Forest & Bird Magazine Issue 372 Winter 2019 by Forest & Bird

ISSUE 372 • WINTER 2019 www.forestandbird.org.nz

COURAGEOUS CONSERVATION PLUS

Our vanishing world

Nature’s navigators

Sign to stop bycatch

Sow the seeds of conservation – a free gift when you sign up a new member Help protect and restore the wildlife and wild places you love by encouraging your friends and family to join Forest & Bird and become another voice for nature. To thank you, we will send you a pack of native plant seeds for every new member you sign up. And they will receive some seeds too. Call 0800 200 064 or visit the “Join us” page* on our website http://bit.ly/2WLMmCK. Every new member also receives a free Forest & Bird magazine subscription. *Ask your friend to include your name and supporter ID number when they fill in the website form, so we can send you a pack of seeds too!

ISSUE 372

• Winter 2019

www.forestandbird.org.nz

STAY IN TOUCH Forest & Bird National Office Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street PO Box 631, Wellington 6011. T 04 385 7374 E office@forestandbird.org.nz CONTACT A BRANCH See www.forestandbird.org.nz/ branches for a full list of our 50+ Forest & Bird branches.

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ ForestandBird Post to Instagram and tag @forestandbird Follow us on Twitter @Forest_and_Bird Watch us on YouTube www.youtube.com/ forestandbird

Contents Editorial

2 Facing up to a climate crisis 4–5 Letters

Conservation news 6 8 9 10 12

Kiwi Conservation Club 35 Lola loves nature

Climate

39 Historic landfill risk

Rangitata River row South-east ocean win Legal appeal Zero Bycatch Pledge News bites

In the field

40 Dotty about dotterels

Pacific

42 Solomon Islands conservation

Cover story

Conservation hero

14 Courageous conservation

44 Field of dreams

Environment Aotearoa 2019

Going places

46 Arctic adventures with orca

16 In big trouble 18 Key findings 19 New Deal for Nature

Freshwater JOIN FOREST & BIRD 0800 200 064 membership@forestandbird.org.nz www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus Members receive four free issues of Forest & Bird magazine a year.

20 First find your fish 23 Whitebait woes 36 People power saves river

Predator-free NZ

MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS

E editor@forestandbird.org.nz

49 Eat chocolate, help nature

Research

Biodiversity

Books

26 Nanaia Mahuta op-ed 27 Saving Foulden Maar 28 Hoiho “super chick”

Caroline Wood

Our partners

24 Takahē in a mast year 25 Tussock tales 38 War on wasps

Marine

EDITOR

Farming

30 Pāmu’s biodiversity blitz

The big read

32 Nature’s navigators

ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER

50 Protecting rock wren 51 Wonder in the water 52 Fight for the forests

Citizen science

54 Amazing climbing īnanga 55

Classifieds

Community 56 Men at work

Parting shot IBC Cheeky weka

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

Webstar www.webstar.co.nz

Count the birds in your backyard!

FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

GARDEN BIRD SURVEY 2019

Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & circulation enquiries T 0800 200 064 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

29 June–7 July See gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz

COVER SHOT Sophie Handford, climate activist and national organiser of the first School Strike for the Climate.

Photo:Tim Onnes PAPER ENVELOPE Yellow-lipped green gecko (Naultinus sp ‘North Cape’) on a coprosma plant, Aupouri

Peninsula, Northland. Photo: Euan Brook

Editorial MARK HANGER

Facing up to a climate crisis The current climate crisis is the greatest threat to our planet and the people who rely on its wellbeing. Left unfettered, it will lead to extinction of much of the natural world that we at Forest & Bird have been fighting for decades to protect. It follows then that tackling climate change should be at the heart of all our conservation efforts. We humans and our predecessors have created this crisis, but we can still help to solve it. The legacy we are leaving our mokopuna and tamariki is a grim one. It is time for Forest & Bird to champion some big ideas. As Aotearoa New Zealand’s oldest and largest conservation organisation, we have led the environmental sector for decades. We are an integrated organisation with multi-disciplinary activities and in a strong position to be a leading voice in the transition to a climate-friendly future. Recently, the Board has been considering what we wish Forest & Bird to achieve in the coming years. We have been asking ourselves, and others, do we want the Society to carry on doing what we do well because that is what we have always done? Or do we want the Society to be flexible and responsive, and actively confront the overriding issue facing the natural world? It’s no longer enough to seek the protection of landscapes, ecosystems, and wildlife, we must also confront climate change threats. We can “protect” all we wish, but if we don’t face the overriding threat to all life and people on this planet, it will be to no avail. Right now the impacts of climate change threaten the web of life we have spent years saving. We are living the consequences of bad decisions, discredited ideas, and shortterm thinking by governments, councils, and society as a whole. For nearly 100 years, Forest & Bird has strived to be leaders for change. We have confronted many issues and generations of politicians. We’ve done the mahi, used hard facts and science, to ensure we were heard and listened to. While other environmental groups have come and gone, Forest & Bird has been a constant since 1923. We are a respected environment force in our community and at all levels of government. Forest & Bird is adopting a strategic directive with climate change as the primary driver for our conservation objectives. This will mean that climate change will be integrated into and underpin everything we do. When we advocate for sound environmental management, strong environmental laws, and clean energy, we will be demanding that climate change impacts on nature be understood and acted on in all these areas. The same goes when we campaign against mining, freshwater pollution, unsustainable agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing. I firmly believe we can grow a powerful movement and achieve real change – so every person in Aotearoa New Zealand cares for the environment, and communities are inspired to act in support of the climate. In the coming months we will begin to formulate just how Forest & Bird, our branches, and you our members can most effectively make a difference for nature in an climate crisis future. It will be difficult. How can our organisation have an impact in such a global crisis? How can my branch create change at a local level? How can I as a member make a real difference? While we may not have all the answers just yet, we have no option but to address them with courage and urgency. The alternative is to put our heads in the sand and expect others to save us.

Ka kite anō Mark Hanger Forest & Bird President Perehitini, Te Reo o te Taiao 2

| 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

Alan Chow BOARD MEMBERS

Chris Barker, Kate Graeme, James Muir, John Oates, Monica Peters, Te Atarangi Sayers, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS

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

Graham Bellamy, Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, 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 from responsible sources. The brown envelopes used to mail the magazine are made from FSC paper from responsible sources. Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384 (Print), ISSN 2624-1307 (Online). 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 Bird Stories by Geoff Norman, Potton & Burton, RRP $59.99. It is a fascinating account of New Zealand’s birds, spanning their discovery, place in Pākehā and Māori worlds, conservation, and the art they have inspired. Please send letters to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 August 2019.

Delay offshore gas extraction A recent report commissioned by industry representative group states that banning offshore oil and gas extraction will cost New Zealand $30 billion by 2050. This figure is based on losses of jobs and income and cut in livelihoods but doesn’t include environmental costs, as they are less known. A recent global review of the impacts of extractive industries commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme for the Afghanistan Human Development Report lists 39 different impacts split into 26 socio-economic and political impacts plus 13 environmental impacts. Interestingly, the review reveals that, apart from income, job creation, and export earnings, the majority of socio-economic impacts are adverse – yet several countries continue with extractive activities. All 13 environmental impacts identified (11 are relevant to New Zealand) are adverse. This confirms insufficient evidence on the environmental impacts of offshore extraction. Accordingly, more research is needed to identify the environmental impacts on seascapes as well as mitigation measures. For environmental sustainability, I believe New Zealand should delay offshore gas extraction until major environmental impacts and corresponding mitigation measures are fully identified and analysed. Anura Widana, Auckland Best letter winner

Fishing moratorium needed “...Coastal seas teeming with marine mammals and seabirds, and a healthy, profitable fishing industry...” (How Many is Too Many? Autumn 2019) Really? With the multiple pressures on the marine ecosystem including acidification, rising sea temperatures and levels, plastics, dying coral reefs, ghost fishing gear, polluted stormwater run-off, chemically loaded wastewater discharges, entanglements, hookings, collisions, oil spills, subsea noise, seabird nesting predation. Cameras on boats may be a small step in the right direction, but like climate change we cannot afford to lose another decade through inaction. A courageous conservation stance such as a moratorium on industrial coastal fishing around New Zealand’s entire coastline may give a chance of “teeming coastal seas”. Suzanne Hills, Runanga

Rifleman. Photo: Jake Osborne

Rifleman revival Our big success story for Aongatete is bringing back rifleman almost from extinction in the forest. Aongatete is a 500ha block of forest in the Kaimai Ranges. I built 15 nest boxes that stop predators getting at the chicks. It was very exciting seeing the rifleman using the nest boxes for the first time this spring. This project has been partly sponsored by Forest & Bird, which has been a great help. Barry Pethybridge, Aongatete, Bay of Plenty *Editor’s note: Aongatete’s forest restoration project was set up in 2006 by Tauranga Forest & Bird and the Katikati Rotary Club and is supported by local volunteers, landowners, and Ngāi Tamawhariua, who have the kaitiaki (guardianship) role over the forest. You can find out more at http://aongateteforest.org.

Risky gene editing I second Linda Zelka Grammar’s congratulations to Minister Eugenie Sage for opposing gene editing experiments (Autumn 2019). Yes, they are risky. They could lead to irreversible unexpected unpleasant consequences. But what disturbs me most of all is to read in GE-Free NZ news releases that the gene editing experiments are meant to be in partnership with DARPA! DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the US military, which is tasked with created new means of global dominance. New Zealand institutions, including Landcare, should keep clear of DARPA. Lois Griffiths, Christchurch

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Guardians of Aotearoa I enjoyed reading about the inspiring people who are named among the “Guardians of Aotearoa” (Autumn 2019). It occurs to me that these people might be regarded as the human signs of the spiritual guardians of the various realms of the natural world like Tāne, Tangaroa, and Rongo. Pākehā like me are not so good at including references to wairua in our thinking, writing, or speaking. Perhaps you might be able to develop our understanding in this area. Mitzi Nairn, Auckland

Penguin millennials In March we soft-released some hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin chicks at Long Point, in the Catlins. This bunch have been nicknamed “The Millennials” as they were supposed to head out to sea after being released but instead decided to hang out by their rearing pens in the hope of a free feed. It was a pretty magical experience having some of the world’s rarest, and possibly shyest, penguins gather round to take the fish off me. Jim had the more painful part of the job, as he had to feed the ones in the pens, who didn’t appreciate it in the slightest. (Note to self: put Band-Aids on shopping list.) Jane and Jim Young Forest & Bird’s South Otago branch *Forest & Bird’s Te Rere penguins were radio-tagged for the first time this summer. See page 28 to see how our “super chick” is helping scientists learn more about hoiho’s foraging habits.

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of The Meaning of Trees by Robert Vennell (RRP $55) published by HarperCollins NZ. From Jurassic giants to botanical oddballs, Robert’s beautifully illustrated book tells the fascinating stories of New Zealand’s native plants and how they have helped shape our human world. To enter, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org. nz, put MEANING 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 MEANING draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 August 2019. The lucky winner of a luxury weekend at Northland's Te Arai luxury lodge was Graeme Colgan, of Auckland. The winners of Guardians of Aotearoa by former Wild Things Editor Johanna Knox were Penelope Gillette, of Dunedin, and Shirley Cummins, of Porirua. And Else McInnes, of Feilding, and Kevin Gaunt, of Cambridge, won Aro’s new album Manu.

If you make a donation to Forest & Bird during the next month, you will automatically go into a draw to win $170 of artisan chocolate – see page 49.

Rangitikei rambles

My children Roan and Greer regularly visit our local coastal forest Ratapihipihi, on the outskirts of New Plymouth, and have never seen such a covering of the forest floor by pukatea seeds as on 3 March 2019! They were amazed at the covering. “It’s like it’s been snowing,” said Roan. We love this marvellous pukatea. It’s our favourite tree in this local coastal forest.

We recently read a very interesting article on the Forest & Bird reserves in the Rangitikei (Summer 2019), which prompted us to pay them a visit recently and this our feedback. The first one we visited was Pryce’s Rahui, off SH1. This is a brilliant piece of pristine bush where you can see majestic kahikatea, tōtara, rimu, and mātai standing proud. The paths were well maintained as well as the board walks. The other reserves were the ones along the Turakina valley. The first one was Sutherlands Puriri but, unfortunately, this track was in poor condition. We found the entrance to Sutherland’s Mangahoe but didn’t enter as we found nowhere safe to park the car and continued in search of Lairds Bush, which we couldn’t locate. We headed back to Hunterville as it was getting late, so we never saw Macpherson’s Bush. We’ll save that for next time. We understand from the article that Forest & Bird’s Rangitkei branch works in partnership with Horizons Regional Council to maintain these reserves. We realise resources are limited, but if we want greater access to these bush remnants the tracks need to be in better condition.

Leighton Upson, New Plymouth

Linda and Rowan Bell, Palmerston North

Jane Young feeds “the Millennials” at Long Point.

Seedfall “snow”

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Conservation news

BRAIDED RIVER AT TIPPING POINT

The Rangitata South Irrigation Scheme with storage ponds next to the braided river used to irrigate the surrounding farmland. Photo: Rob Suisted

It’s time to stop commercial water interests taking more water from the Rangitata River. By Nicky Snoyink, Forest & Bird’s Canterbury and West Coast regional manager. The lower reaches of one of Canterbury’s renowned braided rivers are dying. Local anglers report that reduced flows and increased sediment have caused the Rangitata salmon fishery to collapse. So-called flood protection work has exacerbated weed infestation and destroyed habitat for native braided river species. The impact of climate change also complicates the gloomy picture of this once mighty force of nature, the Rangitata. Despite alarm bells being sounded by the Canterbury Regional Council’s own freshwater scientist, who said the Rangitata River could be near tipping point, new water abstractions were approved by its independent commissioners in June last year. With scant up-to-date ecological data – and an absence of a cap on extractions – there is nothing to stop further applications by commercial users to take more water. The Rangitata flows south-east for 120km from the Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean 30km north of Timaru. It’s one of the braided rivers that helped form the Canterbury Plains, and Mount Sunday, in the Rangitata Valley, was the location for Edoras in two Lord of the Rings films. The river has been under the protection of a Water Conservation Order (WCO) for 13 years, but there is still no clear regional planning framework to protect the river. There is no cap on water extractions above the minimum flows set out in the WCO. The vital flood flows are not protected. There are no conditions on current abstractors to monitor the effect of water abstraction on the river. It’s clear the WCO has failed to properly protect this important braided river habitat from being exploited for private gain. 6

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Forest & Bird has joined forces with the Future Rivers Trust to support the New Zealand and South Canterbury Salmon Anglers’ legal bid for better protection of the Rangitata River. We are part of an appeal to overturn the June 2018 decision granting take of a further 10 cubic metres of water per second when the river is at high flows. The water will be used for the Rangitata Diversion Race Management irrigation scheme, and we think it will push the river beyond tipping point. That Forest & Bird, Future Rivers Trust, and the Salmon Anglers are left to argue the adverse effects of further abstraction from the Rangitata is profoundly unjust. The burden of proof shouldn’t be put on not-for-profit conservation organisations and community groups. The duty to provide the necessary science is on the regulator and on those who directly benefit from water abstraction. This hasn’t occurred for the Rangitata despite a WCO being in place (see panel). Forest & Bird is calling on Canterbury Regional Council to urgently complete a water management plan (with a cap on extraction) for the Rangitata River. It also needs to properly implement the conditions of the 2006 Water Conservation Order before the damage to the river is irreversible. We would also like to see a properly funded study carried out for the Rangitata River looking at the impacts of increased water sediment (see panel right) on the environmental health of the river. Similar studies should also be carried out in the region's other braided river catchments because they are in serious trouble too.

AGENCY FAILURE To understand how the Rangitata, an internationally important braided river, is being failed by the councils and the government agencies who are supposed to protect it, we need to go back 13 years to when the Water Conservation Order (WCO) was established. The application for the Rangitata River WCO was made by Fish and Game. It was supported by Te Rūnanga O Ngāi Tahu for characteristics that are of outstanding significance in accordance with tikanga Māori and by the Department of Conservation for preserving indigenous biodiversity. Forest & Bird supported the WCO application, specifically identifying the river’s significance as migratory native bird habitat. The decision-making tribunal recognised that the waters of the upper Rangitata and gorge were essentially pristine. The lower reaches, despite being impacted, remained outstanding bird habitat. Existing water abstraction agreements were recognised, providing the necessary certainty for commercial water users. This was accepted by applicants and supporters. However, a call for ecologically healthy minimum flows and a cap on further extractions from vital flood flows to protect the rivers special qualities was made by the WCO applicants but not supported by the tribunal. Crucially, the tribunal concluded a cap would be unnecessary and that flood flows above the limits set out in the WCO “do not need to be controlled by the WCO and can properly be dealt with through a Regional Plan”. This has turned out not to be the case. This example highlights the level of agency failure in

Sediment study needed River sedimentation is caused by many things, including natural events such as landslides and other – man-made – reasons such as the run-off from vegetation clearance and erosion, intensive land use, and consented discharge from irrigation ponds back into the river. Braided rivers depend on high flood flows to move sedimentation downstream. When river flows are too low, sediment is not carried away to sea because the river has been “depowered” by the taking of too much water for irrigation. Instead, it settles on the river stones. This is especially evident where the braided river is at its widest with lots of braids near the coast. These places are good habitat for fish and bird biodiversity and popular for fishing. Forest & Bird believes there is too much sediment in the Rangitata, but more research is needed about its impacts on the river’s health. Here you can see sediment on rocks in the lower reaches of the Rangitata River. Photo: Nicky Snoyink

adequately managing internationally significant braided river ecosystems like the Rangitata. Forest & Bird is deeply concerned that Canterbury’s other braided rivers are also vulnerable to over-extraction and that not enough is being done to safeguard them either.

Massive pivot irrigators on the Canterbury Plains use a lot of water and allow otherwise dry stony soils to be intensively farmed. Photo: David Brooks

ILL-ADVISED IRRIGATION Commercial irrigation is the largest user of water in New Zealand and we need to reduce it, especially now streams in Canterbury have stopped flowing, rivers in Otago are drying up more frequently, and groundwater levels in Hawke’s Bay are dropping every year. Forest & Bird is not opposed to water storage, particularly on-farm dams, provided these are sensitively designed, says Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen. However, we are concerned about largescale infrastructure built to supply more irrigation water. We are disappointed with the coalition government’s decision to give $800,000 towards a proposed dam in the Wairarapa. It promised to end irrigation subsidies on large-scale schemes, but this is just a subsidy under another

name. We will be keeping a close eye on this scheme and attempts to reinvigorate the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme in central Hawke’s Bay, the consented Waimea Dam in Tasman District, and the potential raising of the Falls Dam in Central Otago. “Over-abstraction and poisonous nitrate leaching are two of the many by-products of intensive farming driven by irrigation,” says Annabeth. “Both will worsen with climate change. The situation is deteriorating, so there is no place for business-as-usual thinking. Building a large-scale dam or allowing more water to be taken from our beautiful braided rivers are expensive and ill-advised leaps in the wrong direction.”

