Forest & Bird Magazine 368 Winter 2018

ISSUE 368 • WINTER 2018 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Every kauri counts PLUS

Making a difference

Biodiversity budget

Forgotten places

I R U A K R U O E V A HELP S

Experience island walking tracks on

RANGITOTO l ROTOROA l TIRITIRI MATANGI

BOOK NOW! fullers.co.nz

ISSUE 368

• Winter 2018

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Contents Editorial

2 Time to celebrate 4 Letters 56 Books

Conservation news

6 Making a difference 8 A budget for nature 10 Paradigm shift, fabulous fernbirds 11 Wikipedia whizz, digital magazine, save the springs 12 New Zealand’s blue whales, TTR seabed mining appeal

Cover story 14 17 18 19

Can we save them?

Death in kauri heartland Disease without cure Defending kauri in court + Appeal

Defending nature

27 Te Kuha mine court action

Forest & Bird project 28 Better for bats

Branch news

30 Saving skinks 37 Restoring a dawn chorus

Innovation

31 One billion reasons to do it right

Focus on flora

32 Roadside remnants 42 Devastating loss at Kaitorete

Biodiversity in crisis 34 Tip of the tail bioblitz

Wildlife rescue

38 Back from the brink

Tourism impacts

Restoration

20 Only one Oparara

40 Pine no more

Climate

Te reo o te taio

0800 200 064

22 Back the Act 53 Mercury rising

43 A whale’s tale

membership@forestandbird.org.nz

Zero by-kill campaign

44 Spot the stranger

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

23 Time to stop set netting

Freshwater

24 Fantastic fish: Dwarf galaxias of Te Waihou

Kids Conservation Club 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 FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

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

26 Octopus action

In the field

Forgotten places 46 Our land our future

Going places 48 Wild Coast

Biodiversity

50 Backyard barometers

Nature’s Future

51 Birds, bats, and bunkers

Our partners

54 JB Hifi’s Helping Hands scheme

Parting shot

Black robins of the Chatham Islands

COVER SHOT A pollinated female kauri (Agathis australis) cone. Photo: Rob Suisted, www.naturespic. co.nz. Kauri trees carry male and female cones. The rod-shaped male cone produces pollen and the female bears seeds. The male cone ripens to dark brown in about a year and releases its pollen. Female cones take three years to mature after fertilisation, at which time they are about seven centimetres in diameter. When fully ripe they disintegrate, scattering their seeds to the wind. Source: Te Ara

Editorial MARK HANGER

Time to celebrate We have an amazingly diverse team of passionate, energetic, and skilled New Zealand conservationists that together make up Forest & Bird. We are Aotearoa’s largest, oldest, and most influential grassroots environmental organisation.

In recent weeks, I have convened six regional meetings for every branch and member around the country, to focus on more flexible ways that would-be supporters and members can engage with the Society. It was a fascinating and stimulating time.

As is so often the way, it was the unexpected thought-provoking ideas, the wellthought-out challenges, and the combined insight of so many talented Forest & Birders that made these meetings so successful.

As I met numerous and varied members, many referred to our organisation’s messaging. Some said we are too “doom and gloom”, and others said we are not hard hitting enough! Personally, I think we need to tell it as it is, with no spin and no glossing over the real issues we face. Forest & Bird has always stood by this mantra, and as a result we are respected, and listened to, even if not always agreed with.

Of course, in recent years, it has been hard to be inherently positive in our messaging. We have been heading towards an extinction and climate crisis that threatens life as we know it. Successive governments at national and regional level have had their heads in the sand until recently. While many New Zealanders increasingly saw the environment as a major issue, it has been business-as-usual for many key decision-makers – putting short-term thinking and economic gain ahead of the responsible use of our ecosystems and resources.

But how times can change.

As I write this, the morning after the presentation of the May Budget, I want to celebrate. This winter’s Forest & Bird magazine focuses on terrestrial conservation, and as if with a sixth sense Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced an increase in conservation funding that will enable nearly 10 times more of New Zealand’s conservation forests to be managed for predators.

The funding increase will allow the Department of Conservation to sustain 1.8 million hectares of predator control after four years. I want to congratulate the Minister for her desire to make a positive difference to biodiversity, which can only benefit all New Zealanders – and her doggedness and resolve to get the funding and support from her coalition partners and wider Cabinet members.

The Minister and this government have taken a major step forward on a long path.

Her task and that of Forest & Bird is still daunting, but we know that people, clean freshwater, healthy forests, tussocklands, oceans, and wildlife can thrive together. This is our vision for the future as we – a nationwide community of supporters, members, and branches – help transform Aotearoa and restore its unique natural heritage.

We will do this one community at a time, with the help of everyday New Zealanders who care deeply about the environment supported, we hope, by a commitment at the highest levels of government to achieve these shared goals.

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

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

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

Kevin Hague PRESIDENT

Mark Hanger TREASURER

Graham Bellamy BOARD MEMBERS

Chris Barker, Lindsey Britton, Tony Dunlop, Kate Graeme, James Muir, John Oates, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS

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

Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton, Fraser Ross, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, David Underwood Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No CC26943.

Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird.

Forest & Bird is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper made from FSC® certified wood fibre and pulp from responsible sources. The wrap used to mail the magazine is 100% degradable and recylable (soft plastics).

Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine.

ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright.

All rights reserved.

Letters Forest & Bird welcomes your feedback on conservation topics. Please send letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address, and daytime phone number. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or publish them in full.

The best contribution to the Letters page will receive a copy of To the Mountains: A collection of New Zealand alpine writing selected by Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey, RRP$45, Otago University Press (see page 56 for details).

Please send letters to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140, or email editor@forestandbird.org.nz by 1 August 2018.

Broader view needed

Killing with kindness

Zelka Linda Grammer’s opposition to genetic technology in the Autumn issue was evident despite any real evidence to back up the statements. I am just one of many thousands of predator trappers, who fight in a seemingly futile battle, knowing that any let-up means total re-invasion within weeks or months. We live in hope, waiting for the powers-that-be to come up with the magic bullet. So it was with some joy I heard the previous National government announce its Predator-free NZ campaign – although later it emerged there was no plan and no funding.

Sadly it seems that we are to be no better off under a Labour government. I understand Eugenie Sage has all but knocked on the head any likelihood of GE control for predators. She is committed to a better deal for our wildlife but trapping/poisoning is a stop-gap approach. It is essential the government takes a broader view to save our wildlife and provide plans, funds, and a time frame for the development of genetic studies for predator control. We need to have confidence in the skill, knowledge, and ethics of our scientists. Realistically, we will never know what can be achieved if we don’t even try.

Owhango Alive is a volunteer group just south of Taumarunui, and our mission is to protect and enhance the flora and fauna of the Ohinetonga Scenic Reserve. Our group has been active since 2012, and we have certainly noticed the difference dedicated trappers, planters, and pest busters have made to our piece of paradise.

Today I read Ann Graeme’s article in the latest Forest and Bird magazine “Killing with kindness” – great article – and on the next page are the posters Bring Back the Birds.

We’d love you to send us the high-res PDFs to use at our fundraising and advocacy days. In May, a sporting event called the T42 finishes at the Owhango Domain.

Alister Young, Dunedin

Koi carping In my opinion it is a sad indictment of the Waikato Regional Council that in all of their documentation around Plan Change 1 there is no strategy to manage the effects of koi carp (Whangamarino wetland, Autumn 2018). They are a noxious species with no natural predators in New Zealand conditions and they have a very high breeding success rate. They are an omnivorous feeder and they cause irreparable damage to the native flora and fauna through predation and major damage from erosion due to their feeding methods. The aims for improved water quality based on plan change 1 will never be realised unless they are controlled. No matter what the farming community are required to do in relation to water quality, the detrimental effects of koi carp will still override any gains. Unless there are some controls introduced we will still continue to lose native flora and fauna. We should all be pressuring local and central governments to do something about koi carp now if we really want to see improved water quality.

Andy Loader Co-Chairman P.L.U.G. (Primary Land Users Group) Auckland Best letter winner

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Sally Lashmar, Owhango Alive, Taumaranui *Editor’s response: Ann Graeme is more than happy to share the posters, which were produced for the Aongetete Forest Restoration Trust, a Forest & Bird initiative in the Bay of Plenty. Contact editor@forestandbird. org.nz and we will share the files with you.

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© Aongatete Forest Restoration Trust

Paradigm change Our Minister for the Environment, David Parker, has already shown that he is the best ever Minister for the Environment for Aotearoa New Zealand. Jamie McKay, the announcer farmers go to when they have problems (and there are many, the most recent being mycoplasma bovis, was no match for the very perceptive and super-intelligent Environment Minister David Parker. I heard this interview on 14 May 2018. Minister Parker has made a paradigm shift in his approach to all things agricultural, including his approach to horticulture. In the Autumn issue of Forest & Bird magazine Minister Parker said it is the polluter who must pay, and not the taxpayer, and there is no doubt that if dairy herds were reduced, for example from 300 to 150 cows, farmer incomes would not change, and our environment would be better as less bovine belching, pooing, and weeing would be expelled into the New Zealand environment!

Brian Collins, Wellington

Unpopular overpopulation In Mark Hanger’s editorial in the Spring issue, he talks about the enjoyment of having children and grandchildren to share nature with. I agree that offspring should be cherished once they are born. However, I believe that at a time the world’s population is increasing unsustainably by 80 million a year, it is a gross environmental mistake to have children at all.

Earth on which we depend is suffering from a plague of humans out to destroy it, and because the subject is unpopular very few people face up to it or speak out against it.

Stephen Conn, Nelson

Lifelong conservationist I read about your “oldest” member Mary Farmer (Summer 2017). You may be interested to know that I visit a 101 yearold man, Peter Densem, who has been a regular subscriber to your magazine. Peter now lives in a retirement village in Tauranga, but in the past had a close association with the islands of the Bay of Plenty, taking a special interest in the geology, flora, and fauna, as well as the history and habitation, of the islands. Peter served in the Fleet Air Arm during the war and has been decorated for his endeavours, not long ago receiving the Arctic Star for his service in that region. He is a remarkable man with a good memory, an avid reader who still completes the weekend crossword in the local paper. Peter may be your oldest male member.

Philippa Lewis, Tauranga

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of The Hunters: The Precarious Lives of New Zealand’s Birds of Prey by Debbie Stewart, RRP $50, Random House NZ (see page 56 for details).

To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz, put HUNTERS 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 HUNTERS draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Entries close 1 August 2018.

