Forest & Bird Magazine 374 Summer 2019

ISSUE 374 • SUMMER 2019 www.forestandbird.org.nz

GROWING A REVOLUTION New Zealand’s regenerative farming pioneers

PLUS

Ethical investing

2019 highlights

Floral cloak quiz

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ISSUE 374

• Summer 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.

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Contents Editorial

Plastic crisis

2 Glimmer of hope 4–5 Letters

40 Aqua drone

Conservation news

41 Sub-alpine floral quiz 54 Ballerina blossoms – New Zealand’s native fuchsia

6 Bird of the Year 2019 7 Tūī returns, birthday gift, KCC fundraiser, ASA rules, Taranaki troopers 8 Conservation highlights 2019 12 Legal highlights 2019 14 Regional highlights 2019

Cover 16 Growing a revolution: Meet New Zealand’s pioneer regenerative agriculture pioneers

Ethical investment 20 Mindful money

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22 Rats ate my poster

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Our people

www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus Members receive four free issues of Forest & Bird magazine a year.

24 Living legacy 25 ExtINKtion

No new mines 26 New Zealand’s mineral mining strategy

Freshwater

Focus on flora

Books 42 Holiday reads

20%

READER DISCOUNT

Our partners 44 1% for the Planet

In the field 46 Linking land to sea

Climate 49 What can I do about climate change?

Going places 50 Wild south

Citizen science 53 Whitebait wonders 55 Classifieds

Obituary 56 David Underwood

Parting shot IBC Fledgling silvereye

28 Grayling’s demise

Forgotten places 30 Limestone landscapes EDITOR

Caroline Wood MAGAZINE ENQUIRIES AND LETTERS

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

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

Webstar www.webstar.co.nz FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E karenc@mpm.nz Membership & circulation enquiries T 0800 200 064 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

Community 33 Gift of nature 52 Rare plant project

Biodiversity 34 Top 50 birdwatching sites

Force of Nature 36 Making history on Maria Island – Waiheke Forest & Bird group leads world in island rat eradication

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COVER SHOT Dairy cattle and farmland below dramatic Maungaraho Rock with native forest remnant below.

Dargaville, Kaipara District, Northland. Photo: Rob Suisted www.naturespic.com PAPER ENVELOPE South Island kākā: Craig McKenzie

Editorial MARK HANGER

Glimmer of hope

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s I write, we hear news that Forest & Bird has won its hardfought Motiti case in the Court of Appeal. This is a great news for our marine environment and a fine example of the power of working alongside other groups – in this case, Motiti Rohe Moana Trust – to achieve a significant win for nature.

While the agricultural sector manages to avoid anything other than token accountability in the emissions trading scheme, we were still pleased to see an effective Zero Carbon Act passed into law. We are hopeful the government will also follow through on its promise to significantly clean up our freshwater resources in New Zealand. And this spring saw large new tracts of New Zealand receive successful pest control thanks to a significant boost in DOC funding.

As 2019 draws to a close, it feels like we are beginning to move in a positive direction, with the environment being taken seriously for the first time by both the government and the public. However, it will be a tight call as to whether the small steps taken thus far will lead to the quantum change required to avert the looming global crises. These include climate-induced ecological collapse, mass terrestrial species extinctions, a drastic shortage of freshwater, and the imminent deterioration of our oceans. But it gives us hope that a transformative plan for nature in New Zealand is within our grasp.

Of course, each of us can only do what we can. But collectively, through Forest & Bird, we can drive significant and necessary change. With a new year soon to dawn, there is the potential, and an increasing will, to ensure greater environmental gains are achieved in 2020, an election year.

One of the most rewarding things about being Forest & Bird’s President is the sense of achievement that results from our collective efforts, no matter how small individual efforts may be. I feel humbled when I see how tens of thousands of people, just like you and me, each in our own unique ways, give back to the environment.

I thank each and every Forest & Bird member, supporter, adult, and child for your contribution towards protecting nature, whether it’s by giving up your time to work on a local project, sign a submission, or make a donation. Together, you have helped maximise our conservation impact during 2019.

We are also fortunate to have dedicated and passionate team of professional staff, who work with our branch and project volunteers, families, and youth members to protect and restore Aotearoa’s wild places and unique species. By working together, we were able to achieve many of the conservation highlights you will find covered (over eight pages!) in this magazine.

As individuals we can instigate personal change, working together as branches we can drive community-wide change, but only as Forest & Bird, with all its various and linked parts and people, can we advocate and drive national or even international change.

Maybe, just maybe, we can help convince those who are most instrumental in contributing to our carbon emissions, and our declining freshwater, that they have a moral if not legal responsibility to act as responsible citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Wishing you a happy (and restorative) holidays.

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

Native New Zealand mistletoe: Photo: Shellie Evans

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street, Wellington 6011.

PATRON Her Excellency The Rt Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor-General of New Zealand CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Kevin Hague PRESIDENT

Mark Hanger TREASURER

Alan Chow BOARD MEMBERS

Chris Barker, Kate Graeme, Richard Hursthouse, 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 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.

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 Day Walks in New Zealand 100 Best Short Tracks by Shaun Barnett Potton & Burton, RRP $49.99.

Please send letters to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 February 2020.

Turning the tide

Open to debate

I moved the northern Waikato five years ago and quickly went about planting on the somewhat bare 0.7ha property, including natives and a few nectar-producing exotics, and maintaining two bait stations. I’ve finally been rewarded by a tūī visiting. No sign of kererū yet. There is local resistance to planting native trees. The council and property developers continue to prefer northern hemisphere exotics that have little or no food benefit for our native fauna. There are few native bush remnants left, and they are being encroached upon. A jungle of willows, maples, poplars, oaks, and the like line margins of the rivers, lakes, and wetlands. In the northern hemisphere, where they belong, they provide food for squirrels, rodents, and other mammals. Here they provide food for rats, mice, and possums. For eight months, we laid brodifacoum along the banks of the Waikato River.

It wasn’t until the last month that the uptake of the baits slowed. The rest of the time, the baits had disappeared within three days. I have come to the conclusion this river is a highway for rats. Welcome to the north Waikato. I need some help. It’s a very big ship to turn around!

Colin Parker’s comments (Letters, Spring 2019) about GE Free NZ are deliberately offensive and aimed at shutting down debate. GE Free NZ is a public non-governmental organisation that highlights reviewed published research on issues arising from modern gene (GE) technology. We do not hide the fact we are concerned about the lack of balance in reporting the rising evidence of risks from GE technology to the public. If you look through the papers on GE/GM from the Royal Society, they do not reference or mention the same data we provide. The failures of GE are ignored, overlooked, and unreported. Eugenie Sage’s position is not “sitting on the fence”. It is responsible and recognises the urgency needed to implement something today, as we cannot wait around for 20 years for an unknown possibility of a GE solution. GE Free NZ believes it is important that we responsibly present new evidence on GE issues to the public and our members. We don’t pretend to be the only site for information, as we have many links on our website to other sites. Please check out gefree.org.nz and see if you were aware of the information we are presenting. We appreciate any feedback.

Spencer Drinkwater, Te Kauwhata, Waikato Best letter winner

Claire Bleakley, President, GE Free NZ

Drunk and disorderly

Fling the bling

Last year’s Bird of the Year winner was recently spotted drunk and disorderly in a public place. This is what happens when you mix kererū and ripe loquats. As soon as the loquats came into fruit, the master thief, who has also been known to be partial to this magazine editor’s prized plums, returned to Mangonui, in the Far North. It proceeded to polish off the loquats and one particularly dastardly pigeon had to be rescued from the road as it was too drunk to fly…

In this day and age of accessories and bling, we need to think where it all ends up (in the water). I suggest we don’t buy clothing, shoes, jewellery, and make up that has lots of tiny little plastic bits on them. After a few outings, they start shedding and it all goes down the drain, into the waterways, and out to sea – then eaten by a fish which we then eat! We need to start thinking about creating biodegradable clothing and shoes. I hate to think how many shoes are thrown away each year. Do we really need to buy coloured tinfoil glitter or glitter pens. Do our kids need lots tiny plastic toys, little animals, etc. Do the kids really need all those little plastic McDonald toys?

Instead, the company could make a donation to “Trees that Count”. Shops could start selling more biodegradable toys. We could create a “NZ nature shopwise” sticker campaign. This would reward shops for not selling these unnecessary plastic goods. Supermarkets could supply more paper bags for fruit and veg. They should also look at how they could reduce waste in the meat and frozen food sections, and throughout the store.

Linda Zander, Kererū rescuer, Mangonui

Nicky Auld, Manurewa

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Fox river clean-up The article “Fox River Clean-up, how did it come to this?” (Spring 2019) portrays an unfair picture of the Westland District Council. Claims the council “washed its hands of the problem” are without basis in fact. They do a disservice to the council, staff, and volunteers for the time, effort, and money put in to responding to this extraordinary event. Our response to the rubbish outwash was substantial. Many tonnes of rubbish were cleared, involving an unbudgeted expenditure of more than $1 million. However, the scale of the emergency was beyond council’s resources to handle on its own. So we asked for help, noting that without it we would be forced to suspend recovery operations until we could identify how, and by what means, work could continue. Extensive planning effort behind the scenes continued as we waited for government decisions on what assistance might be provided. We are also committed to permanently securing the Fox River landfill, either with stronger protection onsite or removing the rubbish completely. Either option is potentially millions more dollars of unbudgeted council expenditure. The huge amount of effort put in, and remaining work we are committed to, is diametrically opposite to claims of nonchalance.

Te Aroha Cook | Chief Executive (acting) Westland District Council Editor’s response: The article contained the personal impressions of the writer, who volunteered to help clean up tonnes of rubbish at Fox Glacier. Westland District Council is a small council with a large area to manage and has inherited the unfortunate issue of legacy landfills to deal with.These are threatened by more frequent climate change weather events. However Forest & Bird believes

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Zealand by Milen Marinov and Mike Ashbee, Auckland University Press, RRP $49.99.

To enter, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org. nz, put DRAGONFLY 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 DRAGONFLY draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 February 2020.

The winners of Hauturu, the history, flora and fauna of Te Hauturu-o-toi Little Barrier Island, edited by Lyne Wade and Dick Veitch were David Thomas, of Auckland, and Bob Graham, of Westland.

the district council and the West Coast Regional Council failed in their responsibilities to properly monitor the dump and respond adequately to deal with the consequences, which were a disaster for the river and marine environment.

The Fox River crisis has prompted central government to instruct the Ministry for the Environment to undertake more work to understand the nationwide risk and cost of historic landfills.

SUBURBAN PŪKEKO

BY HEBE KEARNEY

you walk silly, my big-footed bumbler, without full control, the legs awarded you end in the orange spiders of your feet. you are way further up that tree than you should be, clinging desperately and with much feather flapping as the wind tries to dethrone you.

I have seen your friends already teetering along the neighbour’s fence top, they are like plump blue acrobats in white bloomers. what are they doing up there? your kind are over-confident, my bumbler, ill-suited for heights, yet high you climb up trees, fences, rooves and vines always completely clumsy and without apology.

Congratulations to Hebe Kearney for taking out the top prize in Takahē magazine’s annual Hunt Ducker poetry competition.

Many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s brightest literary talents made their first public appearance in Takahē magazine, and Forest & Bird was delighted to offer a prize of one year’s free membership in this year’s competition, which had a native bird theme.

Photo: Steve Helliwell

Forest & Bird

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Hoiho hanging out at Porpoise Bay, the Catlins. Photo: Shellie Evans

Hoiho hits top spot in our fiercely contested Bird of the Year poll.

H

oiho edged out kākāpō in Bird of the Year in the first win for a penguin in the competition’s 14-year history.

“It was so close between these two amazing, extremely threatened, birds that it was impossible to predict a winner for most of the competition,” said Forest & Bird spokesperson Megan Hubscher.

For the first time, voters could rank up to five of their favourite species rather than just one in a new single transferable voting system.

More than a few feathers were

ruffled when the four of the penguin campaign teams – hoiho, rockhopper, tawaki, and kororā – formed a coalition to offer each other second and subsequent rankings in the voting.

The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, finished with 12,022 votes, followed by the kākāpō, kakaruia black robin, tūturiwhatu banded dotterel, and the pīwakawaka fantail.

Good-natured mockery of rivals again featured in campaigning. Hoiho was accused of being the bird most likely to take a date to McDonalds for

a filet-o-fish and the bittern’s greatest talent was identified as being able to imitate a stick.

Aside from the jokes, the competition succeeded in raising awareness about New Zealand’s unique and endangered birds and the threats they face.

Hoiho are one of the most introuble penguins in the world, with nesting pairs at a record low of 225 on New Zealand’s mainland.

Bird of the Year ran from 28 October to 10 November, attracting nearly 43,500 individual voters.

On the hoiho scale, how are you feeling today?

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Conservation news that “...the advertisement was not misleading or making environmental claims that could not be substantiated”.

Taranaki troopers

Return of the tūī

Congratulations to Forest & Bird’s South Taranaki branch, which has won the Taranaki Regional Council’s Environmental Action in the Community award for 2019.

They won for their work protecting and restoring native biodiversity by working with landowners, community groups, organisations, and schools.

It’s taken a while, but it was worth it. Izzy the giant 200kg tūī was translocated into a new perch on the Wellington skyline in September. Since then, she has become a popular attraction with passing tourists and likes having her photograph taken. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the fundraising appeal that meant we could take her with us when we moved to our new Forest & Bird offices, in Victoria Street.

Birthday gift Amelia Lee, of Auckland, celebrated her 12th birthday in October. Instead of presents, she asked her friends to donate money to Forest & Bird, a gift to nature that raised $245, including three payments made in Amelia’s name on our website. “We are pleased to have raised so much money for Forest & Bird,” says mum Christina. “We live in the Waitakere Ranges, so it is a cause we feel passionate about.”

Kids’ KCC fundraiser Students at Point View Primary, in Auckland, have been learning about volunteering and recently helped replant wetlands around Ohuiarangi Pigeon Mountain, which are being restored by the Auckland Maunga Authority. They also decided to raise some money for conservation and held a successful market day, selling slime, slingshots, milkshakes, and cookies. This raised an incredible $1,427, which they are donating to Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club. “We already subscribe to and enjoy the KCC magazine, and thought this would be a good organisation to support,” says their Year 6 teacher Chris Coomes.

ASA rules for Forest & Bird The Advertising Standards Authority has determined a Forest & Bird advertisement about freshwater degradation was responsible and truthful, despite a number of complaints being made.

Its decision states “…the advertisement’s primary message was about protecting New Zealand rivers from the pollution associated with dairy intensification” and

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Forest & Bird

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Highlights 2019

A YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

Working together to be the independent voice of nature, Forest & Bird’s breadth and depth of work is unique among conservation charities in Aotearoa. Here is a snapshot of our conservation highlights during 2019.

The first glimpses of a transformative plan of action for nature can be seen in some of conservation “wins” and government actions highlighted in the following pages. In the run up to next year’s 2020 general election, Forest & Bird will be working hard to remind politicians how much New Zealanders value their natural heritage and unique biodiversity.

JANUARY BAT RECOVERY Over the summer volunteers assist Forest & Bird’s bat expert Gillian Dennis to capture and radio-track long-tailed bats at Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, in Marlborough. We find two new roosting sites, and our predatorcontrol is stepped up to protect the bats this coming breeding season. Thank you to any of our readers who helped fund this work, including a generous grant from the Department of Conservation. Forest & Bird finishes the year working with statutory agencies, iwi, and the community in making the Pelorus/ Te Hoiere catchment a priority for protection in the Marlborough region – with a particular focus on freshwater, but also embracing

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predator control and restoration initiatives.

PREDATOR-FREE The SPCA calls for 1080 to be banned, and Forest & Bird immediately challenges its position, saying the organisation doesn’t understand how nature works in the wild. The nation’s favourite animal charity quickly reverses its position following our offer to discuss the issue. It’s the start of a busy year raising awareness about the coming “mega-mast” and resulting rat and stoat plague in many of our native forests.

YOUTH HUBS Forest & Bird’s network for young conservationists takes flight during 2019, with more than 60 young people aged 14–25 years taking leadership roles in hubs across the country, including Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. During the year two new hubs establish, in Manawatū and Taupō-Rotorua, and the number of active youth participants across Aotearoa grows to nearly 200. Our youth members appear on national television, run their own conservation projects, and support three national climate action marches.

FEBRUARY WETLANDS To mark World Wetlands Day on 2 February, Forest & Bird releases aerial images of Southland wetlands disappearing on private land at an alarming rate.

Our Vanishing Wetlands cover story in March includes a map of wetland loss by region, showing an alarming decline. Later in the year, the government proposes much stronger protections for wetlands (see September).

HIGH COUNTRY After decades of campaigning to protect the South Island’s high country, Forest & Bird welcomes the end of tenure review, announced by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. We say the decision is the best chance in a generation to finally achieve a drylands conservation park in the Mackenzie Basin.

MARINE Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash announces a further delay to putting cameras on boats to stop fishing companies covering up the number of seabirds or marine mammals it is killing as “bycatch”.

We point out how every other

THANK YOU FOR HELPING MAKE 2019

country in the Pacific is rolling out cameras on boats, but Mr Nash clearly doesn’t have the mandate from his colleagues to match even small Pacific Island nations like Fiji, which has a 50% goal on its boats.

MARCH CLIMATE Forest & Bird supports the first-ever School Strike 4 Climate, and national organiser and Forest & Bird youth member Sophie Handford appears on the front cover of our June magazine saying she wants to enter local politics. In October, she is elected, age 18, to Kāpiti District Council. In September, Forest & Bird staff and members join young people from all over the country to take part in the third national climate strike. It turns out to be the second-largest march in New Zealand’s history.

