Forest & Bird Magazine 326 Nov 2007

FOREST BIRD Number 326 • NOVEMBER 2007

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Grey Warbler is Bird of the Year • Braided Rivers • Diving Skinks Deer • Don Merton • Sharks • Rimatara Lorikeet

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Number 326 • NOVEMBER 2007 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc.

Regulars

Features

Gilbert van Reenen

2 Comment

14 ANZANG Portfolio 2007

General Manager: Mike Britton

Bird & Forest by Dr Peter Maddison

Nature and Landscape Photographer of the Year

Communications Manager: Michael Szabo

3 Conservation Briefs

17 Braided rivers at risk

Grey warbler is Bird of the Year 2007; Hakatere Conservation Park opened; “Rangitata” pygmy gecko discovered on Mt Harper; Godwit sets new world record; Hybrids on the increase; Geoffrey Orbell 1908-2007; Takahe home; Stewart Island pest-free study; Taranaki marine reserves set to flourish; Seed bank for endangered plants; Restoring birds to Cape Kidnappers Peninsula; Marine Bioblitz finds new species; Taranaki petrel reserve thriving; Good news for Cook’s petrel; New native orchid guide; More bucks for endangered ducks; Riparian planting a winner.

Chris Todd in praise of living rivers

Christchurch Office: PO Box 2516, Christchurch.

Tel: (03) 366 6317 Fax: (03) 365 0788 Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz

34 Going Places Taiaroa Head by Michael Szabo

Jenny Elliott on a Pacific conservation success story

KCC Coordinator: Ann Graeme 53 Princess Rd, Tauranga Tel: (07) 576-5593 Fax (07) 576-5109 Email: basilann@nettel.net.nz

38 Itinerant Ecologist Long-lived in the native ecosystem by Geoff Park

In this issue

Advocacy Manager: Kevin Hackwell Services Manager: Julie Watson North Island Field Coordinator: Mark Bellingham South Island Field Coordinator: Chris Todd Central Office: Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington.

PO Box 631, Wellington.

Tel: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web: www.forestandbird.org.nz Auckland Office: PO Box 67 123, Mt Eden, Auckland.

Tel: (09) 631 7142 Fax: (09) 631 7149 Email: m.bellingham@forestandbird.org.nz

42 Conservation News

Advertising: ADFX PO Box 11-836, Ellerslie 1051.

Vanessa Clegg, Tel: 0275 420 337 Email: vanclegg@xtra.co.nz Karen Condon Tel 0275-420 338 Email: mack.cons@xtra.co.nz w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Kim Miller on New Zealand’s diving skinks

23 Wild Deer – like possums on stilts Helen Bain gets the lowdown on the deer menace

26 A Kiwi conservationist abroad Alison Balance on Don Merton’s achievements

28 Shark alert Michael Szabo asks what price shark fin soup?

30 Rimatara’s return

Tiri Tiri Matangi Island

40 In the Field The fowl and the pussycat by Ann Graeme and Pamela Robinson

Editor: Michael Szabo Deputy Editor: Helen Bain PO Box 631, Wellington.

Tel: (04) 385-7374 Fax: (04) 385-7373 m.szabo@forestandbird.org.nz h.bain@forestandbird.org.nz Designer: Dave Kent Design dave@idiom.co.nz Prepress/Printing: Astra Print

20 Taking the plunge

Best Fish Guide 2007-08; Hoki fishery doesn’t deserve “sustainability tick”; Catch reductions not enough to save fisheries; Call for urgent action on albatross slaughter; Consultation thanks; Stephens Island tuatara protected by decision; 1080 decision a positive step.

46 Branching Out Hon Justice Anthony Ellis (Tony Ellis); Art for Conservation charity auction raises $90,000; Forest & Bird branded jackets; BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund grants awarded; General Manager’s Update; Restoring Te Wairoa Reserve; Tom and Don’s Bush.

Little Barrier Island Waitakere Ranges

Ureweras

Rapanui Sugarloaf Islands Stephens Island Hurunui River Cape Kidnappers Murchison Ranges

49 Reviews 51 Index COVER: GREY WARBLER (RIRORIRO), BIRD OF THE YEAR 2007 PHOTOGRAPH: ROD MORRIS

Tauherenikau

Kupe/Kevin Smith Marine Reserve

Hakatere Conservation Park

Taiaroa Head Rakiura/Stewart Island

Map artwork: Bruce Mahalski

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2006

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Comment Bird & Forest

B

IRDS have been prominent in natural history news in recent months. Take the fascinating story of the female bar-tailed godwit, E7, and her epic journey to and from Alaska. Her 11,400-kilometre solo, one-way flight from Alaska to the Firth of Thames is a record for a land-based bird.

Congratulations to Phil Battley and the international team that applied the transmitter technology to tagging and tracking E7 and her relatives.

However, this raises concerns about both the climate changes affecting the Arctic tundra, where godwits nest, and loss of habitat in those East Asian coastal areas where godwits refuel on their migration north from New Zealand.

Climate change is apparently affecting both the growth of the vegetation and the behaviour of Arctic predators, which can now more actively attack godwit nests.

Reclamation and other human activities are increasing in estuarine and other coastal areas of East Asia, such as Saemangeum in South Korea, with a resulting loss of suitable habitat for these migratory birds along the flyway.

Through our involvement with BirdLife International, the global alliance of bird conservation NGOs, Forest & Bird is pursuing international protection for these wading birds.

In August, the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ) published “The Atlas of Bird Distribution in New Zealand” which has been a major project, in part funded by BirdLife International.

This comprehensive compilation of information on the distribution

of our birds is extremely impressive and we congratulate OSNZ and all the data contributors on this synthesis of many thousands of hours of devoted birdwatching. Good solid data such as this is essential for conservation planning.

Turning from research to restoration, Landcare Research hosted a meeting of the Sanctuary Organisation at Silverstream in September.

The Sanctuary Organisation is an association of groups involved in ecological restoration projects throughout New Zealand. Around 50 organisations were represented at the meeting to hear of increasing concerns about the control of introduced mice, deer and pigs.

The humble house mouse has until now been largely regarded as a minor pest in natural areas. However, once their competitors – the rats – and their predators – feral cats, stoats and ferrets – are removed or reduced in number, the mice come out to play.

Recent research indicates all three subspecies of house mouse are found in New Zealand and that they play a significant role in reducing seedling regeneration and depleting grounddwelling invertebrates.

Thus, mice may have an effect on the bird species the sanctuary groups want to introduce. Pigs and deer and the damage they may cause were also identified as important potential research projects for Landcare Research, the Department of Conservation and some regional council scientists, who were represented at the meeting.

Another topic of conversation

was communication between diverse restoration groups. One of the questions I was asked was, “Could Forest & Bird somehow play a role or help facilitate this more?” This could – potentially – be an important role for Forest & Bird in future; to help connect and inform the network through its publications and staff.

Forest & Bird is already promoting better relationships with a range of other conservation groups, both within New Zealand and through our BirdLife International connections overseas.

So I’m very pleased to say that Forest & Bird’s recent application to become the BirdLife International Partner in New Zealand was accepted at its October Global Council Meeting.

Finally, once again, a big thank you to all our volunteers who are making a large contribution to advancing the conservation message – through their advocacy and involvement in resource management issues, to the very practical work of controlling pests and weeds, and re-introducing birds, lizards, insects and plants to areas denuded of native life.

National President Dr Peter Maddison

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

PATRON: His Excellency the Hon. Anand Satyanand, Governor-General of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Dr Peter Maddison DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Dr Barry Wards NATIONAL TREASURER: Stephen McPhail EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS: Rob Brown, Anne Fenn, Mark Fort, Dr Philip Hart, Donald Kerr, Janet Ledingham, Suzi Phillips, Craig Potton, Dr Gerry McSweeney, Associate Professor Liz Slooten.

DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS: Dr Bill Ballantine MBE, Stan Butcher QSM, Ken Catt QSM, Audrey Eagle CNZM, Dr Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell ONZM, Dr Philip Hart, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe QSO JP, Stewart Gray, Les Henderson, Joan Leckie QSM, Prof. Alan Mark DCNZM CBE, Dr Gerry McSweeney QSO, Geoff Moon OBE, Prof. John Morton QSO, Margaret Peace QSM, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand MNZM, Gordon Stephenson CNZM, David Underwood.

Forest & Bird incorporating Conservation News is published every February, May, August and November by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society 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 & Bird is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the New Zealand Partner 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 Novatech, an elemental chlorine-free (ECF) paper which is made from wood fibre sourced from sustainably managed forests. * Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

2 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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conservationbriefs

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HE grey warbler (riroriro) has emerged as something of a surprise winner of Forest & Bird’s 2007 Bird of the Year poll, coming from nowhere to take the lead close to the end of polling.

In the two previous annual polls the title has been won by two better-known flashier species, the fantail (piwakawaka) and the tui.

Grey warblers are found throughout New Zealand in forest, scrub, urban and city habitats, from sea level to the high country. They are one of the few native songbirds to have adapted to or even benefited from human modification of the landscape.

Along with the rifleman (titipounamu) the grey warbler rates as New Zealand’s lightest bird species weighing just 6.5 grams – one-third the weight of a house mouse – and measuring just 11 centimetres long.

Seen close up grey warblers have subtle grey and brown

feathering on the head and wings, a pale whitish breast and belly, and distinctive red eye colouring. Their mournful rising and falling song is often noted as a sign of the arrival of spring. Only the male birds sing this song, which served as a seasonal reminder to Maori to plant their crops.

According to one authority, there is a Maori myth that tells of the riroriro winning a competition among the birds of Aotearoa to see which one could fly the highest, after it hitched a ride on the fabled hokioi and managed to fly on from the highest point reached by the hokioi.

In his 1910 book Birds of the Water, Wood and Waste the early New Zealand conservationist Herbert Guthrie described the charm of the grey warbler’s song: “Presently, from some manuka thicket, a sombre plumaged little bird will emerge, light on some topmost twig, and pour forth to threequarters of the globe – for in

Tim Galloway

Grey warbler is Bird of the Year 2007

his ecstasy he nearly sings a circle – this faint sweet trill that heralds fuller spring.”

The grey warbler’s “featherweight” status enables it to hover briefly as its pursues its diet of small insects among the leaves and branches of forest and scrub.

Grey warblers are the only host species for shining cuckoos on the mainland. They often inadvertently become parents to a shining cuckoo chick, because adult cuckoos lay their eggs in the warblers’ nests, where the unwitting grey warbler parents raise the cuckoo chick as their own after the cuckoo chick pushes the warblers’ own eggs or chicks out of the nest.

To hear what the grey warbler’s song sounds like, visit: www.mtbruce.org.nz/ Greywarblerinfo.htm Helen Bain The top 10 in 2007: 1. Grey warbler/riroriro 2. Kereru 3. Tui 4. Black-fronted tern 5. Kakapo 6. Fantail/piwakawaka 7. Kea 8. Pukeko 9. Morepork/ruru 10. Kokako and kiwi

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View across Lake Emma, Hakatere Station, Ashburton Valley

Hakatere Conservation Park opened

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NOW-covered mountains that are home to kea and crystal clear lakes with crested grebes are part of Hakatere Conservation Park, the largest park to be created by government for more than twenty years, Conservation Minister Chris Carter announced in October.

It comprises more than 68,000-hectares (ha) in the Ashburton Lakes area, bringing together 19 separate areas of conservation land, and will include historic Hakatere Station on the shores of Lake Clearwater after a recent purcharse by the Nature Heritage Fund for $7.2 million.

“This huge new park is a special place, a landscape of clear streams and red tussock, of braided rivers, wetlands and alpine habitat where a host

of rare native species can be found,” the minister told people at the opening ceremony.

“Forest & Bird has been enormously active here and I congratulate you on your ongoing efforts to make others realise just how special this place is – your nomination of the area for World Heritage status, for example,” he said.

The Green Party chose Ashburton Lakes and the upper Rangitata River as one of three sites to receive funding for wetland restoration this year.

The park is bounded by the Rangitata and Rakaia rivers in a spectacular alpine setting interspersed with remnants of upland forest, tussock grassland and wetlands. The Heron Basin, Ashburton Lakes, upper Rangitata and Hakatere Basins are all recognised as

Gilbert van Reenen/Clean Green Images Ltd

conservationbriefs

for protection and recognition of the native wildlife, habitats and scenic values found in the Ashburton Lakes and high country area from the main divide in the west to the eastern foothills and between the inland Rangitata and Rakaia rivers.

The special scenic beauty of the area and richness of the native habitats, plants and wildlife found there have also been recognised by the Natural Heritage Advisory Group which recommended sites for World Heritage Site status.

“While the Hakatere Conservation Park will only be a part of the proposed World Heritage Site, we are heartened by this step that the Department of Conservation has taken to recognise the conservation values of the various sites included in the new park,” she said.

outstanding landscapes.

The riverbed of the Rangitata River supprts breeding wrybill (ngutuparore), black-fronted tern (tarapiroe}, banded dotterel (turiwhatu) and black-billed gull (tarara).

The wetlands and lakes are a stronghold for the Australasian crested grebe (kamana) and New Zealand scaup (papango), with Mount Somers giant weta and Mt Potts scree skink also occurring in the area.

The park includes over 4000hectares of mountain beech forest. Kea and pipit (pihoihoi) frequent the open country above the bushline.

Forest & Bird Ashburton Branch welcomed the announcement of the new park. Branch Chairwoman Edith Smith said the branch has advocated for several years

“Rangitata” pygmy gecko discovered on Mt Harper BABY pygmy gecko could curl up on your thumbnail with room to spare, while an adult would stretch out on your finger without reaching either end.

When Rod Morris and I picked up the first few specimens of this diminutive new species in October, on Mt Harper in the Rangitata Gorge, Canterbury, in the new Hakatere Conservation Park, we thought they must be juveniles.

We could hardly believe our eyes as more turned up, each displaying adult characteristics, including some that were pregnant.

Pygmy geckos don’t even overlap in size with the next smallest New Zealand gecko species, they are in an altogether different size group.

An explanation for this may lie with the other lizards they co-exist with, some of which are voracious

competitors and predators. In this environment, the pygmy gecko’s ability to squeeze into gaps so small that they cannot be followed by larger lizard species must be a tremendous boon to their survival.

The pygmy gecko was discovered while Rod Morris and I were taking photographs for a field guide to New Zealand’s reptiles and amphibians to be published by New Holland.

Preparation of the book brought home how incredibly diverse New Zealand’s lizard fauna is – with more than 90 species within a relatively small land mass. And if the ease with which the pygmy gecko turned up is anything to go by, there are almost certainly other new species awaiting detection in New Zealand’s secluded valleys and forests, and isolated mountains-tops.

Tony Jewell

4 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

Adult Pygmy gecko found in Hakatere Conservation Park.

Rod Morris

A

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Eastern bar-tailed godwit – Alaska to New Zealand in approximately eight days.

Godwit sets new world record

A

FEMALE bar-tailed godwit known as E7 which became famous for setting a record for long-distance non-stop flight, has broken its own record on its return flight from Alaska to New Zealand, satellite tracking studies have confirmed.

Over a seven-month period E7 clocked up over 29,000 kilometres, flying from New Zealand to China, then over to Alaska in North America to

breed, and then back to New Zealand.

The record-breaking last leg of E7’s journey involved a non-stop flight over the Pacific Ocean of more than eight days and covering a distance of 11,600 kilometres.

“Godwits do not become adults until their third or fourth year and many live beyond 20 years of age. If 29,000 kilometres is an average

annual flight distance, then an adult godwit would fly some 483,000 kilometres in a lifetime,” the US Geological Survey said in a statement.

The study is showing conservationists the value of satellite tracking studies, and also highlights how vulnerable these migratory species are to global-scale threats.

The bar-tailed godwit is one example among several migratory wading bird species which undertake awe-inspiring journeys to New Zealand from the northern hemisphere every year. Migrant wading birds such as turnstone, Pacific golden plover, red knot, Terek sandpiper and red-necked stint rely on chains of traditional stop-over sites at which they can refuel and rest before embarking on the next leg of

Brent Stephenson

conservationbriefs their journey.

“Globally, these sites are being lost or degraded at an alarming rate, destroying vital links in the chain and causing populations of many migratory bird species to decline,” Dr Vicky Jones, BirdLife International’s Global Flyways Officer said.

Since 2006 the satellitetagged godwits in this study have been recorded in 11 countries. “While every country has a responsibility to afford these amazing species safe passage within their borders, we now recognise that the future of these global voyagers can only be secured by effective action throughout their flyways,” said Dr Jones. “Trans-boundary cooperation is key.”

Extensive media coverage of the arrival of E7 in New Zealand helped bring the magic of bird migration to people around the world. The bar-tailed godwit tracking study is being undertaken as part of the Pacific Shorebird Migration Project (PRBO); involving biologists from PRBO Conservation Science, the US Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Centre, Massey University and The University of Auckland. The work was funded by the USGS, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

For a map see: http://www.birdlife.org/news/ news/2007/09/godwit_records. html

Hybrids on the increase

S

ALES of hybrid cars are increasing as more people want to reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles, Auckland-based Clean Green Car Company owner Stephen Pollard says.

He says the company’s sales of used hybrids in the first half of this year was double the figure for 2006.

Hybrid cars use a combination of a petrol engine and an electric motor. The battery that powers the electric motor is kept charged by both the petrol motor and the kinetic energy usually lost in braking, Stephen Pollard says.

Common myths that hybrids are prohibitively expensive, 6 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

low-powered and unreliable are also being laid to rest as the public becomes more familiar with the cars, he says.

Hybrids usually cost 1015% more than their petrolfuelled equivalents, but this is offset through their better fuel economy and stronger resale value. Late model used hybrids at the Clean Green Car Company are typically priced around $30,000.

Hybrids also use around half as much petrol as equivalentsized petrol-powered cars, produce 90% fewer emissions, and achieve comparable power and performance to nonhybrids, Stephen Pollard says.

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Rod Morris

Rod Morris

Takahe home

Geoffrey Orbell 1908 – 2007

G

EOFFREY Orbell, who rediscovered the takahe, died in August at the age of 98.

Finding the flightless takahe years after it was believed extinct ranks as one of the most important bird discoveries ever.

Notornis mantelli was only known from a couple of sightings, the most recent of which had been in 1898 when a dog caught one.

Geoffrey Orbell first took an interest in takahe after seeing a rare photograph of one in the Otago Museum, Dunedin.

Convinced birds still survived in remote areas where few birdwatchers ventured, he spent many of his weekends

and holidays tramping the Murchison Range looking for signs of takahe. His efforts were finally rewarded in November 1948 when he and his companions, Rex Watson, Neil McCrostie and Joan Telfer, finally found a takahe.

“Suddenly”, he recalled, “a large blue-green bird stepped out from among the snow tussock.

No more than 20 metres away stood a living Notornis, the bird that was supposed to be extinct.”

The discovery and photographs made the front pages of newspapers around the world as well as the front cover of issue 91 of Forest & Bird.

In 1953, 500 square kilometres were set aside as a sanctuary for them. Despite this, numbers declined due to the presence of feral red deer, which overgrazed the tussock grass, and predation by introduced stoats.

Thanks to conservation measures in the area, including deer and stoat control, takahe numbers have risen to around 160 birds.

Another 60 or so have been transferred to predator-free islands, including Tiritiri Matangi, Mana and Maud, and Maungatautari Ecological Island in the Waikato.

T

HREE takahe were moved from Tiritiri Matangi Island to the Murchison Mountains in Fiordland in May, in a bid to increase the takahe population as a whole.

This was the first time that takahe have been transferred from an island sanctuary back to the area where the remnant wild population lives.

The three island-bred birds were moved to reduce the chances of inbreeding.

The regular “cycling” of takehe between islands and the mainland to manage the genetic diversity of island populations is seen as crucial to the success of the Takahe Recovery Programme.

T

HE Stewart Island/ Rakiura Community and Environment Trust (SIRCET) has received funding from the Tindall Foundation to investigate the possibility of eradicating Stewart Island’s rat and feral cat populations.

The successful bid for funding received a strong level of support from within the local community, including Forest & Bird, the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association, the Conservation Board and several local businesses.

The one-off grant will be used to prepare a scoping document to examine the feasibility of eradicating rats and feral cats, including

approximate costs, identifying potential risks and information gaps, and looking into all operational requirements of an eradication programme.

“For years now there has been talk of what the island might be like if introduced predators could be removed.

Now we have the opportunity to take it to the next level and explore the feasibility of it,” Margaret Hopkins, Chairwoman of SIRCET, said.

The Department of Conservation’s Stewart Island Biodiversity Manager Brent Beaven has been contracted to prepare the document, which is expected to take about a year to complete. While Mr Beaven will

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Rod Morris

Stewart Island pest-free study

Feral cat with little blue penguin.

be co-ordinating the document, community involvement will be vital to its success. Once completed, the trust will

consider the information presented, and then decide what the most appropriate course of action will be.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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conservationbriefs

Taranaki marine reserves set to flourish

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HE long battle to get Tapuae Marine Reserve established off the Taranaki coast got pretty heated at times.

Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society Chairwoman Anne Scott says the personal low for her was when a fisherman threw the hefty reserve proposal at her during one meeting. She can laugh about it now, but at times it was tough going, she admits – but well worth the victory when the reserve was approved by the Government in April.

“We just keep ploughing on,” she says. “We’re quite tenacious.”

A member of Forest & Bird, Anne Scott has been involved in advocating for marine protection off Taranaki for 10 years, and was a key driver when the Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society was formed in 1998 to seek a network of marine reserves off the Taranaki coast.

“An amazing cross-section of people were supporters: divers, scientists, conservationists, Forest & Bird, just ordinary Taranaki people who have been here all their lives and love the coast,” she says.

The iwi to the south of New Plymouth, Nga Mahanga a Tairi, and the New Plymouth oil industry also supported the

Tapuae reserve proposal.

Anne Scott says she felt a personal attachment to Taranaki’s coast that drove her commitment to its protection.

