Forest & Bird Magazine 315 February 2005

NUMBER 315 • FEBRUARY 2005

• Protecting Fiordland’s Seas • Mana Island • The Red Hills • Hawke’s Bay Forest • Goats • Changing Nature of Conservation

NUMBER 315 • FEBRUARY 2005

Features 12 A Matter of Mana Restoring an island near Wellington.

by Dave Hansford

17 The Kea — Resilient but Vulnerable

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Pests are preying on our mountain parrot.

by Geoff Keey

20 Birdsong at Boundary Stream Lessons from the Hawke’s Bay ‘mainland island’.

by Jason Elsworth

24 Protecting Fiordland’s Waterways Moves to better manage the southern sounds.

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by Gordon Ell

28 The Red Hills The strange world of the Richmond Ranges.

by Dave Hansford

32 No High Noon for Billy and the Kid Wild goats and the damage they do.

by Dave Hansford

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24 Forest & Bird is published every February, May, August and November by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. The Society’s objectives are to preserve and protect the indigenous flora and fauna and natural features and landscapes of New Zealand for their intrinsic worth and for the benefit of all people. Forest and Bird is a member of the World Conservation Union and partner designate of BirdLife International.

The opinions of contributors to Forest & Bird are not necessarily those of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, nor its editor.

Forest & Bird is printed on paper from sustainably managed plantation forests.

• Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384 © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Editor: GORDON ELL Editorial and publishing office, Bush Press Communications Ltd, PO Box 33-029, Takapuna 1309.

Phone/Fax: (09) 486 2667 Email: bush.press@clear.net.nz Designer: Ursula Makasini, Microdot Prepress Production: Microdot Printing: First in Print Advertising: Karen Condon, Print Advertising Ltd, PO Box 13-128, Auckland.

Ph: (09) 634-4982 Fax: (09) 634-4951 Email: printad.auck@xtra.co.nz

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. General Manager: To be appointed.

Conservation Manager: Kevin Hackwell Central Office: 172 Taranaki St, Wellington.

Postal address: PO Box 631, Wellington.

Telephone: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web site: http://www.forestandbird.org.nz Field Officers: David Pattemore, direct tel: (09) 631-7145 Email: d.pattemore@forestandbird.org.nz Unit 5, 476 Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden, Auckland.

Tel: (09) 303-3079. Fax: (09) 303-3514.

Ann Graeme, KCC co-ordinator, 53 Princess Rd, Tauranga.

Tel: (07) 576-5593. Fax: (07) 576-5109.

Email: basil@bopis.co.nz Debs Martin, PO Box 715, Nelson.

Tel: (03) 545-9176.

Email: d.martin@forestandbird.org.nz Tony Lockwood, PO Box 2516, Christchurch.

Tel: (03) 366-0655. Fax: (03) 365 0788 Email: t.lockwood@forestandbird.org.nz Sue Maturin, PO Box 6230, Dunedin.

Tel: (03) 477-9677. Fax: (03) 477-5232.

Email: s.maturin@forestandbird.org.nz

36 Looking Backward, Looking Forward Changes in the conservation ethic are observed in a new history.

A book extract by David Young

Regulars 2 Comment 3 Mailbag Urban possums; dirty campsites.

4 Conservation Briefs Change of editor; regional parks; flora and fauna websites; Mohaka River; Campbell Island duck; rat ‘sausages’; new garden pests.

40 In the Field Twists of Fate

by Ann Graeme

42 Branching Out J.S. Watson awards; wet weta; Motuora restoration; Dunedin’s sewage; new editorial address.

45 Bulletin 46 Book Notes 49 Branches and Lodges Directory COVER: Copious fresh water affects the character of Fiordland’s seas (see page 24).

PHOTOGRAPH: GORDON ELL, BUSH FILMS FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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Comment Managing People and Protecting Nature

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hen we travel away from our homes we all become tourists. We delight in being able to enjoy the natural attractions of our country. We also welcome visitors to our country to do likewise. In 2003, international tourism visits to New Zealand reached 2.1 million. Now, visitor numbers are forecast to top 3.1 million by 2010.

Forest and Bird has recently fielded a rush of journalistic enquiries about the impact of tourism on conservation lands. Our branches and members have also alerted us to new tourism schemes being proposed for New Zealand’s protected conservation lands. These include the construction of a monorail through beech forests protected in a World Heritage Area between Queenstown and Lake Te Anau.

There is pressure for many more cruise ships and overnight boat cruises in Fiordland.

Proposals to construct a luxury lodge next to Cape Kidnappers gannet colony have been recently declined by the Environment Court, but new coastal tourism and residential developments are widespread throughout New Zealand.

In 2003, there were 33 million visits to the public conservation estate, up 18 percent from 2001. There are increasing demands to service tourists with accommodation, food, and waste management. The transport tools of tourism — the buses, cars, aircraft and powerboats — also put increasing pressures on the natural environment In 2004, Department of Conservation studies showed huge economic and employment benefits on the West Coast from tourism on conservation lands. These special places are protected foremost for their native plants, animals and natural landscapes. It is also great to see these tangible rewards from

forest conservation, long predicted by Forest and Bird.

The economic benefits of tourism are, however, no reason for allowing it to expand everywhere. Tourism must remain subject to the same planning controls and rules as forestry, fishing and farming. Where it takes place on public conservation land, and sensitive places such as the seacoast, the rules should be even tighter to safeguard forever these special places that belong to all of us.

A determined group of West Coasters is battling a private tourism plan to develop their treasured Hokitika Gorge Scenic Reserve. The proposal is for an aerial walkway, visitor centre, car-parks and toilets that will dominate this tranquil and stunningly beautiful reserve. DoC has received 326 public submissions opposing the plan; only 18 support it.

The battle here, and at Cape Kidnappers, highlights special places that must be excluded from development for commercial tourism. There are other places where tourism use is acceptable but needs to be far better managed. Public input into District Schemes, Conservation Management Strategies and National Park Management Plans is one way to pro-actively identify tourism ‘no go’ and sensitive areas. There will also be the individual tourism proposals that Forest and Bird spends so much time reacting to. This requires constant vigilance. Watch the public notices and follow up Council and Conservation Board agendas.

In my hometown of Arthur’s Pass, the local community is determined the national park should not allow tourist-helicopter landings, thus preserving the park as a haven for walkers. This is now enshrined in the park management plan. Further south, DoC with Forest and Bird support has provided for

greater public 4WD access on a roadway 11 kilometres into the new conservation lands of the Ahuriri Valley (Forest & Bird, May 2004).

Appropriately DoC have also prohibited 4WD access further into the upper valley thereby preserving tranquillity, wetlands and wildlife.

People management needed to safeguard our treasured places does require money. We support increasing funding for DoC and local government to get on with the job of visitor services and management. A good-quality track and well-maintained toilets can drastically reduce environmental damage compared with a rough, muddy track at a popular site. But we don’t need such swept-up facilities everywhere.

People management in the outdoors will also result in some of our traditional freedoms being restricted, such as the ability to drive everywhere in 4WDs, use jet-skis anywhere, and set up motor-home campsites along any river or lakeside.

Compensating for this is the knowledge that our children and future visitors to New Zealand will be able to enjoy a country that although perhaps not ‘100% Pure’ is still pretty darn good. This summer get out there and enjoy it!

— GERRY McSWEENEY, National President.

FOOTNOTE: At the Society’s November 2004 Council Meeting, held in Upper Hutt, the Council unanimously expressed its grateful appreciation to Gordon Ell, retiring Forest & Bird editor, former Society National President and Society Distinguished Life Member. The council paid a tribute to Gordon’s outstanding editorship of Forest & Bird over the last seven years, including his choice of magnificent articles and lovely photos. This February 2005 issue is Gordon’s last as Editor. — G. McS.

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at 172 Taranaki Street, Wellington.

PATRON: Her Excellency The Hon. Dame Silvia Cartwright PCNZM, DBE, Governor-General of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Dr Gerry McSweeney QSO DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Dr Peter Maddison ACTING NATIONAL TREASURER: Dr Barry Wards EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS: Keith Beautrais, Jocelyn Bieleski, Anne Fenn, Mark Fort, Dr Philip Hart, Dr Herb Madgwick, Prof. Alan Mark DCNZM, CBE, Dr Liz Slooten.

DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS: Dr Bill Ballantine MBE, Stan Butcher, Ken Catt QSM, Keith Chapple QSO, Audrey Eagle CNZM, Dr Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell ONZM, Hon. Tony Ellis CNZM, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe QSO JP, Stewart Gray, Les Henderson, Reg Janes, Joan Leckie, Prof. Alan Mark DCNZM CBE, Dr Gerry McSweeney QSO, Prof. John Morton QSO, Margaret Peace QSM, Guy Salmon, Gordon Stephenson CNZM, David Underwood.

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FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

Mailbag Forest & Bird welcomes brief comments or criticisms about items or issues in the magazine. We reserve the right to edit letters for length.

The deadline for our May 2005 issue is February 28, 2005.

Stewart Island What squalor there is on this pristine island of forests and lovely coastal scenery. There are 35 hunting blocks on Stewart Island with some providing huts and shelters, and others only basic tent sites. Some deer hunters have fostered a variety of structures and there is an accumulation of grubby plastic and junk at many of these sites.

I’m not anti-hunting. Hunters, generally, do a fair job in reducing deer numbers on the island and they certainly need shelter. DoC provides hunting parties with a variety of printed material with plenty of information about good environmental practices.

However, the results are not good enough and there are some disgusting sites hidden from the casual visitor to our newest national park. They can be found along the Northwest Circuit track and in some places are the only campsite for visitors.

These sites are a visual eyesore, attracting vermin — rats, cats and possums. They are grubby rubbish dumps, illegal in terms of the National Parks Act, completely at odds with the effort and signage by DoC, and in some localities a fire risk and threat to clean water supplies. DoC is making an effort, as are the boatcharter companies which land the hunters. There is the clear impression, however, that there is

one rule for hunters and another for everyone else. Not good enough DoC. — BARRY DUNNETT, Kaikoura

Urban Possums We are fortunate to live in a heavily wooded valley just 10 minutes from Auckland city centre. Over 12 different species of native trees provide easy cover and a varied diet for possums. A nuisance for many years, they have supplemented their diet with magnolia buds and emerging spring leaves. They use the roof as a convenient access way to buds of the beautiful Rosa alba and seek warmth in the ceiling space of the house after their nocturnal feeding.

Noticing our tui sugar-water bowl needed replenishment every morning, and was often

displaced, we deduced possums might have an interest.

Testing first with sugar-soaked bread left on the ground nearby, we found that all the bread vanished by morning. We then baited our Timms trap with crusts soaked in sugar syrup. To our great surprise and delight, we managed within a few days to achieve more results than the years of trying with every imaginable possum lure, including pears, apples, carrots dusted with cinnamon, icing sugar and curry powder, etc.

Over a period of two months we enticed 12 of these wily creatures into our trap and their doom. Other readers troubled by this pest may like to give this lure a try.

— JOY AND JAMES FOOTE, Remuera

These pictures were taken in Rakiura National Park by Barry Dunnett of Kaikoura who labels them ‘Squalor on Stewart Island’.

They are among the informal hunting camps set up around the northwest shore of the island.

At top, a ‘third-world slum’at Murray Beach in October 2004. Below, a camp at Lucky Beach features furniture/flooring made from a section of torn-up boardwalk.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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conservationbriefs

Change of Editor for Forest & Bird been an interesting challenge with many different views as to what it should contain,’ he says.

‘My personal philosophy has been to present an exciting range of nature stories, reflecting the riches of wild New Zealand and the threats they face, for a readership of people who like nature but may not be experts in conservation.

‘We’ve managed a few journalistic “firsts” during this time, including the documenting of New Zealand’s threatened sea mounts and the proliferation of coastal development, both by Jo Mackay. Other exciting stories included advocacy for national parks, high-country reserves and world heritage areas, and

KELLIE BLIZARD, THE AUCKLANDER © NEW ZEALAND HERALD

T

his is the last issue of Forest & Bird to be edited by Gordon Ell of The Bush Press, a former national president of Forest and Bird (1990-93). He has been editor of the magazine since 1998.

From next May, the Society’s journal will be edited by Michael Szabo of Wellington, who has had a long association with conservation organisations including Greenpeace in New Zealand and Birdlife International in Britain.

‘It’s been a privilege to produce the Society’s flagship publication,’ says Gordon Ell, who plans to spend more time writing and publishing books.

‘Editing the magazine has

Publisher and author Gordon Ell, a former national president of Forest and Bird, has edited this journal since 1998.

stories about forgotten species and environments, including the southern oceans, orchids, carnivorous plants and nudibranchs. Reporting on new species discoveries, including new lizards, kiwi and other birds, reflects the excitement that can still surround the exploration of our natural world,’ Gordon Ell says.

‘My preference has been for positive stories which show what people can do to help arrest or reverse the decline in New Zealand’s nature and wildlife. Things may be grim, with so many rare and endangered species, but an informed community can make changes for the better.

‘With Forest & Bird 4

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

magazine, new technology and careful management have resulted in substantial reductions in production costs since 1998, but producing a high-quality magazine as a part of the membership fulfillment and advocacy of Forest and Bird is a major investment for the Society,’ Gordon Ell says.

‘Forest and Bird owes a lot to the members, scientists, institutions and photographers who gift their reports and material to the magazine in the interests of conservation.

‘Forest & Bird is largely the product of enthusiasts and people who are doing things in nature conservation.The work of volunteers in the field is an inspiration. It has been good to be part of it.’

Two New Regional Parks on Auckland Coasts

GORDON ELL

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he Auckland regional park network which receives more than two million visitors a year has been expanded by another two coastal properties.

The Prime Minister opened the ‘boutique’ Scandrett Regional Park, north of Auckland and east of Warkworth in the spring. The property protects Mullet Point which faces into Kawau Bay and shelters two small bays and a band of northern coastal forest.

Farm buildings and trees, some dating back to the time of Governor Sir George Grey, who lived on Kawau, have been retained on the waterfront which was accessed mainly by steamer until the 1920s. A community of holiday baches and sheds is being removed from the foreshore which achieved some fame as the physical setting for the motion picture Rain. While extending over only 40 hectares the property has significant wildlife on its reefs and mudflats, and is visited by wandering kaka when the kowhai blooms.

Concurrent with the opening of Scandrett Regional Park, the Auckland Regional Council announced its purchase of a 188-hectare coastal property at Waitawa Bay, just north of Kawakawa Bay on the Firth of Thames.

The property includes 4.5 kilometres of coastline, a headland with one of the region’s best-preserved Maori pa sites, access to three beaches, pine forest and stands of native bush, a boat ramp and a deepwater wharf.

‘The property has great recreational potential for fishing, swimming, boating, and has extensive track and trail systems for walking, tramping, mountain biking and horse riding,’ according to Cr Bill Burrill who at the time was chairman of the ARC parks and heritage

Scandrett’s Bay, now the centre of a small regional park on Kawau Bay, north of Auckland and east of Warkworth. Opened by the Prime Minister in spring, this brings to 21 the network of regional parks in Auckland. A further park is planned for the Firth of Thames.

committee. ‘A campground is also a possibility.’

The property will serve areas which are expected to nearly double in population over the next 50 years. It is about 20 minutes’ drive from Manukau City Centre and Papakura and about 50 minutes from the Auckland CBD. The public will not have immediate access to the property. Under the sale and purchase agreement, the vendors will lease the land back from the ARC for a period of up to five years to wind down their commercial operations and remove unwanted infrastructure from the site.

During this period, the ARC will work on developing the land into a park. The property already has roads, parking areas and buildings that are easily adaptable for park use, but tracks and trails, toilets, signs and information areas will need to be developed.

The park is expected to open to the public in 2008-2009.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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conservationbriefs

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trio of new websites available on the internet will make the wealth of information on naming and identifying New Zealand flora and fauna much more accessible.

Based on the traditional books called Floras and Faunas these are the definitive guides for identifying plants and animals, and are similar in purpose to encyclopaedias.

They include five volumes of the Flora of New Zealand and four volumes of the Fauna of New Zealand.

The five Flora volumes, which are available on the new Flora of New Zealand Series website, provide more than 6000 entries for the indigenous and exotic flora. The four Fauna volumes, on the new Fauna of New Zealand Series website, were selected as priority volumes from a 51-volume series. The first volumes relate to mealybugs, planthoppers, scale

insects and carabid beetles — 800 entries in all.

The third new website puts the family tree of New Zealand plants ‘online’. The Phylogeny of New Zealand Plants website depicts the evolutionary history of the flora for the past 500 million years. Knowledge about phylogeny has revolutionised the means by which we order the plant world.

A Landcare Research scientist Dr Aaron Wilton says both the Flora and Fauna series have a wide range of users. They include Department of Conservation staff, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officers, students and keen amateurs simply wishing to find the correct name for a plant or insect.

‘The new online resources will increase accessibility for the Flora and Fauna books,’ says Aaron Wilton. ‘For example, the printed version of the Flora

Volume 1 is out of print but it’s now available on the Web. We plan to add more volumes in future’.

‘The website increases useability of the information, by cross-linking within the text, and hyperlinking to a related website: Nga Tipu o Aotearoa /New Zealand Plants, to check if a plant name is still currently used. New Zealand Plants provides more than 30,000 scientific and 10,000 Maori and vernacular names of plant taxa relevant to New Zealand.

Similarly, the Fauna of New Zealand Series site will link to an arthropod site — ‘NZBugs’ — a new site to be launched in the near future.

Dr Wilton says by putting the resources online, New Zealand is among the early starters in a global trend towards making standard scientific references directly available.

While Flora of New Zealand Series and Fauna of New Zealand Series intend to reproduce the content of the printed material, Phylogeny of New Zealand Plants is slightly different in that it collates information that until now has been difficult to find.

‘Information has been scattered, and lacked a clear New Zealand focus,’ according to Landcare Research scientist Dr Steven Wagstaff . ‘New Zealand is recognised as a biodiversity “hotspot‚” with elements in our flora dating back to the break-up of Gondwana. The geographical isolation and diverse environment have also

LANDCARE RESEARCH

Flora and Fauna Flourish on Web

Landcare Research is promoting three new websites on the internet which will answer key questions about the classifications of New Zealand’s fauna and flora.

contributed to the unique plant life of New Zealand.

‘The Phylogeny of New Zealand Plants website aims to demystify phylogenetic information, and make it more readily accessible to anyone concerned with conservation and biodiversity,’ Steven Wagstaff says. ‘It consists of a series of “nested phylogenetic trees”, depicting the earliest divergence of green algae and land plants, descending to much more recent arrivals including weeds.

‘Users can navigate across phylogenetic trees, search by name, literature or tree name, and also link back to New Zealand Plants.’

The three websites were developed with funding from the Department of Conservation’s Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information Systems (TFBIS) programme.

— DIANA LEUFKENS, Landcare Research.