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Conservation news

SOUTH-EAST OCEAN WIN

A marine reserve is proposed on Dunedin’s doorstep off St Clair’s Beach, where Forest & Bird has a seabird breeding project. Photo: Bernard Spragg

A proposed new network of marine reserves off the south-east coast of the South Island represents a long-awaited win for the ocean environment. In May, the government announced it wanted to create a marine reserve network covering 1450km2 from Timaru to the Catlins. It was the larger of two proposals recommended by the South-East Marine Protection (SEMPA) Forum early last year. These proposals will now be progressed through the Marine Reserves Act and the Fisheries Act, both of which require a further round of consultation and Ministerial agreements, so they are not a done deal. The plan includes six “no take” marine reserves totalling 410km2 – about twice the size of Abel Tasman National Park – where commercial and recreational fishing will be banned – and five “type two” marine protected areas covering about 1040km2 that will allow most recreational fishing and some commercial fishing, depending on the method. The types of fishing methods to be banned in the marine protected areas (MPAs) are still to be determined. The Forum members who backed the larger Network 1 plan recommended prohibiting trawling, dredging, Danish seining, set netting, bottomdisturbance activities, and seismic testing for the ocean MPAs. In the estuaries, they recommended allowing hand gathering, recreational line fishing, and spear fishing but prohibiting net fishing, commercial fishing, and whitebaiting. “This proposal, if finally agreed, will see New Zealand gain its largest inshore marine reserve to date. That’s great news, particularly since the 8

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

whole south-east of New Zealand is such an important area for marine life,” says Sue Maturin, Forest & Bird’s Otago-Southland regional manager. Sue, who represented the environmental sector on the SEMPA Forum, says the proposed Bobby’s Head no-take reserve – a 9600ha area – would protect rare examples of volcanic rocky reefs, sea caves, and seaweed gardens. “We’ll also stand to gain a marine reserve right on Dunedin’s doorstep by St Clair beach. That’s a remarkable opportunity for a place already known as the wildlife capital of New Zealand,” she says. “But there are still significant gaps, with some of the best areas of biodiversity, particularly in the Catlins, not protected. Some habitats, such as sheltered shallow areas, deep reefs, and estuaries, are not well represented in the proposed marine reserves. “Overall, the proposed package of protections in Network 1 gets us about halfway to what we need in the region. “But given the fraught and compromised marine forum process, this is a very significant and positive outcome. The other option on the table for the government – Network 2 – was woefully inadequate and would have been an absolute travesty, and we’re very pleased that it hasn’t been chosen.” Internationally, New Zealand has an abysmal record of marine protection, with only 0.4% of our sea area protected in no-take marine reserves. Forest & Bird believes we need a clear goal to protect 30% of

our ocean area in representative notake marine reserves. “We’d like to see the southeast marine reserves become reality as soon as possible, with the opportunity for further improvement in the region. Similar protection also needs to be rolled out around most of the rest of the country,” adds Sue. The government will now seek feedback from tangata whenua, the community, and stakeholders on how to progress Network 1. There is still the potential for these proposals to unravel, so Forest & Bird will be seeking public submissions over the next few months to ensure the proposed network is accepted in full – or improved – rather than reduced. Timaru Tuhawaiki Point Pareora

Legend Marine Reserve Type 2 MPA

Tuhawaiki (A1)

Kelp Protection Area

Waimate Waihao River

Forum region

Glenavy Waitaki River

Moko-tere-atorehu (C1)

Pukeuri Oamaru

Waitaki (B1) Arai Te Uru (T1)

Moeraki Palmerston Pleasant River Waikouaiti Karitane

Te Umu Koau (D1)

Taiaroa Head Dunedin

Ōrau (I1)

Taieri Mouth Akatore Creek Clutha River

Ōkaihae (K1) Whakatorea (L1) Hākinikini (M1)

Papanui (H1) Kaimata (E1)

Nugget Point Irihuka (Long Point) Waipapa Point

Tahakopa (Q1) 0 0

NB: Te Reo names are placeholders and not confirmed with Kāi Tahu

25 10

50 Km 20 Nm

Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai

Forest & Bird lawyers Peter Anderson and Sally Gepp, with barrister Davey Salmon QC, outside the Supreme Court in 2017 during the Ruataniwha hearing.

Help double our legal efforts! Every dollar you gift towards our legal fundraising appeal will be doubled to give nature the best possible defence in 2019. Forest & Bird is defending nature on a number of fronts this year following our record 14 legal wins for the environment at all levels of the judicial system during 2018. In May, Forest & Bird’s small expert in-house legal team was preparing to go to the Supreme Court – part of our ongoing efforts to stop it destroying Te Kuha’s pristine native forest and rare coal ecosystem. In June, our lawyers are due to appear before Southland Council in a potentially precedent-setting case involving the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement. In July, our legal team will be heading to the Court of Appeal after Trans-Tasman Resources challenged Forest & Bird’s landmark defence of New Zealand’s population of blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight. We stopped the company’s experimental deep-sea ironsand mining, but they are hoping to overturn the decision. Defending nature doesn’t come cheap, which is why one of our donors has pledged to match dollar for dollar every gift donated to Forest & Bird’s current Defend Nature legal appeal. Thanks to their incredible generosity, every dollar raised will help our legal team defend the environment at all levels, from council chambers and the Environment Court right up to the Supreme Court. If we can raise up to $100,000, this will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $200,000! In 2017, Forest & Bird’s lawyers Peter Anderson and Sally Gepp went to the Supreme Court, winning a landmark case that put the kibosh on the proposed Ruataniwha Dam, in the Hawke’s Bay. Last year, we secured another significant victory in the Court of Appeal, when it ruled that the protective requirements of the Reserves Act 1977 prevail over the Crown Minerals Act 1992. Rangitira Developments, which wants to turn Te Kuha, outside Westport, into a 150ha opencast coal mine, has appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. The case was recently adjourned, and a new date has not yet been set. We have been fighting to stop the Te Kuha coal mine on a number of legal fronts, as you will have read in this magazine. The cases have been slowly progressing through the courts, but the deep-pocketed mining company hits back with an appeal each time Forest & Bird wins. While some cases can take years to resolve, it’s the sheer volume of work that presents the greatest challenge to our legal team. Forest & Bird’s one full-time and two part-time

lawyers can be juggling many cases at any given time. Forest & Bird is not funded by the government or business. Free from anyone else’s agendas, our focus for the past 96 years has been on protecting our country’s wildlife and wilderness from harm. Please make a gift today at www.forestandbird. org.nz/defendnature. However much you are able to give, it will be doubled to give nature the best possible defence.

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Conservation news

SIGN TO STOP MARINE BYCATCH Megan Hubscher answers our questions about Forest & Bird’s new Zero Bycatch Pledge.

What is the Zero Bycatch Pledge? “We should only catch what we eat” is a simple idea and easy to agree with. We don’t eat dolphins, penguins, albatross, or sea lions, so we shouldn’t catch any of them when fishing for our seafood. Forest & Bird’s Zero Bycatch Pledge will bring together the voices of thousands of New Zealanders in a powerful online petition. We will send an unequivocal message to politicians, policy-makers, and the fishing industry that there is a better way of thinking about our oceans. We want to see New Zealanders being able to make a living from the ocean while also caring for our precious marine life, a future where fishing boats use the latest techniques to avoid harming protected native animals and the habitat they depend on to survive.

Why have we launched it? Every year in New Zealand, thousands of seabirds and hundreds of seals, dolphins, sea lions, and rare deep sea corals are hauled up in commercial fishing nets or snagged on hooks. Most will die. New Zealand is a global hotspot for a rich variety of marine life. Even though Hector’s dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins, and New Zealand sea 10

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lions are protected by law, they are all in serious trouble. Maui’s dolphins are almost extinct. On land, hardfought rules protect significant species and habitats, but commercial fishers can use set nets where endangered penguins forage, trawl near Hector’s dolphins, and set kilometres of hooks in the path of albatross – and still call any deaths of these protected animals “accidental”. Our Zero Bycatch Pledge says extinction is not a price our native animals should pay to allow us to eat fish.

How will it help? A zero bycatch goal would provide clear ambition and intent for the endangered marine mammals and seabirds affected by fisheries – just as the Predator-Free 2050 aspirational goal has galvanised policy development and resources for conservation on land. Technology now exists that can significantly reduce bycatch deaths. But currently there is very little incentive for decision-makers and fishers to reduce commercial fishing’s impact. There is no clear policy about what the acceptable level of bycatch is and what action should follow if it is exceeded. Instead, the measures currently in place effectively allow albatross and dolphin deaths to the point of causing extinction in order to turn a profit.

Hector’s dolphin. Photo: Gregory Smith

How would a zero bycatch goal work in practice? Some countries are already adopting a goal of zero bycatch. It has been included in legal fisheries management frameworks in the USA, EU, UK, and signatories to the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS). International best practice shows the key components of effective bycatch management are: n A clear vision to drive continual improvement, innovation and efficiency. n A legislative and policy framework that sets out clearly defined management and conservation objectives such as time-bound bycatch reduction objectives. n Special provisions for highly endangered marine mammal and seabird populations. n A clear definition of when management action to reduce bycatch is required. n Processes to achieve bycatch goals, including data collection, monitoring, and enforcement.

Bycatch Pledge policy documents. When you sign the Pledge, you’ll be telling government and commercial fishers about the kind of fishing future you want – and that you expect them to play their part.

Who do we want to sign the pledge? Everyone! The pledge is online now. It’s easy to share on Facebook and Twitter, so please ask your friends to sign it too. The Zero Bycatch Pledge is about transforming the way we think about protecting our ocean species. It’s a promise between individuals, companies, and decisionmakers to bring about major reductions in harm to our threatened marine mammals, seabirds, and corals. Forest & Bird members have supported ocean advocacy for decades. Please help make sure that all our wonderful marine creatures have the best chance possible to thrive far beyond our own lifetimes.

Take the pledge now at www.zerobycatch.org.nz.

All of these components are set out in detail in our Zero Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

NO MINING “UNDER” CONSERVATION LAND Mining giant Oceana Gold wants to get around strict rules about mining on conservation land by tunnelling underneath important Archey’s frog habitat in the Coromandel Peninsula. In 2017, Forest & Bird highlighted how the company was felling kauri to build drilling rigs and testing platforms in the Parakiwai Valley in Coromandel Forest Park, north of Waihī, a stronghold for one of the most critically endangered frogs in the world. In February, the company announced it had identified a high-grade mineral resource in the area. Now it is seeking a mining permit to develop an underground mine so it can extract it.

Oceana Gold says it has ruled out any surface mining within conservation land boundaries because of the important environmental, recreational and cultural values of the area. However, it is confident there is the potential to tunnel in from outside the forest park to gain access to the minerals. “What government has proposed is no new land and what we’re saying is ‘we’re not on conservation land, we’re under ’,” Oceana Gold senior community advisor Kit Wilson told the Bay of Plenty Times in May. Over the past 18 months, Oceana Gold is reported to have disqualified at least 40 potential drilling sites in the area because Archey’s frog populations were found there. Coromandel Watchdog and Forest & Bird’s Mercury Bay Branch spokesperson Augusta Macassey-Picard says the company has applied for a mining permit over more than 5000ha in the park. “We are calling on the government to honour their promise not to allow new mines on conservation land,” she said. “Given how the system works, the permit is likely to be granted automatically. However, the access agreement the company has with the Department of Conservation would have to be renegotiated. “We hope and expect the Minister for Conservation will decline access for mining. It’s simply not appropriate in this area.”

BIRD OF THE YEAR 2019

Photo: Glenda Rees

With a fatty flutter and whoosh-whoosh, the kerurū (also known as round boi) swooped to glory to win Bird of the Year 2018. But no bird has ever won twice, so it’s anyone’s guess who will fly away with this year’s crown. Could this be the year of the penguin or last year’s youth favourite the kākāriki? Perhaps kākāpō, our 2018 runner-up, will make history by being the first to take the title twice. Forest & Bird’s hotly contested Bird of the Year will run from 28 October to 10 November this year. If you’re interested in helping your favourite bird win, then please fill out this short form to let us know: www.forestandbird.org.nz/bird-year-2019.

Last chance to sign up for Forest & Bird’s Annual Conference This year’s Forest & Bird Conference and AGM is being held in Wellington’s Te Papa over the weekend of 29–30 June. The theme of Saturday’s conference is courageous conservation and how we can work together to make a transformative plan for nature. The keynote speaker will be Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. Other speakers include Graeme Elliott, from the Department of Conservation, who will talk about the mega-mast, and Ora Barlow-Tukaki, from Te Whānau a Apanui, who will speak about the imminent collapse of biodiversity in the Raukumara Range and hapū plans to turn things around. 12

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There will be a panel discussion about climate change featuring School Strike 4 Climate organiser Sophie Handford, and National Party’s conservation spokesperson Sarah Dowie will appear on the political panel talking about solutions to the current biodiversity crisis. The Sanderson Memorial Dinner will take place on Saturday evening with special guest speaker Jeanette Fitzsimons. Forest & Bird’s AGM will be held on Sunday, followed by staff campaign updates. You can sign up for one day, both days, or just the Sanderson dinner– see www. forestandbird.org.nz/events/2019-conference.

Castle Ridge Station is now privately owned after going through tenure review a decade ago.

A PASSION FOR NATURE

HIGH COUNTRY FUTURE HOPE

Earlier this year, we welcomed the news that the government would end tenure review – the process by which the South Island’s high country pastoral lease land has been privatised over the past two decades. At the same time, it launched a public consultation asking for feedback on how Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) should manage the remaining Crown pastoral leases in the future. These leases make up about 5% of New Zealand’s total land area, and LINZ has managed them poorly in the past by granting consents for activities such as burning, ploughing, and irrigation. The high country contains some of our rarest and underprotected dryland ecosystems, many of which are currently under threat from development and from pests and weed invasions. Too much biodiversity has been lost already through tenure review. Forest & Bird made a joint submission with the Environmental Defence Society recommending clearer priorities for protecting nature and more transparent processes when it comes to managing the unique arrangement that New Zealand has for the stewardship of the South Island high country. A big thank you to everyone who made a submission. LINZ received 3165 in total. About 2700 of them were template submissions through Forest & Bird’s website.

The recipient of this year’s Forest & Bird’s conservation scholarship is Eva Kessels. The 18 year old from Hamilton has a passion for biological sciences and a wealth of hands-on conservation experience. She was an environment prefect at her school and helped plan and organise the restoration of the Kukutāruhe Gully with the aim of bringing back kererū. Forest & Bird’s conservation scholarship aims to foster young conservationists in Aotearoa and build leaders in the environmental movement. We will provide three years of funding support for Eva while she is studying at Victoria University. Eva says she is looking forward to getting involved in conservation while studying in Wellington. “I aspire to be a doer, taking action, rather than just talking about saving the planet,” she says. Previous Forest & Bird scholarship recipient Sian Moffitt recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Biodiversity, and Environmental Studies. She is currently the education coordinator at Kids Greening Taupō.

India’s dawn chorus Join us for a fully escorted, small-group, bird-lovers and wildlife tour in north India. 20 days, departing 14 October 2019. 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.

TOP SHOP GIFTS There are plenty of great gift ideas at Forest & Bird’s online shop. We have some exclusive “Love nature” hoodies in green or blue with optional Forest & Bird branding on one sleeve. Also flying out the door are the cuddly native long-tailed bat soft toys, Judi Lapsley Miller’s beautiful tūī bird art, and the always popular keyrings and magnets. For children, we have a colouring book and picture books, and we still have a few Adopt a Penguin packs available with soft toy. Best of all, you don’t need to leave the house, because all gifts are posted direct to your door. See www. forestandbird.org.nz and get shopping! All profits go towards our conservation work.

Contact: colourindia.co.nz | elight@kiwilink.co.nz 09 422 0111 | 021 235 3932 Forest & Bird

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Cover story

COURAGEOUS CONSERVATION

Sophie Handford (centre) at the Wellington school strike event in March. Her next challenge is to win a seat on Kāpiti District Council in October’s local elections. Photo: Tim Onnes

School Strike national coordinator Sophie Handford, 18, talks to Laura Keown about why she’s fighting for a better climate future. When Sophie Handford began organising New Zealand’s first School Strike for Climate, she had no expectations about how big the event might become. “It was such an unknown thing, but I knew that, if it was only me and my friends who showed up, we would still be there, and we would still be fighting for our future,” Sophie says. But it wasn’t far more than just Sophie and her friends who turned up to march for the Earth. The youth movement, which was demanding government action on climate change, attracted an estimated 20,000 people all over New Zealand to their 15 March strike events. “It was awesome! I mean, it was stressful, and I had more on my plate that ever before, but it was amazing to see it grow so fast,” says Sophie, who is also a Forest & Bird Youth Hub member. At just 18 years old, the Kāpiti College graduate was launched into the national spotlight as the national coordinator of the School Strike movement. “It’s daunting, but it’s so important for young people to 14

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stand up for a safe climate future,” she says. “We’re not going away until we see meaningful action,” Sophie says. “We’re already preparing for another global day of action in September. “It’s just so important for young people to be heard. We inherit the consequences of decisions made today, and we’re not seeing decisions for a positive, safe climate future,” she says. For Sophie, being in nature and caring for the environment has always been important to her family and her community in Paekākāriki. “We really enjoy our haven of paradise. When I was growing up, we were always going for bush walks, visiting the rock pools, and taking walks to Raumati. “Those experiences really helped me understand the value of nature, and seeing what is at stake with climate change is scary.” Sophie has been involved in Forest & Bird Youth for about a year. “It’s all linked together,” she says.

In the climate movement, we have a limited time to take action and influence the outcomes. I want to be a part of that change. “We can’t see climate change as affecting things in silos. Climate change is putting our native species at risk. When we fight for the climate, we’re also fighting for conservation. Being in Forest & Bird Youth helps me to round out my environmental action, and see that greater scale.” Sophie’s experience as a national organiser and a climate activist has now prompted her to take on a new challenge – running for the Kāpiti Coast District Council this October. “This will be my first year of voting, and I was thinking about who I would vote for, who will young people vote for? I’ve been hearing about the lack of youth representation in local governments across Aotearoa. Councils are not including young people in decisionmaking and this needs to change.” “Before the start of the year, I never saw myself doing this, but because of the skills and experiences I’ve had with the School Strike, it made me feel it’s possible,” says Sophie.