The winners of Bird Words: New Zealand Writers on Birds, edited by Elisabeth Easther with illustrations by Lily Daff, were Sharon Hayes, of Havelock North, and DVP INNES, of Wainuiomata.

The lucky winner of a winery weekend worth $1,000, courtesy of Nadine and Josh Thomson of Vintners Retreat, in Marlborough, was Linda-Jane Keegan, of Auckland.

Forest & Bird

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News

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Lake Tekapo. Photo: Bernard Spragg

Forest & Bird has won its long-running campaign to end to government subsidies for large-scale irrigation schemes, as Annabeth Cohen explains.

The government has come through with its election promise to wind down public funding for large-scale irrigation schemes that promote intensive dairying.

Forest & Bird has campaigned intensively on this issue over the last year through our appeals, media releases, magazine articles, the Freshwater Rescue Plan press conference, our General Election “score card”, emails, social media, and more. Thank you to everyone who supported this campaign in so many different ways.

In the Autumn magazine cover story, we highlighted plans to build 11 large-scale irrigation schemes throughout the country and called for the money to be diverted into an innovation fund to help farmers transition to more sustainable, less water-hungry farming methods.

The government made a major policy change on the issue in April. Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced that all existing irrigation schemes will be honoured through their current phase but that they are on their own for funding after that.

This means that several planned large schemes, including the Hurunui Water Project and the Hunter Downs Irrigation Scheme, both in Canterbury, will not receive any more central government funding. However, three schemes will continue to construction phase because they are advanced in planning terms: Waimea, Central Plains Water Stage 2, and Kurow Duntroon.

The Minister said some incredible things in his press release – which show there has been a shift in the public narrative – reflecting some of the arguments Forest & Bird has been making for years.

Minister Robertson said: “Large-scale private irrigation 6

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schemes should be economically viable on their own, without requiring significant public financing.

“We must also be mindful of the potential for largescale irrigation to lead to intensive farming practices, which may contribute to adverse environmental outcomes.”

Forest & Bird will be keeping a watchful eye on the Regional Development Fund, which may put funds into socalled “community” – locally promoted – dam projects.

We will also continue to push the agricultural sector to plan for climate change adaptations that mean we live within our limits, building resilience now – not dams later when water shortages emerge.

As we said in March, dams and large-scale irrigation schemes wreak havoc on the natural environment. You only have to look to the Mackenzie Basin to see the results.

Dams reduce river flows, affect habitat for native species, and inevitably lead to more intensive farming in the surrounding area that, in turn, increases pollution.

STRONGER TOGETHER Forest & Bird has celebrated a few small “wins” recently.

These are stepping stones to a brighter future for nature, and we’d like to thank all Forest & Bird members and supporters for helping making them possible. The truth is, we couldn’t do it without you.

Over the last few years, our collective efforts have put the fishing industry under real pressure to clean up its act.

This relentless demand for change has forced the industry to take a look at its practices, and begin to address them.

In April, the industry organisation for commercial

fishing, Seafood New Zealand, publically said it supported both a zero by-catch goal and cameras on boats. It is also promoting a code of conduct. These are significant changes in their position, and we welcome them.

About the same time, the Ministry for Primary Industries quietly announced a more independent structure for its fisheries management team. For years, we’ve said MPI needs to do a better job of policing the fishing industry, and hopefully that change has now begun.

Another important stepping stone was the publication of a government report called Environmental-Economic Accounts 2018, which values New Zealand’s natural assets and how much it costs to protect them.

Forest & Bird’s climate change advocate Adelia Hallett said it was a “penny drop moment” to have the government looking at these issues.

“The report should make people stop and think. Having a healthy environment has value, and it’s a fundamental acknowledgement that the economy sits within the environment, not the other way around.”

In another win for nature, the government has announced its intention to end offshore oil exploration – a huge step forward in protecting ocean wildlife from oil spills and seismic testing, and it is an important contribution in the fight against climate change.

“This announcement is an important signal to the oil and gas industries that our seas are no longer their playground,” says Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague.

“Forest & Bird now wants to see this temporary breathing space be made permanent by changing the Crown Minerals Act and having the block offer process dismantled entirely.

“Half the world’s whale and dolphin species visit or live in New Zealand waters, from the critically endangered Māui’s dolphin to giant blue whales. Today, these sensitive Young Southern Royal Albatross displaying on Campbell Island, New Zealand. Photo: Mary Bomford.

creatures are made safer from the threat of oil spills and the sonic barrage of seismic testing.”

Back on land, Forest & Bird helped secure the closure of most of the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges to the public. Over the past few months, we have worked with local iwi and other NGOs to push the Auckland Council, Department of Conservation, and MPI into taking this urgent action. It’s very sad it has come to this, but we hope it will buy our kauri forests some time while a solution for kauri dieback disease is found.

As this magazine went to print, the Labour-Green-NZ First coalition government announced what’s been dubbed the greenest budget in New Zealand’s history. Conservation is back on the agenda, and it’s all down to you!

Every dollar is needed when you think about the havoc wrecked to our natural heritage in the 95 years since Forest & Bird was established to stop Kāpiti Island from being devastated by predators and economic development (sound familiar?).

With so many environmental problems still to be tackled on land and at sea, there is still a long way to go before we can say New Zealand’s environment is properly protected.

In the meantime, let’s recognise that our network of passionate volunteers, branches, supporters, and staff are a formidable voice for nature. With determination and time, our small wins will add up to even more big victories. ➜ A budget for nature – see overleaf.

India’s dawn chorus Join us for a fully escorted, small-group, bird-lovers and wildlife tour in north India.

20 days, departing 16 October 2018.

India’s diversity of habitat types and altitudes give it a rich bird life. It has over 1200 bird species including 70 raptors, 30 duck and geese species, and 8 stork varieties.

We visit 5 magnificent National Parks: in the Himalayas, the Ganges Plains and on the Deccan Plateau. In this season we will also see masses of migratory birds from north Asia. And wildlife, including tigers, is a bonus.

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

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Conservation news

Whio/blue duck, one of the many species that will benefit from the government’s “biodiversity budget”. Image taken on the Heaphy Track, Kahurangi National Park. Photo: Jake Osborne

A BUDGET FOR NATURE A funding boost for the Department of Conservation is just one of several green highlights from the coalition government’s first budget. By Caroline Wood Spending on conservation will increase by 16% over the next four years, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage revealed during an hour-long budget briefing at Forest & Bird’s National Office attended by representatives from 16 different environmental organisations.

The Green Party Minister, a former Forest & Bird staff member, gave an overview of the government’s “biodiversity” budget and how it will positively impact on nature.

She highlighted a $181.6m boost for the Department of Conservation as being long overdue – it’s the first time in more than a decade that government spending on conservation has increased beyond inflation, according to Forest & Bird’s calculations.

The $181.6m includes an extra $81.3m of new funding over four years for predator control – enabling nearly 10 times more of New Zealand’s conservation forests to be managed for predators.

Ms Sage said her first priority as Minister was to focus on the biodiversity crisis, paying tribute to all the many groups involved in the predator-free “movement” and congratulating Forest & Bird for highlighting the benefits of sustained predator control.

“We wanted to focus on predators because, as we all know, we have a predator crisis here in New Zealand ... that’s why I have no apology in this budget for focusing on getting that extra $81m for predator control.”

The money will be targeted to protect priority ecosystems, with 1000 priority sites identified for sustained control. Some of the funding will also be spent on more applied research to develop new traps, toxins, and other predator-control innovations.

Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague welcomed the additional funding for DOC – saying it was a vital step 8

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in saving New Zealand’s 3000 native species in trouble.

The funding increase will allow DOC to sustain 1.8m hectares of predator control after four years, says Forest & Bird Chief conservation adviser Kevin Hackwell, who has analysed the figures. This will mean that, at the end of four years, about one-third of our publicly held conservation forests will have regular pest management.

“It’s a good start, but there will still be plenty of forgotten places – for example, on private land – where our amazing native species will be killed by unmanaged predators,” Kevin Hackwell said.

Ms Sage also talked about the need to respond to the pressure of increasing numbers of tourists – with a predicted 1.5m extra coming during the next year. A total of $5.5m was announced in the budget to improve tourism management, with new strategies in areas such as transport and waste management.

“It’s vital we protect the quality of visitor experience, and it’s more vital that we protect the places those visitors come to enjoy. We encourage them to contribute to that protection,” she said.

Also included in the budget is $2.6m to sort out the environmental “omni-shambles” in the Mackenzie Basin – providing better protection for plants, wildlife, and landscapes, said the Minister.

In another significant move, the DOC will spend $16.2m on restoring its core capability and capacity – to regain the ground it has lost over the past decade.

“We have seen first hand the consequences of losing DOC’s dedicated expertise and advocacy at resource hearings and on government policy development, notably regarding the Ruataniwha land swap. When DOC is absent or compromised, nature suffers,” says Kevin Hague.

“We’re relieved to see the investment in restoring

DOC’s vital advocacy function. DOC employs many of the country’s pre-eminent ecologists and scientists, and we welcome the return of their voice in the places where decisions are made on nature’s fate.

“However, if all our threatened species are to have a good chance of being saved, the work to strengthen the Department over the next couple of years must lead to a doubling of funds for conservation operations and frontline staff.”

Other highlights from Budget 2018 included:

Climate change The budget also included $100m for the Green Investment Fund, which is designed to encourage private-sector investment in high-value, low-carbon industries, clean tech, and new jobs.

Elsewhere, an extra $11m will be spent establishing an independent Climate Commission and another $3m passing a Zero Carbon Act, amending New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme, and continuing efforts to make good on targets set under the Paris Agreement.

There’s also $142.5m for improved home insulation and a previously announced $13.5bn for sustainable transport projects. And $15m for a Sustainable Farming Fund.

“Climate change is our biggest challenge, and we desperately need new techniques and technology to catch up on years of climate inaction.” says Kevin Hague.

Eugenie Sage with Kevin Hague and members of Forest & Bird's Wellington youth group. Photo: Laura Keown

RMA oversight unit Forest & Bird has spent many years highlighting the failures of regional and local government in environmental management, and we welcome a plan to spend $3.1 million setting up a new Resource Management Act Oversight Unit.

The unit will improve the consistency, effectiveness, and transparency of council enforcement of RMA rules and decisions.

“We’ve seen councils such as Environment Canterbury and others fail to act on blatant and unlawful environmental degradation. We will work with the Ministry for the Environment’s new RMA Oversight Unit to help ensure regional councils are consistent, rigorous, and transparent in applying the law,” added Kevin Hague.