The three new websites are: Flora of New Zealand Series: http://Floraseries.LandcareResearch.co.nz Phylogeny of New Zealand Plants — He Whanaketanga o Nga Tipu o Aotearoa: http://nzflora.LandcareResearch.co.nz/phylogeny Fauna of New Zealand Series/ Ko te aitanga pepeke o Aotearoa: http://Faunaseries.LandcareResearch.co.nz Another related and useful website is: Nga Tipu o Aotearoa /New Zealand Plants: http://nzflora.LandcareResearch.co.nz/ 6

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

Water permits may be granted for other uses provided that they do not detract from the outstanding characteristics and features described in the order. The order does not stop the use of water for domestic needs, the needs of animals, or fire fighting purposes.

‘A water conservation order is the most effective way of ensuring the outstanding fishing, recreational and scenic characteristics of the river are not compromised, and are available to future generations,’ says the Environment Minister, Hon. Marian Hobbs. She acknowledged the time the process had taken since the original application for an order was made in 1987 by the then Council of North Island Acclimatisation Societies (now Fish and Game New Zealand).

The Mohaka River is now protected.

IAN MAXWELL FISH AND GAME NZ

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water conservation order has been made over the Mohaka River in Hawke’s Bay to protect its outstanding features.

The special features of the river include an outstanding trout fishery upstream of the State Highway 5 bridge and in the tributaries, the scenic characteristics in the Mokonui and Te Hoe gorges, and waterbased recreation from the State Highway 5 bridge to Willow Flat.

The order states that no water permits may be granted to dam the waters specified in the order, or to other waters in the Mohaka River system affecting those waters. An exception is allowed, however, where the dam does not detract from the outstanding features, is less than three metres in height, and is on a tributary.

IAN MAXWELL FISH AND GAME NZ

Water Conservation Order Over Mohaka

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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conservationbriefs

Campbell Island Teal Returned to Wild

DAVE HANSFORD, ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

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he world’s rarest duck has been returned to its subantarctic home after a 20-year exile. A Department of Conservation team has taken 50 Campbell Island teal back to the subantarctic wildlife reserve, after a successful campaign to rid the island of the rats which hunted the birds close to extinction.

A DoC programme manager Pete McClelland returned to Bluff aboard the frigate HMNZS Canterbury after babysitting the teal for five weeks on Campbell Island, 700 kilometres south of the mainland. He said the birds had taken to their ancestral home ‘like, well, ducks to water’.

‘It’s the perfect ending to more than 17 years of hard work, and it was great to finish

Returning Campbell Island teal to their subantarctic home, 700 kilometres south of New Zealand. The birds were raised and nurtured in a mainland reserve until rat eradication on the island appeared successful.

Do you like seafood?

If so, please use the Best Fish Guide when you next purchase fish or shellfish.

Forest and Bird is encouraging its members and supporters to give copies to their friends, family and colleagues.

If we all make better seafood choices, our marine environment will benefit.

Best Fish Guide Best Fish Guides are available on our website or from our offices. Call 04-385 7374 or visit

www.forestandbird.org.nz 8

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

it aboard the Canterbury,’ he said. ‘She was the vessel that evacuated the first teal, Swampy, back to New Zealand in 1984.’

Swampy and a further 10 survivors from Campbell Island worked tirelessly to save their species in a captivebreeding programme at Mt Bruce in the Wairarapa, spawning the basis of a population that rose to 70 birds this year.

Pete McClelland says that extensive checks of the island with specially trained dogs had failed to find any surviving rats, and it was now considered safe to take the teal home.

Rats are thought to have arrived on Campbell Island with sealing gangs in the early 1800s. They soon exterminated several bird species and seriously depleted many more before a world-leading eradication programme in the winter of 2001.

Officially, Campbell won’t be declared rat-free until 2006, but he said it was important to

return the ducks to the wild as soon as possible.

‘There was a risk they’d turn into cage birds. They were living the life of Riley up at Mount Bruce — we actually had to slim them down before we brought them back to Campbell. Take a couch potato and run it in a marathon and it’s not going to last too well,’ he says.

But the birds have adapted.

DoC plans to breed another 200 teal over the next two years for repatriation to Campbell.

DoC staff will return to Campbell Island this month to check on the teal, but Pete McClelland says the island’s wildlife is already recovering well by itself.

‘Birds such as pipits and storm petrels have already found their own way back to the main island after being confined to small, rat-free islets for the last 200 years,’ he says. ‘And the weta numbers have really taken off.’

— DAVE HANSFORD

‘Rat Sausages’ Prove Tempting to Stoats

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esearchers say that PVC ‘rat sausages’ show promise as long-life lures to attract stoats, the ferocious predators of native birds.

In a project commissioned by the Department of Conservation, Landcare Research staff set out to devise new, long-lasting and attractive lures for stoats and the ‘rat sausage’ is one of them. Hen eggs are currently the main lure used, and last for several weeks. However, preliminary research by Landcare Research showed stoats are more attracted by the smell of dead prey such as birds and rats. The obvious problem with this is that dead prey decay rapidly.

Researchers therefore aimed to encapsulate the smell of rats within a stable substance, and to keep the smell ‘smelly’ long-term.

A Landcare Research ecologist, Dr Andrea Byrom, says four substances were trialled for use in new baits: cereal, gel, casein, and PVC. ‘We incorporated ground up, freeze-dried rats into the substances, and placed them in trap-like tunnels in the open air. We checked them for intactness and odour weekly for 20 weeks.

‘The PVC lures remained fully intact, while the others broke down. The PVC lures were formed in test tubes and looked like meat sausages, albeit with rat hair in them!’

Researchers then tried the PVC ‘sausages’ with a new flavour — ‘chemical rat’.

‘We identified key components in the odour of live ship rats, and mimicked them with similar-smelling synthetic chemicals. We then incorporated these

chemicals into PVC lures,’ Dr Byrom says.

Results show that the freeze-dried rat lure and chemical rat lure both have potential for attracting wild stoats to traps and bait stations in the field.

However, further work is required to get exactly the right combination of attractiveness and longevity in the baits.

Dr Byrom says the attractiveness of these lures now needs to be tested in field trials in wild stoat habitat.

‘We would also like to investigate the potential of incorporating other prey odours, such as rabbit, into PVC lures to attract other predators such as ferrets, weasels and cats.’

Stoats were brought to New Zealand in the 1880s to control rabbits, but have wreaked havoc on many native bird species. Costeffective ongoing control of stoats is crucial for maintaining viable populations of native birds including kiwi.

However, stoats are elusive and therefore difficult to poison or trap. Improving the attractiveness and longevity of lures for traps and bait stations is one key to boosting the success of stoat control.

Dr Elaine Murphy, who is in charge of stoat-control research for DoC, is pleased with the promising developments.

‘Having a new tool for the toolbox would be great, and the new lures would be a lot less trouble to carry around in the bush than hen eggs,’ Dr Murphy says.

— DIANA LEUFKENS, Landcare Research.

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conservationbriefs

Popular Plants in Biosecurity Scare

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ew research into three popular garden plants has raised serious concerns about their potential to invade and take over natural ecosystems.

The three species researched by Auckland Regional Council were agapanthus, phoenix palm and English ivy. The study looked at the distances plants could spread unassisted, the range of habitats they were capable of invading, and what impacts they were having on parkland and other natural areas.

All three species were found to be invasive in a range of ecosystems, spreading into remote and inaccessible areas.

They have significant environmental impacts on the natural areas they invade.

Jack Craw, biosecurity manager for the Auckland Regional Council, says the

research confirms what was already suspected in terms of agapanthus and ivy, but that the invasive capabilities of phoenix palm comes as an unwelcome wake-up call.

‘When we started looking, we found phoenix palms everywhere: half-grown palms that had self-sown into mangrove wetlands, young plants growing in thick kikuyu grass on the edges of farm paddocks, even seedlings growing alongside native nikau palm seedlings in dense bush,’ Jack Craw says.

‘These plants are being spread into some of our most remote and vulnerable habitats by birds, wind and water. All three species are becoming significant weeds in natural areas.’

Jack Craw is urging developers and gardeners to consider replacing agapanthus, phoenix

palm and English ivy with noninvasive alternatives.

Undesirable agapanthus includes all large agapanthus types. They were found to invade a range of habitat types, including roadside drains, low scrub, regenerating bush, forest margins, pasture, coastal and beachfront vegetation, sand dunes, coastal cliffs, rocky inland cliffs, exposed coastal areas, pastoral streams and gardens, where they are very common, both planted and naturalised.

They are capable of forming dense monocultures that exclude all other species: one cliff infestation at Piha was found to cover an area of over a thousand square metres.

The ARC suggested people looking for non-invasive alternatives to agapanthus could try clivia (which has a similar foliage to agapanthus and a range of attractive, large, colourful flowers), native rengarenga (widely available with foliage similar to agapanthus and sprays of small white flowers in summer), native coastal grasses such as pingao or spinifex (great for stabilising coastal dunes and helping conserve endangered native pingao), native toetoe grasses and gahnia (good erosion control for sunny and shady, sandy inland sites), or one of the many varieties of native flax

The distinctive Phoenix palm Phoenix canariensis is widely planted in parks and gardens in warmer New Zealand. Its seeds are being spread into forest areas around Auckland.

(hardy for dry sites in full sun, they also help stabilise sandy or unstable sites).

English Ivy was found invading all ‘age classes’ of native forest, pine forests, roadsides, forest margins and gardens.

Bird-spread seedlings are becoming common in many Auckland reserves.

Ivy infestations in regional parks tended to originate from past house sites. In some cases, mature trees had collapsed under the weight of ivy vines.

Phoenix palm was found invading a range of habitats, including coastal and dense forest (phoenix is salt tolerant).

Small phoenix palm seedlings are virtually indistinguishable from native nikau seedlings, meaning that the full extent to which phoenix palms are spreading into forest areas may not be realised for some time.

The robust, sharp spines can cause severe injuries.

— SIMON ROCHE, Auckland Regional Council.

A popular roadside planting in warm districts, agapanthus is very hardy and readily suffers harsh conditions. It establishes a dense matt of roots and can gradually take over waste areas. There are several forms — the most dangerous for the environment are Agapanthus praecox and its subspecies orientalis and praecox, their hybrids and cultivars.

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FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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Returning

Mauri to

Mana Island.

Mana

Off the Wellington coast, DAVE HANSFORD explores an island, often on his hands and knees.

M

ost nights, the cries of seabirds carry from the clifftops of Mana Island, over the rumble of the Cook Strait breakers, and away on the shrill nor’wester. But this nocturnal clamour of diving petrels, prions, shearwaters and storm petrels is a ruse, like the call of the Sirens.

Atop Mana, the calls cackle from a battery of loudspeakers, broadcasting an empty promise of companionship to any passing birds.

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The speakers are just one of the deceits practised by Colin Miskelly, a technical support manager with the Department of Conservation in Wellington, in a bid to bring seabirds back to Mana. Sadly, the trick is not yet working.

‘We’re currently playing the calls of four species from the clifftop, and after 11 years we’ve had one fairy prion ashore, no fluttering shearwaters, and only two whitefaced storm petrels. It took four years just to

get two diving petrels to visit.’ But he’s going to keep trying, because the seabirds are vital to an ambitious plan to return Mana to ecological health.

A 217-hectare fragment of an old mountain range, Mana lies just a short boat trip from Paremata, some 20 kilometres up the coast from downtown Wellington.

As scientific reserves go, it doesn’t look like much. That’s because it was burnt and cleared; first by Maori, later — with

Goldstripe gecko.

Flax weevil.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

‘We gave it a go,’ says Colin Ryder, who now has a concrete gannet on his doorstep.

‘You’ve got to try these things.’ Colin Ryder is the treasurer of Wellington Forest and Bird, and he was the inaugural president of Friends of Mana Island when it was set up back in 1999. He gathered money and support for the eradication of Mana’s mice — all 15 million of them — in 1989 and 1990, a world first.

‘DoC rightly aims its resources at the more critically endangered species,’ says Colin Ryder. ‘So that’s where we come in.’

Nowadays, he spends his time drumming up money and volunteers for species transfers to Mana (like the flax weevils, and recently yellow-crowned kakariki from the Chetwode Islands). He’s co-ordinating an oral history project, and putting together a strategy to improve the visitor experience on the island through signs and interpretation. He also helps run the planting days, though they’re winding down now — it’s all but done.

‘We put in 15,000 plants this season, that’s down on 23,000 last year and 30,000 the year before.’

The cover species — taupata, mahoe, ngaio, flax, tauhinu, wharangi — are in place. Now, Friends of Mana Island and Forest and Bird are filling in the gaps with what Colin Ryder calls ‘second succession’ species such as kohekohe, tawa, rimu, matai and miro.

According to Colin Miskelly of DoC, the result should be a close approximation of the island’s pre-human cover: a matrix of low coastals with emergents dotted throughout. But there’ll be one big difference. The aim is to create not a full cloak, but a patchwork quilt. The Mana of the future will be grassland, shrubland and forest in roughly equal thirds.

‘We want to maintain a mosaic of habitats for the benefit of giant weta and several of the skink species which prefer open country,’ says Colin Miskelly.

While the central tenet of the Mana restoration plan aims to preserve those original inhabitants that survive to this day, he says it also has to accommodate outsiders of national priority. The preserved grasslands are a concession to the island’s 31 takahe — part of the slow recovery programme for this endangered bird.

At the island’s archaeological sites, such as wahi tapu and the lighthouse keeper’s 1860s garden, woody vegetation will be kept from putting down roots that would disturb the features.

For Forest and Bird and Friends of Mana Island, the focus of the future is weeds. With a limitless source just 2.5 kilometres across the water, invasive shrubs like boneseed and boxthorn will always be a problem. And it’s not limited to exotics. Karo, a native Pittosporum popular with birds, is colonising the western Wellington coast in dense thickets, displacing lesser natives as it goes.

Colin Ryder says it’s getting harder to fill the volunteer seats on the boat nowadays.

Not because the environment is no longer fashionable — quite the opposite.

‘There are so many more projects going these days — Matiu/Somes, Karori Sanctuary — and people don’t have as much time as they used to.’ He’s sure of one thing; it will be harder to get people to sign up for weeding trips than planting days.

When weeds spring up on Mana’s nearperpendicular cliffs, there are few options but to don a harness and abseil down to meet them. It’s dangerous, difficult work,

characteristic zeal — by European farmers.

You’d never know, looking out from the mainland, that volunteers have planted over 400,000 trees on the tabular greywacke bulk of Mana. And you won’t realise, until you set foot on the place, that it still crawls with creatures lost to us mainlanders long ago.

Mana is a place best appreciated on your hands and knees. Turn over pretty much any substantial hunk of driftwood and you’ll find a Cook Strait giant weta — Mana has more of them than any other island. There’s an excellent chance it will have a common gecko for company, too. Or even a rare McGregor’s skink. Take a flashlight to the foliage after dark, and the night twinkles as Duvaucel’s and goldstripe geckos return a luminescent gaze. Mana is where the unsung species get to shine — the latest transfer operation liberated 80 flax weevils on the island, though no TV cameras recorded their arrival.

‘We’ve put a real focus on the less charismatic fauna,’ says Colin Miskelly, who adds that it’s precisely because Mana is so heavily modified that, ‘It’s almost like a blank canvas; we’ve been able to do things that we would have been less willing to try on less modified islands. We’ve been able to take a few calculated risks.’

Risks like building a whole colony of concrete gannets, in three different poses, all lovingly and accurately painted by local schoolkids; clearing a space on the hilltop and spattering white paint around to simulate guano; playing gannet calls — all in the hope of enticing gannets to come and stay.

As a media event, it couldn’t have gone better: no sooner had the schoolchildren placed their replica gannets and sung their mihimihi than a pair of real gannets flew in and waddled up to their statuesque neighbours. TV caught the whole thing; it went to air that night. Few real gannets have ever returned, however.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Cook Strait giant weta.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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well beyond the reach of volunteers, especially in today’s nervous Occupational Safety and Health environment. The abseiling is left to a team of DoC staff who’ve spent the last 10 years slashing and spraying in a $5 million bid to rid the island of boxthorn.

Meanwhile, Colin Miskelly is still trying to bring those seabirds back. He calculates that pre-human Mana would likely have hosted around a million pairs — roughly a burrow every two square metres — and the birds would have driven the island’s ecosystem.

‘They have a profound influence,’ he says.

‘Their burrows create a three-dimensional habitat underground, greatly increasing the soil’s surface area. They make a stable, secure refuge where insects and lizards can get away from predators and enjoy a constant microclimate.

‘The birds nourish the island. In effect, they’re harvesting the sea by feeding out there, then bringing all the nutrients back — the droppings, regurgitation, corpses, broken eggs — so you end up with a highly fertile site which greatly influences vegetation, and the density and abundance of invertebrates and reptiles.’

Seabirds have a ‘glacial’ rate of population increase, however. Many don’t breed until they are five years or older — even then they normally lay a just single egg each year — and many young birds die in their gruelling first year.

‘So it’s a long slow process getting these populations to build up,’ says Colin Miskelly.

That’s why he’s resorted to more chicanery, to give the island a jump-start.

Back in 1997, Colin Miskelly and colleague Graeme Taylor came up with the idea of 14

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digging artificial nest burrows into Mana, not far from an existing colony of sooty shearwaters. Then they went to the Brothers Islands, across Cook Strait, and collected some diving petrel chicks. A short helicopter flight later, the chicks were huddled in their new home. A squad of helpers brought a meal of krill to their door each day, and fed the chicks through syringes.

Meanwhile, the loudspeakers kept up their nightly entreaty.

The idea, the way Colin Miskelly explains it, is pretty simple. Take seabird chicks from the burrow on their natal island before they’ve had a chance to imprint on it as home. Whisk them away to Mana and feed them until they fledge. Hopefully, by the time they’re ready to leave, they’ve been ‘re-programmed’ into calling Mana home.

Seabirds are famously parochial; they usually return not just to their home island, but sometimes to the very burrow they fledged from.

That’s a double-edged sword for Colin Miskelly and Graeme Taylor; the trick is to break that bond initially, then foster it again.

More chicks were brought to the island over the next two seasons.

‘One of the reasons we selected diving petrels,’ Colin Takahe roam the grasslands. A third of the captive Miskelly says, ‘was because population of this bird is resident on Mana.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Concrete gannets laid out to encourage wild birds to establish a colony were almost immediately successful in attracting a pair of birds, but they did not stay.

they have a relatively quick life cycle. The birds will return to the colony when they’re one or two years old, and breed when they’re two or three. We needed quick feedback on whether our techniques worked or not.’

They did.

In late 1999, two ‘immigrants’ were found caring for a small chick in a burrow they’d dug themselves. The next year, the first of the transferred chicks came back to Mana to breed.

In all, 239 chicks were repatriated to Mana. About half of them fledged, and 20 returned. Fifteen of those have bred.

Another 57 unbanded birds have also settled, and Colin Miskelly says that while the loudspeakers alone weren’t enough of an attraction, the added stimulus of the presence of other birds might have been.

This qualified success was enough to tempt Colin Miskelly to try the same thing with fairy prions, this time gathered from Takapourewa, or Stephens Island — visible from the top of Mana — and home to over a million pairs.

Since 2002, he and a big team of helpers from both sides of Cook Strait have brought 240 prion chicks to Mana. They all fledged

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Colin Miskelly with a diving petrel chick. Their ‘translocation’ to Mana Island was an early success in establishing new seabird colonies.

in good health (some of them fatter than their cohorts back on Takapourewa) on a diet eventually refined into a ‘sardine smoothie.’