PREDATOR-FREE We warn this year’s “mega-mast” in our forests is likely to be the most widespread in 45 years and the Department of Conservation needs at least an extra $20m to prevent endangered species becoming locally extinct. Later in March, we criticise DOC’s plan for renewed tahr control operations, saying it breaches the National Parks Act and does more for wealthy overseas heli-hunters than it does for protecting the environment.

FRESHWATER The government’s announcement that the Mōkihinui River catchment will be added to Kahurangi National Park is the culmination of a long-running

campaign, led by Forest & Bird since 2008. Our campaign lead Debs Martin, regional manager for the top of the South Island, goes on to win a Queen’s Service Medal in June’s Queen’s Birthday honours for her services to conservation. KCC holds a joint freshwater event with more than 90 members from four Auckland branches celebrating our amazing freshwater fish.

APRIL FOX RIVER Forest & Bird asks central government agencies to urgently step in and provide leadership and resourcing for dealing with Westland’s huge rubbish spill crisis at Fox River. We publish a report showing the nationwide risk of historic landfills. In August, Forest & Bird Youth help clean up the rubbish spill, working alongside hundreds of other volunteers, in a wonderful show of support for nature.

RESTORATION Forest & Bird says the country must take bold action to reverse an environmental crisis, following the release of the Environment Aotearoa 2019 report. New Zealand is losing species and ecosystems faster than nearly any other country, with 90% of our seabirds heading for extinction and nearly 4000 of our native species in trouble. Chief executive Kevin Hague tells The Guardian how our actions – from rampant dairy conversions to destructive seabed trawling – are irreversibly harming our natural world.

MAY CLIMATE The government announces its long-awaited Zero Carbon Bill will include a target to keep warming to no more than 1.5 degrees. Forest & Bird welcomes this landmark legislation to make Aotearoa carbon neutral and protect nature and people from the worst effects of climate change. Later in the year, Kevin Hague and Geoff Keey appear before the environment select committee to present Forest & Bird’s submission.

MARINE New Zealand’s largest inshore marine reserve to date is proposed for the south-east of New Zealand, including a new reserve right on Dunedin’s doorstep, the wildlife capital of New Zealand.

The government’s proposals follow a consultation through the South East Marine Protection Forum. Sue Maturin represented Forest & Bird on the forum. “It gets us to about halfway to what we need in the regions,” says Sue. RESTORATION World-renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall pops into the Forest & Bird offices to sign the Aotearoa Deal for Nature, an ambitious plan for reversing New Zealand’s environmental crisis that has been developed by the Jane Goodall Institute NZ, Forest & Bird, WWF NZ, Greenpeace NZ, the Environmental Defence Society, and Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa. Our offices also play host to e-NGO budget briefings by the

“ Wharariki Blush.” Photo courtesy Peter Latham Photography www.peterlatham.com

A CONSERVATION YEAR TO REMEMBER

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Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage and Environment Minister David Parker.

BUDGET BOOST The government releases a budget that allocates new funding and research to protecting and restoring New Zealand’s natural environment, the second year in a row that conservation has received a major funding boost. The Department of Conservation gets an extra $80 million compared to last year, with $42 million coming from the new International Visitors’ Conservation and Tourism Levy that Forest & Bird has advocated for since December 2016.

JUNE ZERO BYCATCH PLEDGE After months of raising awareness about the unacceptably high level of seabird and marine mammal bycatch deaths in New Zealand’s fisheries, Forest & Bird launches its zero bycatch pledge and calls on the public to support it, with nearly 7000 signing in the first couple of weeks.

We call on the government adopt a zero bycatch goal into law, as many other countries have done.

KCC Our Kiwi Conservation Club launches its second annual Be With a Tree challenge, a national celebration of New Zealand’s unique and beautiful trees. We team up with Enviroschools, New Zealand Arboricultural Association, OtariWilton’s Bush, Garden to Table, and Wellington Botanic Garden to promote 10 tree challenges and fun for the whole family. KCC has 52 volunteer coordinators inspiring children about nature all over Aotearoa.

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FOREST & BIRD’S CONFERENCE The theme of this year’s conference is courageous conservation and how we can work together to make a transformative plan for nature.

Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage is the keynote speaker, and there are many other interesting presentations about the state of nature in Aotearoa and solutions to the current biodiversity crisis.

JULY PREDATOR-FREE Forest & Bird releases maps to show how the country is in the middle of a rat plague caused by the mega-mast seeding and calls on the government and councils to increase their 1080 programme to protect birds and bats from becoming locally extinct. Our Northland advocate Dean BaigentMercer travels to different parts of New Zealand making videos that give a context to the mega-mast, including the local extinction of mohua in previous masting events.

habitat for New Zealand fairy terns.

Separately, Forest & Bird supports a wide-ranging review of the Resource Management Act.

AUGUST BIODIVERSITY Forest & Bird welcomes the government’s new Te Koiroa o te Koiora Biodiversity Strategy discussion document and encourages our members to make a submission supporting it. Our Top of the South Island regional manager Debs Miller and environmental lawyer Sally Gepp were involved in the stakeholder reference group to help develop the strategy. They believe it could form the foundation for a bold new plan to reverse the decline of our native species and habitats.

KAURI DIEBACK Forest & Bird calls on Auckland Council to act urgently to stop kauri dieback disease spreading to Waiheke Island, as it could be an important “ark” to ensure some kauri trees remain free of the disease, which was first spotted on nearby Great Barrier Island in the 1970s and has now infected about 20% of kauri in the Waitakere Ranges.

MARINE Forest & Bird calls on Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage to create more marine reserves around Auckland’s coasts. The Hauraki Gulf is in a tragic state after decades of over-fishing and degradation, so marine reserves are urgently needed. Later that month, we make a submission to the government to strengthen its proposed rescue plan for two dolphin species. It’s the last chance to save Māui dolphins from extinction and secure the future for Hector’s dolphins, say Forest & Bird’s marine advocates Kat Goddard and Anton van Helden.

FAIRY TERN Forest & Bird starts a court battle to protect the habitat of New Zealand’s most endangered bird tara iti. We file an Environment Court appeal against Northland Regional Council over its proposed regional plan calling for better protection for mangroves, which provide vital

FRESHWATER Commercial whitebaiting should end, says Forest & Bird on the opening day of the whitebait season. In a Department of Conservation survey of more than 2500 people, 90% said they’d like to see the whitebait fishery managed more sustainably.

OUR 10,000+ REGULAR GIVERS MEAN WE CAN

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

FRESHWATER Forest & Bird welcomes the intent of the government’s proposed new freshwater policy, saying it will go a long way to restore waterways in New Zealand. We ask our members to make a submission on the National Policy Statement, and more than 5000 of you do. The proposals include stricter standards for pollution, improving protection for wetland habitats, and a minimum standard of ecological health for our waterways, measures Forest & Bird has campaigned for decades to achieve. We may need to wait until 2020 to see how it lands.

FRESHWATER The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament.

Thank you to the thousands of you who supported our freshwater fish campaign.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION A generous donation from Alison Maloney allows us to publish a research report on ocean acidification and its impacts for New Zealand. Research shows greenhouse gas emissions could double the acidity of New Zealand’s oceans within 80 years, damaging sea life and the fishing industry. We call on the government, councils, and the fishing industry to urgently take up the report’s 16 recommendations to limit the impacts of climate change on our seas.

KCC Two generous grants from the Margaret and Huia Clarke Trust and the Grumitt Sisters Charitable Trust, both managed by Perpetual Guardian, enable Forest & Bird to go ahead with plans to re-establish a Kiwi Conservation Club branch in Rotorua. New KCC coordinators Judy Gardner and Darren van Hoof, supported by national office staff, hold a successful relaunch event.

Earlier in the year, another grant from the Sargood Bequest allows KCC to offer more group memberships to low-decile schools.

LOCAL ELECTIONS A number of conservation-friendly councillors are elected to local bodies up and down the country, including Jack Craw, Chair of Forest & Bird’s Northern Branch, in Whangarei, who was elected to the Northland Regional Council. His successful challenge on a green ticket shifts the balance of power towards progressive conservation-friendly councillors.

HISTORY PROJECT New Zealand’s longest-running conservation magazine is added to the National Library’s Papers Past website. The first two decades of Forest & Bird’s nearly 100-year-old magazine are now available online, spanning the period before the Great Depression to the end of the Second World War (1924–1945). It’s the first time an environmental magazine has featured on the National Library’s Papers Past website. Work on Forest & Bird’s history book starts in 2019, kickstarted by a grant from Stout Foundation.

NOVEMBER BIRD OF THE YEAR dominates this month (see page 6). In the first week, more than 55,000 people visit the hugely popular Bird of the Year website.

NORTH AND SOUTH ISLAND GATHERINGS Two successful weekends are hosted by North

Canterbury and Taupo branches. It’s a great opportunity to get together, share experiences, and hear about the inspiring work that branches are carrying out across Aotearoa New Zealand.

DECEMBER RAISING FUNDS During 2019 our fundraising and membership team was privileged to work with thousands of donors, volunteers, and supporters who together helped Forest & Bird achieve some landmark wins for nature. We’d like to thank the branches that have made a donation to support Forest & Bird’s national work this year, including Waikato, Tauranga, Hastings-Havelock North, Upper Hutt, Nelson-Tasman, Eastern Bay of Plenty, South Otago, Dunedin, and Northern.

Forest & Bird is completely dependent on fundraising, donations, grants, and bequests to meet its $6m running costs.

SPREADING THE WORD During 2019, Forest & Bird prints nearly 90,000 magazines. We engage with 115,000 Facebook followers every day and email digital newsletters to 90,000 supporters every six weeks.

Our media team talk to hundreds of reporters during the year, and issues scores of press releases. Thousands of people follow our Twitter feed, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, and more than 26,000 individuals visit our website every month. We create a television advert that airs in August and September demanding stronger rules for protecting New Zealand’s rivers, lakes, and streams. Tens of thousands of our supporters sign our freshwater, climate, zero-bycatch, and land-based campaign submission pages during the year.

“ Out of this world.” Photo courtesy Peter Latham Photography www.peterlatham.com

BE A TRULY INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NATURE

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Highlights 2019

Forest & Bird’s general counsel Peter Anderson leads our small but effective legal team.

LEGAL WINS

Earlier this year, more than 1400 people donated an incredible $172,800 towards our legal team’s work. Here is a snapshot of what you helped them achieve during 2019.

LANDMARK MARINE WIN

SUCCESSFUL JUDICIAL REVIEW

In November, the Court of Appeal agreed the Bay of Plenty Regional Council could impose restrictions around Motiti Island for biodiversity reasons. The decision is hugely significant because it confirms that local communities have the right to protect their coastal environments from the effects of bad fishing practice.

Forest & Bird joined forces with Motiti Rohe Moana Trust, a tiny hapū from Motiti Island, in 2017, and went on to win ground-breaking rulings in the Environment and High courts that gave councils powers to regulate fishing to protect native species. The decisions were appealed to the Court of Appeal, which has now ruled in our favour.

The Auditor-General issued declarations in 2011, 2013, and 2018 that the usual conflict-of-interest principles did not apply to people serving on Environment Canterbury’s zone committees. These committees play a significant role in managing farming activities in the region. The Auditor-General’s ruling meant members were free to vote on matters where they had (sometimes significant) pecuniary interests. Forest & Bird felt this was contributing to the degradation of water quality, so we sought a judicial review of the declarations. Following our legal action, the Auditor-General revoked the declaration, which means zone committee members are now subject to the council’s usual conflict-of-interest provisions.

TE KUHA HEADS TO SUPREME COURT

There are multiple strands of litigation in the Te Kuha case, which relates to plans to build an open-cast coal mine in a pristine part of the Buller Plateau. The most significant current issue concerns proceedings in relation to whether the Reserves Act 1977 or the Crown Minerals Act 1991 prevails with respect to access arrangements for mining on local purpose reserves. We were successful in the Court of Appeal, which found the local council had to ensure the reserve was protected from mining. The Supreme Court gave leave for an appeal on this ruling, but it was subsequently revealed the reserve had never been gazetted.

The reserve has now been classified, and we expect the appeal to be heard in the Supreme Court next May.

HIGH COURT UPHOLDS HURUNUI APPEAL Snapper. Photo: Darryl Torckler

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During 2019, Environment Canterbury issued an advice note that said it would not enforce certain rules in its regional plan regarding nutrient losses. Forest & Bird

FOREST & BIRD’S 50 BRANCHES ARE THE

RESTORING NATURE FUNDRAISING APPEAL As you can see from the conservation highlights listed in this magazine, there was much to celebrate during 2019. But there is still a huge amount of work left to do to reverse the scale of loss in recent decades. Next year we will be focusing on the upcoming 2020 general election – the conservation policies adopted by our major political parties will be make or break for the environment. We will be reminding our politicians how much people like you value our natural landscapes and native species.

Together, we can speak out, and act for a world where forests, rivers, oceans, and wildlife thrive. We are kaitiaki, guardians of this beautiful country, and we must love and protect what we have. It doesn’t need to be complicated – if we look after nature, it will look after us. Please make a donation today at www.forestandbird.org.nz/restoringnature.

was concerned about the impact this would have on the Hurunui River, which had gone over the plan limit for phosphorus pollution.

The Environment Court declared part of the advice note unlawful but allowed the balance to stand. We successfully appealed this to the High Court, which struck down the entire advice note.

The rare and beautiful New Zealand mistletoe, Lake Ohau, MacKenzie Country. Photo: Shelley Evans

WETLAND JUDICIAL REVIEW WINS

Upper Hurunui River.

Photo: Rob Suisted

Forest & Bird took two judicial reviews of notification decisions on clearance of two significant wetlands – the Kaimaumau wetland, in Northland, and one in the Remarkables, Otago. The consent holder surrendered their consent for the Kaimaumau wetland after we lodged judicial review proceedings. The consent for the Remarkables had already been exercised, so we reached an agreement with the regional council over how applications for the clearance of wetlands should be considered in future.

TRANS-TASMAN COURT OF APPEAL HEARING The latest twist in our long-running legal action to stop Trans-Tasman Resources’ plans for experimental ironsand mining in the South Taranaki Bight. Forest & Bird opposed the original application based in the impact that noise would have on marine mammals, including a significant population of blue whales. We successfully appealed the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to grant consent to the High Court. TTR further appealed this to the Court of Appeal, which heard the case in September 2019.

We are awaiting a decision.

OTAGO PORTS HIGH COURT WIN

In this important case, the High Court held the Environment Court made an error when it found that the ports policy (Policy 9) in the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement should be treated in the same way as policies that provide for the avoidance of adverse effects on significant biodiversity, outstanding natural character, and natural features. Port Otago has sought leave to appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which is being considered.

Kaimaumau wetland. Photo: Toby Ricketts

WATER CONSERVATION ORDER FOR NGARURORO Forest & Bird was also successful in achieving a Water Conservation Order for the Ngaruroro (see overleaf).

VOICE OF NATURE IN THEIR COMMUNITY

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Highlights 2019

Searching for hoiho nests at Long Point, the Catlins.

Futher west, Forest & Bird owns and manages a yelloweyed penguin sanctuary at remote Te Rere.

GRASSROOTS ACTION A snapshot of memorable moments from Forest & Bird’s national projects and around the regions.

Our project team at ARK IN THE PARK recently reported a welcome increase to the kōkako population thanks to intensive predator control. The project relies on the incredible contribution of 400 conservation volunteers who racked up about 10,000 hours working to protect and restore the Waitakere forest last year. This represents a monetary value of $211,500 (assuming a living wage rate).

GRANT SUCCESS – Forest & Bird received $600,000 from Foundation North to support major projects in Auckland and Northland over the next four years.

PEST-FREE HIBISCUS COAST has been upgraded to a landscape-scale project and is being driven by the Hibiscus Coast Branch of Forest & Bird. New coordinator Jenny Hanwell is putting together a project plan to rid the peninsula of predators.

South Auckland’s SOUTH-EAST WILDLINK goes from strength to strength. A new landowner group has been established, and our coordinator Naomi Harrison is working with two schools in the project area who are trapping animal pests in their school grounds. The project has evolved to include plant pest management and tree planting as well as predator control. We are grateful for the financial support of the Department of Conservation ($16,958), Transpower ($10,000), and Auckland Council ($10,000).

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TAUTUKU ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECT, in the Catlins, celebrated with the discovery of a rare reptile on the project site and confirmation during 2019 that a healthy population of Tautuku geckos was living deep in the forest, benefiting from predator-control work there.

In September, volunteers from the Otago and Southland branches marked 50 years of work at Forest & Bird’s Lenz Reserve, at the heart of the ambitious 6500ha project. In October, New Zealand’s largest-circulation magazine, AA Directions, published an article about Tatutuku.

On the Otago Peninsula, Forest & Bird’s SANDYMOUNT sooty shearwater breeding project secured $5,500 from the Otago Regional Council’s Ecofund. It also received a welcome boost of more than $2,200 from several donations following an article in the Spring Forest & Bird magazine. These gifts will allow us to purchase multiple cameras and establish an intensive network of traps and video monitoring on the clifftop project site to hopefully reduce the risk of further chick loss this breeding season.

FOREST & BIRD BRANCH COMMITTEES manage more than 180 local conservation projects, including predator control, planting, and weeding, while working to protect local landscapes, flora, and fauna from being lost forever.

Their wins are too numerous to list here but are often regionally or nationally significant.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FOREST & BIRD VOLUNTEERS

Forest & Bird’s seven regional managers work with branches protecting terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems at a local level. Here are some of their memorable moments from 2019.

Nick Beveridge Auckland and Northland I made a submission to Auckland Council’s Pest Management Plan, and the matter eventually ended up heading to the Environment Court.