There’s also urgency in her efforts to influence public policy. “Now is the time to have the greatest impact on climate change,” says Sophie. “We really need a community approach – we need young people, and every group, involved in the conversation.” When asked about her prospects of winning a seat on the council, Sophie laughs. She sees a value in her efforts regardless of the outcome. “I’m running to get in, I want to do it, and I know I can do it. But even if I don’t get elected, it’s not going to be a waste of time. Just running is a chance to hold people to account and raise important issues for the Kāpiti Coast.” The only question that seems to stump Sophie is about whether she’s thinking of university in the coming years. “I’m not really sure. You know, mid to late last year I was set on going to uni. I had filled in forms and applied for scholarships and everything. Then I made a kind of random decision to pull out,” she says. “My heart is somewhere else. When I think of myself in four years, I don’t see myself at uni. I see myself out in the world. In the climate movement, we have a limited time to take action and influence the outcomes. I want to be a part of that change.”

STRIKING A CHORD FOR THE CLIMATE

Auckland

An estimated 20,000 young people from across New Zealand took to the streets on Friday 15 March demanding the government take urgent and transformative action to prevent further global warming and climate change. Forest & Bird supported the School Strike 4 Climate, part of a global movement of school students who are deciding not to attend classes to take part in climate demonstrations. Here is a selection of photographs from New Zealand’s inaugural school strike. Nelson

Dunedin

Nature needs zero carbon. Make a submission today:

www.forestandbird.org.nz/zerocarbon.

Forest & Bird

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Environment Aotearoa 2019 Lake Pukaki's distinctive blue colour is a byproduct of glacial erosion. Sediments are fed into the lake by the rapidly melting Tasman and Hooker Glaciers. Both glaciers are shrinking fast because of global warming. Photo: Bernard Spragg

IN BIG TROUBLE Two new environmental reports confirm we are a long way off Forest & Bird’s vision of a thriving natural world, but there is still time to be bold and change our trajectory. The Environment Aotearoa 2019 report tells us about the state of our natural world but not what we should do about it. We need a transformative plan for nature, believes Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague. “This damning report should stand as a call to action. The country must take bold action to reverse an environmental crisis,” he says. “We’ve spent too many years in denial about how our actions – from rampant dairy conversions to destructive seabed trawling – are irreversibly harming our natural world. We need an economy that nurtures and restores our environment, not one that trashes it.” Environment Aotearoa 2019 highlighted nine priority issues, including polluted waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and the 4000 native species under threat of extinction. The report, which was released in April by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ, is the latest in the environmental reporting series established under the Environmental and Reporting Act 2015. Drawing on data from five areas – air, climate and atmosphere, fresh water, land, and marine – the report “provides a health check on our environment”, said Secretary for the Environment Vicky Robertson. “[It] shows it’s under pressure in many places – in our towns and cities, rivers, and oceans.” Department of Conservation chief science advisor Dr Ken Hughey said the report “confirms the precarious state of much of New Zealand’s biodiversity”. “Lack of data is still an issue. Only around 20% of New Zealand’s species are identified and documented,” he said. “There’s an urgent need to document what exists, particularly in the case of insects, microplants such as 16

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liverworts, lichens and mosses, and marine life.” NIWA chief scientist freshwater Dr Scott Larned said water quality was a major topic in the report and, despite complications, some broad patterns were evident. “Rivers, lakes, and groundwater in pastoral areas have greatly elevated levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, fine sediment, and faecal bacteria, compared to levels in native-forest areas. Many urban streams are also degraded, including being contaminated with heavy metals. “The same national-scale pattern has been reported for more than 20 years, which indicates that the government’s current reforms of the way we manage our freshwaters need to be bold if they are to meet New Zealanders’ expectations for healthy and swimmable waters.” Kevin Hague agrees, saying New Zealand is losing species and ecosystems faster than nearly any other country and a major change of approach is needed restore our natural world back to abundance. This is one reason why he made “courageous conservation” the theme of this year’s Forest & Bird conference. “The report pointed to a lack of information in many areas. While we acknowledge monitoring needs more funding, the fact is we know enough to take action. As a nation, we need to make a bold plan to protect and restore nature now,” he says. “The situation is pretty dire, but there’s plenty of potential for us to change trajectory in the year ahead. Within the next 12 months, among other things, we need

Inforgraphic: Stats NZ

Environment Aotearoa 2019 themes and issues The themes and issues in this report show how the way we live and make a living affects our environment and the things we value. 5. Our changing climate 8. New Zealand has high greenhouse gas emissions per person.

9. Climate change is already aﬀecting Aotearoa New Zealand.

Climate change intensiﬁes the eﬀects of all other issues.

3. Pollution from our activities 4. How we use our freshwater and marine resources 6. Taking water changes ﬂows, which aﬀects our freshwater ecosystems.

4. Our waterways are polluted in farming areas.

5. Our environment is polluted in urban areas.

7. The way we ﬁsh is aﬀecting the health of our ocean environment.

2. How we use our land 2. Changes to the vegetation on our land are degrading the soil and water.

1. Our ecosystems and biodiversity

3. Urban growth is reducing versatile land and native biodiversity.

All issues aﬀect ecosystem health.

1. Our native plants, animals, and ecosystems are under threat.

The way we interact with our environment affects the things we value.

HOW WE LIVE AND MAKE A LIVING Forestry Energy

Fishing Waste disposal

Farming

THINGS WE VALUE Health

Transport

Building & construction

a forceful biodiversity strategy, an effective Zero Carbon Act, strong National Policy Statements on freshwater management and indigenous biodiversity, more funding for the Department of Conservation, and strong environmental policies from all of our political parties. “We must transform the way we live in our environment, and we need to stop supporting industries that undermine this change.” Forest & Bird is doing its bit by challenging some wellresourced industrial interests during 2019. This includes trying to stop commercial irrigators taking more water out of the already compromised Rangitata braided river, getting cameras put on fishing boats to reduce marine mammal and seabird bycatch deaths, and challenging two different mining companies in court over their plans for

Nature

Economy

Culture

Identity

Recreation

Stability

an open-cast coal mine at Te Kuha and an experimental seabed mining venture in blue whale habitat in the South Taranaki Bight. Kevin Hague would like to see an economy that nurtures and supports the environment instead of harming it, legislation that always upholds the value of our natural world instead of compromising it, and all political parties committed to properly funding the agencies whose job it is to understand and protect our unique natural world. To achieve all of this will take political will and public pressure. “Ultimately, a thriving natural world is in everyone's interests. It protects us from the worst impacts of climate change, provides clean, safe water for people and nature, and safeguards the diversity of all the unique creatures that make New Zealand their home,” he adds. Forest & Bird

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Key findings from the Environment Aotearoa 2019 report Marine OVERFISHED: Ten fish stocks have collapsed, while 16 routinely assessed fish stocks are overfished. Half our fish stocks lack sufficient information to assess population status. DAMAGED: Much of New Zealand’s shallow seabed is trawled or dredged, damaging seabed habitats and reducing the density and diversity of species that live there. UNDER-PROTECTED: One-third of the world’s seabirds are native to New Zealand, but nine out of 10 are at risk of extinction, along with 80% of our shorebirds. Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) is a common garden escapee invading shingle banks and roadside verges, and displacing native species.

Biodiversity COLLAPSING: Almost two-thirds of our native ecosystems are threatened, with rarer ecosystems like coastal turfs and shingle beaches at even higher risk of collapse. IN TROUBLE: 75 animal and plant species have become extinct since humans arrived in New Zealand. Today, 90% of seabirds, 84% of reptiles, and 46% of plants are threatened with, or at risk of, extinction. INVADED: We are considered one of the most invaded countries in the world. Numbers of known non-native species increased by 10% between 2010 and 2015.

This tiny tūturuatu chick is one of the world's rarest shorebirds, with only about 175 adult New Zealand shore plovers left on Earth. Photo: Glenda Rees

Climate change RISKS: Fishing, aquaculture, marine farming, urban areas, infrastructure, horticulture, and tourism will all be affected by climate change. More damaging floods and fires are coming. Coastal sea levels have risen between 14 and 22cm. IMPACTS: Increasing temperatures have shifted the distribution of some species and increased the numbers of invasive pests in some areas. The ocean around New Zealand is becoming warmer, and more acidic, in the south. CHALLENGES: Sorting out agriculture and transport are the two biggest climate challenges. Our failing freshwater is caused by too many cows, too much fertiliser, and ill-advised irrigation. Photo: David Lush

Freshwater FAILING: Groundwater failed standards in 59% of wells (for E. coli) and at 13% of the wells (due to nitrates). Data stops at 2014, so water quality is likely worse in places where farming has intensified. AT RISK: 76% of native freshwater fish are at risk or threatened with extinction. A third of freshwater insects are also in danger of being lost. CULPRITS: Too many cows, too much fertiliser use, and too much irrigation major reasons for freshwater destruction and pollution. 18

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More damaging floods and fires are predicted in our climate crisis future. The Hokitika River in flood in 2016. Photo: Shellie Evans

1,000,000 VANISHING SPECIES A global biodiversity report paints a worrying picture of life on Earth but also says it’s not too late to make a difference. The rate of species extinctions is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of life worldwide,” said IPBES Chair Sir Robert Watson. “Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored, and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic, and social factors, including paradigms, goals, and values. “We can expect opposition from those with interests vested in the status quo, but such opposition can be overcome for the broader public good,” he added. The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive ever completed. It is the first intergovernmental report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005. Compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries over the past Orange spotted three years, with inputs from another gecko. Carey Knox 310 contributing authors, the report assesses changes over the past five decades, providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between economic development and its impacts on nature. The report finds that about 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The report ranked the five direct drivers of change in nature: 1. Changes in land and sea use, 2. Direct exploitation of organisms, 3. Climate change, 4. Pollution, and 5. Invasive alien species.

NEW DEAL FOR NATURE World-renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall and a coalition of Aotearoa’s leading environmental organisations have released an ambitious plan for reversing New Zealand’s environmental crisis. “But it will take urgent, collaborative action from all sectors of society to see the plan succeed,” Dr Goodall warned. “Nature is in crisis, and we need to take action right now.” The Aotearoa Deal for Nature was developed by the Jane Goodall Institute New Zealand, Forest & Bird, WWF NZ, Greenpeace NZ, the Environmental Defence Society, and Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa (ECO). It was endorsed and signed by Dr Goodall at Forest & Bird's National Office in May. The New Deal for Nature is an unprecedented agreement on minimum priorities and actions for protecting and restoring New Zealand’s imperilled wildlife and environment. Recommendations in the plan include: n Protecting 30% of all ecosystems by 2030. n Increased funding to address threats posed by

invasive plants, pathogens, and animals. n Implementing a policy to end mining on (and under)

conservation land. n Reform of the Resource Management Act so it offers

greater environmental protection. n Diversifying farming and reducing livestock numbers,

fertiliser use, irrigation, and sedimentation. n Protecting wetlands and restoring freshwater systems. n Establishing true marine protection areas in 30% of

each marine habitat. n Reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

and putting a price on emissions from agriculture. n Improving public transport. n Accounting for environmental costs in economic

decision-making. n Ending all new oil and gas exploration.

Dr Jane Goodall, centre, with Forest & Bird's chief executive Kevin Hague and marine advocate Kat Goddard.

Freshwater

Award-winning photographer Rob Suisted tests out his underwater camera in the Wainui Stream. Photo: Caroline Wood

FIRST FIND YOUR FISH

It’s giant, nocturnal, and mostly slow moving, how hard can it be to photograph New Zealand’s largest freshwater fish in the wild? Caroline Wood finds out. Many people don’t know their īnanga from their kōaro or their bullies from their Gollum galaxias, so last year Forest & Bird decided to shine a light on the lives of 12 of our precious freshwater fish species. As we looked for compelling visuals to share as part of our campaign to get better protection for these treasures – 76% of New Zealand’s native fish are threatened or at risk of extinction – we immediately hit a snag. There were very few photographs of the fish in their natural stream, river, lake, or wetland habitats. One of the species we wanted to highlight was the giant kōkopu. Once so abundant they were a primary food source for Māori and early settlers, they are now threatened and rarely seen. Its young make up one of our five whitebait species and is eaten for breakfast by many New Zealanders who don’t realise they are munching on the equivalent of a baby kiwi. Many people ask photographer Despite being the Rob Suisted about his KOKOPU largest freshwater number plate, not knowing it’s a native fish in our species of native fish. 20

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waterways – they can reach up to 2kg – they are also increasingly rare, cryptic, and nocturnal. It wasn’t going to be easy to photograph this fish in the wild. It was time to call in some expert help. Leading nature photographer Rob Suisted loves New Zealand’s native fish. He even has KOKOPU on the number plate of his Jeep. But he knows they are in crisis and was keen to help Forest & Bird highlight their plight. Rob wanted to try to capture images of a giant kōkopu without resorting to using any aquariums, nets, or traps, or removing it from the water. It would be difficult to do – he would need to take the photos at night and reckoned this hadn’t been done before – but he was up for the challenge. “The success of achieving a great photo of a giant kōkopu underwater is really low, but I love a good challenge and these fish are really special, so it’s really worth the effort. They are not very well-known, and it would be great to help highlight the species and give them more of a profile,” explains Rob. “People can’t love things they don’t know. It’s not often they see giant kōkopu in our streams, so my job is to try to capture the shots and show people what’s out there. Hopefully, people will fall in love with them like I did.” First, we had to find a good location for Rob to film, somewhere with a guaranteed population of giant kōkopu.

We asked fish scientist and freshwater advocate Dr Mike Joy for some help. Mike suggested a small stream near Paekākāriki, on the Kāpiti Coast, and offered to accompany us. We headed there late one afternoon with videographer Mark Russell, who was making a series of videos about endangered freshwater fish for our campaign. The Wainui Stream, which runs through Queen Elizabeth Regional Park, is a popular spot for picnickers, walkers, and children. Many locals are also aware and proud of the native fish that live in the stream. There are giant kōkopu, giant bullies, long fin and short fin eels, redfin bullies, and, further upstream, kōaro, another whitebait species. But this stream is under pressure, and giant kōkopu are increasingly rare because of habitat loss and other factors. “They are in big trouble. Like all our native fish, it’s not just one thing, it’s a whole combination of things that come together to make life really difficult for them,” explains Mike. “I’ve been studying the Wainui Stream for a long time. We have a couple of decades of records. Unfortunately, a lot of sediment has come into the stream due to poor land management in the headwaters. It’s quite intensively farmed. This, and more storm events, mean a huge amount of sediment has come into the system. You can see it in the water now. The natural stream wouldn’t have so much – there would be more space for the fish to live.” Walking upstream, the overhanging tree branches close over the water, creating a shady peaceful cover. Giant Dr Mike Joy kōkopu like this kind of habitat – deep, dark, slower moving water with big undercuts in the riverbanks where they can hide away from bird predators. We filmed Mike in the stream talking about what makes giant kōkopu special. “They look really amazing. Not many people get to see them, but if you ever do the markings and hieroglyphics on them are really cool. A colleague, Bruno David, could identify individual fish by the markings. He could make out letters of the alphabet on the sides of them. “They are very chunky, almost square, a really muscley powerful fish, and they can move incredibly fast. You see them, and within microseconds they can be upstream. They are sprinters. It’s another reason why they will be hard to film.”

Videographer Mark Russell films Rob Suisted. Photo: Caroline Wood

Does he think Rob can do it? “The thing about almost all of our native fish is that they are nocturnal. That it makes it hard because they don’t come out much during the day. They like the dark, they are very secretive. All of our native fish hide away but particularly the giant kōkopu. “It will be a challenge. If anyone can do it, Rob can do it, but it won’t be easy, that’s for sure.” Anyone who knows Rob Suisted, one of New Zealand’s best-known nature photographers, will know that he is not a man to back down from a challenge. You may own one of his 16 books, paid a bill with a bank note carrying one of his photos, or stuck one of his 30+ NZ Post stamps to your letters. Or perhaps you’ve noticed Rob’s huge photo murals that welcome arrivals at our large international airports and Forest & Bird’s offices, or the photographs used by Tourism New Zealand to lure travellers to our shores. Rob was determined to find and film this fish even if it took several attempts and return trips, which is exactly what happened! “It’s really hard to photograph native fish in the wild because there aren’t that many around these days and also because a lot of them are nocturnal. They are also very cryptic, which means they are camouflaged. That’s why I’ve got a bit of camo on, to try to hide from them,” says Rob. “Mike Joy has given us some really good steers on how to find locations and what their preferred habitat is. That will maximise our chances of finding them. I’m going to set up a camera underwater and use a remote trigger. I’ll retire back from the water and watch. A lot of wildlife photography is just sitting and watching. It’s time and patience.”

There are fewer huge specimens left in the wild, but giant kōkopu can weigh more than 2kg and be 44cm long. Photo: Rob Suisted

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Freshwater We head back to a bridge over the river. Here, the stream deepens and the bank widens, so it’s easier for Rob to set up his underwater cameras, and then, wearing his camouflage gear, he lies on the banks of the river, in wait for the fish to come out of their hiding places. Mark does some more filming with Rob and uses his drone to get shots of the stream from above. By now, it was getting dark, and there was still no sign of our elusive giant kōkopu and no photos have been taken. Rob volunteered to stay onsite for a while longer while the rest of us headed back to Wellington. After we lightweights had left, as he was walking further along the stream, Rob saw a large giant kōkopu, but his underwater camera was set up elsewhere. He grabbed his mobile phone and grabbed a couple of snaps. But this was not the underwater in-habitat shot we wanted. A few days later Rob returned at night and set up his underwater cameras again. Success! The remote sensor was triggered, and he captured a giant kōkopu. But on closer examination of the photographs, the fish was diseased, covered in some kind of fungal growth, likely caused by the sediment-filled stream. We sent the photos to a fish expert to examine. Rob decided to wait for the stream to clear, as the cloudiness was making it hard to get clear photographs of the fish. This turned out to be a good move, and three months later he got his shots. A healthy giant kōkopu in its natural habitat peering out from beneath some tangled branches in the river. Was it worth the effort? “Absolutely,” says Rob. “Native whitebait species like giant kōkopu are very unknown. People are really only familiar with them because they eat them. But there’s a whole other story about them to be told. “They are a pretty remarkable fish. We used to have a lot of them, and the more we tell people about them the better. That’s my passion here.”

It took three attempts before Rob managed to get a shot of a rare giant kōkopu at night in its natural habitat. Photo: Rob Suisted

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This under-over shot of tiny īnanga swimming under giant flax was used for a Forest & Bird poster in 2016. It was taken in the wild, not in a tank. “It was a three-day effort,” says Rob. “Finding the right stream, putting in a net to help guide them towards the bank, floating on a punt waiting for hours for them to come back, it was a great challenge but a great result.”

