forest in 2010 before pest control. Note the skeleton trees attacked by possums.

For no pests go to www.keyindustries.co.nz

Eradicate rabbits, rats, possums and more.

AFTER: The same viewpoint in 2016. The forest is recovering well and refilling with birds, including kiwi.

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Climate disruption

Climate roadshow Forest & Bird is launching a national climate disruption roadshow, as campaign advocate Geoff Keey explains.

Forest & Bird is organising a series of climate disruption roadshows that will tour the country later this year. It is a chance for people to find out more about the impacts of climate change on nature in their region and how conservation programmes can be adapated to help mitigate these.

Attendees will hear how protecting nature can be good for human communities, as well as ideas about what can be done to help achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees and preferably no more than 1.5 degrees.

We know many Forest & Bird members are already doing their bit to reduce emissions and help make nature more resilient. We are keen to hear from any Forest & Bird readers who would be willing to share their stories and examples with others during the regional roadshows.

Forest & Bird staff will take the opportunity to build local alliances during the roadshows by talking to local branches, restoration groups, conservation advocates and others who are factoring climate disruption into their efforts to save New Zealand’s natural heritage.

The roadshow series will be officially launched at Forest & Bird’s AGM and conference at the end of June.

It will start touring the regions of New Zealand during the second half of the year.

The roadshow is part of Forest & Bird’s Climate

Disruption campaign to raise awareness about the issue and how we can all work together to implement solutions.

New Zealand’s leading body of scientists, the Royal Society, released a detailed report in April warning that up to 70 native species may go extinct before the end of the century because of climate change. It said a range of impacts are likely to affect New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places, including fire, drought, spreading pests and diseases, and changes to the ocean.

The report said New Zealand was already being affected by climate change and that floods, storms, droughts and fires will become more frequent unless significant action is taken. Forest & Bird highlighted the impact of extreme weather events on nature in our Autumn 2016 cover story.

Other environmental NGOs around the world are also adapting their conservation activities and encouraging their own governments and societies to pursue a lowcarbon future.

Forest & Bird is part of an international partnership of conservation organisations through its membership of BirdLife International. Its UK-based Global Climate Change Policy Coordinator is New Zealander Edward Perry.

He said: “BirdLife Partners around the world are integrating climate change adaptation into their conservation programmes. They’re helping species adapt to the impacts of unavoidable climate change

Taking action: all parts of society can be supported to make low-carbon choices. Infographic: Courtesy of the Royal Society

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like sea level rise, extreme weather events and higher temperatures. And they’re helping people adapt, using nature-based solutions – like natural buffers against extreme weather events.”

How can you help? climate@forestandbird.org.nz to be notified about roadshow events near you. n Tell us the story of what you are doing to cut emissions and help make nature more resilient.

Email climate@forestandbird.org.nz. n Check out the Royal Society’s website for the report on likely impacts of climate change on nature www.royalsociety.org.nz. n Read BirdLife’s climate change report The Messengers at www.climatechange.birdlife.org. n Email

Amazing facts about…

KEA

Photo: Bernard Spragg

How does the world’s only alpine parrot survive through a Kiwi winter? By Michelle Harnett.

Be the change Earlier this year, Forest & Bird members Steve Muir and Emily Lane cycled from Christchurch to the West Coast and back again through Arthur’s Pass, towing kayaks and their other gear on bike trailers. They were part of a Christchurch cycle group that wants to raise awareness of climate change and encourage the use of active transport for as many journeys as possible to reduce emissions.

Steve made the trolleys to tow the kayaks. He also makes low cost, custom-designed cycle trailers for shopping and general load carrying. For more information, see www.cycletrailers.co.nz. *Here the group is pictured during their trip. Steve is on the far left with Emily standing to his left.

Rocky crag, snow and ice – it’s hard to imagine how kea survive freezing alpine conditions and find enough to eat. But there they are, hanging around South Island skifields and towns like Arthur’s Pass, posing for tourists and looking far less endangered than they really are.

Kea (Nestor notabilis) are the world’s only alpine parrot. Away from human habitation, the birds exploit alpine slopes and native and exotic forests to find berries, nectar, insects and seeds. Closer to people, they have been seen scavenging for carrion, human garbage and (unfortunately) attacking live sheep.

The birds are intelligent. Kea can puzzle out the order of manipulating strings and objects to get food and have been filmed making and using tools. They even outperform chimpanzees in some experiments!

Curiosity and cleverness plus their ability to successfully exploit different habitats are key to kea survival in the mountains. Young birds pick up skills during the first three years of life, playing, experimenting and learning from older birds.

Arthur’s Pass is one place where kea behaviour has been intensively observed. Here the birds have discovered that human rubbish dumps are a great source of food. This leaves them with plenty of spare time on their beaks and claws. They spend it “exploring” the interesting objects people leave around – car tyres, windscreen wipers, tents, sleeping bags, boots – the list is long.

Please resist the temptation to feed kea because not all human foods agree with kea. Death by chocolate is not a good way for these amazing birds to go.

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Conservation in history

Golden oldie

Forest & Bird is the oldest conservation magazine in the country. To celebrate our 360th issue, we look back at its origins and importance as a historical record.

By Caroline Wood.

T

he society’s founder, Captain Val Sanderson, was an astute media operator, who established Forest & Bird’s journal Birds in 1923 as a way of engaging New Zealanders with nature and conservation.

According to his obituary in 1946, Sanderson was almost single-handedly responsible for editing the magazine, as well as contributing a great many articles, until issue 78.

Back in the early days of Forest & Bird, then called the Native Bird Protection Society, Sanderson recognised the importance of publishing a magazine to spread the conservation message as far and wide as possible.

Sanderson would also use it as a lobbying tool. For example, he repeatedly sent copies to magistrates whom he felt weren’t imposing big enough fines for breaches of bird protection laws. As he said in a letter to a fellow conservationist: “water wears down stone in the end”.

“Sanderson viewed the magazine as an important means of education. He also saw its potential for attracting new members and was, therefore, prepared to bear the short-term costs of distributing without charge in the hope

of longer term gains in membership numbers,” writes historian Dr Lyn Lochhead, who has extensively researched Forest & Bird and other early conservation groups.* In 1928, Sanderson was able to report that, although the last bulletin had cost £50 to produce, it had returned more than that in subscriptions.

But the main function of the magazine was to establish regular communication with supporters to maintain their interest in conservation, says Dr Lochhead.

The magazine, which changed its name to Forest & Bird in 1933, proved popular, and the society carried on publishing an average of four issues a year.

Now, its stories and photographs represent an important historical record, effectively documenting the birth and subsequent growth of the modern day conservation movement and the people driving it.

Author and environmental historian David Young said: “To an historian, the old Forest & Bird issues are a unique trove, not only of New Zealand’s evolving relationship with our biodiversity, but also of societal attitudes generally.

“For example, in the 1930s Depression, a leading naturalist of the time Herbert Guthrie-Smith was so skint, he ruefully confessed to being unable to pay his Forest & Bird subscription. In the 1950s, when 1080 was in its early use, Forest & Bird were ardent opponents of it. And in the 1970s Forest & Bird’s annual gathering included a scheduled church service!”

Hopefully, Sanderson would be proud to think the little journal he created back in 1923 is still going strong today and still bearing witness for New Zealand’s nature, albeit in a fast-changing digital world.

1928 Capt Val Sanderson: founder and first editor of Forest & Bird’s magazine.

Bulletin 15 was the first magazine to include the date, in this case July 1928.

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National Library index

Archive project Forest & Bird’s magazine archive (from Bulletin 6) is kept at National Office. We would love to make our back issues available online so historians, schools, scientists and the general public can read and download articles for free.

We are looking into the feasibility and cost of doing this. If you can help in any way with the Forest & Bird digital archive project, please contact Caroline Wood editor@ forestandbird.org.nz.

Proud publishing history Forest & Bird is New Zealand’s oldest conservation magazine and one of the longest-running periodicals in the country.

The country’s first magazine, the New Zealand Journal, was published in Wellington from 1840 to 1852 and was followed by many other popular and specialist magazines.

But most of these early titles folded.

According to Te Ara and initial searches by the National Library, the country’s longest-running magazines, both specialist and popular, are*: n

The Journal of Polynesian Society (1892–)

n

Kai Tiaki (1908- originally New Zealand Nursing Journal).

n

Forest & Bird (1923–, originally titled Birds).

n

Critic (1925–), Otago University’s student magazine.

n

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly (1932–). The magazine’s focus on domesticity, the royal family and celebrity culture found a strong readership.

n

New Zealand Listener (1939–). Founded by the government in 1939 to publicise radio listings.

n

New Zealand Gardener (1944–). Its initial aim was to teach the public how to “dig for victory” during wartime. * This list may not be comprehensive.

1933 Kākā – the magazine’s first colour cover published in August 1933 (Bulletin 30).

Later the same year, the name was changed to Forest & Bird.

The National Library keeps a free online index of Forest & Bird articles from 1958 to 2016, as indexer Nelly Bess explains.

Alan Liefting’s call for a bibliographical database of Forest & Bird articles (Autumn 2016) caught our attention. Index New Zealand has been creating electronic records for issues dating back to Feb 1958, amounting to a total of 2,760 records so far. Before this, Forest & Bird articles were listed in Index to New Zealand Periodicals, our print predecessor.

Our database is primarily a finding tool. We provide short summaries, but to read the articles in full you will need to see if the issue is available at a local public library or through interloan. Failing that you could contact Forest & Bird directly.

Researchers and interested readers will find key themes covered in the index – from early conservation issues to descriptions of native flora and fauna. Examples of subject headings include birds, conservation, pest control baits, skinks, kūaka, etc. We do not index everything within an issue – our focus is on articles that we deem will be of most use to clients.

Our goal at INNZ is to ensure current and future generations of New Zealanders (and others) have access to all manner of information about Aotearoa New Zealand. Your journal provides excellent coverage about conservation and the environment of New Zealand. INNZ is dedicated to recording and making that coverage readily and permanently available.

The index can be freely accessed via the National Library website http://natlib.govt.nz or visit the standalone INNZ database at http://innz.natlib.govt.nz. Please email indexnz@dia.govt.nz if you have any questions or suggestions.