Prions spend at least their first two or three years at sea before coming back to land to find a mate, which meant, theoretically, that Colin Miskelly’s first-year chicks could have shown up on Mana anytime after last June.

But searches of the artificial burrows turned up nothing — until one wild night in September, when Colin Miskelly caught the brief flash of a prion in his torchlight. Once in the net, however, he saw the bird wasn’t one of his — it was unbanded.

Colin Miskelly says it’s highly likely that the visitor he caught was attracted there by other birds, which means some of his foster chicks had probably returned — they simply eluded the searchers. Then in November proof: a banded chick was found.

The prion project exemplifies the communal spirit that captures people when they get involved with Mana’s rebirth. DoC provided the scientific know-how and coordination. Ngati Toa, who hold mana whenua over Mana, and Ngati Koata of Takapourewa, both gave their blessings and practical support (like clambering about the crumbling slopes of Takapourewa, plunging their arms into reeking burrows full of fleas and irate tuatara). Friends of Mana Island raised the money (one anonymous donor gave $10,000). Members of Forest and Bird and the Ornithological Society of New Zealand helped out feeding the chicks — a

relentless and exacting task. Pak ‘N Save supplied the sardines.

Tama Coker is a Ngati Toa kaitiaki (guardian). He’s happy to see the birds come home. Every birth on Mana — be it flax weevil or takahe — every re-introduction, is another pulse of mauri — the life force — on his people’s island.

‘Mana holds a special place in our hearts,’ he says. ‘One of our paramount chieftainesses — Waitohi, the sister of Te Rauparaha — still rests there.’ Tama Coker says there are plenty more opportunities yet for his people to get involved: supporting DoC with things like education and oral histories. ‘And we can help with liaison and anti-poaching patrols.

‘If people have an affinity for a place, they’ll look after it.’ He says Mana represents the chance for Maori and Pakeha to rebuild not just an island, but also a partnership. ‘It’s a way of healing open wounds. Because if wounds aren’t healed . . .’

For Colin Ryder, the affinity, if less ancient, is every bit as deep. He’s not in the least bit bothered that he and his ageing troops won’t be around to see Mana’s forest mature, nor flocks of kereru winging between ripe miro . . . or kiwi and tuatara scuttling about the dense undergrowth . . . the failing light peppered with the countless specks of seabirds coming home.

‘You do what you can while you’re here,’ he says. ‘The island is in good hands now.’

— DAVE HANSFORD, Origin Natural History Media

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The

Substance

and Matter of Mana

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Duvaucel’s gecko.

to Mana now would pose a threat to the lizards and invertebrates on the island.

In 1832, Te Rauparaha sold Mana to three Sydney businessmen for goods to the value of £24. One of them, John Bell, became the first Pakeha runholder in 1834, when the rest of Mana’s forest was put to the torch. The first wool clip left the island in 1835, one of the earliest wool exports from New Zealand.

Bell also built a small whaling station, which operated until around 1845. Legend has it that when Bell died, in 1838, timber had become so scarce on Mana that his friends buried him in a rum barrel.

Bell’s father, Thomas, acquired his son’s share in the island and promptly sold it for £750 to one Henry Moreing, who later acquired the rest of the island for a further £250. Ngati Toa disputed Moreing’s ownership, but an 1843 investigation upheld his tenure. Then, in 1865 the Crown bought Mana and paid Ngati Toa £300 in compensation. The island was then leased to a succession of sheep farmers.

A lighthouse was built on the island’s summit in 1864. A series of ditches and banks at the site today are thought to be the remains of the lighthouse keeper’s attempt to stop wandering stock eating his vegetable garden. In 1877, the lighthouse was dismantled and taken to Cape Egmont, after it was blamed for two shipwrecks (sea captains claimed they had confused it with Pencarrow Head at Wellington).

In 1973, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries took the island as a quarantine and breeding research station, until 1978 when

Speckled skink.

Yellow-crowned parakeet.

the island’s 3000 sheep were put to death following a scrapie outbreak. Mana passed into the hands of the Department of Lands and Survey, and became a conservation site when the remaining cattle were taken off in 1986.

With the cattle gone, the grasses erupted, as did the island’s mouse population — the only mammalian pest ever to have reached there. As mouse numbers hit an estimated 15 million, lizard numbers began to plummet.

Forest and Bird proposed and funded a mouse eradication that made world conservation headlines in 1989-90.

A former wetland, Waikoko, was restored with a digger in 1998, and is now home to a small but thriving population of brown teal.

Fernbird and brown mudfish are listed for future reintroduction, as are a range of threatened wetland plants from the Cook Strait and Wellington.

The island’s pest free-status opens the door for a number of other transfers ranging from speargrass weevils to shore plover to tuatara.

ALL PHOTOS ©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

M

ana Island lies on the northern shores of Cook Strait, some four kilometres from the entrance to Porirua Harbour.

Steep-sided and flat-topped, the island has a single sheltered landing, on the stony eastern beach, where the main stream system runs to the sea. The sea cliffs are bare greywacke dotted with tauhinu, flax and some persistent weeds.

The upper plateau is still mostly rank grass, but sleeves of yellow plastic drain coil protect many of the 400,000 native trees planted on the island. In Forest Valley stands all that remains of the original cover — tall kanuka with a smattering of karaka, two rare milk trees and one each of kohekohe and wharangi.

Mana Island’s full name is ‘Te Mana o Kupe ki Aotearoa’, a tribute to the mana and authority of Kupe. Like the legendary navigator, say Maori, the island is distinctly level, never faltering nor falling.

Ngati Toa are deemed to hold mana whenua over the island after they took it for their own from Te Atiawa. Te Rauparaha and his nephew Te Rangihaeata built an elaborately carved wharepuni on the island.

People grew kumara on the stony terrace behind the landing beach and feasted on seabird chicks, some of which they preserved for winter in sheaths of totara bark.

Excavations along the beach in the 1990s revealed fish hooks, spears, and animal remains, found in middens dating back to the 14th century. The finds have helped scientists determine the original fauna of Mana, and what to reintroduce as part of the island’s restoration.

But they’ve posed a few riddles too. Some remains were possibly brought there from elsewhere. For instance, moa bones have been unearthed, yet it is highly unlikely that a 200-hectare island could have supported those huge ratites.

More contentious was the discovery of weka bones. Weka did not occur on many near-shore islands, and to reintroduce them

The Kea – GEOFF KEEY finds kea too are subject to attacks by stoats and possums.

I

ntelligent, cheeky and gregarious, kea are a popular icon of the Southern Alps.

They are the world’s only alpine parrot.

These birds are often thought to have resisted the impact of the predators that have devastated our other native parrots. That view is now changing, however, due to research suggesting kea could be extinct by the end of this century.

Kea are often considered common because they are attracted to populated areas out of curiosity and in search of food. In fact their population is estimated at only 1000 to 5000 birds.

A Department of Conservation scientist Graeme Elliott and an Otago University student Josh Kemp have been studying kea at Rainbow Skifield on the St Arnaud Range adjacent to Nelson Lakes National Park. As part of their research they have modelled the

C RUDGE © DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/TE PAPA ATAWHAI

Resilient but Vulnerable

The kea is peculiar to the South Island high country and is listed for conservation purposes as a ‘rare endemic’. Birds feed on berries and shoots but also scavenge round people, in skifield carparks, mountain camps and rubbish dumps.

population of kea to estimate the likely impact of predation and hunting. Their modelling generated a 32 percent chance that kea could be extinct within 100 years.

Graeme Elliot cautions against putting too much weight on the actual numbers generated by the population modelling.

Instead he suggests we look at what the modelling tells about the changes that have happened to the survival chances of kea.

‘The modelling shows kea were much more secure before all the changes of the last hundred or so years. That’s the take-home message.’

Elliot also says the modelling shows that there are things we can do to improve their

survival prospects.

‘The answer is in minimising impacts on the birds; the big message is about minimising the impacts of stoats and possums.’

Kea nest in holes on the ground. Nests found in Elliot and Kemp’s research were in cavities in rock bluffs, amongst jumbles of rocks, under large boulders, in holes amongst the roots of trees, or in hollow fallen trees.

Eggs and chicks disappeared from 35 percent of nests that were monitored.

In two nests there were definite signs of predation by stoats. Graeme Elliot believes that adult kea, like kiwi, are less vulnerable to predation than their forest cousin the kaka.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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DICK VEITCH © DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/TE PAPA ATAWHAI

The kea is an icon of the South Island high country. It is believed to be the world’s only alpine parrot.

greater nesting success at higher altitudes.

Possums are less common at higher altitudes and this may be contributing to the greater nesting success of kea at those altitudes.

One place where increasing possum numbers may yet have an impact is Fiordland. Possums are relatively late arrivals in the southern South Island and are not yet at peak densities. This is also the area where kea populations are at their highest density.

© DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/TE PAPA ATAWHAI

However, eggs and chicks are vulnerable.

‘I’ve seen a female kaka killed on the nest, but it is unlikely a kea could be easily surprised in their large nest cavities. In contrast, a stoat will climb into the nest hole of a kaka and drop onto its back — there’s not much the kaka can do about it. So the adult kaka, along with eggs or chicks, gets eaten. But a prepared kea would be a formidable adversary.’

Graeme Elliot believes that the ground nest may actually give them an advantage.

‘Kaka are more vulnerable because they get trapped in their nest hole. There is more space in a kea nest so the adults can get away but chicks and eggs are still vulnerable’.

The suggestion that possums are a threat to kea may come as a surprise, but evidence from Elliot and Kemp’s work shows this is the case.

‘Thirty percent of kea nests that I revisited had possums in them. This suggests competition between kea and possums for the use of nest holes.

‘Possums are now recorded taking kaka — adults, nestlings and eggs,’ Graeme Elliot says. ‘It’s logical that they also raid kea nests too, but there’s no measure of magnitude for this problem — that’s what’s missing.’

Some of the evidence that Elliot and Kemp draw on for their assessment of possums is historical. In a study of kea near Arthur’s Pass in the 1950s and 1960s no evidence of predation on kea was found. The nesting success of kea was considerably higher then, than in the more recent research at Rainbow skifield.

Although there is no reason to presume that stoat numbers have increased since the 1950s, possums arrived in Arthur’s Pass only around the time of the earlier research and would not have reached peak densities for some 10-20 years. They would not have had the impact then that they have today.

The researchers also found that kea had

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‘There’s a big possibility of a significant impact of possums in the southern South Island. If our thinking is right, a drop in kea density is likely as the possum numbers peak.’

The news is not all bad. The Government’s Wildlands programme will create space for kea to survive in the South Island’s high country. Currently, most of the South Island’s high-country land is publicly owned, but leased to farmers. Much of the land is of high conservation value and some is home to kea.

After years of advocacy by Forest and Bird, Federated Mountain Clubs and others, the Government has adopted a programme of buying out farmers’ leases or reviewing leases through a tenure-review programme.

Through this programme New Zealand will gain new conservation parks in the high country as the publicly owned land of conservation and recreation value is returned to full public control.

This could be a major boost for kea conservation for three reasons. Firstly, the return of land to full public control will make Left, The brilliant red, gold and green under the wings of the kea distinguish it from its forest relative, the kaka.

ROD MORRIS © DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/TE PAPA ATAWHAI

Kea nest in holes on the ground. Nests found in Elliot and Kemp’s research were in cavities in rock bluffs, amongst jumbles of rocks, under large boulders, in holes amongst the roots of trees or in hollow fallen trees. There they are vulnerable to possums and stoats.

it easier for the Department of Conservation to control pests. This should reduce predation and competition from pests and lift the survival chances of kea. Secondly, the removal of sheep from the new parks will allow the vegetation to recover, providing more berries, flowers and other food for kea.

Finally, it will reduce the conflict between farmers and kea as land is retired from grazing.

The conflict is well over a century old. Kea seek out high-fat foods to assist their survival in a harsh mountain environment.

A few kea occasionally attack sheep for the fat around the kidneys. In retaliation farmers earlier resorted to massive slaughter and a bounty was placed on kea up till 1970.

Killing ‘problem’ kea became illegal in 1986, but farmers can still ask DoC to kill troublesome birds or relocate them. Birds on skifields too can be considered a problem — kea are notorious for stripping rubber from parked cars. DoC has also tried relocating some of these birds but relocation has not been wholly successful.

Kea are the only native bird that people have deliberately set out to exterminate. It is calculated that the persecution of kea resulted in the slaughter of around 150,000 between 1870 and 1948. By 1970 kea numbers had plummeted so severely that they were protected in national parks, forest parks and reserves. In 1986, legislation was passed to fully protect kea with the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. Peter Tapsell, saying ‘now is the time to rescue uncommon and declining birds, rather than

waiting until they reach the brink of extinction.’

Some kea are still killed illegally. Other kea are occasionally killed by the Department of Conservation to prevent farmers from undertaking a more indiscriminate slaughter.

In Canterbury five birds have been culled since 1987. In Otago two have been killed on Rees Valley station (1992 and 2004), and three on Ben Lomond in the Moke Creek area — all in 2001.

One of the main purposes of the Elliot and Kemp research was to assess whether the kea population could continue to sustain this ongoing cull.

‘At the time we started, there was still the odd kea being destroyed because of the damage caused to stock. We needed to ask whether that was sustainable. What we found is that killing one or two isn’t going to have a huge impact, but won’t make things any better. It can only be justified if not taking action would result in a worse situation.’

What are the lessons learned from the research for the Department of Conservation’s pest-control programmes?

‘With more emphasis on site-specific control work, kea need to come into the planning mix too,’ says Graham Elliot.

‘Decisions on the sites chosen for pest control tend to be focussed on yellowhead/mohua, kiwi and blue duck — the needs of kea also should be considered.’

— GEOFF KEEY is the Forest and Bird staff member responsible for biosecurity and pest-control issues.

Key findings from the research The destruction of kea by Department of Conservation staff is only justifiable when the failure to kill some birds would result in a much larger illegal kill.

• Kea face a 32 percent chance of extinction within 100 years.

• Possum predation may be an important factor in the decline of kea.

• Both hunting and predation appear to have dramatic effects on kea populations.

• Kea populations cannot sustain culling by people.

Yellow kea Author and mountaineer Phillip Temple wrote about a mysterious yellow kea called Glintamber in his book Beak of the Moon, about the harsh reality of kea life and their survival in an age of sheep, guns and fire. While extremely rare, yellow kea do occur from time to time.

In 2004, the Department of Conservation’s ‘Rarebits’ newsletter reported sightings of a yellow kea by trampers and hunters in the rugged headwaters of the Moeraki River in South Westland.

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Birdsong at Boundary T Stream KATHY OMBLER visits a pioneer ‘mainland island’ in Hawke’s Bay.

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he bush is alive at Boundary Stream.

Long after the dawn chorus has quietened there remains a cacophony of competition for the airwaves. Tui and bellbird dominate above the constant chatter of whitehead, grey warbler, tit, robin and saddleback. There are the beating wings of passing native pigeon and the occasional resonating, spine-tingling ‘mmmwarmmph’ as a kokako calls across the valley.

It’s the frenetic avian ‘carry on’ we have learned to look for on predator-free offshore islands, yet Boundary Stream is on the mainland — some 700 hectares of farm-

KATHY OMBLER

Left: the Boundary Stream ‘mainland island’ comprises 700 hectares of forest surrounded by farmland.

North Island saddleback or hihi were reestablished on the mainland at Boundary Stream in 2003.

Some 650 bait stations are set around the perimeter and throughout the reserve at 150-metre grid spacings. A further 700 Fenn and DOC200 traps, checked every fortnight, keep mustelids at bay. Fifty conibear traps and live-capture cage traps are checked weekly, and account for around 90 cats every year. Tamsin Ward-Smith says there are now no possums caught in the annual ‘monitoring’, compared with about 24 in 540 ‘trap nights’ monitored in nearby ‘nontreatment’ reserves. Rat numbers are also down: the percentage of tracking tunnels with rat footprints has not exceeded 2.5 percent in the last three years. Contract

KATHY OMBLER

John Adams, says Mohi Bush was considered too small to support robin, hence the attention turned to the larger Boundary Stream reserve, 60 kilometres north of Napier.

The reserve drapes the eastern flanks of the Maungahaururu Range and contains diverse habitats, ranging from lowland forest at 300 metres to montane shrublands at 1000 metres. It is one of the largest protected areas in the eastern North Island and, surrounded by farmland, is easily accessible. One last resident kiwi was thought to have disappeared in the early 1990s.

The project began in 1996 with an ‘all-out’ attack on predators. Aerial 1080 drops knocked both possums and rats, and contract hunters shot some 2000 goats in the first two years. However, the ongoing challenge for any mainland restoration is preventing predator reinvasion, and at Boundary Stream this involves a massive, labour-intensive effort.

KATHY OMBLER

locked, partly logged, native bush in northern Hawke’s Bay. It is one of the Department of Conservation’s ‘mainland islands’ which after eight years of intensive predator control is starting to pay exciting dividends.

Possums, rats, cats, mustelids and ungulates have been all but blitzed from the reserve. A massive, ongoing trapping and baiting programme is thwarting their reinvasion.

The bush is responding well. Rare and palatable species are recovering. The resident birdlife is flourishing while reintroduced North Island robin, North Island brown kiwi, kokako and saddleback are settling, some of them nesting, in the reserve.

These are exciting times for the DoC Boundary Stream project team, whose base overlooks the reserve’s hanging cliffs and forest-filled gorges, where flocks of tui and kereru ‘darken the skies’ (their words).

There’s no need for alarm clocks, with the dawn chorus to wake them, and their lunchtime chat is not about last night’s television, but that Cocoa (kiwi male) might be bonding with Manuiti (kiwi female), or that a saddleback might be nesting. Most of the team know most of the reserve. With the help of a huge volunteer team they walk the bait-station grids and trap lines and keep a wary eye on their precious, ‘translocated’ feathered charges.

The DoC team leader is Tamsin WardSmith. She’s worked previously with kiwi at Lake Waikaremoana, at Aotuhia inland from Wanganui, and in Northland. She completed a master’s thesis determining that kiwi are not at risk from feeding on poison baits.

After four years at Boundary Stream she says she is one of the lucky ones.

‘A lot of people have been here before us.

We are really lucky to be here now, with the vegetation coming back, and the birds. This year everything has really come together. We can hear it all around us. It’s magnificent.’

Since 1995, following the success of offshore island restorations, DoC has identified several mainland areas as ‘islands’ for similar treatment. The mainland islands are isolated in the countryside by geographical features or fencing, and intensive predator control is carried out in the quest to protect and enhance endangered species.

It was initially a suggestion by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand, to release robins in a smaller Hawke’s Bay reserve called Mohi Bush, that led to the focus on Boundary Stream. DoC’s biodiversity programme manager in Napier,

Tamsin Ward-Smith, with tracker dog Ponui, ‘listens’ for radio signals from tiny transmitters attached to birds being ‘monitored’ in the forest. Each bird species has its own radio channel with individual birds identified by a personal signal.

hunters and staff keep goats, deer and pigs under control.