WHITEBAIT WONDERS Rob Suisted explains how he took these two underwater shots of two other whitebait species that are in big trouble, just like giant kōkopu.

Rob was commissioned to take this photo of a shortjaw kōkopu by the Department of Conservation. He wanted to capture the fish’s view of the human world, looking up towards the bank. He built a special tank to put in the stream that helped take the reflections out of the water. “We pretty much brought a photographic studio to the streamside. I was helped by DOC rangers. We spent hours getting everything right. It was a real team effort.”

GIANTS OF THE GALAXY Fish scientist and freshwater advocate Dr Mike Joy answers our questions about giant kōkopu. Why don’t people love native freshwater fish like giant kōkopu? People don’t know about our native fish. Obviously, from a fish point of view, being secretive and hiding away is a good strategy. It keeps them safe from predators, particularly birds. But it isn’t a great strategy for getting a lot of love from humans. Introduced fish tend to be the ones that come out in the daylight, and they are the colouful ones. They get all the attention, but this isn't the place for them.

Were giant kōkopu abundant once? We hear stories that huge numbers of giant kōkopu used to be in our rivers and streams 100 years ago. There would have been a lot more food for them then. With good habitats, you get good overhanging vegetation and a lot of terrestrial input of insects into the system – for example, wetas and cicadas fall in from the branches. These have been shown to be a big part of the fish’s diet, but once that disappears, up to 80% of their food supply is gone.

Mark Russell and Dr Mike Joy (right) filming in the Wainui Stream, Kāpiti Coast. Photo: Caroline Wood

Do you have hope for the future? I have hope that, through a lot of pressure from all of us, including Forest & Bird, we will be able to change things for the better. Native fish face many threats. You can see just about all of these in this stream here. This is probably one of the last good populations of giant kōkopu in New Zealand, certainly in the North Isand. Then we have the threat of the juvenile fish that are coming upstream to replace them being caught by whitebaiters. We need to try to do something about saving them, especially in small streams. I can’t see why we can’t have a rāhui on any kind of fishing from a small stream like this. It’s such a treasure for the locals here. The idea that some outsiders can come in and stick nets in to catch the juvenile fish coming up is kind of abhorrent to many of us, so ending that would be nice too.

Whitebait in big trouble Five different species of native migratory galaxiid fish – giant kōkopu, banded kōkopu, shortjaw kōkopu, kōaro, and īnanga – are collectively known as “whitebait”. Four out of five of these species are in serious trouble, which is why the Department of Conservation has been consulting the public about tightening up whitebait fishing regulations. Forest & Bird sat on DOC’s Whitebait Working Group alongside scientists, commercial and recreational fishers, and other stakeholders to discuss potential changes. “We advocated for a moratorium on commercial whitebait fishing to be included as an option for the public to consider,” says our freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen. “But we’re open to considering any solution that improves the status quo as whitebait fishing is a largely unregulated activity.” In May, DOC released the results of a survey showing 90% of people supported better protection for whitebait. It followed a series of public meetings and consultation with Māori. A discussion document is due to go out for public

consultation later this year. Forest & Bird is hoping that new stronger regulations will be in place by the time the 2020 whitebait season opens next August. “We need to see some changes, and fast, to help these unique fish species survive and thrive,” adds Annabeth. “We know our whitebait species face many threats, including habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and physical barriers to their migration. Fishing is another pressure, but it’s one we can easily do something about.” Find out more about forest & bird’s freshwater fish campaign, including the fish videos, at www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/freshwater-fish. Forest & Bird

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Predator-free 2050 Takahē produce up to twice as many surviving chicks during a tussock mast event but are highly vulnerable to stoat predation the following year with more than 20% of adults and many chicks killed. Photo: DOC

TAKAHĒ IN A MAST YEAR

Initially, the extra seeds produced during a tussock mast year are beneficial for takahē, but then come the stoats. By Mary Ralston. Tussocks produced a bumper crop of seed during this year's mega-mast. Mast years provide a huge benefit to all native species – it’s the post-mast predator plague that’s the problem. In Fiordland’s Murchison Mountains, for example, masting tussocks provide takahē with an almost-unlimited food supply which allows them to produce up to twice as many surviving offspring. Chick survival increases, and the extra resources enable double-clutching – if the first chicks are lost, the females can lay another clutch. But the 2019 tussock mega-mast will cause a population explosion of rats, followed by stoats. When the seed supply dries up next year, the stoats will turn on the defenceless takahē adults and their chicks. “Initially, the mast is massively positive for the birds,” says Glen Greaves, senior ranger with the Takahē Recovery Programme in Te Anau. “But from spring to autumn 2020, we expect a peak in stoat predation. “In the year following a mast, we see losses exceeding 20% of our wild adult population, as well as many of the chicks, despite the trapping. “This is double the background mortality, and more than a takahē population can cope with. What we need is a breakthrough in pest control methods.” Protecting the birds, even in a non-mast year, is logistically difficult. The Murchison Mountains, a huge 55,000ha area, has 3500 predator traps checked six times a year by contractors who have to be ferried in by helicopter. In a mast year, the traps are checked more frequently, depending on the rat catch. Stoats are the takahē killers, but rats “saturate” the traps, leaving no trap space for

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

stoats to be caught, so the Glen Greaves is frequency of trap-clearing senior ranger with is ramped up. the Takahē Recovery The Murchison Programme. Photo: Keri Moyle/Signs of Mountains were one of Life Photography the last places in New Zealand to be invaded by deer and stoats. This habitat supports other rare and endangered species as well as takahē, including rock wren, shortand long-tailed bats, kea, mohua, and kiwi. The larger of these species receive some protection from the network of DOC 150 traps. The only other wild population of takahē is in the vicinity of the Gouland Downs in Kahurangi National Park. It was chosen as a site for takahē because of low stoat numbers and an apparent absence of cats and ferrets. In response to this year’s mast event, 1080 will be used across the national park but not in an approximately 1000ha “exclusion zone” where at least 80% of the takahē are based. DOC will attempt to catch and relocate any outliers into the 1080 exclusion zone. Those few that can’t be caught will be monitored during the operations. There is also an extensive trap network in place, with 700 GoodNature self-setting traps recently installed to supplement the existing DOC. “1080 is an essential tool to protect threatened species

such as great-spotted kiwi, whio, fernbird, and Powelliphanta snails, and is the primary reason why stoat density is low enough to release takahē there in the first place,” adds Glen Greaves. “We do not, therefore, want its use stopped, despite it posing an unknown level of risk to takahē.” Trials have been carried out over a number of years to find a suitable repellent that can be added to 1080 to deter takahē. It is hoped that 1080 has little or no negative impact on them. “Thanks to intensive management, the takahē

population in New Zealand is exceeding 10% growth a year,” adds Glen. “Our 20 sites are rapidly reaching carrying capacity. Establishing self-sustaining wild populations is the next problem to solve.” Wild takahē populations are probably unsustainable without 1080. Without, it they will be restricted to small offshore islands, fenced mainland sanctuaries, and one wild population that has to be propped up by regular takahē releases. All New Zealand’s tall tussocks are prolific mast-seeders in the right conditions. Cameron Valley, Canterbury. Photo: Mary Ralston

TUSSOCK TALES

Professor Dave Kelly talks to Mary Ralston about the link between climate and seed-masting, and how insects have evolved to deal with the boom and bust years. Masting is not just for beech and podocarps. Daisies, tussocks, and many other plants do it too. All New Zealand’s tall tussocks are prolific mast-seeders in the right conditions, but the snow tussocks (Chionochloa crassiuscula) of Takahē Valley, Fiordland, display the most variability in flowering and seeding of any plants studied worldwide. Climate is the key. For many years, researchers knew that a big seed year for all species often followed a warm summer. In 2013, Andre Geldenhuis, from Canterbury University, found it was the temperature difference between two consecutive summers that triggered a mast event the next year. If the second summer was significantly hotter that the preceeding one, a mast event would follow. This discovery was a breakthrough for conservation – it means that a mast event is predictable a year out, so a response can be planned well ahead. All the species that mast, and all the individuals within a species, seem to respond to the same temperature difference trigger. But why they flower and seed so chaotically in New Zealand, when we have a relatively benign and even climate, is a bit of a puzzle. “There’s quite a cost to a plant to produce huge quantities of seed, so there must be some compensation,” says Professor Dave Kelly, who has been researching tussock masting on the slopes of Mount Hutt for over 20 years. In Chionochloa, the answer may be that the years of erratic lean and plenty make life unpredictable for the three species of insect (two flies Eucalyptodiplosis chionochloae and Diplotoxa similis, and a moth Megacraspedus calamagonus) that eat (predate on) the seeds and flowers. If there are a low number of seeds in some years, few insects can be supported. In a mast year the proportion of seed predation falls from 80–95% down to 10%, so there are clear benefits to the tussock to seed prolifically in some years –

a lot more seed survives. In a nice twist, one of the tussocks’ insect predators, Eucalyptodiplosis chionochloae, has evolved to respond to the same climate trigger as their tussock host. An extended diapause (dormancy) allows them to keep in step with the flowering patterns of the tussocks, emerging only in mast years when there’s plenty of food. Dave Kelly And then there’s parasitoids (one species of fly and seven species of wasp) that feed on these insects, and they are synchronised as well. “Insects are smarter than they look,” adds Dave Kelly.

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Biodiversity Kōura/freshwater crayfish. Photo: Jake Osborne

NURTURING NATURE

The government wants a much bigger role for iwi, private landowners, and community groups in protecting Aotearoa’s native biodiversity.

Associate Environment Minister Nanaia Mahuta explains the thinking behind the biggest revamp of biodiversity policies in a generation. There is going to be a sea change in how we see our biodiversity over this coming year. Until now, we have seen protecting our native animals, plants, and fish as somehow the sole responsibility of the Department of Conversation on our public lands. That is going to have to change, and the job of preserving New Zealand’s taonga is now going to be up to all of us – from private landowners to iwi and community groups. Already lots of people are involved. In Auckland alone, there are 7000 private land covenants showing just how many people in our largest city believe in conservation on private land. In Taranaki, community groups are working to return North Island robins/toutouwai and kōkako to the mountain. And in the deep south rūnanga, iwi, councils, and Fonterra have embarked on an ambitious bid to clean up the Waituna Lagoon system. At stake is Aotearoa’s biodiversity. Currently, 83% of our bats, 82% of our birds, 28% of our marine mammals, and 72% of our freshwater fish are threatened or at risk of extinction. Nearly half of all our bird species have disappeared since humans first landed on the motu. There are lots of reasons for this: the clearing of native plants and their habitats for urban development and our productive rural economy. Add in climate change and all our invasive animal and plant pests, and we have a big problem. Our coalition government is looking at two key tools to achieve our goals for saving our endangered creatures. The first step will be a National Policy Statement on Biodiversity. This will help our councils set priorities that will be consistent across the country. We will be helping landowners to find ways to look after the forest and wetlands and the wildlife that lives on their land. The National Policy Statement will have teeth. It will set out a range of measures and require councils to take a 26

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more proactive role in protecting biodiversity through their local plans and other activities. Led by the Minister of Conservation, we will also have a new national Biodiversity Strategy in 2020. This will set out our outcomes and goals for biodiversity for the next 20 years and form the heart of our biodiversity strategy for the decades to come. There will be a chance to have your say on both of our new biodiversity policies. Around June to August this year, both the National Policy Statement and the Biodiversity Strategy will be open to public consultation. As you go about this winter enjoying Aotearoa’s magnificent landscapes and biodiversity, it is important to remember that from now on protecting this taonga is up to all of us and we all need to do our bit.

A PLAN TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY Forest & Bird was part of a stakeholder group that worked together for 18 months to produce a draft National Policy Statement on Biodiversity. While it still needs to go through public consultation and be adopted by the government before coming into effect, our chief executive Kevin Hague called it a “game changer” for New Zealand’s environment when it was handed over to the government last October. Forest & Bird and Federated Farmers were foundation members of the collaborative group tasked with coming up with the NPS. Other members included the Iwi Chairs Forum, the Forest Owners Association, and the Environmental Defence Society. Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp sat on the group along with Jen Miller, our group manager for conservation and advocacy.

SAVING FOULDEN MAAR

University students searching for fossils at Foulden Maar near Middlemarch. Photo: Daphne Lee

The fight to preserve the ancient fossils of Foulden Maar. By Seabourne Rust. There are two German Earth science terms that will have become better understood by many Kiwis following recent events in Otago. One is maar, a volcanic crater formed in a single explosion in an area of low relief, typically containing a lake. The other is a lagerstätte, a type of paleontological site noted for its exceptional preservation of its fossils. The first lagerstätte be recognised in New Zealand is at serious risk. It contains a trove of fossils of crucial importance to the understanding of the history and evolution of life. Foulden Maar is situated on private farmland near Middlemarch in eastern Otago. This was a very different place 23 million years ago during what we geologists call the earliest Miocene. It was a time before the Southern Alps, when the climate was probably wetter and warmer than today, and a lush sub-tropical forest covered the region. The maar was formed when a volcano erupted and created a deep crater lake, about 1km across, that slowly filled with fine sediment, especially diatomite. What is diatomite? It’s the fossilised remains of water-borne, single-cell algae called diatoms, microscopic skeletons of which are composed of silica. Importantly, the lake bed was devoid of oxygen (anoxic), allowing for the spectacular preservation of organic material as fossils. A team from the Geology Department of the University of Otago, and others, have been studying the site for a number of years. This work revealed the 120m+ thick sediments of the maar span a period of some 120,000 years and provide a unique and rare window into the past – an archival record

of the climate, and terrestrial and freshwater life of ancient Aotearoa New Zealand. There are remains of leaves, flowers, pollen, spiders, insects, early galaxiid fish. And there is much more to be discovered. “From a scientific perspective, we don’t yet know the importance of what it contains,” says University of Otago geologist Professor Daphne Lee. “This is New Zealand’s pre-eminent fossil terrestrial site of the Miocene age and is most impressive. There are few others like it. A similar site in China is essentially a museum now.” Last year, scientists were assured by the landowners, Plaman Resources, that they would continue to have access to the maar for research. But a report by investment bankers Goldman Sachs that was leaked to the Otago Daily Times in May suggests the company intends to fully mine the site later this year. The Australian-based but largely Malaysianowned company is reported to have received a $30m loan to create an open-pit mine at Foulden Maar. It wants to dig up the fossilA perfectly containing diatomite deposits – and turn them preserved Litsea leaf found at the site. into cattle and pig feed. Photo: John Conran This increased industrial activity will destroy the maar and have considerable impacts on the local rural community and infrastructure . A proposed 500,000 tonnes of diatomite a year would need to be trucked off the site to a processing plant near Milton, 100km away. A petition has been launched asking the government to reject Plaman Resources’ application, currently with the Overseas Investment Office, to purchase the neighbouring farm, which would improve the viability of its proposed mining operation. Campaigners also want the government to acquire the land currently owned by Plaman Resources and turn Foulden Maar into a scientific reserve under section Section 21 of the Reserves Act 1977. Please sign the petition to stop the proposed mining at the maar – see https://our.actionstation.org.nz/ petitions/save-foulden-maar.

A reconstruction of the lake at Foulden Maar 23 million years ago Ilustration by artist and ecologist Dr Paula Peeters.

n Dr Seabourne Rust is a paleontologist and writer with an interest in New Zealand’s natural history. Forest & Bird

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Marine

Just call me

“SUPER CHICK”

I swam 100km in one day to find food!

Te Koha, Forest & Bird’s feisty “super chick” from our Te Rere scientific penguin reserve in the Catlins. Pictured here with the satellite tracking device on its lower back. Photo: Fergus Sutherland

Radio tracking research at Forest & Bird’s Te Rere penguin reserve has shed new light on the foraging habits of critically endangered yellow-eyed penguins. By Fergus Sutherland. The recorded number of adult birds and their all-important nests have never been so low at Forest & Bird’s Te Rere yellow-eyed penguin reserve, in Southland. The situation mirrors what has been happened at other mainland hoiho breeding sites along the southern coast of the South Island during the recent 2018/2019 summer breeding season. This year, only four pairs of birds attempted nesting at Te Rere, and only two pairs managed to get their chicks to fledging age by the end of February. One was emaciated, weighing just 3kg, and had to be taken to the Penguin Place, in Dunedin, for special care and rehabilitation. The emaciated chick was one of more than 50 rescued from the Catlins during the most recent breeding season. Very few are known to have reached sufficient weight to make it on their own after fledging. Recent research suggests that chicks with a This underweight chick was taken for rehabilitation because its parents couldn’t find enough food to feed it. Photo: Sarah Irvine

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weight of less than 5kg are unlikely to survive their first few months at sea. The fact that mainland yellow-eyed penguins are in crisis prompted a major research study to be commissioned last year. Since September 2018, Te Rere, along with all the hoiho nesting areas along the Otago and Southland coast, have been the scene of intense activity. Scientists and volunteers checked nests, rescued underweight birds, and attached tracking devices to some adults and chicks to try to find out as much as they could about the foraging activities of individual penguins. The research, led by Dr Thomas Mattern and Mel Young, was commissioned by the Department of Conservation through the Conservation Services Programme with support from the fishing industry. The researchers are trying to determine penguin foraging patterns and possible interactions with commercial fishing. So far, their radio tracking data has shed new light on the life of yellow-eyed penguins – it’s shown they are far-ranging and innovative foragers, extreme divers, and devoted parents. Te Rere’s adults managed to fledge two chicks of sufficient weight, including one that had a satellite tracking device attached. This “super-chick”, who we named Te Koha (the gift), went to sea on 3 March and was recorded as being 100km up the coast one day later and 20 days

later was off Timaru. This movement to the Canterbury Bight after fledging is now established as a trend noted with all Otago-tracked birds over the past three seasons. As well as the tracking of a Te Rere chick, this season was the first time adult foraging behaviour was monitored with GPS location and depth data-logging devices. Three devices were deployed during the breeding season: one was lost, but the two recovered showed the Te Rere birds were ranging well out to sea and diving consistently to feed at the sea floor (90m). One bird foraged in a straight line along the coast and is thought to be following a trawl net disturbance furrow. The Southland Branch of Forest & Bird has worked to protect and enhance the society’s Te Rere penguin sanctuary for 38 years. Our efforts span human decades and many penguin generations. It is our true hope this special scientific reserve will continue to hear the morning and evening calls of these amazing birds into the future.

Radio tracking data has shown hoiho are far-ranging and innovative foragers, extreme divers, and devoted parents. This image shows where our Te Rere chick foraged. Map: Thomas Mattern

Researcher Mel Young attaches a tracking device to the superchick, Te Koha, at Te Rere. Photo: Tom Harding

n Fergus Sutherland is caretaker at Forest & Bird’s Te Rere Hoiho Reserve in the Catlins, Southland. To make a donation to Forest & Bird’s vital penguin protection work, contact Jess Winchester, our fundraising manager, on 04 801 2219 or email j.winchester@forestandbird.org.nz.