The council agreed to beef up its plan to include invasive alien marine pests, and even gave us more than we asked for. In Northland, Forest & Bird took legal action to stop wetlands being destroyed by swamp kauri extraction. We are hopeful the regional council will improve its regional plan as a result.

Rebecca Stirnemann Central North Island In September, we launched a media campaign highlighting the wallaby plague spreading across parts of the North and South Islands, and we published maps showing the extent of the problem. The resulting press and TV coverage led to us being invited by Federated Farmers to help draw up a national strategy for controlling wallabies and stopping them destroying forests and rare alpine plants.

Tom Kay Lower North Island (Manawatū, Whanganui, and Hawke’s Bay) In February, I presented evidence to a Special Tribunal considering whether to grant a Water Conservation Order over the Ngaruroro River in Hawke’s Bay. It subsequently recommended granting an order on the Upper Ngaruroro River, which is a great win for nature! They also recognised the outstanding values of the lower river to native birds but didn’t recommend a WCO for the lower river. Forest & Bird is appealing that part of the decision, and we believe we have a strong case.

Karen Evans Lower North Island (Greater Wellington, Taranaki) Wetlands are a particularly rare ecosystem in Wellington, with only 2% remaining. I’m working with the Upper Hutt branch to protect the Mangaroa Peatlands – the largest remaining peat bog in the lower North Island, which is under threat from development and

farming. I’m also supporting the Kāpiti-Mana branch to lobby Greater Wellington Regional Council to rewet and restore Raumati Wetland, part of Queen Elizabeth Park.

Debs Martin Top of the South Island The scale-up in big thinking on biodiversity and climate change is long overdue but has the potential to be transformative. Two local examples I’ve been involved in include the adoption of the Top of the South Island’s Kotahitanga mo te Taiao – a regional biodiversity strategy involving all councils, DOC, and most iwi. This strategy is helping guide initiatives like Ministry for the Environment investment. The declaration of a climate emergency by Nelson City Council, and the community-led Climate Forum for Nelson and Tasman, were also significant.

Nicky Snoyink Cantebury and West Coast This year, I’ve been working to protect the Rangitata River from over-extraction by commercial farming interests. Forest & Bird has been putting pressure on Canterbury Regional Council to do more to protect this braided river from further degradation. On the West Coast, we were successful in our joint campaign with Whitewater NZ to save the Waitaha River’s Morgan Gorge from being destroyed by a proposed hydro scheme.

This a great win for this spectacular wild West Coast river.

Thank you to all of you who joined our submission.

Sue Maturin Otago-Southland I have been representing Forest & Bird on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group involved in developing a draft National Plan of Action on Seabirds.

I have been working to get a zero bycatch goal included in the plan and a commitment to ensure commercial fishers use best practice mitigation standards. We have been able to make the plan’s objectives and performance measures more meaningful and measurable, and include stronger mitigations. But not all of our ambitions have been achieved, and we will be relying on public support through submissions to help get these over the line.

HAVE BEEN A FORCE OF NATURE FOR NEARLY 100 YEARS

Cover story

Siobhain Griffin was a dairy farmer in the US before moving to New Zealand to become a farmer and regenerative agriculture specialist.

GROWING A REVOLUTION

An increasing number of regenerative farmers in New Zealand are using their land in ways that are kind to nature while increasing on-farm productivity. By Siobhain Griffin.

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utting-edge farming practices are evolving every day in the regenerative agriculture space. Farmers in different parts of the country are sharing their onfarm lessons about what works and what doesn’t to build topsoil and healthier landscapes.

The regenerative farming movement in Aotearoa is small but growing, and there is increasing interest in its benefits for nature and the climate, as well as soil health and on-farm profits. Regenerative farming methods have been proven to increase farm productivity and enhance ecosystem diversity over the past four decades in many real-farm scenarios all over the world.

I’m confident these methods work because I used them on my own dairy farm in the US and discovered the dramatic knock-on benefits for water quality, biodiversity, and animal health.

We changed our grazing practices, slowly transitioning away from monoculture rye grass and white clover. The enhanced plant diversity on our land resulted in roots that went down 600mm deep to build topsoil and create a carbon sponge. Over eight years, we increased our soil’s organic matter at a rate of 0.5% a year, simply by taking grazing management up to the next level.

Our pastures no longer turned brown in the droughts that have become more frequent in New York state, and our farm grew more resilient. The streams ran crystal clear even in flood events thanks to the deeply rooted pastures. My cattle’s health problems virtually disappeared as their condition improved.

The biodiversity of wildlife and birdlife on my farm exploded. A survey identified 86 species of birds in 2016.

According to a new study by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, ground-nesting native birds like the bobolink thrive with regenerative grazing even though these bird populations have declined 53% in the last 50 years across the US.

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But there are barriers to a wide-scale uptake, including scepticism about regenerative agriculture in the mainstream farming media. Another issue is the lack of specialist advice for farmers wanting to try regenerative farming methods. Many farmers who have found financial success with regenerative agriculture are helping their fellow farmers learn with farm visits, social media networks, books, and on-farm videos.

In 2017, I moved from the US to New Zealand, where I live with my fiancée on a 440ha sheep farm in Milton, South Otago. I’ve recently started a business called Next Level Grazing that helps New Zealand farmers transition to regenerative farming.

Can regenerative farming methods and mindset work here in New Zealand, with its unique set of land-use challenges, climate, and landscapes?

I recently visited some of Aotearoa’s early adopters of regenerative farming techniques, including dairy, sheep, beef, or arable farmers (see right). These farmers are using different methods, which are suited to their specific landscapes, to increase their farm’s productivity naturally.

They are finding they can reduce or eliminate the need to use damaging and expensive chemicals on their land. By changing grazing techniques, moving away from monoculture crops, and planting trees, they are able to reduce costs, grow enough food on-farm to feed their livestock, and sequester more carbon.

With some simple and inexpensive changes, New Zealand farmers can have a profoundly positive effect on their environment. There is still a long way to go, but I believe the future of global agriculture is regenerative. n Contact Siobhain Griffin at next.level.grazing@gmail. com or check out her Facebook page @ Next Level Grazing.

SERIOUS ABOUT SOIL

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egenerative farming is about sustainable food production, ecosystem restoration, and designing holistic farming systems that minimise waste. If more farmers take up the regenerative challenge, the positive impact on Aotearoa’s climate, fresh water, and biodiversity could be game-changing.

For example, if all New Zealand farmers increased their soil organic matter by just 0.25% per year on the top 20cm of soil, the total CO2 removed from the air via photosynthesis and stored long term in the soil could more than offset Aotearoa’s total annual emissions, including methane, according to regenerative agriculture consultant Siobhain Griffin. hen English settlers first arrived in Australia, they measured the soil organic matter at 30% in some places. Horses sunk deeper than their fetlocks in the soft soil, and people could dig tubers out of the soft soil with their bare hands.

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Joyce Farms in North Carolina use regenerative agriculture techniques to produce nutritious protein-rich foods while protecting animal welfare and restoring health to the soil.

Introducing a non-native farming culture from humid western Europe reduced the national soil organic matter to less than 2%. Today, a growing number of farmers in Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the world are turning back the clock by using regenerative agriculture techniques and reaping the benefits.

Masterton sheep farmers Julie and Bryce Stevenson hope to make money from carbon farming in the future. Farmers can increase the rate of their carbon sequestration by using regenerative grazing techniques.

CARBON FARMERS IN THE MAKING – Julie and Bryce Stevenson, Masterton

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n the process of building topsoil on their farms, regenerative farmers in New Zealand and around the world are sucking huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and pumping it into the soil. New carbon markets are opening up for farmers overseas where, instead of being taxed for methane, regenerative farmers will be paid for sequestering carbon.

For example, in California, the Perennial Farming Institute is working with the state government to develop a scheme that will pay farmers for sequestered carbon.

In New York state, a bill is being considered to provide tax credits to regenerative farmers, while private US companies like Indigo Agriculture plan to pay farmers $US15–$20 per tonne to sequester carbon.

New Zealand has some catching up to do in this space.

But in anticipation of new carbon markets developing here soon, many New Zealand farmers like Bryce and Julie Stevenson are being proactive. They are planning to take baseline samples for soil carbon on their 920ha Masterton sheep and beef farm this year, so they don’t miss the boat

on benefiting financially from carbon sequestration.

The Stevensons are already implementing restorative grazing methods, putting them on track to build topsoil.

They have sown diverse pasture species mixes and subdivided more paddocks. After weaning, they run a “mega-mob” of 3600 ewes and 270 head of cattle on 68 paddocks, moving the mob before they eat all the grass in a pasture to protect the soil.

The higher level of animal density promotes a more even graze and fewer over-mature plants, but the stock must be shifted more often so only the top half of the pasture is eaten. It also allows them to grow more feed on the farm. Healthy pasture means healthy stock, and Julie says that, by fully feeding the whole mob, all the animals have plenty to eat and the smaller sheep don’t miss out.

Julie and Bryce have a vision of a healthy, flourishing, very productive, biologically active regenerative farm with soils that are increasing in carbon. It is important to them that this management is profitable so they can inspire other farmers to build soil. In the spirit of farmer-to-farmer learning, Julie shared what worked and what didn’t at an Agri Women Development Trust event earlier this year. And she knows she will have more to share in five years’ time when the work they are doing now starts to bear fruit.

Continues overleaf Forest & Bird

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Cover story

Dean and Antoinette Martin were early adopters of regenerative grazing on their Hawke’s Bay farm, which today abounds with native birdlife.

REGENERATIVE GRAZING PIONEERS – Dean and Antoinette Martin, Hawke’s Bay

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n early adopter of regenerative grazing since 2007, Dean Martin has been able to raise his pasture covers year-round on their 244ha sheep and beef farm in the Esk Valley, Hawke’s Bay. By providing ideal pasture recovery times, Dean creates the environment for high-energy pasture species like red clover, prairie grass, timothy, plantain, and cocksfoot to naturally arrive in the paddock without the need for expensive seed.

The Martins have also invested in planting many different types of trees, creating a tapestry of diverse forestry, native forest, and meadow on their hills. They farm sheep, cattle, and goats. Eels and birdlife abound on Glenlands Farm thanks to Dean’s hard work encouraging diversity of plants and animals.

Dean and Antoinette minimise over-grazing pasture at lambing time by getting ewes and lambs into mob grazing earlier than most. Dean gradually combines his ewe and lamb mobs, starting a few weeks after lambing.

By October, the ewes and lambs are all mobbed together.

The heavy concentration of stock allows what I call “sheet composting” – the animals eat the high-energy grass and trample the rest into the soil to regenerate it.

The Martins’ strong diverse pasture sward with deep roots is far more resilient to dry spells than perennial ryegrass and white clover alone, and his hills were greener than others around the district when I went to visit after a dry spell in June. Regenerative farmers like Dean are healing the entire water cycle because, for every 1% increase in soil organic matter, they can store 150,000 more litres of water per hectare.

Dean likes to sow diverse cover crops into pasture in March and says he doesn’t need Roundup weedkiller.

He has deposited heaps of trampled-in litter and dung with short-duration high-density grazing to grow his black and friable underground carbon sponge 40–50cm deep.

A visitor to the Martins’ farm described his soil as “like potting mix”, and I could see why when Dean put a spade to the ground.

Dean Martin has made a video about regenerative farming that is available on his Glenlands Farm’s website – https://glenlandsfarm.co.nz – and he’s happy to speak about his decade of regenerative farming experience.

REGENERATIVE FARMERS SHARING WHAT WORKS

A Hamish Bielski at the Field Day on his farm in February talking to Ian Mitchell-Innes, a regenerative agriculture specialist from South Africa.

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rable, sheep, and beef farmers Hamish and Amy Bielski have pioneered many regenerative farming practices in South Otago. Hamish is an enthusiastic promoter of planting diverse pasture and diverse cover crops, experimenting with diverse arable crops, and continually improving grazing management by nailing better recovery spells between grazing events. He shares what he has learned with fellow farmers at public speaking events and on his Rehoboth Farm Facebook page.

Hamish is part of a growing farmer-to-farmer network

DETERMINED TO DAIRY WITHOUT BARE SOIL – Mark and Madeline Anderson, South Otago

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ark and Madeline Anderson milk 800 cows in Waiwera South, west of Balclutha, Otago. The Andersons are very protective of the Waiwera River, which runs through their farm. Mark has been learning about the science behind carbon farming for the sake of the river from American regenerative farmers Gabe Brown and Greg Judy, and soil scientists like Christine Jones, of Australia, and New Zealand’s Nicole Masters.

Mark is passionate about building up his farm’s topsoil to add value to the farm’s legacy.

This winter, he was determined to show that it is possible for dairy farmers to farm without bare soil/mud.

He has eliminated mono-crop fodder beet from his winter programme. Instead, he grazed his heifers and cows on a multi-species winter crop mix that Simon Walker, of Advanced Agriculture, helped put together.

He carefully managed this 50ha of diverse winter crop to prevent bare soil by moving the stock quickly. He says healthy soils are 66% space. He could easily wreck the soil in the winter crop paddock if he put hay bales out on them to feed his stock during the winter months. The grasses in the multi-species mix help protect the soil by creating a mat underfoot because he doesn’t make his animals finish eating the grass right down to the bare soil.

Mark added carbon to his soil by bale feeding on older paddocks that need a fertility boost. He fed dry hay to 640 cows in four separate groups on three-day shifts, and as a consequence mud has been avoided very well. It worked best where the pasture had the highest grass heights. So next year he plans to expand the practice to his autumnrested pastures that have deeper roots, which will protect the soil in wetter weather.

The big ace up the Andersons’ sleeves for foul weather is four economically built wintering “pads”. They put crushed stone and drainage in place and topped it with 1m of wood chips. The final bedding layer is 30cm of sawdust that Mark can scrape and top off as needed. This protects

sharing regenerative agriculture experiences from around the world, including the UK, USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more information, see the Grassfed Exchange at https://grassfedexchange.com for its free online videos, and there is lots of useful information on websites like Regeneration International at https://regenerationinternational.org, On Pasture at https://onpasture.com, and Savory Global at https://www.savory.global. John King posts great articles and videos of interest to New Zealand pastoralists at www.succession.co.nz. The Stockman Grass Farmer online publication https://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com has

the wood chip base. They simply feed silage along the outside fence line. No expensive concrete foundation or roof is required. Cows and heifers have a dry comfortable place to sit down in wet weather. Stock kept out of the mud use less energy and are healthier. After calving, the cows will have taller diverse pastures seeded with 12–16 different plant species waiting for them to graze on.

The Andersons actively share what they learn with other farmers on social media (see Westridge Farm’s Facebook page). When they hosted a pasture walk last February, more than 70 farmers attended.

Mark Anderson (top) is trialling regenerative agriculture techniques and reaping the benefits on his dairy farm. He enjoys sharing best practice with other farmers and is pictured below (right) earlier this year during the regenerative farming field days at Westridge Farm, Otago.

been promoting regenerative farming for at least three decades. US farmer Greg Judy has a good blog at Green Pastures farm at http://greenpasturesfarm.net.

Soil biologists have helpful websites, including New Zealand’s Nicole Masters at Integrity Soils at https://www.integritysoils.co.nz, and Australian Christine Jones at Amazing Carbon at https://www.amazingcarbon. com. On Facebook, you can find regenerative grazing group Quorum Sense. South African regenerative grazing expert Ian Mitchell-Innes will give a talk at the Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group-sponsored field day at Waihi on 4 December. Register at organicpastoral.co.nz.

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Ethical investment

MINDFUL MONEY Barry Coates explains how his new charity is helping New Zealanders choose KiwiSaver funds that are good for nature as well as their retirement nest egg.

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ost New Zealanders are starting to change their behaviour to reduce emissions and environmental damage. More of us walk, cycle, use public transport, or aspire to own an electric vehicle. We make efforts to reduce packaging, recycle, and take bags when we go shopping. We look at labels to avoid unsustainable and unhealthy food.

But there is one important area of our life where few of us act – our money. The hidden secret is that most New Zealanders are unknowingly supporting environmental pollution and exploitation through their finances. For example, $1.2 billion of our hard-earned KiwiSaver funds are invested in fossil fuel companies.

Why is this happening? One reason is that historically investment and banking has been about “rates of return” and “risk”, but not about the consequences of how money is used. In search of bigger returns, investment has flowed into companies that pollute the environment, exploit workers, and hide their profits in tax havens. The finance sector is complicit – it has ignored the consequences and hidden the evidence.

It’s a popular saying that “money makes the world go round” and, like it or not, that’s all too often the case.

But in reality, we are the ones who own a large share of that finance through our pension funds, investments, and

bank savings. It is our decisions that determine whether our environment is destroyed or restored. I think this is one of the great revolutions in our thinking about sustainability.

Last year, my new charity Mindful Money surveyed the public. The survey found that most people want to invest ethically, but they don’t. It has been too hard. Respondents said they lack objective information and they didn’t have time to compare options. We heard stories of people with finance degrees who tried to figure out the options but gave up. This is why I decided to do something to make it easier.

I started Mindful Money as a way of channelling money into doing good instead of harm. I assembled a research team to map out where all of the 265 KiwiSaver funds invest their money. We matched the companies against those in sectors that New Zealanders want to avoid – like fossil fuels, palm oil, weapons, human rights violations, and animal cruelty.

Now anyone who visits our new website can see how much of their KiwiSaver goes into those issues and which companies they’re supporting. It is radical transparency applied to our KiwiSaver funds. And it’s free!

We also undertook research on ethical funds to find those that not only claimed to be ethical but could back

WE MADE THE MOVE

in 2016, but weren’t satisfied with the company’s response, so we changed to Kiwibank.