While the pest control is proving effective, the team is keen to continue experimenting.

‘That’s what mainland islands are all about,’ says Tamsin Ward-Smith. ‘We’re working with our science and research team on trialling new techniques for controlling predators. One day, like everyone, we would like to see a cure-all to take out stoats; they are one of the most challenging to control.’

One technological advancement welcomed by the team is the new DOC200 trap for mustelids. Affectionately known as the ‘masher’, for its deadly (and thus humane) effectiveness, the DOC200 will eventually supersede Fenn traps.

‘It’s all paying off,’ says Tamsin WardSmith, ‘in terms of vegetation recovery and birdlife.’

‘We’ve noticed a lot of palatable species coming back. The whole make-up of the bush has changed. There are the big beech trees, then a gap, then a layer of [unpalatable] horopito, and now a new layer of these recovering species, like raukawa, coprosma, mahoe and five-finger. There are places where earlier you could see 50 metres through the forest and where now I’ve been crawling through thick bush to find a kiwi.’

In 1996 there were just six known plants in the reserve of the yellow flowering mistletoe Alepis flavida, a threatened species that grows on black beech trees. Now more than 60 FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

21

P

Radio tracking helps locate kiwi in dense cover in Boundary Stream mainland island.

Rangers monitor the progress of reintroduced birds. There are 20 kiwi at large in the reserve.

KATHY OMBLER

redator control has cleared the way for the release of threatened species into Boundary Stream. First came the robins, 28 of them in 1998 from the nearby Ahimanawa Range. Despite a less than ideal ratio of six females to 22 males, there are now an estimated 100 robins dispersed throughout the reserve.

Kiwi arrived in 2000, welcomed by local iwi and a rousing haka from Mohaka school students. They came from Kaweka Forest Park through Operation Nest Egg, a technique developed with the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Programme. John Adams says the Kaweka kiwi are currently in decline. ‘We estimate there are about 100 to

200 birds in total in the Kaweka Forest Park.

They are ageing and with little predator control are heading for extinction unless something is done.’

Kiwi eggs have thus been taken from the Kaweka Ranges to Rainbow Springs at Rotorua, hatched, and the chicks raised to the weight of about one kilogram. They are then considered strong enough to defend themselves from predators such as stoats, and are released in Boundary Stream. This is the first time that kiwi have been reintroduced by Operation Nest Egg to an area where they were no longer present.

Despite losses — one kiwi male and its eggs were killed by a ferret near the reserve boundary last August — the kiwi have settled well, putting on weight and mostly staying close to their release spots. There are now 20 kiwi in the reserve, with three pairs nesting this season.

Ten kokako arrived in grand style, by helicopter from Otamatuna Mainland Island, Te Urewera National Park, in 2001. Waiting to greet them were around 100 eager supporters. When the helicopter landed the clouds parted, Maori elders called a welcoming chant and 14 tui flew into surrounding trees and opened up with song.

The kokako were initially put into five aviaries — one pair in each. In December 2003 two pairs produced three chicks, the first in Hawke’s Bay for over a hundred years.

Last February, two non-bonded pairs were released and in May the juveniles were also released; kokako recovery patron Dame Malvina Major sending them off with a song.

KATHY OMBLER

have been identified and a new mistletoe for this reserve, Tupeia antarctica, has been discovered. Seeds from a nearby kaka beak plant have been propagated and about 100 new plants established. Boundary Stream is the southernmost limit of this endangered plant.

Existing bird populations have flourished.

‘They have undoubtedly benefited from the extra food and low predator numbers,’ says Tamsin Ward-Smith. ‘There were one or two falcon here at the start. Now we have two, perhaps three pair. We detect tui and bellbirds on every bird count and according to our counts using a “Distance Sampling” technique there were 3.3 kereru [New Zealand pigeon] per hectare in 2002 and 4.4 per hectare last year. Personally, I have seen flocks of 30 kereru and 50 tui. Definitely 50,’ she confirms, just in case of scepticism.

Kokako were introduced in 2001 from another ‘mainland island’ in Te Urewera National Park. They were initially held in aviaries at Boundary Stream. The birds were then released into the forest, last year.

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FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

However, the released birds maintained such an interaction with the pairs still in aviaries — who appeared to be having their own ‘domestic’ issues and not bonding — it was decided to let the remaining birds go free.

Since then, one male and one juvenile have been lost. Tamsin Ward-Smith suspects that after being weakened by a snowstorm they fell victim to a stoat, or were lost through natural predation by a falcon. The remaining kokako have stayed in the reserve, quelling fears they would disperse, and appear to be doing well. They are certainly vocal.

Tamsin Ward-Smith says the kokako reintroduction has contributed enormously towards learning how to bring this species back to areas like Boundary Stream.

Transferring saddleback to Boundary Stream in 2003 was especially satisfying for John Adams. As a young wildlife officer in the 1960s he helped colleague Don Merton take saddleback from Hen Island — at the time their last bastion — for dispersal to other islands. Merton later moved some of these to Coromandel’s Cuvier Island. The birds have since thrived and when 40 were brought from Cuvier to Boundary Stream last winter, Adams was with them.

Tamsin Ward-Smith is keen for people to learn about conservation from Boundary Stream. A comprehensive teachers’ educational resource has been produced and education groups beat a regular path to the reserve. The new Tumanako Track provides easy access to the heart of the mainland island.

‘We want people to get up here and learn

from the interpretive signs and what they see around them. It’s proof that with enough effort and time this sort of thing can be done successfully.’

John Adams says Boundary Stream has been one of his most satisfying conservation projects.

‘It is great to see that the project is now getting recognition and people are starting to see what can be done in other places, such as Lake Opouahi.’ (see box).

Both John Adams and Tamsin Ward-Smith stress that Boundary Stream has been the result of a huge community effort. Various programmes and species transfers have been sponsored by local Forest and Bird branches, Empire World Trade (a Hawke’s Bay fruit exporter), local resident Andy Lowe, the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust and anonymous donors.

‘We have also had incredible support from the local iwi, schools and the four adjoining landowners. We rely on them to get easy access to parts of the reserve, and for their voice in the community,’ says Tamsin WardSmith.

Then there are the volunteers who help the five-strong DoC team for over 300 days each year.

‘They come from all over: Forest and Bird [Napier, Hastings, Havelock North and Central Hawke’s Bay branches], tramping clubs, the Ornithological Society, international university students, local schools and the local 4WD club, who service Fenn traps and assist with kiwi monitoring.

‘When the kokako came we had to build the aviaries really quickly. We had 18 people staying here and people were driving up from Hastings just to bring them meals.

Then when the kokako were in the aviaries they had to be fed every day and we had

include handling the kiwi and kokako, going to Cuvier for the saddlebacks, and once watching a whitehead feeding a long-tailed cuckoo chick.

‘Seeing the amount of birdlife here is amazing,’ he says. ‘It’s hard to tell people about it, they don’t comprehend until they visit themselves. It’s just — all that noise.’

— KATHY OMBLER is a Wellington-based writer specialising in travel and the outdoors.

KATHY OMBLER

some people driving up here to do that. They would arrive at 6.30am after a two-hour drive.

‘We have individuals like John Winters.

He’s been coming here regularly for three years now and we have incorporated him into our work programme. He does all sorts of jobs like tracking tunnels, lizard monitoring and bait stations.’

The volunteers consider there is definite payback. Highlights so far for John Winters

Kiwi Crèche at Lake Opouahi

F

orest and Bird’s Hastings, Havelock North and Central Hawke’s Bay branches are key supporters of a new ‘crèche’ being developed for kiwi chicks in Hawke’s Bay.

A predator-proof fence is currently being built around Lake Opouahi Scenic Reserve, 50 kilometres north of Napier, so that young kiwi and other endangered wildlife can live there without risk of predation. It is estimated that 95 percent of kiwi hatched in the wild are killed by stoats, ferrets and dogs.

The crèche will fulfil a critical stage of the work to save the dwindling North Island brown kiwi population in Kaweka Forest Park. Kiwi eggs taken from the park are currently hatched and the chicks raised at Rainbow Springs, Rotorua. Once the chicks reach a weight of around one kilogram, and are better able to defend themselves from stoats, they are released into suitable habitats such as Boundary Stream mainland island. Opouahi will provide a predator-free, kiwi-rearing sanctuary that is larger and more cost-effective in the long run than captive facilities.

John McLennan, a trustee of the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust recommended Opouahi as a good site because it provided suitable kiwi habitat. The lake meant a water supply would always be available even in a drought, the land was relatively easy to fence, of good size, and close to the kiwi experts at Boundary Stream.

The crèche will comprise 40 hectares enclosed by a 3.2 kilometre fence. Its development is a joint project between DoC and Hawke’s Bay Environment, Conservation and Outdoor Education Trust. Help is provided by the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust, Forest and Bird Society branches, Rainbow Springs, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Andy Lowe, Century Foundation, Pan Pac Forest Products and the Kiwi Adventure Company.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

23

Protecting

Fiordland’s Waterways

Moves to better manage the southern sounds.

Text: GORDON ELL Pictures: JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY 24

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

Left and above: Dusky Sound, Fiordland.

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

A

new Fiordland Marine Area to protect the special environment of the South Island fiords is to be created with effect from the middle of this year. In new legislation, the Government hopes to recognise the national and international importance of the natural features of Fiordland’s seas.

The Fiordland Marine Area will fringe Fiordland, from the eastern bank of the Waiau River in Southland, northwards to Awarua Point in northern Fiordland. The protected area is planned to encompass an estimated 928,000 hectares, and include the waters of all the sounds. It will also include the sea from mean high-water springs out to the 12-mile territorial sea limit adjacent to Fiordland (but excluding the area around Solander Island).

At the same time, the Government will create eight new marine reserves, totalling about 9430 hectares. These will augment existing but small marine reserves, at Piopiotahi in Milford and at Te Awaatu Channel, Doubtful Sound.

The Fiordland Marine Area was proposed and developed by the local community, particularly the Guardians of Fiordland’s Fisheries and Marine Environment. The proposal involved significant voluntary buy-in by fishers, iwi, boaties, tourist operators, divers and other users.

Fittingly, the new management regime for the area includes strong community involvement. Legislation will establish a

local advisory committee, the Fiordland Marine Guardians, to advise the Government and Environment Southland.

According to the Minister for the Environment, Hon. Marian Hobbs, the Fiordland Marine Area will allow for more effective management of ‘marine areas of special significance’ (areas identified by the Guardians for their special and ecologically fragile features).

The Fisheries Minister, Hon. David Benson-Pope, will draft new regulations to prevent commercial fishing within large parts of the inner fiords. These will also create a 46,000-hectare recreational fishing area with new sustainable fishing rules.

‘Fiordland is a globally unique environment. It has high-value marine resources and exceptional biodiversity, including species found only in this part of

The Fiordland Guardians A strongly Southland-based advisory committee (to be known as the Fiordland Marine Guardians) will be established to provide management advice to the Government and Environment Southland. The primary marine resourcemanagement agencies (for fisheries, marine reserves, coastal planning and biosecurity) will be obliged to have regard to the advice of the Guardians.

The Guardians will comprise eight members appointed by the Minister for the Environment in consultation with the Ministers of Fisheries and Conservation, and Environment Southland. Among other duties, the Guardians will provide integrated advice on marine resource management and conservation, provide a forum for management agencies to work together, and act as a marine reserves advisory body.

When the new marine reserves are created, the total protected in this way will rise, from one per cent now, to 13 per cent of the marine area within the fiords.

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JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

Biscuit sea star, Pentagonaster pulchellus, on rocky ledge at Milford Sound.

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

Kelp anemone.

Gold-lined nudibranch, Chromodoris aureomarginata.

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FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

Jason nudibranch, Jason mirabilis, crawling over dead blue mussel shells as it searches for food.

the world,’ Marian Hobbs said, announcing the decision. ‘It is a special area worthy of special protection. We are acting now to ensure future generations will enjoy the treasures of this area.’

The Guardians spent eight years developing their ‘Fiordland Marine Conservation Strategy’, to address concerns over increasing pressures on the fiords from human activity. The Environment Minister became involved two years ago after the Guardians had worked with Government officials for several years.

‘The Government thanks the Guardians for their foresight, vision and dedication to this valuable part of New Zealand’s natural heritage,’ Marian Hobbs says. ‘The Guardians will remain an active part of the area’s future and protection, and have a large role to play in the management of the Fiordland Marine Area.

‘The way the strategy was developed is my template for community management of the environment. It has been a community-to-government movement.

Our Government supported the project throughout its development because the Fiordland area is so important to New Zealand and the community-driven initiative was so positive.’

Fiordland has a globally unique marine environment, with many species found only in this area. These include protected black and red corals, which are found in Fiordland at unusually shallow depths because of the unique environmental combination of high mountains, high rainfall and rainforest.

The high rainfall in the area percolating through the humus layer of the forests causes a tea-coloured water to run into the fiords, forming a darkly stained freshwater layer on top of the saltwater. This causes a huge reduction in light levels, allowing normally deepwater species to live much closer to the surface, colonising the steep fiord walls. ‘The diversity of species and habitats of the rock-wall communities in Fiordland rival those in the most speciesrich regions of the globe’ according to the proposers.

Fiordland is also a significant economic area. The landscapes of the fiords attract more than 300,000 tourists visiting Milford Sound a year. Important fisheries stocks, most notably rock lobster and blue cod, are the target of both commercial and recreational fishers.

The Fiordland marine environment has been facing an escalation in human activity, including tourism, cruise ships, fishing, diving, electricity generation and

Fiordland underwater: the high rainfall in the area percolating through the humus layer of the forests causes a tea-coloured water to run into the fiords, forming a darkly stained freshwater layer on top of the saltwater. This causes a huge reduction in light levels, allowing normally deepwater species to live much closer to the surface, colonising the steep fiord walls. Everything looks deep green because the dark layer excludes light.

boating. With these activities come a wide variety of potential risks, including oil spills, bio-invasion, over-fishing, and anchoring damage to sensitive corals.

Changes will be made to the new Southland Regional Coastal Plan to

JENNY AND TONY ENDERBY

the new Fiordland legislation by July 2005.

During 2005-6, it is intended there will be initial implementation of the Fiordland Marine Area, including the new fisheries regulations and marine reserves. Most focus will then go on planning the major management operations; of environmental monitoring, compliance and enforcement.

During 2006-7, these operational plans are intended to become operative.

The effectiveness of the package of management measures will be reviewed after five years of operation, and periodically thereafter. There will be a moratorium on new marine reserve applications in Fiordland until the new management measures have been formally reviewed after five years.

Blue cod, Parapercis colias, are more common in the less-accessible fiords.

The marine reserves will cover most, but not all, of the full range of marine ecosystem types within the Fiordland Marine Area. It is proposed that Fiordland-specific management requirements will be set for each marine reserve, including the storage of rock lobster and pots, public access and anchoring.

Forest and Bird’s Role provide for more effective management of ‘special marine places’ (small, discrete areas with special environmental features, identified by the Guardians as ‘china shops’). Fiordland tourism operators, in partnership with Environment Southland and the Department of Conservation, will establish a code of practice for the use of each of these ‘special marine places’.

Activities in these fragile areas, such as diving and anchoring, which might threaten the special values, can then be managed.

Implementation will be spread over three years. First, it is intended that the legislative components will be developed and implemented, with a view to enacting

Prof. Alan Mark was appointed to the Guardians as a nominee of Forest and Bird in 2002, after the draft report was completed. He comments: ‘With the Minister’s announcement that the Strategy is to be implemented, Forest and Bird members may consider the gains fall well short of their aspirations, or even their expectations. I believe, however, that the strategy is clearly a step in the right direction and that Forest and Bird’s involvement with the other 15 Guardians and five agencies was important.

‘All of the stakeholder groups shared with Forest and Bird, some major concessions in order to achieve important overall gains. The Guardians referred to this situation as one of “gifts and gains”.

‘I was able to ensure that a comprehensive monitoring programme is included among the final recommendations to Government. This monitoring, together with the review planned for five years hence, should provide for any further gains needed to achieve adequate conservation and management of this special and spectacular environment.

‘This could be the first step in achieving an extension of Fiordland National Park out into the marine environment, as has already occurred in some other countries, such as with Tsitsikamma National Park along the southern coast of South Africa.’

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The

Red Hills DAVE HANSFORD finds what grows between the rocks in a hard place.

M

other Nature, we’re told, can’t resist a vacuum. But when the naturally toxic waste dump that is the Red Hills came heaving through the Earth’s crust, she must have been sorely tempted to look the other way.

Try to imagine for a moment that you’re a plant. Say, a tiny forget-me-not, huddling out of the worst of the westerlies on the exposed open tops of the Red Hills, in Mount Richmond Forest Park behind Nelson. Far below, to the east, the silver braids of the Wairau River flow in tangles to the sea in Marlborough. If you’re going to get through today, you’ll need nutrients, sunlight and ideally, some water. The bad news starts here.

This land might be called the Mineral Belt, 28

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Alpine tarns dot a plateau on the Red Hills, in Mount Richmond Forest Park, Nelson. The Red Hills, so named for their mineral-rich ultramafic rocks, support a number of endemic plants specifically adapted to cope with hostile soils laden with iron, manganese, nickel and cobalt. In the vicinity of the tarns, however, beds of peat allow ‘non-specialist’ plants to survive.

but the roots you’re struggling to push through the rock will find only faint traces of potassium and nitrogen for nourishment.

Instead, your roots will dip into a chemical cocktail that might have been specially concocted to kill you — nickel, iron, chromium, manganese, cobalt — served up in a witheringly acid matrix.

At least you’ll get sunlight; lots and lots of sunlight. Few woody plants can cope with this place, so there is no appreciable shade.

The rocks, dense and dark, heat up and bake

you by day and irradiate you by night.

Then there’s the drought. The blocks of serpentinite, dunite and harzburgite that surround you are heavy and hard. While they’re prone to massive slipping, they stubbornly defy the elements that would normally erode rock into soil. Any rain falls into the cracks and is lost beyond reach.

Add to this inhospitableness, the petrifying frosts of winter, the browsing molars of hares, goats and chamois, competition from the wild progeny of those pines over on Beeby’s

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA ©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Wind-sculpted blocks of basalt and gabbro stand on the Red Hills, in Mount Richmond Forest Park. The mineral-rich ultramafic rocks, also bear serpentinite, harzburgite and dunite.

Norfolk Island

The Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt

Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt

At right: the reversed S-shaped line of the mineral belt through New Zealand. The belt was formed along the junction of two giant earth plates, where continental movements have forced subterranean minerals to the surface.

3,000 metre Contour (Continental Crust) North Cape

Ridge to the west, and you’re living in a horticultural hell.

This environment is called ultramafic rock, a term believed derived from the ‘Ma’ in magnesium and the ‘F’ in the Latin word for iron. Both are present in huge concentrations in the minerals that the rock holds, such as olivine and pyroxene. The rock itself is igneous — basalt and gabbro — born out of the molten mantle during fiery collisions between the Earth’s crustal plates some 300 million years ago.