Why are hoiho in trouble? This year has been one of the worst breeding seasons in a series of poor years for one of the world’s most endangered penguin species. Yellow-eyed penguin nest numbers everywhere were down at the start of the breeding season, with about 250 nests compared to 491 in 2012. And many nests subsequently failed because adults abandoned them. Adult hoiho were recorded spending long periods at sea and were underweight as they got closer to their vulnerable moult period. What is causing the decline? Warming seas and changing food resources are the main problems. The preferred penguin prey, such as opalfish, sprat, silverside, red cod, āhuru, and squid, are harder to find. The birds are forced to take larger fish, such as blue cod, which are more difficult to catch and poor food for chicks. Several recent dramatic videos from researchers’ penguin cameras illustrate these problems – see https://vimeo.com/user1613674. Unless current trends can be reversed, hoiho will disappear within 20 years. However, many people are trying to help. During the past breeding season, Dr Thomas Mattern and Mel Young monitored penguins on land and at sea (see main story), while volunteerled land predator control continued in many breeding areas. Birds wounded at sea by predators were taken to the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, and starving chicks and adults were taken in and rehabilitated at the Penguin Place. This private conservation effort also offers guided tours to see penguins in the wild on its private farmland and beach in the Otago Peninsula.

How can you help? Please tell others that yellow-eyed penguins are starving off mainland New Zealand and support Forest & Bird’s calls for new marine protected areas to be established. There are currently no marine reserves off the coast of South Otago, including the key hoiho foraging ground in the Foveaux Strait. “Ministers have accepted a proposal to establish new marine reserves from the South-East Marine Protection Forum. Sadly, it failed to recommend any reserves off Southland, where these penguins spend much of their time foraging. This must be remedied,” says Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague. The fishing industry also has a part to play – trawling disturbs the seabed habitat of small prey species, set nets capture penguins, and there is increasingly competition for bigger prey. Forest & Bird is asking commercial fishers to act responsibly, use sustainable fishing methods, and avoid fishing in key penguin foraging areas. Above all, you can support efforts to limit global warming, which is at the heart of this and many other problems for this species and our future generations.

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Farming Pāmu’s Kepler Farm, Manapouri, was the 2019 Southland supreme winner of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Pāmu’s biodiversity blitz The nation’s biggest farmer has commissioned a biodiversity survey of all its 120 farms and hopes to return kiwi, takahē and kea to some of its land. By Caroline Wood. There isn’t much Pāmu’s environment manager Gordon Williams doesn’t know about the company’s 120-odd farms, having worked for the company, previously called Landcorp and prior to that Lands and Survey, for an incredible half a century. Starting as a junior shepherd general on Kapiro farm, in Northland in 1969 (it is still a Pāmu-owned farm), Gordon became a land management specialist, registered valuer, and farm consultant, among other roles, and learned a huge amount about the farming business along the way. “My environmental journey started in 1969, when I started work at Kapiro, although I was always interested in wildlife as a child in England and that’s never really left me. I’ve tried to do things to protect the environment on all the farms I’ve been involved with,” he says. “We are one of the southern hemisphere’s biggest farmers, but I’ve always said we are land managers not farmers. I always ask what is the best use for the land? That’s always driven what I have done.” Gordon meets me in the small, high-tech Pāmu head office, just off Courtney Place in central Wellington. This is the control centre for the company’s $1.85b farming operations, covering huge areas of rural landholdings from the Far North to Southland. Pāmu owns, manages, or leases significant dairy interests, and beef and sheep farms on behalf of the Crown, producing and selling a range of products including recent “added value” innovations such as premium venison for export, sheep and deer milk, merino wool, and organic and grass-fed milk powder for the Chinese market. Six years ago, Gordon became the first of two environment managers at Pāmu. This move coincided with the arrival of a new chief excutive, Steve Carden, who pledged to change the company’s business from large30

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scale intensive animal farming towards a diversified landuse model. There would be a focus on “forward thinking” farming that protects rather than trashes the environment. Pāmu’s move to a new model of sustainable farming is ongoing, and last year the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Forest & Bird, pledging to work together on researching, implementing, and promoting farming practices that protect the natural environment, focusing especially on biodiversity, freshwater, and climate change. Gordon, who sees his job as “restoring nature on a $1.8b asset”, has an annual $2.5m budget for environmental protection work, which can be used in different ways – for example, QEII covenants, stream and wetland protection, riparian and erosion control planting and predator and pest control. “This is where the knowledge of what biodiversity we have got on our farms is important. We want to look after everything that’s there because it will become vulnerable

Pāmu’s environment manager Gordon Williams with the QEII National Trust’s Malcolm Rutherford.

unless we protect it. And once we’ve protected it, we will look at enhancing it.” Pāmu has commissioned ecological consultants Wildlands to undertake a desktop biodiversity audit of all of its farms. The aim is to document all the wildlife found on each farm, including plants, insects, and fish. The audit is due to be completed by 30 June. Farmland with high biodiversity values will be protected by a QEII covenant and have predator- and pest-control plans drawn up. Pāmu currently has 202 registered covenants covering 7600ha of land, and Gordon expects to add another 4000–5000ha of QEII-covenanted land by the end of the process. “My goal is to get all of the flora biodiversity on our farms protected by QEII. We’ve got a lot of the big ones done already, now it’s about joining the dots with the smaller areas,” he says. “As well as what’s there now, we want to find out what biodiversity – both flora and fauna – could be there in the future. We are also looking at the margins around the farms.”

With farming operations worth $1.85b, Pāmu is the largest farmer in the southern hemisphere.

Gordon’s long-term aim is to bring back native species – he is keen to reintroduce kiwi, takahē, and kea onto suitable Pāmu farmland. For example, Pāmu has a farm in the Coromandel which is just down the road from Department of Conservation land that contains significant numbers of kiwi. “If we did some restoration and planting, we would expect kiwi to self-introduce and we would manage for the pests and predators,” explains Gordon. “That’s the key for me, what’s possible to do. For example, I’d like to re-introduce takahē. We have two big covenants (1400ha and 1200ha of tussock-dominated land) in Otago and Te Anau, Southland. I’d love to introduce takahē there after implementing a proper predatorcontrol plan. “Kea sometimes appear on our farms. We are working with the Kea Conservation Trust to look for suitable land for them. “Predator and pest control is the main focus, whether it’s plant or fauna predators. What I want us to do is become the ‘inland islands’, the big tracts of land where we have got protection and predator control, and eventually they will join up.” Forest & Bird welcomes Pāmu's efforts to protect biodiversity on a landscape scale and its plans to identify

Under Pāmu’s long-term biodiversity plans, nature will be restored on farms. It is already working with community groups in some areas to bring back lizards, bats, and birds. Photo: Euan Brook

and restore natural values on its farms. Our freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen sits on Pāmu’s Environmental Reference Group, which is working to ensure the organisation incorporates environmental best practice as it transitions to a more sustainable farming model. Chief executive Kevin Hague says: “I’m genuinely impressed with Pāmu’s commitment to getting things right when it comes to protecting the environment. I know this commitment exists at all levels of the company, including on the farm as well as the boardroom. I’m pleased to be working with them on this journey, and I hope their leadership will encourage others in the farming sector to follow suit.” One of the benefits of being the nation’s biggest farmer is that Pāmu can lead by example and team up with other big regional players, including councils and community groups, to make large-scale projects possible. “For example, we are working with Predator-free Pureora, where we have two farms,” says Gordon. “Our contribution is that we pay for the required predator-free work on our farms. We’ve done the same thing in Hawke’s Bay. We bought $20,000 of traps for Te Apiti Farm, as part of the Cape to City Predator-free Hawke’s Bay project. “All of this work will be properly audited and resourced, and to do that we need to know what needs to be protected.” Pāmu employs all its farm managers and therefore can influence the environmental objectives on each farm. The company is also looking at introducing environment key performance indicators (KPIs) for its frontline farming staff. Gordon says many Pāmu farmers have a genuine love for the land but acknowledges there are some who need to sign up to the new way of thinking that puts nature at the heart of the sustainable use of land. “It is an ongoing process, but I believe the industry is changing with a younger generation of farmers coming in with a more holistic view.”

Pāmu is keen to hear from any Forest & Bird branches keen to work in partnership on predatorcontrol or restoration projects on its farms. Contact Gordon Williams at williamsg@landcorp.co.nz to find out more.

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The big read

Wandering albatross travel huge distances with grace and precision. Photo: Kimball Chen

Nature’s navigators Andrew Crowe explores the mysteries of animal migration and navigation.

ew Zealand is home to quite a few long-distance navigators, including humpback whales, two species of eel, two cuckoos, several Arctic waders, and many migratory seabirds. Each one of these creatures possesses an extraordinary ability to find its way for thousands of kilometres well beyond its visual horizon. All are capable not only of maintaining orientation (compass bearing) but also establishing their position in relation to a known destination, whether it lies beyond or beneath the sea. This ability is particularly intriguing to humans, for although some of their methods for doing so are biologically available to us, several are not. The primary wayfinding tool for most creatures appears to be the “sun compass” – orientating by the sun’s daily movement across the sky in relation to a creature’s “internal clock”. The standard test to demonstrate this involves so-called clock-shift experiments, in which a homing pigeon is kept in a closed room under artificial daylight shifted out of sync from natural daylight by six hours for at least five days to reset its internal clock. When the test bird is released to find home, it consistently sets off in the wrong direction. Similar experiments have been repeated on ducks, crows, and a number of migratory birds. Many creatures can employ the same technique even when the sun is obscured by cloud because they can also perceive the direction of polarisation of the light. After sundown, a new set of skills is clearly required. African dung beetles, for example, in an effort to maintain a direct line of escape from fierce competition at the dung pile let themselves be guided by the moon as they roll their balls of dung away to stockpile for a future food supply. This was the recent finding of an international team of researchers who had set up polarising filters to shift the moonbeams. To learn what happens when the moon goes below the horizon, they brought the dung beetles into a planetarium, where it was discovered that they could also steer by the stars. To ascertain this, they compared the navigational abilities of the beetles, both with and 32

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without the star field present, and then with the Milky Way alone. Here their experiments revealed that the Milky Way provided the key. It is not the same for all creatures, though. When indigo buntings – a smallish songbird of North and Central America – were placed in a planetarium, they oriented their migratory urge with respect to the planetarium Pole Star, that is the heavenly point around which the Northern Hemisphere stars rotate. For subterranean mole rats to find their way, they must turn to a different strategy, for they are blind. These creatures have been shown to gauge their orientation in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field, a discovery made with the aid of a rotatable maze. The mole rats demonstrated an ability to determine the shortest route to a site they had visited earlier, using a biological version of an inbuilt compass, but only when the magnetic orientation of the wheel-shaped maze remained constant. When the wheel was turned, they went the wrong way. This facility seems to be common in the animal kingdom but is weak to non-existent in humans. Many non-human creatures can also sense the local intensity and angle of dip of this magnetic field, enabling them to ascertain position, loosely analogous to a kind of GPS. A reliance on such subtle characteristics of the global magnetic field has been demonstrated in sea turtles, spiny lobsters, salmon, red-spotted newts, homing pigeons, and many other birds, by observing what happens to their sense of orientation when they are exposed to an artificial magnetic field characteristic of a different region of the globe. It is clear from all this that many animals have a compass sense and can tell where they are, but a question remains: where is their map? How can they know the whereabouts of their destination? For, if a homing pigeon, a migrating landbird, or a seabird is transferred to an unfamiliar location, many still know which way to fly home. When a Manx shearwater from the UK was transferred to Boston

and released there, it flew more or less directly across the Atlantic to its burrow in Skokholm, off the coast of southwest Pembrokeshire in Wales, some 5150km away. This ability is intriguing enough, but for creatures as diverse as juvenile salmon, monarch butterflies, and albatrosses this mental map clearly involves some form of genetic imprinting, graphic evidence that a collective memory can even be inherited, in effect, providing a map that can be passed down through the genes. This map is based on more than just the Earth’s magnetic field though. Landmarks can also play a role, as can smell – at least among ants and homing pigeons, and probably also petrels and albatrosses. Indeed, wandering albatrosses, fitted with high-precision GPS and stomach temperature transmitters to monitor their feeding habits, demonstrate they may be able to detect fishy odours downwind at distances in excess of 20km. Cory’s shearwaters have shown they are able to navigate over vast stretches of ocean to return to known destinations with the help of odours too, probably from chemicals such as dimethyl sulphide (DMS) that is being emitted in large quantities from regions of concentrated phytoplankton. Sound plays a part too. Bats, cave swiftlets, toothed dolphins, whales, and humans have all demonstrated an ability to navigate between obstacles in the dark by attending to echoes from clicks that they make. Indeed, from brain scans of blind people we know that areas of

Tuna heke/longfin eel. Photo: Bryce McQuillan

the brain normally used for vision can adapt to create non-visual imagery or spatial maps. Pigeons can detect infrasound, typically at frequencies below 20Hz, inaudible to humans but used by whales and elephants for longdistance communication. This suggests birds may navigate with reference to sounds – for example, waves on a shore, wind, and bird calls. Indeed, migrating passerines and waders have been observed (by radar and from helicopters) to follow topographic features, such as valleys, passes, and mountain ranges, even in extremely poor visibility and at night. This facility is thought to derive from distinctive lowfrequency sounds – a kind of aural signature – associated with these features, mostly in response to ambient winds. This conclusion is supported by experiments with homing pigeons, which reveal that their navigational abilities diminish wherever a major “sound shadow” exists – for example, from topographical obstructions or disruptive air currents. Infrasonic effects can be generated by tornadoes, tsunami, volcanoes, avalanches, and earthquakes, too, and these are thought to serve as a kind of early warning to certain animals living thousands of kilometres away. In much the same way, a low-frequency hum (microseism), generated by the interaction of

Pīpīwharauroa/shining cuckoo. Photo: Baron Collocott

Tawaki/Fiordland crested penguin. Photo: Thomas Mattern

Tītī/sooty shearwater. Photo: Darryl Torckler PATHFINDERS: Some of New Zealand’s more impressive navigators. All can find their way to a known destination over distances of more than 2000km. Kūaka/bar-tailed godwit. Photo: Rodney Allen

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overlapping swells far out to sea, produces a faint earth tremor that can be picked up as a background noise (of around 200mHz or 12 cycles/min) in all seismic recordings. These slow waves of sound are known as microbaroms or “the voice of the sea”, and researchers have proposed that subtle variations in these may contribute to the ability of birds to locate themselves on a virtual map. It is unlikely that we will ever grasp all the intricacies of how animals navigate, but from what is already known, we can be sure that a mix of techniques is involved and that the primary methods in use at any one time vary according to the species and the conditions under which they are attempting to find their way. The same is true of humans. On land, most of us rely almost exclusively on sight to steer by landmarks. And mariners, prior to the invention of navigational instruments, paid close attention to the sun, stars, and smell to “see” over the horizon and monitored wind direction, cloud shape and colour, wave patterns, and the prevalence of flotsam, fish, whales, and birds. Traditional Pacific wayfinders excelled in this art. Just as many peoples have used pet dogs – with their superior sense of hearing and smell – to help them hunt, herd, and guard, so too pet frigatebirds were carried aboard Pacific sailing canoes to help with landfinding. When released, the birds fly off in the direction of land or return after some time to the canoe, because

they are reluctant to get their feathers wet. Other species traditionally carried for the same purpose include rails, plovers, red-tailed tropicbirds, herons, and sooty terns. But, to be useful, birds did not necessarily need to be kept on board. Assistance with landfinding was provided also by the daily foraging flights of brown boobies, fairy terns, noddies, and gulls, all of which proved sufficiently predictable that their outbound flights in the morning and inbound flight-paths at dusk could be used to help locate the bird’s home base. Migrating birds were also traditionally employed – in particular, to indicate the presence of unknown lands still further afield. Confirmation of this is found in traditional Polynesian poetry. Here, the most conspicuous candidates would be migrating waders and seabirds, the most spectacular example being sooty shearwaters, when some 20 million of them are heading back from the North Pacific to their New Zealand nesting sites in spring. As Hawaiian master navigator Nainoa Thompson puts it: “Everything you need to navigate is in nature. The question is, can you see it?” n Nature writer Andrew Crowe is author of Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors (Bateman 2018; University of Hawai`i Press 2018).

AMAZING POWERS: Creatures that have been shown under experimental conditions to navigate either by the moon and/or the stars, the Earth’s magnetic field, or smell.

Indigo bunting. Photo: Dan Pancamo.

Dung beetle, South Africa. Photo: Wikimedia

Manx shearwater chick, Skokholm Island, Wales, UK. Photo: Hugh Venables/Geograph.org.uk.

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Cory’s shearwater. Photo: Douglas Koch

Lesser mole rat. Photo: Wikimedia

KCC

LOLA LOVES NATURE How a young Kiwi Conservation Club member is helping spearhead a nation’s move away from single use plastic bags. Forest & Bird’s jute shopping bags have been flying off the shelves at Countdown stores across New Zealand. Lola Yates, 9, is the brains behind the beautiful design, which features a green koru heart embracing four native birds and indigenous flora. The design has proved popular with supermarket shoppers, with 25,000 bags sold to date. Last year, Countdown announced it was ditching single-use plastic bags at its checkouts. It offers a range of reusable bags that shoppers can buy instead. The supermarket giant launched a competition asking the nation’s children to come up with a nature-inspired image to print on its new jute shopping bags. Lola won the national competition, and her eye-catching design was printed onto 40,000 bags, which cost $6 each. Each bag sold generates a $1 gift for Forest & Bird’s conservation work. Lola and her family are over the moon about how well the bags are selling because they are keen to see a reduction in the amount of harmful plastic being thrown away. As Lola says: “There is too much plastic flying around and destroying our planet. Animals are dying because of this, and we need to stop. I always pick up rubbish when I see it. “Our family always says no to plastic bags in shops we go to. That’s not hard. Mum always has a reusable bag handy. It’s quite cool because now it has my picture on it.” Kiri Hannifin, Countdown’s general manager Corporate Affairs, Safety and Sustainability, said: “We were proud to be the first supermarket in New Zealand to become singleuse plastic bag free, and our tamariki are one of the many reminders on why we have to keep working to safeguard our environment for their future. “It was really hard to pick a winner, but Lola’s beautiful design perfectly depicts the incredible flora and fauna we

are so fortunate to have here, and why it’s so important that we all play our part to protect it.” Countdown has raised an incredible $25,000 through the jute bag sales to date – but there are still bags left. Check your local supermarket if you want to buy one. In a separate fundraising initiative, Countdown’s All for One campaign raised another $32,550 for Forest & Bird, as well as highlighting our work in an TV advertising campaign alongside the other two chosen charities, Kids Can and Salvation Army. Forest & Bird is proud to support Countdown’s sustainability journey as part of our corporate partnership programme. “Less plastic in the environment and more funds to defend nature – it’s a win-win for conservation,” says Jo Prestwood, Forest & Bird’s relationship manager.