*Thanks to Lyn Lochhead for permission to quote from her PhD thesis: Preserving the Brownies’ Portion: A History of Voluntary Nature Conservation Organisations in New Zealand, 1888–1935.

1944

1957

Forest & Bird continued to be published during World War 2.

In the 1950s the cover changed to trademark green.

Forest & Bird

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Battle for our Birds

Time for DOC to rethink its priorities The pristine Abbey Rocks forest. Photo: Gerry McSweeney

Regular, large-scale aerial 1080 drops should be the norm, not the exception, for our vast conservation lands, says Maryann Ewers.

It’s time for “eco” to mean ecology, not economy, and for the Government to adequately fund the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity wing, instead of focusing on tourism and recreation. If it doesn’t, many of our unique species will continue on the slippery slope to extinction.

It’s been 15 years since we set up Friends of Flora in Kahurangi National Park, and we are pleased to have had our trapping area treated with aerial 1080 – first the Deep Creek area to the north in 2013 under a TBfree operation, then the entire area in 2014 under the Battle for our Birds campaign because of the heavy beech mast.

Intensive trapping on a small scale can make a difference. Whio, for example, respond well to trapping alongside their river habitat. But trapping alone will not bring back a healthy ecosystem and, unless DOC looks after all our conservation lands properly, there won’t be anything left to save. We will just be left with “restoration” projects, the equivalent of ambulances at the bottom of the cliff for our native flora and fauna.

New Zealand doesn’t have enough volunteers or philanthropic money to protect all of our massive conservation estate. The best tool we have is aerial 1080, and we should take heed of what the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright has said: “We need to use more of this, more often, over a greater area.”

We know that our Friends of Flora trapping programme, which covers more than 8,000ha, is a great back-up against the “big three” – possum, rat and stoat. But it’s a maintenance and monitoring exercise – not a frontline defence. Despite advances in trap design technology, trapping won’t cut the mustard over our vast conservation areas.

We know this because of bitter experience. In 2000, a small population of mohua was known to remain on a 22

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mountain at the top of the Marlborough Sounds. That summer saw a massive masting of beech trees and a plague of pests. By winter, despite DOC’s heroic efforts to trap rat and stoats, they were wiped out. The most northern population of mohua was extinct.

The best tool we have is 1080. It is safe in its modernday applications and is the only method we have of dropping the big three predators to almost negligible numbers within 48 hours. It is also the cheapest pest control per hectare.

We have heard recently about Northland’s forests being degraded to the point of near collapse from possum damage because there is little to no pest control. These forests should never have been allowed to reach this state.

In contrast, the Abbey Rocks forest, 50,000ha extending between the Paringa and Haast Rivers in southern South Westland, has received regular and very effective aerial 1080 pest control by DOC every two to three years since 1998. This pristine forest stretches from the Tasman Sea coast to the Southern Alps.

Dr Gerry McSweeney, who has lived there for most of the last 26 years, says there has been remarkable recovery of mistletoe, rata, fuchsia, wineberry and common native birds such as kererū, tūī, bellbird and tomtits, as well as once uncommon birds such as kaka, kea and kākāriki. This has been well documented by DOC’s Dr Graeme Elliott and his team’s scientific monitoring during the last six years.

Regular, large-scale 1080 drops should be the norm, not the exception, for our conservation lands. Time is running out. Much more needs to be done if we are to save our unique flora and fauna. *Maryann Ewers is an Old Blue recipient and co-founder of Friends of Flora (www.fof.org.nz). Her article is based on a talk she gave to the Ecological Societies conference last year.

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Seabirds

Studying New Zealand’s

forest penguin In the face of environmental change, the tawaki is at last receiving the scientific attention needed to protect one of the world’s rarest penguin species. By Thomas Mattern & Robin Long.

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any New Zealanders know the little blue penguins that live and breed along most of our mainland coastlines, and we hold the yellow-eyed penguin that adorns our $5 bill in our hands every day. But faced with a photo of a Fiordland crested penguin/tawaki, most of us likely wouldn’t recognise it as another native species.

Tawaki belong to the group of crested penguins that boast striking yellow feathers above their eyes.

Unfortunately, most crested penguin populations have been declining during the last century, and tawaki do not seem to be an exception. The population is estimated to range between 5,000 and 6,000 birds, and at some sites their numbers are believed to have declined by as much as 30 percent over just 10 years.

But there is considerable uncertainty about the numbers. Unlike other crested penguins, who breed in densely packed colonies, tawaki breed in scattered colonies, mostly in forests along the rugged coastlines of South Westland, Fiordland, Stewart Island/Rakiura and outlying islands. They are true forest penguins that epitomise the wrongness of the penguins-on-ice stereotype. It also means that it is no mean feat finding – and counting – these penguins in the remote and wild areas they inhabit.

Their nesting habitat ranges from sea level to 100m elevation, and they like to breed in impenetrable vegetation. Some pairs have even been found breeding in sea caves with access only through submerged entrances.

This means it is next to impossible to get accurate estimates of tawaki populations throughout their entire range.

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Tawaki breed mostly in forests. Photo: Thomas Mattern/Tawaki Project

In 2014, Robin Long surveyed a 60km stretch of coastline between Haast and Milford Sound to identify and accurately census tawaki breeding colonies in the area. She found at least 870 pairs – a stark contrast to the 150 pairs reported in a 1994 survey. However, this likely represents an underestimate in the earlier census rather than an increase in actual penguin numbers. By repeating her 2014 survey during the next 10 years, Robin will record changes in penguin numbers, which will be used to extrapolate trends of the entire tawaki population.

Determining tawaki population size and trends is one thing. Coming up with conservation measures to ensure the survival of the species is another. It is equally important to determine which key threats affect the penguins and what options we have to mitigate these threats.

Tawaki chicks. Photo: Robin Long

Tawaki breed on land but find their food at sea. On land, introduced predators – stoats, possums and dogs – may prey on the penguins and their offspring, while human activities can disturb breeding birds and cause them to abandon sites. At sea, rising ocean temperatures probably disrupt prey availability, fisheries may compete for resources or result in accidental bycatch, and pollution in the wake of proposed oil exploration could also become a major problem for the tawaki.

To date, very little is known about tawaki ecology. For decades, the inaccessibility of their breeding sites was a major barrier for scientific investigation. However, by using new technologies to observe and track the penguins, two research groups from the West Coast Penguin Trust and Otago University have joined forces to fill in significant gaps in our knowledge about the species.

Using motion-sensing cameras at nest sites, the trust is carrying out a study to determine the impact of introduced predators on tawaki. In the past two years, thousands of videos have been recorded. Although most video clips show penguins preening or gathering nest material, occasionally intruders – stoats, possums and rats – enter the scene. While it appears that possums and rats keep a respectful distance from the breeding birds, stoat attacks on chicks caused some monitored nests to fail.

The Tawaki Project is studying the penguins’ marine biology. Using miniaturised GPS dive loggers, Otago University researchers Thomas Mattern and Ursula Ellenberg study tawaki’s foraging ranges and diving behaviour. First results indicate that climate substantially influences the birds’ foraging success, but apparently this depends largely on the region in which the penguins breed. During the strong 2015 El Niño, tawaki from Jackson Head, Haast, had to travel hundreds of kilometres to find food for their chicks while others in Milford Sound could obtain ample food without leaving the fiord.

Both projects will significantly expand our knowledge of tawaki and provide much needed information for fact-based management of New Zealand’s unique and enigmatic forest penguin. To find out more, see www.tawaki-project.org and www.bluepenguin.org.nz.

About the authors: Otago University’s Thomas Mattern has been studying the foraging ecology of New Zealand penguins since the early 2000s. He is the Oceania representative for the Global Penguin Society.

Robin Long grew up at Gorge River in remote South Westland, where she developed a fascination for our indigenous flora and fauna. When she’s not roaming the wilderness looking for tawaki, Robin works for the Department of Conservation in Hokitika.

Eastern rockhopper penguins have suffered major declines on their sub-Antarctic islands, linked to periods of warming in the marine environment.

Photo: Hadoram Shirhai

Global penguin project – we need your help!

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irdLife International has a new priority global project on penguins. Based on BirdLife species fact sheets in 2012, a total of 12 species worldwide are known or thought to be declining. Two species (emperor and Adélie) are predicted to decline in the future because of climate change, two are stable (Snares and royal) and two are increasing (chinstrap and king).

New Zealand has six different breeding penguins (35 percent of penguin species) from a world total of 18, with all but one New Zealand penguin species suffering population declines.

Forest & Bird’s Karen Baird has been investigating penguin issues in New Zealand and discussing these with penguin experts. She has developed a discussion document about priority conservation issues where Forest & Bird could do more work on the ground, as well as potentially work with BirdLife International to access more funding for penguin conservation in New Zealand.

If you or your branch is involved in penguin conservation or is interested in getting involved in this exciting project and want to know more, please contact Karen Baird at k.baird@forestandbird.org.nz.

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Biodiversity Holacanthella spinosa from Franz Josef.

Chasing giants New Zealand is home to an amazing range of colourful and bizarre springtails often undescribed by science because of their tiny size. Andy Murray gives us a glimpse into their world.

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or the last two years, I’ve been travelling around the world, studying and photographing Collembola – tiny six-legged animals commonly known as springtails.

On our human scale, most seem no more than jumping dust, often so small that they could fall through a pinhole without touching the sides. And, for some reason, I find them completely fascinating, which is why I left my entire life in the UK behind and travelled to the other side of the world to pursue them.

For the first few months in New Zealand, I forgot to look up. I didn’t take any photos of the Southern Alps in the evening sun, or panoramas of reflecting lakes and sodden tree ferns in the grey fury of a West Coast rainstorm. Just photo after loving photo of tiny springtails bounding through moss, conquering the dizzying heights of a log or running away from my lens through the leaf litter.

Springtails are incredibly diverse and ancient animals, with 400 million years of problem solving and niche-filling genius to draw on. They exist on the top of Mount Everest and in the world’s deepest cave. They are small enough to get caught up by the wind and be blown high in the atmosphere, 10,000 metres up.

They are capable of living in the blazing desert heat as well as in the haemolymph-numbing chill of Antarctica, complete with their own antifreeze. They live up trees, in the soil and on water, and are silently and invisibly crushed in their hundreds whenever you walk across a lawn. Luckily, they are also one of the most common of all the arthropods.