“I had always been in Taranaki and loved the beaches and the coast. You get to a certain age and have children and grandchildren, and you want them to have that experience as well, so you try to protect that for them.”

Announced in April by the Ministers of Fisheries and Conservation, Jim Anderton and Chris Carter, the Tapuae Marine Reserve covers 1426hectares (ha) off the coast south of New Plymouth, and it adjoins the 749-ha Nga Motu/ Sugar Loaf Islands Marine Protected Area established in 1991 near New Plymouth.

No fishing is allowed within the marine reserve. The situation is more complicated in the marine protected area where recreational fishing is allowed, but fishing with nets, set lines or lines with more than three hooks is banned, and the only commercial fishing allowed is trolling for kingfish and kahawai.

Another marine reserve was also established off the Taranaki coast last year: the 1844-ha

Paraninihi Marine Reserve north of New Plymouth, proposed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).

The two marine reserves are very different because of the different substrata on which they are based: the seabed below Tapuae is volcanic with lots of holes and caves, while Paraninihi’s comprises soft sediments and mudstones.

Consequently they support very different marine life.

Tapuae’s marine biodiversity is extraordinarily rich: more than 400 species have been identified in the reserve, including 88 types of fish, 100 gastropods (such as sea slugs and paua), 50 seaweeds, 36 bivalves, 35 sponges, 24 echinoderms (starfish and kina) and 14 species of crabs and shrimps. Its coast is also the northernmost breeding site of New Zealand fur seals (kekeno) and whales and dolphins are often seen here.

The reserve’s closeness to New Plymouth’s population of 50,000 people means the area is popular for boating, diving, surfing and sightseeing, and the city enjoys spectacular seacape views – especially from its widely used coastal walkway.

Anne Scott says a survey of

recreational use showed few people fished in the reserve anyway, and there are plenty of other easily accessible fishing spots.

The strict no-take protection provided by a marine reserve was necessary to allow the marine environment to be completely undisturbed and recover to its natural state, Anne Scott says.

Less than a year after Tapuae and Paraninihi were announced, it is too early to see changes in the marine environment and life, but DOC monitoring of species will determine what effect the reserves have on marine life.

DOC New Plymouth Programmes Manager Bryan Williams – a keen diver who goes out an average 80 days a year – says in the Sugar Loaf MPA numbers of crayfish, blue cod and snapper have increased since the MPA was set up, and it is hoped the two marine reserves will also boost marine biodiversity.

In 10 years time Anne Scott expects the protection of Tapuae as a marine reserve will have created a much healthier marine ecosystem: more fish, more seaweed, more recreational diving, a rich scientific and educational resource – and increasing public support for the benefits of marine reserves.

Helen Bain

Helen Bain

Helen Bain

Motutamatea Island off New Plymouth

Barbara Hammonds (L) and Anne Scott of Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society

DRIVING CREEK WILDLIFE SANCTUARY TRUST Become a friend of the Trust in order to help us fund the urgently needed vermin-proof fence, the only one on the whole of the Coromandel peninsula. It must be erected this coming summer because the number of mammalian pests is increasing due partly to tourism. As many native species across the biotic range are now becoming endangered that are resident on the peninsula, we need to act urgently. We thank all those who have so far made a contribution no matter how small.

Individual membership: $20 per year, $60 for 5 years. Family: $30 per year, $80 for 5 years.

Donations over $100 are recorded on a plaque to be displayed. Donations under $100 recorded in a commemorative book.

All proceeds will go towards the pest-proof fence. A newsletter will be distributed.

For rewards in art for substantial donations, please contact us.

8 F O R E S T & B I R D • Nrailway@drivingcreek.co.nz..

OVEMBER 2007

w w w . f o r e s3543. tandbird.org.nz ph/fax 07 8668 703. P O Box 87, Coromandel

conservationbriefs Seed bank for endangered plants

EW Zealand’s only national native plant seed bank for endangered species was officially opened in Palmerston North in August by Conservation Minister Chris Carter.

The MWH Seed Bank has been founded as New Zealand’s conservation insurance policy to ensure endangered indigenous species are not lost for future generations. The native seed bank is located within the rohe of Rangitaane and iwi from Ngati Kuri will be officially depositing the first seed collected of Atriplex hollowayii – a nationally endangered coastal herb that grows on the coastal dunes of Northland.

The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN), with over 500 members worldwide, is the only non-governmental organisation in New Zealand solely devoted to protecting the country’s indigenous flora. The Network prepared the plan to establish

DOC

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Janeen Collings from the Department of Conservation planting Atriplex hollowayi with children from Te Hapua School.

New Zealand’s native seed bank and has been coordinating this project for the past four years, working in conjunction with MWH New Zealand – the seed bank sponsor – and AgResearch, which will manage the seed bank.

“While conserving our native plants in the wild remains our top priority, this seed bank initiative provides a valuable insurance policy

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should destruction occur of wild habitats and of native plant populations. A national seed bank provides one of the first practical solutions to the effects of climate change as we will know our plants are secure whatever happens,” NZPCN President Ian Spellerberg says.

The seed bank is part of a global network of such banks which are an essential tool to protect the world’s flora against

the effects of climate change and other environmental threats. It is particularly important to have a seed bank in New Zealand where over 200 indigenous plant species are regarded as threatened.

The seeds are preserved by careful drying after which they are stored at minus 20° Celsius in AgResearch’s purpose-built Margot Forde Germplasm Centre in Palmerston North.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Restoring birds to the Cape Kidnappers Peninsula

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Geoff Read/NIWA

HIRTY-FIVE North Island robins and 14 tomtits became the first birds to be transferred to the Ocean Beach Wildlife Preserve on the Cape Kidnappers Peninsula in June following the start of pest control operations there in February.

The majority of the Preserve lies on private land owned by Julian and Josie Robertson (Cape Kidnappers Station) and the Hansen, West and Lowe families (Haupouri Station and Ocean Beach Wilderness).

Together the landowners share a long-term vision of “returning the peninsula to a place once again able to support native flora and fauna characteristic of a Hawke’s Bay coastal ecosystem”.

A key feature of the project is that the restoration work is happening alongside the

existing land uses – farming, a golf course, gannet watching and recreation along Ocean Beach. At 2200-hectares, the Preserve will be the largest type of coastal and forest habitat under protection in New Zealand, and will be significant for conservation on a national and international scale.

The robin and tomtit transfer marked an important step towards the ecological restoration of the peninsula which is famous for the large Australasian gannet colony at the Cape Plateau. The birds were sourced from nearby Maungataniwha Pine Forest which has good numbers of both species, is relatively close to the Preserve and is scheduled to be logged progressively over the next few years before regenerating naturally.

The nine-and-a-half

The new Island Bay nudibranch

Marine Bioblitz finds new species

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ELLINGTON’S Marine Bioblitz has found a wealth of biodiversity, identifying 602 species, including marine mammals, fish and seabirds, and four new species, during the month-long search.

The new species include a multi-tentacled tube anemone found by NIWA scientist Malcolm Francis, a red and white nudibranch found by Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Kirstie Knowles, a

bryozoan found by Kirstie Knowles and Adam Smith of NIWA, and a diatom found by Margaret Harper of Victoria University.

The event was conducted in the area off Wellington’s south coast due to be established as the Kupe/Kevin Marine Reserve in March 2008.

Another highlight was the appearance of orca and a southern right whale during event. The appearance of the rare

10 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

kilometre predator-proof fence which stretches from the northern edge of the peninsula near Clifton to encompass a significant proportion of the Ocean Beach sand dunes is due to be completed this year.

Predator trapping is now underway on the peninsula with feral cats, mustelids and hedgehogs being caught in an effort to reduce introduced predator numbers to low levels behind the fence. A bait station network has significantly reduced rat numbers in the forested areas.

Threatened pateke or brown teal, New Zealand’s rarest duck species, are due to be released at the Preserve in 2008.

More than 100 small nesting boxes have been installed in the area in preparation for a transfer of rifleman to the site also in 2008.

The predator trapping and fence will also help with planned seabird restoration work. With its soaring coastal cliffs, the Preserve is suitable for seabird restoration, which is to be a major focus for the project in 2008. Apart from the flourishing gannet colony, like elsewhere on the mainland, the peninsula has lost the ability to support colonies of breeding seabirds which once would have dominated the coastal and inland areas on the mainland.

Along the higher inland ridges at nearby sites such as the Kaweka Forest Park ranges there is fossil evidence that Cook’s petrel and mottled petrel were once abundant.

Fossil bones collected from the Ocean Beach dunes also show that mottled petrel, white-faced storm petrel, fluttering shearwater and sooty shearwater would also have once been present in the area.

There are plans to build two small enclosures within the larger Preserve in 2008. These areas will be completely pestfree and dedicated to seabird and lizard restoration, starting with grey-faced petrel and fluttering shearwater.

Establishing seabird colonies on the peninsula will involve identifying island source populations and then transferring fully grown chicks, close to fledging to the prepared sites. Each chick will be placed into its own artificial wooden burrow and then hand fed “sardine smoothies” until they fledge. This is a very labour intensive job which will involve full-time on-site feeding of chicks for up to three weeks.

It is hoped that a sound system playing fluttering shearwater, grey-faced petrels and a range of other seabird calls from the nearby cliffs will help to lure the birds back to the site.

The Island Bay southern right whale

pale grey southern right whale in Island Bay caused a mass whale “twitch” with hundreds of people visiting the area to see the leviathan.

Marine BioBlitz Coordinator Heather Anderson, who was hosted at Forest & Bird Central Office for the duration of the event, says it brought together scientists, conservationists, divers and the public, and raised awareness of Wellington’s unique marine biodiversity.

“The Kupe/Kevin Smith Marine Reserve will be New Zealand’s first located so close

to a major urban centre and will play a vital role in protecting this rich underwater world.”

The event involved staff and volunteers from Forest & Bird, NIWA, Victoria University, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, DOC, Tenths Trust, Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and dive teams from Island Bay. Visit the Marine BioBlitz website at www.marinebioblitz. wellington.net.nz Helen Bain w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Sam O’Leary

Tamsin Ward-Smith

conservationbriefs

conservationbriefs Taranaki petrel reserve thriving

Rapanui petrel colony, North Taranaki

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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 from February each year to paddocks, even seedlings prepare their metre-deep growing alongside native nikau burrows. palm in dense bush,’ Theseedlings birds mate from AprilJack before Craw says.

May heading back to are months being spread sea‘These to feedplants for two and return to Rapanui fromremote Juneinto some of our most July lay their habitats eggs. by birds, and to vulnerable Most of the chicks havespecies wind and water. All three left the colony by the endweeds of are becoming significant December and can range as far in natural areas.’ as the eastern coast of Australia Jack Craw is urging developers before returning to Rapanui the and gardeners following year.to consider replacing agapanthus, phoenix Helen Bain

DOC

nest at the colony, one of only two colonies on the mainland.

The protection the birds enjoy today was instigated

by Forest & Bird, which was concerned the colony was under threat from introduced pests. As a result the trust was formed and the fence was built with $60,000 from Shell and the privately-owned land was protected under a QEII covenant.

There are now plans to progressively re-introduce

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, rare coastal plants and remove and what impacts introduced plantsthey suchwere as having on and and other kikuyu andparkland blackberry, natural areas. build a boardwalk and viewing All three species were found to platform. beGrey-faced invasive in apetrels range are of named oi in Maori spreading because ofinto the ecosystems, distinctive sound they make. remote and inaccessible areas.

They were significant once widespread They have along the coast and throughout environmental impacts on the the coastal ranges of the North natural areas they invade.

Island but their numbers have Jack Craw, biosecurity been decimated by introduced manager predators.for the Auckland Regional Council, the The birds arrivesays at Rapanui

Cook’s petrel chick on Little Barrier/Hauturu Island

Good news for Cook’s petrel

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NEW study of the endangered Cook’s petrel indicates that 286,000 pairs breed each year at Little Barrier/Hauturu Island, which is approximately six times the number previously suggested.

Little Barrier/Hauturu supports 98% of the world population of the species. The other two per cent breed at Codfish/Whenua Hau Island off Stewart Island. The study

by Matt Rayner and others is published in the August issue of Biological Conservation.

The Little Barrier Supporters Trust also reports that Matt Rayner and his colleagues

tracked Cook’s petrels from both Little Barrier/Hauturu and Codfish/Whenua Hau during the 2006-2007 breeding season. The small gadfly petrels which are endemic to New Zealand are now the smallest species of seabird to be studied using the tracking devices.

The study, once it is written up, will provide precise data on the foraging and feeding of breeding birds. The research is set to continue next season with the tracking of birds on migration to the northern hemisphere where they spend the southern winter.

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F O R E S T & B I R D • F FEO B RR EUSATR & Y B 2 I0R0D5 • N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7

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Helen Bain

Popular Plants in Biosecur

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T’S amazing where petrels can manage to build their nests. At Rapanui petrel colony in North Taranaki, the greyfaced petrels (oi) make theirs in burrows in sheer cliff faces 50 metres above the pounding waves.

Peering over the edge of the near-vertical cliffs to view the burrows, it’s enough to make participants in Forest & Bird’s North Taranaki Branch field trip feel a tad queasy.

Imagine then the effort – and nerves of steel – required by the builders of the predator-proof fence that was put up to protect the petrel colony in 2000. They had to abseil down the cliffs to install the ends of the fence that descend right down the cliff face to ensure that even the most determined rats and stoats don’t get in.

Rapanui Grey-faced Petrel Trust Secretary Hugh Cargill says regular monitoring and ongoing pest control are still required to protect up to 50 pairs of grey-faced petrel that

conservationbriefs

palm an invasive Undes includes types. T invade a includin scrub, re margins beachfro dunes, c cliffs, ex pastoral where th both pla They are dense m all other infestati cover an square m The A looking alternati try clivia foliage t range of colourfu rengaren with foli agapant white flo coastal g spinifex coastal d conserve pingao) and gah control sandy in many va

New native orchid guide

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ELLINGTONIANS are being asked to keep their eyes peeled for their region’s extraordinary, diverse and often cryptic native orchids when they venture into the outdoors.

Lauding the Wellington region as one of New Zealand’s “orchid hotspots”, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has produced a field guide identifying 72 species of wild native orchid in the lower North Island.

A decade in the making and published in September, Wild Orchids of the Lower North Island features photographs and descriptions, encouraging people to make spotting our elusive orchids a feature of their forays into the wild – to help prevent some of our rarest

species from going extinct, and enhance knowledge of orchid distribution.

“We want to inspire people to head out and explore the region’s parks and reserves while searching for orchids that, once found, can be left for others to enjoy,” says DOC Conservation Botanist John Sawyer, who co-authored the book with Peter de Lange, one of New Zealand’s leading plant conservation scientists; photographer and botanist Jeremy Rolfe, and national orchid expert Ian St George.

“Wetlands, dunes and forests continue to be degraded through development, drainage and the effects of exotic animals and weeds, so the need to protect wild orchids becomes ever more pressing,” he says.

Wellington is a hotspot for native orchids because of its diversity of habitat types and ecosystems, ranging from the dry eastern Wairarapa terrain, to subalpine areas and wetlands, estuaries and the coast.

“More than 70% of New Zealand’s native orchids occur in Wellington and each species has its own character. Many are so tiny few people would ever know there were there”.

DOC is working with landowners, councils, iwi and community groups to protect nationally-threatened orchids at key sites.

C R Veitch/DOC

conservationbriefs

Brown teal

More bucks for endangered ducks

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HE Pateke (brown teal) Recovery Group and Department of Conservation (DOC) have received a $12,000 grant for pateke recovery work in Northland.

A cheque was presented to the Recovery Group by Tony Sharley, Manager of Banrock Station Wines.

The company allocate a percentage of their sales to wetland and waterfowl protection each year. In the past year, Banrock has donated $50,000 to non-government groups, including Forest & Bird, working to recover pateke and protect wetlands throughout New Zealand.

Recovery group spokesman Ossie Latham says the grant will be used to fund publication of a pateke survival guide. “The document will

guide landowners, community groups and other parties interested in the recovery of pateke, and an overview of the ecology of the species and best practice for their recovery.”

Pateke populations occur in eastern Northland from Whananaki to Whangaruru. A large component of Northland’s wild population is located on private land so DOC relies heavily on the cooperation of landowners for permission to trap predators and monitor birds on their property.

Intensive predator control has been in place in the Whangarei District since 2000, and it appears to have halted the decline of the species there. The plan is to increase the pateke population in the district to 750 birds by 2010.

COATES WILDLIFE TOURS “Specialists in Nature Tours”

Australia & Beyond

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Experience the birdlife and spectacular wildflower display through the Mid and South West Regions of West Australia.

We also visit the naturally spectacular Christmas, Lord Howe and Abrohlos Islands plus the wildlife hotspots of Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Antarctica and Borneo.

For your copy of our 2007/2008 tour brochure contact Tom or Sylvia E-MAIL: coates@iinet.net.au • WEB: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au TEL: (61 8) 9330 6066 • FAX: (61 8) 9330 6077 Suite B8 Attadale Business Centre 550 Canning Highway, Attadale, West Australia 6156 GSA Coates Tour Licence no. 9ta1135/36

12 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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conservationbriefs

“I

T must be genetic,” Taranaki farmer George Oliver concludes, when asked what prompted his amazing propensity to plant trees.

George’s father, who owned his dairy farm near Eltham in South Taranaki before him, has been big on planting trees since World War II, and now George has handed on the tree planting bug to his own children and grandchildren.

George, now aged 70, has long since lost count of how many trees he has planted, but at his peak he planted 12,000 a year, and all 21-kilometres of the riparian margins of the streams that flow in the Waingorongoro catchment across his 250-hectare farm have been planted and fenced off.

It was that effort that won George and wife Bobbie Taranaki District Council’s environmental award for riparian management and sustainable farming.

The regional council has been active over the last decade in encouraging Taranaki’s nearly 2000 dairy farmers to reduce the environmental impact of their nearly half a million cows, and riparian management has a big role to play.

Land Services Manager Don Shearman says the council recognised that intensification of dairy farming in Taranaki – the number of cows in the region has nearly doubled in the last 20 years – was going to pose a serious environmental challenge.

In response the council developed a riparian management strategy that aims to encourage as many

farmers as possible to plant and fence their riparian margins.

More than half the region’s dairy farms now have riparian management plans drawn up by the council to show them what is needed to protect riparian margins on their properties, and the council hopes to increase this to 90% by 2010.

The council also provides cheap native plants to farmers to carry out the planting – bulk purchasing means plants cost an average of less than $2.50 each – and this year the council passed the milestone of having provided one million plants to farmers.

George has taken the riparian management message to heart.

His technique has been to first fence off streams with twostrand electric fences so cows cannot damage stream banks, pug up stream beds and eat vegetation on stream banks.

The next step is to plant fastgrowing pines, and some native planting underneath. However, by pruning the pines so that plenty of light still gets through, George finds that dense native vegetation quickly regenerates naturally underneath the pines, providing a thick cloak of protective covering over stream banks.

There are multiple benefits of this management, George says. Cows no longer get stuck in boggy stream beds, and his pastures (and therefore cows) are in much better condition thanks to the shelter provided by the planting. The trees help protect them from freezing southerlies in winter and provide cooling shade in summer. The planting also

Helen Bain

Riparian planting a winner

Dense shrubs regenerate beneath the pines George Oliver has planted along 21 km of riparian margins on his Taranaki farm.

reduces erosion and flooding, and improves the quality of stream water that feeds the farm troughs.

George can also cut down and replant the pines on a 28year cycle and get income from the timber.

The increased native vegetation has also brought increased numbers of native birds – something George enjoys seeing and hearing around the farm.

But he’s no “greenie” he says: he just knows what is good for his farm – and his pocket.

“Some farmers will say that they need every last bit of land for grazing, but you don’t gain anything from grazing stream banks. We have increased productivity and the number of cows on the farm by fencing off the streams. You don’t lose anything – you actually gain financially by doing this.”

Helen Bain

Rod Morris

Hihi

Hihi news from Ark in the Park

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RK in the Park Project Manager Sandra Jack reports that one of the female stitchbirds (hihi) released at the Waitakere Ranges site earlier this year has set up a territory and is expected to start nesting there very soon.

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Wandering albatross. Jason Elsworth, Wellington.

Highly Commended, Animal Behaviour

ANZANG Portfolio – Nature and

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2007 Great white shark. Philip Woodhead, Cairns, Queensland. Highly Commended, Threatened Animals or Plants

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Royal spoonbill preening Ofer Levy, Ashfield, New South Wales, Highly Commended, Animal Portrait

Photographer and conservationist Stuart Miller reports that the 2007 Australia New Zealand Antarctica and New Guinea (ANZANG) Nature and Landscape Photographer of the Year competition received a record 1250 entries, with a fifth of entries from New Zealand.

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OW in its fourth year, ANZANG has become the largest nature photography competition in the Australasia region.

Among the 2007 entries by Kiwi photographers, images

by Anne Worthy, Kim Westerskov, Ciaran Edwards, Jason Elsworth and Murray Potter were singled out as either prize winners or highly commended in the Underwater, Wilderness Landscape and Threatened Animals sections.

A selection of winners and images depicting species that occur in New Zealand are reproduced here. If you would like to see the rest of the winning and highly commended entries, an attractive book including all 110 images and edited by Stuart Miller is now available for AU$ 39.95 plus postage and packing from Manaaki Whenua Press in New Zealand. Orders can be sent by email to mwpress@landcareresearch.co.nz or you can visit the competition website at www.anzangnature. com for more information about both the ANZANG competition and the book.

ANZANG Nature and Landscape Photographer of the Year - 2008 Entries are invited for Australasia’s most prestigious nature photographic competition. Subjects must have been photographed in the bioregion of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea. Cash prizes total A$20,000 Entries close May 1st, 2008 For competition rules, entry form and further information contact: Web: www.anzangnature.com Email: compete@anzangnature.com Ph: +61 (0) 8 9321 3685; Fax: +61 (0) 8 9226 3395 Mail: ANZANG, GPO Box 2828, Perth, Western Australia 6001 Australasian Gannets, Neil Fitzgerald, Hamilton, NZ, Highly commended, ANZANG 2007

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Emperor penguins on the march Murray Potter, Palmerston North. Highly Commended, Animal Behaviour

High jumping Hector’s dolphin Ciaran Edwards, Auckland. Runner-up, Threatened Animals or Plants.