Forest & Bird believes that, if enough people demand responsible investment practices, it could change the way this country, and the world, does business. It’s one reason

Forest & Bird moved its bank accounts from ANZ last May because of serious concerns over the bank’s investments in fossil fuels. We asked ANZ for a fossil fuel divestment plan 20

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that up with evidence. We have chosen 26 funds from 10 KiwiSaver providers. They use different approaches to investing responsibly, such as excluding harmful companies, choosing better companies, and engaging with companies to improve their standards.

These approaches suit different investors. So it is important that you can match your investment preferences with your risk profile and your values. The Mindful Money Fund Finder tool helps you find the fund that’s right for you.

The final piece of the jigsaw is about financial returns.

People are rightly concerned about the costs of investing ethically. But the research shows that, on average, returns from investing ethically are as high or higher than from conventional investing. Most people know this already – the most trusted companies are those that take sustainability seriously. They are the companies with loyal customers, motivated employees, and no environmental liabilities or scandals. It’s no surprise that they earn good financial returns.

We can feel good about avoiding fossil fuels and other concerns, and we can earn good returns. So why not check your Kiwisaver on Mindful Money today? It's easy to switch funds if you aren't happy with how your money is invested.

This is a powerful action we can take to help re-direct funds towards sustainability , and help address the climate emergency and global biodiversity loss.

This wave of change is growing. People are taking back control of their savings and using their money mindfully.

See www.mindfulmoney.nz. n Barry Coates is founder and CEO of Mindful Money.

He has been active in ethical investment since the early 1990s, was head of Oxfam New Zealand from 2003 to 2014, and briefly a Green Party MP in 2016–17.

He received the sustainability champion award from Sustainable Business Network in 2016.

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used www.mindfulmoney.nz to check my KiwiSaver fund and was surprised to find 10% of it was invested in fossil fuel, gambling, alcohol, palm oil, GMOs, human and environmental rights violations, and animal testing.

I was able to find a better KiwiSaver fund by using Mindful Money’s online search function, which suggested

I MADE THE SWITCH

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obi Conway jumped online to check out Mindful Money and made the KiwiSaver switch as a result.

“When it came to finding a KiwiSaver fund, I’ll admit I was a bit disinterested. Not because I’m not concerned about retirement, but because the whole process seemed unnecessarily complicated,” says Tobi.

“Finding information about the performance, fees, and where the funds were invested felt like a huge task. I basically went with the path of least resistance and ticked a default scheme and forgot about it for a few years, even though I’m passionate about climate change and our wild places.

“But I became aware that my money was being used by companies that I really dislike, and so I wanted to switch.

I heard about Mindful Money and went onto its website.

Within a short time, I found the ethical KiwiSaver fund that I wanted, not only for myself but also for my partner and kids as well. And I liked the idea so much I applied for a job at Mindful Money!”

Tobi is now spreading the word about Mindful Money as its new marketing manager.

the Caresaver Conservative Fund, Simplicity Conservative KiwiSaver, and two Mercer Kiwisaver schemes.

Mindful Money's search function allowed me to rank my concerns and specify acceptable risk level, fees, returns, and length of investment to find an alternative environmentally friendly fund. It was a great tool, simple and easy to use.

Caroline Wood, Forest & Bird Editor

Investments of concern: The chart below shows how much of your fund is invested in issues of concern. Note that some providers use the approach of engaging with companies to improve their practices, instead of excluding them (see “Higher Standards” category). please also note that the total score may include the same company appearing in more than one category.

0%

why we are a cornerstone supporter of Mindful Money.

Chief executive Kevin Hague says: “Without knowing it, most people have invested in fossil fuel companies, but the Mindful Money website allows them to look at where their money is invested and to be able to choose a better fund.

10%

● Fossil Fuel ● Weapons ● Gambling ● Alcohol ● Palm Oil ● GMOs ● Human Rights & Env. ● Animal Testing

“It’s a powerful free and independent tool that has the potential to change corporate behaviour and encourage them to improve environmental and other outcomes.

“I urge our members to check out their KiwiSaver fund, and make the switch.”

Forest & Bird

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Predator-free NZ

RATS ATE THIS POSTER Award-winning advertising agency Colenso BBDO has been working with Forest & Bird on a new predator-free poster campaign.

A

recent estimate showed that 26.4m native birds, chicks, and eggs are eaten by introduced predators every year, so it’s not surprising that 80% of them are now facing extinction. If we’re to prevent this happening, the message needs to be spread far and wide into the public domain.

Enter award-winning advertising agency Colenso BBDO, who approached Forest & Bird earlier this year with an innovative idea.

They wanted to see what would happen if they hung baited posters of native birds in the forest. Would they suffer the same fate as our birds, bats, and lizards and be eaten by rats and stoats?

Colenso offered to donate their expertise to Forest & Bird to create a pro bono poster campaign that would help raise awareness and rally the nation towards the ambitious goal of a predator-free New Zealand by 2050.

The team created nine posters, each one featuring an endangered native bird pictured in its natural environment

by Forest & Bird member and bird photographer Craig McKenzie. But these weren’t your average posters. They were made of plastic-ridged Corflute and designed to attract predators present in the bush.

Researchers can tell the species through the teeth and claw marks left in the Corflute. So, with help from Landcare Research scientist Dr Grant Norbury, the posters were baited and sprayed with bird pheromones, effectively turning them into enormous chew cards.

They were placed in different forest locations near Auckland, including Stokes Point Reserve, Fishermans Wharf Reserve, and Beveridge Track, for a number of nights to endure the same attacks our native birds and their babies do.

The Colenso BBDO team returned to collect the horrifying bite-marked remains of each poster. Some had been hung high in the trees where bird nests would usually be found, but predators were still able to reach them many metres above the ground.

After studying the teeth marks, it was possible to tell the primary predators were rats. This was later confirmed with the help of night-vision cameras.

The team then created a range of materials for the

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

advertising campaign. Colenso’s photographer Brent Courtney captured the remains of the posters in the native bush to show the reality of the death birds face from predators, especially during a mega-mast.

This year has been the largest masting New Zealand has seen in more than 40 years. Many beech and podocarp forests have produced a record amount of seed and fruit for all native species. Unfortunately, this food has also fuelled plagues of rodents, stoats, and possums that kill our birdlife when the food runs out.

This problem remains hidden in the bush, unseen by the majority of New Zealanders. But the long-term survival of our unique native species is something that affects all of us. So, through media space, on billboards, and in newspapers, kindly donated by our partners, these posters will be going live to the nation on 1 December 2019.

The campaign asks the public to support Forest & Bird by making a donation or volunteering, so it can help our native species survive and thrive for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

If you would like to help us promote these powerful images, or know anyone who can, please contact us at editor@forestandbird.org.nz and we’ll happily send you the high-resolution versions.

DEATH TOLL 72,000/DAY An incredible 26.4m adult native birds, chicks, and eggs are killed every year just in our native forests, according to Dr John Innes, of Landcare Research, and colleagues at University of Canterbury and DOC. That’s 72,000 every day. There are about six ship rats every hectare and about one stoat per 100ha. So if you estimate that rats are responsible for the majority of predations – 65% – that would mean at least 47,000 native birds are killed by rats alone every day.

These figures are just for native forests. If you include all of New Zealand and non-native birds, the figure would likely to rise to 100m adult native birds, chicks, and eggs killed every year.

This baited poster was eaten by predators in the New Zealand bush. Here, 72,000 native birds, chicks, and eggs are killed every day.

Protect them from rats, stoats, and possums by donating at forestandbird.org.nz/protect.

Forest & Bird

| 23

Our people

LIVING LEGACY

Earlier this year, Waikato farmer Peter Levin gave Forest & Bird an incredibly generous $100,000 gift. He tells his story to David Brooks.

My monetary gifts are a contribution in lieu of the time given by volunteers and recognition of their value.

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

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aikato farmer Peter Levin planned to leave a substantial bequest to Forest & Bird in his will. But he talked to his family and decided there was no point in waiting.

“They said, ‘Go on Dad, it’s much more interesting for you to do it while you’re alive.’ There’s a pleasure and a certain satisfaction in it for me, and I think, by giving it earlier, it’s more effective,” says Peter.

Following the decision by Peter, his wife Gael, and their family, Forest & Bird received a very generous donation of $100,000. This was on top of the $1,000 Peter and Gael have given every year, in addition to renewing their membership, since 1990.

Peter says he supports Forest & Bird because it fights hard for the values he believes in – through its advocacy and legal work, as well as the efforts of volunteers and branches.

“Forest & Bird is by far the most effective organisation in pursuing their objectives, which are all things that need to be done. They fight publicly for the preservation of our rivers, our birds, and our environment. I get great satisfaction when they win a battle and succeed in a legal victory.”

Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague visited the Levins in August to thank them.

“I wanted Peter and Gael to know how much we appreciate their generosity and to tell them their donation will make a big difference in advancing the environmental values that are so important to them”, he said.

Peter and Gael own a 260ha cattle farm between Taupiri and Gordonton, in Waikato. Peter’s environmental focus is reflected in the work he has done on the farm in the last 30 years. About 40ha either are under QEII National Trust covenant or have been planted with many thousands of native trees and plants.

“When I was younger, I was more driven with getting on, and latterly financial pressures have eased and are no longer a factor in my life,” he says.

“I’m 87 now, and you stand back and you’ve got the time to appreciate the environmental aspects of your surroundings, and this interest has become much more dominant.”

Farming has kept Peter very busy over the years, and he feels his donations are his way of recognising those who give up their time to volunteer for Forest & Bird.

“My monetary gifts are a contribution in lieu of the time given by volunteers and recognition of their value,” he adds.

Peter hasn’t tied his very generous donation to any specific project or area of Forest & Bird’s work. “I’ve seen people leave money for specific projects, and they’re often not good choices, so I’m leaving it up to Forest & Bird to spend it where they think it will be most effective,” he explains.

His love for New Zealand and its environment reflects a long and rich family history in this country since the early days of European settlement. The family first arrived in the 1840s, and the town of Levin in Horowhenua was named after his merchant great-grandfather William Levin, one of the directors of the company that opened the Wellington– Manawatu Railway in 1886.

All donations are important to Forest & Bird. If you’d like to find out more about leaving a bequest or a transformational gift, please contract Jo Prestwood at j.prestwood@forestandbird.org.nz.

ExtINKtion Ink and a little imagination helped raise $10,000 for Forest & Bird and Zealandia, as Emma ten Have explains.

The idea was simple and low key – gather a small group of people (about 16) to come together for one day in Wellington to receive “flash tattoos” of native bird species – raising awareness about conservation issues in the process.

I never anticipated the amazingly enthusiastic response I would receive from the Wellington community. About 400 people attended the fundraising event and, with the help of Wellington tattoo studio Kakapo Ink, 130 people received tattoos!

ExtINKtion started as a small project for my Science in Society Masters course at Victoria University. But the concept snowballed, and over the space of a few weeks it became much bigger than I originally expected.

The growing queue of people lining up outside the Hudson bar in Wellington on Sunday 22 September indicated this had become something much bigger than my original small-scale science communications project.

I had created the designs for 16 native birds, together with their current conservation status. People could choose which one they wanted tattooed on them, and I hoped the process would start new conversations about our endemic birdlife and their conservation.

Conservation and tattoos aren’t usually things that go together. I thought it might be a new and exciting way for people to show their support – and raise money for two wonderful environmental charities in the process.

People often choose a tattoo design as a way of feeling connected to something. If a person cares about something enough to put it permanently on their skin, they will likely talk about it with anyone who asks. I wanted to harness the power of this – could I turn participants into live “nature conservation exhibits” that would stimulate a conversation about the birds and their threats?

Members of the Kakapo Ink team donated their time.

The Hudson provided an amazing venue, and Garage Project donated a keg of beer.

The biggest thanks goes to the conservation organisations such as Forest & Bird and Zealandia who do the hard work – protecting our wildlife in New Zealand so fiercely. There will be more ExtINKtion events to come in the future, and each one will bring new designs (and not just birds!). n Emma’s innovative tattoo event raised $5,000 for Forest & Bird and $5,000 for Zealandia. Our thanks go to Emma and everyone who supported her.

Conservation and tattoos aren't usually things that go together

TŪĪ-TASTIC READER COMPETITION Auckland artist Laura Layton has donated this stunning framed original painting of a tūī with kōwhai (RRP $600) as a special reader giveaway.

Laura is a full-time painter from North Auckland who specialises in creating intricate and detailed native birds, animals, and most recently whales and marine life, all with a touch of whimsy. You can see more of her work here: https://www.facebook.com/ArtbyLauraLayton/.

To be in to win, email draw@forestandbird.org.nz with your name and address and the keyword TŪĪ. Entries close 1 February 2020.

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No new mines The Red Hills landscape is popular for outdoor recreation and full of highly specialised plants because of its unique geology. Forest & Bird is concerned it could be mined for minerals in the future. Photo: supplied

MINERAL MINING

The government’s new minerals strategy needs to lead the way to a new and better future, says Debs Martin.

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un Mountain and the Red Hills Mount Richmond Forest Park, tucked in behind Nelson, are among my favourite places to venture.

Part of the ultramafic minerals belt, it’s the unusual geology that makes plants here so rare and specialised – plants like the tiny minerals belt forget-me-nots (Myosotis monroi) only found here and just beginning to flower for the summer season.

It’s a place where our Nelson-Tasman branch has been working for years to clear wilding conifers to allow this unique and at-risk flora to thrive.

I would like, in decades to come, to be able to show young New Zealanders these places, with landscapes of rich red rock fields, healthy abundant forests, swaying tussocks, and flowering alpine herbs.

What I don’t want to show them is an enormous mine pit and toxic tailings dam.

This tiny minerals belt forget-me-not (Myosotis monroi) only grows in the mineral-rich soils of Dun Mountain and the Red Hills, Mt Richmond Forest Park. Photo: Euan Brook

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It’s places like the Richmond Range that were top of mind when Forest & Bird submitted on the government’s proposed Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy in September.

These stunning landscapes remind us why it’s so vital the government follows through on its 2017 promise to stop new mines on conservation land.

In the two years since that promise, still to be enshrined into law, we’ve watched conservation land continue to be dug into mine pits and lowland forests felled for mining operations, causing longterm ecosystem damage.

We hope this won’t be the fate of ecosystems on other conservation land where mineral Ultramafic rock is low in silica potential has been identified and rich in minerals. A piece – coal near the scenic Buller of dunite rock, from Dun Gorge, gold under intact lowland Mountain. Photo: John le John Coromandel forest (home to some of our last endemic Archey’s frogs), and rare earth minerals in the high peaks of the snow-covered Kaikōura mountains.

These at-risk places are covered by a wide range of Department of Conservation land classifications – from scenic reserves and conservation parks to ecological areas and conservation stewardship areas – but this currently doesn’t automatically protect them from mining.

Other at-risk land, for example at Te Kuha, is managed by local councils. And then there’s the issue of private land with high biodiversity values that could be mined in the future. Many contain rare ecosystems and are immensely worthy of protection.

We hope a much-anticipated review of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 will protect all public conservation land from mining.

The government says the review is to ensure the act is “fit for

purpose” to meet the needs of all New Zealanders.

There’s plenty of work to be done in this regard, including deciding how we control mining of all kinds, including coal, gold, lithium, cobalt, and rare-earth minerals, in Aotearoa.

The government’s draft Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy is called Responsibly Delivering Value.

It looks ahead 10 years, and the government says it will be used to inform the Crown Minerals Act review.

In Forest & Bird’s eight-page submission, we argue that we should be considering whether a sector delivers overall wellbeing – not “value” as suggested in the proposed strategy.

New Zealand’s minerals and petroleum sector has performed poorly here. Because our laws are old and somewhat broken, mining impacts such as blocked fish passage, felled bat roost trees, weed incursions, and water pollution are often just ignored.

And the fact is mining hasn’t served us particularly well even economically. In 2017, the government assumed liability for more than $200 million of environmental damage to help it sell state-owned coal miner Solid Energy. Much of that liability relates to acid mine drainage, which has a 100-year time frame.

Regulation has dealt with these long-term impacts poorly. One example of the dig first/think later approach came when Solid Energy mined more than 94% of the habitat of Powelliphanta augusta snails. The company was forced into funding a captive breeding programme – but for a mere 10 years. The species’ survival is still highly uncertain, and now the Department of Conservation reluctantly bears the cost of saving it from extinction.

We need a future minerals sector that genuinely looks to the future. That is going to require much better, fairer regulation.

It also – perhaps most crucially – is going to require implementing a carbon-neutral circular economy with more clout and urgency than Responsibly Delivering Value yet shows.

Solid Energy mined more than 94% of the habitat of Powelliphanta augusta snails but only paid for 10 years of species recovery. Now DOC is footing the bill to save it from extinction. Photo: Kath Walker

At the moment, decisions on resource consent applications, including for new coal mines, cannot take impacts from carbon emissions into account. At the same time, New Zealand’s steel industry doesn’t have to pay the vast majority of their obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Such practices – essentially fossil fuel subsidies – aren’t likely to change without a stronger minerals strategy. We need ambitious targets to turn the tide on New Zealand’s biodiversity loss.

We also need the government to urgently develop and implement a circular economy strategy so resources ranging from plastic to lithium batteries can be reused, rather than going to landfill.

Forest & Bird wants to see more alignment between sectors, so the positive impact of wetland protection on a farm, for example, isn’t wiped out by another wetland being mined. Or bird recovery through predator control isn’t ruined when coal-burning-induced climate change causes pests to move upslope.

I want a future where our special places are landscapes of thriving possibility – where visitors to the Richmond Ranges might spot long-tailed bats flying above the forest at dusk, see Powelliphanta snails upon their path, or spy black-eyed geckos living among the alpine bluffs.