They come are all shapes and sizes. Rounded, flattened, long, short, spiked, shiny, brightly multi-coloured and colourless. They can be as small as 0.4mm, as big as 13mm. Some have anal spines; most have an ability to “spring”. Their skin is a meta material, self-cleaning and water-repellent.

But, most importantly, they’re all incredibly endearing and adorable.

To see springtails, you’ll need a loupe or magnifying glass, and half an hour to spend crawling around on your hands and knees outside. But it’s worth it. Anywhere you look, whether in a car park, the back garden or the rainforest, each fallen leaf and twig can often have a collection of tiny springtails wandering the underside.

Look closely at the edges of a garden pond and it’s likely you’ll see herds of Sminthurides, a water-surface-

It’s extremely likely that many Collembola species in New Zealand are already lost, destroyed wholesale without anyone noticing their passing.

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living Collembola, slowly grazing on algae along the pond edges, occasionally bouncing like tiny 1mm popcorn, spooked at every slight wind or shadow.

Look even closer and you might notice some of the females carrying the smaller males above their heads, antennae entwined in an amazing courtship ritual. And, if you look even closer still, you’ll notice that they are doing it all standing on the very tips of their six tiny claws, even on water.

New Zealand has many animals and plants not found anywhere else in the world, and springtails are no exception.

About 80 percent of species in the country are endemic.

Many of your Collembola have become specialists, adapted to a geographical area or a niche in the food chain. This has made them highly susceptible to the fast changes inflicted on them by modern forestry and agricultural practices, as well as climate change.

It’s extremely likely that many species in New Zealand are already lost, destroyed wholesale without anyone noticing their passing. It’s a worldwide problem for the smaller invertebrates, not just in New Zealand, and one usually ignored by we humans. But it’s a sobering fact to realise that, in all the world’s ecosystems, we are the only species that could be removed completely without a detrimental effect.

The reason I started this journey is one beautiful, at risk, forest genus called Holacanthella and my fascination with observing and photographing this iconic animal. They are New Zealand’s largest springtail and probably the most striking and unusual looking of them all. Strangely spiked and cartoon-like, blue, with yellow or orange spikes, they spend most of their lives in and on fallen and decaying logs in forests, eating slime moulds. They have become too big to spring, so instead, when exposed, they immediately scamper for the nearest crack and disappear.

Novokatianna species from Stewart island.

Dicyrtomina species from Tairua. All photos: Andy Murray

One of the greatest thrills of my life was finally getting to see my first live giant springtail, Holacanthella brevispinosa, in the dark and wet of the Coromandel bush. It was a thrill – sadly, or wonderfully, no different than the thrill a stamp collector might get when finding a 1906 Christchurch Exhibition one penny claret stamp in a drawer, or a rugby fan seeing their favourite All Blacks player walking down the street carrying shopping bags.

The thing was, I was so excited that I dropped the piece of wood it was standing on. It was another three months before I finally managed to find and photograph another.

So, of course, my journey continues, still photographing the strange and beautiful world of the Collembola. Much of New Zealand is still a mystery to me. Who knows how many new species of springtails hide undiscovered under a rock in Arthur’s Pass or deep in the moss somewhere in the middle of Stewart Island? There’s just not enough time.

These days, I grudgingly take photos of an occasional mountain or crashing wave, just to keep my friends quiet, but it’s still only springtails that I really love.

Pseudachorutes species from Thames.

*Andy Murray is a photographer, writer, entomologist and traveller. See www.chaosofdelight.org for more of his stunning images.

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Our people

Rob Fenwick & his great-grandad Sir George Fenwick Rob Fenwick talks about the influence of his ancestor Sir George Fenwick, newspaper baron and pioneer conservationist. By Caroline Wood.

Once dubbed the busiest man in New Zealand, Rob Fenwick is in a reflective mood when we meet in a small restaurant in Wellington’s CBD. Last year, after a shock cancer diagnosis, Rob sold Living Earth, the country’s largest municipal composting business that he co-founded back in the 1990s. The company spotted a gap in the market, and turned Auckland’s free organic rubbish into rich compost you could grow “terrific vegetables” in.

Selling the business has taken some pressure off, he says, but he shows no signs of slowing down even though he has just turned 65 years old.

A life-long Forest & Bird member, Rob remains very active in conservation. He chairs the Predator Free New Zealand movement, Kiwis for Kiwi Trust, Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge and NZ Antarctic Research Institute. He is also an advisor to the Department of Conservation, sits on the sustainability panels for Air NZ, Westpac and Next Foundation.

Like his great-grandfather Sir George Fenwick, Rob is an innovator, a risk taker and a leader. And the similarities don’t stop there. Both started their careers in journalism before becoming businessmen, conservationists and philanthropists. Both had varied and busy lives that crossed

Rob Fenwick with a photo of Sir George Fenwick, his greatgrandad. Photo: David Brooks

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the divide between journalism, the arts, business, politics and, of course, conservation.

Sir George was the editor and owner of the Otago Daily Times, co-founder of the New Zealand Press Association and was later knighted for services to journalism and the Dunedin community. He was also a keen tramper and amateur botanist. He would roam the countryside looking for new plant species with his friend the famous botanist, Leonard Cockayne. He has a species of hebe named after him. His enthusiasm for conservation manifested itself in many newspaper editorials and books about the natural world, especially his beloved Fiordland and Wakatipu, whose biodiversity he fought hard to save.

Rob says Sir George “undoubtedly influenced his career” with a visit to Dunedin as a boy impressing on him some of his great-grandad’s achievements, innovations and social reform legacy.

“A career in journalism was something that interested me and that’s where I started out. I also became interested in the things he had been instrumental in establishing and that included Forest & Bird and other interesting organisations. I read some of his books. He was a very big man in my life,” says Rob. Rob grew up surrounded by conservation. It’s in his blood. When Captain Val Sanderson established the Native Bird Protection Society at a public meeting in Wellington on 23 March 1923, the minute taker, and one of the first vice-presidents, was George Fenwick. By that point, Sir George was towards the end of his illustrious 65-year career. His experience, media savvy, and network of powerful contacts would have been very useful in the early days of Forest & Bird. Rob delivered the Val Sanderson Memorial Address at Forest & Bird’s AGM in 2011.

What Rob didn’t know until recently is that Sir George in his younger days was also a founder member of the Dunedin and Suburban Reserves Conservation Society, which was established on 15 October 1888. He therefore provides a historical link between the first conservation group in New Zealand and the first modern-day national environmental organisation – Forest & Bird.

“Sir George would have been enormously proud that Forest & Bird has managed to remain relevant to New Zealanders. The thing he would have liked most is that it has engaged Kiwis in believing that everyone can do something about [environmental threats], however big the problem seems. That’s what sets Forest & Bird apart from others,” says Rob. *Tackling environmental challenges in a changing world: see Part 2 of our Rob Fenwick interview on our blog, http://blog.forestandbird.org.nz.

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THEIR EUREKA MOMENT CAME WHEN CRAIG USED A GAS CANISTER TO INFLATE A FLAT MOUNTAIN BIKE TYRE.

The team from Goodnature is committed to using innovative design to bring the birdsong back. (Left to right) Robbie van Dam, Craig Bond and Stu Barr.

One hundred ways to kill a rat A part-time Department of Conservation job set three industrial design students on a path to help save New Zealand’s native birds from predators.

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company set up by three industrial design students is revolutionising the way countries protect endangered native species from introduced pests.

Wellington-based Goodnature is leading the way in the development of smart traps that kill instantly and humanely, don’t require toxins and reset themselves.

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Goodnature has its roots in the part-time job co-founder Robbie van Dam took at the Department of Conservation (DoC) to help fund his studies at Victoria University.

Some of the existing pest traps were inhumane, labour intensive and had to be manually reset. There was clearly a need for something better.

“So I sat down with my mate Craig and we worked out 100 ways to kill a rat,” says Robbie.

Robbie, Craig Bond and a third friend from university, Stu Barr, spent the next five years developing a reliable technology to kill pests.

“The challenge we set ourselves was overwhelming at first, and sometimes it still is. Product designers are never completely satisfied and that’s what keeps us innovating,” says Robbie.

Their eureka moment came when Craig used a gas canister to inflate a flat mountain bike tyre. They incorporated the idea into their design, using a compressed carbon dioxide canister to power a polymer-reinforced piston that strikes the skull of the pest animal when triggered.

The animal is killed immediately and drops to the ground, where it is left to decompose or be scavenged. The piston returns into place automatically, ready for the next kill.

Controlling pests in New Zealand’s conservation estate, says Robbie, requires killing between five and 12 animals per hectare per year. Goodnature’s current models of trap kill twice that number before the canister has to be replaced.

Goodnature’s award-winning traps have wiped out rat populations in Native Island, off Stewart Island, and at Harts Hill, near Te Anau.

They are used in New Zealand by DoC, local and regional councils, community groups and individuals. One-third of the traps are sent overseas for rats and mice and now to control species such as mongoose, mink and the grey squirrel.

“We’ve had technical challenges, but

we’ve managed to resolve them remarkably well. The toughest thing of all has been getting people to change the way they do things, and to accept new innovations,” says Robbie.

Maintaining cashflow has also been a challenge. Robbie, Craig and Stu won a grant from DoC’s innovation fund in their second year of operation.

Finding the right bank was an important step for the team. “We chose a bank that had a philosophy similar to our own and that supported New Zealand initiatives,” says Robbie.

While Goodnature started out as an exercise in problem-solving, Robbie says controlling pests to allow New Zealand’s native birds to flourish has become a lifelong passion for the team.

“We wrote business plans for the next one, five, 50 and 200 years. This is a challenge that is bigger than us; it’s bigger than any individual,” he says.

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Our projects

Whangaparaoa Peninsula is home to the threatened ornate skink (Cyclodina ornata).

North-West Wildlink

It hasn’t been all quiet on Auckland’s north-western front, as Melissa Irace explains.

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auline Smith wanted to see fantails return to her backyard. They used to be there in abundance, but one day, 10 years ago, she realised they had disappeared. When she dug a little deeper, she found that rats were the problem.