Black-shouldered kite flying with a mouse Ofer Levy, Ashfield, New South Wales. 2007 Overall Winner

Slow strangulation (New Zealand sea lion, Snares Islands) Chris Powell, Esperance, Western Australia. Highly Commended, Our Impact.

New Zealand fur seal heading out to sea through foamy surf Kim Westerskov, Tauranga. Runner-up, Wilderness Landscape.

16 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Braided rivers at risk

Peter Langlands

A rash of hydro scheme and irrigation proposals on South Island braided rivers threaten some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable species and iconic landscapes. Chris Todd explains why we need to better protect our braided rivers and conserve the freshwater they contain.

The Hurunui North Branch is the subject of a Water Conservation Order application.

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depositing it to create valley floors and wide gravel plains. Ice-age glaciers gouged and crushed huge volumes of rock from the Alps, accelerating the process.

Braided rivers are characterised by multiple channels, unstable flows, steep gradients, abundant sediment supply and movement, constantly shifting channels and summer-rich food production. This combination provides outstanding feeding and nesting opportunities for birds.

Braided rivers also occur in the Americas, the Himalayas and Iceland, but what makes New Zealand’s braided rivers special is that the endemic species found on them are uniquely adapted specialists, in contrast to the generalists usually found on such rivers in other parts of the world.

Perhaps the most striking example is the wrybill (ngutuparore). Its unique rightward-curving bill enables it to forage for freshwater invertebrates under rounded river stones. But the wrybill is just one of many specialists, each adapted to a different niche within the complex mosaic of wetland habitats that make up a braided river system.

In headwaters, the reclusive blue duck (whio) is a torrent specialist, its blue-grey feathers blending perfectly with the rocks.

Deep pools and backwaters suit open water divers such as the black shag (kawau) and foragers such as the Australasian shoveller (kuruwhengi). Wrybill forage for invertebrates in shallow riffles, with the long-legged black stilt (kaki) and pied stilt

Dwarf galaxias are one of 25 species of galaxias in New Zealand.

Rod Morris

T’S HARD to imagine my South Island childhood without braided rivers. One of my earliest memories is crossing the Makarora River to Mt Albert Station.

Perched on the wooden deck of my uncle’s horse-drawn cart, I recall vividly the deep green water visible between the boards.

My family camped by the Selwyn River where we made rafts from flax sticks, impounded bullies and caught and cooked eels (tuna) on the fire. We swam and picnicked on the Hurunui, Clarence and Wairau Rivers where the younger kids would paddle in backwaters and sidebraids, while the older ones floated down the main channel on lilos.

My parents taught me how to pick the widest and shallowest reaches to wade across. As teenagers cutting loose from the adult world, we slogged up the seemingly endless beds of the Rangitata, Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers to climb and tramp in the headwaters.

The scorching dust-storms, waist-deep crossings and ankle-turning boulder fields gave us entry to a vast alpine world, and we drank from every river without a second thought.

New Zealand’s 160 or so braided rivers cover over a quarter of a million hectares.

Canterbury has the lion’s share, along with the South Island’s West Coast, Nelson/ Marlborough, Southland, Otago, Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and a scattering elsewhere.

Braided rivers work like endless conveyor belts carrying rock debris from uplifting and eroding mountains and

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Warren Jowett

Rod Morris

Alpine galaxias spend their entire life-cycle in freshwater and live in the upland streams of South Island braided rivers.

(poaka) feeding further out.

The endangered black-fronted tern (tarapiroe) feed on the wing, snatching insect larvae above river channels and juvenile fish from the shallows. Banded dotterel (tuturiwhatu) forage on open riverbeds and along shallow seeps, usually invisible against the stones until they move.

The New Zealand pipit (pihoihoi) lives around the vegetated riparian boundary, with the secretive bittern (matuku) utilising wetlands at the margins of braided river beds.

And of course braided river estuaries also support migratory wading birds, such as variable and South Island pied oystercatchers (torea) and white-fronted (tara) and Caspian terns (taranui).

In all, more than 26 species of water bird feed or nest on braided rivers, with over 80 species when their estuaries are included.

There are 35 or so species of native freshwater fish in New Zealand, some of which have their strongholds in braided rivers. These include seven species of bully and 26 species of galaxias, a family that is widespread in the Southern Hemisphere.

Wrybill are specialised braided river feeders.

The galaxias include five species that spend part of their life-cycle in the sea: giant kokopu, koaro, banded kokopu, inanga and shortjaw kokopu. These species all swim up into braided river catchments to spawn.

In their juvenile stage they are known as whitebait.

Another 12 galaxias spend their entire life-cycles in freshwater. Of these, the alpine and longjaw galaxias live in the upland streams of South Island braided rivers, with the alpine galaxias living in deeper, swifter water.

The torrentfish inhabits broken water and rapids. A close relative of blue cod, it uses its flattened head and large pectoral fins to stay anchored on the bottom.

Bluegill bullies share a similar habitat and distribution pattern and feed mainly on mayfly larvae. Short-finned eels tend to live in the lowlands, with the declining endemic long-finned eel making it much further upstream.

Braided riverbeds are also home to specialised, low-growing native plants.

The first to colonize are rock-encrusting lichens, tiny cushion plants (Raoulia species), and willowherbs (Epilobium

Peter Langlands

Hurunui swirlpool

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species). These are followed by the creeping shrub Muehlenbeckia axillaris; cushionforming Myosotis uniflora; native daphne Pimelia, mat daisy Raulia; and the mosslike Scleranthus.

A number of grasshopper, lizard, weta and other insect species are also dependent on specialised braided riverbed habitats.

So it should come as no surprise that, as is the case with many of the species mentioned in this article, braided river habitats are increasingly threatened.

These hotspots of endemic biodiversity are threatened by water abstraction for irrigation, pollution from agriculture and local industry, so-called “renewable� hydroelectric power schemes (largely to meet the increasing energy demands of farm irrigation and dairying), invasive pest weeds and predators, and certain recreational activities.

In braided rivers, more water generally means more braids and so more places for native birds and fish to feed. A rush for irrigation water is now in full swing with the main beneficiaries being cows and grape vines. The losers are our unique endemic New Zealand bird, fish, insect and plant species. Lower flows mean fewer braids and shallower waters. That means less feeding habitat and more chance that a pest predator will cross to an island where birds are nesting. For example, there are more terns on braided rivers with higher flows.

Braided river ecosystems require periodic massive floods. These scour the gravels free of invasive weeds, leaving behind the clean gravels that most nesting bird species require. Dams, for example, prevent large-scale floods from occurring, resulting in invasive lupins and woody weeds taking over the river bed and making channels more stable. It even appears likely that didymo will also be better kept in w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

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Rod Morris

check on rivers with loose substrates and which are subject to periodic large floods.

Water quality on some of our braided rivers has declined rapidly with the advent of more intensive agriculture. The combination of low summer flows, high nutrient loads from run-off, and higher temperatures is perfect for algae, which proliferates and then dies, starving a river of life-giving oxygen.

The eggs and chicks of nesting river bed birds are highly vulnerable to predation by feral cats, hedgehogs and stoats. The only real protection that nests have besides camouflage is the “moat effect”, whereby mammalian predators are deterred from crossing to island nests by the sheer volume of water in between. Although the moat effect is yet to be rigorously quantified, the evidence so far strongly suggests its importance.

And many of our native freshwater fish can only survive in inaccessible streams where they are safe from their introduced trout predators.

Even people driving 4WD’s or walking dogs up riverbeds during spring can cause harm by unwittingly crushing eggs and disrupting nesting.

Among the current rash of development proposals that threaten braided rivers, Forest & Bird is advocating for the protection of the Hurunui River in Canterbury.

Forest & Bird is supporting an application lodged by Fish & Game and the New Zealand Recreational Canoeing Association in August with the Ministry for the Environment to protect the upper Hurunui under a Water Conservation Order, which would give it similar status to a national park. This would protect the Hurunui’s nationally outstanding biodiversity and landscape values.

A consortium has plans to dam Lake Sumner and the south branch of the Hurunui River to irrigate farmland.

This would ruin the magnificent landscape of the lake and river, harm endangered native species and spoil many recreational opportunities.

The upper Hurunui River above the Culverden Plains is a wild and scenic river containing important native wildlife, pristine lakes, popular kayaking gorges and a world-class trout fishery.

The south branch of the Hurunui River is also one of the most important sanctuaries for native species in the South Island. It is a stronghold for great spotted kiwi, South Island kaka, New Zealand falcon (karearea), orange-fronted parakeet (kakariki) and mohua (yellowhead).

The problem is that damming the river would stop the river flows needed to maintain the gravel bed of the braided

Ten percent of all black-fronted terns breed on the Hurunui River.

river, which endangered bird species including the black-fronted tern (tarapiroe) and wrybill (ngutuparore) depend on to breed successfully.

The Hurunui River supports 10% of the entire black-fronted tern population, so a dam on the river would ruin their breeding habitat and further threaten the survival of the species.

Lake Sumner is also at risk. It is a scenic gem of the high country, surrounded by beech forest and mountains. As such, it is one of the few large, untouched lakes left in the high country. A dam would ruin its ecology.

The people of Canterbury have overwhelmingly shown in their submissions to district and regional plans that they want the Hurunui River to be protected. They have also recently elected four regional councillors with a strong mandate to protect and conserve the region’s freshwater habitats, including former Forest & Bird South Island Field Coordinator Eugenie Sage, who stood as an independent.

The developers behind the Hurunui dam proposal have said they will consult conservation and recreation groups to “mitigate adverse effects” but even with modifications the proposal would inevitably cause serious environmental damage to the river.

The situation on the Hurunui exemplifies the problem: It is simply not possible to dam the Hurunui in a way that will not cause serious harm to its special conservation, scenic and recreational values.

Like all our special braided river systems, the Hurunui is an invaluable part of New Zealand’s natural heritage and as such we must protect it now and for future generations.

Chris Todd is Forest & Bird’s South Island Field Coordinator.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

19

Taking the plunge New Zealand has three species of diving skink.

Victoria University PhD student Kim Miller explains how and why they dive, and previews her latest research findings.

Shore skink diving in a rock pool.

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Kelly Hare

Mercury Island diving skink habitat

Although not unique to reptiles, these elaborate physiological responses are designed to slow the heart rate and decrease oxygen consumption while maximizing use of the available oxygen. In essence, oxygenpoor blood from the right atrium, which would normally be sent to the lungs, is recycled back to arteries and capillaries and to the muscles. This right-to-left cardiac shunt allows leftover oxygen to be reused by the body instead of being exhaled.

Knowing that at least two of the three native skink species that dive for food also dive to escape predators, I set out with fellow Victoria University of Wellington researcher Kelly Hare to test the extent of the diving abilities of shore and egg-laying skinks.

On the Mercury Islands, east of the Coromandel Peninsula, we constructed an artificial rock pool using rocks, seaweed, and seawater. By mimicking the actions of a predator, we tested the diving ability of shore and egg-laying skinks.

After close to 750 trials, we began to see a clear picture of the capabilities of

“our” skinks. A great deal of variation in maximum dive time exists among animals, but the egg-laying skink is undoubtedly a better diver. Shore skink dives average about three minutes, and the longest dive time was over six minutes. That record pales in comparison to egg-laying skinks, which average about six to seven minutes per dive. A female egg-laying skink won the record for maximum dive time by staying underwater for 20 minutes and 30 seconds!

Compare that to humans; most of us can only hold our breath for one or two minutes.

Even compared with other diving reptiles, the egg-laying skink fares well.

Few reports of escape dive times exist, but most species have short escape dives. Green iguanas from Central and South America can escape predators by diving into water and remaining there for up to 30 minutes.

But green iguanas are 10-15 times longer and more than 200 times heavier than egglaying and shore skinks.

In reptiles, both heart rate and respiratory rate are higher in smaller

Egg-laying skink – a female has been recorded diving underwater for 20 minutes in a rock pool.

Kim Miller

Kim Miller

W

E have all had the occasional glimpse of something small scurrying away at the beach or in the garden or on a forest walk, but we may not appreciate that something may be one of more than 80 species of native lizards.

New Zealand is a land of reptiles, yet a rustle in the grass or a dead tail-less offering from a cat is the only contact many people have with them.

Reptiles can be remarkably inconspicuous and adept escape artists.

It’s no surprise, then, that only a lucky few of us have seen or heard of the amazing diving abilities of a few of these elusive creatures.

Three species of New Zealand’s shoredwelling skinks (mokomoko) are known to readily dive into seawater to forage for food or hide from predators. They are the Fiordland skink, which is restricted to south-west Fiordland and has been observed feeding underwater on marine invertebrates for up to five minutes, and the shore skink and egg-laying skink which live only on the coast of the mainland and offshore islands of the northern North Island. Both these latter species readily forage for invertebrates in rock pools on boulder beaches.

More impressive than diving for food are reports of the egg-laying skink plunging into rock pools to escape danger.

This behaviour was first documented in 1968 by Tony Whitaker, a New Zealand reptile expert, who described it like this: “When disturbed these skinks dive into the nearest pool and either stay submerged or swim to the far side. While under water they may burrow under mud or stones or walk on the bottom, sometimes keeping their eyes open and turning their heads to follow movements above the surface.”

He recorded “escape dives” of egglaying skinks at up to three minutes and 36 seconds. Shore skinks similarly plunge underwater when startled, but no dive lengths have been reported. In fact, skinks are generally well-adapted to diving and over 25 skink species worldwide dive regularly to evade predation. This behaviour is probably common in several more species.

Many terrestrial reptiles dive underwater, including turtles, lizards, snakes, alligators, and crocodiles, but their activities can be very different. They primarily dive either to forage or escape predators.

These activities elicit very different physiological responses. During an escape dive reptiles undergo a slowing of the heart rate which is often accompanied by a cardiac shunt leading to pulmonary bypass. In contrast, dives for feeding and swimming generally don’t result in a prolonged cardiac shunt, but this depends on the level of activity.

21

animals. Higher heart and respiratory rates usually reflect increased metabolic demands, so we might expect smaller lizards to have shorter dive times. It’s not particularly surprising, then, that shore skinks (weighing about five grams) do not dive for as long as egg-laying skinks (about 12-20 grams), and that adults hold the records for both species.

But this is not a hard and fast rule. Some adult egg-laying skinks do not dive for as long as adult shore skinks, and some did not dive at all. About 10% of the animals lacked the motivation to dive and simply swam in the rock pool until they were scooped out.

Even with the occasional “swimmer” in their ranks, egg-laying skinks may be among the best divers in the skink world: The Australian eastern water skink is possibly the most studied diving skink. It is about the same size as the New Zealand egg-laying skink, but has maximum escape dives of about 13 minutes.

The story is quite different for foraging dives. While searching for food, the marine iguana of the Galápagos Islands regularly holds its breath for about 30 minutes.

Freshwater crocodiles from the northern regions of Australia voluntarily hold their breath for up to two hours, and single dives of loggerhead turtles, occasional visitors to New Zealand waters, can last as long as seven hours!

Several other species of lizards are seen on beaches around New Zealand, including common geckos, brown skinks, common skinks and copper skinks. These species

do not normally forage or escape from predators in the water and generally stay above the tide line. They live primarily in other habitats, but sometimes inhabit coastal vegetation and rocky beaches.

It is likely that a few more divers could be found among New Zealand’s 80 or so lizard species. There has been only one documented report of juvenile chevron skinks diving in the wild, but there is good reason to suspect they may regularly use the water either for food or cover.

The chevron skink, a threatened species, is found only on Great and Little Barrier Islands and is most commonly found near stream margins, but small population sizes and severe range restriction have made them difficult to study. Unfortunately, it is not alone in that regard – over half of all New Zealand skink species are in need of urgent conservation action.

More than 40% of New Zealand lizard species, including the egg-laying skink, the Fiordland skink, and the chevron skink are confined mainly or entirely to offshore islands.

Although mainland populations are few, at least 10 island populations of egg-laying skinks are expanding following the removal of introduced Pacific rats (kiore). Since 1992, a small population reintroduced by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to Korapuki Island off the Coromandel Peninsula has expanded to more than seven times its original size.

Fiordland skinks were reintroduced to Hawea Island, Breaksea Sound, in

Fiordland skink has been observed feeding underwater for up to five minutes.

Lizards on the shore

B

EACH-goers may see lizards on either sandy or rocky beaches. Most of these lizards also live in other habitats and most are not adapted for diving. Here are some of the lizards you could encounter and where: Common gecko (up to 160 mm): North Island, widespread, especially in coastal regions; South Island, widespread; Stewart Island, rare. Nocturnal Copper skink (up to 120mm): North Island only, widespread. Diurnal

1988 after the eradication of brown rats and the founding population of 40 adults expanded to over 200 animals within four years. These adept swimmers also re-colonised Breaksea Island from a neighbouring population after the eradication of brown rats.

Not all native reptiles are capable of self-reintroduction, and DOC is working to restore islands and translocate lizards to islands within their former range (see Forest & Bird, February 1988). At least 15 different species of lizards have been reintroduced to islands around the country to date, and the future looks promising with many mainland sanctuaries now established.

Neither the shore skink nor the egglaying skink are currently classified as vulnerable, though they are difficult to see on the mainland. They are functioning parts of the coastal ecosystem on islands and have remarkable qualities. They eat carrion and invertebrates, and are a rich food source for several native bird species – if they don’t plunge into a rock pool in time!

You may see lizards on the beach, but people should not try to make them dive.

Not all lizards seen on the beach enjoy seawater. And all native reptiles in New Zealand are fully protected, so it is illegal to capture or harm them. If you sit back and wait, you might just be lucky enough to see one take the plunge.

Kim Miller is a PhD student in Conservation Biology at Victoria University of Wellington.

*Egg-laying skink (up to 225 mm): North Island only, 3 mainland populations, Coromandel to north of Auckland.

Nocturnal Brown skink (up to 150 mm): North Island, west from Taranaki to Wellington; South Island, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, north Westland. Diurnal. *Diving skink species Male shore skink at night in rock pool.

Aorangi, Poor Knights Islands.

*Fiordland skink (up to 170 mm): South Island only, one mainland population in south-west Fiordland. Diurnal.

22 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

*Shore skink ( up to 150 mm): North Island only, east coast north of Gisborne, west coast mainly north of Auckland. Diurnal

Rod Morris

Rod Morris

Common skink (up to 160 mm): North Island, Hawkes Bay and central to southern parts; South Island, widespread; Stewart Island. Diurnal

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Wild deer – like possums on stilts

Female rusa deer

K

ERRY Hogan’s not sure what he’s done to deserve having most of the feral deer in the North Island on his patch, but it is a problem that is increasingly worrying him.

Hogan’s beat as Technical Support Manager for the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) East CoastHawkes Bay Conservancy covers nearly 600,000-hectares (ha) of conservation land, including Te Urewera National Park and Raukumara, Kaweka and Ruahine Conservation Parks. And deer are a growing problem in much of the huge, rugged expanse of forest here.

As with most other parts of the country where there are feral deer, their numbers in East Coast-Hawkes Bay have increased since the collapse of the commercial helicopter deer-hunting industry early this decade. w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

During a recent visit Hogan shows Forest & Bird Lower North Island Field Office James Griffiths and I an area of the Raukumara Forest Park where deer numbers are low and the forest floor is thick with leaf litter, ferns and other lowgrowing plants, and a variety of seedlings grow up among the trunks of the mature trees.

In contrast, the forest he shows us at Wahaatua in the Urutawa Forest, northwest of Gisborne, where deer numbers are high, has virtually no seedlings and the understorey is totally absent – all you can see are bare trunks and dirt below the canopy.

DOC’s exclosure plots – which fence off areas of forest to monitor the difference between browsed and unbrowsed forest – show a stark contrast: inside the fence is

Rod Morris

Helen Bain gets the lowdown on the deer menace.

a lush profusion of greenery; outside the ground is bare.

Hogan says the deer strip the forest of the palatable species they prefer, such as pate, broadleaf, mahoe, hen and chicken fern and lancewood, reducing the forest to just a few non-palatable species.

The entire understorey of leafy shrubs vanishes, along with the tree seedlings that would have eventually replaced the mature canopy trees. Ground-covering plants and leaf litter are also gone, leaving the forest floor exposed to the impact of rainstorms and erosion. The food sources of fruit, seeds, insects and leaves that would feed native birds disappear; so does habitat for the birds and the myriad invertebrate species of the forest floor.

The forest he shows us at Otamatuna Mainland Island in Te Urewera National Park, where intensive control of deer and other pests is conducted over 2500-ha, is in good health. Palatable species such as native fuchsia, which wouldn’t stand a chance against high deer numbers, are thriving.

Monitoring of faecal pellet indexes show that if deer control is effective enough to produce less than three per cent incidence of deer droppings along the monitoring lines, that is enough to allow recovery of the shrub tier here.

Hogan and the East Coast-Hawkes Bay region are not alone in facing an increasing deer problem. Senior Technical Support Officer at DOC, Keith Briden, says the last estimate of New Zealand’s feral deer population was made in about 2000, and put numbers then at 250,000 nationally.

There have been wild deer in New Zealand since they were liberated here in the 1850s. From the 1950s-1970s, the Government paid deer cullers to shoot deer from the ground, till the commercial deer-hunting industry shooting deer from helicopters effectively took over.

Commercial deer-hunters were killing 18,000-20,000 deer a year, but since international venison markets slumped, the industry has been taking just 10003000 deer a year. Last year the take was up slightly to 5483, but the industry is virtually at a standstill.

DOC doesn’t have figures on how many deer recreational hunters take: New Zealand Deerstalkers Association spokesman Hugh Barr says a study in the late 1980s put the figure at 50,000 a year.