The Hohonu Range, on the West Coast, is mentioned as a potential lithium mine. Its granite-rich landscape is thought to contain kiwi like nearby Te Kinga, where roroa were recently confirmed for the first time in more than 30 years. Photo: Lake Brunner with Te Kinga in the background and the Hohonu Range (right). Photo: Neil Silverwood

You can read Forest & Bird’s full Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy Submission on our website: www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/oursnotmine.

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Freshwater

GRAYLING’S DEMISE

This is the last known record of fishing for the now-extinct grayling, on the Waiapu River on the East Coast in March 1923. The men are using a hīnaki (trap), which is weighed down with a rock. On this occasion they caught 30–40 fish.

Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library.

Poor water quality may have led to the grayling becoming extinct in 1923, according to new research published by the University of Auckland. By Anne Beston.

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t is the only known New Zealand freshwater fish to have gone extinct, but the speed at which the upokororo disappeared forever has remained something of a puzzle.

Now a new study has shown the missing piece of the puzzle may have been poor water quality and degraded habitat from human activity around the time of European settlement.

The extinction of the New Zealand grayling (P. oxyrhynchus) was remarkably rapid ecologically speaking. Still common in 1860, the fish was being reported as scarce by the early 1900s, with the last-ever catch recorded in 1923.

Despite unverified sightings in later decades, there is no official record of the fish being seen again after that date.

“In ecological terms, this was fast,” says University of Auckland PhD candidate Finn Lee, who, along with Professor George Perry from the School of Environment, has carried out the first-ever comprehensive study on why upokororo became extinct when other freshwater species managed to survive.

Up to now, it was widely assumed habitat degradation, over-fishing, and the introduction of trout, a key predator of larvae and juvenile upokororo, were Finn Lee. the three drivers.

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Because upokororo are a shoaling species, and numbered in the tens of thousands if not millions, they were easy prey for fishers who killed them in huge quantities, often chasing them into a confined space and scooping them up in nets. They were so abundant, they were used as fertiliser on market gardens – a similar story to whitebait.

But habitat degradation, fishing, and predation by trout don’t fully explain the speed of upokororo’s disappearance or why they disappeared from isolated pristine rivers.

After examining hundreds of historic records and using modern data modelling techniques, Mr Lee and Professor Perry say another factor may have been the nail in the coffin for upokororo.

That was the species dispersal strategy. Upokororo were amphidromous – they migrated from river to sea and back, spawning in freshwater and developing to maturity in saltwater – but it’s believed they did not instinctively return to the place they were born.

This meant they returned to breed in rivers and streams of poor water quality or inhabited by trout, and this in turn led to what ecologists call population “sinks”.

Sinks is the term used to explain a “sinking lid” ecological theory where once-healthy populations do not reproduce at a rate high enough to establish subpopulations and so populations slowly sink.

“Our modelling shows these population sinks could be the vital missing link,” says Finn.

“We factored in over-fishing and predation by trout,

Upokororo: This anatomically correct drawing of the extinct grayling was created for Forest & Bird

by Margaret Tolland with the assistance of freshwater ecologist Stella McQueen.

and, while those things made a big difference, once we factored in dispersal among rivers and lower breeding rates from poorer quality habitat, then it clearly showed how the fish became extinct so fast.”

The researchers say the study has significant implications for other freshwater fish, 76% of which are at risk or under threat of extinction. In particular, there are concerns over whitebait, and whether current restrictions are enough to protect them.

Professor George Perry says New Zealand, like other countries, faces big challenges to protect its freshwater species, but, for history not to repeat itself, we need to know what happened in the past.

“Globally, freshwater ecosystems are under immense strain, facing habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, and over-exploitation, so understanding what happened in the past might allow us to stop extinctions of freshwater biota in future.”

Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen agrees, saying it’s vital to end habitat destruction, protect spawning sites, and improve water quality.

“We are worried for the migratory galaxiids (whitebait) – four of these precious species are at risk or threatened with extinction. As with the grayling, being on the brink means a population can collapse without much warning,” she says.

The study was published in Freshwater Biology.

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Forgotten places

LIMESTONE LANDSCAPES

We need to do more to protect New Zealand’s limestone cliffs, outcrops, and boulders and the special flora and fauna that lives there. Photo: Pareora Gorge by Hermann Frank

Mary Ralston visits the fascinating but fragile limestone ecosystems of South Canterbury.

L

imestone is a distinctive feature of the rural South Canterbury landscape. White crumbling cliffs tower above river valleys and limestone gullies, and escarpments guard the tops of the increasingly intensive and modified dairy farmland below.

These landforms are island homes for very small populations of limestone specialists, such as limestone buttercups and limestone gentian (Gentianella calcis). They are also refuges for once-common native plants tolerant of the limestone substrate, such as cabbage trees, kōwhai, matagouri, and porcupine shrub.

But these limestone landscapes are in trouble, the flora and fauna they support are at risk of extinction, and more needs to be done to protect and restore these unique ecosystems. I recently visited a limestone area on private farmland near Pleasant Point with Hermann Frank to learn more about these small limestone remnants surrounded by increasingly intensive farmland.

We are in a small valley with a stream bordered on both sides by small limestone cliffs, above which is cultivated farmland. The valley bottom is a modified wetland, with introduced grasses grazed by sheep and deer. Cabbage trees, kōwhai, and other native shrubs cling to the bottom of the cliffs.

Here, tucked away out of plain sight, are some of the hidden treasures we have come all this way to see. On these giant boulders grow plants so rare they are known to exist in only a handful of locations in Canterbury (see panel). They are safe here out of reach of the farm’s grazing sheep, but they are swamped by exotic grass species.

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Citizen scientist Hermann Frank, of Timaru, began studying the lizards of the limestone areas in South Canterbury after being awarded a Teacher’s Fellowship through the Royal Society of New Zealand.

He raised awareness by developing a lizard exhibition at the South Canterbury Museum in 2009. He then began surveys of the limestone flora, which also featured in an exhibition at the museum, and published a book called South Canterbury Limestone – Landscape of Dreams featuring stunning photos of the flora, fauna, and landscapes (see overleaf).

Hermann is particularly interested in the rare woollyhead herbs (Craspedia spp), aniseed herbs (Gingidia and Anisotome), gentians (Gentianella spp), bittercress (Cardamine sp), and buttercups (Ranunculus spp) endemic

Hermann Frank is worried about the rapid decline of the Manahune buttercup and other limestoneloving plants and lizards. Photo: Alice Shanks

T

he laughing owl (Sceloglaux albifacies) was once common in New Zealand but extinct by the early 1900s. South Canterbury limestone was its last stronghold. This is the only known photo, taken in the wild at the Rockwood Cliffs, South Canterbury, circa 1910, by Cuthbert Parr.

The distinctive limestone cliffs and surrounding farmland are not just an interesting rural landscape to look at. As a fast-disappearing habitat for rare and special plants, and also many lizards and birds that have disappeared from farms, they need more help than we’re currently affording them.

A few covenants here and there is not enough.

Without serious conservation effort, a significant slice of New Zealand’s endemic species will slowly slide further towards extinction.

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TO BOOK: 0800 527 484 to South Canterbury. His surveys have identified new populations, and with other volunteers he spends many hours hand-weeding their limestone homes.

“The fate of some species is cause for alarm,” says Hermann.

“The Manahune limestone buttercup has had a rapid decline in the last decade, with numbers going from at least 300 plants in 2007 down to about 80 in the last year.

The reasons for this are unclear.”

Weeds such as stonecrop and clover, and especially grasses (red fescue and cocksfoot), shade and outcompete the low-growing herbs. Woody weeds such as cotoneaster, conifers, broom, sycamores, and barberry are also a threat to limestone habitats.

“Many areas are heavily modified but still contain special plant communities that only occur on limestone,” adds Hermann.

“Wetlands in the gully bottoms are also an important part of the limestone landscape and need to be protected along with the rocks.”

Limestone landscapes also offer some refuge for the trees, shrubs, birds, and insects lost from the surrounding farmland.

Most limestone is on private land, and much of this is grazed right up to the rocks, and where there is grazing there is virtually no regeneration of the larger plants such as cabbage trees, broadleaf, whitey-wood, and kōwhai.

Native plant regeneration is also limited by the loss of the habitat’s original lizard and bird seed-dispersers.

Small plants and ferns hang on to inaccessible ledges, tops of boulders, and cliff faces. Weathering occurs relatively

Manahune buttercup. Photo: Hermann Frank

kapitiisland.com

Willowherb.

Photo: Hermann Frank

CALCICOLES IN TROUBLE Plants that are found only on limestone are called calcicoles. Just over 5% of the New Zealand flora are limestone specialists, and nine out of 10 of these are found in the South Island, mostly in West Nelson, Marlborough, and Canterbury.

About three-quarters of calcicoles are so restricted in extent that they are found only in locations that altogether make up less than 10ha. In mid-south Canterbury and North Otago, 24 of the 29 calcicole taxa, or 83%, are considered data-deficient or threatened, compared to 14% of the whole flora.

Very few areas have any conservation management.

Continues overleaf Forest & Bird

| 31

Restoration

quickly on limestone, offering new sites for plants to exploit.

The more competitive weed seeds often get in first.

“We don’t know how to manage limestone areas; there is no best way that fits everywhere,” adds Hermann.

“More plants are found on the south-facing aspects. This might happen because it is damper, and the shade limits grass growth, so the small natives have a better chance of survival.”

How to take denuded limestone outcrops back to a lightwooded cover is a challenge that needs serious research, says Alice Shanks, of the QEII Trust, which encourages private landowners to put legal covenants on areas of high biodiversity.

Local QEII Trust representative Rob Smith agrees there are particular challenges of restoring limestone landscapes.

On one recently QEII-covenanted area, fences exclude goats, deer, and cattle, but limited sheep grazing is permitted to control grasses. Thousands of dollars have been spent on abseiling contractors to hand-weed the inaccessible faces.

“We don’t have an ideal regime for looking after these sites. They are expensive to take care of, and they require management over and above what covenantors can do. You can’t just fence the stock out and wait for regeneration,” says Rob. Forest & Bird would like to see more councils encourage and help landowners to identify and maintain these special limestone ecosystems, says Canterbury and West Coast regional manager Nicky Snoyink.

“Conservation work and land-use changes that improve the ‘buffer zones’ and connectivity between these remnant limestone islands is going to be important for their longterm protection and recovery.

“This may require the removal of farm animals, as well as pest animal and weed control, so these highly specialised native species can survive and thrive.

“The other concern is the impact of irrigation and ‘edge effects’, which cause the surrounding ground to be wetter, allowing the proliferation of introduced grasses that then smother native species.”

New Zealand’s rare limestone remnants deserve better and more consistent management. These important homes for unique plants and rare lizards are slowly sliding into oblivion despite the efforts of some landowners to protect them.

Limestone caves contain evidence of the ancient landscape’s importance to Māori. Photo: Mary Ralston

LIMESTONE TREASURES Evidence of the once-rich fauna of Canterbury's limestone landscapes is found in its caves, where bones of the extinct greater short-tailed bat, snipe, owletnightjar, and piopio have been uncovered. The bones of locally extinct species also turn up in local caves – the tuatara, Duvaucel’s gecko, kōkako, kākā, tīeke/ saddleback, tūī, fernbird, and parakeets were once part of the limestone ecosystem.

Three species of lizard – the Southern Alps gecko, the southern grass skink, and McCann’s skink – are still present in limestone habitat. Sub-fossil bones of two threatened species, the jewelled gecko and the Canterbury spotted skink, used to be found in laughingowl nesting sites but seem to have disappeared.

McCann’s skink. Photo: Hermann Frank

READER GIVEAWAY We have copies of South Canterbury Limestone – Landscape of Dreams Nature’s Treasure Chest by Hermann Frank, $35, to give away to two lucky readers.

Frank spent more than a decade of his own time surveying and photographing limestone areas in South Canterbury, and this book is the result. It’s a fascinating tribute to these stunning landscapes and the rare and special creatures and plants that call them home.

To be in to win, email draw@forestandbird.org.nz with LIMESTONE in the subject line.

Entries close 1 February 2020.

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You can also buy Hermann’s book from the South Canterbury Museum, Timaru, for $35 plus p&p.

All proceeds go to the museum’s development trust.

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GIFT OF NATURE One way you can support Forest & Bird is to buy something from our online shop. By Mattea Webster.

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Struggling to find sustainable gifts for Christmas this year?

Head over to Forest & Bird’s Online Shop and have a look at some of the new nature-inspired products we have in stock.

The expanded range includes something for everyone, and every purchase goes directly to supporting Forest & Bird’s conservation work defending and restoring nature.

Many of the products featured are produced by small companies making a commitment to operating sustainably.

Others are made by Forest & Bird supporters, who are professional artists, photographers, or run boutique businesses. They give a proportion of their sales to Forest & Bird as their gift to nature.

Christmas is a great time to go plastic-free, and we have a new range of grocery bags made from recycled plastic bottles. With their bright colours and simple design, Zerobags (5) are affordable and make great stocking-fillers for all members of the family.

Continuing the plastic-free trend, Honeywrap beeswax food wraps (1) are a great alternative to plastic food covers.

Covering sandwiches and salad bowls and storing food to keep it fresh has never been easier or looked better! We also have Honeywrap’s organic cotton produce bags and its popular “make-your-own” beeswax wrap home kit.

The wide range of beautiful artwork featuring native birds by extremely talented New Zealand artists make a perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for person (2, 6). Also available are beautiful limited edition reprints of Forest & Bird's historic NZ Railways posters from the 1950s. They are hot off the press for Christmas with three designs available (4).

Forest & Bird’s conservation calendars and diaries (7) are always popular, and the 2020 designs features spectacular images of Aotearoa’s native birds, landscapes, and wildlife.

If you already have your presents sorted, why not buy our exclusive native bird wrapping paper printed on recycled paper (8)?

Also featuring fun T-shirts (3) and an assortment of books for kids and adults, Forest & Bird is your onestop-shop for one-of-a-kind gifts.

Check it out on our website at https://shop.forestandbird.org.nz.

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Biodiversity

WHERE TO WATCH BIRDS Liz Light chooses three of her favourite twitching spots.

Tiritiri Matangi Island, a 220ha emerald gem surrounded by blue sea, is close to where I live, so I have visited many times and it’s one of my favourite places to watch New Zealand’s unique birdlife. The island has been pest-free since 1993, and the bush and birds have thrived ever since. The daily return ferry journey is pleasant, and there is good birding any time – but the best birdwatching can be had by those who organise in advance and book to stay a night in the bunkhouse. The dawn chorus is spectacular, kiwis can be seen sniffing around in the undergrowth, and takahē will peck at your boots if you stand still. Twenty-four species of endemic and native terrestrial birds are resident on the island, as well as 15 shore and seabird species.

Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre, on the Firth of Thames, is a terrific shorebird area, particularly at high tide, when birds gather near the shore. There are 85,000ha of mudflats in the Firth, and shorebirds thrive in this vast habitat of fecund mudflats and roosting shell banks.

Behind this, along the coastline, lowlying grassland, brackish swampland, and freshwater ponds provide a fine habit for the likes of egrets, spoonbills, bitterns, and crakes.

Miranda birding is good year-round but best in summer. Arctic migratory shorebirds arrive here in their thousands in October, red-necked stints are the smallest, and bar-tailed godwit the most common. In winter, migratory birds from the South Island, such as pied oystercatchers and wrybill, live here.

In the South Island, Makarora, in Mt Aspiring National Park, is an area of supreme beauty with spectacular mountain scenery, beech and podocarp forest, and brilliant blue, fast-flowing streams. Makarora Tourist Centre, with its campsites and retro A-frame cottages, is a great place for lazy birdwatchers. No alarm clock is needed because the dawn chorus is a loud combination of tweeting, chiming, and trilling. Kererū swoop past, tūī squabble, fantails flit, and bellbirds sing. There is a nearby bush walk through forest, where one might see tomtits, South Island robins, and yellow-crowned kākāriki. Behind the town, the islands and pebble banks of the braided Makarora River are nesting sites for wrybill, blackbilled gulls, black-fronted terns, pied oystercatchers, and banded dotterels.

Stay on the banks and use scopes and binoculars to spot birds. It is better not to disturb them, and their welldisguised nests are easy to crush.

n Liz Light is an Auckland-based travel writer and photographer and author of The 50 Best Birdwatching Sites in New Zealand.

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TOP 50 SPOTS These maps show the 50 best spots for birdwatching in New Zealand, according to Liz Light's new book (see right). Forest & Bird owns two of the sites and over its 97year history has been involved in establishing or protecting 19 others. For example, the 100ha Bushy Park Sanctuary, near Whanganui, was set up by Forest & Bird following a 1962 deathbed bequest by GF Moore. Also listed is Forest & Bird’s 63ha Blowhard Bush Scenic Reserve, which is cared for by the Hastings-Havelock North Branch. The reserve land was donated by the Lowry and Masters families in 1962.

READER GIVEAWAY This new birding guide is devoted to helping humans watch the in-the-wild antics of our feathered friends.

The 50 Best Birdwatching Sites in New Zealand (RRP $39.99) includes photography from Forest & Bird Youth member Oscar Thomas and others. We have two copies to give away. To be in to win, email your name and address to draw@forestandbird.org. nz with the keyword BIRD. Entries close 1 February 2020.

Credit: John Beaufoy Publishing

Specialists in Nature Tours since 1986

15 Day Accommodated New Zealand South Island Wildlife and Wilderness Expedition

Queenstown to Queenstown, 21 February – 6 March 2020 Discover the natural history of the breathtakingly beautiful lower South Island’s mountains, glaciers, temperate rainforests and little visited coastal areas. Highlights include the Caitlins Coast and Otago Peninsular, Stewart Island and Mt Cook National Park.