“About 80 percent of fantails in urban areas are taken by rats, so we decided to do something about them and bring back the birds,” says Pauline, a long-standing member and former Chairperson of Forest & Bird Hibiscus Coast.

So began the branch’s mission to make a pest-free peninsula at Whangaparaoa and provide another vital stepping stone in Auckland’s North-West Wildlink, a project that seeks to create safe pathways between some of our biggest city’s key biodiversity hotspots.

The project, which is called Paint the Peninsula Purple, was launched in January 2014. It has seen thousands of native trees and shrubs planted and an impressive 492 bait and trapping stations installed. So far they’ve caught 150

Forest & Bird members Pauline Smith and Anne Graham with a map showing bait stations and houses involved in their Paint the Peninsula Purple project.

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possums and two stoats, and eradicated thousands of rats.

Volunteer numbers have been built up to more than 50 people.

Like most North-West Wildlink projects, this communityled initative started close to an existing conservation project – in this case, Shakespear Regional Park, which is located at the tip of the peninsula. This is the first stop for native birds on their way west from the wildlife haven of Tiritiri Matangi Island. The peninsula project extends the regional park “stepping stone” to surrounding private land blocks and neighbourhoods.

“For this to work, we’ll eventually need one in three households in the peninsula undertaking pest control and native plantings in their own backyards,” says Anne Graham, Chairwoman of Forest & Bird Hibiscus Coast, who is leading the project along with Pauline.

“We’re driven by a personal mission – to have fantails and bellbirds back in our gardens – but it’s also incredibly motivating and inspiring to know we’re part of a much bigger initiative.”

Pauline added: “The Whangaparaoa Peninsula is home to endangered ornate skinks, and killing the rats will ensure the survival of these cute little reptiles. At our managed sites, we see huge numbers of them basking in the sun now, whereas before they were rarely seen.”

North-West Wildlink was originally launched in 2006 with an accord between Forest & Bird, the Department of Conservation and four former Auckland councils. The aim was to create linked pockets of healthy habitats to act as “stepping stones” for native wildlife to travel and breed safely between the conservation hotspots of the Hauraki Gulf Islands in the north and the Waitakere Ranges in the west, home to the Ark in the Park open sanctuary.

When the accord expired in 2009 and a replacement was delayed by the merging of Auckland’s councils, the

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work on the ground was kept alive, largely through the efforts of Forest & Bird volunteers led by Nick Beveridge, Regional Manager for Auckland and Northland.

Later this year, North-West Wildlink is being relaunched with a new strategy, vision and renewed energy. New partner organisations have joined: the Gecko NZ Trust, QEII Trust and the University of Auckland – each bringing different strengths and focused interests. Auckland University, for example, is intending to do several different research projects, including a study exploring the influence of forest fragments on seed dispersal in urban areas.

Nick Beveridge explains: “Our new vision is to connect people and nature, so the area overflows with native birds.

In practical terms, we need more trees to be planted, more pests eradicated and more corridors to join the green dots on the map.

“We want to involve all kinds of landscapes, large and small, on public or private land. These could be everything from reserves to coastal fringes, open spaces, farms or private gardens.”

At the far western end of the North-West Wildlink pathway, Forest & Bird has been working to create the Ark in the Park “buffer zone”. This extends the predatorfree area around the Ark by providing traps, bait and pest control advice to local private landowners. More than 70 properties now form a 317-hectare buffer zone, which has boosted native bird populations. A recent annual bird count showed an increase in the number of endemic and native bird species, including a recording of a hihi (stitchbird) that was thought to have disappeared from the region.

PAINT THE PENINSULA PURPLE

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Map showing the North-West Wildlink’s route and some of the projects that already link key biodiversity hotspots.

*To find out more and get involved, contact Nick Beveridge on 09 302 3901 or email n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz

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Young conservationist Young Blake Expedition voyagers and crew on Enderby Island.

Photo: Brendon O’Hagan.

Unfurling

tomorrow’s leaders A group of high school students took part in a two-week scientific expedition to the Auckland Islands to collect baseline data on the effects of climate change, as Cherie Fenemor explains.

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he late Sir Peter Blake was not only a national sailing hero and renowned leader but also an advocate for the environment. The Sir Peter Blake Trust aims to continue his legacy with Young Blake Expeditions, where students have the opportunity to voyage across oceans to remote parts of our country, learning how and why these places are good indicators of global climate change and developing their leadership skills to become advocates themselves.

Earlier this year, I took some time out of my day job as a secondary school science teacher to join the 2016 Young Blake Expedition to the Sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands as its Environmental Educator. The expedition party of 14 environmentally minded students, including Forest & Bird member Guy McDonald, along with well-qualified scientists and a wider crew, voyaged to the Auckland Islands aboard the HMNZS Otago in early February. The expedition was focused around the inlets of the eastern side of the main Auckland Island, collecting baseline data on marine and terrestrial environments.

These environments support a rich biodiversity, enhanced because of their location within the subtropical convergence zone – the boundary between the cold subAntarctic waters and the warmer sub-tropical waters. This location also means that they will be one of the first places to face the impacts of a changing climate on ecological communities.

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Because these islands have not been comprehensively studied, we first need to know what is present to determine the rate and scale of change and the effect that it is having. To build on the current knowledge of the islands, the students, under the guidance of the scientists, spent three days collecting a range of different samples and metadata on and around the island. They collected and analysed zooplankton, carried out 10-minute bird counts, surveyed the intertidal zone, collected seaweed and coralline algae samples, and took soil samples for microbial analysis.

The collected samples will be analysed by scientists around the world and combined with qualitative observations to form a picture of what is present. The collated findings will be brought together in a scientific paper showing the base point of the Auckland Islands.

Although the sample sizes are small, the hope is that they will be enough to generate proposals to go back and carry out survey work in greater detail. Ideally, this research would be carried out from the base of the proposed Blake Station, in Smith Harbour.

Meanwhile, the students and crew alike have returned to their communities with a deeper understanding of the issue of climate change, a greater appreciation for the spread of our country, and the diversity it holds and an enthusiasm to invoke change and advocate for the environment, as Sir Peter Blake did.

Guy's voyage Last year’s Forest & Bird Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao Youth Award winner Guy McDonald was a student voyager on the expedition. Guy has been a volunteer with South Canterbury Forest & Bird for six years. Before that, he was a member of the South Canterbury Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC).

“During the expedition, I gained lots of valuable knowledge about the work that has been done and the work that still needs to be done in terms of pest eradication on the Auckland Islands. I also gained leadership skills, made amazing friends and learned many interesting facts about the changes in our planet’s climate, how much the sea levels are rising and how our seas are slowly becoming more acidic.

“Being able to talk to the two awesome Department of Conservation workers on the voyage was great as I have always wanted to work in conservation and I learnt lots about their pathways of how they got to where they are now. We also met four young DOC workers on Enderby Island who had been monitoring the sea lion population and yellow-eyed penguins. I loved talking to them and hearing how they managed to get such an epic job in such a remote part of New Zealand. This expedition has certainly opened my eyes to what I could be and do when I leave school at the end of this year.”

Cherie Fenemor (left), Aidan Braid and Guy McDonald collect seaweed samples in Smith Harbour, Auckland Island, for analysis

by NIWA. Photo: Brendon O’Hagan

Female New Zealand sea lion in Southern Rata forest, Musgrave Inlet, Auckland Island. Photo: Cherie Fenemor

Get involved n

Guy McDonald (left) and Harry Josephson-Rutter (Kelly Tarlton’s marine scientist) prepare to drop a 360-degree panoramic camera rig for observation. Photo: Brendon O’Hagan

The Sir Peter Blake Trust is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in 2004 to make a positive difference for the planet through activities that encourage environmental awareness and action, and leadership development.

The trust has two main parts – a leadership division and an environmental division, which provides opportunities for young environmentalists to further ignite their passion.

Year 11 to 13 students become eligible for future Young Blake Expeditions by first attending a YouthEnviroLeaders’ Forum run by the trust in the Term 1 holidays each year. n Secondary school science and geography teachers can apply to become an Environmental Educator with the trust – going on an expedition and spending one school term developing environmental education resources. Applications opened in mid-May. n Young environmentalists of 18–25 years of age have the opportunity to become a Blake Ambassador, working with Antarctica New Zealand, The Antarctica Heritage Trust, NIWA or DOC during the summer months. Applications opened in mid-May. For more information check out www.sirpeterblaketrust.org or email info@sirpeterblaketrust.org. *Cherie Fenemor is a Forest & Bird member and Palmerston North teacher, who accompanied the group as the expedition’s Environmental Educator.

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

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Community conservation

A botanical treasure Forest & Bird’s Thames branch turned a rundown Victorian reserve into a thriving arboretum, now thought to be New Zealand’s oldest, as Caroline Wood finds out.

For more than a decade, members of Forest & Bird’s Thames branch have worked tirelessly to preserve a botanical treasure in their town.

Pioneer conservationist John William Hall started planting trees on his three-acre Thames property in 1872.

The plantings were at their peak in the early 1900s, but the place fell into disrepair after Hall died in 1915 and was gradually forgotten about until a Forest & Bird member overheard a chance conversation about a JW Hall at a conference in the late 90s.

And so began a botanical detective hunt that led to a Forest & Bird restoration project culminating in Hall’s reserve being declared an arboretum – now considered

by Thames Coromandel District Council to be New Zealand’s oldest.

Hall, the town’s Victorian chemist, was ahead of his time in planting trees, rather than chopping them down. He was also unusual for seeing the value of native trees, planting kauri, tōtara, kahikatea, pūriri and miro alongside his imported English species.

Hall propagated and studied JW Hall was an amateur naturalist in the best trees in his garden, sending samples tradition of the Victorian back to Kew Gardens and other era. Photo: courtesy of his botanical centres on England’s mild great grandson Ron Hall South Coast. He is best known for having Hall’s tōtara (Podocarpus hallii) named after him. Today, the two Hall’s tōtara planted in the arboretum rank among the most historically significant trees in New Zealand.

Ken Clark, 92, has been a branch member since 1984 and has worked countless hours on the Hall’s reserve restoration project.

He said: “After Hall died, the place went to wrack and ruin. The planting records were lost and the council took it over. There were no boundaries. You couldn’t see what was reserve and what wasn’t.