Briden is reluctant to hazard a guess at how much the deer population has increased since commercial deer hunting ceased, but he says deer population increases are a concern, particularly in Fiordland, South Westland and the Urewera Ranges. Of particular concern is the reappearance of deer on the high tops, where they were greatly reduced by FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Helen Bain

High deer numbers have destroyed the palatable understorey at Wahaata in the Urutawa Forest, which provides an important habitat and food source for many native invertebrates, reptiles and birds, and greatly enhances the biodiversity of our forests.

off ” for another year or so for that muchhoped-for revival, though he admits that pinning the fortunes of deer control to a boom-and-bust industry is not the most reliable long-term solution.

Hogan is wary of “wait and see”. “It’s not panic stations yet, but we need to start making decisions about what we are going to do. The problem isn’t going away.”

He suggests “incentives” for the deer industry could support a solution that produces gains for both conservation and the industry.

The current price of venison at $2.50 a kilogram (down from a peak of more than $8) means commercial hunting simply isn’t financially viable – but if the price reached around the $5 mark, the helicopters could be whirring back into action.

He suggests that top-up payments for each deer killed by commercial hunters could fund effective deer control at a fraction of the estimated cost to DOC of $150 per deer if it undertook deer control on its own. To avoid deer hunters taking only the easy meat, payments could be conditional on hunters taking out a guaranteed number of deer from an area.

Hogan is optimistic about the chances of recovery of forests if deer are reduced.

“In just about every [deer] exclosure plot I have ever seen, there is a huge variety of species that come back – I am amazed James Griffiths

helicopter hunting and where vegetation had been recovering well.

Former Director-General of Conservation, Hugh Logan, warned on his departure from the job a year ago of the threat of rising feral deer numbers – he believed wild deer populations in Fiordland and the northern East Coast could be doubling every two years.

However, the extent of deer control being carried out is negligible: publicly funded deer control is carried out on just 1.3% of the area where feral deer are found. DOC’s map showing deer control operations shows them as pitifully small spots of red in an expanse of feral deer range.

Briden explains that DOC priorities mean that pest control resources go first to target predators, particularly where they threaten to push endangered species to extinction. Deer – further down the ladder of priorities – miss out.

Paying hunters to kill feral deer would only result in deer being removed from the most accessible country, leaving deer in the more inaccessible back country.

He agrees tenders could be sought for hunters to shoot deer in specific areas, but policy dictates that “market forces” hold sway, and paying people to kill deer is seen as “subsidies” and therefore a no-go.

Briden is hoping for the recovery of venison markets, and says DOC is “holding

by the resilience of the seed sources. But the longer you wait, the more you put that at risk. And any improvement is better than nothing, even if you don’t get back exactly what was there in eighteen hundred and whatever.”

DOC remains unconvinced that recreational hunters can play a major role in controlling deer, particularly on the rugged back country. Hogan – a former deer culler himself – says he had a quota of 20 deer a month, while commercial hunters with helicopters would take 10 times that many.

A study by Landcare Research for DOC undertaken from 1997-2006 in Kaweka Forest compared the survival rate of mountain beech seedlings in areas fenced off from deer, areas where deer were aerially hunted and areas where they were recreationally hunted. The study found seedling survival and forest recovery was highest in fenced areas, moderate in areas where aerially hunting took place, and lowest in recreational hunting areas.

However, the Deerstalkers Association believes recreational hunters can play a valuable complementary role in controlling deer, particularly in more accessible hunting spots.

Barr says claims that deer numbers are dramatically increasing and causing serious damage are “significantly overblown”. His own experience tramping since the 1950s is that deer numbers and damage are much lower now than they were at their peak in the middle of last century.

Barr is a member of a ministerial panel reviewing management of deer, chamois, tahr and pigs in the wild (Forest & Bird’s Sue Maturin is also a member). The Deerstalkers Association will seek to have the panel acknowledge deer as a valued recreational species, rather than a pest.

But Barr says deerhunters don’t want high deer numbers – deer are in poor condition when populations are high and make poor eating – and so they want to see a management regime introduced as much as conservationists do.

Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell is increasingly worried by the fact that there has not been any effective control of deer for several decades.

The Raukumara Forest Park retains a lush and diverse forest understorey because deer numbers are low here. Rich and diverse forests like this one are quickly being degraded due to rapid increases in the distribution and abundance of wild deer and, elsewhere, feral goats.

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$

DOC Animal Pest Control Operations Planned for 2006/07 Target Species: Deer Feral Deer Range Animal Pest Control - Deer Species Conservancy boundaries DOC Estate

This map shows the extent of DOC funded deer control in New Zealand during 2006/07, the range of all feral deer species, and DOC administered lands. Most deer control is in the deer free areas in the top third of the North Island including Mt Egmont and the Coromandel Peninsula. Areas of deer control overlaid on top of the deer feral range appear as a red-orange shade. The areas are: Otamatuna Mainland Island, Kaweka mountain beech – sika deer control, takahe area in Fiordland, the new deer control project on Secretary Island, deer-free Anchor Island, and several small control areas that are part of Adaptive Deer Management Research.

0

175

350

700

Kilometres

landowners to have to manage these pests for the hunters’ benefit, rather than for the protection of the environment.”

The fact that deer-hunters find value in the recreation they get from hunting deer does not remove the fact that deer are introduced pests that are causing serious damage to the environment, Hackwell says.

Map courtesy of DOC

He says even commercial hunting had a limited effect because, while it was relatively easy to take deer from the tops and more open country, deer populations remained virtually untouched in more dense forest where the helicopters couldn’t reach them.

“We know the damage is serious and is getting worse. Walking into many of our forests is like entering an empty cathedral – while there may be a fine canopy overhead, below there is just empty space.”

In some forest areas we are already starting to see total forest collapse caused by deer, Hackwell says.

“If we don’t move on deer control, the longer we wait the harder it is going to be to achieve recovery of the forests.”

Damage to the canopy and understorey also increases vulnerability to floods and erosion, he says. Heavily browsed forest offers little protection from heavy rain reaching ground level, or from run-off, so catchments suffer much worse effects.

Hackwell says increasing financial pressure on New Zealand to meet its international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may be the catalyst that sees deer control become not only affordable but a financial necessity.

Reducing the amount of forest destroyed by deer (and other introduced browsers) would greatly increase the amount of carbon stored in our forests.

Greater deer control would also reduce the amount of the greenhouse gas methane that is produced by deer. Cutting wild deer numbers could significantly reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas liabilities, potentially saving the country hundreds of millions of dollars. That would pay for the cost of deer control many times over.

Recreational and commercial deerhunters may not provide the entire solution to the deer problem, but they can certainly be part of it, Hackwell says.

However, he says the bid by the Deerstalkers Association to have deer granted valued status is not helpful.

“Sadly, some hunters want to go from being an important part of the solution to being part of the problem. They want the Government, farmers, foresters and other

“The options come down to choosing between an introduced pest and our native forests and unique endemic species such as kiwi. I know which option I – and most New Zealanders – would choose.”

Helen Bain is Forest & Bird’s Communications Officer.

New Zealand Association for Environmental Education Conference

DUNEDIN: Wednesday 16 – Friday 18 January 2008 Those interested in environmental education are invited to register for the biennial NZAEE Conference in Dunedin.

Two international leaders in Education for Sustainability, Professors Bjarne Jensen, from Denmark and John Fien, from Australia, will inspire and complement local keynote speakers and the vast array of workshops.

Website: www.dcms.co.nz/nzaee.html for all Conference Information, Programme, Trips and Online Registration or contact: Pat Johnston, 03 4771377. Early registration discount closes 8 December.

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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Rod Morris

A Kiwi conservationist abroad Don Merton and kakapo “Waynebo”.

In between his efforts at home to save some of New Zealand’s rarest bird species from extinction, Don Merton also helped save threatened species further afield in Mauritius, the Seychelles and Australia. Alison Ballance describes why his work there is internationally recognised.

D

ON Merton is famous in New Zealand as the man who saved the Chatham Island black robin in the early 1980s, but in overseas conservation circles he is equally well-known and highly regarded for his work in the Indian Ocean.

Armed with his experience working with endangered birds such as kakapo, Chatham Island black robin and saddleback (tieke), and in between extensive periods of field work to remote parts of New Zealand, he tackled conservation management issues relating to species as varied as Abbott’s 26 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

booby, Mauritius echo parakeet and Seychelles magpie-robin, and spearheaded island restoration programmes through the hands-on eradication of introduced rabbits and rats in Mauritius and the Seychelles.

His involvement in Indian Ocean conservation began in 1977, when he was seconded from the New Zealand Wildlife Service to work as the first Government Conservator on Christmas Island.

The island was controlled by the governments of Australia and New Zealand, and managed by the Phosphate

Rod Morris

Chatham Island black robin in the hand.

Mining Company, which ran big opencast phosphate mines on the island. Don’s job was to advise the island Administrator on conservation issues, to establish a monitoring programme for the endangered Abbott’s booby and to investigate setting up a national park.

In 1980, due in no small part to Don’s lobbying, the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service declared the southwest corner of the island a National Park, which was extended in 1986 and 1989 and now covers almost two thirds of the island; mining ceased in 1987, although Abbott’s booby numbers have still only climbed from 2300 pairs in 1967 to about 6000 birds today.

In 1984, as news of success with the Chatham Island black robin was making conservation headlines internationally, and at the invitation of the Durrell Trust and BirdLife International, Don visited Mauritius to advise on their echo parakeet conservation programme, and to look at the possibility of eradicating rabbits from Round Island, a small reserve 20kilometres north of the main island.

Round Island has the unenviable record of being home to more endangered plants and animals than any other comparable area on earth. It is only 151-hectares in size, has no standing water and its degraded vegetation is the last surviving remnant of an endemic palm savannah that once dominated the northern plains of Mauritius.

On the plus side of the ledger, the island is free of the woody weeds that are a major problem on Mauritius and other islands in the group, it is one of the few rat-free tropical islands in the world, and is an important seabird breeding ground. Most significantly, it is the only remaining home for eight species of reptiles endemic to the Mascarene Islands, four of which now only occur on Round Island. Six species are classified as endangered.

Early in the nineteenth century rabbits were introduced to the island, followed by goats, and the effect on the vegetation was catastrophic. Following the loss of most of the plant cover, heavy rains caused by frequent cyclones washed 90 percent of the w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

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Dennis Marinus Hansen

Don Merton’s legacy

Mauritius echo parakeet, back from the brink.

James Parker

Following his initial visit to the island group and being acutely aware of the importance of predator-free islands in the conservation of endangered island endemics, Don initiated several eradication projects against introduced rats and cats.

Many of the islands in the Seychelles group are privately owned and inhabited, and at the request of the owner of Bird Island Don, assisted by wife Margaret, undertook an initial rat eradication there, laying anti-coagulant rat baits by hand. Later, he coordinated a larger scale campaign on four islands, this time using a helicopter, flown by a New Zealand pilot, to spread baits.

Like much of his conservation field work, working in the Seychelles was often difficult, uncomfortable and frustrating, but Don has a great fondness for the place and the people. His many trips there over eight years were significant events in his life of adventures, and he wouldn’t have missed them for the world. Would he do it again? Knowing Don, if he thought it was important, and if he thought he could make a difference, the answer would be an emphatic “yes”.

In 1957 a young Don Merton with a passion to save rare birds embarked on a life-long career with the New Zealand Wildlife Service, and later the Department of Conservation.

Fifty years later he is one of 29 international nominees for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize, a biennial conservation award worth US$100,000 – he has been nominated by a team from the Durrell Trust and BirdLife International, in recognition of the significance of his contributions to international conservation.

It is a well-deserved nomination, but the true legacy of his work stands in the species and places he has worked to save, both at home and abroad.

Abbott’s booby – the population has increased to 6000 since Don Merton’s involvement.

Alison Ballance is a Dunedin-based natural history writer and film-maker. Her new biography of Don Merton – the man who saved the black robin (Reed Books) was published in October.

The last rat on Bird Island in the Seychelles meets Don Merton.

Don Merton

island’s topsoil away, leaving almost bare volcanic rock.

In 1986 Don, along with New Zealand colleagues Gary Aburn and Andy Roberts, spent several difficult months hand-laying anti-coagulant baits and successfully eradicated all the rabbits. By the following year, the island’s vegetation and reptiles were already responding dramatically, and a 1989 management plan sets out an ambitious future for the island.

In between Round Island trips Don spent time in Mauritius working with echo parakeets. In 1986 the echo parakeet was the world’s rarest parakeet, with just three females out of a total population of just 10 birds. Don saw many similarities between the highly endangered kakapo and the echo parakeet, and reasoned that species with similar problems would respond to similar solutions.

Both species are island endemics, herbivorous, subject to predation at nesting time and also liable to suffer food shortages at nesting time.

Since Don’s initial work a succession of Kiwi conservation workers have spent time in Mauritius, working on a captive breeding programme as well as management of wild birds. The exchange of ideas and skills between Mauritius and New Zealand has been a fertile one that has benefited both countries, and echo parakeets now number more than 320 birds.

On the most recent 2007 update of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Species Threatened with Extinction, the status of the echo parakeet changed from critically endangered to endangered, making it the Red List’s only good news story for 2007.

In 1992, again at the request of BirdLife International, Don became involved in work in the Seychelles island group. Initially Don was asked to advise on the management programme for Seychelles magpie robins, which have a story sadly typical of isolated oceanic island endemic species.

The introduction of predators such as cats and rats, and competitors such as mynas, the destruction of forest for timber and conversion to farms and coconut plantations, and the collection of specimens for museums all contributed to the species’ demise. By the 1960s fewer than 20 birds remained, and the species was confined to a single island.

Conservation efforts began in the 1970s, and although numbers initially increased by 1980 they began declining again. In 1990 a concerted conservation programme began, and this has had much more success. By 2006 the magpie robin population had reached an all-time high of 178 birds, and birds had been successfully transferred to three new islands.

Seychelles magpie robin, now at an all-time high.

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Shark alert

Michael Szabo asks how much longer will threatened shark species be killed in New Zealand waters to feed the global trade in their fins?

Blue shark

E

VERY year 100 million sharks and closely related rays die in fisheries around the world, either intentionally or as bycatch in fisheries that target other species.

The scale of the problem means that too often, shark populations are being fished faster than they can reproduce, driving some species towards extinction.

Once sharks are caught their fins are often cut off while they are still alive and the body returned to the sea to be eaten by other sharks or die a lingering death.

According to data published by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), 698,650 blue, mako and porbeagle sharks were caught as bycatch in New Zealand tuna longline fisheries in the 1988-1989 to 2001-2002 period.

Given that these are not the only shark species caught as bycatch in New Zealand longline and trawl fisheries, the total number killed in New Zealand waters may well be over an average figure of 50,000 per year, and could be as high as 80,000 per year, based on published data.

The threat to sharks posed by finning is not new. Forest & Bird first drew public attention to it and the plight of sharks in 1990.

Back then sharks weren’t widely thought of as threatened species, but 17 years on many of the larger sharks that occur in New Zealand waters are included on the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List, such is the scale of the global carnage.

These include great white, basking, porbeagle, mako, blue, hammerhead, whale, silky, Galapagos and tiger sharks.

Blue, mako and porbeagle sharks now have quotas under the Quota Management System. These three species are mainly caught as bycatch on longlines that target tuna, while other shark species are also caught as bycatch in trawl nets targeting species including hoki, arrow squid, southern blue whiting and red cod.

The fact that sharks are long-lived, mature late in life and have a slow reproductive rate means they are especially susceptible to the effects of fishing and their populations don’t recover easily.

As top predators their role in marine ecosystems is akin to that of big cats in terrestrial ecosystems. Ecologically, sharks are the tigers and lions of the sea. If fishing removes and kills too many of them, there can be far-reaching consequences for marine ecosystems.

According to the Ministry of Fisheries, NIWA and other research scientists, New Zealand has considerable shark diversity. Of the 112 shark species that occur in New Zealand waters, over 70 have been caught in fishing operations. Of these, thirteen shark species are endemic to New Zealand, with 8 restricted to Australasia.

Some, such as the great white shark and blue shark, migrate across vast distances. Great white sharks have been tracked from New Zealand to waters off New Caledonia and Vanuatu by Malcolm Francis of NIWA and others (Forest & Bird, issue 324), Shark fins after being cut off. A single fin can sell for thousands of dollars in Hong Kong.

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w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Kim Westerskov

while blue sharks have been tracked from New Zealand across the Pacific Ocean to waters off South America.

So why, then, are shark fins so highly prized?

Shark fin soup is sold in restaurants around the world, including New Zealand. In Hong Kong, where shark fin soup is seen as something of a luxury food item, some restaurants reportedly sell shark fin soup for as much as US $90 a bowl. A single basking shark dorsal fin can reportedly fetch US $14,500. Weight-for-weight, this is considerably more than the value of a kilo of fresh tuna.

Ironically, shark fins have no taste so the flavour of the soup is often supplied by adding chicken stock. A few slimy shards of cartilage at the bottom of the bowl may be all the evidence that the soup contains any shark fin.

With the increase in demand for shark fin soup that has accompanied economic growth in parts of Asia, shark fins from as far away as North America, Europe and New Zealand have been transported there to feed this appetite for a culinary status symbol.

The scale of the problem prompted the United States to ban shark finning in 2000 and the European Union in 2003. This was partly because of the impact on shark populations and marine ecosystems, and partly because it is an inhumane practice if the shark is still alive when its fins are cut off.

In 2006, after many years of advocacy, Forest & Bird welcomed legal protection for the great white shark in New Zealand waters.

With shark finning now outlawed in the USA and the EU, and people within the fishing industry voicing their concerns about the practice, surely it is time to consider extending the same level of protection to the other shark species particularly at risk from finning, and those species on the IUCN Red List and CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species).

New Zealand is a long-standing supporter of the international ban on commercial whaling. Many of the arguments mounted at the International Whaling Commission against whaling and the inhumane nature of killing them with harpoons also apply to sharks.

The main difference is that rather than dying on the end of a Japanese or Icelandic harpoon, as some whales still do, a great many sharks die in New Zealand waters every year on the end of longline hooks, in trawl and set nets, and from the mutilating effects of finning.

Michael Szabo is editor of Forest & Bird magazine and Forest & Bird’s Communications Manager.

The Ministry of Fisheries published its Draft National Plan of Action for Conservation and Management of Sharks in October which is open for public submission until 1 February 2008. It is available under the “Consultations” section of the ministry’s website: www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/default.htm

Porbeagle shark after its fins have been cut off.

Albatrosses, porbeagle shark and blue sharks killed as bycatch by a tuna longliner off the East Coast of New Zealand.

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29

Rimatara’s return After a 200 year absence Rimatara lorikeets have been returned to Atiu in the Cook Islands from Rimatara in French Polynesia. Jenny Elliott reports on a shining example of conservation, the Pacific way.

Rimatara lorikeet is nameed after the Polynesian island whose queen imposed a tapu which saved the species from extinction.

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w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Alan Lieberman

Matching plaques commemorating the reintroduction of Rimatara lorikeet have been set up on both Rimarata and Atiu. Gerald McCormack is on the right of the photograph, wearing a Rimatara lorikeet T-shirt.

The current reintroduction programme was developed by Gerald McCormack of the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, and is being implemented in collaboration with the Ornithological Society of Polynesia (MANU – BirdLife in French Polynesia), Te Ipukarea Society (TIS – BirdLife in the Cook Islands), BirdLife International and the Zoological Society of San Diego.

MANU organised the logistics and obtained the necessary agreements and authorisations in France and French Polynesia, such as the CITES permit to transfer an endangered species from one country to another, reports Philippe Raust of MANU. This involved extensive liaising with the French Government and the High Commission in Papeete, the Office of the President of French Polynesia, the Ministry of the Environment and customs, border police, quarantine and civil aviation authorities.

And the whole project would not have been possible without the vision and generosity of the people of Rimatara who

agreed to the transfer going ahead after being approached by MANU and the people of Atiu.

The programme has been funded by the British Birdwatching Fair, through BirdLife International, with important co-financing from Fonds Français pour le Pacifique (secured by MANU), the Cook Islands Government, Air Rarotonga, the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust in New Zealand, and the Zoological Society of San Diego.

The project has spanned 15 years since the initial 1992 research conducted by Gerald McCormack and Judith Kunzle. It has involved considerable coordination, expertise and logistical support, and has been a cultural as much as a political undertaking. The translator, Teokotai Mariri, had to speak four languages – Tahitian Maohi, Cook Islands Maori, French and English.

Critical to the success of the project was the involvement of one of Atiu’s three ariki, Ada Rongomatane Ariki, who has taken a special interest in the project throughout.

Atiu’s Ada Rongomatane Ariki and Alan Lieberman of San Diego Zoo prepare to release one of the 27 lorikeets.

Gerald McCormack.

Phil Bender

W

HEN the plane landed at Atiu in the Southern Cooks on 24 April with 27 kura on board, the celebration and pageantry that welcomed its arrival was a greeting fit for a queen – or, in this instance, a bird species protected by a queen.

Almost the entire population of Atiu – some 500 – turned out to welcome and celebrate the arrival of the birds being gifted to them by the 900 or so people of Rimatara in the Austral Islands in French Polynesia.

During the flight, the birds even had a change of name. In Rimatara, they are called ‘ura, while in Atiu they are kura.

Scientists and birdwatchers call them Rimatara or Kuhl’s lorikeets (Vini kuhlii).

And Atiu itself, which is 215-kilometres north-east of Rarotonga, is appropriately known as Enuamanu, the land of the birds.

To celebrate the momentous event, competitions were held for the best song composed, old chants revived, dances choreographed, costumes made, feasts prepared and the shops closed.

In a sense, the celebrations were also a “welcome back to Atiu” for these spectacularly colourful birds with their bright green, blue, yellow and red feathers.

They used to live throughout most of the Southern Cooks, but their beauty was also their demise. The kura was prized for its small red feathers, which were used for ceremonial adornments.

