ISSUE 367 • AUTUMN 2018 www.forestandbird.org.nz
Restoring nature Innovate not irrigate
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ISSUE 367
• Autumn 2018
www.forestandbird.org.nz STAY IN TOUCH Forest & Bird National Office Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street 6011 PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 385-7374 FREEPHONE 0800 200 064 EMAIL office@forestandbird.org.nz CONTACT A STAFF MEMBER See www.forestandbird. org.nz/our-people for a full list of staff members and their contact details. CONTACT A BRANCH See www.forestandbird.org.nz/ branches for a full list of our 50+ Forest & Bird branches.
Contents Editorial
Then and now
Conservation news
In the field
2 Ocean collapse 4 Letters 6 Zero by-kill special report 9 Molesworth Station submission 10 Conservation news shorts
Cover story
Like us on Facebook
12 Innovate not irrigate 15 Restoring nature 17 Climate-resilient farming
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Forgotten places
Post to Instagram and tag @forestandbird Follow us on Twitter @Forest_and_Bird
34 Whangamarino wetlands 42 Marlborough marine park 36 Killing with kindness
Conservation in history 38 Forest & Bird turns 95 39 Moreporks and Messengers
95 years EST. 1923
18 Ground zero for the Mackenzie 20 Saving the high country
Forest collapse 21 Rātā in trouble
Watch us on YouTube www.youtube.com/ forestandbird
Freshwater
40 What’s happening at Waitaha?
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45 The cicada kid
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EDITOR
Caroline Wood MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS
E editor@forestandbird.org.nz ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER
Rob Di Leva, Dileva Design E rob@dileva.co.nz PRINTING
Webstar
Going places Marine protection
48 Doubtful Sound
22 Hauraki Gulf campaign 30 Hearing is believing 54 Ballantine award
Our partners
Forgotten species
51 Duvaucel’s gecko homecoming
24 Orange-fronted kākāriki 32 Lizard tales
Biodiversity matters 26 Magical mushrooms
Shorebirds
33 Black-billed gulls 46 Braided river birdlife
50 Reclaiming tax time
Love nature
Birdlife International 52 IUCN Red List round-up
Our people
56 Tribute to Betty Harris
IBC Parting shot Jewelled gecko
FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES
Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & circulation enquiries T 0800 200 064 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz
COVER SHOT Australasian crested grebe/pūteketeke with chick. Photo: Mike Ashbee. These majestic diving birds are found on the southern lakes of the South Island with their breeding strongholds in the Canterbury and Otago high country. Crested grebes are unusual for the way they carry their young on their backs when swimming.
Editorial MARK HANGER
Ocean collapse The year 2017 was the year of freshwater, and Forest & Bird connected with the New Zealand public about this issue like never before. Concerns throughout Aotearoa reached a tipping point last year when the degraded state of our rivers, lakes, and streams became a significant issue for the average New Zealander. Forest & Bird hopes 2018 will be a similar landmark year for our oceans. As coral reefs die, seabirds starve with stomachs full of plastic, fish stocks plummet, and marine animals continue to die as collateral damage to humans pillaging the oceans, I hope it does not take an equivalent of the Havelock North public health crisis to wake up the average New Zealander to the plight of our oceans. As I write, a number of elements are combining to contribute to the current dire state of one of our most iconic species, hoiho or the yellow-eyed penguin. The factors contributing to hoiho’s tragic demise relate to our inability to see the ocean as anything other than a resource nor to live on this planet in a sustainable manner. They include a changing climate, rising sea temperatures, increasing acidification of the ocean, rapidly diminishing marine biodiversity, and the commercial fishing industry’s amazingly “efficient” systems for harvesting every last fish from a given area. Sadly, this is happening at a time when, after decades of incredible efforts by the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust and southern branches of Forest & Bird, penguins are more secure in their breeding and roosting areas than they have been at any time since people arrived on these shores. Yet their population is in a state of collapse and the species is on the brink because of what is happening in our oceans. As we are all aware, nothing exists in isolation and the world on which we all depend for our very existence is finely balanced. So it has been for species like hoiho. Today, their way of life is out of balance. In times gone by, there was resilience to withstand and rebound from environmental events such as the cyclical El Nino weather patterns. But today the impact of people on their marine environment has removed that resilience and potentially their capacity to rebound. Thirty-five years ago, I worried there would likely be further extinctions of our native wildlife in New Zealand. More recently, I hoped this wouldn’t happen because there had been an increased public understanding of the fragility of these species, plus a firm commitment by our government agencies to protect them. But I was wrong. Economic drivers, underfunded government environmental agencies, and a belief in private-public partnership conservation as the way of the future are contributing to a sorry state for some of our iconic species. It is tragic and unacceptable that hoiho still regularly die in fishing nets and cannot adequately feed their young. For years, so many have pussy-footed around the reality and dressed up the issues in bureaucratic speak, while others have simply passed the buck. The reality is hoiho and our other threatened penguin species need safe places on land to breed and a secure ocean environment in which to feed and provide for their chicks. Until we have both, we shall be revisiting the brink again and again and again. Wake up Aotearoa New Zealand, our oceans are a resource to be treasured not plundered.
Ka kite anō Mark Hanger Forest & Bird President Perehitini, Te Reo o te Taiao
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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao
Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street, Wellington 6011. PATRON Her Excellency The Rt Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor-General of New Zealand CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Kevin Hague PRESIDENT
Mark Hanger TREASURER
Graham Bellamy BOARD MEMBERS
Chris Barker, Lindsey Britton, Tony Dunlop, Kate Graeme, James Muir, John Oates, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS
Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS:
Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton, Fraser Ross, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, David Underwood Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No CC26943.
Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird.
Forest & Bird is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper made from FSC® certified wood fibre and pulp sourced from responsibly managed forests. The wrap used to mail the magazine is 100% degradable and recylable (soft plastics). Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright. All rights reserved.
Letters Forest & Bird welcomes your feedback on conservation topics. Please send letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address, and daytime phone number. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or publish them in full. The best contribution to the Letters page will receive a copy of Looking for the Light – Landscape Photographs of New Zealand, by Peter Latham, RRP $69, New Holland. Please send letters to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 May 2018.
Risky gene technologies While I really enjoyed the recent Forest & Bird South Island gathering at Murchison – great networking, strategic planning, savouring Forest & Bird’s victory against the Ruataniwha dam – I was appalled to hear the Department of Conservation’s threatened species ambassador Nicola Toki uncritically supporting the use of (risky) new genetic technologies on our public conservation lands. The National Party, in the run up to the election, was the first to claim we needed to use GE/GMOs, gene drive, genetic intervention, and biochemical warfare to “save” our native birds. Pretty rich from a political party that had cut DOC’s core biodiversity budget for the last nine years. Good job we have an onto-it new Minister of Conservation, the highly capable Eugenie Sage, who has knocked on the head the use of such risky new genetic technologies, noting that: “Gene editing is an unproven technology for predator control.” Various attendees, including Forest & Bird’s Kevin Hackwell, were not swayed by the hype about gene drive and Sage is demanding answers from DOC and Predator
Free NZ Ltd over their contact with “Gbird” and “Darpa” (with funding from the American military). Forest & Bird has a strong precautionary GE/GMO policy that should be retained and strengthened. Zelka Linda Grammer Address withheld Best letter winner
Sounds historical Many years ago, I emailed the then CEO of Radio New Zealand National, Paul Thompson, and suggested the song of the long extinct huia bird become a bird call on Morning Report. He did not reply! When Jim Sullivan had his programme on Sunday evening Sounds Historical up and running, he played a perfect mimic of the huia song. The mimic came from the grandmother of a farmer at Hunterville. As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I think the very distinctive huia bird song should be added to the Morning Report list of bird songs. Brian Collins, Wellington
Is Forest & Bird fit for purpose? All Forest & Bird members are invited to attend a free regional workshop to discuss whether the Society is still “fit for purpose” to be the voice of nature in a fast-changing world. Forest & Bird is 95 years old. While our existing organisational structure has served us well for many of those years, the Board wants to hear your ideas about how we can strengthen the organisation, and increase the active engagement of our members. It also wants to gauge support for a constitutional change that will allow all members to be part of the process of electing the Board. The two-day workshops, which will be run by Forest & Bird staff and the Board, will discuss fit-for-purpose issues on Day 1. On Day 2 there will be sessions about lobbying 101 (tips and tricks on how to engage with MPs, Ministers and decisionmakers) and iwi engagement (how to engage with local iwi to gain better outcomes for nature in your area). There will also be a resource management and planning session, where you can meet your local Forest & Bird regional manager, find out more about how the Resource Management Act works, and learn how engaging in local planning processes can have great outcomes for nature. Please register at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ fitforpurpose or call 04 385 7374. 4
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Central North Island 10-11 March Ruapehu Lodge Upper South Island 17-18 March Fairfields, Nelson www.fairfieldnelson.org.nz Canterbury/West Coast 7-8 April Living Springs (Bellbird Heights) Allandale, south of Christchurch www.livingsprings.co.nz Dunedin 14-15 April Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 30 The Octagon Dunedin www.dunedin.art.museum Lower North Island 21-22 April Forest & Bird Wellington Office Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street, Te Aro, Wellington Auckland Region 28-29 April Totara Park Retirement Village (Community Hall) 5 Melwood Drive, Warkworth
WIN A BOOK WIN
A WINERY WEEKEND WORTH $1,000! Our wonderful supporters Nadine and Josh Thomson run the boutique Vintners Retreat in the heart of Malborough wine country. They promote Forest & Bird’s conservation work to international and local tourists who stay in their luxury lodge. As part of their ongoing support, Nadine and Josh are offering an exclusive magazine giveaway just for Forest & Bird members. The lucky winner will enjoy a two-night stay for up to six people in a three-bedroom lodge with late checkout, valued at more than $1,000. The prize can be taken any time between 1 May and 31 October 2018 and is subject to availability. To be in to win, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz and put WINE in the subject line. Or write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post it to WINE WEEKEND draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 24 April 2018, so get in quick to win this fabulous prize. n For more information and images, see www.vintnersretreat.co.nz.
Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Bird Words, New Zealand Writers on Birds, RRP $35, Penguin, edited by Elisabeth Easther with illustrations by Lily Daff, who was commissioned by Forest & Bird to draw a series of illustrations from 1927 to 1931 to raise awareness of the plight of our endangered native birds. To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz, put BIRD WORDS in the subject line, and include your name and address in the email. Or write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to BIRD WORDS draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 May 2018. The winners of Native Birds of New Zealand by David Hallett were Louise Macfarlane, of Cambridge; Addo and Ina Mulders, of Nelson; and Michael Criglington, of Amberley. The winners of Potton & Burton’s fabulous Christmas book prize packs were: Pam Lorimer, of Pukekohe (Family Pack) and Diane Varey, of Nelson (Places Pack). The winners of the two Gift Bird luxury gift boxes were Lucy Dunningham, of Auckland (Individuality Shows); and the Burns family, of Hamilton (Treasured Time).
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Zero by-kill Special report
DEATH BY FISHING
By-kill of common dolphins. Photo: Ministry of Fisheries
Forest & Bird is calling on the commercial fishing industry to commit to a goal of zero by-kill of protected species of dolphins, sea lions, penguins, and albatross. These are some of the images the fishing industry doesn’t want you to see. In January, Forest & Bird released images of dead dolphins, New Zealand sea lions, albatross, fur seals, and penguins, along with a letter from key leaders in the fishing industry to the Ministry for Primary Industries seeking to prevent the public from seeing similar images of by-kill and fish discarding. A number of commercial fishing organisations wrote to MPI last July seeking a change to the Fisheries Act to prevent the public release of information collected by MPI about fisheries activities. The letter, which was sent by George Clement of the Deepwater Group, Dr Jeremy Helson from Fisheries Inshore New Zealand, Storm Stanley from the Paua Industry Council, Tim Pankhurst from Seafood New Zealand, and Daryl Sykes from the New Zealand Rock Lobster Industry Council, asked for the Fisheries Act to be amended to clarify the purposes for which electronic monitoring will be obtained by MPI and “to expressly provide for the Official Information Act to not apply to this information”. The fishing industry-backed letter says the release of footage described as “incidental interactions with seabirds, legitimate fish discards, treatment of unintended bycatch” would tarnish New Zealand’s international reputation as a reputable source of quality, sustainably produced seafood. It goes on to say: “Such information, if it were to be selectively compiled into short succinct sound bites/ videos by biased editing, would provide those opposed to commercial fishing or to government with a powerful tool for their propaganda.” “In plain English, what they are saying is that catching endangered penguins, dumping entire hauls of fish overboard, and killing Hector’s dolphins looks really bad
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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao
on TV. Well, the solution is to stop doing it, not to hide the evidence,” said Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague, when the footage was released. “Commercial fishing is one of the most poorly regulated industries in New Zealand and one of the least transparent. New Zealanders were shocked by the Operation Achilles’ cover-up, where illegal fish dumping and non-reporting of Hector’s dolphin by-kill only came to light through leaked information and persistent investigative journalism. “Commercial fishing is vulnerable to criticism, not because it’s being misrepresented by media or environmental advocates, but because New Zealanders are shocked by what the fishing industry has got away with.” Following a public outcry when the images were released, Stuart Nash, the Minister of Fisheries, said he agreed with Forest & Bird. He wasn’t convinced by the industry’s arguments and won’t be changing the law.
Albatross caught in fishing gear.
FOX IN THE HENHOUSE Forest & Bird has long been concerned about the Ministry for Primary Industry’s conflicting role of being the fishing industry’s promoter and its regulator. A worrying 90% of our seabirds and shorebirds are threatened with extinction, along with 28% of our marine mammal species and five out of our six penguins. But MPI’s “National Plan of Action” on seabirds has failed to reduce their by-kill, and in the past, the department has failed to prosecute offending under the Fisheries Act. Forest & Bird has been working with industry and the government to roll out cameras on fishing vessels to better manage fisheries. Cameras on boats will encourage fishers to reduce their environmental impact. But, in February, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash said scrapping the planned rollout of on-board monitoring cameras may be a possibility. Two days later, media reported how a fishing company director said failure to report the deaths of seabirds and non-quota fish species is “commonplace” within the industry. The statement was contained in an Employment Relation Authority determination released by Forest & Bird. Forest & Bird is calling on the Minister of Fisheries to commit to fully implementing the electronic monitoring programme, including cameras on all vessels without human observers.
MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL UNDER FIRE New Zealand’s hoki and orange roughy industries shouldn’t be allowed to market themselves as “sustainable”, say more than 60 global organisations in an open letter. The Marine Stewardship Council’s sustainability certification is recognised globally by consumers as a trusted standard for the sustainability of fish products. The certification is highly valued by fishing industries around the world. However, the MSC has been the focus of ongoing criticism from environmental organisations for its controversial certification decisions. In an open letter to the Marine Stewardship Council, the organisations, which include Forest & Bird and Greenpeace, say the hoki and orange roughy fisheries have destructive environmental impacts. Forest & Bird has previously criticised the MSC for certifying New Zealand’s orange roughy and hoki fishery, which are ranked as “worst choice” in Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide. Karen Baird, Forest & Bird’s seabird advocate, says “Despite passing three MSC certification assessments, New Zealand’s hoki fishery has ongoing and increasing levels of bycatch of critically endangered Salvin’s albatross. “All seabird deaths in the hoki fishery have continued to increase over the last few years, when they should be declining if fishers were using sustainable fishing practices. “It is ridiculous that the majority of New Zealand’s orange roughy stock are certified as sustainably fished. Their population has been decimated by years of overfishing and under-reporting of landed catch.”
Video screen grab of a Hector's dolphin by-kill in 2012, from Operation Achilles report.
Fur seal killed in fishing net.
India’s dawn chorus Join us for a fully escorted, small-group, bird-lovers and wildlife tour in north India. 20 days, departing 16 October 2018. India’s diversity of habitat types and altitudes give it a rich bird life. It has over 1200 bird species including 70 raptors, 30 duck and geese species, and 8 stork varieties. We visit 5 magnificent National Parks: in the Himalayas, the Ganges Plains and on the Deccan Plateau. In this season we will also see masses of migratory birds from north Asia. And wildlife, including tigers, is a bonus.
Contact: colourindia.co.nz | elight@kiwilink.co.nz 09 422 0111 | 021 235 3932 Forest & Bird
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Zero by-kill Special report Yellow-eyed penguin. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein
WILL COMMERCIAL FISHING DRIVE HOIHO TO EXTINCTION? Nearly half the breeding population of endangered yelloweyed penguins/hoiho on the island sanctuary of Whenua Hou (Codfish Island) has disappeared, and Forest & Bird believes the evidence indicates they most likely drowned in commercial set nets. Forest & Bird is calling on the government to bring together Ngāi Tahu, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for Primary Industries, community organisations, and scientists who work to protect hoiho. “We’re also calling on the fishing industry to agree an
ONE BY-KILL TOO MANY In February, it was announced a New Zealand sea lion had drowned in a squid trawl net, and its death is further proof that so-called “escape” devices in commercial fishing nets don’t always work. Forest & Bird’s marine advocate Anton van Helden says, “This death is a sad loss to the population of the world’s rarest sea lion. With fewer than 12,000 animals remaining, each life is important. In fact, the loss of a female is particularly hard as she may have a nursing pup ashore and be pregnant with next year’s pup – a loss of three animals in one hit.” Forest & Bird has long campaigned for a transition to jigging in the squid fishery, a fishing method that is sea lion-friendly.