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Conservation news

Paradigm shift The theme of Forest & Bird’s 2018 Conference is Achieving a Paradigm Shift for Conservation.

This can be interpreted in several ways, says chief executive Kevin Hague, “We’re talking about going beyond protecting nature, to actually restoring nature.”

But Kevin says that we are also seeing a paradigm shift in the political sphere – the recent Budget delivered the first significant funding increase for DOC’s natural heritage work in a decade. And for the first time since 2015, the Minister of Conservation is speaking at our conference.

“We’re delighted to welcome Conservation Minister, and Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member, Eugenie Sage as our keynote speaker for the Conference,” adds Kevin.

Environment Minister David Parker and Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash will also be attending to talk about the coalition government’s ambitions for our land and ocean environments.

The 2018 Conference, Sanderson Memorial Dinner, and AGM/Council meeting will take place on 23–24 June at Te Papa in Wellington.

Saturday’s programme features exciting and challenging presentations from thought leaders on freshwater, climate change, nature on land, and Māori conservation innovations.

Fernbird. Photo: Duncan Watson

FABULOUS FERNBIRDS The call of the rare fernbird will be heard more often at Forest & Bird’s Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve after a successful breeding season and a second translocation of birds from Taranaki.

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We’ll be celebrating some the amazing members who have gone above and beyond for nature at our annual awards ceremony on Saturday night. And our Sanderson Memorial speaker is Sarah Thomson, a former Kiwi Conservation Club member and recent law graduate, who took the previous government to court over climate change last year.

View the full programme at www.forestandbird.org.nz/agm.

Orange-spotted gecko. Photo: Carey Knox

The first transfer of 22 fernbirds into the saltmarsh and coastal scrub of the reserve north of Wellington occurred in April last year. A second and final release of 25 birds brought from the Lake Rotokare Scenic Reserve successfully took place over two days from April 23 this year, thanks to a grant from The Stout Trust.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage witnessed one of this year’s releases, says long-serving reserve management committee member Wanda Tate.

After last year’s translocation, Pauatahanui volunteers were able to monitor four nesting pairs, which successfully fledged 12 chicks over the spring and summer breeding season. Last year’s birds spread right across the reserve, and some were believed to have dispersed into nearby areas.

Wanda said the initial progress of what is now the southernmost population of fernbirds in the North Island has been very gratifying.

“It’s been quite brilliant. We’re very happy, and we’ve learned a lot. This has been the only transfer of fernbirds from a mainland site to another mainland site. We were worried they might all disperse here, but that hasn’t happened.”

The reserve’s “completely dedicated” trapping volunteers had effectively created a protective ring around the fernbirds, ensuring a good chance of survival. Wanda also thanked the Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust for making the birds available and helping with the translocations.

WIKIPEDIA WHIZZ Most of us use Wikipedia, some of us every day. But have you ever wondered who writes all those articles, and how accurate they are? Forest & Bird will soon be finding out, as we become the world’s first conservation organisation to host a Wikipedian in residence.

Dr Mike Dickison, formerly curator of natural history at the Whanganui Regional Museum, was recently awarded a grant by the Wikimedia Foundation in the USA to be New Zealand’s Wikipedian-at-Large. He’ll travel the country helping organisations and their staff and volunteers improve this enormous online encyclopaedia.

Over this summer, Mike will be based in Wellington with Forest & Bird head office, and he’ll be running editing events and Wikipedia workshops for Forest & Bird branches all over New Zealand.

Anyone in the world can edit a Wikipedia article; they don’t have to be an expert. You’d think this would lead

to anarchy, but 200,000 volunteer editors are watching over the articles, so errors and vandalism are corrected pretty quickly. New Zealand doesn’t have a lot of editors, so Mike will be providing Wikipedia training for keen volunteers and setting up meet-up social groups to support new Wikipedians.

While he’s based at Head Office, he’ll run edit-a-thons (group editing events) and improve conservation-related articles, using the staff expertise and archives of Forest & Bird. He’ll also be helping digitise and make available old publications and photos.

Wikipedia is one of the top places Google sends people when they want information. Forest & Bird’s mission is spread the word about New Zealand’s natural heritage, and hosting a Wikipedian will help us do that.

Welcome to our digital magazine You can now read your favourite conservation magazine online. We have introduced a digital version of Forest & Bird magazine – see www.issuu.com/forestandbird.

The most recent four magazines are privately listed and available only to Forest & Bird members via a special online link, which is emailed to digital subscribers when the hard copy magazine is published.

If you would like to receive a digital version of Forest & Bird magazine, please contact membership@ forestandbird.org.nz and they will change your magazine preference so you receive a digital magazine by email every quarter, rather than the hard copy version delivered to your door.

Please feel free to contact our Forest & Bird magazine editor Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz with any further questions or feedback about the digital version of the magazine.

SAVE THE SPRINGS Forest & Bird appeared at a special tribunal hearing in April to argue that no more water should be taken from Te Waikoropupū Springs, in Golden Bay, as part of our submission in favour of a Water Conservation Order.

Water is currently taken for dairy farming upstream in the catchment, and nitrate levels have gradually increased since irrigation began.

“Halting further pollution is essential for the future health of Te Waikoropupū Springs,” says Forest & Bird regional manager Debs Martin.

“It can take water eight years to travel down the Takaka

River valley, through the aquifers, and out into the clear waters of the springs. That lag means pollution like nitrates take time to show up.”

“A Water Conservation Order needs to ensure a precautionary approach is taken in terms of protecting the ecological values, the minimum water flows, and the surrounding limestone landscapes right up into Kahurangi National Park.”

More than 2000 public submissions were received when consultation closed last month, more than 1100 of which were received through an online Forest & Bird submission tool.

Forest & Bird

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Conservation news

A New Zealand blue whale with calf. Photo: Todd Chandler, Oregon State University

THEY ARE OURS! A new study confirms that New Zealand has its own genetically distinct population of blue whales.

A

group of blue whales that frequent the South Taranaki Bight between the North and South Islands is part of a local population that is genetically distinct from other blue whales in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, according to an exciting new study.

Researchers were able to identify 151 individual New Zealand blue whales between 2004 and 2017 by examining various photographic evidence and then used that and other data to estimate their overall abundance – a minimum of 718 blue whales.

The whales show a high level of residency, researchers say, as hydrophones deployed in the region recorded blue whale calls on 99.7% of the days between January and December in 2016.

The study, led by Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, says this is important because the South Taranaki Bight has several oil and gas extraction rigs and the New Zealand government recently issued its first permit for mining the seafloor there for ironsands. Forest & Bird is appealing this decision in the High Court (see right).

“We had five hydrophones deployed for two years in the South Taranaki Bight, and we never heard any Australian blue whale calls – just the local New Zealand population,” said Leigh Torres, a principal investigator with Oregan State Universitu’s Marine Mammal Institute and co-author on the study.

“When we conducted biopsies of individual whales, we also discovered that they are genetically distinct from other blue whale populations.”

In Forest & Bird’s Summer 2017 cover story, Dr Torres talked about her fears for the future of this very special population of blue whales because of the impacts, including noise, of the proposed 35-year Trans Tasman Resources ironsand mining plan, and existing oil and gas operations.

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Dr Torres said the Oregan State researchers are “working closely with resource managers in New Zealand to help them understand what we do and don’t know about this New Zealand blue whale population so they can apply best management practices to minimise impacts from industry.”

They will return to New Zealand in July and meet with government and political leaders, as well as industry representatives. They also are presenting their data to the International Whaling Commission.

“There is no doubt that New Zealand blue whales are genetically distinct, but we’re still not certain about how many of them there are,” says Dawn Barlow.

“We have generated a minimum abundance estimate of 718, and we also were able to document eight individuals that we re-sighted in multiple years in New Zealand waters, including one whale seen in three of the four years with a different calf each time, and many others we saw at least once.”

The blue whales found off New Zealand, Australia, and Chile are not quite as large as Antarctic blue whales, which scientists believe to be the largest animals to have ever lived on Earth. Antarctic blues, when they reach adulthood, can range from 28 to 30m in length. The other blue whales, though slightly smaller, are still formidable at about 22m in length.

Results of the study were published in May in the journal Endangered Species Research. Other authors were from Cornell University, University of Auckland, Australian Marine Mammal Centre, Blue Whale Study Inc, and Massey University.

The study was supported by numerous other groups, including The Aotearoa Foundation and the Department of Conservation.

Stop seabed mining Forest & Bird has appeared in a four-day appeal hearing against an Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) decision to allow significant seabed mining in the habitat of a New Zealand population of critically endangered blue whales.

Thanks to the generous financial support of the T-Gear Trust, Forest & Bird’s legal team prepared its case and appeared in Wellington’s High Court in April alongside several other concerned groups.

Last year, in a split decision, the EPA controversially granted a 35-year consent for Trans Tasman Resources Limited (TTR) to mine ironsand in the South Taranaki Bight.

The consent allows the company to excavate up to 8000 tonnes of seabed every hour, every day, for 35 years.

The decision is the first approval for a mining proposal in New Zealand’s extensive offshore Exclusive Economic Zone under the EEZ Act 2012.

Forest & Bird appealed the decision alongside Ngāti Ruanui iwi, Ngā Rauru iwi, the Taranaki/Whanganui Conservation Board, Te Ohu Kai Moana, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, Greenpeace, and a combined group of fishing interests.

We argued that “learning by doing” was not appropriate in this case and that the potential seabed mining impacts on marine mammals in the area should have been better understood before consents were given.

The area is home to more than 30 species of marine

mammals, including critically endangered Māui’s dolphins and New Zealand’s only known population of blue whales.

It is also an important migratory corridor for humpback whales, and little blue penguins use the area. The Patea Shoals, an important reef system with high biodiversity values, are closer to shore but also in the mining area.

Forest & Bird believes the EPA panel misunderstood its obligation to protect the environment, confusing it with an obligation to avoid, remedy, or mitigate adverse effects on the environment.

Last August, TTR said it expected to start exporting iron ore extracted from the sands of the South Taranaki Bight in 2020. The High Court’s decision is not expected until later this year.

The black sands of Patea Beach, South Taranaki.

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Forest & Bird

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Cover story

We should close healthy kauri forests now to save a species.

By Caroline Wood. Photos by Arno Gasteiger.

CAN WE SAVE THEM? I

t’s a race against time to save Aotearoa’s remaining healthy kauri forests from being lost forever. There is no known cure for kauri dieback, every infected tree will eventually die, and no resistant individuals have been found.

In early June, the Department of Conservation declared kauri to be “threatened” nationally vulnerable” because of the “seemingly unabated” spread of kauri dieback.