Ultramafics are old sections of seabed called ophiolites, which instead of being forced down by the advancing plate, are driven up to the surface by some tectonic cataclysm. This took some doing because ultramafic rock, a repository for all the heaviest metals that settled out of the underground magma chambers, is many times heavier than the continental crust.

Consequently, most ultramafics are buried deep beneath the surface, but their distinct magnetic signature gives them away. Under

Faulting

Piopio

D'Urville Island Dun Mountain Matakitaki

Red Hill Anita Bay Livingstone Range

Red Hills Chatham Islands

Routeburn/Caples Mossburn

Bounty Islands

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

29

But look further about you and the difference strikes home. Just across the valley, at a comparable altitude, the surrounding ridges are covered in mature beech forest.

Joseph Banks noticed the same contrasts when he sailed past the ultramafic Middle Cascade Valley in Fiordland with James Cook in 1770: ‘They were quite bare of trees and vegetables, and seemed to consist of bricks of bright red ochre. What ever the cause of it I could not guess.’

Walking is tricky here; the tussocks disguise the red boulders beneath just well enough to catch you off balance, and a fall would hurt mightily — the rocks are like a grindstone to the touch, hard and sharp, glistening with grains of mica and feldspar.

But stumble your way across the plateau — where deep beds of peat moss around the tarns restore a brief sense of normality — and start the gentle climb toward Chrome peak.

Around 1300 metres, the tussocks start to thin, and nothing much takes their place.

The way ahead now is over bare stonefields.

Little lives in these arid jumbles — a single species of hebe has what it takes. But in lowlying depressions, where water might linger for a few days and the wind might be turned, Anisotomes — members of the carrot family — and gentians still flower. Here and there, yellow pebble flats — ephemeral puddles during the wet — are dotted with tiny button daisies and Neopaxias. Mountain ringlet butterflies chase one another off their territories in jittery dogfights.

For years a Department of Conservation botanist, Shannel Courtney, has been studying the few plants that can make a living here, and he still doesn’t know how they do it.

‘Nickel seems to be the limiting factor,’ he says. ‘They have to find some way to get around that, and it’s got to be physiological — something that blocks the uptake of nickel, manganese and magnesium. Or if it allows the uptake, then there must be some

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mechanism that allows the plant to tolerate it.’

The ultramafic environment may not be friendly ground, but nearly 70 per cent of New Zealand’s plant families have colonised it to some extent, with 800 species and subspecies and varieties recorded from the vicinity of Belt and its associated outliers. Just 35 are found exclusively on these toxic soils, however, many of them still unnamed.

Shannel Courtney says the endemics of Red Hills are likely descendants of more widespread species — most of them have relatives elsewhere. It began, he thinks, as the straightforward colonisation of a newly vacant niche, but then something happened that genetically stranded those early pioneers.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

The flowers of Anisotome aromatica, or kopoti, a common alpine member of the carrot family, bloom on the Red Hills.

A hebe in a barren stonefield on the Red Hills, in Mount Richmond Forest Park. This species, as yet undescribed, is one of the few that can cope with this hostile environment. The hard ultramafic rocks, mostly basalt and gabbro, yield little in the way of soil, and plants must survive baking summer ground temperatures and prolonged drought.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

New Zealand, the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt writhes in a 3000-kilometre back-tofront ‘S’ from the edge of the Campbell Plateau in the Southern Ocean, across Southland and Westland, along the Southern Alps, over Cook Strait and across the nose of Taranaki, then up the western Northland coast before swinging out west to the Norfolk Rise.

The ‘S’ was once a lower case ‘s’ in proportion, but the Alpine Fault has sheared the South Island in two along the Main Divide, and carried the West Coast, along with the Dun Mountain Mineral Belt, nearly 500 kilometres north, drawing it out into a capital ‘S’.

It is the thrashing of the Fault that’s exposed the Belt in widely separated outcrops. It wells up in Southland and Otago before plunging into the Fault, making a prominent reappearance in Nelson/Marlborough before ducking under Cook Strait to pop up in the King Country as a tiny manifestation at Piopio. Before leaving New Zealand, it makes a grand exit at the Surville Cliffs of North Cape, which boast the country’s highest diversity of flora peculiar to the ultramafic areas.

The next richest site is the Red Hills, here in the Richmond Ranges between Nelson and inland Marlborough Viewing the area in isolation, the casual traveller might not notice anything odd about the hills. Manuka is advancing in ranks up lower slopes cloaked in a snow tussock, Chionocloa defracta, which is peculiar to the Mineral Belt. Such reafforestation takes place naturally in the wake of fires set by early prospectors and graziers. Tiny daphnes and willowherbs peep out from under the tussock clumps, advertising bright white flowers to daytime moths.

Yellow buttercups wave in the breeze, attended by pollinating march flies. A trio of black-fronted terns snaps insects from the chill southwesterly, which also holds a skylark aloft on trembling wings.

A cardamine, a native land cress in a bog on the Red Hills.

An undescribed dainty daisy, or Celmisia, in a bog on the Red Hills.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

A black mountain ringlet butterfly soaks up the sun on the rocks of the Red Hills, in Mount Richmond Forest Park. These insects are strictly alpine, found on screes and stony places across Marlborough and Nelson, wherever their host plant, the tussock Poa colensoi, occurs.

stranded relics. (In experiments, some have grown quite happily in potting mix.)

If the physiology is murky, the biogeography is downright baffling. Some plants are found throughout New Zealand’s scattered ultramafic sites, while others are restricted to only half an hectare in just one place.

A native oatgrass, Trisetum serpentinum, occurs only at North Cape and on the Nelson ultramafics; the populations are separated by many hundreds of kilometres.

North Cape has around 30 locally endemic species — Otago, just two. Shannel Courtney says that is most likely the work of Pleistocene glaciers.

‘Further south, glaciation would have been much more severe — the whole flora has been wiped out, with fewer refugia left.’

West Dome, an ultramafic outrider in northern Southland, may provide confirmation of this. Low enough to escape the worst of the glacial destruction, it still sports a diverse flora — by ultramafic standards.

Nevertheless, the relationships are difficult

A small heath, Leucopogon suaveolens, on the Red Hills. This plant is common in the drier short-tussock lands of the eastern South Island.

to fathom. A recently discovered daphne, Pimelea suteri, resident at Red Hills in Nelson is also found at West Dome, Southland. ‘That’s a huge disjunction,’ says Shannel Courtney. ‘It’s hard to know whether the population was contiguous before the Alpine Fault shunted everything north, or whether they both evolved in a similar way from a sister species, P. oreophila.’

Scientific exploration has answered Joseph Banks’s question about the chemical nature of ultramafic rocks; new tools, like the analysis of chloroplast DNA, will likely answer many of Shannel Courtney’s. Such research may reveal lineages obscured by time and the former limits of science.

There is still a lot of work in front of researchers before they fully understand the enigma of the Red Hills.

A Mineral Belt forget-me-not, Myosotis monroi, in a stonefield on the Red Hills.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

— DAVE HANSFORD visited the Red Hills with a camera, under the guidance of Shannel Courtney.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

‘It could have been (the arrival or disappearance of) a pollinator, or maybe they flowered at different times. It might have been physical isolation, or forest may have reclaimed the surrounding area and displaced the sister species that lived there.’

He says a whole lot of evolution has been going on in the Red Hills, ‘And a lot of it failed.

‘There’s not a lot of diversity up there — it’s still a really hostile place. The genera that have succeeded are those that can achieve a fast turnover to get around the landscape quickly. In that sense, the ‘weedy’ genera — the willowherbs, the forget-me-nots, the hebes — do well.’

Harsh environments tend to accelerate natural selection, because there are few qualified successes — either you cut it or you don’t — and colonists need more than just fast reproduction, according to Shannel Courtney.

‘Successful genera may, for example, have lots of chromosomes, and be quite plastic in the way they express themselves.’

Broadly speaking, plants seem to follow one of two strategies. Generalists like manuka and the coprosmas are sufficiently flexible to tolerate highly mineralised soils with minimal adaptation. For instance, some species have succeeded simply by changing form — perhaps by growing prostrate, or carrying smaller leaves.

‘You get a gradation of the same species — the form changes as you get closer to the extreme.’

Others, like the forget-me-nots and daphnes, have evolved into distinct ‘ecotypes’, selecting over generations for traits that will, if not nullify toxic minerals, at least sequester them somewhere out of harm’s way. (Some species in North America are so good at this that scientists want to use them to clean up contaminated sites.)

Doubts remain, however, as to whether these plants are true specialists or simply

An alpine buttercup, Ranunculus verticillatus, on the Red Hills. These flowers are a common sight in high summer in high tussock grasslands from the Ruahine Range in the North Island to north Westland in the South.

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No High Noon for

Billy and the Kid

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

DAVE HANSFORD finds wild goats tend to be tolerated despite the damage they do.

A

round 300,000 goats run wild in the New Zealand countryside but, despite the damage they do to the environment, their numbers are not strictly controlled. Social factors tend to protect the animals which, along with deer, can strip our forests from the inside.

Goats arrived with the British navigator James Cook in 1773. He presented them to Marlborough Maori, who promptly devoured them. He also made gifts of goat to tribes in Hawke Bay and, according to some, in Northland.

It was the following sealers and whalers who successfully seeded New Zealand with goats. They sprinkled them liberally along the mainland coast and left them behind on islands as far south as Campbell as a living larder for castaways.

Today, goats are where you find them.

Some 300,000 of them browse over an estimated 39,500 square kilometers — or 14 per cent of the country. They’re New Zealand’s most abundant free-living hoofed animal.

Wild goats are found over 14 percent of New Zealand — an estimated 300,000 animals.

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©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Male goats sport beards, but so do some nannies.

Some are farm animals; some are feral pests — it depends which side of a fence they’re on — and goats have an almost legendary disdain for containment. (Forget the standard five-strand wire — regional councils say nothing less than seven will do).

A Landcare Research scientist, John Parkes, has been studying goats since he joined the Forest Research Institute in 1975. He says their status as farm animals — even household pets — defines not just their success as a pest, but colours public perception and restricts our options for controlling them as well.

‘Domestication makes for better pests,’ says John Parkes. ‘When we began herding goats 9000 years ago, we bred for high productivity, sociability and a wide dietary tolerance.’ Now those traits have come back to haunt conservation managers facing a foe that reaches sexual maturity in its first year, routinely gives birth to twins (and sometimes triplets), can raise two families a year (falling pregnant while still lactating) and easily recovers its numbers within two years of control.

Evolutionary biologists call the domestic and feral goat an ‘r-strategist’, which means that it’s physiologically and behaviourally adapted to produce lots of young with minimal investment. This allows r-selected animals (and plants) to quickly colonise and monopolise an available niche. Typical examples are rabbits, rats and thistles.

Normally, r-strategist animals can eat

almost anything, are obsessed with sex and are not particularly bright. But John Parkes says that once they go feral, goats buck the boom-and-bust r-profile in a few crucial ways.

They actually form a ‘k-selected’ relationship with their habitat, in which they place more emphasis on rearing of young, live for longer, exhibit more intelligence and become more selective feeders. (The names ‘r’ and ‘k’ come from a mathematical model of population growth.) This change in behaviour is because goats weren’t always rstrategists. We made them that way through breeding domestic strains. Some of the problem goats in the wild still aren’t truly ‘feral’.

The difference between domestic goats gone feral and a truly wild goat is a crucial distinction — they function differently.

Today, the few remaining truly wild goats in New Zealand breed just once a year over a few weeks. They don’t become sexually mature until their second year and give birth to a single kid.

The good news in all of this, says John Parkes, is that while goats are still a chronic problem for native forest, control is possible if it’s applied just as ‘chronically’. In other words, sustained hunting will keep their impacts down.

That’s precisely what’s happening in Egmont National Park where Dean Stronge, a Department of Conservation technical support adviser, has seen goat numbers

brought down to the point where vegetation surveys are now showing ‘nil damage’.

The first goats escaped into the park somewhere around 1910 and quickly proliferated to plague levels.

‘Huge areas of Egmont used to be affected,’ says Dean Stronge. ‘There were big dead areas — the goats had basically cleaned out the whole understorey, and all the canopy had collapsed.’ In 1924, the Government funded the country’s first goat control to try and stem the destruction in Egmont. It’s been ‘shelling out’ ever since.

Dean Stronge says it’s a case of having the right strategy and the right people.

‘The standard method is ground hunters with dogs. The dogs used to be predominantly bailers, now the guys are going more into indicating dogs — especially indicating dogs that bail on command. The dogs will point to a mob, then the hunter will sneak up, take out what he can, then get the dogs to bail any survivors.’

Scientist John Parkes says it’s vital to try and leave no survivors.

‘Goats are very smart animals, so if say 10 percent of them escape that first encounter, that’s your last chance with them. It’s important to get the biggest initial knockdown possible. You need a very systematic approach.’

Dean Stronge says goats unused to being hunted, while they may scatter widely during the day, will invariably return to a bedding site each evening, often gathering in groups FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

Goat hunting is a popular sport.

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come off. ‘If we stopped control, we’d be back where we started within a couple of years.’

Stronge and Parkes agree that, technically at least, it’s possible to eradicate goats.

Certainly that’s been done on many offshore islands, here and overseas. But control and eradication are two very different things — you need hunters that know and support the difference — and it always comes back to money.

‘On Egmont,’ says John Parkes, ‘they’ve probably spent over $100 million since 1924 in today’s terms. And there’s probably a 1000 or so goats still there. It’ll cost you a lot of money to get those last few.’

Besides, there’s little point in clearing a forest of goats if there’s a limitless supply of potential recolonisers on farms all around the boundary. Around Egmont, Dean Stronge and his colleagues have been working hard to get neighbours and

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

of up to 100. That’s the time to pounce.

Nowadays, the use of global-positioning satellites and radio telemetry lend a degree of precision to goat control, but some animals still escape the hunters’ guns. When that happens, hunters use the goats’ own sociability against them, releasing a single animal fitted with a tracking device into the area where they were last seen.

These ‘Judas goats’ quickly seek out their own kind, unwittingly leading hunters to the remaining animals. Dean Stronge says such ‘traitors’ are invaluable in the open tussocklands of the South Island, where they often pick up mobs reinvading over the Main Divide, but are less use in the kind of tight forest he and his team frequent in Egmont.

Ideas were once floated about importing a disease to wipe out goats, mostly on offshore islands, but as John Parkes points out, the risk of disease spreading to farm animals made the notion unacceptable.

Trials have also been done with 1080 pellets, but goats are way too smart to eat them. There’s good evidence that kids learn what to eat and what to leave from their mothers, and contrary to popular opinion, goats are fussy eaters. Tests with 1080 gel, painted onto the underside of palatable vegetation, have had more success, and the product was registered for use on goats in October last, but doubts remain about its cost effectiveness.

Dean Stronge says it’s a promising technique for use on ‘naive’ goats that have yet to encounter hunters, especially at those evening gatherings, but others believe that good old-fashioned ground hunting is still gives the best ‘bang for the buck’. In the end, goat control is just monotonous hard graft.

‘There’s no silver bullet,’ says Dean Stronge, ‘but the bullets we’ve got are working well.’

However, he says the pressure can never

landowners on side, advocating for better fencing and stock management, and they’ve made good progress. In many cases, he says, neighbours with feral goats on their land are happy for DoC to come in and shoot them.

But in other districts, escaped goats are a perennial problem. Regional and district councils have responded with tougher bylaws, such as minimum fencing requirements and ear-tagging of domestic goats. Some, like Environment Bay of Plenty, have outlawed new liberations, and farmers are meant to notify the local authority within 24 hours of a goat’s escape, but those that don’t or won’t comply are under little real pressure.

Every now and then, meat prices rise sufficiently to make goat mustering worth the while, but Dean Stronge says most rural landowners keep — or tolerate — goats in the mistaken belief that they’ll keep weeds like gorse at bay.

‘People still think they just need to throw a few goats out there and let them run amok.

That’s a myth; you can control weeds with goats but you have to farm them very intensively. You need sound pasture and livestock management. If they’re left to their own devices, they don’t do a very thorough job. They eat what they want to eat, which varies from season to season depending on what their nutritional needs are.’ And there’s another downside.

‘People tend to overlook the risk of livestock disease from uncontrolled feral goats. They carry a number of livestock diseases and worms, some of which transfer easily to sheep.’

In native forest, goats deliver the knockout blow of a one-two punch — while possums consume the canopy, they nibble away at any regenerating understorey. John Parkes says that, if anything, goats are even more

Ground hunting with dogs is the standard method for controlling wild goat populations.

The Nature of Goats New Zealand’s feral goats are relatives of various domestic breeds including Old English, Angora, Cashmere, Swiss and Saanen. These in turn are descended from the true wild goat, Capra aegagrus of the Middle East — one of six wild species that still inhabit mountains between the Pyrenees and China.

Feral goats come in a wide range of colours; white, black, brown and any combination of these. Males often have a dark band along the spine.

Some nannies carry beards, as do all billies. With males, the beard will normally flow on over the chest and neck as a mane. Males are larger, with much heavier forequarters and shaggier coats. During the rut, or when alarmed, they give off a characteristic, pungent smell.

In New Zealand, both sexes sport horns. Their shape and size varies considerably from region to region, but are universally more slender on the females.

Goats arrived in numbers with the whalers and sealers. Later, colonists put them to work controlling the woody weeds that sprang up after forest clearance. A nascent angora industry foundered in the 1880s, adding to the gene pool of feral animals, and early naturalists began warning of their impacts on native forest even then. Goat control began at Egmont in 1924, and has been a basic necessity of conservation management around the country ever since.

Population densities depend on habitat and available food. In forest, goats generally occur at around 10 per square kilometre. In open grassland or favourable scrub, such as in Marlborough, they may occur at the rate of one per hectare. On Macauley Island in the Kermadec group, north of New Zealand, goats peaked at 10 per hectare, virtually destroying the island’s subtropical forest. (They have since been exterminated.)

Goats can cope with a wide range of habitats and climate. Before eradication, they frequented the peat bogs of subantarctic Auckland Island and the subtropical forest of Raoul. On the mainland, they are found in tussock grassland, scrub, and in native and exotic forest. Agile climbers, they can reach food inaccessible to deer and feral sheep, and their catholic tastes mean they can often persist in forest already depleted by other browsers.

They are active in daytime, alternately feeding and resting, though morning and evening are peak times of activity. Social groups are built around the nannies with their offspring — either this year’s or last. Females often occupy the territory — up to 20 hectares — of their mother. They may congregate in large herds, which billies sometimes join. Roving bands of males, young and old, continually form and break up.

Goats are playful creatures. Exuberant kids often incite whole groups into jumping and cavorting about, particularly in the evening before the group beds down.

In New Zealand, females are sexually mature at six months old and over half of births are twins, productivity rising with age. They can breed twice a year.

Goats are serious pests in many parts of the world, most notably on oceanic islands that previously had no browsing mammals such as Hawaii, the Galapagos islands and Aldabra, near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

©DAVE HANSFORD ORIGIN NATURAL HISTORY MEDIA

destructive than deer. ‘They can tolerate much tougher food.’