Thames branch member Ken Clark.

“In the 1990s, a retired botanist, Alison Williamson, went to a conference where Hall was mentioned and realised that she lived next door to his arboretum! Alison was on the Forest & Bird committee and she made us aware of it.

“At the time, Forest & Bird was monitoring the town’s more iconic trees, and we added Hall’s Reserve to our work programme. We got the axes and shovels out and

Hall's Arboretum is thought to be the oldest in New Zealand.

Photo: Sereena Burton

worked on it. Before that, it was mixed up with the shrub and bush on the hills around Thames and we didn’t even know its boundaries.

“We planted 30 Hall’s tōtara out of respect, but found out later that we had done it on private property and they got removed. When the council became aware of the muddle, they spent $16,000 surveying the land and putting a boundary fence around it. That was about 12 years ago.”

Over the years, Forest & Bird has successfully sought grant funding of about $150,000 to help protect and preserve the reserve. Volunteers cleared the worst of the weeds and established bait stations to control the pests.

The branch also asked Auckland Museum to support its classification as an “arboretum”. This milestone was reached three years ago.

The branch is grateful for the support it has received from local organisations and people. But there is still plenty more it would like to do. The trees haven’t yet been properly catalogued, and Ken is keen to see proper signs put up in the reserve. The branch is seeking grant funding for these projects. *Hall’s Arboretum is in the foothills to the South-East of Thames. For more information and a map, see www.tcdc.govt.nz.

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Conservation in the city Kākā down: a pre-fledged grounding for this youngster.

Photo: Aliscia Young

Ode to nature Nature has reclaimed the land in parts of Wellington, but we humans need to adapt our behaviour if biodiversity is to thrive, writes David Young.

W

hen Denis Glover wrote New Zealand’s arguably most-remembered poem, The Magpies, he evoked human endeavour in the face of nature’s timeless dominance, darkened by Depression farming.

The magpie’s Australian ancestry did not prevent it from assuming rural symbolism here, more than any native bird.

When Glover’s poem was first published in 1941, the idea of restoring indigenous “biodiversity” was at best novel. Possums were trapped largely for their fur. Apart from deer, mustelids, rodents and other feral impacts were almost unrecognised, and invasive weeds barely identified.

Today, we need another “magpie” poem that speaks of human endeavour triumphing over introduced pests, of conservation scientists daring to dream of bigger zones free of exotic predators and pests. What were once native wilderness rarities now pop up in our remnant and regenerating native forests, wetlands and coastlands – often those touching human communities.

The prompt for such thoughts occurred in February, when I came within metres of a fledgling kākā on a track in OtariWilton’s Bush, which is in our Wellington neighbourhood.

There were signs warning “kākā nesting”, so I asked the Otari staff where the nest actually was. Sizing me up, they said: “Up on the beginning of the Blue Trail, not far in.”

But I was with a friend that day, chatting and walking, and we must have walked right past it.

The following day I went back and followed the 36

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Blue Trail, which leads to a stand of rimu containing an 800-year-old veteran of many storms. Again I walked past the nest, like dozens of others who were on the trail that week. Armed with more precise instructions, I tried again.

I could hear kākā working overhead in the canopy but still couldn't see the nest.

After walking an extra bend or so, a grey warbler’s call suggested I had gone too far. Ambling back to the area where the chick had to be, I opened up my senses to the possibility. Soon, there it was.

It sat within three metres, in a small clearing densely covered in fallen browning leaves. I heard it squawk, watched it wildly striving for flight. Close to fledging, it was probably a younger sibling tipped from an overcrowded nest. All the while, three adult kākā feeding in the canopy above kept watch, sunlight filtering as the deflected northerly caught and swayed the tawa, māhoe and kohekohe tops. Dropped berries may have attracted the fledgling.

Staff had been doing predator-monitoring surveys.

“Very few rats,” said one, “and little sign of mustelids.”

The trapping behind such observations had given the grounded bird a fighting chance.

It seemed a privilege to be in the presence of new life in this form, but I realised that, to enjoy it, our mentality needs to shift from exercise (or out-with-a-friend-for-achat mode) – both of which are fine things – into the zone where our focus is on nature. On being, on sensing, on

walking in the forest as a promoter of senses – or, as the Japanese call it, “forest bathing”.

This reminded me of how Wellington’s western suburbs used to be, just years ago. In 1990, our corner crawled with conspicuous Australians: possums and Glover’s magpies. The former were acrobats of our power lines, the latter enforcers. It was not until these visitors were quietly extirpated that restoration of our valley’s indigenous systems could begin. The tūī then returned to reclaim the catchment.

In the early 1990s, Wellington City Council got stuck in to old man’s beard, cathedral bells, blackberry and other noxious weeds, while mounting a successful possumpoisoning programme through much of the Ngaio Gorge.

This work now extends to most of the city’s 4000ha of reserves.

The indomitable Francis Lee led a revegetation group in the Ngaio Gorge that still continues. Today, it is one of some 120 revegetation groups, 40 in the Town Belt alone, formally recognised and supported by the council. Other New Zealand towns and cities have similar stories.

Then, in 1999, the Karori Sanctuary, now Zealandia, completed its pioneering pest-exclusion fence to host endangered birds – including tīeke, kiwi and kākā – to breed as part of the 225ha ecosystem restoration. Many

The Magpies When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm The bracken made their bed, And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said Tom’s hand was strong to the plough Elizabeth’s lips were red, And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said Year in year out they worked While the pines grew overhead, And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said But all the beautiful crops soon went To the mortgage-man instead, And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said Elizabeth is dead now (it’s years ago) Old Tom went light in the head; And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said The farm’s still there. Mortgage corporations Couldn’t give it away.

And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies say.

“The Magpies” by Denis Glover (1912-80) reproduced courtesty of the Denis Glover literary estate and Pia Glover.

Do you write poetry about nature? We’d love to hear from you, send a sample of your poetry to editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

The writer standing before the 800-year-old rimu on Otari-Wilton Bush’s Blue Trail. Photo: Aliscia Young

vanished from Wellington 120 years century ago, although occasionally kākā from Kāpiti Island reached the Tararua Range’s city edge. Even in the early 1990s, tūī in the region numbered less than an estimated two dozen and kererū were considerably fewer, with maybe one bellbird pair.

Kākā are now estimated at 250.

One of the defining features of modern Wellington is how nature has been enabled to claim itself back, to regain its natural vigour. In return, we users need to adapt our behaviour if biodiversity is to thrive. Unleashed dogs, for example, have to be verboten. Our own nature, as it were, needs to keep up with our city’s changing nature.

Māori often referred to kākā as creatures of chatter and gossip. Close your eyes and listen to the flocks of kākā flying overhead calling to one another and imagine when this was the natural order of things. As in Māori philosophy, conservationists are looking back in order to look forward.

Even though our islands are still losing natural biodiversity faster than we are saving it, we have a huge constituency across the land committed to working with nature and building resilience and life back into our streams, forests, wetlands and coasts – and hopefully the native populations that depend on them. That’s what the successor to Glover’s beloved poem might be about. *David Young is an environmental historian and author.

See www.davidyoungwriter.com.

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Predator-free New Zealand The ZIP team’s view of Bottle Rock Peninsula from their Resolution Bay base.

ZERO INVASIVE PREDATORS

A range of smart technologies is being trialled in the Marlborough Sounds to see if a peninsula can be kept predator-free with no need for a fence. Penny Wardle talks to Phil Bell, from the Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) team.

Why are you so excited by this trial?

I think the technologies we’re coming up with will trigger a massive shift towards smarter environmental predator control. With philanthropic investment, we’ve been able to make fast progress.

How did it begin?

In September 2014, the Department of Conservation started clearing rats and possums from the 440-hectare Bottle Rock Peninsula site, in Queen Charlotte Sound, ahead of testing methods for excluding predators without a fence. Six months later, the NEXT Foundation stepped in, as part of its programme of investing in large environmental projects. I was seconded from DOC to the Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) team, which has since grown from four researchers and field staff to 12.

What’s the plan?

We’re developing a “remove and protect” approach, first ridding the peninsula of predators using standard traps and toxins, including 1080. Then we created a series of defence lines, 100 metres apart. A range of traps and other predator-killing technologies are placed every 10 metres, a very high density compared with standard trap-lines.

We are trialling new remote-monitoring technologies for keeping track of predators that break through these barriers and to alert us when any are trapped.

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How long did it take to clear the peninsula of predators?

Removing possums took about six months. Rats took 12 months but we’re mapping newcomers sneaking back in.

Stoats weren’t originally part of the trial because they could come in and out of the study area without us knowing. In the last few months, we’ve rethought that and now target stoats using a combination of tunnel traps and PAPP – a poison that, like carbon monoxide, puts mammalian predators to sleep forever. Early this year, we dropped in six stoats fitted with transmitters and then tracked their movements from an aeroplane. So far, three have been caught in the barrier and the rest remain in the study area.

What control methods are you using?

A combination of tried-and-true predator traps and poisons plus new generation inventions created by team members and other experts that have been tested at Lincoln University. The trial area is protected by seven defence lines. The front-line is TUN200s, two side-by-side traps in a tunnel that dispatch rats and also stoats, plus leg-hold traps for possums. Defence line two is TUN200s alongside Goodnature A24 self-resetting rat traps and Trapinators to kill possums. The last lines have bait stations and TUN200s targeting stoats that move faster than other predators so need a deeper barrier.

What’s new about your traps?

Under each leg-hold trap is a transmitter, activated when a possum is caught and jumps off the platform. A radio signal passes from trap to trap then to a satellite base station at the end of the line. This communicates to a web server that texts the field ranger each morning which traps have been sprung. The team goes in immediately to dispatch trapped possums.

How well are the traps working?

Results are outstanding. In more than 200,000 trap nights, they have been consistently reliable.

Will this make predator control cheaper?

Trapping predators is labour-intensive so expensive. One possum trapper can clear about 250 traps a day, walking past every one. Satellite monitoring means, in theory, one person might oversee about 5,000 traps, depending on the environment and capture rate.

When will these technologies be available?

We’re still at the proof-of-concept stage. Each trap’s been custom-made so is very expensive. Once we have tools that no longer need tweaking, we’ll make as many as there’s a demand for and the price will come down significantly.