Kauri won’t grow back in infected areas, and the risk that this treasured New Zealand species will become locally extinct is so great that Forest & Bird is calling for all kauri forests to be temporarily closed to the public to quarantine the remaining healthy trees.

Leading by example, Forest & Bird has taken the tough decision to consult on the closure of our own forest reserves. This unprecedented step would see Forest & Bird

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reserves containing healthy kauri closed to the public in the Auckland region, Northland, Waikato, the Coromandel, and parts of the Bay of Plenty.

“Forest & Bird feels we have no choice but to close healthy forests to prevent the spread of kauri dieback.

We need to buy time while scientists do the research that has been sadly lacking over the last decade. We are years behind where we should be in understanding this devastating disease and developing tools to deal with it,” says chief executive Kevin Hague.

“Kauri is a keystone species with more than 17 other plant species depending on its survival. If we lose kauri, we will see ecosystem collapse in the northern podocarp forests. We are seeing the last generation of kauri in infected areas.”

Waipoua Forest, in Northland, home to New Zealand's largest known kauri, estimated to be at least 1250 years old. Some scientists fear kauri dieback will wipe out its remaining healthy trees unless urgent action is taken. Photo: Arno Gasteiger, www.arno.co.nz

Forest & Bird’s Auckland and Northland regional manager Nick Beveridge has begun identifying the reserves in his area that may need to close. They include Matuku, in the Waitākeres, our second largest reserve; the Collin Kerr-Taylor Memorial Reserve near Kumeu; and the HB Matthews Reserve, near Kaitaia.

“We’re basically trying to save the kauri from extinction, and hopefully this could make people more aware of the threat caused by kauri dieback,” explains Nick.

“I believe this is the first time we’ve ever done this. We will act as quickly as possible, hopefully within the next few months. We are consulting with branches and we are confident they will support this move.

“We are hoping people will understand the need to take this precautionary measure. We are asking others to

do the same, particularly the Department of Conservation, and we feel we need to set an example.”

“If we close the tracks, it will buy time to find a cure.

We must do everything we can to protect healthy trees,” he added.

In May, Forest & Bird staff appeared before MPs to give detailed evidence at an environment select committee about the Kauri Dieback Programme and its many failures over the past nine years.

Forest & Bird’s kauri dieback spokesperson, Dr Rebecca Stirnemann, gave evidence and called for a new independent kauri dieback agency to manage a better coordinated response.

“We need to contain this disease and protect healthy forests until a cure can be found,” she said.

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Cover story “It’s been a massive failure of leadership, but it’s now time to shift the focus to solutions. We need good leadership and a response that includes everyone – the Ministry for Primary Industries, Department of Conservation, all councils in affected areas, iwi, environmental groups, and private landowners.

“We urgently need better science. It’s been nine years and we still have massive gaps in our knowledge. We don’t know basic things like where kauri dieback is present, how to stop the spread, what other species the pathogen infects, and we have no resistent trees,” she said.

“We need to focus on the places where Phytophthora agathidicida doesn’t yet exist, including Waiheke Island and the Coromandel’s Hunua Ranges, and stop it from getting there. This means closing off the forests and putting in stronger protection at ports.

“Cleaning stations are only effective if every single speck of mud is removed because the cleaning solutions have not been proven to kill all disease spores. Keeping people out

of the forest is the only thing that works. We call on DOC to follow our example and close healthy forests. We need the public’s support to get this over the line.”

Forest & Bird is also advocating for measures to improve overall forest wellbeing. The first priority is more and sustained predator control, including for pigs who spread the pathogen. Healthy native forests help to build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

“We have to look at different ways of thinking about this. It’s not just about killing a disease,” explains Dean Baigent-Mercer, Forest & Bird’s northern advocate.

“We need to eliminate pests in the forest and bring burrowing seabirds back into the natural eco-system to fertilise the soil as they once did before invasive predators like rats arrived. The government must also halt all permits that allow logging of kauri on private land.” ➜ Can mātauranga Māori unlock scientific solutions?

See page 18. .

Maungaroa Ridge Track (pictured) was the first place in the Waitākere Ranges where kauri dieback was identified and is now closed. The spread of kauri dieback more than doubled in the Waitākeres from 2011 to 2016.

More than one in five trees are infected, with 70% located within 50m of a track. At the current rate of spread, the extinction of kauri in the Waitākeres could occur within 30 years. Maintaining healthy areas in order to preserve the species is now the priority.

Forest & Bird's Ark in the Park project staff are currently trialling kauri dieback “best practice” operating procedures, including boot covers, so predator-control work can continue in high-risk areas. Photo: Arno Gasteiger

PLANT DESTROYER Kauri dieback is caused by a water mould, one of a family of water moulds called Phytophthora that are known throughout the world as causing devastating plant diseases, including the Irish potato famine, sudden oak death in California, and jarrah dieback in south-west Australia. The organism causing kauri dieback disease is a new type of Phytophthora to science and has been named Phytophthora agathidicida, “plant destroyer, kauri killer”. A treatment is being trialled using injections of phosphite, which seems to help the tree to fight back and stay alive longer but does not cure it, remove infection from the soil, or immunise the tree against future infection. Photo: Arno Gasteiger

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Every visibly symptomatic tree infected by kauri dieback is thought to eventually die. There is currently no cure and no resistance has been found. It’s not possible to bank kauri seed because they can only survive about four months. In the wild, tiny trees wait for decades for a gap in the canopy to appear and then all grow towards the light. But the seedlings don’t survive in soil infected with Phytophthora agathidicida. Dead kauri tree, Waipoua Forest. Photo: Arno Gasteiger

DEATH IN KAURI HEARTLAND

A new research project on kauri dieback in Waipoua shows the extent of the disease in this iconic forest.

A new study, conducted by the BioProtection Research Centre, Lincoln University, found that one in three kauri trees tested showed signs of kauri dieback.

Forest & Bird believes these figures show the spread of kauri dieback in Waipoua Forest, in Northland, could be even worse than in the Waitākeres – another reason for an independent agency to be established to run the response programme.

“The Waipoua Forest is the heartland of kauri and should be a

priority for the national programme,” says Dr Rebecca Stirnemann, Forest & Bird’s kauri dieback spokesperson.

A Landcare Research project eight years ago revealed that kauri dieback was present in a tree only 500m from Tane Mahuta. This “Lord of the Forest”, at 17.68m high, is the largest living kauri tree in New Zealand, and is thought to be betweeen 1250 and 2500 years old.

“Why did MPI not prioritise an urgent and thorough programme to prevent, survey, and monitor the

spread of kauri dieback in the Waipoua Forest back in 2010 when it was first discovered there?” added Rebecca Stirnemann.

“The Waipoua forest is the home of kauri. Tane Mahuta is a New Zealand icon and the Waipoua Forest should have the same conservation status (and investment in its protection) as our other threatened icons such as kiwi.

“There have been no reports from the national Kauri Dieback Programme to show the extent of the spread of the disease in the Waipoua Forest. Surveillance through the national programme has been haphazard, ad-hoc, and nonsystematic,” says Dr Stirnemann.

Dr Amanda Black, who supervised the Waipoua Forest study, says they purposely picked a forested area they thought would be uninfected because there were no obvious lesions on the trees.

“We carried out baiting and soil sampling to confirm Phytophthora agathidicia and studied around one hectare of the Waipoua Forest in an area approximately 11km from Tane Mahuta.

“The study found that by fragmenting forests – for example, cutting areas down for pasture and pine forestry – you actually make them more vulnerable to disease and weeds. They lose there core ecosystem which probably helped protect it from attacks,” she added.

Forest & Bird helped halt the commerical milling of kauri at Waipoua, which by the end of the 1940s was being exploited at the rate of 300,000 board metres a year. The Whangarei branch lobbied hard for the forest sanctuary while our national office mounted a petition that quickly attracted 50,000 signatures. This helped secure New Zealand’s first forest sanctuary in 1952, saving the remaining kauri at Waipoua, the same trees now being killed by kauri dieback.

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Cover story

Te Wharihi Hetaraka with tamariki from his whānau at AH Reed Park, Whangarei.

Photo: Arno Gasteiger

Disease without cure Melanie Nelson talks to scientist Dr Amanda Black, of Te Tira Whakamātaki, about her work with northern iwi Te Rōroa using mātauranga Māori to help address kauri dieback.

Amanda Black is a scientist on a mission to save kauri from extinction. As well as being a lecturer at Lincoln University’s Bio-Protection Research Centre, she is one of the leading scientific voices from Te Tira Whakamātaki, the Māori Biosecurity Network.

Amanda’s work is focused on helping enable mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to contribute to saving kauri from kauri dieback. She says that mātauranga Māori is often sidelined or seen as a token extra to Western scientific approaches. It is even seen as threatening, rather than complementary, by some agencies working to address kauri dieback.

“This approach sadly leaves much-needed knowledge and approaches out of the picture at the very time that we need to draw on all our respective knowledges and skills to give us a chance of saving kauri. It also leaves tāngata whenua under-resourced to play their role in preventing further spread of this disease and helping the forests recover,” she says.

Amanda shared some examples of the types of mātauranga (knowledge) that have been accumulated and refined over many generations by Māori.

“Some iwi have a history of using the leaf-litter from under healthy kauri trees to protect less healthy trees. This shows they had methods to protect vulnerable parts of trees from damage, including pathogens.

“It also points towards the leaf-litter containing a clue about what supports the health of kauri. This might be bacteria or fungi or other parts of the ecosystem under the kauri having a protective or health-enhancing effect.”

She says that there is much oral history research to do with Māori communities about where kauri have 18

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traditionally been known to thrive and where they have not. The perspectives and methods that mātauranga Māori offers can both suggest focuses for Western science investigations and broaden the problem-solving tools and approaches available to us.

Mātauranga Māori also provides guidance on how best to work with the trees without further increasing their vulnerability. Amanda says she feels for the trees when they are harmed through rough research techniques, and Māori practices can help protect the trees from damage incidental to research that is trying to protect them, and she takes great care to follow this guidance in her own fieldwork. This includes acknowledging the forest on entering, treating each tree with respect, and leaving the environment as it was when she arrived.

Te Tira Whakamātaki, the Māori Biosecurity Network, is a Māori-led network committed to ensuring Māori have a voice and can participate in New Zealand’s biosecurity system. They also provide support to whānau, hapū, and iwi on biosecurity issues. Te Tira Whakamātaki has already had notable impact and received recognition in their short three-year existence.