KCC’S KID-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES Our KCC website has some cool new nature-based activities for children of all ages, perfect for keeping them busy on a winter’s afternoon. How about a bit of Bark Bingo? Download the full-colour bingo card, see if you can find the nine trees pictured, and cross them off for a “full house”. Or get your hands gunky by making your own eco-friendly glowing slime. There are also competitions, colouring in, and practical conservation-based projects, like making your own tracking tunnel. Check them out at https://kcc.org.nz/activities/.

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Freshwater

Forest & Bird invited politicians and media to raft along the river to see for themselves what would be lost if the hydro dam were to be given the go ahead. Photo: Ian Trafford

PEOPLE POWER

We look back at Forest & Bird’s hard-fought campaign to save the mighty Mōkihinui River following the welcome news that it will be protected in perpetuity as part of Kahurangi National Park. These photos show how people power saved the wild and stunning Mōkihinui River from being destroyed by a massive 80m hydro dam. In October 2010, more than 120 people rafted and kayaked the river to show their opposition to the dam. Forest & Bird is proud to have led this campaign, which we won in 2012 when Meridian Energy cancelled the project. In March this year, the government announced the Mōkihinui River catchment will be added to Kahurangi National Park. It’s a final and very welcome postscript to the story, and something that Forest & Bird was calling for from the start of our campaign. Our campaign kicked off in 2008, when Meridian Energy proposed an 80m-high hydroelectric dam that would have

Forest & Bird issued $100 “share certificates” as part of its fundraising appeal to protect a national treasure.

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drowned a stretch of river and forest and created a 14kmlong reservoir. Forest & Bird appealed against Meridian’s resource consents and campaigned hard to stop the development. New Zealanders across the country supported the campaign, including public meetings attended by hundreds, and the rafting and kayak trip we co-organised with Whitewater NZ, inviting both politicians and media. North of Westport on the West Coast of the South Island, the Mōkihinui is one of the most important river catchments in New Zealand. “Keeping our wild rivers free from major development is important to New Zealanders. The Mōkihinui in particular struck a chord because the area is such a stunning landscape, and ecologically important,” says Forest & Bird’s regional manager for the top of the South Island, Debs Martin. “A significant population of roroa/great-spotted kiwi live in this area. There are 11 threatened bird species including whio and one of the few remaining large populations of long-tailed bats in the South Island and some of the best northern rātā in the country.” Even though Meridian backed down and cancelled the project in 2012, nothing prevented another company applying for new consents. So, Forest & Bird immediately approached the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board for its support to reclassify the Mōkihinui River conservation land as part of Kahurangi National Park.

That didn’t happen then, but now, eight years later and with a change of government, it has at last become a reality. “It’s fantastic to see this important landscape finally getting the protection it deserves. Major development shouldn’t be allowed on conservation land,” says Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague. Back in 1994 when Kahurangi National Park was established, the Mōkihinui River was not included in the national park partly because of opposition from prodevelopment interests. It remained stewardship land – conservation land that is not adequately protected in law and therefore frequently targeted for development. “If it had been better protected in the first place, Forest & Bird, along with several other organisations and countless volunteers, would not have had to spend years fighting to protect the Mōkihinui River from schemes such as these,” added Kevin. “More than 3000 areas of public conservation land remain classified as stewardship land and vulnerable to development proposals. This includes different kinds of habitats, from tall forests to tussocklands, wetlands to river valleys. These places have very important conservation values and need lasting protection. “With New Zealand’s environment in crisis, and the impacts of climate change expected to increase, now more than ever our public conservation land is needed for its real purpose, which is conservation.”

Most of the Mōkihinui River will now be added to Kahurangi National Park and protected in perpetuity. Photo: Craig Potton

At Parliament with Forest & Bird's postcard petition calling on Meridian to withdraw its plans to dam the Mōkihinui, February 2011.

Specialists in Nature Tours since 1986 14 Day Western Explorer camping tour

Broome to Perth 30 July – 12 August 2019. Max of 12 passengers Travelling from Broom you will visit some of the states most scenic highlights. The Gorges of Karijini, Mount Augustus and the Kennedy Ranges will delight lovers of geology. Passengers will also enjoy the wildflower country further south closer to Perth.

15 Day Alice Springs to Perth camping expedition

Alice Springs to Perth 15 – 29 August 2019. Max of 6 passengers Explore the Great Central Rd and deserts of WA. This tour offers a multitude of different landscapes from Lake Ballard to the Great Victorian Desert and West McDonald Ranges. True small group touring with a max of 6 passengers.

10 Day Mid West Wildflower accommodated tour

Perth to Perth 7 – 16 September 2019. Max of 12 passengers See botanical hotspots north of Perth during wildflower season. The trip covers a diverse array of landscapes with the farmlands of the Wheatbelt, the Kalbarri National Park and the northern sandplains around Eneabba, Coalseam and the Mt Lesueur National Park.

15 Day WA Outback camping tour.

Perth to Perth 1 – 15 October 2019. Max of 6 passengers One of Coates most popular tours with a maximum of 6 passengers you will visit such highlights including: Anne Beadell & Connie Sue Highways, the Eyre Bird Observatory as well as the Granite Woodlands trail. A great tour for someone looking to get off the beaten track.

12 Day Greater Western Woodland & Helena Aurora Ranges camping tour

Perth to Perth 26 October to 6 November 2019. Max of 6 passengers The recently protected Helena Aurora Ranges are home to endemic plant species only found on these unique banded ironstone formations. Explore the world’s greatest untouched temperate woodlands.

8 Day Lord Howe Island accommodated tour.

Lord Howe to Lord Howe 2 – 9 November 2019. Max of 16 passengers Experience one of the worlds most fascinating natural history destinations. Join local naturalist expert, Ian Hutton as we discover the islands wildlife. The Islands many and varied walks plus the Balls Pyramid boat trip add to the enjoyment.

11 Day Christmas & Cocos Island tour

Perth to Perth 19 – 29 November 2019. Max of 12 passengers The best word to describe these islands is endemic. Discover unique species of birds, plants and even reptiles on these island sanctuaries found nowhere else in the world. Our visit is also aimed to coincide with the Red Crab migration, if we are lucky we will witness one of the worlds most spectacular natural wonders.

10 Day Botswana wildlife safari

Maun to Kasane 8 – 17 March 2020. Max of 12 passengers Visit Botswana during it’s vibrant green season. Abundant in new life the Okavango Delta, Chobe and Kalahari come alive with life. The trip will be lead by top local Naturalist and an Australian Coates escort.

Contact us for our full 2019 tour program • Free Call: 1800 676 016 • Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au • Email: coates@iinet.net.au

Pest-free NZ

A Volucella inanis hoverfly larva (centre) in a wasp nest. Photo: Bob Brown

WAR ON WASPS

Scientists are hoping for a breakthrough in the race to control the invasive wasps decimating our wildlife, as David Brooks finds out. Until recently, the spread of German and common wasps has gone almost unchecked in New Zealand, threatening native wildlife and human safety. But current trials of a range of wasp parasites and predators offer new hope in efforts to turn the tide against the invaders. German and common wasps, members of the Vespidae family, arrived here separately since the 1940s. They have few natural enemies in New Zealand, and their concentrations have reached higher levels here than elsewhere in the world. Wasps are a menace in native beech forests, where they feed on honeydew, a valuable food for native insects and birds, and they also consume huge quantities of insects. Scientists estimate the weight of wasps in these forests is greater than the combined biomass of all the birds and other pests such as possums, rats, and stoats. Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research scientist Dr Bob Brown has been studying a number of wasp predators and parasites found naturally in Europe with the aim of introducing them here once the necessary safety checks are done. One of these, Sphecophaga vesparum vesparum, a parasitic wasp that feeds on German and common wasp larvae, is already here after being widely released from the 1980s. But it is only known to have become established at a couple of South Island sites and has had Dr Bob Brown travelled to Europe little measurable impact on wasp to look for answers numbers. to Aotearoa’s serious Bob believes this may be wasp problem. because the released Sphecophaga wasps came from Switzerland, whereas the common and German wasps here originated in Britain and northern France. The parasitic wasps rely on being able to enter wasp nests without being recognised as intruders, so Bob has brought more of them from Britain and Belgium, hoping they will have the right chemical signal to avoid detection. “The aim is that we release new strains from the UK which are matched to the correct strain of vespula 38

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wasps,” he said. He is hoping to release some of these Sphecophaga wasps this year. He also came back from a European visit last year with larvae from two species of hoverfly – Volucella inanis and Volucella zonaria as well as a couple of Leopoldius signatus Ivy wasp grabber fly pupae and Metoecus paradoxus wasp nest parasitic beetles. Bob is hoping to have permission to release the hoverfly species next summer, and ideally there will eventually be several species here targeting German and common wasps. “In natural areas in Britain, I’ve found wasp nests with four or five natural enemies in them, whereas here almost every nest I open up is completely healthy.” Another effective tool against wasps in recent years has been Vespex, a protein-based bait laced with the insecticide fipronil. Wasps carry the bait back as food for their entire nests, resulting in wasp numbers plummeting by up to 98% in treated areas. Vespex has been used to control wasps since 2015 at Forest & Bird’s Te Hoiere Bat Recovery Project at Pelorus Bridge. Top of the South regional manager Debs Martin said the wasps “literally disappear overnight” after the bait is distributed. “We noticed an immediate bounce back in honeydew on the trees, and we see other insects foraging on that honeydew when it was previously dominated by wasps,” Debs said. “You see an immediate change in the forest, and there’s much more insect food for the birds and the bats at the end of the season when they need to be fattening up for winter.”

Climate Rubbish tangled in driftwood with Aoraki/ Mt Cook in the background. Some will have entered the ocean and is likely sitting offshore in a deepsea canyon.

Historic landfill risk

Councils need to make their regions more resilient to climate change, including protecting old rubbish sites from erosion. There are at least 100 unprotected historic rubbish dumps around the country at risk of flooding and climate change effects. A report by Local Government New Zealand indicates the Auckland region is most at risk, with 88 old landfill sites that would be exposed with only 0.5m of sea level rise. Otago, Nelson, and Canterbury also have multiple closed landfills at risk. In late March, tonnes of rubbish were released from an old landfill at Fox Glacier, South Westland, after the Fox River flooded. The debris was swept 50km along the coast. Forest & Bird immediately called on the government to help Westland District Council and identify any toxic chemicals that could have been released and clean up the dump site, river, and rugged West Coast beaches affected. The area polluted by the huge spill includes beaches in Westland Tai Poutini National Park, the Waiau Glacier Coast Marine Reserve, and the coastal area near the Okarito Mataitai Reserve, an important feeding ground of New Zealand’s

kōtuku/white heron. NIWA’s Dr Joshu Mountjoy said some of the rubbish would end up hidden out of sight in the deep ocean, possibly in the Cook Canyon, which is located directly offshore from the Fox River. “Reports show the rubbish has been dispersed widely along the coast, and it is also almost certain that there will be a large hidden component of the waste that has been transported offshore and out of sight beneath the ocean,” he said. A recent study on deepsea canyons offshore from Sicily found huge amounts of rubbish in water depths up to 1000m that had been transported there after flash flooding. Such canyons host key marine ecosystems and support important fisheries, so it’s important to track where the Fox River rubbish goes, added Dr Mountjoy. A year earlier, an old coastal rubbish dump at a Greymouth beach spilled tens of thousands of plastic bags and other items onto the coastline after being breached by high seas caused by ex-Cyclone Fehi.

“What’s happened in Fox River is a disaster for nature. We saw similar events in Greymouth last year, and there are many other old landfills in this report where sea level rise could cause a similar situation,” says Forest & Bird conservation advocacy manager Jen Miller. “Contaminated sites everywhere need to be assessed and protected from climate change. There are likely to be many hundreds of other old landfills and hazardous sites which aren’t in this LGNZ report but are close to rivers and coastlines threatened by climate change.” Restoring nature is a key part of preparing for climate change because healthy sand dunes, wetlands, and forests will slow water and reduce flooding effects. “The Ministry for the Environment has responsibility for leading this work. It needs to make sure councils are not exposing their residents and landscapes to more of these preventable ecological disasters,” adds Jen. “It must provide clear guidance to councils on what their responsibilities are, and central government should resource this regional work.”

Forest & Bird’s West Coast regional manager Nicky Snoyink visited Fox River and met with volunteers cleaning up after the catastrophic rubbish spill.

*The LGNZ report on infrastructure exposed to sea level rise is here: http://bit.ly/2GLma4s. Forest & Bird

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In the field

Dotty about

dotterels

Tūturiwhatu/New Zealand dotterel and chick. Photo Dean Wright

Some beach communities weren’t happy when Forest & Bird branches pioneered “dotterel minding” 40 years ago. But volunteer guardians are still the foundations of tūturiwhatu survival, as Ann Graeme finds out. Forty years ago on our northern beaches, there was a little brown and white bird whom nobody noticed. It had tiny speckled chicks who looked like thistledown and drifted across the sand. When they stopped moving, they were invisible. Nobody noticed them either. New Zealand dotterels/tūturiwhatu used to live on sandy beaches all around the country. But four decades ago, their breeding range had dwindled to the northern beaches of the North Island, extending as far south as Kawhia on the west and the Bay of Plenty on the east. The birds are fussy about their breeding territories. Most favoured is a sandy spit between the ocean and the estuary or a beach, backed by dunes, where a stream meanders out to sea. There, where the sand hoppers are abundant, they nest in a scrape in the sand. Their three speckled eggs are so perfectly camouflaged that people and horses can trample them – and they do – and vehicles can crush them – and they do that too. We humans like sandy beaches too. Bach owners, swimmers, fishermen, and children all play in the places the dotterels call home. Disturbed and displaced by people and dogs in the daytime and picked off by predators in the night time, the inconspicuous birds began to disappear from our beaches. In the early 1980s, scarcely more than a thousand birds remained. In December 1985, Bev Woolley, then secretary of Waikato Forest & Bird, was holidaying with her family on the Coromandel peninsula at Opoutere. She nearly walked on a dotterel nest. Shocked at its vulnerability, Bev realised the nesting birds needed protection. She organised a weekend roster of Forest & Bird volunteers to man a flimsy fence of string and battens strung around the nesting area. This was a good start but it was not enough, so Bev persuaded her branch to fund a student for six weeks over the summer.

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This was not a job for the faint-hearted. The elements – the sun and wind – were fierce, and so too were some of the locals. They said it was “their beach”. They had always driven their dune buggies and walked their dogs across the spit right here, and they’d never noticed any birds anyway! A man was fined for taking his dog into a fenced area – and for being rude to Bev. Dogs are the death knell of nesting dotterels. A dog bounding amongst the flotsam and driftwood above the high tide may scare a sitting bird from its nest. The parent birds will try to distract it, swooping down, or pretending to have a broken wing, but in vain. The dog may kill the chicks or break the eggs, while the owner, down at the water’s edge, is all unaware. The Forest & Bird minders persevered, keeping people and dogs away from the nests and monitoring eggs and chicks and fledglings. Then in 1987, the Department of Conservation was established and New Zealand dotterels were given “threatened species” status. Their care became the responsibility of the Department, and DOC officers helped Forest & Bird branches with their voluntary work. For the past 19 years, Forest & Bird volunteer Patricia there has been a full-time Olson sets up her dotterel fence DOC dotterel warden on on Kuaotunu beach, in the the Coromandel coast. But Coromandel.

volunteer minders are still the foundations of tūturiwhatu survival. Bev went on to monitor and band dotterels all around the Coromandel and engage locals to be minders on their beaches. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Forest & Bird volunteers were minding dotterels on the Ohope Spit, and Te Puke branch adopted the Maketu Spit. Led by legendary conservationists such as Helen and Adrian Harrison and Carole Long, they put up fences, printed signs and leaflets, and visited schools to teach the children. Panepane Point on Matakana Forest is home to the largest nesting population of New Zealand dotterels in the Bay of Plenty. With the island’s iwi, Forest & Bird started a dotterel protection project there. Led by Dave Wills, DOC fostered the project, with islanders Bubby and Jason Murray minding the birds and teaching the local families about the tūturiwhatu pukunui (little bird with big belly) nesting on their beaches. Now the project has been taken over by the iwi, and this happy outcome continues. Education has been the key to saving this dwindling species. When people start to see and learn about the birds, they understand their plight. Colourful informative DOC signs have replaced the blotchy leaflets and handmade placards our members created many years ago. Antagonism to the “dotterel fences” has now become understanding and tolerance. Locals have become proud of “their” dotterels and eager to tell visitors about them. Education has also led to responsible dog ownership. All of these conservation measures, plus pest control, saw numbers of the northern sub-species of NZ dotterel increase from about 1200 birds in 1990 to 1700 in 2004. With continuing protection, that number has remained constant. But the population could and should continue to increase. What the birds need are more dog-free, dotterel-friendly beaches, and it is happening. Dotterels are increasing their range, reclaiming beaches where once they used to live. This summer two chicks hatched at Waikanae Estuary, north of Wellington! This is a tribute to community conservation, as are the dotterels now breeding at Mahia in the Hawke’s Bay. Further south in the Hawke’s Bay, when a few dotterels were seen at Aramoana Beach, visionary DOC ranger Rod Hansen put up signs and a kilometre-long string fence. With protection provided, the birds came. Ten years later,

Human activities such as riding and driving can trample on vulnerable dotterel nests and eggs. Photo: Uretiti Beach, Shellie Evans

they are now spilling out of the fenced area and starting to breed further south. Other species also benefit from dotterel community care. Variable oystercatchers and sometimes white-fronted and Caspian terns nest safely within a dotterel fence. Dotterel nests are often just scrapes in the sand, leaving their eggs very exposed. Photo: Phil Palmer

Climate claims nesting sites Signs, string fences, and goodwill have halted the decline of northern NZ dotterels, but this will not protect them from the looming threat of climate change. As sea levels rise and storms increase, dotterel nests will be swept away by surging waves. Already savvy volunteers are shifting nests to higher ground when high seas are forecast. But that can only be a temporary measure. “Managed retreat” is the buzzword for threatened seaside communities. We need to provide this for wildlife as well as people. District and regional plans need to include potential inland roosting and nesting sites for displaced beach birds, and we need to lobby on their behalf.