TIME FOR ACTION 8
immediate set of actions to eliminate the risks from set netting in the penguins’ feeding areas,” says Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague. Hoiho are the world’s most endangered penguin species, whose breeding numbers in the South Island have been falling year on year since 2005. This year, a scientific survey has shown that, alongside continued decline in all their mainland nesting colonies, nearly half the birds from the sanctuary island Whenua Hou has disappeared. “Unlike previous years, where disease and high temperatures caused deaths on land, this year, birds have disappeared at sea. There is an active set net fishery within the penguins’ Whenua Hou foraging ground, and the indications are that nearly half the Whenua Hou hoiho population has been drowned in one or more of these nets,” says Mr Hague. “We are asking DOC and MPI what they intend to do to save our hoiho from extinction, because at current rates of decline we are on track to lose them completely from mainland New Zealand. We have also written to the Minister of Conservation, expressing our concern.” Forest & Bird wants to know why the recovery plan for hoiho has still not been written. And why MPI has not convened the working group on managing threats to hoiho from the fishing industry. Earlier this year, Forest & Bird released data from MPI that showed only 3% of the set net fishery had MPI observers on board, yet nearly all recorded penguin deaths came from the tiny minority of boats with observers. “It’s simply unbelievable that almost every penguin killed in the set net fishery was killed on a boat that had an official observer on board. As a first step, MPI needs to get more of their observers onto set net vessels and prioritise putting cameras on set netting boats. “Responsible set netters need to ask the question of their fellow fishers – why is it that the only recorded by-kill of penguins appears to be on monitored fishing vessels?” says Mr Hague.
Photo: Rob Murdoch/NIWA
Concealing the impact of commercial fishing on New Zealand’s oceans is the wrong approach. Only once we can see the entire picture, can we start to fix things. Help us call for greater transparency. To make a donation, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/donate.
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News Molesworth muster of steers out to Hanmer. Stockmen, horses, and dogs pushing cattle mobs across the Clarence River by Bush Gully and Bunkers Stream, Molesworth Station, Marlborough District. Photo: Rob Suisted
Nature restoration on our biggest farm Please make a submission on the future management of Molesworth Station and help make nature restoration a priority on this iconic high country station. By Caroline Wood. Molesworth is New Zealand’s largest farm, as you will know if you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit the magnificent landscapes of this isolated 180,000ha station – about the size of Stewart Island/Rakiura – that links Marlborough to North Canterbury, Tasman, and Kaikoura. Yet few people know it is part of our public conservation land as a recreation reserve. This vast high-country land with its wide river valleys, brown tussocklands, and scree-covered slopes is a biodiversity hotspot for a wide range of dryland animal and plant species. It also faces challenges from pests and significant weed problems such as wilding conifers. Molesworth is owned by all of us and managed by the Department of Conservation, making it an ideal candidate for landscape-scale restoration. This is why Forest & Bird is urging its members to make a submission on its future. DOC has set up an online survey and wants to hear how people would like the station managed for future generations to enjoy and experience. Although a reserve, it is currently primarily managed as a working high-country station through a farming lease and grazing licence to Landcorp. The farming lease expires in 2020. The tension between farming and conservation was recognised in the 2013 Molesworth management plan. DOC decided there would be an opportunity for conservation and recreation values to be better addressed and less limited by some of the restrictions of the current lease, when the lease came up for review. Forest & Bird hopes DOC will seize the opportunity for a radical rethink that makes conservation a priority.
“Molesworth has very high conservation values, which need protecting. Farming activities in the Molesworth should be secondary to protecting the conservation values,” says Debs Martin, Forest & Bird’s regional manager for the top of the South Island. In some instances, farming will have minimal impact, but more needs to be done in other places – especially in the wetlands, in valleys of remnant forest, for smaller plants on the slopes, and for the protection of the waterways. “I’d like to see more action on the pest and weed issues that are threatening the biodiversity and landscapes. “We support DOC taking a lead, and the community supporting it where appropriate. Hunting has had little impact on deer populations within Molesworth – especially on the edges, where they are destroying remnants of native bush. “Recreation should be controlled to manage for conservation values where that is needed – for example, in fragile sites, such as wetlands.”
HAVE YOUR SAY: Please make a submission on what Molesworth means to you and that conservation should be a main priority in its future management. See https://action.forestandbird.org.nz/future-ofmolesworth or you can make a submission via http:// www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/ all-consultations/2017/the-future-of-molesworthstation/. Submissions close 14 April 2018.
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Conservation news
MANGROVE BILL CONCERN Two councils are currently trying to push through legislation to allow them to remove mangrove forest without public consultation and outside the protection of the Resource Management Act. But mangroves could be our best defence against the impacts of ocean acidification. According to scientist Dr Severino Ibanhez: “Mangroves are a natural buffer to counter some of the impacts of ocean acidification
because they increase the alkalinity of the water, causing the neighbouring ocean pH to increase.” His work is now showing the global importance of this ecosystem. Across the Pacific Islands and northern New Zealand, mangroves are being dug up and lost forever. We are removing a critical ecosystem, which will counter some of the worst impacts of increasing carbon dioxide levels – namely ocean acidification. We are starting to see the horrifying impacts of ocean acidification on sea life. Some ocean-dwelling species, such as mussels and oysters, are developing thinner shells. Other marine fish species are affected during reproduction or during early reproductive stages. Because acidification levels are increasing as the ocean absorbs more CO2, the impact on species is continuing to increase. Forest & Bird has made a submission against the Thames-Coromandel District Council and Hauraki District Council Mangrove Management Bill, which at the time of writing was before a select committee. Will our parliament take into account the importance of mangroves in regulating ocean acidification when they discuss this bill? If they don’t, the impacts will likely be felt throughout the marine environment – and fisheries and aquaculture industries.
NEW TREASURER NEEDED Do you have passion and energy for nature conservation? Forest & Bird is seeking a new treasurer to join the Board and oversee the financial affairs of the Society. The treasurer’s role requires someone with a sound business knowledge and a good understanding of finance – but it doesn’t require a qualified accountant. Current treasurer Graham Bellamy is stepping down in June after 11 years in the role. He says: “I have enjoyed being involved and helping to grow and move the Society forward to where it is today. But I feel I have run my time, and it’s important the Board has changes to keep the Society moving forward. “The role is very much a hands-off one and mainly involves reviewing financial reports and budgets, reporting to the Board, and presenting annual accounts to the AGM.” Graham, who is also chairperson of Forest & Bird’s Upper Hutt branch, says he’s happy to speak to anyone interested in the role. You can contact him on 04 526 3053 or email him at l.corrigan@forestandbird.org.nz.
STOP OFFSHORE EXLORATION
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The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment has announced it’s handing out a 12-year oil and gas exploration permit for 547km2 of ocean within the known range of our critically endangered Māui dolphins. There are only 63 Māui dolphins left on Earth, and the seismic blasting used in oil exploration is known to affect dolphins as well as whales. France recently became the first country in the world to refuse to issue any new oil and gas permits. And Belize’s Senate has voted to ban all offshore oil exploration in its territorial waters.
KAURI DIEBACK DEBACLE After an investigation by the Ombudsman’s Office, the Ministry for Primary Industries has been reprimanded for unlawfully withholding official information about its Kauri Dieback Programme from Forest & Bird. MPI has been told to apologise to Forest & Bird for failing to provide the information, which it is required to do by law. The Ombudsman Leo Donnelly has also told Forest & Bird he will begin an investigation into the Ministry’s delay. Forest & Bird’s kauri dieback spokeswoman Dr Rebecca Stirnemann says: “Access to official information is the basis of an accountable government. The Ombudsman’s
SAVE OUR SPRINGS Photo: Phillip Rollo
Forest & Bird, together with WWF-New Zealand and Greenpeace, are calling on the New Zealand government to follow suit and ban new oil, gas, and coal permits while embracing the transition to a clean-energy future. Six New Zealand councils, including Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, with the backing of local communities, have opposed the annual Block Offer process, which sees hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of New Zealand land and sea being made available for companies to explore for oil and gas. Iwi and hapū up and down the country have also come
Kauri dieback infected trees in the Waipoua Forest
recommendation to MPI to apologise for withholding information is a strong signal that the culture of secrecy and obstruction in some Ministries has to end.” Forest & Bird has joined with other environmental groups to call for urgent and unified action. Without it, we believe kauri will become extinct in our lifetime. Many branches, including Forest & Bird’s North Shore and Waitakere branches, voluntarily maintain cleaning stations on Auckland Council reserves in their areas. n For the latest updates on Forest & Bird’s kauri dieback campaign, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/kauridieback.
Forest & Bird would like to thank everyone who made a submission through our webpage supporting greater legal protection for Te Waikoropupū Springs in Golden Bay. “New Zealanders love Te Waikoropupū Springs – the astounding clarity of the water and its cultural significance,” says Forest & Bird regional manager Debs Martin. “But most people would be surprised to hear that this treasured place is under threat. There have been mining applications in the catchment, and the Tasman District Council is proposing to increase the area of irrigated land, despite knowing that this will increase nitrates in the aquifers beneath the springs.” The application for a Water Conservation Order was made last year by Ngāti Tama Ki Te Waipounamu Trust and Golden Bay resident Andrew Yuill. The public was invited to make submissions, and a Special Tribunal will consider the matter at a public hearing in April. Fifteen water bodies around New Zealand have been gazetted with Water Conservation Orders for their outstanding values, and Forest & Bird is currently seeking similar protection on the Ngaruroro River, in Hawke's Bay.
out in strong opposition to oil exploration in their waters. A national gathering of Māori leaders came to an historic agreement to oppose all seismic testing and oil exploration in the waters of Aotearoa. The Iwi Chairs Forum passed the resolution to seek amendments to the EEZ Act to give effect to this opposition. The reality of climate change means that, if we are to have a future, fossil fuel extraction must have no future. n Hearing is believing, see p30.
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Cover story Pivot irrigation in Mackenzie Country. Photo: David Wall
Innovate not irrigate Forest & Bird is calling on the government to stop subsidising large-scale dam and irrigation projects to help restore the health of our rivers, lakes, and streams, as Annabeth Cohen explains. A raft of taxpayer-subsidised dam and irrigation projects are being planned across the country from Northland to Otago, according to a Crown Irrigation Investments Limited briefing report released under the Official Information Act. Forest & Bird believes the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies needed to develop and build these 11 schemes would be better spent helping farmers move to more sustainable farming practices that require less water and have less impact on the environment. We would like to see a prompt winding down of the Crown Irrigation Investments Limited (CIIL) Fund and the Irrigation Acceleration Fund, and the redirection of $480m of public money earmarked for irrigation into policies that improve freshwater management and sustainable farming methods. The CIIL-backed schemes include five in Canterbury alone: Central Plains Water, the Hurunui Water Project, Hunter Downs, Emu Plains, and OTOP (see map). Canterbury already has 500,000ha under irrigation, and the region uses almost 65% of all the water allocated from rivers, lakes, and aquifers for irrigation in New Zealand, according to the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ. This water take has caused many of Canterbury’s lowland spring-fed waterways to dry up and disappear. Nationally, land use intensification, which occurs with irrigation, has led to greater fertiliser use and animaleffluent run-off, polluting rivers, lakes, and streams. The government to date has preferred to place the 12
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burden of environmental clean-ups on taxpayers rather than polluters. In effect, the public pays three times – once to subsidise the dams that intensify land use; then again for declining water quality, lost recreational opportunities, and illness; and thirdly to fund river and lake clean-ups. Forest & Bird is calling for the introduction of an effective polluter-pays model to clean up our rivers, lakes, and streams. And we are asking the Minister for Regional Economic Development, Shane Jones, to ensure the new Regional Development Fund cannot apply to new irrigation schemes or supplement funding for previously funded but yet to be started schemes. The CIIL Briefing to Incoming Ministers report lists six further irrigation schemes planned for other drier parts of New Zealand, including the Wairarapa and Otago. Forest & Bird is concerned the economic cost of building these will inevitably see land intensification at nature’s expense. For example, CIIL has spent $3.62m in development funding for a $250m irrigation scheme in the Wairarapa that would see two dams built at Black Creek, a tributary of the Waingawa River, west of Masterton. This proposed water storage scheme, which is intended to boost agriculture in a drought-prone region, is being promoted by a local group of irrigators called Water Wairarapa. Wellington Regional Council put $660,000 of local ratepayers, money into developing the dam in its 2017/18 budget, but no consents to build anything have been approved. And there is lots of evidence that the economics of the scheme don’t stack up.
Economist Peter Fraser, who was hired by Fish & Game to look at the project, said: “The problem we have is a disconnect between the price that farmers can pay and the likely cost of the dam and what investors will want as a return. Alarm bells started to ring for us when we worked out that the price of water was so expensive that even dairy farmers can’t afford it.” Dams and irrigation schemes, whatever their size, generally wreak havoc on the natural environment. They change the way the river flows, affecting the animals that live and feed there. Some native fish at risk of extinction, such as the torrent fish or the bluegill bully, thrive in fast or deep water. With a dam in place, the river flow generally reduces and the concentration of pollution increases. Freshwater ecologist Dr Julian Olden, from the University of Washington, is an expert in dams and environmental flows. He was the keynote speaker at the recent New Zealand Freshwater Science Society conference, where he explained how dams cause a multitude of environmental and social impacts, including blocked fish migration, disrupted sediments, and hazards from ageing concrete structures. Downstream effects include reduced biodiversity, poor water quality, and compromised fisheries. He said some developed countries, such as the United States, are now recognising the negative impacts of largescale hydro-engineering projects and are decommissioning their ageing dams, allowing rivers to be restored to their previous natural state. Our Lower North Island regional manager, Tom Kay, said: “We have real concerns with Water Wairarapa’s proposed scheme and have never been satisfied with the arguments put forward as justification. “Let’s not waste our time with this. Large-scale irrigation schemes don’t produce improvements in biodiversity or environmental flows, and they can’t happen without public subsidies. It’s time to move on.”
HEALTHY RIVER
In the pipeline This map shows big taxpayer-funded irrigation schemes being planned near you that could drive agricultural intensification and spell disaster for our rivers, lakes and streams.
Northland Irrigation Project (2000ha)
Water Wairarapa (8000ha)
Waimea Community Dam (4500ha)
Flaxbourne Community Irrigation Scheme (2200ha)
Emu Plains (7000ha) Hurunui Water Project (21,000ha) Central Plains Water Stage 2* (20,000ha) *under construction
Orari-Temuka-Opihi-Pareora (OTOP) (21,300ha) Hunter Downs (12,000ha) Kurow Duntroon (5500ha) Manuherikia (18,000ha)
*Source: Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd Briefing to the Incoming Ministers, October 2017, released under the Official Information Act
SICK RIVER
The clear waters of the upper section of the Hurunui River near Jollie Brook confluence and Lake Sumner. After passing through intensified agricultural land, the water quality in the lower reaches of the Hurunui River near Domett has dropped significantly (right). Both images were taken on the same day in December. Photos: Rob Suisted.
Forest & Bird
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Cover story
Why dams won’t drought-proof our farms Opuha Dam, in South Canterbury, was built in response to several serious droughts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The dam and its irrigation scheme resulted in a significant increase in land use intensification and a significant reduction in water quality, impacting on recreational and in-stream ecological values, including fisheries. When drought struck in 2015, the over-committed Opuha dam reservoir dried up and all 250 irrigation takes had to be shut off. There was another drought the next year, and summer takes were restricted by 50%. This summer has again seen high demand on Opuha’s water storage dam. By early January, the scheme’s operator was recommending a reduction in the environmental minimum flows of the local river. Proponents of water storage schemes often talk up the potential benefits but largely ignore the economic and environmental impacts. It’s rare that an analysis produced by a developer will present an estimate of the cost to farmers should things not go to plan in a drought. Heavily indebted intensive farms rely on large-scale
Flushing flow at Opuha Dam. Photo: Photo: Tony McCormick
water storage dams to maintain high levels of production. But when drought compromises the supply of that water, those who have invested the most in intensive farming find themselves worst off. Because so much extra capital investment is suddenly at risk, the scheme’s owners may look to protect their investment by overriding the environmental limits that protect the ecological health of our waterways, as has happened at Opuha. Opuha’s river plan detailed the “flushing flow” as a solution for toxic or nuisance algal growth caused by taking too much water out of the river and putting so much extra agricultural pollution into it. In the 20 years that Opuha Dam has operated, it has struggled to store enough water to proceed with flushing flows at a frequency that would make a positive difference. Scientists have observed that, since the dam was built, the river’s life-supporting capacity has significantly declined. Opuha provides a glimpse into the future for dam technology in the face of climate change. The likelihood that a dam will be reliably full and viable economically, while having enough water for the needs of the environment during extended dry periods, is questionable. Even with the support of public taxpayer subsidies, an enormous intensification of land-use is required for farmers to generate the funds (or justify the loans) needed to purchase water at subsidised prices. If alternative solutions to a dam are analysed (and they tend not to be), the studies often assume that communities will make no attempt to innovate in response to changing conditions – despite a long history of farmers profitably doing exactly that (see right).