Goats might have been designed as a defoliators. They can digest the coarsest of plant roughage, and their mobile — almost prehensile — lips mean they can tackle any kind of growth. Thorns are no defence, and they can hop up on two legs or climb sloping trunks and branches to reach tender outer growth.

Famously sure-footed, they can reach vegetation on the steepest of slopes, which accelerates erosion. They’ve even been implicated in the decline of the kokako by monopolising its preferred food.

They have broad tastes, but show strong preferences when favoured plants are available. Studies in Rimutaka Forest Park showed they ate 120 different types of plant, but just 40 of those made up 98 percent of their diet. In Egmont, Dean Stronge says they prefer kamahi, supplejack and hen-andchicken ferns, but will switch diet according to availability or their seasonal needs such as pregnancy. In Egmont, an abundance of tree ferns, pepper tree and rice grass hints at what goats won’t eat. Goats also like to forage on windfall from the canopy — broken branches, fruit and epiphytes.

‘Most of the palatable species for goats tend to be the future canopy species,’ says Dean Stronge. ‘So when they restrict regeneration, they’re affecting the whole forest structure.’

John Parkes says that this preference creates a kind of lag between control and benefit.

‘You can take huge numbers of goats out of a forest and yet see no early effect on what happens in the understorey.’

In the end, goat control looks set to remain a routine conservation chore. In 2002, DoC tackled goats over about 14,000 square kilometres at a cost of $6.3 million. Public perception has an influence on goat control too. Most recreational hunters consider goats unfit for sport or table, and make only small dents in feral herds, usually to feed hungry dogs.

On the other hand, many country folk keep goats as pets. A 2001 Landcare Research study showed that the bigger the animal, the more ambivalent people become towards its control, goats included.

John Parkes says that while eradication is technically possible, it’s not feasible in the continued presence of domestic stock. The best we could do might be to restrict or even ban goat farming or the holding of feral goats from properties surrounding conservation land.

‘As long as we have domestic goats, we'll have feral goats. That’s the ultimate message.’

— DAVE HANSFORD

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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GORDON ELL, BUSH FILMS

Conservation and restoration efforts are increasingly dependent on community involvement. Around 40 groups in Wellington, and 40 in Auckland, have adopted reserves and other conservation areas. At Tawharanui Peninsula in lower Northland, the Tawharanui Open Sanctuary Society has built a predator-proof fence across the isthmus and is restoring forests on former farmland, now in an Auckland regional park.

Looking Back,

Looking

Forward In his recent history of conservation in New Zealand, Our Land, Our Selves, DAVID YOUNG writes about a developing conservation ethic.

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L

ooking back, many gains have been made in conservation, especially over the past half-century. Most debates over burning and loss of habitat are well in the past, although the pioneering spirit and its modern incarnation, the developer, is still with us, sometimes untamed. The values of scarcity, distinctiveness and ecological representativeness are recognised by conservationists but not necessarily the rest of society.

The Victorian debate over the relationship between public good and private interests will endure as an important tension in conservation. The unity of control sought for so long has largely been achieved [through the creation of the Department of Conservation]. Reform is still critical, however, in managing the seas as well as the coastline.

On land, the question in future will be how much individual property owners are obliged to act on society’s behalf in

RON FREESTON

The restoration of Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour was a community initiative, led by Lower Hutt Forest and Bird. These photographs, taken from the same position (see lighthouse), show the progress between 1981 (top) and 1995 (below).

Volunteer groups often involve Forest and Bird members, or are led by them. They also secure the support of many other groups and shortly take on a life of their own. Such conservation groups may ultimately involve hundreds of people working on a common, community-based project.

RON FREESTON

protecting significant natural areas on farms and coastline, and how much such initiatives are recognised by some form of compensation. This will, however, be less of an issue as the conservation ethic becomes more integral to society.

If growth in membership of conservation organisations has declined somewhat, the conservation ethic is alive in the countless volunteer organisations that engage in onthe-ground, practical work. These range from individuals who keep possum numbers down by determined use of Timms traps to those who replant the nearby hills and valleys of their cities, the river banks and offshore islands.

From the initiatives of the New Zealand Landcare Trust to groups of new Asian citizens in Auckland learning from DoC how to replant vegetation, to the efforts of tangata whenua to protect ancestral forests and waterways, there is a healthy mania abroad in New Zealand that enhances the Arbor Day activities of former times.

Landcare groups of farmers watching over landscapes (including riparian rights) and walkway enthusiasts, wetland re-creators, particularly Ducks Unlimited, and amateur heritage restoration enthusiasts all work on their ever-enlarging ambitions.

Currently 45,000 hectares are in sanctuaries held by DoC; another 25,000 are run by community groups — with the latter expanding so rapidly that it seems new community proposals arise every week. There are more than 40 community replanting initiatives in the Wellington area alone. This work meets many needs — it appeals to the pioneer in many of us, it often adds meaning to what can be long retirements, and it helps to strengthen communities. This last point is perhaps the most important of all: as the early 1980s slogan ‘Think globally, act locally’ expressed it, if there is no community there will be little conservation. . . .While conservation needs individuals for leadership, it requires communities for action.

Increasingly, the message is to protect biodiversity. Thanks largely to our first Maori Minister of Conservation, Sandra Lee, markedly improved funding for DoC in recent years has meant that work can now be done with greater knowledge, and with an infrastructure that can support community initiatives through regional and local councils and DoC’s conservancies — as well as through the scientific and covenanting agencies. The word biodiversity is taking root in replanting, predator and weed control programmes in most parts of New Zealand.

It is much easier to identify DoC’s

achievements after fifteen years of operation. The grave and salutary lessons of Cave Creek have been addressed in most of its management systems, and previous knowledge has been systematically refined into powerful tools for the restoration of habitats and species. This integrated management approach has been enhanced only by forging stronger conservation links with community groups and iwi. The most spectacular gains have been won through offshore island predator eradication and intervention management on the mainland.

A systematic approach to pest management has encouraged a practice that is more concerned with enhancing ecological integrity than simply counting the bodies of

dead predators. Some of this science has been achieved through the advances by Crown research institutes, such as Landcare, while in the field of marine research the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research is also critical.

For unenviable reasons we are the best in the world at bringing species back from the brink, and now sell these skills abroad, yet in terms of wider public understanding one is reminded of Aldo Leopold’s chastening words of more than half a century ago: ‘We have our hearts in the right place, but we do not yet recognise the small cogs and wheels. In our attempts to save the bigger cogs and wheels, we are still pretty naïve. A little repentance just before a species goes FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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RON FREESTON

The restoration and management of the Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve, on Paremata Harbour north of Wellington, was initiated by members of Forest and Bird in the 1980s.

Concreting bollards along a driveway leading to Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve are from left to right, Bill Milne, David Cormick, Jack Cox, Brian Western, John Bell and Des Dunbar.

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United States who have ‘continued to reflect the legacy of frontier societies in which “undisturbed” nature was seen as being on the other side of the frontier from human settlement’. As long as that separation exists, it will prevent the kind of integrated thinking that helps us to value nature in its diversity across a range of landscapes and habitats.

This problem has recently been thrown into sharp relief. El Niño-induced reductions in water storage in the southern lakes have meant threats of power cuts during winter. The expected shortfall has come to focus on a proposal to flood an

AUCKLAND REGIONAL COUNCIL

over the brink is enough to make us feel virtuous. When the species is gone we have a good cry and repeat the performance. . . We console ourselves with the comfortable fallacy that a single museum-piece will do, ignoring the clear dictum of history that a species must be saved in many places if it is to be saved at all.’

Conservation is driven by scarcity, which in turn grabs public attention. But the risk is that the sheer virtuosity of those engaging in this ecological brinkmanship may in fact blind the general population to the wider issues raised by Leopold.

Conservation in New Zealand requires a subtlety and flexibility of mind that is not always apparent in modern conservation debates. No matter how well motivated, those who advocated protection of the Kaimanawa wild horses did not understand the ancient botanical rarities that were under threat there. Protection of the horse is not a conservation battle that New Zealand has any pressing reason to fight. Equally, there are those who now believe that the only good tree is a native one. Yet it is plain that tui, wood pigeons and other native birds will thrive on a range of flowering exotics that a fundamental zero preservationist would want to see replaced by kowhai or fuchsia or puriri.

We run some of the great national parks in the world and have three world heritage parks, but in the past these places have also helped to perpetuate the old Scenery Preservation Act dichotomy: productive, occupied land versus the Romantic view of landscape. This split has been identified among preservationists in Australia and the

ecologically significant area containing rare kahikatea on the Arnold River near Greymouth. South Island mayors have been baying for the blood of the current minister, who has defended his statutory obligation to oppose the scheme. They regard economic growth and jobs as fundamental, but the commitment of civic leaders to upholding the sanctity of protected natural areas in the twenty-first century can seem limited to restating the old expediencies.

The problem goes deeper. Cities, which are both huge consumers of energy and centres for conservation agitation, often show little inclination towards taking the hard decisions for sustainability themselves.

Three times in recent years, permission has been sought to build wind farms to harvest Wellington’s abundant coastal energy. Twice they have been turned away by concerned groups, largely environmental, and a third application is also being resisted. Yet if wind power is opposed in the face of increasing electricity demand, surely the alternatives (apart from better electricity conservation practices) are either the flooding of more river valleys or the construction of more coal-fired power stations? Neither is acceptable to conservationists. We are a long way from living sustainably in these islands.

There is no bumper sticker or even sound bite that can readily embrace such complexity. Long-term environmental education must help. Over the past twenty years this has become increasingly important in our schools, but a number of current decision-makers were brought up when all native trees were ‘bush’ and national parks were places in which

Children replanting streamsides reflect another aspect of community involvement in conservation. Wasteland beside an Auckland suburban stream is being replanted with native plants. The activity reflects the development of long-term environmental education and a growing sense of ‘ownership’ and caring for the natural world.

RON FREESTON

‘Mum and Dad’s army’ planting on quarantine paddock, Somes/Matiu Island

governments might allow mining and take water for hydro-electric schemes.

The importance of formal education as part of the solution has increased as society has become more pluralistic.

No longer can a Val Sanderson [a founder of Forest and Bird] sit at his typewriter and activate the entire scouting movement and a number of churches with the idea of teaching conservation to the young.

The tangata whenua, too, are far more vocal and involved in their conservation and environment issues.

Furthermore, New Zealand’s migrant population is growing by up to 100,000 a year, and their entry requirements do not include an understanding of the subtleties of our biota. Yet many of these people come to buy and develop property in some of our most sensitive coastal and high country environments, and current law in many cases provides only the most minimal of restraints. (Locals, of course, can prove to be more bloody-minded.)

Our attitude to tourism for the past 30 years has been defined by limitations in hotel capacity and little else. If it seems unfair to suggest that the tourist industry takes far more from the environment than it ever gives, go for a walk beside Lake Wakatipu at Queenstown. This town is the beneficiary of more tourism wealth than any other place in New Zealand, and yet the path between the town and the lake isoverrun by exotic weeds and plants and many streams that cross it carry an offensive smell. As is the case with many elements of the lucrative but polluting dairy industry, there is never a good time to clean

up one’s act — Charles Fleming wanted this for dairying in 1970. Protection of New Zealand’s fresh water is, surprisingly, a priority for the biodiversity strategy because some of Lance McCaskill’s 1985 concerns have emerged.

All the national parks of the North Island and many of those in the south have continuing traditional ties with the local iwi, but recognition of these associations has been slow in coming. When it does come, New Zealand will have taken a vital step in ‘co-management’ – another element of integrated management. Like the relationship of society with the natural world, the relationship with the tangata whenua will need to be constantly reevaluated. It is a quest for both science and management, for Maori and Pakeha initiatives, but in the end it is rooted in values and, therefore, ethics. For conservation is about ethical frameworks and moral judgements. [As Leopold wrote:] ‘A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.’

Good practice begets the need for more.

The final example must come from the sea.

First there are the ecosystems of fish, poorly understood by most. Then there are fishing methods around the globe that threaten not only fish species but a number of seabirds, notably albatrosses, with extinction – the number so threatened increased from one-to two-thirds of all albatross species between 1994 and 2000.

Trawling and long-lining continue to present real threats to birds in southern

waters and long-liners do not carry fisheries observers.

Leading New Zealand ornithologist and conservationist Sandy Bartle and Forest and Bird’s Barry Weeber have been challenging the government to demand international best practice. Mitigation measures such as closures of fisheries at crucial times in crucial areas have neither been researched nor implemented in New Zealand. Only in United States territories has the possibility that existing long-line technologies are simply too destructive of seabirds been addressed.

Sandy Bartle, who from 1989 campaigned against mortality in trawl fisheries, argues that ‘It is possible that no existing mitigation measures can reduce seabird mortality to acceptable levels in times/areas where birds are abundant’. While many operators are trying to address the problem, the combination of monitoring, regulation and support has been insufficient to the task, says Bartle. A New Zealand international initiative engaging the fishing industry, NGOs and governments, Southern Seabird Solutions, is starting to make some headway.

Once again, as a ‘brink species’ ourselves, our greatest endeavour to act to conserve is when the danger of extinction is looming perilously close.

As with all conservation issues, once the technical issues have been resolved, their successful resolution is a question of political will. And that lies in the hearts and hands of the people.

Extracted from Our Islands, Our Selves: A History of Conservation in New Zealand by David Young, 297pp hardbound, Otago University Press, Dunedin 2004, RRP$59.95.

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in the field

The Twists W

e were climbing Mount Warning, a small, steep peak in northern New South Wales. Up the mountain runs a track passing through changing plant communities. Along the track are helpful signs, or ‘interps’ as the Australians call them.

This sign was about the vines that festooned the tall rainforest. It said: ‘Look at the lianes, reaching up to the canopy and the sunshine.

Which way do they twine?

The answer is further on.’

So we looked at the lianes. The canopy of the rainforest was high above us and everywhere we looked, rope-like lianes were climbing the tall trunks. We counted more than a hundred vines of various species.

Every vine twisted in the same direction: that is, it appeared to be turning to the right, to be climbing anticlockwise when you looked up at it.

Now why did they all turn the same way, we wondered, as we puffed upwards? It could hardly be a response to light, as the forest floor was uniformly dim, nor did it seem a likely response to gravity.

‘Perhaps it’s the Coriolis effect,’ suggested a friend. ‘It makes water go anticlockwise down the plug hole in the Southern Hemisphere and clockwise on the other side of the world.’

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of Life

ANN GRAEME highlights some significant turns.

Pictures by TIM GALLOWAY ‘Could be,’ said another member of the group. ‘So which way do plants twine in the Northern Hemisphere?’

Nobody knew, and we climbed on and up the chain to the summit, but we never found a sign in answer to the question.

Back home, I looked at our lianes. They climb anticlockwise too. So do the tendrils on the passion fruit vine and the bean vine climbing the trellis. Was this the Coriolis effect? (And what was the Coriolis effect?) I tried running water down the sink and the hand basin and the bath. To my surprise, on this occasion the water went clockwise in the sink and the basin and anticlockwise in the bath.

So I did some research about the Coriolis effect.

The Earth is a globe spinning on an invisible axis. Every 24 hours, a point on the equator makes a fast trip of 40,000 kilometres, but a point closer to either of the poles makes a shorter and slower trip. This apparent difference in speed deflects the path of an object moving towards or away from the equator. This is the Coriolis force and it affects the oceans, the weather and fast-flying planes. It combines with the pressure differences in the atmosphere to make hurricanes spiral clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and their equivalent, which we call cyclones, spiral anticlockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Coriolis force affects big, fast-moving events traversing the latitudes. Its effect on the diameter of a plughole must be infinitesimally small. It isn’t the Coriolis effect that I observed in my bathroom; it is other forces like the momentum of the water from the tap, the

shape of the basin, and even the angle at which I pulled out the plug.

So with that theory down the drain, it seemed most unlikely that the Coriolis effect would influence twisting lianes. And it doesn’t, for next I learned that vines twist the same way in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. But there are a few exceptions. Misalliance, the song by Michael Flanders and Donald Swan, celebrates the left-handed honeysuckle and the righthanded bindweed: ‘We twine to the left and they twine to the right’! Most of our native vines twine to the right but we have observed that the supplejack and the pohuehue seem to be ambidextrous.

It was while I was thinking about climbing vines that I noticed the spiral shells on the beach. I have admired and gathered shells all my life so it was galling to realize how unobservant I had been. I had never noticed that they all coil the same way. Every snail shell I looked at was right-handed. From its aperture, it spiralled anticlockwise, just as the vines did. I looked and looked at hundreds of whelks, top shells, turret shells, cat’s eye shells, ostrich-foot shells and garden snails. Not one left-handed shell did I find.

More research was called for. It seems that the vast majority of gastropod (snail) species are right-handed and a very, very

few species are left-handed. We do have a southpaw, however, in the introduced snail, Physa acuta, which is now found in freshwater habitats throughout the country.

The phenomenon of handedness is called chirality (pronounced with a k). It is derived from the Greek word kheir meaning ‘hand’ and describes any object that can exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other and cannot be superimposed. For example, your left hand and your right hand are chiral and cannot be superimposed, one on top of the other.

Charles Darwin observed chirality. He wrote an entire book called ‘The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants’.

In 1848, Louis Pasteur noticed that tartaric acid was made up of two types of crystals, each a mirror image of the other.

He carefully separated the two and dissolved each type in water. Then he passed a beam of polarized light through the two solutions and discovered that one type of tartaric acid bent the light to the right and the other bent the light to the left. This was the first case of chirality to be observed at the molecular level.

Sweet Excess Naturally occurring amino acids may all be left-handed but the four different forms of sugar which provide energy to all forms of life are, without exception, right-handed. This means that all natural sources of sugar like sugar cane, beetroot, fruit, etc., manufacture only right-handed sugar molecules.

Animals like us can digest this sugar.

An experiment was conducted to try and synthesize left-handed sugar. This was successful and the sugar created looked, tasted and cooked just like natural sugar. But it was totally rejected by the human digestive system! The key wouldn’t fit the lock, so as to speak, and we couldn’t assimilate a single molecule of left-handed sugar.

Have you guessed the commercial opportunity? This is the origin of artificial sweeteners.

The right-handed molecule of sucrose (sugar) is made up of fructose and glucose molecules, linked together.

I was more and more intrigued. Where else might chirality exist? The more I looked, the more surprises I found.

Chirality is everywhere. Twisting vines, spiral seashells and human hands are only expressions of a phenomenon that permeates life. Every cell of every living organism carries its unique code in its DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is chiral. It is composed of two parallel strands which coil around each other in a right-handed spiral.

Unzipped, the DNA acts as a code for the amino acids, which link to form the enzymes which drive all the chemical reactions in the living organism. And those amino acids, the very building blocks of life, are chiral too. They are all left-handed.

When life began there were several

hundred amino acids, some left-handed molecules, some right-handed, floating in the primordial soup. But only 20 lefthanded amino acids went on to make up all life on Earth.

Does this matter?

Does it what!

Once life had evolved as left-handed, then it was vital that the chirality be maintained.

Biochemistry would have been lethally crippled by any right-handed mutants.

The chirality of life is one of the enduring mysteries of biology and its origin provokes great passion and debate. The simplest theory is that left-handedness was random, but became self-perpetuating and irreversible.