The network is carving out a much-needed space in Aotearoa New Zealand biosecurity issues for multiple voices and perspectives to be heard and contribute to some of our most urgent environmental issues.

PhD student Ben Cranston and arborist Fredrik Hjelm install a sap flow sensor in a kauri tree at the Huapai Scientific Reserve, west Auckland.

Photo: Arno Gasteiger

Defending kauri in court

Northland Regional Council has strengthened kauri protections in its new pest management plan following legal action taken by Forest & Bird.

FUNDRAISING APPEAL: EVERY TREE COUNTS If we lose kauri, we will see ecosystem collapse in the northern podocarp forests. Forest & Bird helped save kauri from commercial logging 70 years ago. This time they won’t grow back.

But it’s not too late. If we can keep the healthy kauri disease free by preventing more spread, then we may be able to find tools to tackle the infection and perhaps find some resistant individuals.

It’s a race against time and every tree counts. Please support Forest & Bird’s kauri dieback work by making a donation today at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ everytreecounts.

L

ast year, our legal team went to the Environment Court to argue that Northland Regional Council needed to include better controls on how to deal with kauri dieback in its proposed Northland Regional Pest and Marine Pathway Management Plan.

It was the first time that section 76 of the Biosecurity Act was invoked in relation to a council’s pest control plan. The matter was settled in April after mediation, with everyone agreeing a workable plan was needed to prevent the spread of kauri dieback in the Northland region, especially on private land.

Under the revised plan, landowners, occupiers, and members of the public must immediately inform the council, or an appropriate management agency, if they see or suspect the presence of kauri dieback. The landowner must then implement an approved management plan to reduce the risk of it spreading, including using the latest scientific measures to control it.

In addition, council contractors must visit all places with suspected kauri dieback and undertake further testing as well as monitoring to ensure containment plans are being adhered to properly.

Forest & Bird’s Auckland and Northland regional manager Nick Beveridge said: “This was an important case. It means other councils will now have to include appropriate kauri dieback provisions in their pest-management control plans – a key tool in the fight to control and eventually eradicate this disease.”

Forest & Bird will be contacting branches in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, and Coromandel to talk about how they can get involved with helping to save kauri.

For example, Forest & Bird members could act as track ambassadors, increase local awareness and understanding of kauri dieback issues, apply for grant funding for stronger kauri protections in their area, or lobby local and national government for stronger controls. If you are interested in helping with this work, please contact Melissa Irace at m.irace@forestandbird.org.nz.

What can you do to help stop the spread of kauri dieback?

Please help spread the word about kauri dieback and its impacts: n Write to your local MP, DOC, council or newspaper about the need to close healthy kauri forests and why you support the idea. n Post about the issue to Facebook, tagging #everytreecounts. n Donate to our Every Tree Counts fundraising appeal, see right, to help Forest & Bird respond urgently to kauri dieback issues.

Tane Mahuta. Photo: Rob Suisted

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Tourism impacts

ONLY ONE OPARARA

Managing Oparara’s fragile landscape is a balancing act, as visitor numbers threaten the very thing that makes it special – its wildness. Words and images by Neil Silverwood.

Visiting the Oparara Basin, in Kahurangi National Park, gives visitors an opportunity to step back in time and glimpse an ancient landscape with spectacular limestone caves and arches, and primeval rain forest, which is almost unchanged from when humans arrived in New Zealand. If visitors are lucky, they may spot some of the local residents including whio, weka, kākā, great-spotted kiwi, and Spelungula cavernicola, New Zealand’s only protected spider.

The Oparara River, the colour of strong tea, meanders peacefully through the centre of the basin in and out of the caves and limestone arches. As well as walkers, cavers, and nature lovers, paleontologists also come here to study in-situ subfossil deposits, including moa and Haast’s eagle, which are perfectly preserved by the caves’ constant weather-less climate.

But it’s a fragile landscape under pressure from increasing numbers of tourists. Cave formations crumble from the slightest touch, whio nest right next to a busy visitors’ car park, and Spelungulas are increasingly being exposed to light pollution from torches worn by visitors eager to see New Zealand’s largest and rarest spider.

Tourist numbers on the West Coast have increased markedly in recent years, principally from the nationwide increase in tourist numbers but also from the Kaikōura road closures after the earthquake. Many conservationists feel Oparara is already at full capacity, which is why there is widespread concern about plans being drawn up to “develop” it into a prime tourist destination.

Suggestions out for consultation currently include a suspended platform in the main arch, new walks through some of the most pristine sections of the basin (which contain sensitive caves), private accommodation within the national park, and commercial ventures – even opera has been suggested.

I recently spent several days in the Oparara Basin working on a photo essay highlighting the fragility of the karst landscape. It’s been claimed that “development” is 20

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needed because tourists are having a negative experience at Oparara, but I spoke to many visitors and almost all had come to get off the beaten track and escape places such as Punakaiki, where tourist numbers have grown to a point that it negatively impacts on the visitor experience. They were there to escape concrete pathways, crowded viewing platforms, and tacky tourist shops, and every single one rated the Oparara experience highly.

About 870,000 tourists visited the West Coast in 2016, and West Coast Tourism has set a goal of attracting 1.1 million people by 2021. This isn’t the first time Oparara has been under threat. It was here that the logging stopped in the 1980s after a clash between environmentalists and local Karamea residents wanting to log the sprawling podocarp forests in the basin.

In 2016, the Department of Conservation commissioned the Lincoln University Landscape Design Lab to come up with some ideas for developing the Oparara Basin. Funded by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, the report recommended, among other things, a “sound and light” immersive experience that gave little consideration to the fragility of the area and its caves.

Thankfully, this idea was abandoned, and DOC handed over the project to Tourism West Coast to come up with alternative ideas. This led to Tourism Recreation Conservation, an international tourism and planning consulting firm based in Australia and New Zealand, conducting research and releasing a draft concept paper in May this year. The paper, which was commissioned with joint funding from MBIE/Development West Coast, outlines ideas for how Oparara can be “developed” and suggests there is potential for significantly more tourists – up to a three-fold increase.

The Oparara River meanders through the Moria Gate Arch, one of only six large limestone arches in New Zealand. Two of these have already been heavily modified for tourism with suspended viewing platforms. The Oparara Arches give tourists a chance to visit these rare karst landforms in a largely unmodified state.

Once again, the plans, backed by the tourism industry and private business, give little consideration to conservation issues – or the legal protections afforded by the Conservation Act and the National Parks Act. The Kahurangi National Park Plan states one of its primary objectives is to “retain the essential character of Kahurangi National Park as a remote, undeveloped, natural area of great beauty, natural quiet and diversity, and of value for whakapapa, recreation, appreciation and study.” It’s hard to see how this Oparara plan aligns with this goal.

The main rationale for development of the Oparara is to draw tourists north through Westport and Karamea. But how would the new track network, and a significant increase in visitor numbers, upset the delicate balance in the basin?

No environmental assessment of the impacts has been undertaken – usually a first step before even considering a development like this. This case also sets a precedent by allowing the tourism industry to have a strong voice when it comes to the management of our wild places.

DOC has previously justified the potential developments at Oparara by claiming tourists are not having a good experience there, the tracks need to be upgraded to provide easier access to the arches, and the road to Oparara is unsafe.

Ironically, increased car numbers on the road are in part largely the result of Tourism West Coast’s advertising campaign to get more tourists to venture there. Last year, there were 47 minor road accidents on the Oparara road.

Two solutions, yet to be seriously considered, include closing the road during summer and offering a shuttle service, or shortening the road and having a longer walk into the basin.

Both would help control visitor numbers, make the drive in safer, and help protect the Oparara’s natural values.

Collectively, we need a conversation about how to manage the Oparara Basin that focuses on its preservation.

We need to protect the small amount of unmodified karst we have left in New Zealand.

DOC needs to step forward and take a leadership role supporting the conservation of this pristine and fragile landscape – rather than enabling businesses that want to exploit it for economic gain.

The Oparara is a stronghold for weka and other rare birds, including kiwi and whio.

RARE LANDSCAPE Some of the most dramatic landscapes in New Zealand are karst – from Castle Hill rocks, near Christchurch, to the iconic subterranean wonders of Waitomo. While karst features make up some of our most amazing and memorable landscapes, only 3% of New Zealand’s landscape is karst, compared to a continental average of 14% around the world.

In Aotearoa, about two-thirds of our rare karst landscapes have been heavily modified through logging, quarrying, agriculture, and tourism. However, the Oparara Basin remains pristine, albeit fragile.

Contributor Neil Silverwood’s Caves book has just scooped the Judith Binney best first book award.

To celebrate, Potton & Burton is offering Forest & Bird readers 10% off and free delivery. Order order online at pottonandburton.co.nz and use the discount code CAVES18. Offer expires 31 August 2018.

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Climate

BACK THE ACT Forest & Bird climate advocate Adelia Hallett explains why backing the Zero Carbon Act is vital and asks everyone to show their support.

We’re closer than we’ve ever been to getting action on climate change.

The government has said it will put in place a law, the Zero Carbon Act, committing New Zealand to being carbon neutral by 2050, and it’s got the numbers in Parliament to do it.

But we need more than that – to stop climate policy being kicked around like a political football – we need the long-haul support of every MP in Parliament.

Which is where Forest & Bird comes in. Our members and supporters are everywhere – throughout the country, in every walk of life, and in every age group. If we tell politicians we want them to support the Act, and we ask our friends to do it too, they will get the message that they need to work together on this, because climate change is bigger than politics.

The Zero Carbon Act is still being drafted, and then it will have to go through the hurly-burly of Parliament, where it could be changed. But, essentially, the Zero Carbon Act will commit New Zealand to net-zero emissions by 2050 – this is twice the current target, which is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to half the level they were in 1990 by 2050. Exactly what net-zero emissions means is still being debated – does it mean all greenhouse gas emissions, including short-lived gases such as methane, or does it mean only long-lived gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide?

The Act will also set short-term carbon budgets (maximum emissions levels for five-year periods) to take the country down the path towards being carbon neutral, and establish a Climate Change Commission of experts to recommend carbon budgets and monitor success in achieving them.

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Why does it matter?

Nature is already feeling the effects of the changing climate (see page 53). Getting to net-zero global emissions by the middle of the century is essential if we are keep the impacts of climate change on people and nature to a minimum.

To do it, we need a plan so that, when we’re making decisions like how to use land, including farms and forests, and what machinery to buy (coal or wood-fired), we do it knowing that, if it’s going to last a long time, it needs to be consistent with New Zealand’s zero-carbon target.

What do we need to do?