Glenrae dam plan – a worrying precedent Forest & Bird has learned the Amuri Irrigation Company (AIC), a private business, plans to “partner” with Canterbury Regional Council to allow for a dam in the Glenrae catchment in the Hurunui River, in North Canterbury. AIC says it is promoting the new dam to provide a reliable water supply in times of drought for farmers. AIC is simultaneously seeking to delay the implementation of higher minimum environmental flows in the Hurunui River. The minimum flows, which have been set by the council in the Hurunui and Waiau River Regional Plan (HWRRP), were supposed to be introduced “sooner rather than later” to improve the river’s ecological health. But if AIC has to comply with the new limits, it won’t be able to take as much water and farmers may see a loss of productivity. The company wants a plan change to make a new water storage dam easier to consent. Meanwhile, the Hurunui Zone Committee has recommended delaying the implementation of the minimum flows until 2026. Forest & Bird’s general counsel, Peter Anderson, said: “We believe that the dam in the Glenrae is something of a smokescreen. The Ruataniwha experience tells us that 14
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dams like Glenrae face significant consenting, access, and economic issues. There is no prospect of a dam in the Glenrae for many years to come. “However, a critical goal for AIC is to delay the implementation of the minimum flows vital to the health of the river. If AIC gets its way, the minimum flows will not be implemented for the life of the HWRR plan.” Forest & Bird has written to Canterbury Regional Council chief executive Bill Bayfield, setting out our concerns about both the “partnership” and the delayed implementation of the minimum flows. “We are strongly opposed to any partnership between a private developer and the council. Such capture is both unlawful and undermines public confidence in ECan to fulfil its role as independent regulator. “We also think the minimum flows should not be ignored on the whim of the Zone Committee following a process that did not consider the requirement of either the RMA or HWRRP, and only consulted AIC but no other stakeholders,” says Jen Miller, Forest & Bird’s conservation manager for Canterbury.
Cover story
RESTORING NATURE
Ohau Canal, Mackenzie Country. Photo: Shellie Evans
We need some innovative thinking down on the farm if we want to restore the remarkable diversity of nature in Aotearoa. By Caroline Wood. Forest and Bird believes that, instead of committing huge pioneers was “resilient farmer” Doug Avery, who amounts of public and private resources to risky water embarked on a journey of change two decades ago, driven storage dams and irrigation schemes, we should be doing by the need to survive drought on his dryland Marlborough more to support farmers to become more resilient and farm. innovative by changing the way they manage their farming Today, Bonavaree, which is now farmed by his son systems as they adapt to a changing climate. Fraser, is turning over $2.2m compared with $320,000 in In our recently released Briefing to the Incoming 1998 and is one of the most water-efficient farms in New Government, Forest & Bird called on the government Zealand, according to its website. to redirect $480m of Crown funds previously earmarked “We need to make a shift in our thinking, reset primary for irrigation and invest this money in an Agricultural industries and how we respond to climate change, Transition Fund to speed up the country’s move away from drought, and water use,” says Forest & Bird’s chief environmentally damaging farming methods. conservation adviser, Kevin Hackwell. Many solutions to the challenge of “New Zealand is good at innovation making farming more nature-friendly – for example, using biological systems are already known – changing crop to fix environmental problems – so varieties, farming practices, and landlet’s think our way out of climate uses can produce good economic and change, water shortages, and other environmental outcomes. environmental problems. Let’s not revert Some New Zealand farmers are already to the old ways of doing things.” making their operations more climate Mackenzie Country, in South resilient by replacing drought-prone white Canterbury, is perhaps one of the clover with drought-tolerant species such biggest victims of the old ways of as lucerne. They are retaining shelter to doing things. This incredible place, an provide wind protection, which reduces ecological gem and home to the last both the drying of crops and soil erosion. 106 kakī left on Earth, is in serious They are also retaining soil moisture trouble. Neglected by the powers through increased organic matter. that be, it will soon be unrecognisable Kakī. Photo: Glenda Rees One of the early sustainable farming without our help. Forest & Bird
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The Mackenzie Basin is the closest thing New Zealand has to a desert. But previous governments sanctioned a massive water grab – irrigation systems were built that turned dry brown tussocklands rich with biodiversity into fertilised green pasture so thousands of intensively farmed dairy cows could graze there. Management of the Mackenzie is at tipping point, but it’s not too late to protect and even restore the rest, says Jen Miller, Forest & Bird’s regional manager for Canterbury. In our Briefing to the Incoming Government, Forest & Bird called on the government to establish New Zealand’s first dryland park in the Mackenzie Basin and enact other key recommendations to protect the rest of the high country. The future health of drier parts of the country like the Mackenzie look ever more fragile in the face of climate change and new weather patterns. Last year was the fifth hottest year on record (since 1909) in New Zealand, according to NIWA. Many areas were 0.5˚C above average, including Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, Nelson, parts of Canterbury, and Otago. “Climate change is happening now, and we need to start building resilience into the environment to help nature withstand its impacts. This will help future-proof our economy, especially the agriculture sector,” says Adelia Hallett, Forest & Bird’s climate advocate. Forest & Bird supports the passing of a Zero Carbon Act, which would require legislation for a legally binding target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or earlier. The new government wants to plant one billion trees, which is wonderful news for the environment. But instead of planting introduced pine trees, why not make half the new plantings native species, such as rimu, tōtara, or kauri? We could have plantations of native pine tree species for export, as well as planting indigenous trees for forest restoration projects. This will provide regional jobs, form a fantastic carbon sink, be great for tourism, and help anchor the soil to guard against flooding impacts. Forest & Bird is also hoping that Shane Jones, the government minister who holds the regional economic development and forestry portfolios, will recognise the value of native forests and accelerate the establishment of permanent native forest on two million hectares of suitable marginal land through the Permanent Forests Sinks Initiative. This is another recommendation set out in our Briefing to the Incoming Government.
Kea. Photo: Glenda Rees
BIG SKY THINKING During 2017, public opinion shifted significantly as more Kiwis realised that nature is in crisis and that public agencies have failed to respond properly. Forest & Bird welcomes the new government’s emphasis on protecting nature, tackling climate change and other pressing environmental problems, including cleaning up our rivers, lakes, and streams. In January, we sent a 57-page Briefing to the Incoming Government to every government minister and MP. This sets out our initial advice on how the government’s programme can help deliver this transformation and provide for ecological restoration in all parts of the environment. “Rather than working against nature, we should be building an economy that works with it,” says Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague. “We call on the government to think big and be ambitious in tackling the big problems of our time – freshwater degradation, climate change, and the destruction of our natural world and the wildlife that depends on it. “Government ministers have the opportunity to transform our land, water, and oceans. They can set New Zealand on the path to restoring the remarkable diversity of life on these islands and surrounding seas. We hope they grasp this opportunity – and quickly.” n You can read Forest & Bird’s Briefing to the Incoming Government at www.forestandbird.org.nz/BIM.
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Cover story
Climate-resilient
farming The nation’s largest farmer, state-owned Pāmu Farms of New Zealand (formerly Landcorp), which manages 125 farms on behalf of the taxpayer, is thinking innovatively to future-proof its dairy, sheep, cattle, and deer farming operations. Pāmu is actively working towards carbon-neutrality by 2025 and is investing in sheep dairy – with sheep’s milk being less allergenic than cow’s milk and produced with a much-reduced ecological footprint. “We’re committed to systematic rejuvenation of the environment, alongside the productive and profitable use of land. We’ve stepped up the proactive management of nutrient application, water quality, and forests, and will grow more trees and native vegetation,” says Alison Dewes, Head of Environment at Pāmu. “We measure the success of our farms by their profitability and environmental scorecards – we believe it’s possible for both to be high performing.” This is born out in the report Assessment of the production systems, techniques and technologies for dryland farming, without irrigation, in the Tuki Tuki Catchment, which was commissioned by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) last year. Its modelling showed that farms can adapt to local environmental limits and still reap significant economic gains, but those that rely on irrigation are exposed to greater risks and have a reduced return on investment. For example, a typical dairy farm using dryland techniques, such as reducing the herd size and planting prairie grass, lucerne, and turnips for cattle feed, could increase the production of milk solids per cow and profits without the need to pay for additional irrigation. In one modelling scenario, a farm that implemented a cropping regime and reduced its herd size from 640 to 506 cows could increase milk solids production by 25kg per cow, resulting in an $86,000 increase in annual profits. Lincoln University’s research dairy farm used the same farming processes modelled in the HBRC report and increased production by 26% per cow after cutting herd numbers from 630 to 560 cows, resulting in continued profitability and reduced nitrogen outputs. The report’s author, agricultural analyst Barrie Riddler,
Farmer planting natives on a state-owned Pāmu farm
said: “Irrigation in many regions is a high-cost and highrisk approach. It’s a crutch that results in users becoming incapable of seeking out better systems with less environmental and economic risk. If we have little or no irrigation, we remove risk and the farm system becomes far more robust and invariably more profitable.” Forest & Bird Lower North Island regional manager, Tom Kay, says these findings should help farmers struggling to meet tougher pollution rules that are designed to protect waterways from the impact of dairy effluent. “The Hawke’s Bay report shows that local farmers who work within environmental limits are making a better investment than those who don’t. The regional council needs to recognise that more production is not the key to success and reconsider the prevailing polluting model of agricultural intensification. “Forest & Bird wants to see regional councils doing their job of protecting the environment. They need to work with industry leaders, banks, and farm advisors to deliver the message that less intensification can be more profitable and good for nature.”
WORKING WITH NATURE With much of our environment now degraded, it’s time to start working with nature, not against it. We need fundamental change. The last time New Zealand had an opportunity like this, people like you made our country nuclear free. It was an incredible gift to future generations. We have a new government that promises strong action for the environment. Please give generously today to help us make them keep their promises. Together we can restore the damage done to the environment over the past 20 years. Will you help us? Please make a donation at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ innovatenotirrigate.
Innovate not irrigate
Forgotten places
Ground zero for the
Mackenzie
It’s time to establish a Mackenzie Basin Conservation Park and save its outstanding natural landscapes from further destruction. By Lynley Hargreaves. In the heart of Mackenzie Country, the road from Lake Tekapo to Lake Pukaki curves through Simons Pass, over the remnants of an ancient glacial moraine – a low ridge of rocks carried by a glacier during a previous ice age. It’s here that most visitors to the Mackenzie catch their first glimpse of Aoraki/Mount Cook, gleaming white beyond the tawny tussock landscape and the turquoise waters of the lake. But in early 2018, when I visit, my first view is of diggers at work installing a series of thick pipes. Huge new irrigators sit waiting on the Pukaki outwash plain for this work to be completed. As you read this, the water to those irrigators may be being turned on, the first step towards turning this land into a massive dairy farm. This is ground zero for the greening of the Mackenzie. To fully comprehend this tragedy, it is necessary to know a little history. Landscape architect Di Lucas grew up on a high-country station. In the 1980s, she helped develop a landscape policy for pastoral leases and coauthored an official publication on tussock landscapes. She was involved in the early 1990s when the entire Mackenzie Basin was first recognised as an Outstanding Natural Landscape – the highest RMA protection that can be given to non-conservation land. She says authorities, including government agencies and local councils, have failed over many years to properly protect this globally important high-country landscape from inappropriate economic development.
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“We had everything in place statutorily, but the implementation at council level failed. Or you’d get significant inherent natural values identified, and then Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), in consultation with DOC, would give consents to cultivate and develop those areas. The people administering the statutes and policies completely failed to apply the regimes,” she says. In 1990, less than 3% of the Mackenzie Basin floor’s 228,000 or so hectares had been developed. By 2009, 14% was gone. The corridor of land along the road from Twizel to Omarama, once an ecosystem of national significance, had become a corridor of green. That same year, 110 applications were made to take water for irrigation purposes in the basin. Intensive campaigning by Forest & Bird led to the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Forum, bringing together farmers, irrigators, tourism operators, and conservationists. By 2013, the groups all agreed to protect 100,000ha of the floor of the Mackenzie Basin for its landscape values. But little meaningful progress has been made since 2013. “We did all that work on getting the multi-party agreement, and then the government didn’t implement it. It’s been a tragic, tragic situation,” adds Ms Lucas. Meanwhile, the greening of the Mackenzie has accelerated. By 2016, a third (33%) of the Mackenzie basin floor – which supports the greatest variety of historically rare ecosystems in New Zealand – had become developed land. Even more is gone today, and more will be lost
Mackenzie Country, near Twizel. Photo: Peter Latham.
tomorrow unless the government acts quickly. “It’s the availability of irrigation that’s driven the loss. Once you put water and fertiliser on the landscape, you’ve lost those values,” explains Forest & Bird Canterbury and West Coast regional manager Jen Miller. “But it’s also been a perfect storm of privatisation through tenure review, lack of compliance with already weak council rules, and lack of action from the Department of Conservation and Land Information New Zealand.” One contributing factor is a Mackenzie District Plan loophole that meant that land that had been oversown and topdressed three times in the last 10 years could be cleared of any amount of vegetation without resource consent. Another is the tenure review process, which has seen many pastoral leases with high conservation values freeholded, with the land going into private ownership. In the Waitaki District, of the land below 900m elevation that went through review, 87% was privatised. Importantly, land below that elevation with significant natural values still wasn’t properly protected – 67% was privatised without constraints on development. And while land still owned by the Crown is subject to environmental controls through LINZ, Forest & Bird believes the Commissioner of Crown Lands has allowed consents for development that has permitted intensification (greening) where there are identified natural values and, in some cases, where that development conflicts with local council rules. Take Simons Pass Station. It is currently undergoing tenure review, yet LINZ has already given permission for a large intensive dairy development, including several built structures. The district council loophole allowed vegetation clearance on this land that destroyed much of its natural values. While the appropriateness of irrigation was still being challenged in an Environment Court process, Environment Canterbury granted a discharge consent for up to 15,000 dairy cows without any opportunity for public comment. Forest & Bird considers urgent action needs to be taken to halt any further loss. “We’re at a tipping point,” says Ms Miller. “This has
been the fastest rate of biodiversity loss in New Zealand in the last 150 years.” The high country has astounding biological diversity. What may look from the road like a fairly uniform tussock landscape is actually a whole array of ecosystems, from wetter in the north and on moraines to drier in the south, but with finely mixed habitats that can vary within a few metres from lush to extremely harsh. Landcare Research ecologist Dr Susan Walker says the Mackenzie is becoming like the Canterbury Plains – with a disconnect between areas of high biodiversity separated from each other by land that has been irrigated and turned into intensive dairy pastures. “This will have long-term effects on the viability of creatures that live there,” she says. “The creatures that live in these environments share a remarkable evolutionary history but have acquired some strange habits – lizards that bear live young, fish without scales, and hundreds if not thousands of endemic invertebrates, many undiscovered,” says Dr Walker. “This diversity also isn’t obvious because many of the plants have adopted cryptic habits – possibly to avoid grazing by birds. These are often pressed flat to the soil, and grey brown, and that hasn’t helped in identifying them. “For years and years, people have walked over them and not really seen them.” In total, the Mackenzie’s tussock grasslands, herb fields, shrublands, and wetlands are national strongholds for more than 60 rare and threatened plant species. The region is an internationally significant breeding ground for endemic wading birds – including the critically endangered kakī/ black stilt and wrybill. The Mackenzie needs urgent protection in a large landscape-scale continuous sequence. There is a significant amount of land that hasn’t yet been greened and developed that could be protected – largely between Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo, and down to Simons Pass. “What is left is all there is – this is the only place on Earth where these values are – and with climate change that continuity of ecosystems is going to be incredibly important,” says Dr Walker.
Forest & Bird
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Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel, and the Ohau B power station. Photo: Peter Scott
PROTECTING THE HIGH COUNTRY Forest & Bird is calling on the government to create a Mackenzie Basin Conservation Park – something that is already Labour Party policy – as nucleus of wider landscape protection. We also want to see the Minister of Land Information and Conservation implement a pause in tenure review and any discretionary consents in the high country until a review of the Crown Pastoral Lands Act and the Land Act, and their administration, has been undertaken. “Management of the high country has reached a critical point with the rate of loss that means opportunities for protecting what remains are now closing,” says Ms Miller. “We urgently need tenure review that properly protects outstanding natural values. And we need LINZ and DOC to stop allowing biodiversity loss on Crown land. “The South Island high country is a magnet for tourists.
As well as being one of the best star-gazing sites on Earth, the Mackenzie region is the last place where it’s possible to create a dryland park. “Let’s reach for the stars and protect the Mackenzie Basin from further development. This is the best opportunity in a generation to get it done – all it will take is a bit of courage from the government.” HOW CAN YOU HELP? Write to Conservation and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage and tell her why you support Forest & Bird’s call for a Mackenzie Basin Conservation Park. Write to Minister Eugenie Sage, Private Bag 18888, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160. Email eugenie.sage@parliament.govt.nz.
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15 Day Camping / Accom Tour — Departs Broome 24th July 2018 Enjoy a wonderful outback experience as we discover the Kimberley’s wildlife, spectacular outback scenery, and many wonderfully refreshing waterholes as we explore Purnululu N.P, the many gorges of the Gibb River Rd, Home Valley and Mornington Stations.
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10 Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Perth 1st September 2018 See botanical hot-spots north of Perth during wildflower season. The trip covers a diverse array of landscapes with the farm lands of the wheat belt, before covering the highlights of the Kalbarri National Park and the northern sandplains around Eneabba, Badgingarra and the Mt Lesueur National Park.
13 Day Camping Tour — Departs Broome 4th July 2018 A different twist to the Kimberley, we include exploring along the Fitzroy River flood plain around Camballin, the best of the Gibb River Road including visits to Mt Elizabeth and Home Valley Stations. Add to this a visit to the Mitchell Plateau where experiences include the spectacular Mitchell and Mertons Falls plus great examples of ancient rock art along with the regions wonderful flora and fauna and you have a tour to good to miss.