The headdresses of the chiefs (pare kura) in the Southern Cooks and the famous red loincloth (maro ‘ura) of Tahiti and the Society Islands made extensive use of these red feathers. The women who danced for Captain Cook’s men on Atiu in the 1770s were adorned with red feathers, and the chiefs were distinguished by a small cluster of red feathers through their ear lobe.

There is an oral tradition of a feather harvest on Manuae Atoll near Aitutaki around the 1770s, but there is no record of its existence anywhere in the Cook Islands when missionaries arrived in the 1820s.

Until their recent transfer to Atiu, the only population still surviving within the species’ former natural range was on Rimatara. There are also two populations in the northern Line Islands of Kiribati where it was introduced in historical times, sometime prior to 1798.

Rimatara or Kuhl’s lorikeet is listed as endangered on the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List of Threatened Species because of its small population and limited distribution.

About 100 years ago the last Queen of Rimatara, Tamaeva Arii Vahine, protected the bird with a tapu, giving it a special status for the people of Rimatara as well as protection.

31

Alan Lieberman

Gerald McCormack prepares to release one of the birds. Most of the island’s 500 residents turned out for the occasion.

She travelled to Rimatara three times with Gerald McCormack to meet the people there and re-establish the traditional links that enabled them to feel they were gifting the birds to a person of worthy status.

The people of Rimatara understood the conservation need for a second “reserve” population, but were concerned at giving away birds that were uniquely theirs and had been protected by their late Queen Tamaeva Arii Vahine around 1900.

Rimatara still has no black rats, a species which climbs trees and preys on lorikeets in other parts of Polynesia. If black rats were to become established on Rimatara, the lorikeets would decline as the rats destroyed their eggs and nestlings.

The establishment of a second population elsewhere would increase the survival chances of the species. Atiu was chosen for the reintroduction because it was a part of the kura’s former natural range but does not have black rats.

Black rats are present on most of the islands in the Southern Cooks, and it is not yet understood why Atiu remains free of this particular pest species. The challenge now is to make sure it remains free of black rats.

McCormack says the disease aspect of this transfer was his biggest concern.

“I didn’t want my legacy to be spreading a serious avian disease into the Cook Islands.”

For this reason he was determined that the birds would be flown directly from Rimatara to Atiu and not via Tahiti or Rarotonga. “If the birds were taken via Tahiti there was a greater risk of picking up a disease; quarantine requirements would say that the birds were coming from a high risk avian disease area and they would need to be quarantined for two weeks, possibly for a month… And anyway, there’s nowhere to quarantine them on or near Atiu.”

But neither Atiu nor Rimatara is an international port of entry and therefore there are no facilities for customs, quarantine or immigration. Government officials in both countries had to be brought on board, arrangements made and costs covered for customs, quarantine and immigration officials to be flown from Papeete to Rimatara and from Rarotonga to Atiu for the direct flights.

The last physical obstacle was overcome in April 2006 when Rimatara Airport opened for commercial traffic. Air Rarotonga supported the programme by offering two direct flights at no cost to transport the birds and dignitaries between the two islands.

The involvement of San Diego Zoo was also critical to the project’s success. Alan Lieberman was working for the zoo in 1993 when he met McCormack at a conference in Tahiti where Lieberman was giving a

paper on the successful translocation of ultramarine lorikeets within the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.

McCormack outlined what he wanted to do with the Rimatara lorikeet and said if he could get it all together he would be back in contact. He was – twelve years later.

McCormack says he spent the 1990s talking to different people and “banging on about the bird, making sure that every important person who might be an obstacle was informed and consulted. I’ve always known that at every point there were people who could say no to it.”

Lieberman summed it up with the comment, “We always say the biology is the easy part. It’s the political part that’s hard.”

San Diego Zoo vet pathologists designed a health assessment programme, researching the background of avian diseases in the region and deciding what tests needed to be done. It took a year to put the programme together, and this in turn had to be approved by authorities in both the Cooks Islands and French Polynesia. Each country had to be convinced the programme provided the level of biosecurity they required.

San Diego Zoo also provided the technical expertise for catching the birds with large mist nets. On Rimatara the field staff were divided into two catching teams and a “bird house” team. The catching teams used long mist nets held up into likely flight paths on long bamboo poles. After capture the birds were held in separate cages in the “bird house” where Leiberman took care of them and fed them an enriched lory-nectar and vet pathologist Bruce Rideout implemented the disease assessment protocol.

Lieberman was also observing the birds carefully while they were in captivity.

“Birds hide the fact that they are sick – this is a natural protection because if they show any signs of weakness in the wild, they are very vulnerable. If they begin

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to show signs of depression it means they are getting ill and there isn’t usually much time.”

Although the international team on Rimatara had committed themselves to a 21-day stay, the birds were caught faster than expected, and were ready to leave for Atiu on day 13. McCormack and Anne Gouni of MANU were continuously adjusting the work programme and flight schedules, and there was extensive renegotiating with the team, the Rimatara community, the officials in Tahiti, Air Rarotonga and Air Tahiti.

After the plane landed in Atiu, the team was concerned with getting the lorikeets to the two release sites as quickly as possible.

They were anxious that the cultural and social ceremonies to welcome the dignitaries and birds might cause delays in the hot sun and impact on the birds’ well being.

But everything at Atiu airport was done quickly and the birds were swiftly transported to the two release sites chosen for their proximity to coconut palms and bananas – two of the birds’ favourite food plants. The next 24 hours would be the

Gerald McCormack

Atiu’s Member of Parliament for Areora, Nandi Glassie, releases a lorikeet with the help of Alan Lieberman (obscured). He is watched by the CEO for the Ministry of Agriculture Arthur Taripo (left) and Director of the Cook Islands National Environment Service, Vaitoti Tupa.

most important.

At one of the sites 18 birds were taken from their cages, hand-fed with more lorynectar and released quietly, without fanfare.

At the other site, dignitaries released the other nine birds while Atiuans danced, sang and chanted to celebrate the arrival of the kura back to their island. The celebratory chants also imposed a new tapu to protect the birds.

The transfer efforts were a complete success. San Diego Zoo staff reported that all the birds ate well, maintained weight within reasonable limits and flew well after being liberated.

Now there will be ongoing monitoring under a programme organised by the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust. “Birdman George” takes tourists on birdwatching

tours on Atiu and monitors sightings of the kura. There have been regular sighting since the releases and McCormack says the birds have spread over the whole 30 square kilometres of the island.

Gerald McCormack will return regularly and is keen to involve local school students.

San Diego Zoo staff also plan to return in the coming year to assist with the monitoring. When the birds start to breed, the programme can be declared a success.

Meanwhile, on Rimatara, they like to tell the story of the two ‘ura that circled the plane just before it took off with the birds on board – as if they were farewelling kin leaving for another part of the Pacific. And on Atiu or Enuamanu, the land of birds, the spectacular ‘ura are again delighting Atiuans with their friendly playful ways.

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

33

A. E Wright/DOC

goingplaces

Taiaroa Head

Northern royal albatross group with one male displaying, Taiaroa Head.

Perched at the end of Otago Peninsula, this headland is one of New Zealand’s premier wildlife-watching sites. Michael Szabo reports from Dunedin’s “subantarctic mainland island”.

T

AIAROA Head is a dramatic headland at the north-east tip of the Otago Peninsula, an area close to Dunedin, which lays claim to the title of wildlife capital of New Zealand.

Famous as the only mainland breeding site in the southern hemisphere with an albatross colony, the claim is based on an impressive list of New Zealand native species set in a unique volcanically-formed landscape.

A trip along the peninsula is probably the nearest experience on the mainland to visiting New Zealand’s subantarctic islands, where albatrosses, penguins and shags breed alongside New Zealand fur seals and sea lions. Dolphins, including orca, also occur in the waters of the harbour and around the headland, and last summer several southern right whales turned up and rested in the harbour and off the peninsula too.

It is the chance to view a colony of northern royal albatross at their nests or wheeling overhead here that is the main 34 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

attraction to visitors from home and abroad.

Seventy years ago renowned Otago naturalist, Lance Richdale, started observing and protecting northern royal albatross at Taiaroa Head.

Thanks to his vigilance and foresight, camping out and discouraging people from approaching too close and disturbing the albatrosses, they established a colony. The first chick fledged in 1938 and the birds remain today.

More than 10,000 seabirds now use Taiaroa Head as a breeding site with the albatrosses making up just one percent of them.

There are also significant colonies of shags, penguins, shearwaters and gulls.

Fences to exclude people and predator control are two important factors that have enabled the growth of seabird colonies here.

There are several ways to view the albatrosses here, though undoubtedly the best is to take the tour and see them close up either on their eggs or attending chicks.

Sometimes the adults sit motionless at the nest resting, but if you are lucky and time your visit for when the birds are displaying you might be treated to one of the most spectacular displays in the animal kingdom, with the adult birds raising their wings and heads to perform their incredible sky-dancing courtship ritual.

The accompanying whinnying and braying

sounds heightening the drama.

The albatrosses can also be seen as they glide overhead on wings that almost seem like a pair of skis they are so long – the largest wingspan of any bird species, in fact, along with the wandering albatross.

On my last visit I heard someone in the viewing hide remark that they thought the bird they were looking at might be an albatross. It was actually a black-backed gull flying over but just as they made their remark, an albatross cruised into view near the gull and they quickly added, “Oh, no it’s not – that’s an albatross ... “ their voice trailing off in awe at its immense size.

It’s also worth taking a trip with the MV Monarch to view the headland from the sea. The trip departs at a nearby jetty and offers amazing views of the headland itself, the various seabirds that breed here and, of course, the albatrosses as glide over and around the colony.

One of the pleasant surprises I found during this trip was seeing the royal spoonbills that nest in the small trees that grow precariously from one of the cliffs. Spoonbills look slightly absurd anyway, with their unlikely Dr Seuss-like bills, but to see a group of them perched precipitously in these small trees on their stilt-like legs, halfway up a huge cliff face, is quite entertaining.

The MV Monarch trip also allows you to see the large colony of rare Stewart Island shags located a little further down w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

A pied phase Stewart Island shag at the nest with large chick w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Rod Morris

the headland from the albatross colony.

These threatened endemic shags come in two colour varieties, the so-called “bronze shags� which are uniformly bronze-brown, and a pied form which is mostly black with white on the upper wings and shoulders. To add to the confusion, juvenile and young adult birds also display slightly different plumages to the adults.

Along the cliffs from here there is also a colony of spotted shags. Along with the black, little and pied shags that also occur in the area, the headland is also a hotspot for these imposing birds.

The large red-billed gull colony on the eastern side of the headland is easily approached and offers a chance to see adult birds with their fluffy chicks at relatively close range.

New Zealand fur seals and sea lions can also been seen in the area. The fur seals rest up on the rocks below the headland, while a smaller number of sea lions frequent some of the long sandy beaches along the outer peninsula.

The fur seals sometimes frolic offshore near Pilots Beach just below and before the headland, and the extensive rocky reefs below the car park on the other side. Early in the year pups can sometimes be seen on these rocks playing in rockpools or sleeping in the sun. The rocks are over 100 metres below the viewing point here, so binoculars are advisable if you want to see them and the other species in the area well.

Yellow-eyed penguins also breed at the nearby beaches on the outer side of the peninsula while little blue penguins breed close to the head itself by Pilots Beach, as well as along the beaches of the outer peninsula.

It is usually possible to see the little blue penguins at Pilots Beach during mid-summer when they gather offshore in the evening before coming ashore after dark and walking briskly to their burrows and nests in vegetation back from the beach. Just be sure to keep your distance and avoid parking right next to the beach itself – the car park at the headland is conveniently close.

There is also a sooty shearwater colony on the land behind the headland, though it is not readily viewable. These large dark seabirds and many others are best seen at sea on a boat trip.

Out on the water at the end of the harbour and off the headland there is an abundance of terns, shags, albatrosses,

Rod Morris

Little blue penguins can usually be seen at Pilots Beach below Taiaroa Head in midsummer, around sunset.

35

goingplaces

Rod Morris

Yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho) adult guarding large downy chicks on Otago Peninsula.

shearwaters and penguins. On my most recent trip I also enjoyed seeing the small pod of dusky dolphins that surfaced near the boat and was pleased to hear that bottlenose and Hector’s dolphins are sometimes sighted in the area too.

One reason the area is alive with seabirds is that the protection given to the albatross colony has allowed other species to flourish.

Another is the Southern Ocean’s cold currents which rise above the continental shelf, providing a rich and constant food source.

In January 2007 the 500th royal albatross chick hatched at the colony, and was named Toroa, the Maori name for the royal albatross.

This bird’s lineage goes back to the beginnings of successful breeding at Taiaroa

Head. The chick’s father was the last chick of an albatross known as Grandma which featured in an award-winning television documentary of the same name.

Grandma was in the colony when Lance Richdale started observing royal albatross at the site in 1937 and was in her 60s when she died.

When Toroa fledged and left the nest in September it was one of three birds fitted with a small satellite tracking device.

The epic journey of these three northern royal albatrosses is now well being tracked.

All 23 albatross chicks hatched at the reserve last breeding season, successfully fledging. Twenty-eight adult birds have arrived on the headland so far with between 20 and 25 breeding pairs expected this season.

If you have not been to Taiaroa Head already, it’s a must-see destination which is best visited between December and March.

Fact file: Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Centre, Taiaroa Head The Royal Albatross Centre is open daily all year except Christmas Day. Tours run from 9am to dusk in summer and generally from 10am to 4pm in winter except on Tuesdays when the first tour is at 10.30am. It is possible to view the colony from the nearby observatory from 24 November until 16 September each year. It is closed off during the most sensitive part of the breeding season to minimise disturbance from the presence of visitors.

The centre asks people to book ahead by calling 03 478 0499 or emailing reservations@albatross.org.nz Monarch Wildlife Cruises, Dunedin The MV Monarch makes regular tours of the headland and harbour during the year. Trips can be booked via their website www.wildlife.co.nz/tours.html or by email monarch@wildlife.co.nz or by calling their freephone number 0800 MONARC (666 272) within New Zealand.

Penguin Place, Otago Peninsula Penguin Place runs guided yellow-eyed penguin tours at a Conservation Reserve a few kilometres from Taiaroa Head. The informative guided tours allow people to visit a working conservation programme and see the penguins undisturbed at close range through a system of open tunnels and hides. As part of the operation, habitat is restored, nesting sites are built from plywood, introduced predators are trapped, sick or injured penguins cared for and a research programme carried out. Tours last 90 minutes.

Summer (October – March) tours depart every 30 minutes from 10.15am until 90 minutes prior to sunset. Winter (April – September) tours depart every 30 minutes from 3.15pm until 4.45pm and bookings are essential.

For more information see www.penguinplace.co.nz or phone 03 478 0286.

Taiaroa Head Albatross nests Albatross Centre Lighthouse Albatross Observatory Stewart Island Shags

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37

Itinerant Ecologist – Geoff Park

Long-lived in the native ecosystem

I

rather than the contiguous.

Not least an influence on this “collection of bits” approach has been modern Western science’s quest to reduce nature to its building blocks, and dispel the ancient notions that have been integral to most nature-based societies: the world as an intertwining of life-support systems with interrelated cycles of birth, growth, death and renewal, of energy pathways that create and sustain life.

It is why ecology has been called “the subversive science”, as my first ecology text, in the late 1960s, was titled. It was barely thirty years since the British botanist Arthur Tansley had come up with the term “ecosystem” for “the collection of all the organisms and environments in a single location,” before which Western science simply didn’t have such a word for the idea.

Corroborated since by the scientific evidence of nutrient cycling, energy flows and food chains, Tansley’s “ecosystem” has become an integral part of the ecological revolution that has transformed the practice of nature conservation.

It has enabled us to see in New Zealand what the poet-ecologist Gary Snyder has observed in America; that while the colonial preservers’ samples of primeval scenery were what they could achieve in the dark days for the indigenous, and shouldn’t be scorned today, their “exclusive emphasis Sara McIntyre

F there is one word, one idea, that today’s conservationists use day-to-day, but which the preservers of scenery and island sanctuaries who founded the conservation estate didn’t, it is ecosystem.

Ecology’s primary principle that, as the great American preserver of the wild, John Muir, put it, everything in the universe is “hitched to everything else”, was, I suspect, evident to some of the men who early last century delineated which bits of Aotearoa wouldn’t be cleared for farms, but “set aside from settlement” as scenic reserves.

But the imperative that a prime minister of the time, William Massey, called “the necessity of securing while they exist, as many as possible of the few remaining beauty spots of the Dominion, if for nothing else than preserving for the generations who follow a few samples of the primeval scenery that existed in the country at the advent of European occupation,” certainly wasn’t an ecological one.

Historically, conservation in New Zealand has tended to focus on what we call “reserves”: fenced-off fragments of native wildness containing the features of the indigenous flora and fauna that we consider the most scenic and beautiful, rare and unique – or, more recently, representative of the country’s native diversity. It has been about the curious

on disparate parcels of land ignored the insouciant freeness of wild creatures”.

Islands of native wildness are invaluable as biological refuges and references, but they cannot themselves guarantee the maintenance of natural variety.

Ecology’s lens on the landscape shows that if we are to maintain the country’s range of species in perpetuity, we need more than the “reserves” that were set aside from settlement, and more than a sample of every district’s range of plant communities and a population of each of its species.

We must also maintain sufficient of the wider ecological systems of which they are part, and the sentient processes that make them what they are. And as we contemplate how the wild natural fragments that survived the colonial fires might be reconnected, we learn how little we know of how their ancient ecosystems actually function.

Before conservation could reflect a sense of New Zealand as ecosystems, it had to have a legislative base that did.

It came in 1977 with the Reserves Act injunction to preserve “representative samples of all classes of natural ecosystems and landscapes which in their aggregate originally gave New Zealand its own recognisable character”.

The Reserves Act was still portraying the conservation estate as a collection of “samples”, rather than encouraging its advocates and stewards to think more in terms of the seed-dispersing flights of kereru and the fence-ignoring spread of weeds and weasels. But it was a New Zealand detail of what Fritjof Capra has called the “turning point” in our perception of the livingness of the world and our living in relation to it; an entering an era of limits, leaving behind an era of perceiving Earth and its myriad life support systems as limitless.

“Ecosystem” was still, in the 1970s, a specialist’s term. But by the 1980s, more people than ecologists were referring to “the ecosystems of New Zealand” and “ecosystems in transition”. Early in the 1990s, it entered the legislation with the

The most ancient of the kahikatea in Tauherenikau Bush 38

w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

have been the largest kahikatea I’d seen.

Before the saws were stopped at Pureora and Whirinaki by Forest & Bird and others, I counted felled giants of similar size to be of similar age. Yet none of them could compete with some trees I’ve seen since, and none of those with the Tauherenikau tree. If there is a larger, older kahikatea tree anywhere, I would like to see it.

It is its vast timbery spread, full of native orchids and other perchers, that’s most impressive, more than its height.

More like three great trees than one. The immense roundedness of a survivor of long-ago floods that’s had the space to grow as it’s liked. Not just upwards like the towering, hemmed-in kahikatea of Whirinaki and Pureora, where it attains its apogee in height terms. Yet perhaps more than twice their age.

By extrapolation, it has to be closer to two thousand years than a thousand. Way closer. The same order of time, indeed, that David Donald, who farms the big trees’ river flat, says was put on it by a “treeexpert” his father once asked to age it. A kahikatea, in other words, that would have been venerable by the time the first people entered its valley, and, for most of its life would have had huia and kokako up-anddowning in its branches, and moa and adzebill chomping beneath.

Tauherenikau’s Key Native Ecosystem is more about restoring the sentient processes of something riverine, once widespread but now barely surviving, than preserving exceptionally old kahikatea. But the fact that on a Wairarapa river terrace, just beside the water, still, lives not only one of New Zealand’s largest organisms, but one of its oldest, certainly helps us put flesh on what those processes might be.

To know that in such a dynamic locale

of uplift and deposition is a tree that has been living right through up to two thousand years of floods, quakes and gales, tells us something we need to know about an ecosystem on whose fertility we have become so economically dependent.

Something we need to keep alive.

Like the Deans of Riccarton Bush, the Donald family has kept fire out of the big trees’ bush ever since their firstcomers took up its flat, fertile acres in the 1850s.

Every generation since, David says, has done something to preserve it. It’s only since 2003 though, when his and his wife’s possum-trapping met up with Greater Wellington’s Key Native Ecosystem programme that things really got going.

Now all their bits of bush have traps all through them – and the nibbling kereru sign on their fences. And beneath them, when I saw them recently, the plastic protectors of thousands of new, young trees glinting in the spring sun, where just a couple of years ago, Tradescantia (wandering willy) controlled the ground.

In other places, like the rotting thickets of felled sycamore, the scene seems more a cut-over zone than a restoration one.

Which is why, perhaps, of all the species on the increase in the bird counts with which Greater Wellington has been paralleling the trapping, the greatest gainer has been fantail, piwakawaka.

But it’s kereru, the flapping of wings on the feed, that I hear first, as I open the Donalds’ gate nearest the big trees. Yet few for such a fine spring day; an observation I make to the council’s layer-of-traps, Murray Clark, as he drives up. “They’re all over by the river”, he explains, “The tree lucerne is flowering.” “In the whole of the Wairarapa”, he says, “I’ve never seen kereru in such numbers.”

Sara McIntyre

inclusion of “safeguarding the life-support capacity of ecosystems” as a purpose and principle of the Resource Management Act 1991, along with the imperative of giving particular regard to the “intrinsic values of ecosystems”. And, in the Act’s Policy Statement for the Coast, of identifying and protecting, as a national priority, “ecosystems which are unique to the coastal environment and vulnerable to modification”.

By the mid-1990s, ecosystems were becoming a concern of regional councils.

One of the first, Wellington, set out a series of “Ecosystem Policies” in its 1995 Regional Policy Statement, including the development of a database of “the Region’s ecosystems”. Then, early in the new century, as Greater Wellington, it began designating certain stretches of country “Key Native Ecosystems”. And signs with a kereru nibbling forest fruit began appearing on farm fences.

The signs denote land which, although privately owned, Greater Wellington considers sufficiently significant in ecological and biodiversity terms to assist the costly reduction of invasive species.