What’s next?

Ideas include a dispenser regularly spitting out globs of lures like peanut butter used to attract predators, saving the labour-cost of re-baiting every two to three weeks.

Another possibility is automated chew-cards that send out a signal when nibbled, replacing manual checks. And we’re looking at sandwiching chocolate, Nutella and soybean paste, which we now know some rats prefer to peanut butter, into chew-cards. Someday, I reckon we’ll use cameras and adapted face-recognition software to remotely detect predators.

ZIP executive assistant, Susannah Aitken tracks a radio-collared stoat to a TUN200 trap in the defence zone. Photo: Rory Harnden, Ink Digital

Bottle Rock Peninsula in Queen Charlotte Sound. The defence zone is shaded purple.

Are the investors looking to make a profit?

There’s no commercial motive. ZIP is a partnership between the NEXT Foundation (which gives $2 for every $1 from DOC), the Morgan Foundation, Sam Morgan and a group of dairy companies that see double-benefits in building Brand New Zealand while protecting animal health.

What do you think of the public–private partnership approach?

It’s awesome. Collaboration is essential in everyone’s lives, and I don’t believe we can achieve greatness without it.

The fact that a group of people and organisations are willing to invest in New Zealand’s future reminds me why we are lucky to live in Aotearoa.

A line of TUN200s on the ground with Trapinators and GoodNature A24s on trees along Queen Charlotte Track.

Photo: Rory Harnden

Is a predator-free New Zealand achievable?

A combination of predator-control methods will get us there. New Zealand has lots of “sticky-out-places” like Bottle Rock Peninsula where we can make an impact, as well as urban areas. It’s a huge landscape, but I see a future that’s the inverse of invasion, with predator populations being gradually squeezed from the outside-in.

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In the field

Fabulous feathers

White-fronted tern.

kea.

It’s all down to feathers, as Ann Graeme finds out.

I

have a puffer jacket. It lives inside a tiny bag scarcely bigger than my fist. It has a down feather filling and a windproof outer and it keeps me warm in the wind and the winter cold. I look rather like a penguin in it, which is appropriate because penguins adopted this design millions of years ago. It is such a successful recipe that it allows the most extraordinary of birds, the emperor penguin, to stand all winter long on the ice in the teeth of an Antarctic blizzard, warming an egg on his feet and wearing nothing but his feather “puffer jacket”.

Anchiornis is a genus of small feathered dinosaurs that was discovered in 2009 in China.

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This ability is all down to feathers (excuse the pun).

Every bird is covered in feathers. You may think feathers are for flying, but no, it seems likely that feathers served in the first place for insulation and perhaps for display.

Feathers evolved from reptile scales, elongated and thread-like, much like the very first filaments that sprout on a baby bird.

As fossil evidence from China shows, some dinosaurs had feathers. It is likely that their owners were warmblooded and those first feathers helped to insulate them and could be modified for show. The recently-discovered Anchiornis, which lived about 150 million years ago, was the size of a bantam hen and sported a coat of spangled back and white feathers and a red Mohawk! Perhaps it strutted about showing off its finery to the females but its short wings and floppy feathers probably meant it couldn’t fly.

While we can only speculate what use feathers were to dinosaurs it is easy to see that feathers are critical to their descendants, the birds.

Every modern bird is clothed in a puffer jacket of fluffy down feathers covered by a layer of sleek, windproof, waterproof feathers. Each feather is attached to a tiny muscle so the bird can raise and lower it. When the down feathers are raised it increases the layer of warm air trapped against the skin, like putting on a thicker duvet.

This is why sparrows look so plump on a frosty morning.

Attached to the short stalk of a down feather is a mass of fine, branched filaments which float freely, trapping air and insulating the wearer from heat and cold. Flight feathers are more sophisticated. Each feather has a shaft with a row of filaments called barbs along either side. From each barb sticks out two rows of barbules which mesh with

Spot the feather competition Test your powers of observation by identifying the birds that these feathers belong to! The first person to correctly identify all three birds will win a copy of the Extraordinary Beauty of Birds

by Deborah Samuel (RRP $64).

Email your answers to: draw@forestandbird.org.nz and put “feathers” in the subject line. Please include your name and address in the email. Alternatively put your answers, name and address on the back of an envelope and post to Feathers draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on 1 August.

Australasian crested grebe.

All photos: Craig McKenzie

their neighbours, held by minute hooks and eyes. The resulting flat surface is so tight and smooth that it is both watertight and airtight, and wonderfully suited to be an aerofoil.

Every bird depends on its feathers and these remarkable structures must be carefully maintained in order to work well. A bird is always busy. When it is not searching for food it is cleaning and preening, running each flight feather through its beak to zip up the barbules and keep the surface smooth and airtight.

Besides their usefulness for warmth and flying, feathers lend themselves to decoration. One bird’s plumage may provide subtle camouflage, while another’s is bright and beautiful and even bizarre, in order to attract a mate. And all these fancy feathers require maintenance. Pity the poor peacock!

Feathers have a few downsides. They can be too hot and a bird has difficulty cooling itself for it can only sweat through its mouth, which is why you sometimes see birds panting. But the biggest drawback is that feathers wear out and must be replaced. This means moulting and growing new feathers is an itchy, uncomfortable process and one that is dangerous too, for moulting birds may be temporarily grounded.

But these drawbacks are minor compared to the advantages that feathers have brought. Feathers have enabled birds to fly, to cross oceans and continents, to find new and seasonal food sources, to meet and impress mates and to live in the farthest corners of the world. There are more than 10,000 species of birds in the world. Besides being a source of food and feathers, they bring beauty and wonder to us earth-bound humans as we brave the weather in our down jackets!

Photos: Rod Morris/www.rodmorris.co.nz

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Our people

Tom spoke for the trees OBITUARY: Tom Hay was a revered Aotearoa environmentalist and an activist to the core. He was a young seaman when he joined the campaign to save the Waipoua Kauri Forest in the late 1940s. His environmentalism continued through his career working on the wharves at Lyttelton and into his retirement.

Over the decades, he campaigned against nuclear weapons, to save Lake Manapouri, against corporate power, to save West Coast native forests, Canterbury wetlands and rivers, and much much more. He was a prolific, well-researched and articulate campaigner, and his impact

extended across New Zealand. He fought to maintain the status of existing South Island reserves, while lobbying to establish many new ones.

Even into old age, Tom was still writing submissions.

From at least 1959, Tom was on the committee of Forest & Bird’s Canterbury Branch and served as Chairman from 1964 to 1973. He helped establish a youth study group to educate and enthuse local young members. Tom was also an energetic helper out on reserves, whether attacking willows with a huge Canadian chainsaw or donning waders in Travis Swamp to look for mudfish.

In 2010, Tom Hay was awarded an Old Blue, Forest & Bird’s highest award in recognition of his many years of volunteer work “on behalf of nature”. He deserved many more awards, but his legacy lives on in the natural world.

Tom Hay (1923–2016) died 2 April, Lyttelton, aged 92 years.

Diana Shand

New faces at Forest & Bird Natasha Sitarz joined Forest & Bird in February as Resource Management Planner and is based in our Christchurch office. Natasha previously worked in environmental policy for Horizons Regional Council and Environment Canterbury. More recently, she was a senior planning advisor for the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Natasha has a strong interest in environmental policy and is already enjoying the challenges and opportunities of her role, which involves offering advice and support to Forest & Bird on resource management matters, including regional and district plans and resource consents.

She says she is thrilled to be working with a group of people who are passionate conservationists.

Forest & Bird has also recently appointed two Auckland-based lawyers to cover Erika Toleman, who

Natasha Sitarz

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is on maternity leave until next May. Ruby Haazen and Mischa Davis will be primarily involved in Resource Management Act cases.

Our newest staff member is Julie Harris, who has joined Forest & Bird’s fundraising team as its new grants officer. Julie has a work background in academia, the private sector, government and, more recently, in NGOs. Julie is very involved with the work of our birds and bees (in a garden sense!). In 2012, she established the Wellington branch of Community Fruit Harvesting, a small award-winning food rescue charity.

Julie works three days a week and is looking forward to working with the team to grow Forest & Bird’s funding base. Julie loves heritage buildings and travelling. She has just returned from a sabbatical in Europe.

We welcome Natasha, Ruby, Mischa and Julie to the Forest & Bird team!

Mischa Davis

Julie Harris

Wellington member Katie Underwood cycled 3,000km and raised more than $6,500 for our Freshwater for Life campaign. Katie set off from Cape Reinga in February to cycle the length of the country to Bluff. The real estate agent is fascinated by long-fin eels and other freshwater species and wanted to highlight their decline. Katie cares passionately about our work, and she is one of our Forest & Bird fundraising heroes! You read about her journey and make a donation at https://give.everydayhero.com/nz/ cycling-for-freshwater.

HOT OFF THE PRESS Working together for nature tells the history of the North Shore Forest & Bird branch from 1969 to 2015 through the eyes of its most important assets, its members. It took five years to complete and was made possible through a donation from long-term member Jim Lewis. To buy a copy, email northshore.branch@forestandbird. org.nz or call Jocelyn Sanders on 09 479 2107. It costs $15 + $3 p&p.

Seabirds

Pioneering project

A Chatham Island albatross fledgling practices its take-off skills before leaving to roam the ocean. Photo: David Boyle/Chatham Island Taiko Trust

takes off

It was touch and go during the recent transfer of albatross chicks to their new breeding site in the Chatham Islands, as David Brooks finds out.

Fluffy Chatham Island albatross chicks sitting on peat-filled plastic garden pots surrounded by decoy adult birds make for a comical sight, but the purpose couldn’t be more serious.

The pioneering project – only the second in the world to attempt to create a new albatross nesting site – is one of several exciting conservation projects run by the community-driven Chatham Islands Taiko Trust.

The the entire population (about 5,000 breeding pairs) of this rare albatross, also known as the Chatham Island mollymawk, breeds on The Pyramid, a barely accessible rock stack to the south of Pitt Island in the remote archipelago.

During the past three summer breeding seasons, 50–60 albatross chicks a year have been transferred from The Pyramid to a new nesting area on Chatham Island. The new site is insurance against disaster striking The Pyramid.