Getting the Zero Carbon Act across the line is one of the biggest things you can do to support nature. Forest & Bird has been working on this campaign for two years.

We’re nearly there, but we need to make sure the law that is passed is an effective one and stop it being radically changed every time there is a new government. We have to ensure all politicians know that the public wants them to support it.

Here are some things you can do to help: n Make a submission on what the bill should say (see our website for help). n Do the Big O. Share pictures of yourself and others on social media and tag #zerocarbonact #backtheact. n Use your voice. Talk to your MP, your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, team mates, people on the bus … talk to everyone. n Take part in some official events, including public talks and online town-hall meetings (details on our website).

Zero-bykill campaign

Time to stop set netting?

Forest & Bird set out to shine a light on set net fisheries, as Megan Hubscher explains.

Set nets are often in the news for the worst reasons, and we wanted to know more about this small industry and its role in killing some of New Zealand’s rarest marine species. Earlier this year, we asked the Ministry for Primary Industries to give us its official figures for set-netting activity, on-boat observers, catch value, and regional data – so we could gauge its impact in our waters.

We discovered that, in 2017, so much commercial set net was deployed it could have wrapped more than once around New Zealand’s entire coast line. Shockingly, only 5% was monitored by MPI staff. The rest was hauled in without official oversight, leaving MPI, the Department of Conservation, and the rest of us in the dark about the fishery’s true environmental toll.

Set nets are a relatively simple technology and can be deployed by small boats with only a couple of crew. In fact, one reason given for not having MPI observers on board is boat size. But commercial nets are 0.5km long, with provision in the legislation for nets of up to 6km in length.

They’re usually set near shore where diving birds, dolphins, fur seals, and other animals are likely to be feeding, and they can legally stay unattended for 18 hours. In that time, anything that gets tangled up in their transparent filaments will almost certainly die.

Last year, half a breeding colony of hoiho from Codfish Island disappeared at sea, with the finger being pointed at the set-net fishery operating around the island.

This year, a fisherman caught five Hector’s dolphins in his set net off Bank’s Peninsula. This was a catastrophe for one of the world’s rarest and smallest marine dolphins. The fisher correctly notified the disaster to MPI said he would give up set netting and move to longlining instead. In fact, most if not all target fish species of set netters can be caught using other, safer fishing methods.

The small set-net fishery contributes only a small amount to New Zealand’s economy. Species caught and sold include school shark, octopus, mackerel, and kahawai.

MPI figures show the total value of the set-net fishery was about $48m last year. The fishery contributes relatively little to the national economy compared with the value of tourists wanting to see the same animals that are dying in set nets. International visitors alone brought in $11.8 billion last year, according to Tourism New Zealand.

It is unacceptable that such a high-impact industry is left to its own devices. Putting cameras on boats is one solution. Another is that we ask ourselves about the future of this fishing method, when there are far less destructive alternatives available.

In the dark In 2017 New Zealand fishing boats deployed enough set nets to wrap completely around our coastline, 95% went unchecked by fisheries officers.

Let’s shine a light on set net fisheries and reduce marine by-kill to ZERO. Source: Ministry for Primary industries data

©Forest & Bird, Illustration by Elizabeth Connor www.thekinship.co.nz

Freshwater Waihou Stream Blue Spring. Photo: George Novak

Fantastic fish

A study of dwarf galaxias at the Blue Spring is unlocking new insights into this little known native fish, as Cherie Pascoe explains.

A unique population of one of New Zealand’s threatened native fish species, the dwarf galaxias, can be found at the Blue Spring of Te Waihou, near Putaruru, in the South Waikato.

Part of an ancient family of scaleless fish called Galaxiidae, these tiny sparkling fish are being studied by scientists who believe they may be a genetically distinct population, only found in the Blue Spring.

Unlike whitebait, which migrate to sea, some galaxiid species live out their whole life in the stream or river where they hatched.

The Blue Spring’s dwarf galaxias were first identified in the 1990s, but little was known about them until 2014, when the Department of Conservation and the Raukawa Settlement Trust started working together to monitor the population.

Most fish in the Galaxiidae family have a threatened or at-risk conservation status, with several local extinctions being confirmed in recent years, especially in Otago and Canterbury. These were caused by habitat loss, water quality issues, and weed invasion. The risk is highest for populations only found in a single freshwater location, like Te Waihou’s Blue Spring population.

Celia Witehira, Raukawa’s project leader, is excited about the opportunities that working with DOC offers.

“Being actively involved in the monitoring project means the marae hapū and uri are practising their kaitiakitanga, as well as gaining new skills that will enable them to undertake similar projects in other awa throughout the rohe.”

Ms Witehira explains that Te Waihou and Te Puna are of great cultural and environmental significance 24

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

to Raukawa. Te Waihou is taonga, and Raukawa has a deep appreciation for the responsibility the iwi carries as kaitiaki to nurture and protect the awa for this and future generations.

Now, with five years of data to work with, DOC and Raukawa are hoping to see trends in water quality and population changes that will assist with management plans of both the dwarf galaxias and Te Waihou as a whole.

But at the Blue Spring, once a popular swimming spot, human visitors during the 2016/17 summer removed much of the macrophytes (water plants) that the dwarf galaxias depend on. However, a swimming ban implemented in 2017 allowed the plants to recover, which is good news for these taonga fish.

DOC’s Biodiversity Ranger, Bex Newland, says the latest data collected in the monitoring programme in November 2017 shows the population of adults and juvenile fish had decreased compared with 2015, but, encouragingly, the larvae numbers had increased.

The results of the monitoring have also given scientists new insights into the fish’s habitat preference and breeding – and how they may have been impacted by their geographical isolation.

The Blue Spring population was cut off at some point in the past. Although theories as to when this happened vary, it was thought previously the Mount Tarawera eruption in 1886 may have isolated the population. But new genetic research indicates the isolation could have happened one to two millennia ago, making this a very special fish.

Jonathan Waters, Professor of Zoology at Otago University, uses genetics to study biodiversity, particularly

the ecological and geological processes that generate diversity within nature.

While New Zealand’s populations of dwarf galaxias are widespread, protecting them is difficult because so little is known about them, he says.

Professor Waters has found a 2% difference in the mitochondrial DNA of the Blue Spring dwarf galaxias.

“Two percent doesn’t sound like much, but it is a substantial difference that could even warrant it being classified as its own species down the track once more evidence has been gathered.”

Professor Waters suggests that, based on this mitochondrial DNA difference, it has been between 100,000 and 200,000 years since this dwarf galaxias population was last in contact with other family members.

“This makes them quite special and is significant in terms of their conservation. They have a unique genetic signature. We really need to look after them,” he says.

Dr Bruno David, a freshwater ecologist with the Waikato Regional Council, says that Galaxiidae generally live in fastflowing water and can burrow down into gravel, sitting out droughts some 30–40cm beneath the surface, where they can also feed and lay their eggs.

“At the Blue Spring, they don’t burrow into gravel, but live among the macrophytes that are likely to provide them protection from predation by trout,” he says. “Because the dwarf galaxias are confined to these springs, it’s very important to reduce the pressure on their habitat.”

Migratory ocean-going galaxias feast on microscopic plankton, but Dr David says the Blue Spring dwarf galaxias produce fewer but larger larvae, which have bigger mouths so they can feed on midge and mayfly larvae.

He adds, “This adaptation is vital for their survival in the Blue Spring as they have no other way to repopulate themselves. It’s why they’re in a riskier position compared to other migratory galaxiids that can repopulate to streams from wider areas.”

Like most of New Zealand’s freshwater fish species, local extinction is a major threat for the Blue Spring galaxias.

“Population extinction is a huge issue in New Zealand’s freshwater,” adds Professor Waters.

“The Blue Spring population is unique and distinctive, and, if it goes, there is no way to bring it back.”

DOC’s Joanna Mendona with a juvenile Galaxias divergens at Te Waihou. Photo: Raukawa Settlement Trust

NEW ZEALAND’S “SPARKLE” FISH Galaxiidae are named after the star-like gold flecks and galaxy-like patterns on their backs. There are 12 species of non-migratory galaxiids, including Alpine galaxias found in Canterbury, Marlborough, and the West Coast, dwarf inanga from the North Kaipara Head dune lakes, and Central Otago roundhead galaxias.

Another 13 non-migratory galaxiids are recognised but undescribed, including some species found only in certain rivers and lakes, such as the Pomahaka galaxias (Pomahaka River) and the Dune lakes galaxias (Kai Iwi Lakes).

Source: DOC

Dwarf galaxias. Photo: Rod Morris/www.rodmorris.co.nz

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Drift diver Michael Hill collecting samples at Te Waihou.

Photo: Raukawa Settlement Trust

Here are some ideas for how you can help nonmigratory galaxiids in your area: n When repairing or replacing culverts or structures in streams, talk to someone at DOC to make sure they’re compatible with protecting native fish. n Fence off spawning areas in spring. n Protect breeding grounds by restoring and protecting vegetation on stream banks and wetlands.

Planting alongside streams also helps create shade, which galaxiids love, and reduces nutrient run-off. n “Check, Clean, and Dry” to prevent the spread of aquatic pests – fish such as koi carp and aquatic weeds such as didymo can wreak havoc on our freshwater environments.

Source: DOC

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Kiwi Conservation Club

Octopus. Photo: Rob Stewart/NIWA

OCTOPUS ACTION Auckland schoolboy Bennet Cullen has launched a campaign to stop people plundering up to 50 octopus a day from our rocky shores.

It all began with a letter nine-year-old Bennet Cullen penned to Forest & Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club. In it he wrote: Dear KCC: I saw some people catching octopus and shutting them in Tupperware containers in summer, and I wrote to fisheries to ask about the legal limits for octopus.

They sent this letter back. I think the legal limit for octopus is too much, and the reasons are in my letter.

Could you print in KCC, to show people what the legal limit for octopus is, and ask them to write to fisheries as well? If a lot of people do it, it will not be much effort, but it could make a big difference. I got all the kids in my class and other people to sign my letter but thought we could reach more people through KCC. Thanks.

Rebecca Browne, our KCC and youth advisor, supported Bennet to write to the Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Auckland Council, and helped him set up a petition asking for the limit to be reduced. In a few short weeks, the petition has nearly 600 signatures and the campaign has attracted nationwide interest, with Bennet interviewed for TVNZ 2’s Fanimals programme.

Bennet, who is a Kiwi Conservation Club member, explains why he is taking his campaign to the highest levels of government: “This summer at the beach we saw some people who caught two small octopus and stuffed them alive into clear containers, with no water. I was upset because octopus are smart and can suffer, and I couldn’t do anything to help them.