Southern dotterel in crisis There are even fewer of the southern subspecies of New Zealand dotterel. They live only on Stewart Island/Rakiura, nesting high on the mountains among the granite boulders. Following cat control, their numbers have risen to about 250, but that is still a shadow of a population that once lived all around the coast of the South Island. Southern Dotterel at Mason Bay, Stewart Island. Photo: Jake Osborne

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Pacific

Rainforest restoration

Villagers managed to stop logging operations starting in Tetepare Island’s virgin forests and are restoring Rendova’s once-logged rainforest (pictured). Photo: Craig Salmon

Rebecca Stirnemann and Dean Baigent-Mercer visit two special rainforest and marine conservation projects in the Solomon Islands. Many rainforests across the world have been logged and/ or wiped out, especially in coastal areas. The remote island of Tetepare, in the western Solomon Islands, is one of the last places where such forests have been spared in the Pacific. With friends, we were lucky enough to travel there recently, staying in a traditional leaf house at the heart of this special forest and marine conservation project. Indigenous descendants of the Tetepare people, who left the island uninhabited for over 150 years, now own and care for the land, where giant rainforest trees grow from the top of volcanic ridges down to the waves. For over a decade, they have also enforced a fishing ban in the large lagoon and carried out turtle and dugong protection. Coral famous for its diversity surrounds the island – a testament to the health of this ecosystem. Protection of these ancient Tetepare rainforests didn’t happen easily. Auntie Mary Bea told us about how the forest was nearly lost. She remembers watching helplessly as trees were logged and bulldozed on the neighbouring island of Rendova (see panel). With the loss of the forests, she says the local culture of caring for nature broke down, and rivers became dirty and were no longer good for drinking. For the first time, people experienced flash floods in the village. She told us how the

Cuscus, a native possum, likes to nibble rainforest figs in the moonlight. Photo: Rebecca Stirnemann

Tetepare’s rainforest is home to a remarkable diversity of plant and birdlife. Photo: Rebecca Stirnemann

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once abundant fishing grounds were spoilt with sediment. It was too late to stop the logging at Rendova. But when Mary and her family heard about a proposal to log neighbouring Tetepare, they and some of the other original island descendants decided they had to stop it happening. Some of them jumped on boats and travelled the two hours to the island to fight to protect it. As traditional owners, they asserted their rights to prevent logging. “We knew what was right for Tetepare,” says Mary. “Now I am thankful to be a woman who protected Tetepare Island.” Mary now works to ensure Tetepare operates a genuinely sustainable ecotourism business, which helps fund Auntie Mary Bea is proud to the conservation, monitoring, have helped protect Tetepare and policing of the marine Island from destructive logging. Photo: Craig Salmon protected area. Visiting Tetapare Island is a logistical challenge. First you need to get to Munda, in New Georgia, by boat or by plane. From there, you are in the care of Tetepare descendants who whizz you on a small boat to Tetepare. On the journey, we saw flying fish, pigeons, large dragonflies, and butterflies fluttering between the two emerald islands. Once we were there, Uncle Twoomey explained the island’s history and things we needed to take care around (crocodiles, some very itchy plants, and about kastom or traditional protocols). His knowledge is all-encompassing. With a maximum of 12 guests at Tetepare Island, you are surrounded by nature and not people. The virgin forest held a remarkable diversity of bird life. Mustachioed swifts, red-knobbed imperial pigeons, and flocks of cockatoo

were everywhere. Song parrots nibbled on berries beside the endemic Tetepare white-eye. Giant butterflies fluttered, flashing iridescent colours. The soundscape of the bush was incredible. The change from night to day was a crazy chorus. At night, we couldn’t tell what the sounds came from. Were they bugs, reptiles, mammals, or amphibians? It turned out the barking was from a frog that was perfectly camouflaged to look like bark. By day, skinks scuttle along tracks. They are usually black or brown but one species looked like it wore green leotards. The sheer number was incredible. At nightfall, hermit crabs of all sizes took the lizards’ place on the forest floor. Huge endangered coconut crabs, the world’s largest land-dwelling crustacean, searched for food. In the canopy, we spotted a native possum called a cuscus nibbling rainforest figs in the moonlight. While eating the tasty traditional food in the communal dining area, we watched fireflies flash attracting mates. The exciting thing was not knowing what you would see next. The most surprising combination was mangroves in full flower feeding hundreds of black butterflies above a darting school of foot-long baby black-tipped reef sharks. Within the protected lagoon, the corals are striking in their diverse colours and forms. A magical diversity of colourful fish peered out at us. Dugongs and turtles fed on the sea grass. Snorkelling the drop-off outside the lagoon, we saw enormous endangered bump-headed parrotfish crunch coral. They ignore sharks swimming in the hazy deep waters. Both are a sign that marine life thrives here.

Islanders look after nature in the ocean as well as on land. A fishing ban in the lagoon means there is a magical diversity of fish, corals, and turtles. Photo: Ingrid Stirnemann

All adventures are with a Tetepare guide to keep both the guests and the island safe. It is rare to find a place pulsing with so much life. Tetepare shows how a small number of people can have an enormous impact in protecting and restoring nature. For more information about Tetepare Island, see tetepare. org. If staying in Munda before heading to the islands, we recommend https://www.agneshotelsolomon.com/.

Eco-tourism is at the heart of the local economy on Tetepare and Rendova. Photo of Titiru Lodge: Craig Salmon

Marine protection on Rendova Take a short boat ride from Tetepare to Rendova Island, and you come to Titiru Ecolodge nestled between the mangroves of Saqiri Cove and an orchid garden. This is a good place to see the bright red cardinal lory parrots, coconut lorikeets, and sea eagles elegantly catching fish from the lagoon. You hear the giant Blyth’s hornbill, it sounds like a steam engine, well before you see it. The eco-lodge’s owner and manager Kilo Paza was involved in the logging industry for almost 15 years and experienced its negative effects first hand. “I saw the impacts and realised things had to change,” he says. He returned home to Rendova with a plan to build something sustainable. Kilo took time to convince people in the nearby Ugili village to end fishing in Saqiri Cove, a small mangrovefringed bay near the eco-lodge known locally as the “nursery”. “Now people realise that stopping fishing in one area results in more abundant fishing in the surrounding area. The improvement people have seen has caused others to also put in marine protection.” There are challenges though. The people of Rendova Island are on the front line of sea-level rise. We walked along an area where a whole row of houses had disappeared into the sea. All that was left was some debris and garden trees falling into the sea. Kilo’s conservation efforts are not limited to the ocean. The success of his eco-tourism venture has inspired him and his family to retire the nearby coconut plantations and replace them with native trees. “It is time to bring all the native forest bird species back close to the lodge,” he says. We paddled canoes across Saqiri Cove, snorkelled in the marine protected area, and explored a nearby coral limestone cave at night to see the baby bats. At every meal, we were given a delightful and healthy feast. For more information about Rendova Island, see https://www.titiruecolodge.com/en/. Forest & Bird

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Conservation hero John Darby marks an egg at one of Lake Wanaka’s famous floating crested grebe nests.

Field of dreams

It takes a community to conserve a species, as John Darby found out when he decided to give Lake Wanaka’s southern crested grebes a helping hand. By Sue Harper. John Darby had never seen a southern crested grebe until he moved to Wanaka in 2013. One day, soon after moving to the town, he was out walking along the lakeshore when he noticed a pair attempting to breed in the Wanaka marina. Their poor structural engineering abilities, combined with the lake’s fluctuations, doomed their nestmaking efforts. The retired behavioural ecologist, who has been a member of Forest & Bird for nearly 60 years, was naturally curious about these beautiful birds. He reached out to the public in search of other lakes where grebes were thriving. The response led to John spending about 100 hours over two seasons paddling his kayak around Lake Hayes, learning where and how grebes build nests and raise their young. Based on his observations, he believed that if he built a supernormal stimulus – the best and biggest grebe nest he could – then, just like in the movie Field of Dreams, “they would come.” He designed a wooden platform held up with empty plastic bottles, topped it with nesting material, and within a day a pair had settled in. That was six years ago. John asked his friend Tony Waterworth, a graphic design and technology teacher at Mount Aspiring College, if he could help the nascent project. Tony decided to involve his Year 7 and 11 students and created a school project to design the floating nests. To support them, they used swimming noodles (donated by the Wanaka Community Pool) that had passed their “use-by” date. The college’s principal contributed money, as did the local fishing and angling club, and Mitre 10 provided materials at a nominal fee. After the senior students built the platforms, the Year 7s fitted the noodles and secured the covers over them. Tony says the kids loved the project, often going down to the waterfront to check out their work, which also proved popular with nesting grebes.

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John is always keen to get youngsters involved. Three years ago, Janis Sandri, a teacher at Holy Family School, asked John to speak to her class about the grebes. He introduced them to the birds at the marina then visited the school with photos and a more formal lesson. That’s when Jack Sandford, among other Year 5 students, became interested in the future of the birds. Jack, now 12, and his younger brother Matthew are two of John’s “Grebies”, a group of young people who meet on Sundays from October through the summer breeding season. Jack believes he’s one of the luckiest kids in the world. Not only has he been pecked by a grebe, when he pulled his hand away too quickly while checking for eggs, he’s been present when one of the eggs hatched. He’s even seen a grebe in flight, something few people have experienced. Lake Wanaka’s grebe project has become a family affair for the Sandfords. When John asked for someone to volunteer a boat for a grebe count, Jack’s dad jumped in. For three years, Jack, his dad, and John have been conducting an annual count. Mum Vicky Sandford says one of the wonderful things about John is that he treats the children with generosity and respect. In 2017, Chris Thornton, owner of Paddle Wanaka, started providing John with some muscle to help with heavy lifting. The nesting platforms can weigh up to 40kg, and many need to be moved for the winter. Now 82, John admits he isn’t able to do it by himself. Runaway nests are not unheard of. Sometimes during a storm, the anchors break loose and the platforms float away. It’s not unusual for John to get a call informing him a nest has been seen near Ruby Island or, more often than not, for someone to tow it back to the marina. Support for the project continues to come from the local

community. A while ago, John was directed to strip the original willow from the nesting platforms after a member of the community complained the species was invasive. He ordered 20 Carex secta – a type of native sedge that doesn’t mind having wet roots – from a local garden store, which promptly donated the plants to the project. The grebes took to the new vegetation, and John returned to the garden centre for more plants (fully expecting to pay). He was given almost twice the number he ordered for free. When Ruenell and Mike Wing, the owners of Wanaka Beerworks, were looking for a way to support the local community, they found the grebe project online and considered it a perfect fit. Ten cents from every bottle of their Lakecider is donated to the grebes and keeps the project financially afloat. John keeps the community informed with his “Grebe Diaries” in the Wanaka Sun. He reports on breeding pairs, hatching dates, and other interesting facts. In November 2018, John reported a total of 155 breeding attempts (nests) producing 498 eggs and 234 live chicks. In 2017, John, a former assistant director and head of sciences at Otago Museum, was awarded the Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand (CRSNZ). In December 2018, he received a Kiwibank Local Hero Medal for his unflagging efforts to inspire community involvement with his conservation efforts.

Wanaka locals love kāmana/Australasian crested grebe. Photo: Michael Ashbee

Jack Sandford, 12, helps John check nests in the marina at Lake Wanaka.

Widespread but declining Australasian crested grebes are found on every continent in the world. Māori call the birds kāmana and regard them as taonga/treasure. At least 100 South Island lakes once had grebes, but there have been ongoing declines mainly because of introduced predators, habitat loss through the drainage of wetlands, and the building of hydro schemes. Grebes require vegetation along lake margins for nesting and shelter from rough weather. They attach their floating nests to underwater vegetation.

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Going places Norwegian orcas have 23 different calls. By combining these calls, they can make words. Photo: Orca Adventures

ARCTIC ADVENTURES WITH ORCA Kathryn Curzon heads to Norway to go swimming with orcas in the middle of an Arctic winter. “Go go go!” were the words I’d been waiting to hear. Gijs, our guide, shouted at us urgently, signalling it was time to drop into the dark Arctic waters below. Without hesitation, I threw myself into the ocean. With snow-covered mountains above and orca fins seemingly everywhere, the world ceased to exist. I was eye-to-eye with a group of wild orcas casually checking me out. I had expected to feel nervous, intimidated maybe, as orcas close up are huge, but instead felt a sense of complete peace. Mesmerised, I watched these incredible sea mammals move gracefully past in the quiet waters, and my long-held dream came true. I was swimming with orcas. There was, and still is, nowhere I would rather be. The waters off the Troms region in the far north of Norway host hundreds of orcas each winter from the

An adventure of a lifetime awaits passengers boarding the Sula. Photo: Orca Norway

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end of October to the start of February. Thought to be the largest gathering of killer whales in the world, they arrive in family groups to feed on the spring-spawning herring that migrate down the coast. It is a time of feasting for the orcas, and also humpback whales, a time of drama for the herring, and a time of getting exceptionally chilly if you want to get in the freezing water to swim with them. Norway is the only place in the world where you can reliably freedive or snorkel with orcas in the wild – sometimes in groups of up to 50–60 strong. But there’s a catch – you have to do it in the middle of an Arctic winter when there’s only three hours of daylight and a wind chill of -20°C. But if you’re prepared to endure the cold, it is the adventure of a lifetime. Boarding Sula just outside Tromsø, a picturesque Norwegian hub above the Arctic circle, I knew this weeklong expedition would be like no other. The Sula, an ex-fishing vessel turned cosy liveaboard boat, takes small groups of adventurous guests (a maximum 12 people) into the remote fjords each winter searching for orcas. Safety was paramount. We were warned not to go on the deck alone, in case we fell into the dark water, and not to disembark at night without signing out – presumably in case we fell into the water. We also had to take extra care when stepping from the Sula onto our dive boat, which resembled little more than a tin can but turned out to be quick, stable, and ideal for the conditions. I can’t say I slept much that first night but not for fear of the orcas.

I was terrified I was going to perish in the Arctic winter, which, given it was my 40th birthday celebration, seemed a terrible way to go. I needn’t have worried though. The crew were attentive, fun, and exceptionally knowledgeable about orcas. They worked tirelessly to find them each day, and we spent hours throwing ourselves in and out of the water with gusto, laughing at the snow all around us and marvelling at the orcas. I discovered the water was surprisingly warm when compared to the wind chill in-between dives. At a balmy 2°C, I never wanted to get out. Learning how to interact respectfully with the orcas is a key feature of the Sula expedition and evening lectures were provided by an international orca expert Pierre Robert De Latour. During his fascinating talks, we learnt about orca behaviours and their complex social lives. “Norwegian orcas have 23 different calls. By combining these calls, they can make words,” Pierre told us. “After 6000 underwater close encounters with them, [it’s clear] we must invest time, money, and power to understand their language. They are the key to the biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystems, and we have much to learn from orca.” This educational focus really deepened our understanding of the orcas we swam with each day. Approved by scientists working with marine mammals, Orca Adventures uses the Undersea Soft Encounter Alliance (USEA) guidelines to ensure the wellbeing and wild nature of orcas isn’t compromised by the swimmers. “It’s surreal!” exclaimed my new-found friend Sarah as we huddled on the boat one day, waiting for more orcas to arrive. “You almost have to pinch yourself to remind yourself you’re actually swimming in the Arctic with wild orcas!” Looking around the boat, I could see everyone felt much the same. Crew and guests alike were beaming, chatting about the baby orcas we’d seen earlier swimming

Over winter, the waters off the Troms region host what is thought to be the largest gathering of orca whales in the world. Photo: Pierre Robert de Latour

alongside the boat. Perfect miniatures of their adult parents, they had bobbed along reflecting the sunrise off their skin and charmed us all. It wasn’t unusual to hear Cedric, a guest from Switzerland, screaming into his snorkel every time an orca passed. He couldn’t get over his excitement, and rightly so. It is astounding to share space with these misunderstood predators. Thankfully, the orcas didn’t seem to mind his vocals and carried on hunting the herring bait balls below. By the end of the week, while we were exhausted from the cold and continual diving, all we wanted to do was keep going. Huddling in the dry room for warmth after our last dive, we weren’t ready to leave the wilderness behind. Cruising back to our port that night and already missing the orcas, Norway gave us one last show. Lighting up the sky in flowing green and pink streaks, the aurora borealis filled the night sky in spectacular fashion. While we had seen the lights most nights, we had never seen a show like this. The sky was on fire, reminding us once more of the overwhelming beauty of Norway and its incredible orca. n For more information, see www.orcanorway.info.

Learning how to interact respectfully with orcas is a key feature of the Sula expeditions. Photo: Orca Norway

n Kathryn Curzon is a marine conservationist and cofounder of Friends for Sharks not-for-profit advocacy group – see kathryncurzon.com. Forest & Bird

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Our partners Joe Dobson-Talbi with Forest & Bird's Jo Prestwood. Photo: Laura Keown

Eat chocolate, help nature La Petite Chocolat’s Joe Dobson-Talbi talks about the sweet rewards of protecting New Zealand’s environment. Now for some good news! Fans of dark chocolate can combine a passion for a sweet treat with their passion for conservation. We have teamed up with artisan chocolatemakers La Petite Chocolat to launch a new limited edition Forest & Bird chocolate bar – and $1 from every sale will be donated to our conservation work. The 80% extra dark chocolate bar is made from Fairtrade and organic cacao beans from Ecuador. Its paper wrapper features a beautiful tūī design that has been donated by artist Shane Hansen, a long-term supporter of Forest & Bird. Joe Dobson-Talbi, who co-owns La Petite Chocolat, explains: “We wanted to support Forest & Bird because you are helping to give the environment a fighting chance. After all, we are all part of nature, not

separate from it.” Joe and his wife Anissa, who makes the chocolate and was trained by an 80-year-old artisan chocolatier in France, have made it their mission to produce a range of top-quality chocolate in the most environmentally and socially responsible way possible. And it tastes great too – the range includes ginger and mandarin, caramel crystals, peppermint, orange and toasted sesame seeds, lavender, smoked chilli and lime, and more. Based in a small shared office space in Hastings, the boutique chocolate company sources only Fairtrade and organic couverture, and uses recyclable and reusable packaging materials that are made in-house or locally. Since launching, La Petite Chocolat has grown from a little

market stall to having their products stocked in 50 places around the country and their chocolate used by some of the best New Zealand chocolatiers and pastry chefs. “Joe won us over with his delicious chocolate and ethical approach to production. It’s great to be working with a business that is demonstrating success can go hand-in-hand with environmental sustainability,” says Forest & Bird’s relationship manager Jo Prestwood. “Corporate sponsorship is not always about big dollar amounts. Sometimes an environmentally focused and sustainable venture can help drum up interest in our conservation work. And of course it’s a bonus when it tastes as delicious as Anissa and Joe’s chocolate!” Get in quick to be among the first to taste the new Forest & Bird chocolate bar (RRP $9.50) by visiting the online store at www.lapetitechocolat.co.nz.

Anissa Talbi creating her artisan sustainable chocolates.