17 Day Accommodated Sri Lanka Wildlife, History and Culture Tour

Colombo to Colombo, 15 March – 31 March 2020 This trip has it all, a diverse array of plant life, mammals from whales, elephants to squirrels plus each year we record sightings of over 200 species of birdlife. Add this to the local culture, food and being lead by one of the countries top naturalist guides then this a trip not to miss.

13 Day Accommodated Pilbara Reef and Ranges Expedition NEW ACCOMMODATED ITINERARY

Perth to Newman, 8 May – 20 May 2020 Head north of WA for sea birding colonies on coral islands, marine life, coral reefs and Karijini’s gorges. Highlights include the Abrolhos Islands, Shark Bay, Ningaloo Reef and Karijini National Park.

SECOND TOUR 14 Day Easy Camping Pilbara

12 Day Camping Central Australian Expedition NEW TOUR

Alice Springs to Alice Springs, 6 June – 17 June 2020 Join us as we explore many Northern Territory and South Australian desert’s highlights and gorges. Highlights include Mac Clark Conservation Reserve, Dalhousie Springs, Finke Gorge National Park, Palm Valley, West MacDonnell Ranges and Glen Helen.

15 Day Camping Tanami Desert Tour UPDATED ITINERARY

Alice Springs to Kununurra, 24 June – 8 July 2020 Explore some of the most remote areas in the Eastern Kimberley in WA and the Northern Territory. HIGHLIGHTS: Lake Argyle cruise, the Keep River National Park, Duncan Highway, Wolf Creek Crater, Lake Stretch, the Tanami Road, New Haven Sanctuary and the West MacDonnell Ranges.

15 Day Easy Camping Kimberley Discovery

Broome to Broome, 20 June – 4 July 2020 Enjoy a wonderful outback experience as we discover the Kimberley’s wildlife, spectacular outback scenery, and many wonderful refreshing waterholes. We explore Purnululu N.P., Windjana Gorge, Parrys Lagoon Nature Reserve and Home Valley and Mornington Stations.

Reef and Ranges Expedition,

Easy Camping Returns in 2020

11 Day South Australia Outback Camping/Accommodated Tour

A Coates’ support crew will travel ahead and have your camp set up when you arrive. No more erecting tents, stretcher beds or packing and un-packing camping equipment. This will all be done for you. Just pick up your bag and either spend time exploring the campsite or freshen up and relax before dinner.

Perth to Broome, 27 May – 9 June 2020

Adelaide to Alice Springs, 16 May – 26 May 2020 Flinders Ranges, Wilpena Pound, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, Frome River, Lake Eyre and Coober Pedy.

• • • •

Informative naturalist leaders Small groups (6 – 12 participants) Private charters available Fully accommodated & camping tours

For our full 2020 tour program: • Free Call: 1800 676 016 • Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au • Email: coates@iinet.net.au

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Forest & Bird’s History Project

CRADLE OF PREDATOR-FREE

Maria Island today. Photo courtesy the Neureuter family.

School teacher Alistair McDonald and his junior Forest & Bird group made history when they actively eradicated rats on a tiny island in the Hauraki Gulf. By Caroline Wood.

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n 87-year-old Alistair McDonald sits in his Whangarei home holding a photograph of his beloved rat-dog Pip and looking a little bemused.

He has just been told that his actions in early 1960 to stop white-faced storm petrels being decimated by rats on Maria Island had made conservation history not just in New Zealand but around the world.

“Did I? You’re making it sound important,” Alistair says, expressing surprise.

“Well it is,” says Forest & Bird’s chief conservation advisor Kevin Hackwell, who has travelled to Whangarei to interview Alistair for the society’s Force of Nature history project.

“It’s why I’ve been trying to find you for five years, because of how important it was. More than 1200 islands all over the world have become rat-free because of what started with you and your students on Maria Island.

“Be proud because, seriously, it was really important.

Because of what you did, the young wildlife ranger Don Merton [later celebrated conservationist] knew it could work because you guys had already done it.

Alistair McDonald holding a photograph of his beloved rat-dog Pip. Photo: Kevin Hackwell

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“So, when rats invaded Big South Cape Island a few years later, Don Merton knew the damage the rats could do. He also knew that they could use what you had done on Maria to hammer the rats and save the South Island saddleback.

“They moved on to eradicating predators from other bigger islands. It was the start of New Zealand leading the world on island rat eradications. That’s why I’m here.

There’s no doubt it was significant.”

Back in Christmas 1959, teacher Alistair McDonald and his band of rat-catching school pupils from Blackpool School, in Oneroa, weren’t planning to make history.

They just wanted to do something about the devastation rats were wrecking on a group of islands called the Noises, 7km north of Waiheke Island.

Rodents had reached the islands in the mid-1950s. It’s thought they arrived there on refuse barges from Auckland that were dumping waste in the Wesley Burns. beautiful waters of the Hauraki Gulf.

Wesley Burns, then 14, was the President of the Forest & Bird’s Waiheke Island Junior Section. In the August 1960 Forest & Bird magazine, Wesley explains how the group was on a boating trip off Waiheke Island in the Christmas holidays of 1959/60.

As the students, led by their teacher Alistair McDonald, made landfall on the largest island, Maria, they were surprised to see no petrels flying off in alarm as they normally did.

“We were taken aback when we discovered the cause of this,” writes Wesley.

“We found the island was literally riddled with rats, and, to make matters worse, there were about 1000 dead petrels on the island. They were scattered all over.”

Elaine Lusby heading to Maria Island in 1960 with her rat-catching friends. Also pictured top right.

THEN AND NOW Elaine Lusby (nee Brown), 71, of Papakura, was a member of the Forest & Bird’s Waiheke Island Junior Section. She remembers how she accompanied Wesley and Alistair on their historic first visit to Maria Island.

“The first time we landed on Maria Island we were shocked by the number of dead birds and carcasses strewn all over the island. That was when we decided to do something about the rats, and Alistair was able to get some rat bait.

“We returned to lay the bait on the island. We spent a night there, and Sally recalls rats scampering about while we were asleep or trying to sleep. I don’t think we’d be happy about that now!

With the help of Pip the dog, Alistair’s group killed six rats that day but estimated there were more than 200 rats on the island.

A week later, the group headed back in their small boat, this time carrying rat bait, and distributed it across Maria Island and the smaller David Rocks. Later in the year, they returned to find the predators had been eradicated.

Wesley died in 2015, but Alistair, now in his late 80s, picks up the story when he is interviewed by Forest & Bird’s history project in July 2019.

“The Norway rats were horrible. They were killing defenceless petrels living down burrows like rabbits, so I decided I would kill all of them,” says Alistair.

“We did something about it, my [school] children and I. We did something about it. We visited these areas where the rats were the problem, and we got around to killing the wretched things.

“They [the Wildlife Service] wanted to know what sort of rat I wanted to exterminate, so I put it in a preserving jar in methylated spirits and posted it I think off to Wellington somewhere.”

“This photo is of five of us children, plus Pip the dog, going ashore in the dinghy in 1960. The children are myself, Sally Day, Owen Foster, Jim Pullenger, and Pam Burns. We went across in the launch owned by Wesley’s dad Bob Burns. His children Pam and Jim were also part of the group.

“It is great to know we played a part in early conservation efforts. For us it was really an adventure and fun. I’m pretty sure we didn’t realise how important it was.”

Owen Foster, Elaine Lusby (holding photo), Alistair McDonald, and Sally Day at an event organised by Te Korowai to celebrate the achievements of Alistair and his junior Forest & Bird group.

MARIA MAKES HISTORY Archive records show that Alistair and his students were trying to control rats on smaller islands off Waiheke as early as 1957, when they killed 22 of them on tiny Koi Island, Rocky Bay, off the south coast.

The children held displays about their conservation work at the Waiheke Horticultural Show, raising £1 for rat bait. This money soon ran out, and, on 14 January 1960, Miss V Brown, on behalf of the Junior Forest & Bird Group, wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Internal Affairs Department saying the Noises islands had been inundated

Alistair and some of his young Forest & Bird members on Waiheke Island circa late 1950s/1960.

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IKE MOTUHOROPAPA

HAURAKI GULF

SCOTT RANGITOTO ISLAND SCENIC RESERVE

NOISES ISLANDS

SUNDAY OTATA DAVID ROCKS

WAIHEKE ISLAND

AUCKLAND

with rats. She said the group had spent £1.10.0 on rat bait and requested government funding so they could “tackle this larger job effectively”.

In February 1960, acclaimed ornithologist Brian Bell, then a senior field officer for the Wildlife Service, rang Alistair McDonald to find out more about his rat control work.

Brian clearly saw the potential for a “trial” island rat eradication on Maria, as his case notes, which we discovered in Archives New Zealand, show: “This appears to be quite a worthwhile expenditure but it is also an excellent chance to undertake some trial work into the effectiveness of exterminating rats where re-infestation is impossible,” he wrote.

“The group undertaking the poisoning is a small junior group of the Forest and Bird Protection Society and assisted by their school teacher. He found that it has proved a very useful project to raise enthusiasm and interest.”

The Wildlife Service agreed to send the group a £5 grant to buy more Rid Rat. White-faced storm petrel chick In November 1960, the found in good condition in one young Don Merton, then a of the burrows on Maria Island junior wildlife officer, visited in 2016. Photo: Karen Baird and Megan Friesen Maria Island with Alistair McDonald.

The pair couldn’t find any sign of live rats, and whitefaced storm petrels were once again nesting on the island, he said, along with some little blue penguins. They banded 100 petrels.

“Mr McDonald will continue to lay poison in the hope that any surviving rats will be eradicated,” Don wrote in his 1 December 1960 case notes, held in Archives New Zealand.

In 1961, Alistair left Waiheke Island for another teaching job and the Wildlife Service took over the Maria Island project.

Maria Island’s remoteness has helped ensure its rat-free status since 1960.

MARIA ISLAND

Don Merton returned to the island at least twice to check for rats and lay more bait. No signs of the rodents were found, and in 1964 the island was officially declared rat free.

Today, Maria Island is cared for by the Neureuter family, custodians of the Noises group.

Sue Neureuter says white-faced storm petrels, northern diving petrels, fluttering shearwaters, grey-faced petrels, and little blue penguins all breed on Maria Island’s friable soil Maria Island. means seabirds can easily dig “Although small in size, their burrows. Petrels return to Maria Island provides a critical nest in the same burrows year after year. Photo: Karen Baird habitat for seabirds in the and Megan Friesen Hauraki Gulf, particularly amongst the Inner Gulf islands,” concluded seabird experts Karen Baird and Megan Friesen, following a survey on the island in 2016.

This summer, Gaia Dell-Ariccia, from Auckland Council, will visit Maria Island to study the hundreds of whitefronted storm petrels who still breed there thanks to the work carried out 60 years ago by Alistair McDonald and his junior Forest & Bird rat-catching section.

White-faced storm petrel at sea.

Photo Neil Fitzgerald

n Forest & Bird is grateful to the Waiheke Island conservation community, especially Jenny Holmes and other members of Te Korowai o Waiheke, who helped us research this story, including using their networks to track down Alistair McDonald and the children who were part of his 1960 Forest & Bird junior section. Te Korowai subsequently organised an event on Waiheke Island in October to celebrate Alistair and his students’ achievements. Kevin Hackwell attended and talked about how the group’s work linked to predator-free work happening on the island and around the world. n Nearly 60 years later, Forest & Bird's Hauraki Islands branch is still working to protect and restore Waiheke’s precious landscapes. You can read all about its work in the next issue. n Our history project is generously supported by the Stout Foundation.

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FROM MARIA ISLAND TO THE WORLD

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ur archive research shows that Maria Island was the start of the global predator-free movement – it's believed to be the first island in the world to be actively eradicated of rats.

Since then, the same techniques have been used on hundreds of bigger islands in Aotearoa and around the globe. The largest in Aotearoa is 11,300ha Campbell Island.

The biggest in the world is 353,000ha South Georgia.

Some have suggested in the literature that Maria Island became rat free in 1960 by “chance” or that the project was led by Don Merton.

However, it’s clear from the archives that the Wildlife Service regarded Alistair McDonald’s work on Maria as an important “trial”.

“In the late 1950s, there was a view that rats are rats and you couldn’t get rid of them completely. It seems that no-one before Alistair was thinking it might be possible to remove every last one of them from an island,” says Forest & Bird’s chief conservation advisor Kevin Hackwell.

“Through talking with Alistair, and examining the Wildlife Service’s archives, we can see SAVED! Tīeke, South Island the Maria Island project Saddleback. Photo Jake Osborne was initiated and run by Alistair and the junior Forest & Bird group.”

In 1964, the same ratcontrol methods were used on the larger island of Taukihepa, Big South Cape Island.

Rats had reached Taukihepa, off Rakiura Stewart Island, in 1963. Within three years the last known population of bush wren was wiped out, as well as the greater short-tailed bat, and South Island snipe. Next in line for extinction on the island was South Island saddleback.

Conservation professionals from the Wildlife Service responded using rat bait part-funded by the Southland Branch of Forest & Bird, and saved the South Island saddleback. They knew what to do because they had seen

what the “amateurs” had achieved on Maria Island, says Kevin Hackwell.

“That’s not to downplay Don Merton’s role, but we want to give credit to Alistair and his students because they were doing this for at least a year before he met Don. “We want to make sure their actions aren’t forgotten.

All over the world, we celebrate what they started because basically these same techniques have been used on more than 1200 islands. Alistair and the students‘ work formed the basis for today’s predator-free New Zealand movement.

“Alistair was the driving force. He’s a real character who has really engaged the children in the outdoors and encouraged the junior Forest & Bird branch to form. He suggested writing to the government for funding, helping them learn about politics, fundraising, and how to progress their conservation goals.”

Today, the local Waiheke community is building on Alistair’s vision with the goal of making the whole of the island predator free through Te Korowai o Waiheke.

Alistair’s daughter Glenn McDonald-Spice says the family is very proud of his achievements.

“He probably wasn’t aware that scientific opinion at that time considered rat eradication impossible, and it wouldn’t have stopped him if he had known. As he has often said: ‘Something had to be done, so we did it.’”

“I’m sure the community of Waiheke is inspired by dad’s legacy. I know Jenny Holmes from Te Korowai o Waiheke was encouraged by this story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

Forest & Bird’s history project is discovering a wealth of wonderful conservation stories like Maria Island.

Please give a gift today to support this three-year legacy project documenting the society’s impact on New Zealand’s landscape over the past 100 years and inspiring the next generation of conservationists. Email c.wood@forestandbird.org.nz for more information.

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Plastic crisis

AQUA DRONE

This remote-controlled drone whizzes over the surface of the water and picks up floating rubbish from the sea. Rose Davis meets the couple who invented it.

“It’s a very scaled-down version of a large catamaran with electric drives,” says Andrew. “It combines boat building with radio-controlled gear for model boats.”

Andrew has tested the fibreglass drone in Tamaki Estuary, where it picked up more rubbish than locals expected.

“In the whole of Auckland, the creeks are like open stormwater drains – everything dumps into them.

“Cigarette butts and cigarette packets are the biggest problems,” he says.

The drone can pick up tiny bits of microplastics, stopping them from being ingested by shellfish, fish, and seabirds, and contaminating the food chain.

Andrew hopes New Zealand councils and marina companies might buy the drones to clean up the sea and also local rivers, lakes, and streams that have a litter problem.

“There’s potential internationally as well. Our waterways are bad, but there are a lot worse overseas,” explains Paula.

The rubbish drones were developed after Andrew and Paula had built several remote-operated vehicles that film beneath the sea.

Andrew has always been fascinated by shipwrecks, but problems with his ears made diving difficult. This inspired him to create a submersible that shows the underwater world to a depth of 150m, while the operator stays dry.

The couple’s company, NXinnovations, has also worked with Waikato University to make a drone that can test water quality.

Andrew is brimming with ideas about what might come next, such as a drone designed to mop up oil spills.

The underwater drones could be adapted to pick up rubbish beneath the waves or to smash kina before they destroy kelp forests, he says.

While the drones have plenty of environmental purposes, an added bonus is that using the remotely controlled machines to gather up rubbish is a satisfying experience.

“Anyone can operate it, and it’s fun,” adds Paula.

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ndrew Lee and Paula Buckley are using cuttingedge drone technology to help tackle the ocean’s plastic pollution crisis.

Since 2012, they have been inventing ocean-going drones that can “spot” and pick up floating trash in the sea, including tiny bits of plastic waste measuring just 1mm in diameter.

Their latest drone is 2m wide by 1.3m long and can pick up 260L of rubbish. It gathers up refuse as it moves over the water’s surface, depositing it into an incredibly fine net underneath.

A boat builder by day and drone innovator by night, Andrew noticed piles of rubbish washing around the docks at downtown Auckland where he works.

“People don’t realise how much rubbish is actually there.

I wanted to deal with the less accessible stuff,” Andrew explains.

The couple has developed three aqua drones in the past seven years. One is autonomous, but the latest is operated by remote control.

It can venture 2km from the operator, with on-board cameras showing images of bobbing junk on the operator’s screen.

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Andrew Lee with one of his aqua drones.