— ANN GRAEME is co-ordinator of Forest and Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club.

Chirality in medicine Unlike naturally occurring biological molecules, the synthetic methods used to create drugs in the laboratory often lead to a mixture of both left and righthanded molecules. In the early 1960s, thalidomide was synthesized. The lefthanded form was a sedative and it was prescribed for pregnant women to help combat morning sickness. However in an unknown and tragic side-effect, the right-handed form caused severe defects in the developing foetuses.

To prevent such consequences, chemists synthesizing new drugs often need to separate the chiral forms or design synthetic pathways which produce only one form.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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branchingout Project Grants Awarded by J.S. Watson Trust North Island robin and the stitchbird/hihi — and analyse, interpret and publish data relating to their health status.

• Troy Makan of Massey University will investigate the effect of habitat limitation on the stitchbird/hihi populations on Kapiti and Little Barrier Islands. This project aims to advance current knowledge about hihi, and help determine the direction for further research on their recovery and conservation management.

• Judith Rodda of the University of Otago will be studying the Hector’s dolphin population of Te Wae Wae Bay, Southland, in order to more fully describe this southernmost population. The project will assess the critical habitat and potential threats to the local population, to inform conservation management decisions.

• Lisa Russell of the University of Otago will be studying the threats to the unique marine ecosystems of the Otago coast by the invasive seaweed Undaria. This project aims to identify communities that are potentially vulnerable to invasion in order, eventually, to provide targeted monitoring and control plans in ecosystems under threat.

• Lee Shapiro of Massey University will investigate whether northern brown kiwi chicks and rats feed on the same invertebrates and therefore compete for limited

JS Watson Conservation Trust The Trust is administered by Forest and Bird. Applications are invited from individuals or conservation groups for financial assistance for conservation projects for the 2005-2006 year.

Download an application form and application procedures from our website - www.forestandbird.org.nz - or contact: JS Watson Conservation Trust Forest and Bird PO Box 631 Wellington office@forestandbird.org.nz Preliminary applications close 7 June 2005 42

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

resources on Ponui Island in the Hauraki Gulf. This study aims to increase knowledge of possible effects of competition by rodents in order to benefit wild populations and also help in the management of diet for captive-reared kiwi chicks.

• Rowena Teal of Massey University will be studying the use of microhabitats by the small–scaled skink Oligosoma microlepis to help inform the future of indigenous biodiversity on privately owned land. This project aims to improve understanding of the factors limiting native

species on such land, and facilitate environmental education among private landowners.

• Jo-anne Vaughan and the Golden Bay Branch of Forest and Bird will continue work on the Parapara Sandspit Ecosystem Protection and Restoration Project. The overall aim of the revegetation project at Parapara is to reconstruct the original sandspit vegetation pattern, and consequently aid restoration of the animal communities.

— SUE YATES, Central Office.

JAY MCCARTNEY

N

ine grants for conservation projects have been allocated for the 2004-2005 year by the J.S. Watson Conservation Trust, which is administered by Forest and Bird. The Trust has been helping fund conservation projects beneficial to New Zealand’s endangered flora and fauna since 1986. Details of this year’s awards are as follows: • Kit Brown of the Motuora Restoration Society will be analysing invertebrate populations in preparation for the translocation of endangered species to Motuora Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

This study will describe the existing fauna in order to plan for future restoration of the biodiversity of the island.

• Andrea Dekrout of the University of Auckland will be studying the ecology and current status of the longtailed bat in fragmented agricultural and urban habitats in the Waikato region. This project aims to provide urgently needed information for a management plan to help maintain stable populations of these threatened bats in modified habitats.

• Matthew Low of Massey University will be studying health issues relating to the conservation of endemic New Zealand fauna. This project aims to consolidate information pertaining to three bird species — kakapo,

The Raukumara tusked weta is believed to survive in the wild because of its habit of leaping into water when threatened. The weta has recently been the subject of research funded by the J.S. Watson Conservation Trust administered by Forest and Bird. The idea was to see if this successful population revealed any particular features which might also help the survival of its highly endangered cousin, the Middle Island tusked weta.

One popular theory is that because the Raukumara insect can jump into water to escape, its survival chances are greater.

Research by Jay McCartney of Massey University suggests the Raukumara tusked weta, appropriately named by science as Motuweta riparia, lives only close to water. He labelled each weta in his survey by attaching a reflective tape, using a nail file, super glue, calipers and nail scissors. This tape could also be read by torchlight. He found the weta could travel up to 100 metres on one night but most were found within three metres of the stream.

Numerous recaptures were made in virtually the same place as the previous capture. — SUE YATES

Disposing of Sewage at the Seaside

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ieved, settled but still raw, Dunedin’s sewage pours into the sea next to the beaches of St Kilda and St Clair.

The City Council proposed to chlorinate the sewage and pipe it 1100 metres out from St Kilda beach.

Dunedin Forest and Bird and concerned locals decided that ‘dilution is not the solution’. They began a group called ‘Protect Our Oceans’ or ‘Poo’. They organised a large public meeting, went to the media, the radio and local TV, designed bumper stickers, wrote letters to the paper, rallied people to make submissions and presented extensive submissions and expert evidence against the discharge application.

The Regional Council raised the stakes to secondary sewerage treatment by 2011. This was regarded by Poo as not good enough. Too many pathogens

would still slip through.

Along with the Department of Conservation, the Surfrider Foundation, and local iwi, the group appealed against the Regional Council’s decision and successfully negotiated for a better-quality discharge with secondary and tertiary treatment.

The long outfall will now be built and, by 2011, the treatment plant will be brought up to a high standard.

This is a victory for Poo, for Dunedin’s bathers and surfers, and for the marine environment.

It is also a blueprint for an environmental campaign. The lessons are: involve sympathetic people and groups with various expertise, publicise and explain the issue, encourage public participation, influence the elected council, and use the Resource Management Act. — ANN GRAEME

‘Making a Difference’ at Bushey Park

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oanne Thorne of Ohakune has been chosen from hundreds of applicants to spend a year working for the Bushy Park Trust near Wanganui, while the Vodafone New Zealand Foundation pays her salary and expenses. Her role will be critical in the trust’s kiwi recovery programme, which includes establishing an Operation Nest Egg programme in the Waitotara Valley.

As a part of this programme Joanne Thorne will be radio-tagging male kiwi (who sit on the nest) and in the breeding season removing fertilised eggs from the nest to be incubated at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua. This is an important step for kiwi

recovery as up to 90 percent of chicks fail to reach adulthood, largely due to predation.

After hatching, the kiwi chicks are then moved to Bushy Park where they will be raised until they are past their vulnerable first six months.

The Bushy Park Trust is currently setting up a 97-hectare predator-proof créche, specifically for the chicks hatched as a result of Operation Nest Egg. Joanne Thorne is one of six New Zealanders funded under the World of Difference programme, run by the Vodafone New Zealand Foundation, to allow people to work a year for their preferred charity.

Direct debit means more conservation $$ It’s as simple as that.

Paying your Forest and Bird membership or donation by direct debit is convenient for you and saves time and money.

Each year we process over 25,000 cheques.

Processing them is time consuming and labour intensive.

To help us put more money into conservation we invite you to join or renew your membership by direct debit. You can also use direct debit to make a regular donation.

Please use the direct debit form at the back of this magazine, download it from our website or call us and we will post you a copy.

When you have completed the form, post it to us and we will set up your direct debit membership and donation.

Every step of the way you are helping us to protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places.

www.forestandbird.org.nz office@forestandbird.org.nz Freephone 0800 200 064 Wellington 04-385 7374

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

43

branchingout

V

olunteers of the Motuora Restoration Society are to take over the day-to-day management of this island in the Hauraki Gulf from the Department of Conservation under DoC’s ‘Conservation with Communities’ strategy. The island lies off the Mahurangi Peninsula in Rodney District.

Restoration of the island as a predator-free bird habitat was begun in 1990 by the MidNorth branch of Forest and Bird. To date over a third of the pasture has been planted in bushes and trees — the earliest plantings by Forest and Bird members in 1990, are now good-sized trees.

The group responsible for the restoration is now the the Motuora Restoration Society which grew out of the Forest and Bird initiative. Restoration

of the island is planned for completion by 2013, but the Society hopes to have the island covered before then. The island is already used as a kiwi nursery and shore plover from the Chatham islands were also released there. The possibility of liberating other species suitable for ‘translocation’ is being investigated.

Some camping is allowed on the island [phone the manager 027-492-8586] and working party visits are arranged by the society and Forest and Bird [phone Ray (09) 422-7111 or Eilene (09) 427-8911].

Whilst DoC still retains the responsibility for Motuora Island, the restoration society is taking the lead in management of facilities on the island by way of a management agreement. This is a new initiative under DoC’s

The Real Vanuatu with Forest and Bird

Enjoy a unique island holiday in Vanuatu while contributing to the future of Vatthe Conservation Area.

This 14 day tour will be guided by Sue Maturin who has lived and worked with the Vatthe communities. Together you will travel to three different islands. You will stay in comfortable bungalows in remote villages, experience island life, walk in Vatthe’s tropical forest, snorkel over vibrant reefs and visit Tanna’s active volcano.

Tour limited to 12 people. Departs June 2005 Sue Maturin, Forest and Bird, PO Box 6230, Dunedin s.maturin@forestandbird.org.nz Phone 03-477 9677 For more information please visit our website www.forestandbird.org.nz

44

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

LIZ NORQUAY

Community Initiative to Manage Motuora

Volunteers of the Motuora Restoration Society at work on that island, off the Mahurangi coast of Rodney, in the Hauraki Gulf. The work began in 1990 as an off-shoot of Mid-North Forest and Bird.

Members have now taken over day-to-day management of the island from the Department of Conservation under its ‘Conservation with Communities’ strategy.

‘Conservation with Communities’ strategy, where community-based organisations are being encouraged to take the lead in conservation programmes. It is

hoped that this approach will enable the common goals of both organisations to be achieved.

— EILENE LAMB, Hibiscus Coast

Branches Meet at Nelson Lakes

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alling themselves the ‘Top of the South’ region, Forest and Bird branches from Marlborough, Nelson-Tasman, Golden Bay and Kaikoura recently met at St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes National Park, and plan a further meeting for early this year. Some 27 Forest and Birders attended the weekend of ‘walks and talks’.

On the Friday evening a Department of Conservation ranger, John Wotherspoon, presented a ‘power-point’ screening on the collection and transfer of nine great spotted kiwi from the Gouland Downs in the Kahurangi National Park to the Rotoiti Mainland Island Recovery project area of Nelson Lakes National Park.

The kiwi, which have settled in well to their new home, will be recaptured and checked over after a year.

The Society’s conservation manager, Kevin Hackwell, joined in to discuss what the newly appointed Top of the South field officer will do.

Saturday morning involved walking the Honeydew Walk

through beech forest at Lake Rotoiti and watching a video on the Buller River. After lunch the group drove to the Gowan River and visited the Gowan motor camp. The owners are affected by an application by the Majac Trust to amend the Buller Water Conservation Order for a hydro scheme that will divert and reduce the flow of the Gowan. The Special Tribunal appointed by the Minister for the Environment received more than 130 submissions against the proposal.

The party visited Lake Rotoroa and walked to the Braeburn Falls through a beech forest filled with bird calls, including kakariki parakeets.

On Saturday evening there was a catered meal at a table long enough to seat all. Branch reports followed in the evening and next morning.

Top of the South is planning another meeting, with Debs Martin the new field officer, early this year. Nelson/Tasman branch will host this 2005 Top of the South meeting.

— MAXINE J. WAIN, Blenheim.

bulletin New Editorial Office for Magazine

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orest & Bird journal will be edited and produced in Wellington from the next (May 2005) issue. The shift to Wellington from Bush Press in Takapuna comes with the appointment of Michael Szabo to edit the magazine from February 1.

Michael Szabo will be working out of the central office of Forest and Bird, and

material for the journal should be sent to him care of the Society at 172 Taranaki street, or PO Box 631, Wellington.

All correspondence with regard to the journal and its content should from now on be sent to Michael Szabo. He can be contacted on telephone (04) 385-7374, fax (04) 3857373 or at his email address: m.szabo@forestandbird.org.nz

Royal Society Conservation Award

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member of Forest and Bird’s national executive, Dr Liz Slooten, has received the Royal Society’s Sir Charles Fleming Medal in a joint award with her partner Dr Steve Dawson. The medal recognises their scientific work on the endangered Hector’s dolphin and its sub-species, the Maui dolphin.

Both scientists teach at the University of Otago but have

tracked the dolphins around New Zealand for the past 20 years. They have played a key role in their conservation, including helping create the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary. The Sir Charles Fleming Medal is awarded for ‘achievement in the protection, maintenance, management, improvement or understanding of the environment’.

New Forest and Bird designer T-shirt Forest and Bird T-shirts $35 Unisex green t-shirt and women's blue fitted T available as seen here.

Size information is available on our website or from the Wellington Office.

Earth Trek $10 Children’s activity book.

A great gift for 7-12 year olds. A book that will inform and entertain!

Napier Branch Publishes Guidebook

N

apier Forest and Bird has produced a guidebook to one of Hawke’s Bay’s special natural areas. Plants and Animals of Ball’s Clearing Scenic Reserve is a guide to a forest area administered by the Department of Conservation, situated about an hour and a half ’s drive north of Napier. It is also one of the attractions for people staying in the William Hartree Memorial

Lodge which is run by Napier Forest and Bird. The book includes sketch maps and colour photographs of features and species found in the reserve. These include long-tailed bats. The guide is by locally based scientists Dr Patrick Grant and Dr John McLennan. It is obtainable by sending $12 to the branch chair, Isabel Morgan at 160 Vigor Brown Street, Napier, telephone (06) 835 4979.

‘Top of the South Island’ Job

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orest and Bird now has a field officer based in Nelson to service what it’s calling the ‘Top of the South Island’. Debs Martin will work in the Nelson-Marlborough region. From South Canterbury, she is a geographer who has been working as a ‘strategic adviser’ campaigning on environmental and conservation issues there, principally relating to water and the protection of the Waitaki, Rangitata and Orari rivers. She comes to the NelsonMarlborough job with first-

hand knowledge of pressures in the region having spent time along the coasts, rafting rivers and tramping. She sees as ‘hot issues’ proposals for hydropower generation, continuing tensions over habitat protection in coastal and marine environments, and ‘a stretch of high country that deserves protection’.

‘The area from Kaikoura round to Golden Bay struggles, as does the rest of the country, with “restoring the dawn chorus”,’ she says.

Greeting Cards $10 10 cards per pack, with envelopes.

One each of 10 designs, blank inside. Artwork by Kiwi Conservation Club members.

Totorore Voyage $18 Gerry Clark’s diary of a remarkable small yacht adventure. All proceeds to the ‘Save the Albatross’ campaign.

Purchase online at www.forestandbird.org.nz Send your order and cheque to Forest and Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington Phone 04-385 7374 for credit card payment Details of products available online. All prices include P&P within NZ. For postage cost outside NZ please contact us.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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booknotes Tiritiri Matangi, A Model of Conservation

by Anne Rimmer, 152pp, limpbound, Tandem Press, Auckland 2004, RRP$39.95.

This is also a model of how to put together a fascinating guide to a special place. Richly illustrated with historical and contemporary illustrations, Anne Rimmer’s book tells how the lighthouse island of Auckland has become an ‘open sanctuary’ where visitors can see rare and endangered species, including takahe, stitchbird and saddleback. The whole has been achieved in the space of 20 years or so, through one of the biggest efforts of community involvement in conservation. The replanting of the grassy island was the work of thousands of Aucklanders. This story, the lighthouse years, and the introduction of threatened species, is well-illustrated in picture and anecdote. A lovely souvenir for visitors, it will also be valued by all those who had a hand — and still do — in creating this sanctuary.

From Weta to Kauri, A Guide to the New Zealand Forest

by Janet Hunt and Rob Lucas, 192pp limpbound, Random House, Auckland 2004, RRP$29.95.

This is presented as a simplified version of the earlier Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forest by John Dawson and Rob Lucas. The plethora of fine pictures remains; the text takes a more popular approach. More than 300 life forms are described and usually illustrated: there are sections on birds, lizards, tuatara, frogs and bats, along with insects and other invertebrates. The forest fabric itself is presented as plants of the forest floor, conifers, flowering shrubs and trees, along with the things that grow on them. The book is presented in the format of a field guide but it might be just as much fun to read it before ‘going bush’, by way of introduction to the amazing diversity of our forests.

Back from the Brink, The Fight to Save Our Endangered Birds

by Gerard Hutching, 160pp limpbound, Penguin Books, Auckland 2004, RRP$39.95.

A former editor of Forest & Bird is responsible for this contemporary account of the efforts to save New Zealand’s birds from extinction. He tells the stories of 10 birds, with colour pictures on many pages.

Those stories outline the risks faced by the birds and the efforts to succour them. Much of this happens in remote locations, on offshore islands, where pest control is more practical. The black robin saga is 46

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

retold; less well-known are efforts to save the parea (Chatham Island pigeon) and the Chatham Island oystercatcher. The names and stories of the conservation workers involved add a human dimension to the struggle to retain birds whose numbers nationally may have fallen below 200.

Gerard Hutching is also the the author of The Penguin Natural World of New Zealand, ‘an illustrated encyclopaedia of our natural heritage’ in A-Z form, recently published by Penguin Books at $RRP39.95. It’s a bargain for 400 pages in colour, but note this is a retitled, limpbound version of his previous prize-winning book The Natural World of New Zealand published by Viking in 1998.

The Life-Size Guide to the New Zealand Beach

by Andrew Crowe, 32pp limpbound, Penguin Books, Auckland 2004, RRP$25.00.

The Life-Size Guide to New Zealand Native Ferns

by Andrew Crowe, 32pp limpbound, Penguin Books, Auckland 2004, RRP$25.00.

Andrew Crowe has made the life-sized guide a specialty and these two new titles will appeal to adults and children. Having lived 30 years on or by a beach, I found the book of shoreline phenomena fascinating, and still enlightening. The clear-cut photographs of items found in the sea wrack include native animals, but also the very stones and sands of our various beaches, along with bits of flotsam and jetsam such as the ‘bad’ blue strapping that tangles birds. We were at last able to identify the source of the gelatinous masses of eggs cast up by the tide, quickly distinguishing between those of squid, whelks and nudibranchs. Crabs, starfish, jellyfish and other marine animals are pictured with useful notes, but shells are largely left to an earlier guide

by Andrew Crowe, Which Seashell? and its matching life-size Nature Flip Guide. They make a great pairing for beachcombers.

The fern guide does exactly what it says, with photographs of the leaf shapes of the major species. They are presented as a sequence of leaf forms from the simple to the more complex, with notes on the larger physical form which might help distinguish between, say, the tree ferns.

A bonus is the matching photographs of the caterpillars of the ‘fern’ moths which feed on them.

Godwit’s Journey

by Sandra Morris, 40pp limpbound, Reed Children’s Books, Auckland 2004, RRP$14.99.

This book, published for children, may have wider appeal.