To levels, say a Key Native Ecosystem programme brochure, that give remnant native habitats “a fighting chance”, and allow “natural ecosystem processes to thrive”.

One sprawls across the alluvium of the Wairarapa Plain, one of those New Zealands that seem, from the highway straights slicing across it, so utterly transformed from its native state to be a lost case for conservation. But look downriver just before the highway crosses the Tauherenikau, the southernmost outpouring of Tararua water and greywacke gravel, and you might glimpse, beyond the far bank’s willows, the rounded crowns of native trees. Ancient kahikatea.

Among them, the biggest and oldest that I know.

Kahikatea elders first took my eye in the 1970s, when, as a young DSIR ecologist identifying forests needing reserving, I discovered that virtually none of their once-great river forests were protected.

Hearing of foresters’ plans to keep felling lowland forest, I set out to survey the last survivors.

One day, in what would soon become Kahurangi National Park, in a once-talltimbered estuary that we’d been too late to reach with the science that could have secured it from the chain-saws, I counted 800 rings on a fresh kahikatea stump.

A tree that, had it still stood, would

Most of the Tauherenikau kahikatea are younger, but probably in the order of a thousand years old w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

39

in the field

The fowl and the pussycat

Words by Ann Graeme Illustrations by Pamela Robinson

Are cats lovable pets or the ultimate invasive pest?

T

HE cat’s caught a fantail and laid the bloody corpse on the mat. It’s no good getting mad at the cat. If it was a dog it would probably roll over and act as if to say, “sorry! sorry! sorry!”. A cat will just sulk and glower at your ingratitude for its feathered present – further proof, in the cat’s mind, that people are stupid.

I find it is that contrariness, that independence, that affection given with discretion which makes a cat such a fine companion. And most people value the company of a non-human friend. For many, it is their most intimate link with the world beyond people. It’s only a pity that your cat is also a natural killer.

A Wellington biologist kept a record of all the dead animals his cat dragged in over its seventeen year life span. The list included 223 birds. In another study, over a three month period 130 cats brought home 267 birds and 191 lizards.

Nearly half of all New Zealand households own a cat, so it’s clear that every year thousands, probably millions, of birds and lizards die in the jaws of these domestic pets.

But the studies quoted also showed that those same cats caught introduced rats,

40 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

and it is rats that are the biggest killers of lizards and of nesting birds, their eggs and young. The author argues that cats do more good than harm and suggests that cats exert a protective influence on nesting fantails and rails.

Tell that to the fantails in our local Kaimai forest – if you can find any fantails.

Their numbers have plummeted. The numerous feral cats make scarcely a dent in the swarming rat population and fantails probably make a change to the monotony of a diet of rats.

But we’re not talking about feral cats in native forest where rats are out of control.

We’re talking about domestic cats in an urban or rural setting where rat control with poison baits is easy and effective – much, much more effective than anything a cat can do.

Keeping a cat to catch rats and mice because they reduce the rat predation on birds, lizards and insects just doesn’t wash any more. If that’s your motivation, buy some rat bait. It’s cheaper than cat food.

The truth is that people keep cats because they are pets, and their value as pets is undeniable, inestimable and difficult (if not impossible) to replicate.

So, here’s the scenario. You love your pet cat, you want wild birds in your garden and you don’t want to be stricken with guilt and bloody corpses. What can you do?

The answers may not be palatable. There are some places where owning a cat is simply irresponsible. The lighthouse keeper on Stephens Island is a tragic example but then, a century ago, he wouldn’t have understood the consequences.

The lighthouse keeper took his pet cat when he was posted to Stephens Island.

Single-pawedly it wreaked havoc on the nesting seabirds and flightless insects and it exterminated the endemic flightless Stephens Island wren.

Those wrens are gone now but other vulnerable species still survive in remote and wild places around New Zealand.

If you are privileged to live in a forest remnant or beside a wetland or near a coastal spit, think of the effect of bringing in a cat, another introduced enemy to hunt the vulnerable native species still surviving there. New Zealand dotterels face introduced stoats, feral cats, dogs and even hedgehog predators. They don’t need

w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

your well-fed tabby stalking them just for fun and neither do the wrybills nesting on the river bank, nor the geckos, nor the fledgling bellbirds on the forest floor.

In places like this, don’t have a cat. If you have a loved pussy, put a sunset clause on its life. When it dies, don’t replace it.

This is what the community on Lord Howe Island in Australia did when they realised that their cats were driving the endemic woodhen, a bird rather like our weka, into extinction. The feral cats on the island were eradicated and the family cats were neutered and allowed to live out their lives.

Now there are no cats on Lord Howe Island – but plenty of woodhens.

Our much-loved cats died some years ago and we did not replace them. We looked at the wetland below the house and listened to the squeak of the fernbirds and the cry of the banded rails. They seem more numerous now and so do the fantails and riroriro and the weta and the skinks, but that is most likely due to our comprehensive network of rat bait stations.

What we do notice, and is attributable to the absence of our cats, is that the birds are easier to see. Birds aren’t silly. They are more inclined to fossick in the garden when there is no cat sunbathing on the lawn.

But I miss them (the cats, I mean).

Most people don’t live close to wild places. Like you, perhaps, they live in a city or a town or on a farm. There are no rare dotterels at the bottom of your garden.

Now the issue for you is how much you value the common birds, both native and

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introduced, that live around your home.

There are no simple answers. You may be lucky. A few cats are lazy and rarely bother to hunt. Others hunt all the time, even though they are well fed because the urge to hunt is in their genes.

You can try to frustrate their hunting prowess with a bell on a collar or some other device you might find. You can keep them in at night, when they really want to go hunting. Both strategies are in a sense perverse, preventing your cat acting like a cat, to satisfy your human wishes. And while keeping your cat inside at night is very important in Australia, where nighthunting pussies gobble up nocturnal native marsupials, here in New Zealand it’s the introduced mice and rats that get caught at night.

If you really, really value the birds in your garden, just don’t keep a cat.

But unfortunately, even that may make little difference in your garden because neighbouring pet cats, cramped in their tiny sections, may add your garden to their territories.

In this case, the best solution is to try to tilt the scales in favour of the birds.

First: kill the rats.

You don’t have rats?

Yeah right!

Put some bait out, anyway. Try placing it discreetly near the compost bin in your garden if you have one. Rat control is the very best thing you can do for native birds, lizards and insects.

Secondly: discourage visiting cats.

Thirdly: make refuges in your garden for native species. If you have a feeding table, position it so that cats cannot reach it and

the birds can feed in safety and feel secure.

Look for trees which the birds favour. Then put metal collars around the tree trunks so neither cats nor rats can climb them.

The birds that make these trees their home can live and nest unmolested. A tree collar will also deter rats. It can be made of thin, pliable aluminium and painted so it doesn’t look ugly.

Whatever our circumstances, seeing birds uncaged and free gladdens our hearts and enriches our lives. My husband Basil and I delight in the song of the riroriro, the twittering of the silvereyes and the acrobatics of the fantails, as well as the jaunty sparrows, gorgeous goldfinches and bossy blackbirds. I think that goes for most of us, so it’s worth doing all we can to encourage birds to live around us.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

41

Conservation

No. 148 NOVEMBER 07

Best Fish Guide 2007-08 – more fisheries in the red and more near the green Seven more commercially caught fish species have joined the red list of unsustainable fisheries, but several come close to earning a sustainability tick in Forest & Bird’s new Best Fish Guide 2007-08 which was launched recently in Wellington.

A copy of the new Best Fish Guide wallet card is included in this issue of Forest & Bird magazine. The guide aims to help consumers make the best choices for the sustainability of the marine environment when they buy fish.

“It was disappointing to see that seven more fish species – blue shark, mako shark, porbeagle shark, red snapper, moonfish, striped marlin and lookdown dory – joined the list of fisheries which are environmentally unsustainable since the guide was last compiled in 2005,” Conservation Advocate Kirstie Knowles said.

“On a more positive note, several species – kina, anchovy, pilchards, sprats and blue mackerel – are within just one or two points of making it onto the green list of fisheries which are sustainable. As in the previous two guides published, none of New Zealand’s commercial fisheries are ranked as sustainable, but if improvements are made to fisheries management we could potentially see some fisheries ranked on the green list in future,” she said.

Orange roughy again ranked as New Zealand’s worst commercial fishery. Years of overfishing have decimated some orange roughy stocks to the point of collapse and the bottom trawling method used to catch orange roughy causes severe damage to marine ecosystems.

Commercial fisheries are ranked in the Best Fish Guide according to management of fish stocks, levels of habitat damage, bycatch of marine mammals and seabirds, and adequacy of monitoring.

“By using the Best Fish Guide wallet card, and making the best available choice, consumers can make a difference to how well we protect New Zealand’s marine environment and species,” Kirstie Knowles said.

Forest & Bird is also encouraging consumers to ask their fish retailer or supermarket which methods are used to catch the fish they sell – and to avoid buying fish that is caught using the worst ranked fishing methods such as bottom trawling and dredging.

The Best Fish Guide was launched at Martin Bosley’s Restaurant in Wellington, with award-winning chef Martin Bosley preparing recipes showcasing some of the more sustainable seafood choices.

WORST 10 NZ FISHERIES 1. Orange roughy 2. Southern bluefin tuna 3. Oreos 4. Porbeagle shark 5. Mako shark 6. Pacific bluefin tuna 7. Blue shark 8. Hoki 9. Snapper 10. Swordfish

Join us at www.forestandbird.org.nz

4422 F O R E S T & B I R D • N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7

For the full Best Fish Guide report, see www.forestandbird.org.nz

BEST 10 NZ FISHERIES 1. Kina 2. Anchovy 3. Pilchards 4. Sprats 5. Blue mackerel 6. Skipjack tuna 7. Garfish 8. Yellow-eyed mullet 9. Cockles 10. Kahawai Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, PO Box 631, Wellington w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z Phone (04) 385 7374 • Fax (04) 385 7373 • Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz

An independent panel of international fisheries experts agrees that New Zealand’s commercial hoki fishery does not merit the “sustainability tick” it was awarded in September. However, because of the existing procedures the panel had to operate under they were unable to stop the fishery being certified as “sustainable”.

Forest & Bird and WWF-NZ lodged objections to the fishery being re-certified, arguing that it is an unsustainable fishery in danger of collapse.

Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says the certification by the London-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which was set up to support sustainable fisheries, is fatally flawed and sends the wrong message to fishing companies world wide.

The hoki fishery is unsustainable on a number of counts. For example. hoki stocks have dramatically collapsed. Since 2001, when the fishery was first certified by the MSC, the hoki catch has fallen from 250,000 tonnes per year to 100,000 tonnes per year – a 60% reduction. Within weeks of the latest decision, the hoki quota was cut further by Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton in response to sustainability concerns.

The fishery lacks a fish stock recovery plan, which is required under the MSC’s own rules. It also causes serious damage to the seabed because fish are caught in destructive bottom trawl nets, and it routinely kills hundreds of seabirds and marine mammals as bycatch every year.

The Independent Objections Panel found itself in disagreement with the certification body in relation to the scores awarded to the fishery. In its decision the Panel says: “… there are several instances ... where the Panel found itself in disagreement with the Certification Body in relation to the scores awarded. In each case, the Panel members would have taken a more conservative approach an would have awarded a lower score. In the circumstances of this particular certification process which received an overall passing score “by the skin of its teeth”, a lower score on almost any indicator would have resulted in a failure to recommend certification. Taking a holistic view to the overall state of the hoki fishery, the panel sees some validity to the objectors’ position that this is not a fishery that should be certified as sustainable.”

“The decision which the Independent Objections Panel found itself forced to make, is deeply disappointing,” Kevin Hackwell says. “It makes a mockery of the MSC’s rules when a fishery

Catch reductions not enough to save fisheries New catch limits announced by Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton in September do not go far enough to ensure New Zealand’s commercial fisheries are sustainable.

Reductions in catch limits for some commercial fisheries due to concerns about their sustainability were welcomed by Forest & Bird, but they need to go further to be effective in rebuilding fish stocks.

In particular Forest & Bird was concerned that the Minister’s decision to reduce the hoki quota by only 10% failed to meet the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) requirements for sustainable fisheries.

“The catch limits announced do not go far enough to ensure that this fishery recovers enough to ensure that it is sustainable,” Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Kirstie Knowles says. w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Rod Morris

Hoki fishery doesn’t deserve “sustainability tick”

▲ White-capped albatross are one of three albatross species killed as bycatch in the hoki fishery.

can be approved as sustainable yet it clearly does not meet the environmental standards set down by those rules.”

The decision allows New Zealand hoki to retain the MSC’s logo, identifying it as being caught in a sustainable fishery, providing greater access to international markets and commanding a higher price.

“Recertification of the hoki fishery as sustainable means consumers around the world can have no faith in MSC certification, which is meant to guide them in their fish buying choices,” he says.

“MSC procedures appear to have put short-term interests ahead of the goal of protecting fishing resources for future generations.”

Hoki ranks in the bottom 10 of New Zealand’s commercial fisheries assessed in Forest and Bird’s Best Fish Guide.

What you can do: • If you eat fish, use Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide when choosing what fish species to eat. The new third edition is enclosed in this issue.

Certification by the Marine Stewardship Council requires the depleted hoki stocks off the West Coast of the South Island to be recovered to target levels within five years. A report by the Ministry of Fisheries concludes that this would only be possible by closing the western stock to all fishing.

“The Minister’s decision to set a western quota of 25,000 tonnes will not ensure recovery of the stock and cannot be regarded as sustainable fisheries management,” Kirstie Knowles says.

“We encourage any action by the Government to work towards more sustainable fisheries, but stronger action is required if we are really going to achieve that aim, so that our fisheries can be sustainably managed into the future.”

What you can do: • If you eat fish, use Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide when choosing what fish species to eat. The new third edition is enclosed in this issue.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

43

Ministry of Fisheries

Tui De Roy

▲ The critically endangered Chatham albatross is more

▲ One of the 12 Chatham albatrosses that died on a longline hook in September.

threatened than the mountain gorilla and snow leopard.

Call for urgent action on albatross slaughter The killing of 34 threatened albatrosses by a longline fishing vessel operating east of New Zealand in September dramatically highlighted the need for urgent action to stop albatross bycatch in commercial fisheries.

The longline vessel which was fishing for ling on the Chatham Rise caught and killed 12 critically endangered Chatham albatrosses and 22 vulnerable Salvin’s albatrosses.

The shocking deaths were reported in the British news media and prompted renewed calls for urgent action on the issue.

Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says the high level of seabird bycatch caused by the vessel involved was totally unacceptable.

Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton

responded to the incident by issuing a consultation document on how commercial fishing vessels might adopt best practice to reduce seabird bycatch.

“We already know that mitigation measures – including weighting fishing lines, setting lines only at night, not discharging fish waste, and using bird-scaring lines – reduce seabird bycatch deaths by up to 90%. So we are calling on the minister to act urgently to implement mandatory mitigation measures to prevent further disasters,” Kevin Hackwell said.

Many other countries already require mandatory bycatch mitigation measures.

Although many vessels complied with a voluntarily code of practice, the exceptions could result in slaughter of seabirds that put critically endangered species further at risk

of extinction.

“The minister refers to this as an ‘accident’ but without mandatory requirements to use mitigation measures, this was an accident waiting to happen.

The minister must act urgently to ensure no further ‘accidents’ occur,” Kevin Hackwell said.

What you can do: The Ministry of Fisheries has drafted an initial paper on Seabird Mitigation Measures for Trawl and Longline Vessels which is open for public submission until 23 November 2007. It is available under the “Consultations” section of the ministry’s website: www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/default.htm

Consultation thanks

44 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

Sealion image Peter J Moore/DOC

A very big thank you to the many hundreds of Forest & Bird members and branches that made submissions or wrote letters to ministers on the recent round of deer, Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, and marine protected areas policy consultation processes.

We will report on any new developments with these in the next issue and keep you posted about the outcomes. People can still make submissions on the New Zealand Sea Lion Population and Species Management Plans to the Department of Conservation until 1 December 2007, and on the Draft Shark Conservation and Management National Plan of Action to the Ministry of Fisheries until 1 February 2008.

▲

New Zealand sea lion mother and pup, Campbell Island – there is still time to make a submission to DOC on new plans (see text at left).

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Forest & Bird welcomed the Department of Conservation’s decision in August to decline an application by Tuatara Maori Ltd to fly tourists to Stephens Island/Takapourewa, at the top of the Marlborough Sounds, to see and touch tuatara.

The proposal would have allowed up to 56 tourists plus guides to visit the island in the Marlborough Sounds in 14 helicopter trips a year.

Forest & Bird Top of the South Island Field Officer Debs Martin said DOC’s decision was the right one for conservation, given the high importance of Stephens Island/ Takapourewa in protecting not only the largest population of tuatara in the world, but a range of other endangered species.

“DOC’s decision acknowledges that tourism and the management of our precious and endangered species do not always go hand in hand,” she said.

“Stephens Island/Takapourewa is home to 90% of the world population of tuatara, and is simply too valuable to put at risk. Any visit poses the threat of introduction of pests and disease, fire, poaching and damage to the environment.”

“The island is a nature reserve of international significance and one of New Zealand’s top five most valuable islands for nature protection. Our ‘footprint’ on island reserves of this importance should be restricted to only essential management, restoration and research.”

There are other opportunities for tourists to see tuatara in the open, such as at Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland and at Matiu/Somes Island and Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington.

Rod Morris

Stephens Island tuatara protected by decision

▲ Tuatara at dusk, Stephens Island

1080 decision a positive step The decision announced in August by the Environmental Risk Management Authority reconfirming 1080 as a safe and effective method of controlling introduced pests is an important step forward in protecting New Zealand’s natural heritage.

Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell welcomed the decision as crucial in protecting New Zealand’s forests, ecosystems and vulnerable native species from the threat of introduced pests such as possums, rats, stoats and ferrets.

“The scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that 1080 is the best tool we have to control introduced pests and reduce the severe threat they pose to our native wildlife and habitats.”

“Without the continued use of 1080, the dawn chorus in many of our forests would fall silent because of the continued toll introduced pests take on our forests and native birds.”

Forest & Bird also welcomed tighter regulations surrounding the use of 1080, he said.

“We know that properly managed 1080 operations do not pose a risk to human health or the environment, but we need to ensure that those operations are well controlled so that the public can be confident that they are being safely conducted.”

In areas where 1080 has been used native forests have been able to recover from decades of damage caused by browsing of native plants and predation of native birds and other wildlife. In contrast, in some areas where 1080 has not been used, our forests and wildlife are in a serious state of collapse.

“In the last couple of decades 1080 has been the key factor that has allowed our forests to come alive. We have seen that 1080 can be the difference between survival and extinction of some of our most critically endangered species.”

Many thanks to the hundreds of branches and members that made submissions on continued use of 1080 for pest control. w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

▲ Native birds benefit from the use of 1080 to control introduced predators.

@ FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

45

branchingout

Art for Conservation charity auction raises $90,000

F

Tony Ellis in rata forest on Auckland Island, 1995.

Hon Justice Anthony Ellis (Tony Ellis)

F

OREST & Bird past president and High Court judge Tony Ellis has died, aged 72.

Justice Ellis’ respected legal career included serving as a Queen’s Counsel, High Court judge and Wellington District Law Society President. After retiring from the High Court at age 68, he was Chairman of the Parole Board and Electoral Commission and served on the Fijian and Samoan Appeal Courts.

He also maintained wide interests, including conservation, which led to his becoming Forest & Bird President for eight years until he became a judge in 1985.

When delivering his eulogy, Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias noted that Justice Ellis loved to go to out-of-the-way places, mostly getting close to nature, such as voyaging to the Snares and Campbell Island, rafting the Zambezi River and birdwatching on Lord Howe Island and the Chatham Islands.

“When sitting in the Fiji Court of Appeals he organised the court’s four-wheel-drive vehicle to take him and his brother judges up into the highlands and to raft down spectacularly falling rivers. It was never dull being around Tony. Sometimes it was downright dangerous,” Dame Sian said.

His wife Vicky says her husband was passionate about all the many activities he was

involved with. “He was an incredibly determined character and incredibly enthusiastic – that was the key. Anything he got involved in he did with great enthusiasm.”

She says his involvement with Forest & Bird was inspired by his deep and life-long love of New Zealand, its landscape, forests and birds, and he took great delight in seeing New Zealand falcons at both his properties in Wellington and Manakau.

Fellow past president and current Executive member Gerry McSweeney says Justice Ellis shepherded Forest & Bird through some tumultuous times during his tenure as president.

“He had a huge challenge on his plate in trying to keep the more ‘traditional’ members happy while also introducing a more activist role to the organisation – I think he was largely successful in balancing those different approaches and creating a more active and effective organisation.”

Justice Ellis oversaw some contentious issues – and some stormy AGMs – but always managed to bring differing viewpoints together, Dr Sweeney says.

“The thing I always remember about Tony in his role as president was that he always managed to keep humour to the fore – and by doing that he defused many challenging situations and brought people together.”

Helen Bain

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OREST & Bird’s Art for Conservation charity auction in October raised an estimated $90,000, according Forest & Bird Senior Fundraiser Kerin Welford.

More than 100 artworks by some of New Zealand’s bestknown artists went under the hammer at the auction which was hosted by Their Excellencies Governor General Anand Satyanand and Susan Satyanand at Government House on 4 October.

The auction raised funds for two of Forest & Bird’s conservation campaigns: to gain better protection for endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, and for the unique alpine habitats of the South Island high country.

Some of the highest prices paid include $13,500 for Nigel Brown’s “Walking Down Mullet Road,” $10,000 for an untitled painting by John Walsh, $5000 for Shane Cotton’s “White Rock”, and $2000 for a Michael Smither work entitled “Back Beach”.

His Excellency Governor General Anand Satyanand speaking at the auction.

“The funds raised from the auction will be of enormous help to Forest & Bird’s efforts to better protect some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable endemic species and ecosystems,” Kerin Welford says.