1 Wahlenbergia pygmaea drucei – North Island harebell – Pouakai Ridge 2 Ranunculus insignis – mountain buttercup korikori – Mt Elliot 3 Lobelia macrodon – lobelia – Lewis Pass Tarns 4 Ourisia macrophylla – mountain foxglove – Mt Elliot 5 Ranunculus lyallii – Mt Cook buttercup – Otira Valley 6 Craspedia uniflora – woolly head or soldier’s button – Lewis Pass Tarns 7 Euphrasia laingii – eyebright – Mt Elliot 8 Phyllachne colensoi – Lewis Pass Tarns 9 Leptinella pyrethrifolia – button daisy – Otira Valley 10 Celmisisa haastii (or semicordata) – mountain daisy – Lewis Pass 11 Brachyglottis bellidioides – yellow daisy – Lewis Pass Tarns 12 Raoulia grandiflora – large-flowered mat daisy – Mt Elliot 13 Euphrasia cuneata – North Island eyebright – Pouakai Ridge 14 Celmisia sessilifloria – silver cushion mountain daisy – Lewis Pass

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This beautiful collection of sub-alpine flowers was photographed by nature photographer Euan Brook. How many can you name? See the answers below.

Floral cloak quiz

HOLIDAY READS Stuck for a gift for a loved one or need a homegrown treat for those rainy days at the bach this summer? Here is a festive round-up of some recently published books for nature and outdoor lovers of all ages. PLUS buy any of the Potton & Burton books below and receive a 20% discount.

Day Walks in New Zealand 100 Best Short Tracks Shaun Barnett Maps by Geographx RRP $49.99 Flexibound

This revised edition of the bestselling guide to 100 of the best short walks in New Zealand is a must for anyone wanting to set out for the day in New Zealands’s unique landscape from Cape Reinga to Rakiura Stewart Island. It includes short track descriptions, beautiful photography, and high-quality maps.

New Zealand’s Native Trees John Dawson & Rob Lucas RRP $130 Hardback with jacket New Zealand’s Native Trees is a landmark book, the kind that is published only once in a generation. It celebrates our unique and magnificent native forests, and describes and generously illustrates more than 320 species, subspecies, and varieties. This edition has been completely brought up to date with new species from its original publication in 2011.

The Great Unknown

Mountain Journeys in the Southern Alps Geoff Spearpoint RRP $59.99 Hardback Trans-alpine tramping legend Geoff Spearpoint recounts 15 of his favourite trips, ranging from Kahurangi in the north to Fiordland in the south. Illustrated with Geoff’s stunning photography and maps from Geographx, this is a unique book for trampers and mountaineers that goes to the heart of how we define our relationship with the backcountry.

SPECIAL OFFER

New Zealand Nature Heroes Gillian Candler RRP $29.99

TOP KIDS PICK

If you buy one book for your nature-loving child this Christmas, make it this one. A fascinating read for adults as well as the intended eight to 12-year-old audience, Gillian Candler’s handbook aims to inspire kids to become empowered and involved in protecting our environment.

Mr Kiwi Has an Important Job Heather Hunt RRP $29.99 hardback RRP $19.99 paperback A humorous and insightful story about how kiwi parents job-share the hatching of their chicks.

Tohorā

The southern right whale Ned Barraud RRP $29.99 hardback RRP $19.99 paperback A moving story of the near extinction and then revival of one of New Zealand’s magnificent marine mammals, the southern right whale.

Rock Pools

A guide for Kiwi Kids Ned Barraud RRP $29.99 hardback RRP $19.99 paperback A stunningly illustrated guide to New Zealand’s rockpools, for all kids aged five to 10 (and their parents).

Buy any of the seven books on this page at www.pottonandburton.co.nz and receive a generous 20% discount on the RRP. This offer expires on 28 February 2020.

Go to: www.pottonandburton.co.nz Use the code FOREST19

20%

READER DISCOUNT

OTHER TOP CHRISTMAS READS

Volcanoes of Auckland

We Are Here

Bruce W. Hayward RRP $49.99 Auckland University Press

An atlas of Aotearoa Chris McDowall and Tim Deneea RRP $70 Massey University Press A firm favourite in our office when the review copy arrived, this is a visual treat that turns facts and big-data figures into extraordinary charts, graphs, diagrams, maps, and illustrations. This book aims to help New Zealanders make sense of their country, grasp its scale, diversity, and intricacies, and experience feelings of connection to land, to place, to this time in our history, and to one another.

With sections on nature, geography, climate, work, health, earthquakes, and more. Essays by some of New Zealand’s best thinkers complete the package.

Flying High

The photography of Lloyd Homer Simon Nathan RRP $45 Geoscience Society of New Zealand Lloyd Homer photographed earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides around New Zealand for more than 35 years, earning him the moniker “disaster man”.

Flying High features a selection of spectacular colour aerial photographs – including high-altitude panoramas – from the GNS Science image library, as well as many unique aerial photographs of New Zealand’s national parks and wilderness areas.

The Secrets of Great Botanists And What They Teach Us About Gardening Matthew Biggs RRP $34.99 Exisle Publishing

Featuring 35 revolutionary botanists whose discoveries helped make the world bloom.

This inspiring and beautiful guide presents the stories and reveals the secrets of the botanists, plant collectors, and gardening pioneers past and present, including New Zealand’s legendary missionary plant collector William Colenso.

A handy field guide to the fiery natural world that so deeply shapes New Zealand’s largest city. These 53 volcanoes have profoundly shaped Auckland’s geology and geography, and people’s lives – from Māori pa, kūmera gardens, sources of stone and water, and now as reserves for all to enjoy. Full of tips about where to go and what to do, and more than 400 illustrations.

Kauri

Witness to a Nation’s History Joanna Orwin RRP $45 New Holland This new edition of a best-selling title of the same name has revised and updated chapters on natural history and conservation issues, including the emergence of the kauri dieback disease and the challenges botanists, scientists, conservations, and the public are facing, trying to protect this unique tree.

Wild Life New Zealand Steve Trewick & Mary Morgan-Richards RRP $39.99 The biology of New Zealand explored from the perspective of evolutionary ecology. The authors use focal plants and animals to illustrate how different biological processes such as plate tectonics, species diversity, sexual selection, and predator avoidance shapes our natural world. To buy a copy, contact ecology@massey.ac.nz, putting WildLife NZ in the subject line.

Three Kiwi Tales

More fabulous fix-it stories from Wildbase Hospital Janet Hunt $24.99 Massey University Press Inspiring stories of Kiwi conservation through the eyes of three special kiwi – Latitude, Raratoka, and Piwi – who were treated at Wildbase Hospital. Hunt also pays tribute to the dedicated teams of people all over New Zealand who are working together to save kiwi.

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Our partners

Would you choose to give 1% of your gross income to help nature? David Brooks talks to two people who did.

J

enny Beesley is a doctor specialising in mountain, wilderness, and expedition medicine. Her base at Riverton in Southland is ideally placed for access to wild places in Fiordland and the Southern Lakes regions.

Jenny’s business, which is called Mountain Doctors, supports the wild natural places she loves through two of her favourite organisations – 1% for the Planet and Forest & Bird.

Forest & Bird has been a partner of 1% for the Planet since 2006. This international organisation makes it easy for businesses – and individuals – to contribute 1% of their gross income to approved environmental organisations.

“Donating to Forest & Bird ties in really well with my work because I spend a lot of time in alpine and wilderness environments. It’s not hard to have an appreciation of how beautiful and important those environments are when you’re actually in them,” she says.

Jenny founded Mountain Doctors last year. It was a logical step given her love of mountains and wild places. Jenny has diplomas in mountain, wilderness, and expedition medicine.

She sometimes provides medical cover for trips overseas, and, when we talked to her, she had just returned from accompanying a trekking trip in Peru that raised money for the Alzheimer’s Society charity.

Started in 2002, 1% for the Planet has more than 2000 members in 45 countries, with a strong presence in North America and Europe. Over the years, about $US225 million has been distributed to thousands of environmental non-profit organisations, which are carefully vetted by the organisation.

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Jenny first encountered 1% for the Planet while travelling overseas and is a big fan of co-founder, Yvon Chouinard, a legendary rock climber and founder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia.

“I linked up with 1% pretty much as soon as I incorporated Mountain Doctors last year. Through them, I now support Forest & Bird and Sea Shepherd,” she says.

“I think Forest & Bird does a really good job of advocating for the kinds of places that I both work and recreate in. Forest & Bird is an important check and balance against the drive for seemingly infinite growth and development, which doesn’t really seem possible with the finite Earth we have. Nature’s voice is often not heard in these conversations.”

The 1% for the Planet logo is on Jenny’s work vehicle, providing a good conversation starter in the street, especially as the organisation is not as well known in New Zealand compared with other countries. Jenny finds these conversations are also a good opportunity to talk about the charities she supports through 1% for the Planet.

Forest & Bird relationship manager Jo Prestwood says 1% for the Planet is an easy way for businesses to contribute to Forest & Bird. “We think other businesses might want to consider helping Forest & Bird through 1% for the Planet. They can promote the environmental values of their company while protecting the things we treasure as New Zealanders,” Jo says. n To find out more about 1% for the Planet, contact Jo Prestwood at j.prestwood@forestandbird.org.nz or visit www.onepercentfortheplanet.org.

Aromatherapy angels

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eading New Zealand home fragrance and body care firm The Aromatherapy Co says it’s proud to have helped Forest & Bird through 1% for the Planet in recent years.

Company chairman Stuart Smith (pictured below), who founded The Aromatherapy Co’s owners, the Smith Uren Group, 50 years ago, is an enthusiastic supporter of environmental causes. This includes being a major backer of the Stop Stealing our Harbour campaign, which opposed further extensions of wharves into Auckland Harbour in recent years.

His company is passionate about aromatherapy, which uses 100% pure and natural essential oils to create beautifully scented candles, fragrance diffusers, and beauty products that are sold around the world.

“We’ve been delighted to contribute to Forest & Bird through our association with 1% for the Planet. In the future, we will continue to look for ways to support Forest & Bird,” says Lisa Grant, the company’s general manager.

Forest & Bird is very grateful for The Aromatherapy Co’s support, which included a substantial donation this year. Jo Prestwood, Forest & Bird’s relationship manager, said the firm’s contribution had a significant impact on the conservation work we were able to undertake during 2019.

“We really appreciate the support The Aromatherapy Co has given us and look forward to continuing to work with them for the benefit of conservation and the environment,” Jo says.

In the field Project Parore volunteers are restoring native fish and wildlife habitats by planting, doing predator control, and building fish culverts in Te Mania catchment, Bay of Plenty. Photo: Lawrie Donald

LINKING LAND TO SEA Ecosystems are linked together. They are not islands. What happens in the hills has consequences downstream and far away in the harbour. This awareness has led to Project Parore, a conservation initiative in Katikati. By Ann Graeme.

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arore, also known as black bream, used to be abundant in the Tauranga harbour. They live in estuaries, feeding at low tide on algae among the mangroves, and sea lettuce and eel grass in the channels.

Now the fish are few. Silt, pollution, and net fishing in the harbour have led to their decline.

This species is a symbol of a healthy harbour, and a healthy harbour depends on a healthy catchment. This is the premise of Project Parore. It has chosen Te Mania catchment as the first step in its long-term vision to restore native fish and wildlife in the waterways and clean up the harbour by improving the health of the land.

Parore or black bream The catchment, near Katikati, encompasses 1300ha of land and 28km of streams. With willing landowners and funds from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and industries, volunteers have been fencing, planting, and doing pest control along stream margins. To date, 19% of the catchment is protected.

The project is underpinned by citizen science. At 26 testing sites, volunteers and experts surveyed the biodiversity on the stream banks and in the waters, and created baseline data. Now they know what is there, they can monitor and record changes in the populations of birds, fish, and invertebrates in the streams and on the banks and habitat beyond.

This exciting conservation project works on two levels.

Each protected length of streamside contributes towards the big picture of linking the land to the sea, and of creating

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cleaner, silt-free water to flow downstream to the harbour.

On another level, each protected length of streamside benefits its own wildlife, the birds and insects on its banks, and the fish and invertebrates in its stretch of water.

Sometimes, the conservation links are surprising. This is the story of native freshwater fish and kākahi.

Kākahi are freshwater mussels. They live buried in sandy sediment, sieving the stream water for the plankton, algae, and bacteria that are their food. Adult kākahi live a long life in the slow lane. Their biggest threat is the degradation and pollution of their waterway, so fencing the stream and reducing bank erosion and run-off will help the shellfish.

But their offspring face another, quite different, threat –

A stash of rat-eaten kākahi shells on a bush-covered bank.

Photo: Ann Graeme

Making a fish-friendly culvert. A length of material akin to a conveyor belt is bolted into the culvert. It supports the dangling rope into the stream below. Fish can climb up the rough surface of the rope. If the culvert is steep and its flow is fast, ledges can be bolted inside the pipe along its curved base. They will create eddies where fish can rest. Photo: Lawrie Donald

flowing water. The tiny shellfish larvae are no bigger than grains of sand. Released from the mother kākahi, they are swept downstream, away from suitable shellfish habitat.

To survive, the baby shellfish must return upstream and, to do that, they need transport.

Juveniles of whitebait species like īnanga, kōaro, and banded and giant kōkopu, as well as long-fin and short-fin eels, swim from the sea into freshwater. They are travelling upstream to find the swamp or the reach of river or stream that will become their adult home. As the fish nose along the stream bed, the tiny shellfish larvae hook on to their gills or fins. The fish swims on, hopefully upstream. Weeks or months later, when the parasitic larvae have grown into juvenile kākahi, they will drop off, burrow into the sediment, and grow into adult shellfish.

So the fate of kākahi is tied to the fish, and the fish have their own threats to contend with. The streams they are following meander through the farmland, and, in many places, the water is channelled through culverts to create road crossings. An eel on a dark, wet night can slither over such obstacles, but, to other fish, these miniature waterfalls are impassable. The pipe entrance might as well be on the moon.

This means that, above culverts, long stretches of streams and rivers are now empty of native fish like giant kōkopu and kōaro. As the old fish die, no young ones can swim up to replace them, fewer eggs will be laid, the whitebait shoals will shrink, and there will be fewer rides for the hitch-hiking young kākahi.

Fish passages have been made in the nine culverts along an entire stream within Te Mania catchment. Now young fish can swim all the way upstream. This is a big step towards restoring fish populations.

Fencing the waterways is another step. The whitebait species spawn on the banks of the streams where floods will wash the juvenile fish out to sea. Protected from grazing and trampling, grassy or bush-edged stream banks provide a nursery for the eggs. Pest-control is needed too, for patrolling the riverbanks are hedgehogs and brown rats. They love fish eggs. With more habitat for spawning and fewer egg-thieving rats and hedgehogs, more baby fish will hatch to swell the whitebait shoals and provide

more chances for hitchhiking young kākahi.

The pest control will help kākahi in another way too.

Rats don’t just eat fish eggs. They also eat adult shellfish.

On the bank a pile of shells, broken and tooth-marked, show that these agile swimmers are searching the stream beds, dragging shellfish out of the water and eating them.

So the lives of kākahi and freshwater fish are intertwined, and their fate is determined by the waterway and the stream banks where they live. Their story illustrates the complexity of the natural world – and how much we have yet to understand about it.

What affects one species may, like a stone thrown into a pond, create ripples that touch other species. If enough stones are thrown, the ripples may become waves, and so we humans unwittingly disrupt and destroy a natural ecosystem.

The Parore project’s fencing, planting, pest-control, and monitoring will improve the health of the land and so will restore the native fish and wildlife in the waterways and improve the health of the harbour it flows into.

The sum of the Parore Project will be much greater than its parts. In the future, the return of parore will crown its success.

Kākahi or New Zealand freshwater mussels.

Photo: Linton Miller

Kākahi canary in the mine Not so long ago, kākahi were so abundant in streams, rivers, and lakes that Māori could readily gather a canoe full of shellfish. They were a reliable and important source of food when other food was scarce.

An adult kākahi can filter a litre of water an hour and live up to 50 years. When kākahi beds were dense, they would have played a major role in cleansing the water, trapping sediment and cycling nutrients through the ecosystem. Juvenile kākahi are bioindicators. They need clean water and can’t tolerate too much silt, so their presence tells us about the quality of the waterway.

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The time is now.

We only have one planet. So it’s important we work together to take care of it.

Right now, you can do your part in the effort towards a cleaner, greener more sustainable New Zealand by changing to solar energy for as little as $85 + GST per month.

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Climate

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT

CLIMATE CHANGE? Is the question Professor James Renwick, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, is most often asked when he speaks to members of the public. This is his answer.

The reality is that all of us can take individual actions that, when added up across society, really do make a difference. Using public transport (ideally electric) when we can, engaging in active transport, cycling and/or walking, flying less (and offsetting when we do fly), eating less red meat, making sure our homes are well-insulated, buying an electric vehicle if we’re looking to trade in our present car or get a new one, growing our own fruit and veges where possible. All these things lower our household carbon footprint, and if most households took these actions our national emissions of greenhouse gases would reduce noticeably.

Beyond that though, the best thing we can do is talk.

Talk about the magnitude and the urgency of climate change with whānau, with neighbours, with workmates, and most importantly with our elected representatives in local and central government. Government policy sets the tone for how society operates and signals to the business sector where to invest in our future. If all of us even sent a single email to our electorate MP, the volume of mail would be bound to get a response! If you feel like

organising some political activism, be it a community event to talk about climate adaptation or a march on Parliament to demand stronger and faster climate action, the more noise you can make, the better!

Climate change and the realities it might bring can seem daunting, overwhelming. When I have read some of the bad news this year about increased emissions of greenhouse gases and slow progress at the international negotiations, it has been depressing. What gives me heart is the knowledge that we know how to take action, that it isn’t too late, and that collective action can change the world. We can all feel empowered by adding our voices to the call for action, by taking steps in our own lives, and by calling on political and business leaders to move our society and our economy in the right direction. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose!

Forest & Bird has lots of ways you can get involved, take action, and help defend our climate – see https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/climate.