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12 day Camping Tour — Departs Broome 14th July 2018 This trip is packed with highlights including the Southern Kimberley, Lakes Stretch and Gregory, Wolf Creek Crater, The Tanami Road and Newhaven Sanctuary. Join us and discover the wildlife as we travel from the Broome on the Kimberley coast through the remote Tanami Desert to Alice Springs in central Australia. The trip offers a range of habitat including a variety of gorges, lake systems, desert plus the wildlife that is found at each of these points.
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Forest collapse
Rātā in trouble Myrtle rust means northern rātā are even more dependent on humans for their survival. Dean Baigent-Mercer explains how we can help these forest giants. Huge northern rātā used to tower alongside rimu over much of Aotearoa. Together, these giants of the rainforest dominated the skyline. This summer is the first in a decade where northern rātā have flowered extremely hard. Some trees were so comprehensively red, walls of red, that you would swear all leaves were gone and only flowers remained. Full flowering for each tree lasted only a few days as buds burst open then swiftly diminished. As the flowering ended, the red petals fell to carpet the forest floor. It’s an enchanting and rare experience. Areas that have had possum numbers kept as close to zero as possible for many years had the best flowering by far. I was gobsmacked by prominent walls of red at Pukaha/Mt Bruce in the Wairarapa and across Kahurangi National Park. Then it dawned on me: the phenomenon of this massive mast rātā flowering could be their last.
Why? Because we don’t yet know how rātā will be impacted by myrtle rust. The Department of Conservation, some councils, and hapū are frantically collecting seed of rātā and pōhutukawa species from every region for seed banking. It’s a race against an unknown future. Ancient northern rātā began growing before possums were introduced and have survived human fires, axe, and saw. But they are a favourite food of possums, and, in some areas, they have been eaten to the edge of extinction. All that remains are lonely disintegrating trunks with no rātā offspring to follow them. One day, these will be gone and future generations won’t even know they were there. Northern rātā need our help. This is the season to collect wild northern rātā seed to grow and plant as many as you can. Forest & Bird has released a video https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_rXqR6rzbI on how to do this. The seed will soon be ready. Good luck.
This area of Otangaroa Forest in the Far North has had multispecies pest control targeting possums, rats, stoats, weasels, and feral cats for seven years. The image shows a flowering northern rātā – the grey areas are caused by previous decades of possum damage. This rātā has dodged a bullet and is coming back to life thanks to ongoing pest control. Research shows possum-wrecked native rainforests take 20 years to fully recover with high quality pest control that targets all culprits. This helps build the natural resilience of rātā and the rest of the forest for the challenges ahead, including climate change and myrtle rust.
This ancient rātā, possibly 500 years old, hasn’t been so lucky. It’s dying on our watch. You can see extensive possum damage on its branches. This image was taken by drone in the Russell State Forest during 2015, when Forest & Bird’s Forest Collapse campaign revealed the extent of Northland’s “ghost forests”. Sadly, this tree is probably dead by now, but we are working with hapū, DOC, Ngā Whenua Rahui, Northland Regional Council, and community groups to bring landscape-scale pest control to Russell State Forest. Former Minister of Conservation Maggie Barry supported hapū to design a 20-year recovery plan, and we are hopeful action can be taken before it’s too late.
Photo: Toby Ricketts
Photo: Toby Ricketts
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Hauraki Gulf
Most shallow reefs in the Hauraki Gulf are now occupied by kina barrens – lack of snapper and crayfish allows kina to decimate kelp forests. Photo: Roger Grace
HEAR OUR VOICES Forest & Bird is calling on the government to restore the health and mauri of the Hauraki Gulf. But we need your help, as Alicia Bullock explains. Our precious Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana/Te Moana Nui a Toi is in trouble. Over two lifetimes, the health of these waters has been severely degraded. Overfishing has caused fish stocks to decline, bottom trawling is destroying the seabed, and vulnerable wildlife such as sea birds and dolphins are under threat. The Hauraki Gulf has been polluted with sewage, contaminants, and sediment from the land, and climate change is impacting ecosystems. But there is a plan that could reverse this damage and rebuild the health and mauri of the gulf, sustaining these waters and the communities that rely on them. It’s called Sea Change/Tai Timu Tai Pari – an integrated plan that is the product of many voices, including mana whenua, commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, communities, scientists, and conservationists. Forest & Bird’s marine advocate Katrina Goddard was on the plan’s working group and advocated strongly for a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) to be included, alongside much-needed changes in fisheries’ management throughout the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. Sea Change is the first marine plan of its kind in New Zealand. It recommends actions to address the full range of threats facing our gulf today – including the need for improved marine protection, fisheries management, and water quality. But a plan sitting on a shelf won’t help the Hauraki Gulf. Forest & Bird is calling on the government to implement the plan as a complete package, without delay, and informed by meaningful public consultation. A passionate 50-strong campaign group, made up mostly of Forest & Bird members, has come together to help make this happen. Here three campaign members explain what the Hauraki Gulf means to them.
Dr Roger Grace Marine biologist Dr Roger Grace has dedicated his life to studying the ocean. He has been researching and diving northern New Zealand waters since the early 1960s and has seen first-hand many changes in the Hauraki Gulf. Now 22
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semi-retired, he continues to work as a consultant marine biologist. What changes have you seen in the Hauraki Gulf? I have seen the disappearance of the large schools of trevally and kahawai, which used to be abundant in the gulf. I’ve also seen the disappearance of hāpuku – people don’t believe they were once a common shallow-reef fish. They’ve now retreated to 100–200m deep pinnacles offshore, where they are uncommon and small. In 1961, my first diving was at Tiritiri where there was dense kelp forest on the reefs and crayfish feelers bristling out of every crevice. Now most of the kelp has gone – eaten by kina – and crays are rare if not absent. Most shallow reefs in the gulf are now occupied by kina barrens because there are not enough snapper and crayfish left to keep kina under control. There is hope though – in no-take marine reserves, the kina barrens turn back into kelp forests over time. What does the Hauraki Gulf mean to you? The Hauraki Gulf has been my playground all my life. Diving throughout the gulf, photographing and studying its inhabitants, and trying to look after its longterm wellbeing has been my lifelong passion. Why did you join the campaign and what is your role? In 2016, Sea Change dropped into a vacuum waiting for the government to pick it up and make things happen. I was concerned that the plan would be swept under the carpet unless there was a serious push from the public. Last year, I approached Forest & Bird to campaign for the plan to be implemented, including crucially the creation of a network of MPAs. It’s vital there is sufficient marine
Restoration is possible - in no-take marine reserves, kina barrens turn back into healthy ecosystems over time. Photo: Roger Grace.
protection to give habitats, fish stocks and other sea life a chance to recover and thrive. I’m acting as marine science advisor and looking forward to seeing real progress for the health and wellbeing of the Hauraki Gulf.
Ken Warin Ken Warin is a keen recreational fisherman who wants to see strong stewardship for the marine environment of the gulf. He keeps only enough fish to eat on the day and says he and his boys enjoy the fun of being out on the water as much as the fishing. What changes have you seen in the Hauraki Gulf? I have seen a steady decline in all fish life in this wonderful area, which saddens me greatly. Crayfish numbers are now non-existent, compared to years gone by. These days, schools of kahawai and kingfish with feeding seabirds are rarely seen, when they were once plentiful. I used to be able to count up to 600 seabirds feeding on baitfish in previous years off Martins Bay but this Christmas period – none! What does the Hauraki Gulf mean to you? I’ve spent 65 years enjoying the gulf and wish my grandchildren to be able to do the same. I learned to dive in 1968 and went to the outer gulf islands where I discovered the amazing and diverse fish life out there. Why did you join the campaign and what is your role? The Hauraki Gulf food chain is under attack on all sides from over-fishing, pollution, sewer outfalls, farming runoff, and increased population – we must act now to protect the gulf. Formation of the MPA network is a next vital step. My role is to help coordinate dive, fishing, and boating clubs to get behind Forest & Bird’s campaign – together, we must restore the wonder of the gulf for all people to enjoy.
Donna Currey Donna has lived in Auckland for 25 years. She’s a danceloving Body Balance fitness instructor with a special connection to the Hauraki Gulf – its beaches were the first her three children set foot onto when they were toddlers. What changes have you seen in the Hauraki Gulf? There are a lot more people on the beaches now, which means more impacts on marine wildlife – for example, I hear about turtles dying because they’ve mistaken a plastic bag for a jellyfish. What does the Hauraki Gulf mean to you? I am constantly inspired by the sheer beauty of the Hauraki Gulf – the incredible magic of a sunset, the power of the ocean, and the majesty of seabirds soaring above. Why did you join the campaign and what is your role? My wish is for a healthy, thriving Hauraki Gulf that everyone can enjoy for generations to come. The environment supports our life – from the air we breathe to the food and water we eat and drink. We are all deeply connected to nature, and our wellbeing is inextricably linked to it. I’m the lead coordinator for the campaign’s community advocacy group and an everyday guardian of the environment. I believe people don’t have to be experts to be conservationists. We can all be “heroes for nature”. We can be the change in our community. Add your voice to the campaign at www.forestandbird.org.nz/seachange. If you have a story to share or want to get involved in the campaign, contact Alicia at a.bullock@forestandbird.org.nz.
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Forgotten species
Saving our rarest bird
Little known and in desperate straits, orange-fronted parakeets urgently need our help. Words by Sabrina Luecht. Photos by Leonie Heyder. Few people have heard of the orange-fronted parakeet/ kākāriki, even though it is in the same threat category as the kākāpō and black robin. Unfortunately, the species remains one of New Zealand’s least known forest birds, because of its extreme rarity. The orange-fronted parakeet occurs exclusively in beech forest from the valley floor to the Alpine zone and is now restricted to four valleys in the South Island’s Canterbury region – the Hawdon, Poulter, and Andrews Valleys in Arthur’s Pass National Park and the South Branch Hurunui Valley in Lake Sumner Forest Park. Declared extinct twice, this species is in peril again, facing the most dire situation it has been in since concerted conservation efforts began. The orange-fronted parakeet/Cyanoramphus malherbi, also known as the Malherbe’s parakeet, is a small parrot endemic to New Zealand. It is classified as nationally critical in the New Zealand Threat Classification System 2016 and listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 1956, the orange-fronted parakeet was rarer than kākāpō. In the 1980s, individuals were rediscovered in the Hope Valley, but, by 1990, this unique parakeet was officially declared extinct. In 1993, orange-fronted parakeets were rediscovered in the South Branch Hurunui Valley.
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The chief threat to its continued survival stems from introduced mammalian predators, namely ship rats and stoats, particularly following beech mast seeding events. Despite ongoing conservation management consisting of predator control, intensive population monitoring, captive breeding for release, and mainland and island translocations, the species is now on the absolute brink. Once widespread throughout the country, the species is now barely hanging on. Worse, the only three remaining wild populations have dwindled and virtually disappeared. Currently, only two known genetically-unique breeding pairs remain in the wild. The situation is now bleaker than it was for the kākāpō at its historical low point in the 1970s. The two main actions taken to prevent extinction of the orange-fronted parakeet have been predator control within its three mainland valley homes, consisting of localised control around nests, plus landscape control. And, secondly, captive breeding for release into the wild, which has so far been what has saved the orange-fronted parakeet from extinction. While the orange-fronted kākāriki continues to battle extinction, most New Zealanders are unaware of this sad fact. Despite being exceptionally rare, there remains a problem with public perception. The different parakeet species are often confused or thrown into one category. Hence backing of a particular species can be problematic.
To have a hope at being saved, the imperilled orangefronted parakeet is in need of extensive advocacy, a national sponsor, and urgent conservation action. Time is of the essence. It is not too late... yet.
Captive breeding last hope Captive management of orange-fronted parakeets was initiated by the Department of Conservation in 2003. Since 2005, the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust has maintained the captive breeding programme on its own. Auckland Zoo and Orana Wildlife Park recently joined this endeavour. The best breeders in captivity so far have been birds originating from the Poulter Valley. Captive birds are force paired, rather than flock mated, which controls and retains genetic diversity. In captivity, there has been some tendency towards a skewed sex ratio per clutch, resulting in more male than female offspring, which is likely diet related. The Department of Conservation monitoring team periodically harvests eggs from wild nests to maintain the genetic diversity of the captive population. Successfully accessing wild eggs requires a combination of factors: locating the nest, egg viability, retrieval, and successful incubation and rearing by captive foster parents. Wild egg retrieval is the only method of ensuring new genes enter the captive breeding gene pool. The low wild population means the gene pool is severely restricted, limiting genetics of the captive population. Therefore, in-breeding has always been a concern, with a mix of all genetic lineages released per translocation. Captive-bred birds have been translocated to four predator-free offshore islands: Maud and Blumine Islands in the Marlborough Sounds, Chalky Island in Fiordland, and Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty. Birds were released on these islands (rather than on the mainland) to create separate founder populations. Some islands were more successful than others. While translocated birds did well post-release initially and generally began breeding within a month of release, they did not thrive long-term. With further research, offshore islands may be reconsidered in future. Core conservation activity now focuses on releasing captive-bred birds into the Hawdon and South Branch Hurunui Valleys on the mainland, to supplement the severely declining wild population. A soft release approach is undertaken, housing translocated parakeets in temporary aviaries at release sites, with feeding stations used postrelease. However, there are currently only two known wild-origin pairs remaining, hence captive-bred birds will merely breed with other released birds. Therefore, the Department of Conservation has developed a new rescue strategy work plan, trialling innovative methods to arrest and reverse the present situation. The first logical step is to increase captive breeding capacity to enable releases of larger cohorts. However, with only a limited number of captive pairs, and no prospect of wild egg harvesting in the immediate future to broaden the gene pool, there are
Sabrina is an experienced wildlife biologist. Over the past 12 years, she has worked in New Zealand and internationally, specialising in endangered avian species. Most recently, she set up Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue.
presently simply not enough birds to create additional captive breeding pairs for other facilities. The next task will be to assess translocated populations on offshore islands, which have not been monitored in some years. If birds remain there, these need to potentially be transferred into captivity as an insurance population or relocated to the mainland valleys to bolster the near defunct wild population.
Know your kākāriki Genetic research has determined that the orange-fronted parakeet is a distinct species from the closely related yellow-crowned parakeet, rather than a colour morph. On the mainland, the red-crowned parakeet occupies the low canopy, orange-fronted parakeet the mid-canopy, and yellow-crowned parakeet the high canopy – with low to mid-canopy niches most at threat by introduced mammalian predators. All parakeets are boom-and-bust species, breeding prolifically during times of plentiful food. So much so that kākāriki used to spread out from the forests to the plains in incredibly vast numbers after beech mast seeding events. To shift from a situation of incredible abundance to near extinction indicates how disastrous the situation has become. Other cavity nesters such as kākā, yellow-crowned parakeets, and mohua also suffer badly during beech mast years but recover faster post-predator control than the orange-fronted parakeet.
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Biodiversity matters
MAGICAL MUSHROOMS Five years ago Forest & Bird ran an
article by Anna Chinn about the first record of luminescent “glowing” mushrooms in New Zealand found during the annual Fungal Foray at Matawai, near Gisborne. The find captured the attention of renowned international mushroom photographer Taylor F Lockwood, who made three exciting discoveries during his photographic expeditions to New Zealand. Here he explains how he locates and photographs these delicate glowing fruitbodies only visible on dark nights in the forest. Words and images by Taylor Lockwood.
“A thousand point of light” discovered in Fox Glacier (Genus and species unknown).
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I
t’s 3am in the morning and you’re probably asleep. As you sleep, my work is just starting as I am walking along a track in the bush – with the lights off. Every 10 steps or so, I turn on my torch to see where I’m going and hopefully avoid potential hazards like roots across the track. It’s raining lightly, and I’m getting cold, but I don’t care. I’m on a mission. I am driven by an inner passion to find a faint green light in the darkness, the light of bioluminescent fungi. I had first seen and photographed them in Brazil many years ago, and, since then, other interests have simply faded away in the dusk to let me fulfil my quest. This inner “lumacy” has sent me hunting them in Madagascar, Brazil, China, Australia, the USA, India, Nepal, and Thailand. In the last few years, however, I have had an accentuated interest in finding them in New Zealand after hearing only mysterious reports – but no convincing photos to show they actually exist. It was a challenge, but I was up for it. In 2014, I went to the South Island and returned with nothing but echoes of sightings and writings about them. So, in the next year, 2015, I returned to the South Island. This time, in the Catlins, I finally found one, a tiny but bright little ball of green fire. At that point, I was on fire too and that night kept hunting in the dark until I found and photographed a second one. Even though it was late and I was very tired, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. On that same trip, I found a first in the world. The genus Armillaria is known worldwide for its prolific fruitings and its pathological properties. It is also known by the fact that some of its species have mycelium and rhizomorphs (root-like and basal fibres) that cause wood to glow in the dark as it decays. This has been known for centuries as “foxfire”, but the fruitbodies, or mushrooms, have never been known to glow until now. New Zealand’s Armillarias have changed all that. When I was still down in the Catlins, I had been trying to photograph various mushrooms in the dark using long exposures to test for bioluminescence. Almost all gave no light, but a New Zealand species, Armillaria novaezelandiae, did. It was an incredible and thrilling surprise. After these successes, I was charged and ready to find more. Later that same year, I went back to the North Island and into the bush on the lower slopes of Mt Taranaki. There I found another mushroom that was not bioluminescent itself but that was making a silhouette against the glowing wood of its host. There were hundreds of them on many different kinds of substrate. On many nights under the volcano, I waited for the darkness that would allow me Mycena sp. Known as “Crystal Falls”, Old Coach Track, Papatowai to do my work. These mushrooms were Mycenas, a genus known for having more bioluminescent species than any other.