WIN A LUXURY CHOCOLATE HAMPER Everyone who makes a gift to Forest & Bird from 15 June to15 July will automatically go into the prize draw to win a scrumptious La Petite Chocolat gift pack (RRP $170). Your heavenly chocolate treats include a box of 12 luxury Dark Times bonbon chocolates, a 150g bag of drinking chocolate, and 14 bars of artisan chocolate from their range, including the limited edition Forest & Bird bar. To be in to win, make a donation today at www.forestandbird.org.nz/donate.

n To find out more about business partnerships with Forest & Bird, please contact j.prestwood@forestandbird.org.nz. Forest & Bird

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Research

The rock wren is one of only two remaining ancient endemic New Zealand wrens (Family Acanthisittidae). There used to be seven different species living in Aotearoa but now only rock wren and rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris) survive. The bush wren (Xenicus longipes) was the last New Zealand bird to become extinct in 1972. Photo: Rachel Hufton

PROTECTING ROCK WRENS Ecologist and ornithologist Rachel Hufton reports on efforts being made to restore the South Island rock wren population at Makarora, in Mount Aspiring National Park. I’m part of the Aspiring Biodiversity Trust, which was established in 2017 to help protect, restore, and enhance indigenous wildlife within the Makarora catchment (from “ridge to river”) while raising awareness of the natural world. One of our threatened species programmes is rock wren protection and enhancement within the alpine environment. This work, which we are doing in partnership with the Department of Conservation, also benefits kea and whio/blue duck within the study area, which is located at the northern end of Lake Wanaka. The endangered South Island rock wren/pīwauwau is New Zealand’s only true alpine specialist. It remains above the bush line for most of its life and is found within mountain basins, boulder fields, scree slopes, and cliff systems. The South Island rock wren is particularly vulnerable to stoat predation because of its hole-nesting behaviour close to the ground. This and its patchy distribution means that rock wren are vulnerable to local extinction. Checking stoat traps at 1200m. Photo: Anthony Coote

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Our monitoring defined multiple rock wren territories located in high-altitude cirques and basins near lakes Crucible, Lucidus, and Castalia, in Mount Aspiring National Park. The Trust is now working to improve existing predator control to limit stoat and rodent viability as predators in the area. This viability is to some extent naturally afforded by physiography – the steep to vertical cirque walls, ice fields/ falls, and associated cool temperatures, and high rain and snowfall rates may to some extent limit the activity and movement of mammalian predators, favouring the survival of rock wren in their main-divide alpine retreats. Recent results from predator-control traps placed among and on the fringes of identified rock wren territories show that traps placed at lower elevations do not completely limit the activity of stoats in the higher areas of rock wren habitat. Stoats killed around 1200m elevation either travelled upstream, managing to bypass 39 DOC 150/200 traps, or they may already have been within the wrens’ higher altitude home-territory, including nearby basins/cirques. Placing predator-control traps among identified rock wren territories also limits its predation by the more localised rodent populations. These predators are the principle target of aerial 1080, but these operations generally only take place in beech and tussock seed mast years. To help improve kill-trap servicing efficiency in the rugged alpine environment, our predator control traps are equipped with Celium remote monitoring technology (a first for this environment). We installed the Celium network in partnership with Encounter Solutions Ltd. Each trap is monitored by a Celium node which communicates with a

Celium hub base station. This innovative system provides temporal and spatial information on predators, including the time of capture, which so far have all been early morning. Together with transect monitoring, rock wren observations are recorded during trap servicing, providing valuable information on these key alpine habitats for this endangered species. We hope to see improved fledgling success in the future and intend to gather information on potential “source” and “sink” rock wren populations through a dedicated bird banding programme. n For more information, see www.aspiringbiodiversity. co.nz.

Clare Adams calls eDNA the molecular equivalent of a police mugshot.

WONDER IN THE WATER Amy Smith looks at eDNA and its exciting potential for the monitoring of rare and invasive species. Conservationists’ efforts to save at-risk species can only be as effective as their methods. In the case of monitoring a population – traditionally done by going out into the field and counting the number of individuals in an area – currently available techniques can be inefficient, invasive, or stressful for wildlife. It’s also hard to be accurate – for example, when two different species look very similar. Around the world, scientists are trying to find effective, accurate, and low-cost monitoring tools. Here, in New Zealand, researchers are currently fine-tuning a way to monitor populations that has the potential to make the lives of conservationists a whole lot easier – it’s called environmental DNA or eDNA. eDNA is any DNA that has been sloughed off into the environment by a resident animal. It can be collected from soil and sediment, but more recently the focus has been on water sampling, particularly when searching for larger animals. These samples contain very small amounts of DNA, and some of this may be broken down or incomplete. “As an animal goes about its daily business, it leaves behind dead skin cells, hair, and poop,” says Clare Adams, a PhD graduate student at the University of Otago.

Crucible Basin. Pīwauwau/South Island rock wren will be especially vulnerable to stoat and rat predation following this year's mega seed-mast event. Photo: Rachel Hufton

“It’s what is found in this detritus that’s of interest to conservationists – DNA, the molecular equivalent of a police mug shot.” Environmental DNA has entered the media spotlight recently – it’s the tool researchers are using to search for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland. If Nessie exists, she should be broadcasting her DNA in the water in the same way as every other living thing. In Aotearoa, Clare’s research involves taking New Zealand fur seal eDNA from waters around Rakiura/Stewart Island and comparing it with traditional sampling methods. It’s a non-invasive way to monitor population numbers of endangered species, but a reliable DNA database is essential to make use of any eDNA samples. “Seal DNA around New Zealand is very well described, so it’s excellent for comparing our eDNA samples against. We generally measure eDNA in nano-grams per micro-litre. We look for how many copies of short, species-specific, DNA pieces are in a micro-litre,” Clare explains. The DNA from an entire ecosystem can be analysed from a single sample – essentially providing conservationists with an environmental address book of species living in a particular habitat. “We can also use eDNA to see if an invasive species is present in an area, and it’s much quicker than trapping,” adds Clare. “For example, it could be used once a population of rats reaches a low density, when it is almost impossible to see if you’ve got all of them out of an area.” When working with such small amounts of DNA, contamination of samples is a major issue. Crosscontamination between sites might indicate the presence of an animal that is not there and vice-versa. Conservation monitoring using eDNA is still a work in progress, but it has the potential to indicate the presence or absence of endangered or invasive species quickly and cheaply. “Despite the obvious advantages of using eDNA, there are several disadvantages that need to be considered, including contamination and the need for comprehensive DNA databases,” Clare says. “Environmental DNA is best used in tandem with traditional methods.” Nevertheless eDNA is an exciting research area with a real-world conservation potential – and it might even help find Nessie! Forest & Bird

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Books

One of the roads pushed into Whirinaki by the Forest Service in preparation for logging. Photo: Craig Potton

FIGHT FOR THE FORESTS

Veteran forest campaigner Mike Collins reviews Fight for the Forests by Paul Bensemann. This book combines the excitement and intrigue of a who dunnit with the quality production and beautiful illustrations we expect from a Potton and Burton publication. The author Paul Bensemann’s meticulous research documents a number of campaigns that ran over 50 years from the Forest & Bird-led Save Lake Manapouri and its forests in 1952 to the final cessation of logging of state forest on the West Coast in 2002. It is a great read, broken up by some delicious photographs of native forest. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the environment. I became involved with a campaign to stop logging of Horohoro forest on the Mamaku plateau near Rotorua in the 1970s, shortly after joining the Forest Research Institute, the research arm of the New Zealand Forest Service. Horohoro forest, which had areas of dense podocarps, principally rimu, was home to a small population of kōkako, our endangered native wattle bird, which is critically dependent on unmodified native forest. The forest was being clear felled, burnt over, and planted in pines. The rimu logs were being milled by a railways department mill in Mamaku to provide timber for maintenance of old railway carriages. Our small group of Rotorua activists formed a branch of the Native Forests Action Council and, with a short sharp campaign publicising the destruction to the citizens of Rotorua, succeeded in having an area of the forest set aside as a reserve. This was the first piece of North Island forest saved. The mill was sold and converted to milling pine logs. One of the campaign tools was the organisation of busloads of Rotorua people to visit the forest and see the destruction for themselves. I remember being thanked by an elderly woman who had known the forest as a child and was horrified at what was happening. The same bus trip tactic was used as a part of the eightyear campaign to save Whirinaki forest, east of the Urewera National Park. In this case, however, the local Forest 52

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Service officer in charge organised Minginui residents to block the public road and prevent four buses from visiting the forest. The road blockage received a lot of adverse publicity and probably contributed to the cessation of logging and creation of a Forest Park. The park advisory committee was set up by the Minister of Forests and included myself and others, who had helped organised the bus trip, as well as locals. The three years of research and writing that Paul Bensemann devoted to this book reveal the dedication of those who were involved in campaigns the length and breadth of the country, culminating in 18 victories. These victories are summarised on a two-page spread – with a relief map of New Zealand – showing the sites where logging ceased. There are amazing photographs of native forest, ugly photos of logging sites, and portraits of key campaigners at work. There are reproductions of newspaper cuttings and historic documents such as the 341,000 signature Maruia Declaration petition to stop logging of native forest, one of the largest petitions in New Zealand history. As well as being an active campaigner, Paul Bensemann infiltrated the Forest Service head office to obtain information about logging plans and research that, in the days before the Official Information Act, were being kept a closely guarded secret. He tells his story in a chapter dealing with Forest Service in the years 1976–1977. He survived an official enquiry into the leaks, but the strain of being a spy was taking a toll on his health and he resigned. It is a credit to both Paul and his former boss Colin Basset, who was Director of Research, that Colin helped Paul in the writing of this book. Forest & Bird features large in the book, not least because there was a very significant change at the top of the organisation which led to it moving to support forest conservation instead of selective logging and conversion, which had been the policy of its previous leadership team. This is dealt with comprehensively.

The foreword is written by former Prime Minister, Helen Clark. An Overview, The Reflections of an Insider is given by Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador Craig Potton, who was a key member of the campaign. The prologue A Young Rabble of Protestors describes the tree-climbing episode that was key to the saving of Pureora Forest. The book’s comprehensive index reads like a “Who’s Who” of environmental activists, 31 of whom feature in the section What are they Doing Now? Each chapter is complemented by endnotes giving sources of information and additional comments. Anyone who was involved in the campaign will find this book fascinating. There was a lot going on behind the scenes, such as Richard Prebble’s help with the Whirinaki campaign, that I knew nothing of, although I had helped to organise the infamous bus trip. This book will also appeal to campaigners of all kinds but especially to environmental campaigners in these days of serious concerns about the relative inaction of governments over the crisis of climate change. n Fight for the Forests by Paul Bensemann, RRP $69.99, published by Potton and Burton, November 2018.

Minginui villagers at the Whirinaki Valley roadblock in 1978. Photo: Paul Hughes

Joint campaigning with Forest & Bird led to significant victories in the 1980s. From left: NFAC workers Peter Grant, Gwenny Davis, Robbie Burton, and Craig Potton celebrate the Ōkarito win at Crewenna. Photo: Nelson Provincial Museum.

READER OFFER Buy Fight for the Forests online and receive a special Forest & Bird member 15% discount. Go to www.pottonandburton.co.nz and use the discount code F4F19 to access a price of $59.50, including free postage within New Zealand. To see inside the book, go to www.pottonandburton.co.nz/store/fight-for-the-forests. This offer closes on 30 September 2019.

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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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Citizen science Īnanga were observed climbing this small weir near St Ronans Ave, Waiwhetu Stream, in Lower Hutt.

IF FISH COULD FLY CLIMB! A community group has discovered the amazing climbing ability of īnanga, a native whitebait species. By Gerry Webby, of Friends of Waiwhetu Stream. A Hutt Valley community group has been making some interesting observations of īnanga behaviour in Waiwhetu Stream, north of Wellington. This mainly urban stream has two weirs on it which were thought to be a barrier to īnanga and other native fish upstream migration. But after closely watching one of the weirs, they realised some īnanga were managing to swim up its near vertical back face, which is about 0.8 m high. Check out this video showing their incredible climbing feat here: http://bit.ly/2wdobBC. The Friends of Waiwhetu Stream group concluded that īnanga, commonly thought of as poor climbers, can negotiate this weir because: n In summer, the stream flow is mostly low enough to be just spilling over the weir crest at a low depth. n The weir is quite wide, with the overflow distributed across the full width. n The back face of the weir is south facing and has a lot of bryophytes growing on it in summer. This growth is thick enough to make the surface very rough hydraulically, causing the speed of the falling water to be significantly reduced. This allows the īnanga to hug the concrete surface and burst swim up through the vegetation growth. The group’s members first observed the climbing īnanga in the summer of 2015/16 and estimated that 10–20% of

50 years ago

all climbing attempts were successful, depending on flow conditions at the time. Groups of īnanga observed further upstream confirmed that some had definitely learnt how to negotiate this barrier and were living above the weir. Last year, members of the group started a citizen science project carrying out fish surveys in Waiwhetu Stream with the support of Greater Wellington Regional Council. Our first survey in February 2018 showed about 1000+ īnanga downstream of the weir and 300+ upstream, which gives a rough measure of success in getting past the weir. Other fish recorded from the stream include shortfin eel, longfin eel, common bully, and giant kōkupu. Over the recent summer, the streamflow appeared to have been too high for īnanga to swim up the back face of the weir. However, a few īnanga were observed to have climbed up the sloping corner of the weir before jumping onto the weir crest. Our February 2019 fish survey counted 860 īnanga downstream of the weir and 170 Adult inanga. Photo: Rod Morris upstream.

The Tragedy of Manapouri and Te Anau For close on a decade now much has been written in these columns about the threat of drastic impairment of the scenic qualities imposed by plans for power generation from the waters of two of the world’s finest scenic gems, Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau. ...It is not yet too late to make a decision that the incomparably beautiful shores and islands of Manapouri shall not be sacrificed to provide another 60 megawatts of cheap power and a little more water storage. Forest and Bird journal, May 1969.

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

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Clear skies at Ruapehu Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge offers warm, comfortable accommodation a short drive from the Whakapapa ski field. You can find interesting and varied day tramps in the area. To make a booking, contact National Office 0800 200 064 and we will be delighted to help. Members receive subsidised rates.

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Forest & Bird

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Community

Nigel Clough at the Kapiti MenzShed HQ. Photo: Gerry Brackenbury

MEN AT WORK

Gerry Brackenbury checks out the engine room of conservation innovation that is MenzShed Kāpiti. Most people have heard of the organisation called the Men’s Shed. They are places where blokes, often retired, can go and do their thing. The Sheds offer companionship, new interests, and skills. For some, they are a home away from home, and for a few fellas they have literally been a lifesaver. One such outfit is the MenzShed Kāpiti, based at Waikanae. Starting back in 2010 with a handful of good ol’ boys, it now boasts more than 100 blokes who release their creative juices a couple of days a week with every woodworking tool known to man. This story is one that saw this Men’s Shed slowly morph into an engine room of conservation innovation. I arrived at the Shed on a beautiful sunny Kāpiti Coast morning, to be greeted by the affable and enthusiastic cofounder and project coordinator Nigel Clough. I was also assaulted by the deafening sound of Men at Work! It was patently obvious, looking around, that, if this mob of gents was asked to reconfigurate the Pyramids, it wouldn’t be a problem! Over the next hour, Nigel guided me from one conservation innovation to another. Where to start? The kaupapa of this Men’s Shed is looking after their local community. And this is where their conservation work began. A few years ago, a call came from Lisa, a local Department of Conservation officer, who wondered if the fellas could make some wētā boxes/ motels as kitsets for a children’s activity. They could, and they did, and, after that, there was no looking back. The MenzShed Kāpiti repertoire now includes penguin boxes, lizard lounges, rat trap boxes, grey teal nesting boxes, and bird feeders. A small profit from each effort is fed back into the collective good. As Nigel guided me around the workshop, the good old number 8 fencing wire culture was very evident. Kākā are perhaps at their most vulnerable during the breeding

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season, when a stoat will enter a nest and kill all the chicks plus the sitting female. Being in a confined space in a tree hole, she cannot escape to try to breed again. What was needed was a pest-proof nesting box. Designed by Mount Bruce and Zealandia staff, and refined further by the fellas at MenzShed Kāpiti – in particular, Mark Keown – the design features a large, double-skinned tube-shaped nesting box that keeps out predators. The inner tube, which is made of untreated wood, is torn to shreds over time by the female kākā to keep the nest clean and fresh for the young chicks. It’s designed so that, once the kākā have finished breeding, humans can replace the inner wooden liner ready for the next breeding season. There are no metal fittings to damage Nigel with the pest-proof beaks, and the liner design kākā nesting box. Photo: allows for safe access for Gerry Brackenbury chick research. It’s brilliant! As I prepare to leave, Nigel tells me of his latest idea to discourage cats from areas popular with native birds. It involves electricity and the rest is a trade secret, but I’m assured no felines will be harmed by this new conservation tool. There is no stopping these guys, and it is obvious that MenzShed Kāpiti has truly achieved its goal of not only saving some fellas but a lot of our precious environment as well. To find out more, and help MenzShed Kāpiti continue to meet the growing needs of the community, visit www.menzshedkapiti.org.nz.

Parting shot 12-year-old Grace Hill took this wonderfully wacky weka photo during her Year 8 school camp in Fiordland. The friendly weka lives beside the Deep Cove School Hostel, where Grace’s school, Columba College, was staying in February. “They have a resident weka family there who entertain school groups and often steal shoes! I managed to get up close to this weka with my cellphone and took the shot,” says Grace. One of the college’s teachers, Anwyn Walker, encouraged her students to take photos of plants, animals, and the human impact on the environment. “During camp, I became very interested in photography, and I’m looking forward to taking more photos, says Grace, who lives in Dunedin. When she’s not studying, she loves getting out into nature, playing the violin, singing, tap dancing, and water polo.

The best entry to our Parting Shot nature photo competition 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 www.flickr.com. Alternatively, send your high-res digital file (maximum 7mb) and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

THE PRIZE: A Kiwi Camping Tawa Sleeping Bag and Kiwi Camping 10cm Self-Inflating Mat (total value $288). The Tawa is a high performance, all-season sleeping bag with a -10°C temperature rating. The heat encapsulating mummy design and Silvertherm lining will keep you warm and cosy all year round. Its durable 210T Diamond Ripstop will stand up to the rigours of your outdoor adventures. The durable self-inflating mat with compressible foam core that expands to 10cm thick when unpacked, provides plenty of padding for a good night’s sleep. The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping. To view the full range, see www.kiwicamping.co.nz

we ARE climbing

Sarah Hueniken Johnston Canyon Banff National Park Photo: ex Bivouac staff member John Price johnpricephotography.ca

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