Forest & Bird would like to thank the many people who donated works for auction, Dunbar Sloane auctioneers for auctioning the works, Alison Murray for hanging the exhibition, staff at Government House for their assistance, Banrock Station for their wines and NZ Van Lines for transporting works.

Helen Bain

Forest & Bird branded jackets

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OREST & Bird has purchased branded staff jackets with the help of funding from Trust House.

The zip-up jackets feature Forest & Bird’s “tui in kowhai” logo on the front and its web address on the back, and will ensure staff are clearly identifiable at public events.

The jackets are also available for branches to purchase. If we receive sufficient interest from branches we may be able to secure a discount for bulk purchases. If your branch would like to purchase jackets for branch events, please contact Sue Yates via email: s.yates@forestandbird.org.nz

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branchingout

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Island Taiko Trust for a planned transfer of Chatham Island pigeon (parea) from main Chatham Island to Pitt Island, and Chatham Island tui from Pitt Island to main Chatham Island in a two step project to re-establish these species there. $10,000 to the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust to conduct volunteer assisted pest control operations to protect North Island brown kiwi in the Bay of Plenty. $4000 to the Kaharoa Kokako Trust to help establish a Kokako Next-Egg Fund to resource kokako restoration work at Kaharoa.

A further amount is to be awarded to a communitybased project in the South Pacific Islands which will be announced shortly.

Neil Eagles

OMMUNITY-based projects aimed at restoring kokako, kiwi, Chatham Island pigeon (parea) and Chatham Island tui will benefit from the first round of funding from the new BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund administered by Forest & Bird.

The funds have been donated

by David and Sarah Gordon in the UK to benefit threatened bird species and the sites they depend on.

The approximately $120,000 funds allocated this year are as follows: $35,000 to transfer kokako from Mangatutu and Kaharoa to the Ark in the Park project site in the Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland. $35,000 to the Chatham

Australasian gannets at Cape Kidnappers

Napier Branch visits Cape Kidnappers

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OREST & Bird Napier Branch members visited the Cape Kidnappers Peninsula in May to see the gannets and view the new predator-proof fence being built across the neck of the peninsula.

More than 80 members packed three buses to travel from Clifton to the new nineand-a-half kilometre fence which is being built to keep pest species out and protect the Ocean Beach Wildlife Preserve.

Once completed the 1.8-metre high fence will enclose 2200hectares of coastal forest habitat and an intensive programme of pest control is already in place

inside the Preserve.

Native species such as North Island brown kiwi and rifleman are to be reintroduced to coastal kanuka forest habitat on the peninsula following the successful transfer of North Zealand robins and tomtits earlier this year.

After viewing the fence, branch members went on to visit the Cape Plateau to see the last of the Australasian gannets (takapau) still in residence this year before they left on their annual migration flight north to Australia.

Neil Eagles, Napier Branch Chairman

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Greenpeace

BirdLife International Community Conservation Funds grants awarded

Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton (top centre), Oxfam Executive Director Barry Coates (top right), Robyn Malcolm (front left), Greenpeace Executive Director Bunny Mc Diarnid (front centre) and Francesca Price (front right) at the Be the Change launch in the Auckland Domain.

General Manager’s Update FOREST & Bird, Greenpeace and Oxfam recently launched the Be the Change campaign in October to help New Zealanders make a difference on climate change. Personalities Robyn Malcolm and Francesca Price joined Greenpeace New Zealand Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid, Oxfam New Zealand Executive Director Barry Coates and I to launch the campaign in the Auckland Domain.

Be the Change aims to get tens of thousands of New Zealanders active and helping to combat climate change.

The campaign will provide advice and encouragement to community groups and individuals around New Zealand to reduce their personal impact on the climate.

The Be the Change Climate Rescue Bus will be taking the campaign message to communities across New Zealand, beginning in Bluff on 8 November and ending in Kaitaia on 12 December.

The biodiesel-fuelled bus tour will include a mobile exhibition on the impacts and causes of climate change, an opportunity to learn about the everyday solutions we can all put to use in our own lives, and a web centre where people can sign up on the spot to Be the Change.

At the launch I explained that Forest & Bird is part of Be the Change because we have a

strong belief in the power of ordinary New Zealanders to make a difference.

Over the past 84 years Forest & Bird’s members have taken some of New Zealand’s biggest conservation challenges into their own hands – and won.

Today we face the biggest conservation challenge yet: climate change. Already climate change is having a serious impact on New Zealand’s unique plants and animals, which is of real concern.

Members throughout the country are actively involved in projects to protect and restore New Zealand’s unique plants and animals. Like so many other New Zealanders, we are keen to do what we can to reduce our own contribution to climate change.

When we see and better understand useful examples of what others are doing around the country, it makes it much easier to make those changes ourselves.

We are confident that we can meet this challenge. This new campaign will help get the message across that we all have a responsibility to take action and make a difference in our own lives – and for future generations.

I look forward to all members joining us to Be the Change.

Mike Britton

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

47

Helen Bain

Helen Bain

branchingout

Ross and Jack Bishop at the planting day.

Colin Wright, Carolyn Brough and Alan Baikie of North Taranaki Branch at Tom and Don’s Bush.

Restoring Te Wairoa Reserve

Tom and Don’s Bush

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USY stomping in the dirt around a newly planted kahikatea at Forest & Bird’s Te Wairoa Reserve, Kaitlyn and Jack Bishop would be making their grandfather Ross Bishop proud.

Kaitlyn, age seven, and Jack, age five, were among those helping out at the North Taranaki Branch’s planting day at Te Wairoa, east of New Plymouth.

Their father, Leighton Bishop, brought them along to continue the work their grandfather contributed to in securing the QEII covenant which protects the reserve.

“He’d be really rapt to see them carrying on the work,” Leighton says of the children’s late grandfather.

The five-hectare Te Wairoa – Dorothy Baker Memorial Reserve was bought at the instigation of Forest & Bird North Taranaki Branch Chairman Peter Winter in 1988, with a bequest from Forest & Bird member Dorothy Baker meeting much of the cost.

The reserve is semi-coastal broadleaf forest – of which less than one per cent remains in the Egmont Ecological Region – mainly tawa, kohekohe, puriri, titoki and rewarewa. Today the

reserve is an island of forest amid vast tracts of surrounding farmland.

It still bears the scars of past grazing by livestock and infestation by invasive plants and introduced animal pests, including possums, rats and stoats.

However, branch efforts in pest control, clearing weeds and replanting have begun to repair the damage.

Branch Scretary Murray Duke says the results of possum control by both Forest & Bird and Taranaki Regional Council have been dramatic.

“You really notice the difference in the bush – it is quite amazing. Everything is flowering and fruiting and bird numbers have really increased.”

It is believed that during his visit to Taranaki in 1920 the Prince of Wales noticed the forest at Te Wairoa and commented on its beauty, and the royal train stopped on the return journey so he could eat his lunch there. North Taranaki Forest & Bird members hope that their continued efforts in restoring the reserve mean it will once again be a forest fit for a prince.

OT much of Taranaki’s former semi-coastal broadleaf forest remains – 99% has been cleared for farming and timber, leaving just small pockets that have somehow escaped.

So the 15 hectare forest that is Tom and Don’s Bush is a precious dark green remnant among the wide swathes of brighter green dairy country that surrounds it on the slopes between Mount Taranaki and the sea.

Two adjoining blocks of land were bought by Tom Hammonds in 1945 and he sold them to Don Smith (who shared his appreciation of the forest) in 1967. When Don died in 1992, in his will he gifted the land to Forest & Bird, to be received after the death of his mother, Agnes.

Today the part of the land that is farmland is leased out and the income pays for upkeep of the forest block.

The forest trees are mainly tawa, pukatea and kohekohe,

with some rewarewa and rimu, and below is a profusion of tree ferns, mahoe and kawakawa – and over 20 types of moss. It has been protected under a QEII covenant since 1991.

North Taranaki Forest & Bird Branch committee member Alan Baikie says eradiction of invasive plants (the worst problem is blackberry), fencing off the forest block to keep out grazing cattle, and replanting the areas they had previously laid bare, has led to healthy recovery of native vegetation.

Pest control has also knocked back introduced animal pests, and the effect can be clearly seen in a proliferation of seedlings on the forest floor.

Most noticeably there are a large number of young nikau bursting into life, even though there are few mature nikau in the forest.

Helen Bain

Helen Bain

Radio programme works wonders

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David Gore

HALF hour Forest & Bird radio programme promoting conservation in the Hawkes Bay has worked wonders for attendance at local branch events, programme host John Hawkes says. “I don’t know how many listen, but it must be working because Hastings/Havelock North Branch activities have never been better attended”. John is pictured here in the studio talking to Pam Turner and Mary Marshall. ww ww w. w f o. fr oe rs et as tnadnbdi b r di r. d o .r og r. g n .zn z

bookreviews bird distribution in New Zealand 1999–2004

C J R Robertson P Hyvönen M J Fraser C R Pickard

Atlas of Bird Distribution in New Zealand 1999-2004

by Chris Robertson et al, hardbound, 500pp, OSNZ 2007, RRP $98

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OVERING more than 200 bird species over 500 pages and with 1800 maps, this atlas is without doubt the most comprehensive survey of bird distribution in New Zealand ever produced.

It contains 1.5 million new bird observations made by 800 people throughout New Zealand and covers 96.4% of the country.

Which means it does not include the main subantarctic

Where to Watch Birds in New Zealand

by Kathy Ombler, limpbound, 250pp, New Holland 2007, RRP $34.99.

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NYONE that has planned a birdwatching trip will know that it is not always easy to get up-to-date information on the best time of year or day to visit a site, and so should relish this book.

This user-friendly and reasonably priced guide book

by Forest & Bird contributor

binocularreview islands, the Kermadec Islands, and a very small number of remote localities on the mainland.

This is an incredibly impressive and well-presented book by any standards, which conveys a huge amount of complex data clearly and concisely.

Each species distribution map contains smaller inset maps of seasonal distribution and the equivalent map from the previous 1985 atlas. This allows readers to compare at a glance the reduction in distribution of rock wren in Fiordland and the Southern Alps between the two atlases. There are also useful composite maps that group related species together, relate species abundance to habitat, and identify bird biodiversity hotspot areas.

The benefits of the atlas for conservation are obvious. For example, of the 137 bird species mapped in the 1985 atlas, 45 are shown to have increased and 33 reduced their distributions significantly. Most of these reductions are among endemic species (25), while the increases are evenly spread among endemic (15), native (12), introduced (17) and migrant (1) species.

Kathy Ombler is a useful size and weight to carry in the field, and contains plenty of useful additional information, including site locality maps, key bird species photographs, a species list, travel tips and accommodation information.

It covers most of the sites you’d expect to find in a New Zealand birdwatching site guide, plus a few more for good measure. Visiting birdwatchers from overseas sometimes miss a few of the harder to find species such as blue duck, long-tailed cuckoo or New Zealand falcon. This book “pins down” all three at the Maunganui-o-te-ao River, Kapiti Island and Boundary Stream sites.

Some of the maps are quite general, so it would be advisable to use more detailed maps for the larger sites here, such as the Pureora to Maunganui-o-te-ao areas, and the larger South Island sites.

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Leica Ultravid BR

10 x 42, weight 765 grams

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HE first thing you notice with the new Leica Ultravids is that they’re robust, yet relatively lightweight, quickly followed by the brightness and clarity of the image, and the wide field of vision (120 metres at 1000 metres). The image itself is bright and sharp, and the focusing wheel moves smoothly allowing you to quickly change focus from near to far objects.

Watching a group of white-fronted and black-fronted terns on costal rocks, the white-fronted terns looked almost luminous they were so white in the sun. The black-fronted terns were a mix of adult breeding birds in full breeding plumage, some in fading plumage, non-breeding adults and juveniles. Finding these smaller black-fronts among the white-fronts is not easy, so having good binoculars is vital to identifying them.

As a large wave broke over the rocks the entire flock took to the air, rising up in a synchronised cloud, the birds glaring white in the sunlight and shrieking on the wing. After wheeling around and fragmenting into a long stream of birds they flew back in to take up their perches, the black-fronts hovering over the water and bathing before rejoining the main flock.

As time passed the birds flew in and out, rested there or bathed on the surface. After about twenty minutes I realised I’d hardly paused to rest my arms, the binoculars were so light and easy to hold up.

One evening a few days later I was walking home in the dark and heard a flock of terns calling from the same rocks. As I walked over there were about 100 terns visible. I could make out the whiteness of the terns with the naked eye, but with the binoculars they were very clear, gleaming in the moonlight.

At $2795 the RRP tag is probably more than a round trip airfare to Europe, but these binoculars should last you a lifetime and you’d save making all those carbon emissions.

Rakiura – The Wilderness of Stewart Island

by Rob Brown, 116pp, hardbound and limpbound, Craig Potton Publishing 2006, RRP $64.99 and $49.99.

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HOTOGRAPHER and Forest & Bird National Executive member Rob Brown

has produced a compelling portrait of New Zealand’s fourteenth national park, which captures the light and moods of the landscapes and habitats of Rakiura/Stewart Island.

In the tradition of Craig Potton and Andrise Apse, these photographs capture with quiet awe the sublime majesty of Mt Rakeahua, Mt Anglem/Hananui and Rakiura’s other peaks, Mason Bay’s sand dunes strewn with flax and kiwi tracks, and the lush splendour of its ancient ferny forests.

The exquisitely reproduced photographs are accompanied by four excellent essays on the history of Rakiura and its wilderness of forest, sand and stone.

FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

49

bookreviews

Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bittersweet Story

By Janet Hunt, hardbound, 254pp, Random House 2007, RRP $69.99

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New Zealand Birds – a diverse collection

by Paul Gibson, limpbound, 160pp, Unique Pictorials 2007, RRP $49.95 HE first thing you notice is the sharpness of so many of the photographs in this distinctive book by selfpublished photographer Paul Gibson.

His portraits of New Zealand falcon, Australasian harrier and Buller’s albatross stand out, and the close-up shot of a myna reveals the white spots around their eyes which are easy to miss.

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And it’s good to see some of the harder to photograph species such as kokako and grey ternlet included along with the more common birds of forest and garden.

There are one or two images that aren’t quite in focus to my eye, and perhaps a couple of images seem to be included because they are illustrative, but the overall impression is of an enthusiast enjoying the challenge of photographing New Zealand’s birds rather than a catalogue of species.

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HIS beautifully illustrated book tells the bittersweet story of New Zealand’s wetlands, which once covered vast areas of the country, and teemed with birds, insects, reptiles and plants.

The book is impressive in its scope and includes comprehensive coverage of the different wetland types and the species that inhabit them. Janet Hunt, who is Vice-Chairwoman of the Forest & Bird Hauraki Gulf Islands Branch, has written an engaging, evocative and, above all, poetic book which both laments and celebrates some of

our most fragile places.

Arno Gasteiger’s atmospheric photographs add to the imaginative and original design of the book, which is also handled with great skill by Janet Hunt, and help illuminate the secret life of New Zealand’s wetlands, and the increasingly threatened world of bittern, crake and fernbird.

Michael Szabo

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NATURE’S TREASURES NEED YOUR HELP New Zealand’s breathtaking natural landscapes and beautiful native animal and plant life are precious treasures to us all. They are part of our identity as New Zealanders.

Forest & Bird is not funded by the government. We rely on the generosity of kiwis through donations, subscriptions and bequests.

Bequests can be made to the “Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated”.

But with so many of our natural treasures threatened with extinction, it is vital that we continue to protect them for future generations to experience and enjoy.

For a copy of our bequest brochure or to discuss leaving a gift in your Will to Forest & Bird please contact Kerin Welford on Freephone 0800 200 064.

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated is the leading independent voice for conservation. Our vital conservation work couldn’t continue without the generous gifts we receive from supporters.

By leaving a gift in your Will to Forest & Bird you will help ensure our vital conservation continues to make a difference.

Spectacular coastal walking track beyond Akaroa. Sea and bush birds, seals, and Hector’s dolphins.

Opportunity in November and December for guided viewing of whiteflippered penguin colony at Pohatu Flea Bay. Cosy huts with a Two or four day option. Ph/Fax 03 304 7612 dash of luxury.

Email:bankstrack@xtra.co.nz • www.bankstrack.co.nz

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

BIORESEARCHES

PINDONE PELLETS

CONSULTING BIOLOGISTS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS ESTABLISHED 1972

For the control of Possums and Rats

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

PINDONE PELLE TS LS PM 35

Banks Peninsula Track

Kerin Welford, Senior Fundraiser Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Email: k.welford@forestandbird.org.nz www.forestandbird.org.nz

For the control of Possums and Rats 2kg, 10kg and 25kg bags avaliable 2kg, 10kg and 25kg “Ask bags available at your local Farm Store” “Ask at your local Farm Store”

The first pellet registered for theand control The first pellet bait registered for thebait control of Possums Rats of Possums and Rats • Cinnamon lured, highly palatable • No pre-feed required • Cinnamon lured, highly palatable

• No pre-feed required

• Reduced risk of secondary poisoning

• Vitamin K1, antidote

• Reduced risk of secondary poisoning

• Vitamin K1, antidote

• No licence required to• purchase or use,tobut mustorbeuseused in bait stations No license required purchase but must be used in bait Rat stations • Kilmore Possum & Protecta bait stations readily available • Kilmore Possum & Protecta Rat bait stations readily available

DEADLY SERIOUS ABOUT PESTS www.nopests.co.nz 0800 111 466 Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997 No: V4110

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FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

51

Bush & Beyond Guided Walks

The Original Kahurangi Guides

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

From Comfortable Including: Lodge stay to Heaphy and Cobb Valley Off track wilderness and much more! backpacking Conservation Including:values Heaphy and

35 School RD 3and much CobbRd, Valley Motueka, 7198more!

T/F: 03Conservation 528 9054 values E: info@bushandbeyond.co.nz 35 School Rd, RD 3 Motueka, 7198 T/F: 03 528 9054 E: info@bushandbeyond.co.nz W: www. bushandbeyond.co.nz

www.bushandbeyond.co.nz

WILDERNESS WEEKS Based from the comfort of New Zealand’s two Wilderness Lodges.

ARTHUR’S PASS Southern Alps Heartland or LAKE MOERAKI West Coast Wilderness April, May 2008 Guided by Biologist Dr Gerry McSweeney 6 days of nature & plant discovery, walking, birdwatching, canoeing, gourmet food and fun.

Suits all ages For details contact: Email: gerry@wildernesslodge.co.nz Phone: 03 318 9002 www.wildernesslodge.co.nz

Kayak, snorkel, hike, bike and dive your way around the enchanted islands, while learning about wildlife and conservation.

Departs every month from Quito Call for free dossier 0800 874 748 or email: nick@southernexposuretours.co.nz www.southernexposuretours.co.nz

RON GREENWOOD ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST

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

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

South America Amazon to Andes

Amazon Jungle & Inca Empire

Small Group – 29 days – Dep: 3 July 2008 Call now for your free 2008 brochure Latin Link Adventure The South American Specialists 0800 528 465 email:marg@latinlink.co.nz www: latinlink.co.nz

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

3 to 7 day trips in Fiordland. Dolphins, seals and penguins, forest ecology, natural history combined with great food and company. Small groups so bookings essential. Forest & Bird members 5% discount. Suitable for all ages.

Summer schedule out now PH/FAX: 03 249 6600 FREEPHONE 0800 249 660 PO Box 40, MANAPOURI EMAIL info@fiordland.gen.nz www.fiordland.gen.nz

WINNER 1999

Latin America Unique Small Group Tours

Call for free trip dossiers 0800 874 748 or email: sil@southernexposuretours.co.nz www.southernexposuretours.co.nz

Details www.elmwildlifetours.co.nz

Details www.elmwildlifetours.co.nz

Modern, 2 bedroom solar powered cottage, just 40 minute drive from Napier.

• Overlooks Lake Tutira with abundant native bird life and waterfowl.

• Close to nature walks – Shines Falls, Guthrie Smith Arboretum and 20k to Boundary Stream mainland island.

Visit our website at www.hawkesbaynz.com Email: fraser.ruth@clear.net.nz Phone: Fraser and Ruth Abernethy 06 873 4340

Peaceful native setting Waipohatu bush walk Curio Bay fossil forest Hector’s dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins, seals 14 Larne Street, Waikawa, Southland Tel: 03 246 8866 Email: waikawa@southcatlins.co.nz

Website: www.southcatlins.co.nz

52 FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

SUSTAINABLE LAND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY Are you attracted by a lifestyle that combines doing something positive to improve New Zealand’s biodiversity while also reducing carbon emissions?

Are you interested in a coastal property created by reforestation with native bush?

Large area of land (200-2000 ha) to purchase or lease in mid-upper North Island suitable for establishing a tourist orientated native forest and wildlife reserve.

KOTARE COUNTRY LODGE

‘Where the kotare calls…’

A tranquil base from which to explore historic Warkworth and the Matakana region, 70 minutes north of Auckland. www.kotarecountrylodge.co.nz Ph/fax 09 427 5517

MINCETA COTTAGE

4 bedroom luxury lodge

10 acres of regenerating Karekare bush. 3 dble bedrooms; 2 offices; large studio; 3 toilets; 2 bathrooms; double garage, pizza oven/bbq and organic garden.

Stunning Tasman views.

Forest restoration programme has ensured abundant bird life.

Price & details – 09 8128 188 lynda.harris@xtra.co.nz

Contact: Peter McLeod, Franklin Group, PO Box 481, Te Puke. Ph 07-5737105.

For Stewart Island Accommodation in the Bush Rakiura Retreat Motels overlooking Braggs Bay/ Halfmoon Bay • Access to beach • Complimentary cars/bikes • Warm & comfortable • Transfers & Professional guides available • Sleeps up to 22 Individuals & Groups welcome.