It has a lovely feel to it — sensitive and accurate watercolours of godwit and their migrations with notes which take into account the modern theories of their migration between Alaska and New Zealand.

booknotes New Zealand’s Islands

records the difficulties which emerged over unsettled Maori claims to the forests, and the need to resolve these first. Hers is a refreshing insight into a fascinating history and its impact on the contemporary cultures in the north.

by Pamela McGeorge, photographs by Russell McGeorge, 144pp limpbound, David Bateman, Auckland 2004, RRP$39.99.

Reed’s ‘Day Walks’ Series

The McGeorges have travelled as far as the Three Kings, north of New Zealand, and to the Chathams in the east, to encompass some 130 islands of our archipelago.There are more than 180 photographs, many taken from the air. The text introduces each island, usually in the form of an extended picture caption with an anecdote or two, and provides brief notes on what access is available.

Freshwaters of New Zealand Edited for the NZ Hydrological Society and NZ Limnological Society, 764pp hardbound, RRP$$83.95 by mail order only, NZ Hydrological Society, PO Box 12-300, Wellington 6038.

This is a book for people who work with water. Eighty scientists and managers have contributed their expertise in 46 chapters. It covers everything from falling rain and evaporation, to glaciers, lakes, rivers and wetlands — and the creatures and plants which live in or near them. The impacts of river works, abstraction and industry are assessed, plus techniques for restoration. Heavily illustrated and referenced in detail this must be a valuable tool in many disciplines.

With 764 pages, page numbering would have been useful; in their absence the index is a mass of hierarchical section numbers instead.

Kauri, Witness to a Nation’s History

by Joanna Orwin, 208pp limpbound, New Holland, Auckland 2004, RRP$39.99.

A number of authors have retold the story of New Zealand’s greatest trees, and this one is as interesting as any. Joanna Orwin confesses to being a South Islander but this may have helped her to gain a fresh perspective on this quintessential northern species with its related cultures and industries. She has visited and interviewed widely to produce a contemporary account of the tree which attracted the first traders to these shores more than two centuries ago. Her interest in things Maori adds further dimensions missing from earlier books. Efforts to conserve the kauri, dating back more than a century, include a fair account of Forest and Bird’s campaign (with support from local government, business and tourism) to establish a kauri national park in the late 1980s. She

by various authors, 1041128pp limpbound, Reed Publishing, Auckland 2004, RRP$19.99.

Reed Publishing has extended its range of walking guides to a Day Walks series. Short walks ‘in the front country’ have been identified as the most popular walking tracks by Department of Conservation surveys, and these books make useful companions. Mark Pickering writes of Canterbury and Kaikoura, finding natural places as diverse as coastal and montane Kaikoura, suburban Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, South Canterbury and Mt Cook. (Most only take an hour or two, some as short as a 15-minute break from the highway.) There are some more demanding walks in Ian Trafford’s Day Walks of Nelson but again there are gentler strolls to landscape features such as the Riwaka Resurgence. Marious Gavalas explores Day Walks of Greater Wellington while Bill Wilson writes about the native trails of Dunedin and Coastal Otago, from the vicinity of Oamaru, southward into the Catlins.

The authors of the individual titles in this series know their outdoors, and what to look for in the world of nature. Each has blackand-white illustrations of interesting features and a section in colour to showcase the more fascinating.You might need to take your own map, however, because most walks are barely described.

In a similar format, Reed Outdoors has also published Guide to the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trail by Gerald Cunningham.This describes the historic and natural features of 22 sites in the central Otago region.

Wild Plants in Auckland

by Alan Esler, 218pp limpbound, Auckland University Press, Auckland 2004, RRP$39.99.

Alan Esler’s line drawings of leaves have introduced a generation or more to the nature of the northern forest — at the popular level, largely through pamphlets published by the regional parks network. He’s apparently done the same in other places he’s worked, prior to retirement as the regional botanist for the former DSIR in Auckland.

As such he is the acknowledged expert on the weeds of what has been called the weed capital of New Zealand — more than 300 of them. His book looks at wild plants in early Auckland in the words of early travellers; and he looks at contemporary natural areas. His explorations begin with the back path and the lawn and find their way through roadside and riverside wastes to wilder habitats. There are discursive notes on plants and people, and the forms that wild plants can take. This is for people seriously interested in wild plants, or for the student, but it has the virtue of being readable.

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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PHILPROOF

Kiwis for Kiwis

WIPEOUT: Possums, Rodents, Mustelids, Rabbits Standard & Mini Philproof Bait Stations & Timms Traps Rodent Bait Stations and Block Baits. Rodent Snap Traps ● Fenn Traps (MK4 & 6), Trap Covers – Double or Single Also available: Monitoring Tunnels & Bird Nesting Chambers Phone/Fax 07 859 2943 ● Mobile 021 270 5896 PO Box 4385, Hamilton 2032 Website: http://get.to/philproof Email: philproof.feeders@clear.net.nz

ENVELOPE SAVERS Napier branch has a supply of pads of these.

Each contains 50 sheets, gummed on the back.

Cost $3 per pad; bulk orders of 10 or more to branches, $2.50 per pad.

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Send orders to: “ENVELOPE SAVERS” 160 Vigor Brown St, Napier Make cheques payable to: Napier Forest & Bird

RON D AND E.A. GREENWOOD ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST

Manufacturers, Importers and suppliers of Pest Control Products Suppliers of:

The trust provides financial support for projects advancing the conservation and protection of New Zealand’s natural resources, particularly flora & fauna, marine life, geology, atmosphere & waters.

More information is available from the Trust, at: PO Box 10-359, Wellington

BIORESEARCHES CONSULTING BIOLOGISTS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS ESTABLISHED 1972

Environmental Impact Studies Surveys of Marine, Freshwater & Terrestrial Habitats Pollution Investigations Resource Consent procedures Archaeological; Historic Places Appraisal bioresearches@bioresearches.co.nz www.bioresearches.co.nz P.O Box 2828 Auckland PH: AUCKLAND 379 9417 Fax (09) 307 6409

OKARITO COTTAGE Well appointed cottage. Sleeps 3 but room for more in the attic. Close to West Coast beach, bush walks and lagoon.

Southern Alps form a backdrop and Franz Josef approx.

30 kilometres on tarsealed road.

Cost $60 PER FAMILY Extra Adults $5.00 per night

Further enquiries contact Elspeth Scott, 19 Ngamotu Rd, Taupo 07-378-9390 email: ElspethScott@xtra.co.nz

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Endemic Art

Commissioned artworks to order, murals, originals or prints Contact Artist, Vicki Moore (03)685-8455 email vmoore@clear.net.nz

Niue Island Holiday Home 10 nights ex Auckland from $1395 pp twin share inc international fares.

Fully furnished, sleeps 4. Tropical warmth, unspoiled, safe, laid-back. www.goldenagepacific.co.nz phone 03 542 3740

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Call Karen (09) 634 4982 email: printad.auck@xtra.co.nz

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

• Pindone Possum Pellets • Kilmore, Sentry & KK Bait Stations • Sentinel, Possum Master & Timms Possum Kill Traps • Apple Pulp Paste & Peanut Butter Paste

• Live Capture Ferret Wooden Box Trap • Cage Traps • Fenn Traps & Covers • Pindone Rabbit Pellets • Infrared Pest Finder • Pindone Liquid Concentrate • Contrac & Ditrac Rodent Bait • Bell Laboratories Rodent Traps & Bait Stations

Plus many more products for the control of: • POSSUMS • RABBITS • RODENTS • BIRDS • MUSTELIDS • INSECTS For further information please contact the team at:

PEST MANAGEMENT SERVICES LTD

P.O Box 121, Waikanae, Kapiti Coast. Ph: (04) 293 1392, Fax: (04) 293 1456.

Freephone: 0800 111 466, Email: general@nopests.co.nz Web: www.nopests.co.nz

D E A D LY S E R I O U S A B O U T P E S T S

branchdirectory Upper North Island Central Auckland: Chair, Anne Fenn; Secretary, Isabel Still, P O Box 1118, Shortland St, Auckland. Tel: (09) 5283986.

Far North: Chair, Gary Bramley; Secretary. Michael Winch, PO Box 270, Kaeo, Northland. Tel: (09) 405-1746 Franklin: Chair & Secretary, Keith Gardner, 5 Stembridge Ave, Pukekohe.

Tel: (09) 238-9928.

Great Barrier Island: Chair, John Graham; Secretary, Jenny Lloyd, 165 Shoal Bay Rd, RD1, Gt Barrier Is. Tel: (09) 429-0404.

Hauraki Islands: Chair, Petra White; Secretary; Simon Griffiths, PO Box 314, Ostend, Waiheke Island.

Tel: (09) 372-9583 Hibiscus Coast: Chair, Pauline Smith; Secretary, Vacant, P O Box 310, Orewa.

Tel: (09) 426-4224.

Kaipara: Chair, Suzi Phillips; Secretary, Maire Thompson, Private Bag 1, Helensville 1250. Tel: (09) 411-5494 Mid North: Chair, Jim McKinlay; Secretary, Warwick Massey, 91 Perry Rd, Warkworth. Tel: (09) 425-9246.

Northern: Chair, vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, PO Box 1375, Whangarei. Tel: (09) 436-0932.

North Shore: Chair, Neil Sutherland; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, PO Box 33 873, Takapuna, North Shore City.

Tel: (09) 479-2107.

South Auckland: Chair, Vacant; Secretary, Ken Rutherford, 56 Cockle Bay Rd, Howick. Tel: (09) 537-2093.

Thames/Hauraki: Chair, Mrs Hazel Genner; Secretary, Marcia Sowman, 507 The Terrace, Thames.

Tel: (07) 868-8696.

Mercury Bay Section: Chair, Bruce Mackereth; Secretary, Mona Candy, PO Box 205, Whitianga 2856.

Tel: (07) 866-4648.

Upper Coromandel: Chair, Tina

Morgan; Secretary, Lettecia Williams, PO Box 108 Coromandel. Tel: (07) 866-6926.

Waitakere: Joint Chair, Peter Maddison, Robyn Fendall; Secretary, Ken Catt, PO Box 45 144, Te Atatu Peninsula, Waitakere. Tel: (09) 834-6214.

Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty: Chair, Arthur Sandom; Secretary, Sandee Malloch, c/- 260 Ohiwa Harbour Rd, RD2, Opotiki 3092. Tel: (07) 315-4989.

Gisborne: Chair, Vacant; Secretary, Grant Vincent, 1 Dominey Street, Gisborne, Tel: (06) 868-8236.

Rotorua: Chair, Chris Ecroyd; Secretary, Herb Madgwick, PO Box 1489, Rotorua. Tel: (07) 345-6255.

South Waikato: Chair, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, 37 Waianiwa Place, Tokoroa. Tel: (07) 886-7456.

Taupo: Chair, Vacant; Secretary, Betty Windley, PO Box 1105 Taupo, Tel: (07) 377-1186.

Tauranga: Chair, Basil Graeme; Secretary, Sara Brill, 314 Waitoa Rd, RD 5, Tauranga. Tel: (07) 544-4338.

Te Puke: Chair, Neale Blaymires; Secretary, Dallas Munro, 636B No1 Rd, RD 2, Te Puke 3071. Tel: (07) 573-9212.

Waihi: Chair, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, 17 Reservoir Road, Waihi. Tel: (07) 863-8455.

Waikato: Chair, Dr Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim MacDiarmid, PO Box 11-092, Hillcrest, Hamilton, Tel: (07) 849-3438.

Wairoa: Chair, Stanley Richardson; Secretary, Glenys Single, 72 Kopu Rd, Wairoa 4192. Tel: (06) 838-8232.

Taumarunui: Chair, Steve Poelman; Secretary, Dori Porteous, 37 Rangaroa Rd, Taumarunui, 2600.

Tel: (07) 896-7557.

Lower North Island Central Hawke’s Bay: Chair, Phil Enticott; Secretary, Max Chatfield, PO Box 189, Waipukurau.

Tel: (06) 858-9298.

Hastings/Havelock North: Chair, Peter Collins; Secretary, Doreen Hall, Flat 1, 805 Kennedy Rd, Hastings.

Tel: (06) 876-5978.

Horowhenua: Chair, Robert Hirschberg; Secretary, Joan Leckie, Makahika Rd, RD 1, Levin 5500. Tel: (06) 368-1277.

Kapiti Mana: Chair, David Gregorie; Secretary, John McLachlan, 78 Langdale Ave, Paraparaumu. Tel: (04) 904-0027.

Lower Hutt: Chair, Stan Butcher; Secretary; Bill Watters, PO Box 31194, Lower Hutt, Tel: (04) 565-0638.

Manawatu: Chair, Donald Kerr; Secretary, Brent Barrett, PO Box 961, Palmerston North, 5301, Tel: (06) 357-6962.

Napier: Chair, Isabel Morgan; Secretary, Margaret Gwynn, 23 Clyde Rd, Napier. Tel: (06) 835 2122.

North Taranaki: Chair, Margaret Molloy; Secretary, Murray Duke, PO Box 1029, New Plymouth Mail Centre, New Plymouth 4621. Tel: (06) 751 2759.

Rangitikei: Chair, Kit Coleman; Secretary, Betty Graham, 41 Tutaenui Rd, Marton. Tel: (06) 327-7008.

South Taranaki: Chair, Rex Hartley; Secretary, Lynda Sutherland, 39 High St, Eltham 4657. Tel: (06) 764-7479.

Upper Hutt: Chair, Barry Wards; Secretary, Jenny Cogger, P O Box 40-875, Upper Hutt.

Tel: (04) 971-9739.

Wairarapa: Chair, Geoff Doring; Secretary, c/- Mike Lynch, 179 West St, Greytown. Tel: (06) 304-7222.

Wanganui: Chair, Stephen Sammons; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, PO Box 4229, Wanganui. Tel: (06) 345-2651.

Wellington: Chair, Gordon Purdie; Secretary, Louise Taylor, PO Box 4183, Wellington. Tel: (04) 971-1770.

South Island Ashburton: Chair, Bill Hood; Secretary, Edith Smith, PO Box 460,

Ashburton, Tel: (03) 308-4440.

Dunedin: Chair, Richard Ewans; Secretary, Paul Star, PO Box 5793, Dunedin. Tel: (03) 478-0315.

Golden Bay: Chair, Jenny Treloar; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Puponga Rd, Ferntown, RD1, Collingwood 7171.

Tel: (03) 524-8072.

Kaikoura: Chair, Linda Kitchingham; Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Pooles Rd RD1, Kaikoura. Tel: (03) 319-5086.

Marlborough: Chair, Andrew John; Secretary, Michael Harvey, PO Box 896, Blenheim. Tel: (03) 577-6086.

Nelson/Tasman: Chair, Dr Peter Ballance; Secretary, Gillian Pollock, Dawson Rd, RD1, Upper Moutere 7152.

Tel: (03) 540-3495.

North Canterbury: Chair, Bruce StuartMenteath; Secretary, Maria StokerFarrell, PO Box 2389, Christchurch.

Tel: (03) 309 4333.

South Canterbury: Chair, John Talbot; Secretary, Thelma Boyce, 30 Birkett St, Temuka, South Canterbury 8752. Tel: (03) 615-8234.

Southland: Chair, Craig Carson; Secretary, Vacant, P O Box 1155, Invercargill. Tel: (03) 213-0732.

South Otago: Chair, Carol Botting; Secretary, Verna Gardner, Romahapa Rd, Balclutha. Tel: (03) 418-1819.

Upper Clutha: Chair, Barbara Chinn; Secretary, Errol Carr, PO Box 38, Lake Hawea, Central Otago 9192.

Tel: (03) 443-8669.

Waitaki: Chair, Ross Babington; Secretary, Annette Officer, 21 Arrow Crescent, Oamaru.

Tel: (03) 434-6107.

West Coast: Secretary/Treasurer, Carolyn Cox, PO Box 415, Westport.

Tel: (03) 789-5334.

lodgeaccommodation Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North. Near Pukenui in wetland reserve. 6 bunks, fully equipped kitchen, separate bathroom outside. For information and bookings, contact: John Dawn, Doves Bay Road, RD1, Kerikeri, Tel: (09) 407-8658, fax: (09) 407-1401.

Tai Haruru Lodge, Piha, West Auckland A seaside haven set in a large sheltered garden on the rugged West Coast, 38km on sealed roads from central Auckland.

Close to store, bush reserves and tracks in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges.

Double bedroom and 3 singles, plus large lounge with open fireplace, dining area and kitchen. The self-contained unit has 4 single beds. Bring food, linen and fuel for fire and BBQ. For details and rates send self-addressed stamped envelope to Patricia Thompson, 78 Neil Avenue, Te Atatu Peninsula, Waitakere City 1008, Tel: (09) 834-7745.

Waiheke Island Cottage Located next to our 49ha Wildlife Reserve,10 minutes walk to Onetangi Beach, general stores etc. Sleeps up to 8 in two bedrooms. Lounge, wellequipped kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, laundry. Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland. Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island, Tel: (09) 372-7662.

Ruapehu Lodge, Tongariro National Park Situated 600 metres from Whakapapa Village, at the foot of Mount Ruapehu, this lodge is available for members and their friends. It may also be hired out to other compatible groups by special arrangement. It is an ideal base for tramping, skiing, botanising or visiting the hotpools at Tokaanu. The lodge holds 32 people in four bunkrooms and provides all facilities except food and bedding. Bookings and inquiries to Forest and Bird, PO Box 631,

Wellington.Tel: (04) 385-7374, fax: (04) 385-7373. Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz William Hartree Memorial Lodge, Hawkes Bay Situated 48km from Napier, 8km past Patoka on the Puketitiri Rd (sealed). The lodge is set amid a 14ha scenic reserve and close to many walks, eg: Kaweka Range, Balls Clearing, hot springs and museum. The lodge accommodates up to 15 people. It has a fully equipped kitchen including stove, refrigerator and microwave plus tile fire, hot showers.

Supply your own linen, sleeping bags etc. For information and bookings please send a stamped addressed envelope to Pam and John Wuts, 15 Durham Ave, Tamatea, Napier. (06) 8444751, email: wutsie@xtra.co.nz Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour Joint venture accommodation by Lower Hutt Forest and Bird with DoC. A modern family home with kitchen, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and dining

room, just 20 mins sailing by ferry from the centre of Wellington or 10 mins from Days Bay. Ideal place to relax in beautiful surroundings, with accommodation for 8. Bring your own food and bedding and a torch. Smoking is banned everywhere on the island, including the house. For information sheet, send stamped addressed envelope to: Accommodation officer, PO Box 31-194, Lower Hutt. (04) 567-1686.

Tautuku Lodge State Highway 92, Southeast Otago.

Situated on Forest and Bird’s 550ha Lenz Reserve 32km south of Owaka.

A bush setting, and many lovely beaches nearby provide a wonderful base for exploring the Catlins. The lodge, the Coutts cabin and an A-frame sleep 10, 4 and 2 respectively. No Animals. For information and rates please send a stamped addressed envelope to the caretaker: Diana Noonan, Mirren St, Papatowai, Owaka, RD2.

Tel: (03) 415-8024, fax (03) 415-8244.

Email: diana.n@clear.net.nz

FOREST & BIRD • FEBRUARY 2005

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