“I didn’t know if there was a size or catch limit, so I wrote to the Ministry for Primary Industries – Fisheries – to ask them. They sent back a reply saying you are allowed 50 per 26

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Bennet with Roger Grace

person, per day, and that they were classified as shellfish.

“I thought that this was way too much because our family, including Nana, could then take 350 a day if we wanted to. I think octopus should be in a different category than shellfish too. Every octopus killed is an octopus out of the food chain.”

Bennet also interviewed distinguished marine biologist Dr Roger Grace to “pick his brains” for tips on how to run his campaign.

Roger, who was also a member of Forest & Bird when he was a child, is impressed by young Bennet’s tenacity and commitment to his campaign.

“The problem of octopus conservation is getting worse because more people are starting to eat them, and it definitely requires a review of the current rules to see whether we should protect them more,” he added.

Bennet is also being supported by his mum Julie Harrison, who said: “It will be pretty amazing for Benny if he really can make a change. I think he feels really good that he’s trying his best anyway.

If you care about octopus, please sign Bennet’s petition http://kcc.org.nz/sign-the-petition.

It will stay open until the end of August and all ages can sign!

READER GIVEAWAY: Sign the petition and be in to win a copy of the new Collins Field Guide to the New Zealand Seashore (RRP $$44.99), by Sally Carson and Rod Morris.

Defending nature

NO MINING RESERVE LAND

Forest & Bird is determined to stop a large open-cast mine being built at Te Kuha, near Westport, but we need your help.

Forest & Bird is appealing a High Court decision that the Crown Minerals Act trumps the Reserves Act when considering open-cast mining on a publicly owned reserve.

The court case followed Buller District Council’s decision to allow access to the Westport Water Conservation Reserve for the Te Kuha coal mine project – a decision challenged by Forest & Bird.

In February, the High Court decided that, when the Crown Minerals Act was passed in 1991, it implicitly repealed the protections of the Reserves Act for special features such as native plants and animals, and scenic values.

“This decision sets a dangerous precedent. There are dozens of council reserves around the country that the public rightly expects to be protected. But it turns out they are not protected from mining,” says Forest & Bird’s West Coast regional manager Jen Miller.

“We disagree with this decision. In Forest & Bird’s view, the Crown Minerals Act does not override the Council’s obligations under the Reserves Act to protect the reserve’s natural features.

“This reserve above Westport is pristine, with untouched forest that is home to threatened bird, lizard, and plant species, including the great spotted kiwi, the South Island fernbird, and the West Coast green gecko.

“It’s important that this forest and the wildlife that lives there is protected. We don’t think there should an exemption for coal mining.”

The case will be held in the Court of Appeal on 9 August.

In a separate court process, Forest & Bird is appealing the granting of resource consents for the Te Kuha mine to the Environment Court. This appeal will be heard on 18 July.

Stevenson Mining Ltd is also awaiting a decision from the Ministers of Conservation and Energy & Resources on access to about 12ha of conservation land required for the mine.

FANTASTIC FUNDRAISERS Thank you to everyone who donated their time to help stuff envelopes so we could mail out our urgent Te Kuha appeal to help fund our two legal cases. The appeal has so far generated $75,000, which will make an big dent in the legal costs Forest & Bird will incur for these dual legal court battles.

Forest & Bird fundraiser Grace Marshall said: “Three teams of volunteers came in over three days to help us mail out 12,000 letters asking for financial support for the two upcoming court cases.

“They included people from SPARK, Volunteer Wellington, our Wellington branch, and National Office staff, and they did a terrific job. We’d like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts.”

You can still make a donation to Te Kuha. Go to www.forestandbird. org.nz/oursnotmine or send a cheque to Te Kuha appeal, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

discover the magic of

TIRITIRI MATANGI ISLAND wildlife sanctuary

Enjoy a magical day trip to this world renowned wildlife sanctuary.

Tiritiri Matangi is home to some of the rarest species of NZ flora and fauna, and a must do for both locals and visitors alike.

Book your trip today.

Ferry departs Wednesday - Sunday throughout the year: Departs Auckland 9.00am Departs Gulf Harbour 9.50am Returns from Tiritiri Matangi 3.30pm

09 307 8005 360discovery.co.nz Forest & Bird

| 27

Forest & Bird project

Better for

bats

Bats are fascinating animals – the only true flying mammal. Longtailed bat. Photo: Emma Williams

Forest & Bird has secured funding for a three-year project to learn more about critically endangered long-tailed bats in the top of the South Island. By Caroline Wood.

It’s 7pm and it’s getting dark on the forested banks of the Buller River, in sleepy Murchison. We are sitting on rocks holding Batbox bat detectors that can pick up impossiblefor-humans-to-hear bat calls and transform them into a series of clicks as the bat flies in and out of range. A series of these audible clicks is defined as a “bat pass”.

This should be good bat country according to Debs Martin, former coordinator for Forest & Bird’s Bat Recovery Project. Debs shows us how to use the detectors, angling them towards where the bats are likely to fly along the forest edge by the river looking for insects to snack on.

Sadly, there were no bat passes for those of us who had gathered by the banks of the river in early summer in the hope of observing our first native bat in its natural habitat. We failed to see or even hear a single one during the evening. Maybe there are roosts in the nearby forests, and we were unlucky in not seeing their tiny occupants.

Or perhaps the bats are locally extinct, another victim of New Zealand’s introduced predators – the rats, stoats, cats, possums, and wasps who come to feast on the adults and young pups defenceless in their roosts each breeding season.

For 10 years, Forest & Bird has been leading work on the conservation of critically endangered long-tailed bats in the top of the South Island. In 2008, we employed Dr Brian Lloyd to look for significant bat populations, and he spent five years surveying Marlborough, Nelson, Tasman, and the West Coast. Despite checking many places, he found only three sites with reasonable numbers of longtailed bats – one on D’Urville Island, another near the Mokihinui River, and a third at Pelorus Bridge/Titiraukawa, a 200ha scenic reserve in Marlborough, which became home to Forest & Bird’s Bat Recovery Project.

Bats are New Zealand’s only native land mammal. There are two species – the short-tailed and the long-tailed bat –

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neither of which is found anywhere else in the world. Both are as threatened as kiwi, locally extinct in parts of both the North and South Islands, and yet they don’t get anywhere near as much protection, resources, or research as some of our more charismatic species.

Bat expert Gillian Dennis, project manager of Forest & Bird’s Bat Recovery Project, says: “New Zealand’s bats are in big trouble, they get very little attention despite the many threats they face. They are fascinating creatures, but many New Zealanders may not even be aware we have bats, because they are small, silent to our ears, nocturnal, and often live in remote places.

“The Pelorus/Te Hoiere catchment, in particular, is significant because the long-tailed bats there are living in

Forest & Bird’s Gillian Dennis will lead the long-tailed bat monitoring project at Pelorus.

a fragmented landscape. They don’t have the protection of big, healthy forested areas under long-term, large-scale predator control like in Fiordland, where the southern subspecies of short-tailed bats is recovering.”

At the end of last year, Forest & Bird’s Bat Recovery Project secured $60,000 of funding from the Department of Conservation, which will be used along with $20,000 from the Rātā Foundation for a three-year long-tailed bat monitoring project at Pelorus. Gillian Dennis and her team of community volunteers will study how long-tailed bats breed and survive in a fragmented landscape surrounded by forests that aren’t under sustained predator control.

In healthy forests under proper predator control – for example, in parts of Fiordland and the Pureora Forest – long-tailed bat colonies may have more than 100 members. But in other places under pressure from predators, colony sizes will be a lot smaller, perhaps down to single figures.

RESTORING A FORGOTTEN SPECIES Dr Brian Lloyd and Debs Martin doing bat survey work.

New Zealand’s only native land mammals can recover but only where their forest habitat is secure from predators and economic development. Southern short-tailed bat. Photo: Ngā Manu Images

Forest & Bird’s bat recovery volunteers will help Gillian catch the adults and juveniles away from their roosts and attach tiny radio tracking devices to them so they can find out where they are roosting. Locating roosts will help the project’s volunteers know where to do more predator control.

The study also hopes to reveal the composition and size of the Pelorus population, whether the young are growing up and remaining nearby, whether there is a sex bias, and whether the population is viable long term.

Monitoring will begin in December or early January next year once the bat pups are old enough to fly.

BAT FACTS There are more than 1300 species of bats in the world, and more are still being discovered. Bats account for about 20% of all mammal species worldwide.

They play an essential part in the natural world and are indicators of a healthy environment.

About 25% of the world’s bats are threatened with extinction with at least 12 bat species already lost, including New Zealand’s largest species, the greater short-tailed bat.

Source: Bat Conservation Trust, UK, and DOC

There used to be a population of short-tailed bats at Oparara on the West Coast, but Brian Lloyd’s survey for Forest & Bird found the numbers were close to zero, suggesting the population had become locally extinct.

Before the survey, there hadn’t been any long-term, large-scale predator control in the area.

The picture is different in areas of sustained largescale predator control, where the short-tailed bat is recovering. The southern short-tailed bat (one of three subspecies) was recently moved from “threatened” to “recovering” ranking thanks to DOC’s sustained control of rats, possums, and stoats in its last mainland habitat.

The numbers have steadily grown from 300 to more than 3000 in the Eglinton Valley, Fiordland National Park, since predator control began more than a decade ago.

Things aren’t so great for New Zealand’s long-tailed bats, which are particularly vulnerable in the North Island, where their roosts are being lost to economic development, such as new roads and housing, as well as uncontrolled predators.

Previously, the North Island long-tailed bat was assessed separately as being in a lower threat category than their South Island counterparts, but new genetic research has confirmed they are the same species.

They are now grouped together in the highest threat category of “nationally critical”.

A report on the conservation status of New Zealand bats, released by DOC in March, updates the last review in 2012. It confirms that, where bat forest habitat is safe and predators are suppressed, our only native land mammals can recover.

“Yet in many areas, populations of both bat species continue to decline because of the threat of rats, stoats, possums, and cats, and clearance of lowland forest and large old trees where bats roost,” commented Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation.

“The effect of wasps and the potential effect of kauri dieback on roost trees is also of concern.”

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Branch news

Trent Bell of EcoGecko collected 63 common and copper skinks and released them to their safe new home.

Photo: Gerry Brackenbury

SAVING SKINKS

More than 60 native skinks are enjoying a new home thanks to some creative thinking by Forest & Bird’s Lower Hutt branch, as Gerry Brackenbury explains.