Waikava Harbour View

FOR SALE

Sustainable home – 35 mins from the Auckland’s CBD

WANTED:

elm wildlife tours

www.rakiuraretreat.co.nz info@rakiuraretreat.co.nz • 03 2191096

For more information about this concept, visit: www.MorningChorus.co.nz

Trekking in Patagonia Mystical Mayan Ruins Peru’s Amazon and Inca Culture

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 $70 PER FAMILY Extra Adults $10 per night

65ft Motor Yacht Breaksea Girl

elm wildlife tours

Galapagos Islands 10 day Multi Activity Trip

Fiordland Ecology Holidays

R ATA N U I LODGE

White Heron Sanctuary Tours Come with us, RAINFOREST, NATURE and JETBOATING TOURS, all year round.

Viewing of nesting colony from October to March.

Ph. 0800 52 34 56

www.whiteherontours.co.nz

Superb rural setting in native forest on edge of renowned Bushy Park just 20 minutes from Wanganui.

Fully furnished, sleeps 5 plus.

Ideal for families.

Bush walks, native birds (tui, kereru, robins and others) abound.

10 minutes to Bushy Park.

www.bookabach.co.nz (Ref 4750)

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2007index Authors and articles listed by issue, then page numbers.

AUTHORS Bain, Helen, Giant weta fenced in, Feb, p4.; Biodiversity Strategy reviewed, Feb, p4; Plant of the Year, Feb, p4; Ata Rangi saving rata, Feb, p6; Nikau in, problem exotic palm out, Feb, p8; Wanted – a one-legged weka, Feb, p9; Waimea River Park approved, Feb, p9; Fish stocks warning, Feb, p12; Fuel efficiency labelling, Feb, p14; New conservation park proposed, Feb, p15; Dolphins in danger, Feb, p16; Mohua’s Ark, Feb, p30; Dolphin deaths highlight need for set net ban, Feb, p44; New sea lion kill quota set, Feb, p46; Matiu/Somes Island project celebrates its 25th anniversary, Feb, p49; Tautuku Lodge, Feb, p49; Landmark for Blowhard Bush, Feb, p50; New Rotorua Reserve, Feb, p51; QEII National Trust 30th anniversary, May, p7; The tui has landed, May, p8; Happy feat, May, p26; River spirits, May, p28; Set net death traps threaten Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, May, p30; Mothers’ Day sea lion campaign, May, p31; Set nets cause nearly 70% of Hector’s dolphin deaths, May, p31; 1080 report encouraging, May, p32; DOC rides roughshod over Lake Heron, May, p33; Isabel Morgan NZOM, May, p44; World Wetlands Day, May, p46; “Grahame Sydney” landscape protected, Aug, p3; Whale sighting success, Aug, p4; Karori Wildlife Sanctuary gets $6.5m, Aug, p10; Audrey Eagle wins Montana Awards, Aug, p11; Waders return to Mangere, Aug, p12; Sanctuary or extinction – emergency 111, Aug, p24; Taranaki kiwi comeback, Aug, p29; High country lakes get a better deal, Aug, p40; Deer in their sights, Aug, p40; Bid to make fisheries sustainable, Aug, p41; Kawhia Primary School Maui’s Dolphins, Aug, p42; Sea lion death toll continues, Aug, p43; 84th AGM, Aug, p44; Old Blue awards, Aug, p45; Art for Conservation, Aug, p48; Grey warbler is Bird of the Year 2007, Nov, p3; Taranaki marine reserves set to flourish, Nov, p8; Marine Bioblitz finds new species, Nov, p10; Taranaki petrel reserve thriving, Nov, p11; Riparian planting a winner, Nov, p13; Wild deer – like possums on stilts, Nov, p23; Best Fish Guide 2007-08 – more fisheries in the red and more near the green, Nov, p42; Catch reductions not enough to save fisheries, Nov, p43; Call for urgent action on albatross slaughter, Nov, p44; Stephens Island tuatara protected, Nov, p45; 1080 decision a positive step, Nov, p45; Hon Justice Anthony Ellis (obituary), Nov, p46; Art for Conservation charity auction raises $90,000, Nov, p46.

Ballance, Alison: A Kiwi conservationist abroad, Nov, p26.

Britton, Mike: General Manager’s update, Nov, p47.

Campbell, Helen, Springtime at Flora, Aug, p23.

Dennis, Andy, Kahurangi and Farewell Spit, May, p16.

Elliott, Jenny: Rimatara return, Nov, p30 Ewers, Maryann, Flourishing Flora, Aug, p21 Francis, Malcolm, and Bonfil, Ramon; Duffy, Clinton; Manning, Michael; O’Brien, Sharon; Mangold, Barbara; Fener, Heather, Shark trek, May, p24.

Graeme, Ann, and Galloway, Tim, Marine mammals of Blue Zealand, Feb, p42; 1080 – a birdbrain’s guide, May, p34; The trouble with deer, Aug, p38; The fowl and the pussycat, Nov, p40.

Hansford, Dave, Kermadec Storm petrel discovery, Feb, p14; Conservation in a changing climate, Aug, p9; Withering heights, Aug, p14; Higham, Tim, Catching the new wave, Feb, p32 Jewell, Tony, Fiordland’s lost world, May, p20; Rangitata pygmy gecko discovered on Mt Harper, Nov, p4.

Maddison, Peter, Think globally, act locally, Feb, p2; Goodbye butterfly? May, p2; 2007 report to members, May, p41; A victory and a challenge, Aug, p2; Bird & Forest, Nov, p2.

Miller, Kim: Taking the plunge, Nov, p20.

Miller, Stuart: ANZANG Portfolio, Nature and w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Landscape Photographer of the Year, Nov, p14.

Park, Geoff, Slips in the temple, Feb, p40; The forests that sailed on the tide, May, p36; The remnant ecologies of Waitangi Park, Aug, p36; Long-lived in the native ecosystem, Nov, p38.

Partridge, Samantha, Conservation project grants awarded by JS Watson Trust, Feb, p39.

Peat, Neville, The people’s bird, Aug, p26 Sage, Eugenie, Rakaia-Rangitata-Hakatere, May, p18; Climate change threat to World Heritage Areas, Aug, p4.

Smith, Franz, Beyond the Furious Fifties, Feb, p26 Stephenson, Brent, Miranda Wildlife Reserve, Feb, p36.

Szabo, Michael, New Director General of Conservation, Feb, p3; Hihi transfer imminent, Feb, p3; New marine reserve for Wellington, Feb, p6; New Zealand’s wandering albatrosses mapped, Feb, p10; New study tracks black petrels at sea, Feb, p10; Black robin is tomtit “cousie”, Feb, p11; New albatross protection plan, Feb, p11; Alpine gecko discovered in Waitutu Forest, Feb, p11; Trust making a better future for Otanewainuku kiwi, Feb, p12; Operation Nest Egg helping Okarito kiwi, Feb, p13; Hawkes Bay kiwi success, Feb, p13; Greater protection urged for Waimea estuary, Feb, p13; Kermadec storm-petrel discovery, Feb, p14; Corks fly for kakariki, Feb, p15; Creatures great and small – Rod Morris, Feb, p22; Governor-General addresses Council Meeting, Feb, p48; Manawatu estuary Ramsar status celebration, Feb, p51; Kiwi benefiting from more community support, May, p3; Hundreds more species face extinction, May, p4; Long-distance godwit sets new world record, May, p5; Ferret sightings at Chatham Island, May, p5; Fairy terns breed on the Kaipara, May, p6; Whitebait return to Maungatautari, May, p8; Hihi back in the Waitakere Ranges, May, p8; New bird distribution atlas maps changes, May p9; Touchy feely kiwi, May, p9; New shearwater colony for Kaikoura, May, p10; Coromandel’s newest wildlife sanctuary, May, p10; Tapuae Marine Reserve approved, May, p11; New alpine plant species, p11; Kermadec Islands, May, p14; World Heritage New Zealand, May, p12; Saving Pacific parrots, May, p22; Making tracks; May, p27; Kaikoura’s world heritage, May, p38; 2007 Report to Members, May, p41; Kiwi released at Otanewainuku, May, p46; Conservation scholarship winner announced, May, p47; New World Heritage list announced, Aug, p4; More hihi for Ark in the Park, Aug, p6; New albatross species, Aug, p6; BirdLife International Community Fund, Aug, p8; Karori Sanctuary gets $6.5 million, Aug, p10; More owls at Ark in the Park, Aug, p10; New Caledonia birds mapped, Aug, p12; New pest control agent, Aug, p13; Photographic memory, Aug, p18; Fantails and fruit doves, Aug, p30; Kapiti Island Nature Reserve and Marine Reserve, Aug, p33; Hakatere Conservation Park opened, Nov, p4; Godwit sets new world record, Nov, p6; Takahe home, Nov, p7; Stewart Island pest-free study, Nov, p7; Seed bank for endangered species, Nov, p9; New native orchid guide, Nov, p12; More bucks for endangered ducks, Nov, p12; Shark alert, Nov, p28; Taiaroa Head, Nov, p34; BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund grants awarded, Nov, p41.

Todd, Chris: Braided rivers at risk, Nov, p17.

Willard, Margaret, Darwin’s dream flowers, Feb, p20.

SUBJECTS 1080, Feb, p45, May, p32, p34, Nov, p45; A: Alpine gecko, Feb, p11; AGM, Aug, p44; Albatross, Feb, p11, p47, Aug, p6, p43, Nov, p44; Alpine gecko, Feb, p11; Alpine plants, May, p11; Annual report, May, p41; ANZANG Portfolio, Nov, p14; Art for Conservation, Aug, p48, Nov, p46.

B: Balleny Islands, Feb, p26; Best Fish Guide, Nov, p42; Be the Change, Nov, p47; Biodiversity Strategy, Feb, p4; BirdLife International, May, p23, Aug, p8, p12, Nov, p47; Bird of the Year, Nov, p3; Black petrels, Feb, p10; Black robin, Feb, p11; Blowhard Bush, Feb, p50; Braided rivers, Nov, p17; Bushy

Park, May, p47.

C: Cape Kidnappers, Nov, p10, p47; Cats, Nov, p40; Chatham albatross, Nov, p44; Chatham Islands, May, p6; Chatham Islands Christmas tree, Feb, p4; Climate Change, Feb, p40; Aug, p4, p9, p14; Conservation scholarship winner announced, May p47; Cook’s petrel, Nov, p11; Coromandel’s newest wildlife sanctuary, May p10; Council Meeting, Feb, p48.

D: Deer, Aug, p38, p40, Nov, p23; De Roy, Tui, Aug, p18; Driving Creek, May, p10.

E: Eagle, Audrey, Aug, p11; Eels, May, p28; Ellerslie Flower Show, Feb, p51; Ellis, Justice Anthony, Nov, p46.

F: Fairy terns, May, p6; Fiordland, Feb, p6, May, p20; Ferreta, May p5; Fisheries Act, Feb, p46, Aug, p41.

G: Godwit, May, p6, Nov, p6; Governor-General, Feb, p48; Great Barrier Island, Feb, p32; Grey-faced petrel, Nov, p11; Grey warbler, Nov, p3.

H: Hakatere Conservation Park, Nov, p4; Hector’s and Maui’s dolphin, Feb, p16, p44, May, p30, Aug, p24, p42; Hihi, Feb, p3, May, p8, Aug, p6, Nov, p13; Hoki, Nov, p43; Hundreds more species face extinction, May p4; Hutton’s shearwater, May, p10; Hybrid cars, Nov, p6.

I: Isabel Morgan, May, p44; J: JS Watson Trust, Feb, p39.

K: Kahurangi National Park, May, p16, Aug, p21, p23; Kaikoura, May, p38; Kakariki, Feb, p15; Kapiti Island, Aug, p33; Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, Aug, p10; Kermadec Islands, May, p14; Kermadec stormpetrel, Feb, p14; Kiwi, Feb, p12, p13, May p3, p9, p46; Aug, p26, p29; Kokopu, May, p8; Kupe/Kevin Smith Marine Reserve, Feb, p7.

L: Lake Heron, May, p33 Aug, p42.

M: Manawatu Estuary, Feb, p51; Marine Bioblitz, Nov, p10; Marine mammals, Feb, p42; Matiu/Somes Island, Feb, p49; Maungatautari, May, p8; Merton, Don, Nov, p26; Michael Peak Station, Aug, p3; Miranda Wildlife Reserve, Feb, p36; Mohua, Feb, p30; More owls at Ark in the Park, Aug, p10; Morris, Rod, Feb, p22.

N: New albatross protection plan, Feb, p11; New albatross species, Aug, p6; New alpine plant species, p11; New bird distribution atlas, May p9; New Caledonia birds mapped, Aug, p12; New Director General of Conservation, Feb, p3; New marine reserve for Wellington, Feb, p6; New pest control agent, Aug, p13; New shearwater colony for Kaikoura, May p10; New study tracks black petrels, Feb, p10; New Zealand wandering albatrosses mapped, Feb, p10; New World Heritage list announced, Aug, p4; Ngunguru, Feb, p45, May, p36; North Island robin, Nov, p10.

O: Old Blue Awards, Aug, p45; Operation Ark, Feb, p30; Operation Nest Egg, Feb, p13; Orbell, Geoffrey, Nov, p7; Orchids, Feb, p20, Nov, p12; Ornithological Society, May p9; Oteake Conservation Park, Feb, p15.

P: Pacific parrots, May, p22; Palau, Aug, p30; Palms, Feb, p8; Pateke, Nov, p12; Possums, May, p32, Aug, p13.

Q: QEII Trust, May, p7.

R: Rakaia-Rangitata-Hakatere heritage area, May p18; Rata, Feb, p6; Rimatara lorikeets, Nov, p30; Riparian planting, Nov, p13; Ruru, Aug, p10; S: Salvin’s albatross, Nov, p44; Sea lions, Feb, p46, May, p31, Aug, p43; Seed bank, Nov, p9; Sharks, May, p24, Nov, p28; Skinks and geckos, May, p20, Nov, p4; Stephens Island, Nov, p45; Stewart Island, Nov, p7, p20.

T: Taiaroa Head, Nov, p34; Takahe, Nov, p7; Tapuae Marine Reserve approved, May p10, Nov, p8; Tautuku Lodge, Feb, p49; Tenure review, Aug, p40; Te Rere, May, p26; Threatened species list, May, p4; Trust making a better future for Otanewainuku kiwi; Feb, p12; Tomtit, Nov, p10; Tuatara, Nov, p45.

W: Waimea Estuary, Feb, p13; Wairau River, Aug, p41; Waitangi Park, Aug, p36; Wandering albatross, Feb, p10; Weka, Feb, p9; Weta, Feb, p4; Wetlands, May, p47; Whitebait return to Maungatautari, May p8; World Heritage Areas, May, p12, p33, Aug, p4.

Y: Yellow-eyed penguin, May, p26, p27.

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Central Auckland: Chair, Anne Fenn; Secretary, Isabel Still, PO Box 1118, Shortland St, Auckland.

Tel: (09) 528-3986.

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: Secretary, Jenny Lloyd, 165 Shoal Bay Rd, RD1, Gt Barrier Is. Tel: (09) 429-0404.

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

Tel: (09) 372-9583.

Hibiscus Coast: Chair, Pauline Smith; Secretary, vacant, PO Box 310, Orewa. Tel: (09) 427-5517.

Kaipara: Chair, Suzi Phillips; Secretary, Suzi Phillips, Private Bag 1, Helensville 1250. Tel: 021 271 2527.

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Tel: (09) 422 9123.

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

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Tel: (07) 868 9057.

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Tel: (07) 866 2501.

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Tel: (09) 817 9262

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Taupo: Chair, Anne Gallagher; Secretary, Bett Davies, PO Box 1105 Taupo, Tel: (07) 378 7064.

Tauranga: Chair, Vacant; Secretary, Cynthia Carter, PO Box 487, Tauranga. Tel:(07) 552 0220 .

Te Puke: Chair, Neale Blaymires; Secretary, Colin Horn, PO Box 237, Te Puke. Tel : (07) 573 7345 Waihi: Chair, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, 17 Reservoir Road, Waihi. Tel: (07) 863-8455.

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Upper Hutt: Chair, Dr Barry Wards; Secretary, Vacant; PO Box 40-875, Upper Hutt. Tel: (04) 970 4266.

Wairarapa: Chair, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Vacant, 10 Waiohine Gorge Rd, RD 1. Tel: 021 619 599.

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

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

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Ashburton: Chair, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, PO Box 460, Ashburton, Tel: (03) 308-5620.

Dunedin: Chair, Jane Marshall; Secretary, Mark Hanger, PO Box 5793, Dunedin. Tel: (03) 489-8444.

Golden Bay: Chair, Jenny Treloar; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Puponga Rd, Ferntown, RD1, Collingwood Lower North Island 7171. Tel: (03) 524-8072.

Central Hawke’s Bay: Chair, Phil Enticott; Kaikoura: Chair, Sue Jarvie; Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Secretary, Max Chatfield, PO Box 189, Waipukurau. Pooles Rd RD1, Kaikoura. Tel: (03) 319-5086.

Tel: (06) 858-9298.

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

Chair, Ian Noble; Secretary, Doreen Hall, Flat 1, Nelson/Tasman: Chair, Dr Peter Ballance; Secretary, 805 Kennedy Rd, Hastings. Tel: (06) 876-5978.

Tony Bryant, 49 Motueka Quay, Motueka, 7120.

Horowhenua: Chair, Robert Hirschberg; Tel: (07) 528 5212.

Secretary, Joan Leckie, Makahika Rd, RD 1, Levin 5500. North Canterbury: Chair: Lois Griffiths; Secretary, Tel: (06) 368-1277.

David Ellison-Smith, PO Box 2389, Christchurch Mail Kapiti Mana: Chair, David Gregorie; Centre, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 981 7037.

Secretary, John McLachlan, 78 Langdale Ave, South Canterbury: Chair, Marijke Bakker-Gelsin; Paraparaumu. Tel: (04) 904-0027.

Secretary, Margaret McPherson, 29 Mountain View Lower Hutt: Chair, Stan Butcher; Secretary, Bill Watters, Road, Timaru. Tel: (03) 686 1494.

PO Box 31194, Lower Hutt. Tel: (04) 565-0638.

Southland: Chair, Craig Carson; Secretary: vacant, Manawatu: Chair, Brent Barrett, PO Box 961, PO Box 1155, Invercargill. Tel: (03) 213-0732.

Palmerston Nth 5301. Tel: (06) 357-6962; Secretary, South Otago: Chair, Carol Botting; Secretary, Verna Joanna McVeagh, PO Box 961, Palmerston North 5301. Gardner, Romahapa Rd, Balclutha. Tel: (03) 418-1819.

Tel: (06) 356 6054.

Upper Clutha: Chair, Mark Ayre; Napier: Chair, Isabel Morgan; Secretary, Margaret Secretary, Angela Brown, PO Box 38, Lake Hawea, Gwynn, 23 Clyde Rd, Napier. Tel: (06) 835 2122.

Central Otago 9192. Tel: (03) 433 7020.

North Taranaki: Chair, Ian Barry; Secretary, Murray Waitaki: Chair, Ross Babington; Secretary, Annette Central North Island Duke, PO Box 1029, New Plymouth 4340.

Officer, 21 Arrow Crescent, Oamaru. Tel: (03) 434-6107.

Eastern Bay of Plenty: Chair, Rosemary Tully; West Coast: Secretary/Treasurer, Carolyn Cox, 168 Secretary, Sue Greenwood, c/o Ezebiz Tax, PO Box 582, Tel: (06) 751 2759.

Romilly St, Westport 7601. Tel: (03) 789-5334.

Whakatane, 3158. Tel: (07) 308 5576.

lodgeaccommodation Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North.

Near Pukenui in wet-land 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 wood burner, dining area and kitchen. The self-contained unit has 4 single beds. Bring food, linen and fuel for fire and BBQ. Booking officer: Patricia Thompson, 78 Neil Avenue, Te Atatu Peninsula, Waitakere City 0610.

Tel: (09) 834-7745 after 9am. Off peak rates apply.

Waiheke Island Cottage Located next to our 49ha Wildlife Reserve, 10 mins walk to Onetangi Beach, general stores etc. Sleeps up to 8 in two bedrooms. Lounge, well-equipped kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, laundry.

Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland. Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island.

Tel: (09) 372-7662. w w w. f o r e s t a n d b i r d . o r g . n z

Ruapehu Lodge, Tongariro National Park Situated 600 m 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

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: Fred Allen, PO Box 31-194, Lower Hutt.

Tel: (04) 934-0559.

Mangarakau Swamp Field Centre, North West Nelson Borders Kahurangi National Park and Te Tai Tapu Marine Reserve. New, 10 bed lodge with two William Hartree Memorial Lodge, Hawkes Bay bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen. Sleeping bags, Situated 48km from Napier, 8km past Patoka on the towels and food required. Contact Jo-Anne Vaughan Puketitiri Rd (sealed). The lodge is set amid a 14ha – Golden Bay Branch Secretary for details: javn@xtra.co.nz or phone (03) 5248072. scenic reserve and close to many walks, eg: Kaweka Range, Balls Clearing, hot springs and museum. The Tautuku Lodge, Otago lodge accommodates up to 15 people. It has a fully State Highway 92, Southeast Otago. Situated on equipped kitchen including stove, refrigerator and Forest and Bird's 550ha Lenz Reserve 32km south microwave plus tile fire, hot showers. Supply your of Owaka. A bush setting, and many lovely beaches own linen, sleeping bags etc. For information and nearby provide a wonderful base for exploring bookings please send a stamped addressed envelope the Catlins. The lodge, the Coutts cabin and an Ato Pam and John Wuts, 15 Durham Ave, Tamatea, frame sleep 10, 4 and 2 respectively. No Animals.

Napier. Tel: (06) 844-4751, Email: wutsie@xtra.co.nz For information and rates please send a stamped addressed envelope to the caretaker: Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour Diana Noonan, Mirren St, Papatowai, Owaka, RD2.

Joint venture accommodation by Lower Hutt Tel: (03) 415-8024, fax (03) 415-8244.

Forest and Bird with DOC. A modern family Email: diana.n@clear.net.nz home with kitchen, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and dining room, just 20 mins sailing by ferry from the FOREST & BIRD • NOVEMBER 2007

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