Mycena sp. (M. taranaki), Ratapihipihi Reserve, New Plymouth.
However, these were distinctive in their combination of characteristics. Their gills had a darkened edge (marginate gills), the cap had a reddish brown colour with striations (radial lines) spreading from the centre, and the sticks and roots that they were growing on were bioluminescent though the mushroom caps and stems were not. I returned in 2016 for the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand Fungal Foray, held at Glenorchy near Queenstown. From there, I went back to the Catlins to look for the little Mycena that got me fired up in the first place. This species had been known for years by the tag name “Crystal Falls” but never formally described. “Crystal Falls” had been found on the North and South Islands, most frequently on older fronds of a common tree fern, Cyathea smithii. Although I found many of the little fruitbodies that weren’t glowing, I found two that were. It will be left to future research to find out why some do and why some don’t. One of the most spectacular finds was from the South Island’s West Coast. I was walking through the bush near the Fox Glacier (in the dark with the torch off, of course) and came upon a stunning display of many hundreds of bright little glowing green lights. My first reaction was that this must have been a glow-worm nursery or something like it. But, as I got closer for inspection, I found that they were indeed fungi – bright little stars I immediately nicknamed “A thousand points of light”. They were found on a group of large sticks that were stuck in the mud wash of a culvert under the gravel road. After taking several photos in situ, I spent several hours documenting their form, number, substrate, etc. I collected a few sticks for identification, kept them in a “wet box”, and, as I travelled north, found that they continued to glow for days. Just as I was thinking it couldn’t get any better than that, I found another species of Armillaria that glowed even brighter than the ones from the previous year. This new-to-me species was on the Braeburn Track near Lake Rotoroa. It turned out to be Armillaria limonea, well-known to mycologists in New Zealand. As the name implies, it is normally yellow but can also be found nearly white. It is relatively easy to identify with its distinctive little coloured spikes on the cap. The way it glowed was unique. Most bioluminescent mushrooms glow in the cap, the stem, or both. These Armillaria limonea glowed only around the bottom edge of the cap or, in the case of Armillaria novae-zelandiae, mostly in the veil that at first covers the immature gills. Forest & Bird
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Biodiversity matters From my experience in the world of bioluminescent fungi, this is very unusual. I’m left wondering whether Māori, who knew A. novae-zelandiae as the food harore, ever recorded its bioluminescence? I got a little stunned by the beautiful finding and stopped after just a few photos. So it wasn’t until about an hour later, lying in my sleeper-van bed with all equipment and collections next to me, that I wondered whether I could see them with just my unaided eyesight. I reached into the collection box and brought them closer. With my eyes fully adjusted to the darkness, the bioluminescence was easily visible – not brightly but certainly enough to see. After returning to the North Island, I went back to the slopes under the cloud shadow of Mt. Taranaki. As the story has gone many times, it was on my “last chance” evening that I found them. They were not in the best condition, but the sticks and roots they grew on glowed, and they were certainly good enough to extract DNA. Those little mushrooms that I called Mycena “taranaki” might not have been as spectacular as the others but completed my mission to re-find the ones I had seen the year before and were needed for the identification process. As of this writing, we still don’t know in which genus “A thousand points of light” belongs. They and “Crystal falls” are now on track to be formally described by my colleagues at Landcare Research in Auckland. There the DNA sequencing data and collections will be stored in the PDD Fungarium for scientists from around the world to study. Armillaria limonea, Braeburn Track, Lake Rotoroa. These “foxfire” mushrooms have never been recorded as luminous until Taylor spotted them glowing in the dark in New Zealand (bioluminescent image, top right).
I wonder if...can anyone see the mushrooms glowing in the dark? “Generally, yes,” says Taylor. “There is a huge range of luminosity between the bright ones and the dim ones. The ‘thousand points of light’ mushrooms were fairy easy to see with my eyes well adjusted to the pitch black forest. Some mushrooms can be seen from 30m away. Some are so dim that that they are quite difficult to see and photograph.”
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This Armillaria limonea image captured worldwide attention because it's thought to be the first-ever record (in 2000 years) of these ‘foxfire’ mushrooms glowing.
New Zealand’s fabulous fungi Having worked on New Zealand fungi for more than 30 years, I’m continually impressed with their diversity of form and function, and their often overlooked importance in our ecosystems. Our fungi are also particularly abundant. In comparison with countries where fungi are better studied, we can extrapolate using average “vascular plant: fungi” ratios of 1:6 to estimate that New Zealand has more than 20,000 species of fungi, and we’ve only recorded 8000 species to date. There’s rather a lot of work to be done! For this reason, and because of New Zealand’s remoteness, we are keen to encourage visiting experts to assist us in the large task of documenting our fungal biodiversity – which also includes rare and threatened species just as in all groups of life. The work by Taylor Lockwood has been particularly welcome as he came with experience of looking for bioluminescent mushrooms in other countries and set about documenting this feature for three or four New Zealand mushroom species. Only one of these was previously known to be luminescent. In terms of formally describing the new species of the luminescent Mycena, this requires some considerable work by fellow mycologist Jerry Cooper, who is also at Landcare Research. Jerry needs to integrate features of these new species with many other species from other countries, using both morphology and DNA sequence data – and he is in communication with Taylor about this. In the interim, reference as Mycena sp. or Mycena “taranaki” is used until the formal description. n Dr Peter Buchanan, Landcare Research
Taylor is a pioneer in the discovery and appreciation of mushrooms and other fungi. His work has appeared in the National Geographic Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other publications, as well as recently on a USA postage stamp.
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Blue whale sanctuary Blue whale surfaces in front of an offshore oil and gas processing vehicle, South Taranaki Bight. Photo: Dawn Barlow
HEARING IS BELIEVING
At the time of writing, oil exploration vessel Amazon Warrior was in the South Taranaki Bight conducting controversial seismic blasting in one of only five known blue whale feeding and breeding grounds in the world (see our cover story in the Summer 2017 issue). Forest & Bird is calling for an end to seismic testing in the Taranaki basin, because of the noise impacts on whales, dolphins, porpoises, and penguins. For too long, the oil and gas industry has polluted the ocean with seismic airgun noise with little consequence. The industry uses seismic airguns to find their next lucrative reserve under the sea floor, and because their operations are out of sight and the noise is underwater many have not noticed this deafening (literally) noise. As terrestrial and vision-dependent animals, we humans have a hard time appreciating the importance of sound in the marine environment. Most of the ocean is a dark place, where vision does not work well, and many animals depend on sound to survive, especially marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. But hearing is believing, so have a listen to a recording of seismic airguns firing in a known blue whale feeding area in the South Taranaki Bight: http://blogs. oregonstate.edu/gemmlab/2017/10/24/hearing-isbelieving/. This short audio clip is of a seismic airgun firing every eight seconds (a typical pattern) – the sound has been likened to listening to a nail gun in a kitchen. Before you hit play, close your eyes and imagine you are a blue whale living in this environment.
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Dr Leigh Torres and her colleagues recorded the sound of seismic blasting in New Zealand’s blue whale feeding grounds during a blue whale research expedition last year.
Now, put that clip on loop and play it for three months straight. Yes, three months. This consistent, repetitive boom is what whales living in a region of oil and gas exploration hear, as seismic surveys often last one to four months. n Words by Dr Leigh Torres, from Oregon University, who discovered the New Zealand blue whale population in the South Taranaki Bight. To read her full blog, see http:// blogs.oregonstate.edu/gemmlab/2017/10/24/hearingis-believing/.
Here is Forest & Bird’s open letter to NZ Limited setting out why it should abandon seismic testing in the Taranaki basin.
Mr Marcus Jesen Director Schlumberger New Zealand Ltd New Plymouth Dear Mr Jesen, Forest & Bird notes that the world’s largest seismic survey vessel, the Amazon Warrior is due to arrive in New Zealand. This is to undertake Schlumberger’s proposed Western Platform Multi Client 3D Seismic survey scheduled for three months of continuous survey from 1 December. The seismic survey covers 19,000km2 and includes the area of the Government’s proposed Taranaki blue whale sanctuary. The Speech from the Throne, which set out the new Government’s agenda, stated the Government intends to make New Zealand “world leaders on environmental issues and climate change”. The Government stressed that climate change is “the greatest challenge facing the world” and stated its intention to safeguard the healthy functioning of marine ecosystems and look at establishing a Taranaki blue whale sanctuary. Your proposed survey appears completely at odds with the new Government’s goals. The survey will imperil the blue whale population recently discovered to be resident in the region and the many other marine mammals that call the area home. These include poorly known species that are listed as data deficient by the Department of Conservation, such as pygmy right whales, Shepherd’s beaked whales, strap-tooth beaked whales, and others.
PENGUIN STUDY Little penguins could also be at risk from the noise impacts of seismic blasting, according to new research. A South African study has shown that endangered African penguins avoided their preferred feeding grounds when seismic survey vessels were operating. While the study showed the penguins behaved normally again once testing stopped, it was unclear whether there had been any permanent effect on the birds’ hearing or whether they’d missed a critical feeding window, says Forest & Bird seabird expert Karen Baird. Five out of six of New Zealand’s native penguins are in trouble, including the little penguin. “Recent research of little penguins, which breed on Motuara Island in the Marlborough Sounds, shows they swim all the way to the South Taranaki Bight, a return journey of 170km. “This huge effort means the bight is likely to be an important feeding area for them, and the seismic testing under way there could very well be disrupting their feeding and breeding success.”
Seismic surveying is a serious threat to marine mammals, including blue whales. While we recognise that under New Zealand’s EEZ Act seismic surveys are a permitted activity, such activities will be up for review in 2018. To proceed as a permitted activity, operators undertaking marine seismic surveys must comply with the Department of Conservation’s “2013 Code of Conduct for minimising acoustic disturbance to marine mammals from seismic survey operations”. However, you will be aware that the 2013 Code of Conduct is out of date and has been under review by the Department of Conservation since 2015. Considerable new research demonstrates broader environmental impacts from seismic surveys and that the proposed mitigation measures are inadequate to safeguard marine mammals from the significant impacts that these surveys impose. Many species listed by the Department of Conservation as species of concern are not reliably detectable, so mitigation measures that rely on sightings are of little use. Given operations will be 24 hours a day, visual observations at night or in poor weather conditions are meaningless, and passive acoustic monitoring is ineffective for detecting some species, particularly beaked whales. It is highly unlikely that any surveying will result in opportunities for extracting fossil fuels given the new Government’s direction. and the proposed surveying poses risks to marine mammals that the Government is considering protecting in a marine mammal sanctuary. To not jeopardise the new Government’s intentions on environment and climate change and its vision to create a marine mammal sanctuary in this area, we call on you to not proceed with your survey in the Taranaki basin.
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Forgotten species
The ornate skink (Oligosoma ornatum) is one of many native lizard species affected by habitat and population losses as a result of inappropriate land development. Photo: Trent Bell
LIZARD TALES
Lizard populations are lost daily in New Zealand from their habitat being destroyed by new housing, roading, dairy, and forestry, as herpetologist Trent Bell explains. Reptiles and amphibians are very much a forgotten fauna in New Zealand. This is despite the number of native lizard species being nearly equivalent to the number of native land birds, with more than 110 endemic lizard species and four endemic frogs known so far. Herpetofauna make up a significant component of our native terrestrial fauna. However, the Department of Conservation considers that 83% of our lizards are “threatened” or “at risk” of extinction in the latest Threat Classification Lists. We also have some of the world’s most primitive and endangered frogs. The Wildlife Act 1953 is supposed to strictly protect all of our native reptiles and amphibians, but they continue to be hammered by predatory mammals and habitat losses every day. Lizards and frogs are often affected by decisions made as part of the Resource Management Act consenting processes without any consideration for the impacts on them. Every day, individuals and populations of herpetofauna (usually lizards) are lost through land development. Yes, lizard populations are lost daily. Our herpetofauna are unable to “fly” away from land development projects, such as housing, subdivisions, roading, dairy, and forestry, and are killed as a result. This happens even though it is an offence to disturb, kill, or destroy lizards or frogs under the Wildlife Act. Many of our unique frogs, lizards, and of course tuatara exhibit slow life histories that make them intrinsically vulnerable to these impacts. Hence the reproductive and dispersal capacity of our herpetofauna is unable to replace the losses sustained daily. Resource management is a topic of increased concern
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in herpetology. I’d like to see improved awareness of the potential for lizards and frogs to be present on sites being proposed for development.
In January this year, a new population of black-eyed geckos was discovered in Otago, some 400km from the previously known populations in Kaikoura and northwest Nelson. Tony Jewell and Carey Knox describe this rare good news story in the latest BioGecko journal, which is out now. BioGecko was established to help raise awareness and knowledge of our reptile and amphibian fauna nationally and assist in the sharing of ideas and information between researchers, conservation managers, and the community. By subscribing to BioGecko, you can support our efforts in raising awareness and knowledge about this rare and rather unique fauna in New Zealand. At the same time, you will be able to increase your own knowledge of our BioGecko reptiles and amphibians, and even get involved in their conservation. The 2018 issue of BioGecko is out now. To subscribe, drop an email at subscriptions@biogecko. co.nz ($30 or $20 for students and community groups). Back issues become accessible once you sign up. See www.biogecko.co.nz for more information. A journal for New Zealand herpetology Issue 5, 2018
In this issue...
Black-eyed geckos discovered in Otago
The ‘Awarua morph’ of southern grass skink Cryptic skinks in ice plants
Nga Uruora: lizards of the Paekākāriki-Pukerua Bay Escarpment Tools and techniques: pitfall traps
Shorebirds
Flooding wipes out chicks
Black-billed gull on nest in river colony. Photo: Steve Atttwood
It’s been a tough breeding season for the black-billed gull on the Ashburton River, as Mary Ralston finds out. The world’s rarest gull nests on the riverbed near the humble mid-Canterbury town of Ashburton. Every year, they contend with changing water levels – floods coming down the river coupled with periods of very low flow – but this breeding season was particularly problematic for the black-billed gull/tarapuka. The gulls began settling at their usual spot underneath the bridge in the middle of town in early September, despite higher than usual water levels. But a flood midmonth made them abandon the spot in favour of the Ashburton/Hakatere river mouth, about 25km away. By October, only a couple of pairs persisted with the bridge site, while a huge colony of black-billed gulls and white-fronted terns formed at the river mouth. A massive flood of 180 cumecs (average summer low flows are about three cumecs) in the middle of October washed away many of these rivermouth nests, but most birds persevered with another clutch, and thousands of chicks had hatched by early December. The sight of thousands of black-billed gulls and whitefronted terns nesting in the one spot was amazing. Other species frequent the area as well: little, black, spotted, and pied shags, Caspian terns, and a pair of royal spoonbill even nested in the middle of the black-billed gull colony. But by late December, river flows had dropped, the river mouth closed, and the lagoon flooded, drowning many chicks. Meanwhile, back at the bridge, there was a late flurry of action in mid-December with about 3000 birds nesting – it’s unsure whether these birds came from the river mouth back to the bridge or whether they were from somewhere else. At New Year, the bridge colony was looking very successful with many chicks. It all turned to custard for the bridge birds in a January flood: 165 cumecs of water flowed under the bridge, taking out the colony. Some birds were seen sheltering
on high ground and on islands, but many chicks were drowned. But all was not lost; some of the chicks swept downstream were seen being “shepherded” into groups by adult birds. It was a difficult year for the birds, but compared to last year they were spoilt for choice for nesting habitat, says Andrew Crossland, ornithologist with the Christchurch City Council, who has been involved with counting the birds. “The floods that came down early in the spring swept away a lot of vegetation and left more useable habitat than they had last year.” For many years, the Ashburton branch of Forest & Bird has counted and monitored their local black-billed gulls and now, after much advocacy, Environment Canterbury has come on board with a management strategy, which includes spraying riverbed weeds to increase the area of useable habitat, fencing the river-mouth colony, predator trapping, and signage.
The Ashburton/Hakatere is one of the most overallocated rivers in the country, and, despite a goal of the Ashburton Water Zone Committee of a six cumecs minimum flow at the bridge, many irrigation users have consents without a minimum flow restriction, which results in too much water being taken out of the river. A flow of six cumecs would be enough to keep the river mouth open, which would make a significant difference to birds and aquatic biodiversity. Ironically, too much water was an issue this breeding season. Some of this was caused by natural flooding events and spring snow melt, but on one occasion last year excess water taken from a different river was released into the Ashburton by one of the irrigation companies, which flooded the colony and drowned many chicks.