“Climate disruption means the chances of major storms damaging their natural breeding site are rising all the time,” says Project Manager Mike Bell.

This year, the transfer of chicks nearly didn’t happen at all because rough weather prevented a landing on The Pyramid until late February, just two days before the deadline for pulling the plug for the season. A break in the weather resulted in 50 chicks being transferred about six weeks before they were due to fledge. Five later died from heat stress in unusually hot and calm conditions, which also caused chick deaths at The Pyramid.

The remaining chicks flourished and, after days of flexing their wings and practising take-offs, the fivemonth-olds disappeared over the Pacific towards coastal feeding grounds off Chile and Peru. These birds are not expected to return to breed for around five years, so it may be another three years before the birds from the 2014 breeding season start returning.

Looking after the chicks is labour-intensive but there is plenty of community support. The chicks hatch on natural pedestal nests their parents make from soil and other organic matter. Once they are old enough, some of them are carefully transported to the new nesting site and placed on their plastic pot “nests”, which mimic the real thing.

The chicks are hand-fed with a mixture of squid and fish until they fledge, around four tonnes each season, which is provided by local fishing company Chatham Island Food Company and transported by Air Chathams. Volunteers help with feeding and other work, but the project is still very expensive because of the isolation of the Chathams, where fuel and other basics cost twice as much as on the mainland.

Albatrosses generally return to breed where they nested as chicks. It’s hoped they will come to breed at the new nesting site when they return in five years’ time.

“The big question is how long the chicks need on Chatham Island to ‘imprint’, so they will come back to our nesting site rather than The Pyramid,” says Mike. In previous years, some chicks have been transferred three months before fledging and others about six weeks before.

If the latter group return to the the new breeding site, future costs for albatross translocations can be reduced.

To find out more see the Taiko Trust’s website, www.taiko.org.nz or their Facebook page.

The fluffy albatross chick will sit on its plastic nesting pot until it is ready to fledge.

There is strong community support for the project.

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Our partners

Native plant heroes Which of our native plants are also natural healers? Jess Winchester finds out when she talks to naturopath Katie Stone, who works for PureNature, one of Forest & Bird’s sponsors.

“A lot of people think naturopathy is just about hippies and crystals or they confuse it with homeopathy, which is another discipline entirely,” says Katie Stone, who trained as a naturopath after working for several years as a journalist. When not writing or talking herbs at PureNature, she's out running.

Naturopathy is based on the belief that the body can be healed holistically – that diet, lifestyle, mind and body are intrinsically linked. Katie explains that what we eat can affect our mind and body, just as how we think can affect our digestion and how well we’ve slept can change our stress levels.

“Naturopaths treat the whole person. For example, instead of giving someone a prescription to treat their eczema, you’d look at their diet, health history, familial history, work and environment. Then you’d create a plan that incorporates each of those aspects,” says Katie.

“There’s a lot of evidence for the efficacy of natural medicine. Garlic, for example, has been shown to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. Often herbal medicines can be administered in a variety of ways – mānuka essential oil can be applied neat to a fungal infection, or kawakawa leaves can be steeped into a tea and taken to relieve indigestion.”

PureNature (www.purenature.co.nz) is an online supplier of natural health products and works only with suppliers who guarantee that plants are sustainably harvested, without causing unnecessary damage to either the plant or its environment. The company donates $1 for every completed web order to Forest & Bird or to the cancer charity Look Good Feel Better.

Katie says Forest & Bird was the natural choice when the company was selecting a charity: “We have so much to be grateful for in New Zealand’s environment. It gives us so much and it’s easy to take that for granted. This is our way of giving back – not just to nature but to the next generation of New Zealanders who will inherit it.

“We want to create awareness of the work Forest & Bird does in protecting our native flora and fauna. The demand for natural products is growing all the time, which is great, but it has be reciprocal. The more we take, the more we have to give back,” she says.

Cures from nature Māori used more than 200 native plants for medicinal purposes, according to Te Ara, the encyclopedia of New Zealand.

Here are two of Katie’s hero plants.

Mānuka or New Zealand teatree (Leptospermum scoparium) is one of New Zealand’s most powerful natural healers. Its antifungal and anti-bacterial properties are thought to be even stronger than Australian teatree (Melaleuca alternifolia), and Photo: Wikipedia studies have shown mānuka honey to be anti-microbial against a number of serious pathogens, including Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.

44

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Kawakawa (the pepper tree) is another valuable New Zealand native. It has long been used in traditional medicine as a digestive aid and is widely known as a topical anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial treatment.

Its leaves were used by Europeans in a steam bath Photo: Caroline Wood for rheumatism, and a kawakawa poultice was applied for toothache. The leaf and bark were considered a remedy for stomach ache and the root chewed for dysentery.

Citizen science

Garden Bird Survey needs you!

Celebrating its 10th birthday this year, the Garden Bird Survey is one of New Zealand’s oldest citizen science projects, as Kimberley Collins finds out.

Every year for the past decade, thousands of people head into their backyards to help monitor local bird populations during New Zealand’s national Garden Bird Survey.

“Having 10 years of data will make analysing trends over time very interesting. We can say which bird is the most common each year, but we need more years to compare before we can get a handle on long-term trends,” explains Eric Spurr, who coordinates the Garden Bird Survey.

To date, the house sparrow has come out on top each year as the most common garden bird, but Eric says this will vary from garden to garden, based on location and whether people are feeding the birds.

“We usually see more birds and species variation in rural gardens, but house sparrows and greenfinches are more common in urban gardens,” he says.

“There are often a higher number of birds in gardens where people feed the birds, though the kind of species depends on what food they’re putting out. Bread and seeds attract house sparrows and finches, while people who put out sugar water and fruit are more likely to see tūī,

bellbirds and silvereyes.”

The annual survey is thought to be New Zealand’s oldest citizen science project. Last year was one of the most popular to date with more than 3,500 people recording more than 138,000 birds, and Eric hopes that even more people take part this year.

“The more people that take part, the better quality our data will be – especially in smaller regions where fewer people participate,” he says.

How can you help? n

Do the survey! There is a form overleaf, or you can submit it online at www.landcareresearch.co.nz. n Photograph the birds in your garden and share the images on www.facebook.com/groups/ nzgardenbirdsurvey – there are more than 1,200 images on there already. n Encourage your child’s school to get involved and do the survey together as a class topic.

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New Zealand

GARDEN Grey Warbler © Satyaki Hosmane

BIRD SURVEY

25 June – 3 July 2016 Take part in the 10th annual NZ Garden Bird Survey!

By surveying birds in your gardens, parks or school grounds, you can help us learn more about New Zealand’s common and widespread birds.

AFTER SELECTING YOUR GARDEN, PARK OR SCHOOL....

1. Choose any ONE day between 25 June and 3 July 2016.

2. Look for birds for ONE hour in your survey area.

3. For each species record the HIGHEST number seen (or heard) at one time.

4. Submit your survey results online: http://gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz

TIP Help us process the results more efficiently by submitting online.

Or fill in and return the form provided opposite.

5. Check out the findings online.

Guide to common birds

15cm or less

House Sparrow (m) House Sparrow (f) Yellowhammer (m) Yellowhammer (f)

Medium-sized birds Up to 30cm

Large birds Over 30cm

Eastern Rosella

Tūī

Kererū

Bellbird

Magpie

Greenfinch (m)

Greenfinch (f)

Goldfinch

Dunnock

Song Thrush

Chaffinch (m)

Chaffinch (f)

Redpoll

Fantail

Myna

Starling

Red-billed Gull

Blackbird (f)

Blackbird (m)

Black-backed Gull

Silvereye

Welcome Swallow

Grey Warbler

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

Identifying which species, if any, are declining or increasing will guide future conservation efforts.

TIP If you see 1 blackbird at one time, then later see 2 at one time, record this as 2. Don’t add them up.

Start Time

Magpie

Myna

Red-billed Gull

Rock Pigeon

Rosella (Eastern)

Silvereye

Song Thrush

Starling

Tūī

Welcome Swallow

Yellowhammer

Blackbird

Black-backed Gull

Chafnch

Dunnock

Fantail

Goldnch

Greennch

Grey Warbler

House Sparrow

Kererū

bird

ck Bla 1, 2

Bellbird

TIP If you see 1 blackbird at one time, then later see 2 at one time, record this as 2. Don’t add them up.

For each species record the HIGHEST number seen (or heard) at one time.

Region

Postcode

Town/City

Suburb

Number & Street

Where you did the survey

Survey Date

When you did the survey

birds for ONE hour in your survey area.

Any ONE day between 25 June and 3 July, look for

Please re-fold leaet and tape along edge before posting

Fix Stamp here

NZ Garden Bird Survey Landcare Research Private Bag 1930 Dunedin 9054

Urban Park

Urban garden

Urban School

Rural School

>600 m2

400-600 m2

Other

No

Yes Do you have a water-bath for birds?

I do not want to be contacted to clarify my results.

I do not want my name visible online.

I do not want my exact survey location visible online.

Your name and garden location will be stored online on naturewatch.org.nz.

We will not give or sell your details to anyone else.

Email

Tel

Surname

First name

N/A

N/A

Seeds

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

Children (<18)

Contact Details

Adults

How many took part?

No

Yes

No

Other (describe)

Fruit

Did you have food out for birds in the survey area during the survey?

Fat

No

Yes

Sugar-water

Bread

Yes

Shrubs < 5m

200-400 m2

Did your survey area include the area where you feed birds?

If yes, what?

Do you feed birds?

Trees > 5m

Lawn, ower and/or vege garden

Vegetation in survey area (tick all that apply)

100-200 m2

< 100 m2

Area surveyed for birds (except birds ying overhead) (tick one)

Rural Park

Rural garden

Description of survey area (tick one)

Tell us about the survey area

Going places

Penny Wardle at Hikuraki/North Mavora Lake, on what was a traditional route for Ngāi Tahu in search of pounamu/ greenstone. Photo: Nicky Eade.

Tramping Te Araroa For anyone who likes to put a pack on their back and head into the hills, Penny Wardle recommends Te Araroa trail.