BANISH PLASTIC – MAKE A DOILY BAG! This is all you need to save a whale... a crochet hook, cotton yarn, and about three hours of TV. Magda Smolira started crocheting eco-friendly alternatives to the flimsy single-use plastic bags used in the fruit and vege section of supermarkets.

Her easy-to-make doily bags have been a hit on Facebook, and now she wants to share how to make them with Forest & Bird readers. You can download a copy of her doily bag tutorial here http://bit.ly/2GHhXPX. Magda Smolira with one of her doily bags.

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Going places Southern royal albatross, Campbell Island

WILD SOUTH Anne-Sophie Pagé learns to slow down during a memorable voyage to the “forgotten islands” of the South Pacific. Photos by Tobias Hayashi.

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he Southern Ocean was a wild one. The kind where salt-caked hair stood up on end and seasickness remedies are made redundant. At that moment, as our boat sailed south towards New Zealand’s biodiversity-rich subAntarctic islands, the Southern Ocean became my ocean – with eyes closed, leaning over the centre of the bow, I learned how to fly. Dipping and soaring like my ancestors and those yet to come.

Slow down.

I often found myself wanting to stop time on our voyage south, and, for a split second, I realised I could, before a gentle rock from a wave would re-emphasise the transition from present to past. It made me understand people’s desperate need for photographs – forever trying to capture that feeling of “now”. I joined them in their frantic focusing

on a rare snipe, yet by the time the photo was taken, the bird was gone.

The snipe looked at me, and I did not look back.

A friend said to me under the stars one night that all sub-Antarctic creatures are blurry, and it is only now that I am fully grasping the meaning of those words. My photo roll stops at Enderby Island with a build-up of distracted, unfocused edges. After that, my camera became an ornament – I surrendered to the now.

And the now was wonderful. I edged on the side of caution and avoided eye contact with a New Zealand sea lion on Enderby Island.

I watched the sun set at midnight sprawled out on my back absorbing the eternity of the waves. I listened to silence for the first time in my life. I sat among the albatross and learned their local dialect. I was not a wallflower – I was a megaherb

exposed to the raw and honest innocence of the island landscape and those that call it home.

Life is full of pivotal moments. For me, the act of stepping onto a shore that had defeated all attempts of human settlement was emotionally stirring. The history of these islands is a perfect example of mother nature lifting a middle finger to humanity and the destruction we bring.

The island did not need me, yet I desperately needed it.

I live to seek out the wilderness.

A love of adventure on the surface but standing in a blanket of fog on Campbell Island forced me to internalise my desperate need for reassurance that our world is ok, that hidden corners remain unspoiled. In the silence, a pipit scurried around my feet completely unaware, and I couldn’t help but feel that I was intruding, because I was.

New Zealand sea lions, Enderby Island

New Zealand pipit, Enderby Island

Rockhopper penguins, Auckland Island

Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island

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My relationship with the bird was incredibly delicate. One wrong move, and I would shatter its trust. I hated that power.

The sub-Antarctic islands comforted my green angst. Yet at the same time, they terrified me. To cope in the face of a climate and biodiversity crisis, one can search for a silver lining or apply a band-aid. For me, the islands were both. They gave me hope that Earth has retained some of its natural authenticity, but, as I watched the people standing around me, I couldn’t help but wonder if the beautiful landscapes were masking the extent of global destruction – by dulling our sense of urgency.

Antarctica holds a mythic weight similar to outer space, but to me the sub-Antarctic Islands are the kingmakers. They are relatable. They are the Otago Peninsula but on steroids, and if used right they can form a model for change. I was sent

on this voyage to remind people these nature-rich islands are more than just far-flung names.

One by one, the islands rose out of the water to greet me – The Snares, Enderby Island, Auckland Island, and Campbell Island – to most of the world, they are forgotten. I can’t shake the feeling there is a reason for this. Environmental activism makes up the foundation of who I am, and generating passion for our natural world fuels my actions. Yet there is part of me that wants to keep what I experienced on these islands a secret. And I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the risk of exploitation that stems from awareness. Maybe it’s the fear that people won’t see what I see. Maybe I am just being selfish.

Forgotten or not, my voyage south was quite simply the highlight of my life. I may be back on dry land, but the waves continue to rock me.

n Anne-Sophie Pagé and Tobias Hayashi experienced the sub-Antarctic islands courtesy of Heritage Expeditions – see www.heritage-expeditions.com.

Southern royal albatross

Campbell Island snipe

riter Anne-Sophie Pagé is an Otago Peninsula local and grew up sharing her backyard with penguins and sea lions. She is halfway through a vet degree at Massey University and plans to use her knowledge as a soon-to-be vet to assist in mitigating New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis.

With six years of experience as a wildlife guide, she uses her job to foster emotional connections between individuals and the environment in the hope of developing a holistic sense of kaitiakitanga among all of us in the face of climate change. To read more of her environmental perspectives, visit www.greenangst.com.

A

ustralian-based photographer Tobias Hayashi was another Enderby scholar, who travelled to the sub-Antarctic islands on the same voyage as Anne-Sophie. Growing up in Brisbane, Tobias first fell in love with land birds, then seabirds, and finally reptiles, mammals, and butterflies.

More recently, a degree in botany and zoology at the Australian National University taught him the fascination of plants, including native orchids. Tobias started documenting nature when he bought his first camera in 2008 – see http://www.tobiashayashi.com.

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Community

Ohiwa’s rare plants Locals in the eastern Bay of Plenty have been working hard to highlight native plants on the verge of extinction.

Meg Collins prepares to plant Carmichaelia williamsii, a nationally critical giant-flowered broom.

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he Ohiwa Reserve Care Group has just finished a project with a difference from its usual jobs of trapping four-legged pests and counting birds.

The idea of setting up a rare plant collection of the Eastern Bay of Plenty was conceived last year by co-leader Meg Collins, from Ōpōtiki.

Meg Collins has been a member of Forest & Bird for more than 40 years. She is a former chairperson of the local branch and ran its native nursery for six years. “There are many native plants in New Zealand on the verge of extinction, so we thought it was appropriate to propagate a few and educate the public about the importance of rare plants, especially the ones from the Eastern Bay of Plenty,” she says.

With help from Jo Bonner, from Coastland Nurseries, 13 different species were sourced ready to plant out in autumn.

Permission to plant on some rough land in the Onekawa te Mawhai Regional Park/Ohiwa Domain was obtained from Ōpōtiki District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Josh Hunter, head gardener from Ōpōtiki District Council, sprayed the site, which was covered in weeds.

Once they had died down, a staff member from Ohiwa Holiday Camp mowed the area several times, until the ground was ready to plant out in May. About 70 trees and shrubs, representing 13 species, were planted out in groups by Meg Gaddam, her grand-daughter Matilda, Helen Clarke, and Meg and Mike Collins. Two weeks later, 6m3 of mulch donated by New Zealand Manuka was spread by nine more enthusiastic locals.

“All the plants are labelled and have bedded in well.

Once they are fully established, we will install a story board to explain to the public the importance of these very rare plants”, adds Meg, who has been responsible for several other conservation projects through the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

“We want to share the story of where they come from and why they are endangered.”

RARE AND THERE Giant-flowered broom STATUS Carmichaelia williamsii Nationally critical This special broom is found in the wild only in two places near Whitianga Bay. It has beautiful pale green-yellow pea-like flowers from July to December.

Thick-leaved tree daisy STATUS Olearia pachyphylla Nationally critical Only found on some headlands in Opape near Ōpōtiki.

Kaka beak STATUS Clianthus maximus Nationally critical A few plants remain in the wild on the East Coast, mainly in Tolaga Bay, Anaura Bay, and East Cape. Very vulnerable to rabbits, possums, and slugs.

Bay of Plenty kanuka STATUS Kunzea toelkenii Nationally critical Only found in Thornton and on two islands in Ohiwa Harbour.

Volunteers spreading mulch on the new plantings. All photos: Mike Collins

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Native hibiscus STATUS Hibiscus diversifolius Nationally critical Occurs in coastal sites where there is no frost, often on the inland edge of sandy beaches. The beautiful yellow flower lasts for only one day.

Citizen science Entrance to oxbow lake.

WHITEBAIT WONDERS

Students Brianna Ferguson and Maria Perriam with one of the first giant kōkopu caught in the oxbow. It was released unharmed.

Students from Menzies College didn’t realise what was in their whitebait fritters until they started researching giant kōkopu in a local Southland lake. By Kit Hustler.

My students have been studying giant kōkopu, New Zealand’s largest native fish, since February this year, and we plan to continue for the next couple of years.

Surveys carried out in an oxbow lake near Wyndham, Southland, in the 1960s by NIWA researchers indicated the presence of these beautiful sparkly fish. The lake is a five-minute walk from Menzies College and presented an opportunity for students to be involved in some real handson citizen science.

The students had eaten whitebait, but they had never seen or heard of giant kōkopu before getting involved in this project. They had no idea their whitebait fritters could contain the baby fish of this declining native species.

First, we established whether there were still giant kōkopu in the oxbow lake. Preliminary trapping using collapsible minnow traps baited with marmite were set overnight. A couple of fish were caught, photographed, and released. The next question was to work out the population size and whether they were breeding or not.

The available research suggested giant kōkopu breed during periods of high-water flow and rely on floodwater to hatch the eggs and carry the young fish out to sea. We didn’t think the water level changed in our oxbow lake, so we set out to test this.

We installed a measuring stick and recorded the water level every time we set nets. The nearby Mataura River started to flood in May, and we discovered the lake’s water level did actually rise. Fish captured at this time showed signs of spawning.

What have we found out? The estimated population is about 80 individual fish that are spawning in the oxbow lake. We hope that, by continuing our research, we can make a contribution to the understanding of the natural history of this endangered and data-deficient endemic fish. O-I New Zealand generously provided funding for the project. n Kit Hustler is the head of science at Menzies College, kit.hustler@menzies.school.nz.

Tai Haruru Lodge

LODGES Arethusa Cottage Near Pukenui, Northland Sleeps 6 herbit@xtra.co.nz 03 219 1337

Ruapehu Lodge Whakapapa Village, Tongariro National Park Sleeps 32 office@forestandbird.org.nz 04 385 7374

Mangarākau Swamp Lodge North-west Nelson Sleeps 10 mangarakauswamp@gmail.com 03 524 8266 http://www.mangarakauswamp.com

Piha, West Auckland Sleeps 5+4 hop0018@slingshot.co.nz 09 812 8064

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Matiu/Somes Island House Wellington Harbour Sleeps 8 bookings@doc.govt.nz 04 384 7770

Tautuku Forest Cabins Owaka, Otago Sleeps 16 diana-keith@yrless.co.nz 03 415 8024

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

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Focus on flora Detail of mature flower of Fuchsia excorticata. Photo: James Gaither

Ballerina blossoms

kōtukutuku are semi-deciduous, the loss of its distinctive leaves (with silvery undersides) in winter adding to its uniqueness in our native flora.

To Māori the blossom, or new leaves and shoots, signified time to get to work, planting kūmera for example.

The tree had other uses too, not least of which is that the flowers preceded fleshy purple fruit – konini – a food source of note. Pioneers gathered these berries to make a jam, and used the bark/wood to make an effective dye.

The branches were not good for firewood though, unless well-seasoned, as the wet wood carried enough life force to resprout, and cuttings took and grew easily. As a child, I’d run my hands over the smooth sinuous branches, so cool to the touch, and peel back the orange papery bark, a pioneer’s tobacco perhaps?

What about its origins? They lie on the fringes of Gondwana. Recently a rare find, a fossilised fuchsia flower with pollen, was found in 23-million-year-old Miocene sediments at Foulden Maar in Otago – evidence of the long relationship between these fascinating plants and their bird pollinators here in New Zealand.

Paleontologist Seabourne Rust explains why he loves New Zealand’s native kōtukutuku – the largest fuchsia in the world.

There is a unique tree in our native bush I have wanted to write about for some time – in fact, since I was a youngster exploring the shady gullies and hillsides of Mount Cargill and Mihiwaka north of Dunedin. I have been fascinated by fuchsias (Family Onagraceae), in particular our native tree Fuchsia excorticata, or kōtukutuku, the largest fuchsia in the world.

It stood out in the bush with its gnarled trunk covered in papery peeling bark and ballerina-like blossoms. I would marvel at those pretty pink, indigo, and green fuchsia flowers, recognising them as related to the bigger-bloomed showy pot plant at home, which provided bright pink and white “flower fairies” for my sister. She would make them dance by twirling them between thumb and forefinger, and pop the inflated flower buds with a squeeze.

But these colourful overblown imports wouldn’t look quite right in our shadowy forest, unlike the twisted trunks of kōtukutuku, which can be found across Aotearoa up to 1000m elevation. In contrast, our other native species Fuchsia procumbens is a low-growing ground cover that also has colourful flowers and berries, and is just as interesting.

Those pretty fuchsia flowers are a magnet to pollinators bellbird and tūī in the late winter, like hummingbirds are to fuchsia in Mexico. What a treat for those nectar-lovers at a time when food is scarce in our forest! And what pollen – a stunning bright blue on those matchhead-like anthers.

Sometimes the flowers seem to spring directly from the bare branch or trunk. And, as if to emphasize the resource,

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Tree fuchsia forest in Banks Peninsula. Photo: Jon Sullivan

n Dr Seabourne Rust is a paleontologist with an interest in many aspects of our natural history. He lives in the Hokianga, on the edge of the Waipoua forest, and looks after a special piece of native forest.

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

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

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Forest & Bird

| 55

Obituary

STEADY HAND ON THE TILLER David Underwood was one of society’s “unsung heroes” – his dedicated and assiduous work behind the scenes helped Forest & Bird survive and thrive during a difficult period in its history.

David was the national treasurer of Forest & Bird from 1980 for more than 25 years. During that time, the society doubled in size, tackled many large conservation issues (including the protection of many North and South Island forests), and expanded to establish more than 50 branches throughout the country.

I was lucky enough to work closely with David when I was on the National Executive in the early 1990s and was honoured and privileged to be invited by his family to speak at his funeral service about his involvement with Forest & Bird.

Talking to others who also knew him well, several words kept popping up that reinforced my own impressions when dealing with him. First and foremost was David’s integrity, as well as his honesty, competence, patience, and wisdom.

All these attributes were needed to help steer Forest & Bird through a tumultuous time in its history. Ironically, while it was achieving some of its more outstanding conservation successes, the organisation, along with most other community groups, was having difficulties internally.

During the 1980s, it was dealing with the effects of external societal changes and the imperative to transit from a small organisation essentially run by volunteers (and a very small number of highly motivated and successful conservation staff) to a larger, fully professional management structure, essentially what we have today.

These changes were having a severe impact on our finances. Membership was dwindling and so were donations and subscriptions. Bequests were keeping us afloat, and it was touch and go whether the Society would survive. We were having to make some hard decisions.

David provided a steady hand at the tiller and was instrumental in ensuring that Forest & Bird successfully

50 years ago

David Underwood, born 22 May 1934 – died 8 October 2019, aged 85.

adapted to these new realities. He would later say how pleased he was that Forest & Bird retained its branch membership and always enjoyed attending Council meetings around New Zealand learning about local environmental issues.

We all owe David, his successors, and a host of other people our thanks. Forest & Bird recognised his contribution by making him a Distinguished Life Member in 1998.

David didn’t confine his contribution to conservation to his role as our national treasurer. For example, he was an inveterate submission writer. Jim Lynch has also acknowledged that David provided a big boost to the establishment of Zealandia by facilitating the sourcing of its first significant grant at a crucial time. No doubt, there were many other examples.

He was a busy man. Besides being a husband, father, and grandfather, he ran his own successful accountancy practice, owned a kiwifruit orchard in partnership in the Bay of Plenty, was heavily involved in his church, and played leading roles in some 20 or so community organisations across a wide range of endeavours.

David was a caring, generous, talented, and astonishingly modest person who made a big difference, and his family must be very proud of him. Forest & Bird is very fortunate that conservation was one of his passions and that he chose to devote himself in furthering the interests of the Society – Colin Ryder.

Conservation of natural resources versus economics Though we do not question that economic values are very important indeed, we are forced to the conclusion that in the fields of aesthetic, cultural, recreational, and scientific values we need to broad our visions and deepen our understanding so that the wonderful heritage of flora, fauna, and unsurpassed scenery which our forefathers found when they arrived in New Zealand will not be completely lost to posterity, even though it has been sacrificed by this generation on the altar of economic need.

Forest and Bird journal, November 1969.

56

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Parting shot This juvenile silvereye or tauhou crashed into our lounge window on one of its first flights.

It was stunned, so we created a little nest for it. When it was starting to look a little better, we gave it some sugar water. While it was recovering, it stayed nice and still for a portrait session. Happily, after about three hours, it recovered enough to fly off. I live on a small farm on the outskirts of Porirua, near Wellington. We are privileged to have a QEII covenant over a magnificent stand of bush. Our native birds have flourished as a result of the 30 years of pest control, which gives me the chance to practice my photography on them.

Christine Jacobson

PHOTO COMPETITION How to enter: Share your photos of native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, marine mammals, fish, or natural landscapes, and be in to win.

To enter, send your high-res digital file and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@ forestandbird.org.nz. The best entry will be published in the next issue of Forest & Bird magazine.

The prize: This issue’s winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Rover 10cm SelfInflating Mat and Two Kiwi Camping 350ml Thermo Tumblers (total value $259).

The Rover self-inflating mat has a compressible foam core that expands to a plush 10cm thick and is covered in durable soft-stretch fabric for extra comfort. The three-way valve also makes it simple to inflate/deflate. Complete with repair kit, compression straps, and carry bag.

The Thermo Tumblers keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks chilled in high-quality double-walled stainless steel.

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