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Then and now
Whangamarino
woes
Forest & Bird is calling for urgent action to better protect and restore an internationally important Waikato wetland. By Rebecca Stirnemann, Forest & Bird’s Central North Island regional manager. Images by Oscar Thomas. They recently found some elusive and extremely rare New Zealand bittern in Whangamarino. This find should be a cause for celebration among conservationists, but sadly it doesn’t reflect the real story of what is happening at New Zealand’s second largest wetland. The reality is that Whangamarino, home to some of the country’s most endangered and treasured bird, fish, and plant species, is in serious trouble. Whangamarino, which is between Auckland and Hamilton, is one of the country’s largest wetlands and recognised as being internationally important under the Ramsar Convention. Sadly, this doesn’t mean it is automatically protected, and the wetland is currently being treated as a glorified flood control area. Day-to-day water levels change in the wetland over a very short time, making it hard for the native species living there to survive, let alone thrive. Water levels in Whangamarino are controlled by an artificial drain running from Lake Waikare, one of New Zealand’s most polluted lakes, straight into the wetland, polluting it too. Whangamarino was anoxic for three months last year, and many fish died with so little oxygen. When I visited in January, the once clear water was like brown soup and invasive koi carp were everywhere. Nearby farmers are trying to improve the water quality by undertaking massive replantings of vegetation. They really care because they remember when they could safely swim in the wetland and its cool clear pools. But you cannot swim in it now. When kayaking within this wetland, we got rashes on our arms, and it smelled bad. A sulphur-
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like gas came off the water. Undertaking vegetation restoration is difficult because the water levels change really fast every day, farmers get no warning, and their restoration native seedlings are drowned. Keeping stock out can also be hard because water levels alter (again with no warning) and continually short out the electric fences, making stock breakouts into the wetland more probable. The weeds are winning. Royal fern grows large and changes the habitat by completely shading out areas. It is really dense and becomes the dominant plant, burying the rare native vegetation. Royal fern now covers a large amount of Whangamarino, and willow is spreading fast too. It won’t be long till the entire wetland is smothered, and then it is likely that we will lose all our endangered species in this beautiful forgotten wetland. Invasive koi carp are present in extremely high levels. They are digging out the sides of the banks, making giant holes and altering the habitat. The numbers of rats are also high. Even non-native birds, such as ducks and geese, have had a poor breeding season, down from 22 to two chicks per season, say farmers. So our native birds are no doubt doing even worse. One farmer told me that bittern used to be found on his land abutting the wetland, but they have disappeared and dogs are getting sick from drinking the water. Whangamarino urgently needs help now, or one of our largest and most internationally significant wetlands will disappear forever, like 90% of New Zealand’s other wetlands have gone before it.
What needs to happen? n Whangamarino can’t carry on being the drainage
area for one of New Zealand’s most polluted lakes. Waikato Regional Council needs to block the artificial drain from the lake to the wetland to raise lake levels and stop polluted water entering the wetland. n Forest & Bird would like to see the regional council consult with local iwi, DOC, conservationists, and land owners to inform a plan that would manage it as a Ramsar site and not as a flood site. Urgent action on the weeds and other invasives, such as koi carp, is also needed. n Lake Waikare needs to be cleaned up – it’s currently kept artificially low, which is concentrating the pollution.
The critically endangered swamp helmet orchid/Anzybas carseii. Photo: Craig Purvis/DOC
Wonderful wetlands
Whangamarino is home to 240 species of wetland plants, 20% of New Zealand's bittern population, other threatened wetland birds, and native fish.
Fernbird
Spotless crake
• WHANGAMARINO
Whangamarino Wetland consists of a rich and representative variety of wetland ecosystems, from peat bog and swamp to open water and river systems. This is one of the features that lent support to its designation under the Ramsar Convention. Nearly 240 species of wetland plants are found in the Whangamarino, 60% of which are indigenous. A number of these are uncommon or extremely rare, including the water milfoil, the clubmoss, and the critically endangered swamp helmet orchid/, now found nowhere else in the world. These diverse ecosystems provide habitat to a wide range of native wetland birds, including the Australasian bittern/matuku. About 20% of New Zealand’s breeding bittern population can be found in the Whangamarino. The wetland is also an important site for a number of other rare or threatened wetland birds, including spotless crake/pūweto, marsh crake/ koitareke, North Island fernbird/mātātā, and New Zealand dabchick/weweia. The wetland provides habitat for a diverse range of native freshwater fish, including a significant population of the threatened black mudfish/waikaka. It is also home to longfin and shortfin eel/tuna and other galaxiid species. Introduced invasive fish species are also present in Whangamarino Wetland; koi carp and brown bullhead catfish are a particular problem as their aggressive feeding behaviour stirs up bottom sediments, affecting bank stabilisation and aquatic plant life. SOURCE: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Whangamarino_Wetland).
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In the field
Killing with
kindness
We need to teach our children that native New Zealand is worth fighting for and that pests deserve a humane death. Words and images by Ann Graeme. It’s a jolly scene. Volunteers of all ages are gathering. Grey-haired retirees and parents with bouncy children load bags of rat bait into their packs. Young and not-soyoung people with shorts and muscly legs collect eggs and dried rabbit lure for stoat traps. We, who care about living creatures, are going out into the forest to kill warm, furry animals. This is what conservationists do in New Zealand. We are so used to this that the incongruity goes unnoticed. We must kill introduced pests if native animals are to survive. Conservation-minded people understand, but it is strange and even shocking to visitors and new citizens from countries where these animals are native species, valued and even protected. Older, well-loved children’s story books celebrate Peter Rabbit, Bambi and Piglet. Remember Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy Winkle? She was an amiable hedgehog who wore an apron and a white cap with her prickles sticking through it. Here in New Zealand, she climbs trees and eats eggs and nestlings and is the scourge of dotterels nesting near the dunes. These stories endear us to animals, and this is admirable when they are written about native animals in the countries where they belong. But these rabbits, deer, hedgehogs, and wild pigs don’t and can’t belong here. Our native fauna was adapted to a special country and a special way of living, where it was smart to stay grounded and to scamper under cover of the forest when huge eagles and other birds of prey circled overhead. It was smart to be big and flightless and breed slowly. Our country was a place where giant weta
Students from Waitakere College Service Academy learning how to skin possums in Northland. Photo: Michael Schwab
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and snails, lizards, and birds roamed the forest and fat, flightless kākāpō were as common as sparrows. But the rules all changed when people came to Aotearoa. They brought furry animals with sharp teeth that hunted at night – rats, cats, stoats, ferrets, hedgehogs, dogs, and possums. Being grounded in the forest suddenly became a handicap. It is an invitation to be eaten. Our native wildlife is ill-adapted to fight or flee from these new enemies, and they stand little chance against night-hunting ground invaders. And the carnage isn’t over yet. It took me some time to realise this. In the 1970s and 1980s, when vast areas of native forest were being clearfelled for pine plantations, the priority for conservationists was to protect the forests. I remember the battles for Pureora, Whirinaki, Waitutu, and South Westland. When protection finally came to the great state-owned forests, I remember our elation that we had “saved the forests”. And then I remember the chilling realisation that, necessary as that victory had been, the fight for survival was not yet over. Kiwi and kākāpō are already gone from many forests, but, if the “tide of teeth” is not held back, we will lose even the commoner birds, like the bellbirds, robins, tomtits, and kererū that define native New Zealand. That is why kind people, people who love animals, go out and trap and poison and kill introduced pests. Now there is a new momentum. It is called Predator Free NZ and its rallying call is bring back the dawn chorus. In 2016, the then Prime Minister announced that we would aspire to a “Predator Free New Zealand by 2050”. Since then, government agencies, businesses, communities, individuals, and iwi have taken up the challenge to eradicate small furry animals. Let the killing begin. But in the drive to kill pests, we must always remember that it is not their fault that they are outcasts. They did not choose to come here. We brought them from their homelands and – except for the rats – we brought them here deliberately to serve our aims. The fault is ours. We must not lose our empathy with the animals we need to kill. We must never lose sight of the reason we have taken up arms against these introduced mammals and not just count the mangled bodies of squashed stoats or rejoice in the dead rats piling beneath kill traps. This is the message we must give to our children: that native New Zealand is worth fighting for and that pests deserve both our understanding and a humane death.
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These posters were designed for the Aongatete Forest Restoration Project, in the Bay of Plenty. Set up by Tauranga Forest & Bird Branch and the Katikati Rotary Club in 2006, the project covers 500ha of native forest in the Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park and is supported by local Forest & Bird volunteers, landowners, and Ngāi Tamawhariua, who have the kaitiaki (guardianship) role over this forest. If you would like to use the posters, email editor@ forestandbird.org.nz, and we will forward the high-res pdfs.
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Conservation in history
95 years EST. 1923
A lifelong love of nature
Gerald Messenger learned about ruru from his great-uncle Arthur, top right, a founder member of Forest & Bird in 1923. Main image: Nicole Jecentho. Inset photo courtesy of the Chambers family.
Some Forest & Bird families have been members since the organisation began in 1923. The Messenger whānau is one of them. By Caroline Wood. In March 1923, a keen ornithologist and artist called AH Messenger became a founder member of the newly established New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, later to become known as Forest & Bird. Arthur was the official note-taker at the very first meeting that established the fledgling society, which had a former Prime Minister Sir Thomas Mackenzie as its first President. Arthur joined the inaugural committee and went on to introduce the first children’s page in its Birds magazine. His first story was called the Little Brown Bird and was published in 1926, in issue 10. Arthur Messenger, like Capt Val Sanderson and the other founder members, thought it vital for children to learn to love nature from an early age so they could be part of the movement to protect it. Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club was born of this philosophy 30 years ago. The Messenger family have been proud members of the Forest & Bird whānau for 95 years. And Gerald Messenger (pictured above), 80, who is Arthur’s great-nephew, has been passionate about New Zealand nature all his life. He remembers Arthur with great fondness because, when he was a boy living on his family’s farm in central North Island, his great-uncle created a very special book for him called Pete the Bad Robber Cat Puts a Fast-one over the Morkies. The story, which Arthur wrote and illustrated, is about the family’s farm cat catching morepork instead of rats. Gerald, who still looks after moreporks at his home in Northland (see his story right), grew up in a family that immersed itself in nature. His father and grandfather were bird lovers. They knew every species on the farm and the location of every nest, he recalls. Gerald was also a New 38
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Zealand representative for shooting, honing his skills as a child when he was allowed to shoot pests and introduced birds on the family farm. “I was always interested in nature, but I was told I couldn’t do it as a living. The Department of Conservation didn’t exist then. I used to take the nature study classes at primary school. My teacher asked me to do it because I knew so much about it. Growing up, I used to hear a lot of birds, including kiwi, near our farm.” Gerald, who went on to have a lifelong love of nature and later in life discovered the guava moth pest, now lives in Northland. He has spent many years looking after a DOC reserve near his home and building nesting boxes for morepork. Seventy years after his great-uncle Arthur wrote the young Gerald a book about morepork, the octogenarian is still doing his bit to protect nature – and ruru – in his community. It’s this kind of dedication and passion that are the foundation stones of Forest & Bird’s proud 95-year history as the only independent conservation organisation in New Zealand. n Forest & Bird has many long-standing members. Are you one of them? Help us celebrate our 95th year by sharing your story. Contact Caroline Wood at c.wood@ forestandbird.org.nz.
Morepork musings By Gerald Messenger.
In 2008, I decided to build two nest boxes for a morepork/ ruru (Ninox novaeseelandiae) living in a 6ha patch of regenerating bush on the Taumarumaru Reserve at Coopers Beach, Northland. The bush consists of mostly kanuka with an understory of various shrubs, the largest trees being tōtara, so there were no suitable nest sites for moreporks. The design was inspired by one put up in 1958 by King’s College, Middlemore. My two boxes were placed in trees about 100m apart at a height of about 4m, one being a mānuka, the other a karaka – both sites are morepork perches. The first time ruru used the nesting box was in 2012 (it was the mānuka one). That year, she raised one chick successfully, I think as a solo parent, as I found a dead adult bird about 10m from the nest box. It was as though it had died in mid-air and dropped into some long grass with folded wings. There was no sign of injury or missing feathers, so this was perhaps the end of the cock bird. On one occasion, I was standing about 15m from the young morepork and its mother, just watching them, when a tūī attacked it from behind. The young bird, still covered in grey down, flew straight towards me with the tūī in hot pursuit. They flew so close I grabbed at the tūī and touched it. That diverted it from the chase. I don’t for a moment think the young bird was coming to me for protection but that I was just standing in the only clear escape route. The next year, 2013, the nest box was used again, and once again only one chick was raised. Again, there was no sign of the cock bird after hatching, but I had often seen him before she nested.
Morepork chick in nesting box. Photo: Gerald Messenger
Ruru in the reserve near Gerald’s home. Photo: Nicole Jecentho.
In 2014, the mother nested in the karaka tree box. She laid two eggs. When I went up a ladder to take the photo (pictured left), both parents sat about 4m away and watched me. I didn’t see the cock bird again – he must roost further away. I don’t know how the plastic got into the box – starlings, mynas, or rats, something had to cart it 300 or 400m from the road. The silvereye is the chick’s supper, also the weta on the other side of the chick. The other egg didn’t hatch. The only food remains I have found under the boxes were one mouse and one small bird, possibly a silvereye/ tauhou. In subsequent years, 2015 and 2016, we have had more successes with two eggs being laid and hatching each year. In 2017, mother and cock bird returned again to my nesting boxes. This has not been a scientific project to study morepork but simply a way to help the resident bird. During the last decade, I have trapped 743 pests in and around this small patch of bush with only 20 traps, including 394 possums, 236 rats (mostly black rats), 86 mice, 15 hedgehogs, and 12 weasels, and no stoats. I have seen 40 species of birds on the reserve, and I like to think there is an increase in small birds, but it is hard to tell. However, there has been big growth in native understory since I reduced the number of possum and rats. Forest & Bird
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Freshwater
What’s happening at
Waitaha?
M
ore than a year ago, the Department of Conservation agreed in principle to allow a hydro scheme to be built on conservaton land above the pristine Morgan Gorge, on the Upper Waitaha River. At the time of writing, the government still hadn’t made its decision on whether to approve this controversial proposal. Forest & Bird made a submission against the scheme last year and has been campaigning to stop the hydro dam on conservation grounds, working with recreational user groups – in particular, Whitewater NZ, who represent New Zealand’s white water kayaking community. Everyone, even Westpower, agrees the conservation area in question is a place of outstanding natural values. Both sides also accept the hydro scheme would cause high adverse local effects. It is also agreed the hydro scheme would substantially reduce the minimum flow of water into the Morgan Gorge. Will the new government protect one of New Zealand’s last remaining wild rivers or will it approve Westpower’s application in the name of “regional development”? Here independent energy and law consultant Tony Baldwin assesses the four main economic and social reasons advanced by Westpower in its application – and finds they don’t stack up:
REASON 1: To meet growth in electricity demand and provide adequate reliability: The West Coast already has a large surplus of electricity supply capacity, not a shortage. Seven years ago, the Coast’s transmission capacity was increased by 100% to cover expected growth in mining and dairy. It will take decades to use up the surplus capacity. As for reliability, Westpower’s own 40
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Kevin England kayaks downstream from the Morgan Gorge on the Waitaha. Photo: Andy England
corporate reports state that the transmission upgrade in 2011 “restored security levels to good electricity industry practice standards”.
REASON 2: To lower carbon emissions in New Zealand by backing off generation from coal and gas stations: Intuitively, this sounds logical, but it’s not. In terms of reducing carbon, Westpower’s hydro scheme would make quite a weak contribution because its power output would drop in the winter (because of low river flows), which is when coal generation tends to be high. Other less expensive renewables – such as geothermal and wind – are much better at reducing the need for coalfired electricity year round. If Westpower builds its hydro station ahead of cheaper geothermal and wind options, it will mean we save less carbon than we otherwise would because building those better renewable generators will be deferred. In short, Westpower’s scheme is likely to cost the country in carbon.
REASON 3: To provide confidence to potential investors to invest in the West Coast: This is contradicted by Westpower’s own annual reports, which clearly state that its existing electricity supply is not a constraint on future economic development.
REASON 4: To make the West Coast “self-sufficient” in electricity from community-owned generation: It might sound good to buy locally produced electrons – like buying locally produced food – but it makes as much sense as arguing that Blenheim or Gisborne, or indeed any other part of New Zealand, should be self-sufficient in electricity.
That’s why we have a national transmission grid – to provide electricity to consumers around New Zealand with access to lower cost generation that might be miles from where they live. In short, Westpower’s reasons don’t stack up. In truth, its hydro scheme wouldn’t get off the ground now if the shareholder funds were coming from private investors instead of soft capital from the consumer trust that owns Westpower. Why? Because the wholesale market price of electricity for the coming three years is about $75 a unit, while the full cost of power from the Waitaha is probably in the $90 to $100 range. So, until prices rise by about 20%30%, Westpower’s scheme is not likely to be economic. Much cheaper (and already consented) new generation is available before Westpower’s scheme would become economic. Which leaves Westpower’s one remaining reason for their proposed scheme (in their words): “If we can create a surplus of electricity generation on the West Coast ... then we should.” Really? The West Coast already has a large capacity surplus, and peak demand is lower than it was seven years ago when supply capacity was doubled. This is after 14 years of Westpower (and others) massively overestimating growth in its annual forecasts in the lead up to lodging its Waitaha application in 2014. In reality, Westpower is seeking concessions now to give it the option to build the Waitaha scheme sometime in the future if and when it may become economic. While Westpower’s business goal is to get bigger, I suggest the community’s funds would be better spent strengthening services the West Coast really needs, like more health care. In summary, Westpower’s hydro scheme would displace more efficient renewable generation options, waste the community’s money, and degrade an outstanding piece of
pristine wilderness owned by the country as a whole, not just the West Coast, for no good reason. The Conservation Act sets a relatively high hurdle for commercial activities to be carried out in special environments such as the Upper Waitaha River valley. In my opinion, Westpower’s hydro scheme falls well short of the act’s requirements. n Tony Baldwin is an energy and law consultant. His expert report and submission on the Waitaha hydro scheme are at www.tonybaldwin.co.nz.
What’s being proposed? Westpower wants to build a 16–20MW hydro electricity scheme on the Upper Waitaha River, about 40km south of Hokitika. At the top of the Morgan Gorge, the scheme would include a 5m high concrete wall across the river diverting most of the water into an intake structure, down a 1.5km tunnel, through penstocks, then into a powerhouse and switchyard, and then through a tail-race structure back into the natural flow of the Waitaha River about 2.6km downstream from the intake. The scheme would mostly be located on pristine conservation land, which all parties agree has outstanding natural values.