M

uddy socks, wind-buffeted tents, swift-flowing rivers and swarms of sandflies – Kiwi tramping experiences are being absorbed by hundreds of energetic tourists walking the 3,000km Te Araroa Trail, which runs the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

This autumn, Nicky Eade and I joined them, walking the southern stretch from Lake Ohau, near Twizel in South Canterbury, to the Takitimu Range, which is between eastern and western Southland. As SOBO (south-bound) section-walkers in Te Araroa-speak, we dipped in for just four weeks of what is can be a four- to five-month journey to complete the whole thing.

As trail newbies struggling under heavy packs, we were soon overtaken by the first of many hardened walkers.

Tanned and lightly loaded, they’d lope past with effortless steps intent on reaching the trail’s end in Bluff after weeks of walking.

A German couple we shared a hut with said their North Island highlight was connecting with friendly Kiwis, while the South Island route impressed with its remoteness. On some sections, they’d suffered from deep mud, difficult river crossings and a rat-infested hut, but their only complaint was of some tedious and dangerous roadwalking, mainly in the North.

Te Araroa CEO Rob Wakelin reckons about 350 people

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

set out to complete the trail this season. This included 50 to 60 Kiwis, with about 90 percent successful. That’s up from 210 last year, despite no active marketing.

Kiwis we met were section-walkers like ourselves, including a grey-haired group heading north towards Queenstown on the 50km Mavora-Greenstone Walkway.

One of the group was carrying an historic Mountain Mule pack. On the Motatapu Track, which exits near Lawrence in Central Otago, a group of Queenstown-based young people were on a weekend walk. Off Te Araroa trail, we shared Hope Arm hut, on Lake Manapouri, with fairweather hunters who drank beer and told stories but didn’t make it out the door with a light drizzle falling.

Wiser after a week in the hills, we lightened our load by swapping heavy tents and sleeping bags for lightweight versions, cut down from two cookers to one with a sole gas cylinder that we now knew would last us five days or more. A rhythm was developing of choosing a scenic site to erect our tent late each afternoon, soaking then cooking delicious dinners prepared in Nicky’s dehydrator, then settling back to watch the setting sun drench the landscape with intense colour.

After up to 11 hours sleep, stiff muscles and stretched tendons settled, we’d boil a billy for porridge and a hot drink, then ease on the wet socks and boots for another day on the trail.

Walking up to eight hours per day, we steadily progressed through the numbered maps and notes downloaded off the Te Araroa website, walking Careys Hut, Hikuraki/North Mavora about 250 kilometres of Lake. Photo: Penny Wardle trail and hitching rides on connecting stretches of road. Scenic detours included climbing 1715m Mt Titiroa near Lake Manapouri on the edge of Fiordland, where eroded granite resembles snow and boulders balance in precarious piles.

There we saw and heard kea, swooping through swirling mist. Below the mountain at our campsite the previous night, we listened to the wispy whistle of whio (blue duck).

Other highlights included hearing the peeping call of mohua (yellowheads) in the Mavora Lakes area of Southland and kākā during another diversion along the southern Fiordland Coast to historic timber-town Port Craig.

Being autumn, abundant fungi splashed the forest floor with colour. Slime-dripping brown caps, golden domes, crinkled pink and red, like lettuce leaves and coral, delicately woven baskets that melt into a yolky mess … we saw and photographed some of the endless variety growing on the damp forest floor.

In four weeks, we traversed forests, swamps and farmland, including the 13,365ha Mount Linton Station in the Takitimu Mountains. We climbed steep slopes, crossed gentle saddles between catchments, waded rivers, camped in many scenic spots from lakesides to mountainsides and creating many treasured memories.

Penny Wardle is a regional field advisor for the New Zealand Walking Access Commission. Two years ago, she walked the Northland section of Te Araroa trail, and this autumn she spent a month walking the southern section. Her walking companion, Nicky Eade, is an environmental scientist at the Marlborough District Council.

Manawapōre/South Mavora Lake. Photo: Penny Wardle

Breast Hill Track above Lake Hāwea. Photo: Penny Wardle

Getting there Directions:

Te Araroa is a collection of linked trails that was officially opened in December 2011. Walking the length from Cape Reinga to Bluff takes about 100–160 days. Or you can walk sections, from one-day urban walks to multi-day backcountry tramps.

Staying there:

There are huts along Te Araroa, but some nights you’ll need a tent.

Generally, there’s no need to book, but check notes for the section you plan to walk.

More information: A good starting point for route planning is A Walking Guide to New Zealand’s Long Trail: Te Araroa by Geoff Chapple.

For more information, including detailed, regularly updated maps and notes, go to www.teararoa.org.nz.

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| 49

Biodiversity Specimens coming in from the field during the 24-hour insect bioblitz at Bushy Park Sanctuary, with Dr Robert Hoare far right.

Bioblitz moth controversy The trapping and killing of a rarely seen species of moth recently caused a flurry of upset comments on Facebook. Mike Dickison sets some facts straight.

In February, scientists from all over New Zealand took part in a bioblitz – a 24-hour species count – of Bushy Park, a Forest & Bird reserve near Whanganui. Landcare Research entomologist Robert Hoare was busy identifying insects when he made a startling discovery. A colleague checked the contents of a Malaise trap (a muslin tent that channels insects to an alcohol-filled collecting bottle) and passed him a couple of moths it had caught. Robert knew this group of moths, the lichen tuft moths, very well. He had even written a key to the group for Landcare. He was amazed to see the moths were Izatha caustopa, an endemic species that had only been seen once since 1985.

It’s important to note that I. caustopa may or may not actually be rare. Robert is one of the very few lepidopterists (butterfly and moth specialists) working in New Zealand and one of the only people in the world who would recognise the moth at first sight. Most moths are collected at night, in light traps, but I. caustopa doesn’t seem to be attracted to light. It had last been documented in Ohakune in 1921, in Wellington in 1942 and near Napier in 1964 and 1985. Its larvae burrow into dead branches of tree fuchsia, so its scarcity might reflect its host plant’s decline (tree fuchsia is very palatable to possums) but more likely reflects the shortage of entomologists out looking for small brown moths.

When the news was posted on Facebook, there was a flurry of upset comments: had we killed the last two? Why did we have to kill insects? Why not just take a photo?

It’s not widely understood why entomologists collect and pin insects or preserve them in alcohol. Photos are no use: some species can be told apart only by counting the number of hairs under the abdomen or by dissecting the male genitals. These days, entomology relies on examining 50

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

DNA, something you can’t get from a photograph.

Entomologists try to minimise unnecessary killing, but sometimes there’s no other way to survey hundreds of species in a single weekend.

As for wiping out the species, the fact that two moths were trapped in just the first night means they’re unlikely to be rare at Bushy Park – there must be thousands living there, unnoticed by anyone. The entomologists that can recognise them are an endangered species themselves.

That Bushy Park is a stronghold for Izatha caustopa is great news and shows the value of intensive surveys of remnant forests. How many other species have quietly gone extinct, undetected, while nobody was looking?

Mike Dickison is Curator of Natural History at Whanganui Regional Museum

Izatha caustopa by George Vernon Hudson from The Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand (1928).

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Forest & Bird

| 51

Book reviews Dispatches from Continent Seven, An Anthology of Antarctic Science by Rebecca Priestly

James Hector: Explorer, Scientist, Leader by Simon Nathan (Potton & Burton) $45

Reviewed by Phil Bilbrough

If you think your life is busy, try setting up and running what are now known as GNS Science, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington’s Botanical Gardens, the MetService and the Royal Society simultaneously, with a multitude of kids and a wife in tow. That’s what Sir James Hector did, albeit over 100 years ago. Simon Nathan’s biography is a fascinating account of the life and work of a man, born in Edinburgh in 1834, who arrived in New Zealand after a character-building adventure across frontier Canada to survey the geology of Otago. Hector, perhaps known only by most (well, certainly by me anyway) as the namesake of the Hector’s dolphin and the small township of Hector on the West Coast, had what appeared to be endless energy. He not only kept up an – at times – unwieldy workload, he was a kind, fair, respected leader and scientist who retained loyal staff, many of whom left his service only when they were too old to carry on. This book is a little light on the detail of the man himself, his personality and his relationships, but it nonetheless leaves you with a real sense of the work, the achievements and the legacy that James Hector left for New Zealand.

This book is an anthology of science and creative writing about Antarctica. The stories are ordered chronologically, from some of the earliest explorers to modern day scientists still working there today. I loved Admiral Richard Byrd describing his threemonth solo meteorological stint in an underground Antarctic hut, wielding his seemingly steampunk-like weather measuring tools and recounting the frightening moment when he locked himself out. I was bowled over when I found out from Robert Falcon Scott’s diary that, on their tragic return from the South Pole, the Scott party stopped for some “geologising” and collected fossils (found later to be very important ones), when maybe they should have pressed on to safety. David Campbell, writer and krill scientist, demonstrates how to write a compelling science story when he delves into species’ identification without ever losing the reader. Interspatial creative writing from poets, including Bill Manhire and Ashleigh Young, take this book to another level. The breadth of stories and science in this book illuminate Antarctica and our world. It is a truly fascinating book.

Reviewed by Amelia Geary

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*To find our more about our lodges, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/lodges 52

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Parting shot

L

ast summer, I discovered a colony of my favourite black-fronted terns while I was out looking for something else completely (a common sandpiper that had migrated from the Arctic). The colony was on the Oreti River in Southland, about an hour away from Gore.

This shot is a pair of terns exchanging a skink. I watched one tern find the skink among the stones then head to the river to wash it by dipping it in the water as it flew just above the river. It flew back to the shingle, where the other tern approached and received the skink to take to its chicks nestled among the stones.

I made about 15 visits to the river after work over a period of about three weeks. I still didn’t get the images I really wanted – that’s always the way.

I like the excitement of locating a bird in its natural setting and perhaps capturing it in a pose or activity that the public seldom sees.

I used a Canon 7D with Canon 100–400mm L lens. I have used that combination since I started photographing birds in 2010.

Glenda Rees, Gore www.facebook.com/NZBANP

PARTING SHOT PRIZE The winner will receive a VANGUARD 460 HIGH PLAINS 15-60x60 ZOOM SPOTTING SCOPE, RRP $199.00. Observing wildlife or scenic vistas with the High Plains spotting scope from Vanguard provides an exciting visual experience.

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Please send a high-res (max 9mb) digital file and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz

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