Tai Haruru Lodge
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Mangarākau Swamp Lodge North-west Nelson Sleeps 10 mangarakauswamp@gmail.com 03 524 8266 www.mangarakauswamp.com
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Matiu/Somes Island house Wellington Harbour Sleeps 8 wellingtonvc@doc.govt.nz 04 384 7770
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*To find our more about our lodges, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/lodges. Forest & Bird
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Then and now
Marlborough marine futures
Lochmara Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound. Photo: Penny Wardle
Penny Wardle speaks to locals about a citizen-led plan to establish a marine park in the Marlborough Sounds. Fears for the future health of Marlborough Sounds is driving those who work in, live in, and enjoy this special place to push for community-led management and protection. These are the people behind Marlborough Marine Futures – a vision and plan that balances protection of biodiversity, heritage, and spiritual mauri and wairua with commercial needs. Conflicting uses would be carried out in separate zones with special areas protected – all managed by a Sounds-based agency pulling together local and central government. New legislation would likely be needed to create a marine park in the Marlborough Sounds, as has already happened in the Hauraki Gulf, Kaikōura, and Fiordland. Chairing the trust behind Marlborough Marine Futures is Eric Jorgensen, a boat builder’s son and grandson, who was raised at Waikawa near Picton with the Sounds as his playground. The tug of love for his childhood home called Mr Jorgensen back from a corporate career in Australia 17 years ago. His family farms at Ocean Bay in Port Underwood and rents out crayfish quota. It was a bitter-sweet homecoming for Mr Jorgensen, who found his special place had changed. Once he’d been able to sail out into the Sounds and not see anyone for a week, but now it was likely someone would anchor alongside his boat every night. And while diving beneath the sparkling surface, he 42
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discovered the seabed was smothered with sediment, including significant ecological sites. Scallop, Pacific oyster, and rock lobster numbers were falling, and harmful algal blooms often made shellfish poisonous to eat. Dramatic drops in blue cod numbers had triggered rules for recreational fishers. Scallop dredging and bottom trawling were destroying areas of seabed, and some fish farm sites had turned toxic from excrement. Mr Jorgensen discovered many locals shared his concerns, and, in 2012, discussions started about citizen-led protection for the Marlborough Sounds. “We came together as Marlborough Marine Futures because the Sounds is hurting in different places from different causes,” says Mr Jorgensen. “Since we started this journey, we have seen scientific evidence backing up our suspicions.” Last year, NIWA released a 1000-year seabed history. Core samples from the Pelorus Sound seabed showed that sediment from farming and forestry was smothering areas 10 times faster than deposits caused by rain and floods before human occupation. Marlborough Mayor John Leggett told Marlborough Marine Farming Association members in August that soil from pine plantations contributed an average 30% of sediment in Kenepuru and Pelorus Sounds but covered only 14% of land area. He expected this to be the greatest
factor in deciding future land use. “We have driven the environment to this state by shortsightedness, ignorance, and sometimes greed,” says Mr Jorgensen. “What hasn’t helped are adversarial, litigious, ad-hoc, and rules-based management regimes. The approach that got us here won’t get us out.” After several drafts of its multiple use management concept and a survey recording 80% support, Marlborough Marine Futures is working through details in a “gifts and gains” process. As commercial rock lobster fisherman Graham Taylor told a community forum last year: “We don’t want to give things away to others but are keen to compromise if it’s for the environment.” The major but necessary challenge, Mr Jorgensen acknowledges, will be bringing the government on board. “I’m optimistic that the environment-focused Labour– New Zealand First coalition will pass legislation enabling community-driven ecologically sustainable management of the Sounds. “The agencies with the levers and dials to change the system need to listen and help us solve the Sounds’ problems,” he says. Legislation must extend to controlling how land is managed, such as enabling better local government controls over sediment and nutrient run-off. Marine consultant Rob Davidson backs the push for new legislation enabling targeted protection of undersea habitats. “New Zealanders pride ourselves on being environmentally responsible, but we are miles behind Australia where a whole suite of coastal protection mechanisms work really well,” he says. “This includes habitat protection areas for important things like juvenile fish.” Enabling Acts of Parliament created Te Korowai near Kaikōura in 2014 and the Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine area in 2005, 10 years after the concepts were originally floated.
Eric Jorgensen. Photo: Penny Wardle
Plumes of sediment flow from Kaiuma Estuary, near Havelock, towards the entrance to Pelorus Sound after heavy rain in May last year. This was captured in a satellite image from the European Space Agency.
VOICES OF THE SOUNDS ANDREW JOHN, who lives at Ngākuta Bay, describes how, after heavy rain, the Queen Charlotte Sound turns brown as sediment-filled water enters it, smothering plant life and killing marine species. Divers told him about seaweed coated with sediment so thick it blocked out sunlight and a sea floor wrecked by dredging. This destroyed habitats for small fish, meaning there was less to eat for larger species. “I know that this is wrecking food chains essential for a healthy fishery and for marine animals like dolphins, seals, and penguins,” says the chairman of Forest & Bird’s Marlborough branch. “Any solutions must reduce sediment run-off by changing practices like forestry, farming, and construction that exposed soil to rain.” Andrew is working alongside Andrew John. commercial and recreational Forest & Bird
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Then and now fishers, foresters, tourism operators, residents, iwi, and fellow conservationists through the Marlborough Marine Futures forums. “There is mutual respect and recognition that the Sounds has been going backwards for decades and everyone would benefit from recovery. These views are backed by good science, which gives us confidence we are going the right way,” he adds. RAYMOND SMITH says Ngāti Kuia people have no other place to call home than Pelorus Sound/Te Hoiere and the Pelorus River, where the iwi originated. During school holidays, Raymond learned to drive boats for his father and uncles on Sounds fishing trips. Today, this now grandfather and great-grandfather enjoys watching his mokupuna paddle about in split mussel buoys. A scientific report confirming Kaiuma Estuary in Pelorus Sound is among the muddiest in New Zealand hurts Mr Smith Raymond Smith. deeply. Seventy percent of its intertidal area is smothered in soft mud, choking precious habitat for shellfish, birds, and plants. As environmental manager for Ngāti Kuia, Mr Smith has a three-pronged agenda of ensuring Marlborough Marine Futures upholds Treaty of Waitangi settlements, provides for future generations, and fosters joint decision-making based on love of the Sounds. NADINE TAYLOR settled in the Marlborough Sounds when she married fourth generation fisherman Graham Taylor. In their honeymoon years, they lived alongside remote Tory Channel, moving to Picton when children came along. In 2016, she was elected as a Marlborough Sounds representative on the Marlborough District Council. Mrs Taylor acknowledges the vast resource represented
50 years ago
by the Sounds community who invest not only dollars in the Sounds but also hearts and minds. Working together to support a sustainable management model is a worthwhile goal for Marlborough Marine Futures, the council, and government, she says. “The starting point in this community-led process has to be identifying what the environment needs then working back to find enduring solutions.”
BEV DOOLE returned to her birthplace of Marlborough from Britain eight years ago, after working as a journalist for the Financial Times. Memories of swimming in the clear water of the Sounds, gathering mussels, and fishing for cod was part of the draw that lured her home. Today, Ms Doole sees the Sounds as a place where ever-increasing numbers of people want to live, holiday, and run marinebased businesses. A member of the Nelson Marlborough Conservation board, she agrees with Marlborough Marine Futures’ big picture perspective and contention that responsible management must involve all interests, not just industry. The project’s collaborative approach encourages diverse groups Bev Doole. Photo: Penny Wardle with a stake in the Sounds to first understand different opinions then work towards sharing and protecting the marine area they all value. n To find out more, see www.marlmarinefutures.co.nz.
Conservation Takes a Back Seat A recent issue of the “Economic News” carried an article informing its readers that for the first time since 1948 limited amounts of rimu softwoods can be exported. Matai, tawa and beech have also been freed for export. It is fair to record that the New Zealand Forest Service recently established an annual maximum cut for indigenous timbers under its control, and this is not to be exceeded, but virtually no control is exercised over the felling of timber stands in private hands... The decision of Government to turn a blind eye to the needs of posterity by approving the exploitation of the pitifully small remnant of our once huge indigenous timber forests to meet a setback in our overseas earnings will be regarded with distress and probably anger by all who have real conservation of the country’s natural resources at heart. Forest & Bird, February 1968, issue 167
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Nadine Taylor. Photo: Penny Wardle
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Kiwi Conservation Club
The cicada kid Did you know that New Zealand has at least 42 different types of cicada? Olly Hills, 10, from Hamilton loves cicadas so much he has written a book to help people identify them. By his mum Tara Hills. Olly has always been very interested in insects – and cicadas in particular. When he was young, I would lift him up into trees so he could catch cicadas. The next summer, he would drag a chair over to whichever tree had cicadas on to catch them and then finally he was big enough to climb trees himself. Olly would often ask me what type of cicada it was that he had caught. I would usually tell him it was a chorus cicada if it was large, or a northern snoring if it was small, as these were the only cicada names I knew! I have caught several chorus cicadas in my life, and can only hear half the cicadas that Olly can hear (apparently I can’t hear katydids either). I can only tell a few cicadas apart by sound, but simply don’t notice this sort of stuff generally. As Olly got older, I tried to find more information for him but found that everything was either in research papers or online, neither of which he could easily access. The book was born after Olly said so many times that there needs to be a book about New Zealand cicadas. Readers can learn all about clapping cicadas, screaming cicadas, snoring cicadas, braying cicadas, and even yodelling ones! Olly’s 115-page book allows us to enter their world and includes full colour photographs, maps, and detailed descriptions to help identify them. Olly, who is a member of the Kiwi Conservation Club in Hamilton, says: “I’m interested in all insects, as well as birds, frogs, and lizards, and like to help out with local conservation projects.
“I know other kids aren’t as interested in insects as I am, but this doesn’t make me think that insects are any less cool. I really like the fact that only children can hear the high-pitched cicadas. I think this makes people who can find these cicadas special.”
Snoring cicada. Photo: Tom Musson
Forest & Bird thinks Olly is pretty special and a great KCC ambassador. You can buy Cicadas of New Zealand (RRP $25) from www.fishpond. co.nz or through Olly’s website www.nzcicada.co.nz. He’d love to talk cicadas with anyone interested – child, teenager, or adult!
KCC is 30 years young! As part of our birthday celebrations, we’ve set a list of nature-based challenges. Complete them all in 2018 and go into our Grand Prize Draw for a weekend at Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge (for up to six people) and a special KCC membership pack. Commit to a few challenges and still be in to win spot prizes galore. Download your copy at www.kcc.org.nz/activities to join us in the fun and learning.
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Shorebirds
Braided river
birdlife
Adult female wrybill, October 2017.
Ecologist Rachel Hufton recently completed an update survey of braided river birds on the Makarora, in Otago. Words and images by Rachel Hufton. Recent braided river bird surveys and monitoring has shown that the Makarora River is an important site for indigenous shorebirds, maintaining a diverse and complete braided river avifauna. However, general trends indicate an overall decline. Makarora is home to five threatened endemic braided river bird species: black-fronted tern/tarapirohe, blackbilled gull/tarāpuka (both globally endangered), wrybill/ ngutuparore (the only bird in the world with a bill that curves to the right), banded dotterel/pohowera (both
Banded dotterel fledgling, January 2018.
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vulnerable and declining globally), and South Island pied oystercatcher/tōrea tuawhenua (declining). These five birds depend on this braided river habitat to complete their life cycle. They have unique adaptive survival strategies, such as cryptic coloration that helps them blend into their surroundings and multiple-brood production to allow survival and reproduction within this dynamic and often harsh environment. The headwaters of the Makarora lie on the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps near the Haast Pass, in Mt Aspiring National Park. The southwest-flowing Makarora River is joined by the Cameron, Blue, and Young Rivers, and below this point the braid plain and related habitat significantly expands. Further down-river, the Makarora braid system merges with that of the Wilkin River, draining from the west, before finally discharging into the head of Lake Wanaka. The riverbed is typical of braided rivers in the South Island, containing multiple channels with islands of gravel, on which birds nest. Important bird breeding nesting areas within the riverbed have been identified and mapped for black-billed gull and black-fronted tern colonies, wrybill, banded dotterel, and South Island pied oystercatcher to help guide and develop future conservation management. Large nesting colonies of southern black-backed gull/ Larus dominicanus were also recorded close to breeding
braided river birds. This species is a natural native predator of endemic braided river birds and has significantly increased with changes in land use. Although the southern black-backed gull is a native species, it is also found elsewhere in the world, unlike New Zealand’s braided river birds. The increase in the population of this large, predatory gull in the past few years is known to be having a significant negative impact on some New Zealand birds. Rising river levels in early November caused flash flooding, resulting in the loss of black-billed gull nests, eggs, and chicks and the loss of black-fronted tern nests and eggs. Both colonies successfully re-established alternative nesting sites and managed to produce some fledglings. Important survey and monitoring work has highlighted the cumulative threats faced by braided river birds not only through predation from introduced mammals but also
Adult black-fronted tern.
from native bird predators, flash flooding, agriculture, and recreational activity. Future work to help safeguard Makarora braided river birds will include invasive mammal and avian predator control strategies, while raising awareness of the importance of this habitat and the species it supports. Resources have now been secured through the Aspiring Biodiversity Trust (ABT) to help future conservation management to promote, protect, and enhance Makarora braided river bird populations and other threatened species within the Makarora catchment.
Black-fronted tern with fledgling, January 2018. Black-fronted tern nest with two olive-brown eggs, November 2017.
Black-billed gull chicks with unhatched egg, October 2017.
Makarora River at its meeting point with the Wilkin River.
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Going places
The sound of
stillness
Jess Winchester heads to Doubtful Sound/Pātea in the heart of Fiordland National Park. There is a point on the picturesque drive from Queenstown to Lake Manapouri where you lose your mobile’s signal. It just goes. Slips away before you even really notice. And, like eating the last chocolate in the box when you aren’t paying attention, I experience that sudden sense of disappointment, that “Oh, I just need to send just one more text” moment. But it’s worth it to switch off that backlit screen, lift your head, and really focus on the passing landscape. On my right, jagged mountains stand over Lake Wakatipu, 400m deep, and formed, according to Māori legend, when the giant Matau was destroyed by fire. His fat burned so hot it created a crater filled with melted snow. On my left, tawny tussocklands are fighting back to full health from land originally cleared for stock grazing. Getting to this remote spot is something of an adventure in itself and part of the joy of visiting this awe-inspiring World Heritage Area. On the journey to Doubtful Sound,
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I’m also reminded of the wonderful work undertaken by courageous conservationists who have fought to defend and protect this area – traps and planting projects along the roadside show they are still working today. In 1972, Real Journeys founders Les and OIive Hutchins were instrumental, alongside Forest & Bird, in creating the Save Lake Manapouri Campaign that ultimately inspired 10% of New Zealand’s population to demand government action. My journey across the lake would certainly have been very different without their efforts. It’s warm in the afternoon sunshine as we board the Fiordland Navigator, dwarfed by immense cliffs where gravity-defying tōtara, rimu, and beech cling on to a thin layer of nutrient rich humus. Keen to get out on the water and explore the Sound, I choose the tender craft and 10 of us join Nick, our nature guide, to learn more about the native species that call this incredible place home. Our fellow passengers in kayaks look like a flotilla of yellow ducklings as they fan out. The water is almost the colour of my favourite cup of gumboot tea. When it rains here (and it rains a lot), the fresh water running through the forest picks up tannins. We see tūī crashing through the trees, chasing each other in a wild territorial dash, and a bellbird says hello before we return to the boat for the evening. This time no-one spots a tawaki – the Fiordland crested penguin, but Nick smiles and says he has a feeling in his bones we may see dolphins during this trip. I’m not normally an early bird, but the prospect of dolphins gets me out of bed and on deck before the sun rises. The sky is bigger than any I have seen, an immense
Fur seal.
Bottlenose dolphins.
upturned bowl spattered with stars. Groups of my shipmates stand in huddles, battened down and rugged up against the bite of the wind. And there it is – the equivalent of “land ho!” for the first explorers, a shout from the far side of the deck: “dolphins!” They dance in and out of the water, keeping pace with the boat, mischievously disappearing, reappearing. Another shout: “over here!” But, as unexpectedly as they arrive, they are gone. So we turn our eager attention to the fur seals, lounging on the rocks. It’s still too early in the morning for these sleepy pups to play. The captain steers the boat into the shade of Hall Arm. It is entirely still and, aside from the morning twittering of the birds and the hushed whispers of fellow passengers, the silence is like a thick blanket. Slowly, fingers of sunlight graze over the deck, touching our faces, picking us out, and warming us one by one. The te reo Māori name for Doubtful Sound is Pātea. One of its translations is “unencumbered or free from burdens”. There is no doubt in my mind that Pātea is the better name for this astounding place. n Jess Winchester visited Doubtful Sound/Pātea courtesy of Real Journeys.
Cruise for a Cause Every year, Real Journeys generously donates two overnight trips: one in Doubtful Sound and the other in Milford Sound. Forest & Bird was the lucky recipient of one of the 2017 “Cruises for a Cause”. It raised more than $30,000, which will be used to support our predator-free work at national and grass-roots level.
Getting there Directions:
The Doubtful Sound/Pātea overnight cruise starts in Manapouri, about two-and-a-half hours from Queenstown and 30 minutes from Te Anau. You can drive there yourself, or Real Journeys offer coach connections from Queenstown and Te Anau. A passenger ferry will transport you across Lake Manapouri where a coach will take you over Wilmot Pass, on a sub-Alpine road through dense rainforest. Arriving at Deep Cove you’ll be met by the Real Journeys’ crew and your home for the night – the Fiordland Navigator.
Staying there:
The Fiordland Navigator sleeps 72 in private cabins with en suite or quad-share bunk rooms. Passengers enjoy a three-course buffet dinner and a cooked or continental breakfast. There is also a licensed bar. Activities include kayaking and small boat activities, so you can investigate the Sound for yourself and take a dip in the chilly waters if you are feeling very brave.
More The Real Journey crew love sharing their information: knowledge of the Sound. There will be a nature guide on board to answer any questions you have about the wildlife and history of area. Real Journeys offers a range of other wildlife cruises, see www.realjourneys.co.nz.
Day tours or overnight kiwi spotting tours Cabins & luxury tents Inspiring bush & coastal walks • Fantastic birdlife Delicious meals & great company HISTORY • CONSERVATION • RECREATION
For info & bookings visit: www.kapitiisland.com 0800 527 484 Forest & Bird
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Our partners
A gift that keeps on giving Have you claimed back the tax on your Forest & Bird donations? Jess Winchester explains how you can release these funds and put them to good work. New Zealand is in the top five countries in the world when it comes to giving to charity. But we are rubbish when it comes to claiming the generous tax rebates we are owed on our donations! An estimated $183 million in unclaimed tax rebates on charitable donations were languishing in IRD’s bank account at the end of 2016. “That money could be doing so much good in the community,” says Mark Stewart from Tax Management New Zealand. “I see charities like Forest & Bird that really need those funds, and that motivated me to try to help. At the moment, donors’ hard-earned cash is just benefiting IRD.” Mark’s firm Tax Management NZ (TMNZ) has created Smart Donation – a way for donors to make their gifts go further for charity. The company can track down what money you have given to charity and apply for a tax rebate on your behalf. It charges a small fee to cover the cost of delivering this service. By the end of 2017, Mark’s company had recovered $12,000 for Forest & Bird donors from the IRD, and more than a third of this was re-gifted to support our conservation work. Mark says he is delighted to be working with Forest & Bird. He grew up on a farm backing onto the bush in Mangonui and remembers childhood adventures, camping overnight and swimming in his local waterhole. “My favourite memory is of one evening when I saw a cliff face entirely filled with glow worms. When I have children, I want them to have the same experiences. Helping to fund Forest & Bird makes the future of the environment more secure,” he says. Speak to most donors, and they will say they wish they could give more to their favourite charity. So it’s a bit of a 50
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mystery why only 10% of taxpayers request a rebate that could allow them to do this. “It is very straightforward to claim a rebate from IRD, but the biggest issue is people just don’t know what they are entitled to get back,” says Mark, “As a rule, you can claim back 33% of your total annual donations for up to the last four years, and we are seeing a large number putting their original donation to good use and gift it again.” “And of course you can also claim a rebate on the new donation you make with your rebate – it really is the gift that keeps on giving!” n Forest & Bird would like to thank Tax Management New Zealand for its additional Christmas donation of $3,400 to support our work.
GENEROUS KIWIS Typically, we don’t like to talk about our generosity, but Kiwis should be giving ourselves a pat on the back because each year we donate more than $1.3 billion to causes close to our hearts. A whopping 65% of New Zealanders had made a charitable donation in the previous month, according to a global survey in 2016. That’s a bigger proportion than in Australia, the US, and the UK. Unfortunately, we’re not so good at asking for what we are entitled to – normally a 33% tax rebate – it’s very easy to give this straight back to Forest & Bird if you would like (and we hope you will). To find out more about claiming the tax rebate on all your charitable donations – not just to Forest & Bird – please visit https://www.smartdonation.co.nz/ or see www.ird.org.nz.
Love nature
Giant gecko returns There were many willing helpers during the recent successful translocation of 50 Duvaucel’s gecko, New Zealand’s largest lizard, to their new Bay of Islands home. Once common in rainforests throughout the North Island, New Zealand’s largest living lizard is now extinct on the mainland except for a couple of wildlife sanctuaries such as Tāwharanui, north of Auckland. In early February, 34 female and 16 male Duvaucel’s gecko were carefully captured and transported from Mauimua/Lady Alice Island in the Hen and Chicken Islands to their new pest-free sanctuary in the Bay of Islands. The seven-strong collection team was made up from Guardians of the Bay of Islands, Te Rawhiti hapū, Ngātiwai (who gifted the taonga), and the Department of Conservation, and led by experienced reptile expert, Ben Barr, from NorthTec. Duvaucel’s gecko are noctural and live on trees and the ground. They grow up to 30cm, but adults and young geckos are vulnerable to predation by introduced mammals. “They would once have lived happily here until the introduction of pest mammals,” says Project Island Song’s project manager Richard Robbins. “Most of the female geckos released were pregnant, and, as they usually give live-birth to twins, it’s hoped the population will establish quickly. And because the relocated males had probably not mated with the females, there should be a better genetic diversity. These geckos may live 50 to 70 years.” This is the sixth endemic animal species to be returned to Ipipiri, the eastern Bay of Islands. The other species have been birds, including kākāriki that were translocated last June. n Dean Baigent-Mercer
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Birdlife International
RED LIST 2017
Winners
and losers
Seabirds are being pushed closer to extinction, but conservation efforts are saving kiwi and pelicans, according to the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Overfishing and climate change are pushing seabirds such as black-legged kittiwake and Cape gannets closer to extinction, according to the latest update on the conservation status of the world’s birds by BirdLife International. In the Southern Ocean, Antipodean albatross (Diomedea antipodensis) population declines mean this ocean wanderer is uplisted from vulnerable to endangered. Bycatch in longline fisheries is a major threat, one that is increasing as albatrosses have to fly further to find food. With more females being accidentally caught and drowned than males, there is now thought to be a strong sex imbalance in the population. On land, the snowy owl is also struggling to find food in the North American Arctic and the once super-abundant yellow-breasted bunting could soon go extinct if illegal trapping in China is not halted. Here in New Zealand, kea, our 2017 Bird of the Year, has been uplisted from vulnerable to endangered because of its junk food eating habits. In better news, two species of kiwi have become stars of the 2017 Red List – rowi Apteryx rowi and northern brown kiwi A. mantelli have been downlisted from endangered to vulnerable, thanks to dedicated control of introduced predators, egg-rearing, and community work. It’s a true conservation success story: rowi (also known as Okarito kiwi) has increased from a mere 160 individuals in 1995 to 400–450 adults today. And in some areas, the northern brown kiwi populations are estimated to be growing by more than 2% a year. Meanwhile, in Europe, Dalmatian pelicans are recovering thanks to artificial nesting rafts and disturbance prevention. “Birds are well-studied and great indicators of the health of the wider environment. A species at higher risk of extinction is a worrying alarm call that action needs to be taken now,” says Dr Ian Burfield, Birdlife’s global science coordinator. “Thankfully, success in kiwi and pelican conservation 52
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shows that, when well-resourced and supported, conservation efforts really do pay off.”
Kittiwakes struggle Overfishing and ocean changes caused by climate change have affected the availability and quality of the blacklegged kittiwake’s (Rissa tridactyla) key prey species during the breeding season. Without sufficient food, kittiwake colonies in the North Atlantic and Pacific are struggling to feed their chicks, causing disastrous chick survival in recent years. For the adults, exposure to other threats at sea such as bycatch in fishing gear, pollution, and hunting in the Faroe Islands and Greenland have contributed to the dramatic declines of this seabird. Nesting kittiwake numbers have plummeted by 87% since 2000 on the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and by 96% on the Hebridean island of St Kilda. Globally, the species is thought to have declined by about 40% since the 1970s, justifying its uplisting from least concern to vulnerable.
Gannets starving It’s the ultimate irony for seabirds famous for their greed. The Cape gannet (Morus capensis), which only breeds in South Africa and Namibia, is now at higher risk of extinction because of population declines of greater than 50% since the 1950s. Overfishing of the gannet’s preferred
of threats to the species, affecting snowmelt that in turn reduces availability of rodent prey. Collisions with vehicles and infrastructure are also a threat. “Arctic biodiversity is under pressure from a number of stressors, including climate change, so hopefully the uplisting of the snowy owl will draw attention to wider issues in this region,” says Dr Ian Burfield.
Kea endangered prey in Namibia (sardine and anchovy) caused the almost complete collapse of fish stocks in the 1960s, and they have yet to recover. The result is hungry birds and an uplisting from vulnerable to endangered. Christina Hagen, from BirdLife South Africa, says: “To make up for the lack of food, Cape gannets have been congregating behind hake fishing vessels to eat low-nutrient discarded offcuts. This increases the risk of accidental tangling and drowning in fishing gear.”
Songbirds illegally trapped Illegal trapping for food in China means the formerly super-abundant songbird is now critically endangered. Once super-abundant, the yellow-breasted bunting has suffered frightening declines because of large-scale unchecked hunting (mainly for food). Sights of huge migrating flocks of this attractive songbird over cultivated land could soon be a thing of the past in Asia, paralleling scenes from North America in the 1800s of billion-strong flocks of passenger pigeons before they were hunted to extinction. Known as the “rice bird”, the yellow-breasted bunting is now thought to have declined by more than 80% since 2002, when it was still listed as least concern, and this year is uplisted from endangered to the highest threat category, critically endangered.
Snowy owl threatened Worrying new information from the North American Arctic shows the iconic snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) population is much smaller than previously thought and in decline. Significant populations in USA and Canada have declined by 64% since 1970, and therefore globally the owl made famous by Harry Potter’s “Hedwig” jumps from least concern to vulnerable. Climate change is among a number
Tourists feeding these curious alpine parrots junk food (like bread and chips) are unwittingly hampering conservation efforts to save the species from extinction. Every year, introduced mammalian predators such as stoats destroy 60% of kea nests, and this can rise to 99% during an episodic stoat “plague”. Using poison baits to control introduced mammals, which has proven very successful for kiwi and other native bird species, significantly improves kea-nesting success. However, this technique cannot currently be fully implemented in kea habitat, owing to the risk of some kea eating the poison. “One of our greatest conservation challenges is to stop tourists and others from feeding kea,” says Kevin Hackwell, Forest & Bird’s chief conservation advisor.
Pelicans recovering The recovery of the Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) population in southeast Europe means this species is downlisted from vulnerable to near threatened, thanks to long-term conservation efforts. Numbers of the world’s largest freshwater bird have increased four-fold in Europe since the 1990s, thanks to the thorough implementation of a species action plan and the protection conferred by the European Union’s Birds and Habitats Directives, which helped conserve key breeding sites in Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria. This year, the pelicans on Lake Skadar, Montenegro, which nest solely on floating nesting rafts cordoned and monitored to protect the birds from disturbance, had their most successful breeding season ever, raising 60 chicks. In Greece, populations have increased by almost 200% in under 20 years.
For more on all these stories, see www.birdlife.org.
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Marine
Inspiring tomorrow’s conservationists Hayley Nessia, winner of the 2017 Ballantine Award, explains why she is passionate about protecting New Zealand’s oceans. I first became interested in marine life when I started watching David Attenborough with my dad as a child. Studying marine science at the University of Auckland has been a rewarding experience as I have learned about the unique communities that make up New Zealand’s native marine ecosystems. The Marine Protected Areas course, which is taught by Professor Mark Costello, highlighted the potentials and pitfalls of MPAs. I believe they are an undeniably necessary tool for the conservation of marine life and fisheries stocks, and increasing their number and size within New Zealand is an important tool for achieving this. I chose to study the potential of MPAs in preserving stocks of southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii). I estimated their distribution to be impressively huge (>150 million square kilometres), with less than 4% of this covered by MPAs. However, for much of the year, southern bluefins spend their time in spawning or feeding grounds around Australia. Therefore, increasing the size and number of MPAs within these important areas could theoretically protect southern bluefins for six to nine months of the year. This is particularly important because they are listed as critically endangered by IUCN, and this justifies the establishment of MPAs for wide-ranging pelagic species. I hope future mitigation strategies increase the use of MPAs so New Zealanders are able to enjoy our beautiful marine fauna for many years to come. I was both surprised and pleased to learn I had won the Ballantine Award. I am also grateful to the sponsors of the award – Forest & Bird, WWF-New Zealand, and the Department of Conservation – for their support and encouragement. It is gratifying to be recognised for something that I am very passionate about.
Hayley Nessia with Forest & Bird’s marine advocate Anton van Helden.
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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao
The late Bill Ballantine’s speciality was rocky seashores. Photo: Brian Skerry
THE BALLANTINE AWARD This award is for the top student in the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) course at the University of Auckland. It is named in honour of Dr Bill Ballantine (1937–2015), who founded the course 20 years ago. Bill’s efforts led directly to the establishment of New Zealand’s first marine reserve and the Marine Reserves Act that has legislated for many more. He was the first and longest-serving Director of the University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory. His speciality was rocky seashores, and one of his earliest papers is a classic for seashore ecology and his most highly cited paper by other scientists. After his retirement in 2003, he continued to contribute energetically to the course every year. To the amusement of the students, he never hesitated in interrupting speakers whose views even appeared to compromise on the need for more fully protected reserves. His reputation and influence was worldwide, and he was an invited speaker to conferences and workshops in the USA, the UK, Korea, and Australia. Bill received the Forest & Bird Old Blue Award in 1989 and was a Distinguished Life Member. The Goat Island Marine Reserve, the first of its kind in New Zealand, is a small but very important reserve in the Hauraki Gulf. Bill firmly believed in the importance of a meaningful network of marine reserves throughout the gulf, the rest of coastal New Zealand, and also our wider marine environment. He applauded the intent to create the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, something that, alas, has yet to happen. n Professor Mark Costello
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Forest & Bird
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Our people
Tribute to Betty Harris 13 January 1921–9 January 2018
Betty Harris was instrumental in developing the Mangemangeroa Reserve, south of Auckland, and her passion for conservation has created an incredible legacy for future generations. The retired biology teacher, who lived in Howick, was a stalwart supporter of Forest & Bird. She chaired the South Auckland branch in the 1990s and was awarded a prestigious Old Blue award for her services to conservation in 1996. Mangemangeroa is a 22ha steep coastal forest reserve just south of Howick, and Betty played a key role in persuading the mayor and former Manakau City Council to purchase 12ha of private farmland to develop the reserve in 1994. Subsequently Betty, Jack McKenzie, and his wife Dorothy, with friends such as Jim Duckworth and others, formed a group to lobby for funding from the council and others, and the first stage of a public walkway through the reserve opened in 2000. Betty was born in the UK before moving to New Zealand in 1956, where she taught at several schools before becoming head of science at Epsom Girls Grammar for 17 years. Following her retirement in 1980, she dedicated her considerable energies to conservation, travel, painting, and her local church. In a letter she wrote before her death to be read out at her funeral, Betty said: “For some years, I have not had family living in New Zealand, but I have been very fortunate to have had good friends who have given me much help and support. To them, I owe deep gratitude and my very sincere thanks.” Betty inspired everyone who had the privilege of knowing her, and her legacy lives on in the natural world she helped protect and restore in her local Auckland community.
WELCOME SUSANNAH Susannah Muirhead is our new administration manager, based in National Office. Her professional background includes government, the private sector, and membership organisations. She is interested in the environment and nature, and can often be found tramping, running, or mountain biking on trails around the country. Susannah is excited to be working for an organisation that makes a difference.
Clear skies at Ruapehu Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge offers warm, comfortable accommodation a short drive from the Whakapapa ski field. There are cafes and restaurants in the village, which is a 10-minute walk from the lodge. You can find interesting and
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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao
varied day tramps in the area, and DOC’s visitor centre is well worth a visit. To make a booking, contact National Office 0800 200 064 and we will be delighted to help. Members receive subsidised rates. Photo: Bryce McQuillan
Parting shot This jewelled gecko (Naultinus gemmeus) was encountered during monitoring work and photographed in a fruiting ngaio tree (Myoporum laetum) in the Otago Peninsula. Jewelled gecko are a diurnal, arboreal gecko species only found in forests and shrublands in southern and eastern parts of New Zealand's South Island. They prefer to live in dense, tangly shrub and tree species that offer the geckos some protection from predators and food in the form of invertebrates and berries. Carey Knox
The best entry to our Parting Shot nature photo competition will win a prize, and the image will be published in the next issue of Forest & Bird magazine. Share your photos of native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, marine mammals, fish and natural landscapes, such as rivers and lakes, and you could be in to win. To enter, post your image on the Forest & Bird New Zealand Nature Group page on Flickr.com. Alternatively, send your high res digital file (maximum 7mb) and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood editor@forestandbird.org.nz.
THE PRIZE This issue’s winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Pukeko Hiker Tent (RRP $199). This one-person, single room tent from Kiwi Camping’s Explorer Range is ideal for tramping or hiking. The mesh inner makes it ultra-lightweight and compact, easily compressing down to fit in a backpack. Packs and wet boots can be kept separate and dry in the vestibule area. Made from double-coated polyester with 4000mm aqua rating and SPF50 UV coating, it will stand up to rigours of the outdoors, all year round. The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping. For more details, see www.kiwicamping.co.nz.
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Thomas Van Den Berg on Cocaine (28) Al Cap Wanaka Photo: Michal Karnik Photography
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