It started with a heads-up from Forest & Bird’s national office. Fourteen hectares at Kelson, Lower Hutt, were about to be subdivided for housing. Would the Lower Hutt branch like to check it out? We did. Adjacent to Belmont Regional Park, the proposed housing site presented as a classic regeneration of māhoe, mānuka, tree fern, and every kind of weed.

We contacted Cuttriss Ltd, the planners for the developer, and were pleasantly surprised and encouraged by their environmentally aware development plan. This included protecting a healthy and reasonably sized wetland – small streamlets would be saved – and they even had a fish relocation plan. Mature native trees would not be cut down.

But in our discussions, I realised there was no plan for lizards if they were found to be present on the development site. I suggested that, since the branch was putting in a formal RMA submission, they might want to do a herpetological survey before the bulldozers went in. The developer agreed to pay for a survey and to collect any lizards found and release them to an appropriate site.

Trent Bell, from EcoGecko, was given the job, and his team laid 100 pitfall traps over two weeks. They struck gold and found a reasonable number of skinks on the Kelson site, but then we had to work out what to do with them. Luckily, two years ago, the Lower Hutt branch had started Contributor Gerry predator-control work at Manor Park, Brackenbury, who is a Member of a former rubbish dump that was the New Zealand being restored. It had been identified Order of Merit in as an important ecological wildlife 2016 for services to conservation, is corridor by Old Blue Russell Bell and on Forest & Bird’s turned out to be the right habitat for Lower Hutt branch the skinks and was pest free. committee.

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The Department of Conservation gave the green light for Trent to release the skinks at Manor Park. We moved 63 skinks in total, mainly common skink (Oligosoma polychroma) and copper skink (Cyclodina aenea). They were released with a small ceremony.

The challenge now is to keep our foot on the throat of the pests that will inevitably return to Manor Park. In this boutique site of only 4ha, apart from the rats and mice, we’ve also removed 11 hedgehogs and one feral cat.

I’m also experimenting with “skink palaces” using pallets filled with bark chip and covered with old carpet, large branches, rocks, and any organic material to hand. Our branch volunteers will soon plant low native species such as shrubby tororaro close to the skink middens.

As an aside, in my RMA submission, I suggested that the developer put a covenant on each section he sells that would limit the future owner to one cat, which must be chipped and spayed. To his credit (and my amazement), he agreed.

However, this was a Pyrrhic victory. The Lower Hutt City Council will not monitor or check on cat owners or their cats. Forest & Bird has tried hard to get the council to make limiting cat ownership a consent condition for all future subdivisions with no luck so far. The politics of cats will haunt us for years to come.

Innovation

ONE BILLION REASONS TO DO IT RIGHT Planting one billion trees throughout New Zealand over the next decade could leave an amazing legacy for our children – but only if we include native forestry in the mix.

Forest & Bird is calling on the government to make half of the planned one billion new trees for New Zealand native species – and include regenerating forest as part of the planned roll-out.

The government has set an ambitious goal of planting one billion new trees throughout New Zealand over the next 10 years, but Forest & Bird is worried the majority will be introduced exotic pine species that will be cut down and sent offshore for processing – a high volume, low value economic model.

We want to see half of the new plantings – up to 500,000 trees – being native species, either in regenerating forests or even as native plantations of tōtara, rimu, and kauri.

Chief conservation advisor Kevin Hackwell said regenerating native forests act as carbon sinks, protect against climate-related weather extremes, and provide employment in the regions.

“We recently made a submission to the Productivity Commission saying there is an economic case for including regenerating forest in the mix of forestry, and this could contribute to New Zealand's goal of being carbon neutral by 2050,” he said.

“Putting government investment into predator control, native forestry management, and boosting biodiversity would pay off in terms of helping New Zealand become

carbon neutral, generate regional employment, protect native species, and support tourism.”

Investing in regenerating forests would also protect regions from the ravages of climate change. Native forests in the upper catchment areas of rivers hold the soil in place and reduce problems associated with erosion and run-off downstream. They also soak up rainwater and release it slowly, providing protection against flooding and drought, while improving water quality in drier areas.

“There’s little value in planting introduced pine trees and then sending them off-shore for someone else to process. The added value to the economy is processing them. Plantations of native timbers, such as tōtara, kauri, and rimu, could be used to make high-value furniture for export,” Kevin Hackwell added.

Welcome end to logging plan Old growth West Coast rainforest has been saved after a local council backed down from plans to open it up to logging.

Last year, the Grey District Council proposed commercial logging of three forested areas – Mt Buckley, Mt Sewell, and Cashmere Bay. Fourteen thousand public submissions in opposition were received through environmental groups, including Forest & Bird. In May, it emerged the proposal was abandoned in a confidential council meeting earlier this year.

“This is a victory for nature, but it’s also a step in the right direction for the West Coast’s long-term sustainable future,” says Forest & Bird chief conservation adviser Kevin Hackwell.

“The forests are the jewel in the West Coast’s crown, and the most successful development initiatives – such as the West Coast Wilderness Trail for cyclists – don’t degrade that natural environment, but depend on it remaining pristine.”

When the government ended native forest logging on Crown land 18 years ago, West Coast council authorities received a $120 million development package to help the region move away from extractive industries.

“These forests are of national significance, so it’s entirely appropriate that any threats to them should be a national conversation, and it’s great to see people from all around the country ready to speak up for the forests when new threats arise,” added Kevin Hackwell.

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Focus on flora

Diverse vegetation along the roadside in the Hakatere Conservation Park.

Photo: Mary Ralston

ROADSIDE REMNANTS

Councils should engage with local farming communities to identify, value, and protect the last remaining pockets of dryland vegetation. By Mary Ralston.

Death by a thousand cuts is an old cliché, but it’s entirely appropriate for the continual grief of ongoing roadside vegetation loss in New Zealand.

Watching these losses is a constant and tiring reminder that native flora isn’t valued if it gets in the way of making a dollar or tidying up messy nature. This is especially so in intensive agricultural areas, such as the Canterbury Plains, and it seems even dedicated campaigners can do very little in the face of the development juggernaut.

Over decades, ecologists such as Colin Meurk repeatedly alerted councils to the value of these scattered gems, but for the most part the warnings fell on deaf ears – dryland vegetation is just not seen as worth saving. And to rub salt into the wound, council roadworks teams sent out to “tidy up” the verges have contributed hugely to the loss and damage, not just to vegetation but to the original soil layer.

“We have lost visibility of the original vegetation. It is no longer part of our experience or our memory, and for the most part we have lost an emotional attachment and therefore the desire to protect this history. There is a hiatus of information, a complete displacement – an extinction of experience,” says Colin Meurk.

“Our nature is generally out of sight and out of mind, away in the mountains or on remote islands. And if it does feature, it is the special or rare species like kākāpō, not the everyday.”

Responsibility for failing to protect these roadside remnants must be shared by councils, the community, and a New Zealand education system that has failed to build a sense of ownership of our unique natural history.

The Canterbury Plains were never considered remarkable in landscape or vegetation terms. Its flat land was cultivated, leaving almost no refuges of original habitat, except along roadside fencelines and some streams.

Almost no original dryland vegetation was set aside in protected reserves, and the plains were turned into farmland. Wetlands were drained and scrub went from the paddocks. Pockets remained on the roadsides but were in a

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tenuous position, losses were incremental but constant.

The reasons for their loss are varied – some have been accidentally killed when an adjacent paddock or fenceline was sprayed, some have been overwhelmed by cocksfoot or other exotic grasses because irrigation changed the local growing conditions, some have been mown, and some trampled by dense stock grazing the verge.

Agricultural intensification accelerated in the 1990s, and with it the loss of further remnants. Irrigation added to the pressures – dryland species that had hung on along dry roadsides suddenly faced continual watering and competition from introduced grasses that thrived with such treatment.

Shelterbelts creating dry edge conditions, which suited silver tussock, and gorse hedges harbouring Muehlenbeckia complexa were ripped out for ease of irrigator movements, bigger paddocks, and road widening.

Until recently, Canterbury’s foothills and high country had a high degree of naturalness – many roadsides supported tall tussocks, shrubs, grasses, and herbs.

But the wave of farming intensification that swept the plains has reached the foothills and high country – farmers have mown snow tussocks and sprayed matagouri and native broom along their fencelines, and council roading contractors have widened the roadsides with abandon to accommodate higher traffic volumes.

It is here that urgent steps need to be taken so we are not faced with native vegetation being reduced to one or two sites, as has happened on the Canterbury Plains.

The protection of indigenous flora is governed by local council rules, and sometimes these haven’t been enforced.

The Ashburton District Plan says there should be “no clearance of indigenous vegetation in Rural A and B zones” (the Canterbury Plains) while Rural C (the high country) has more leniency.

Councils must be proactive and engage with the local farming communites to identify, value, and protect native vegetation on roadsides before it is too late.

Protecting what’s left Forest & Bird has long advocated for the protection of remnants of dryland vegetation in the face of intensively irrigated dairy developments in Canterbury.

Pressure by the Ashburton branch resulted in the Ashburton District Biodiversity Working Group, with members from Forest & Bird, the Department of Conservation, Federated Farmers, Fish & Game, and other interest groups. A biodiversity action plan was written, and the council committed money to biodiversity projects, one of which was a survey of lower plains vegetation.

The survey, which was undertaken by Mike Harding in 2012, repeated one coordinated by Colin Meurk in the early 1990s. Some new remnants were found, but significant losses along roadsides were observed, mainly from the change of conditions. The most significant of the remnants were marked with white plastic signposts to alert neighbouring landholders and the public that the vegetation was important.

Kānuka, Nelson Lakes.

These protection measures have not worked as hoped, and since 2012 many of the sites of significant vegetation have disappeared.

With some significant exceptions, most of the losses are not deliberate: they are the by-products of the modern age of industrial farming. The question is how to urgently protect remnant vegetation in the face of overwhelming agricultural development when it appears the two are mutually exclusive.

Alice Shanks, Central Canterbury representative of the QEII Trust and member of the biodiversity committee, believes important areas should be fenced off and there should be more flora reserves like the Harris Reserve (see right).

She says: “The most significant of the lowland sites should be fenced if allowed by council by-laws. This could also be used as an experiment in roadside vegetation protection for the whole of the country.

“We need to buy land that has significant vegetation if the landowner is not in a position to voluntarily protect it with a permanent legal covenant. These measures will be costly to council, but that’s what it will take to hang on to the last of our nartural heritage.”

Cabbage tree on the outskirts of Ashburton, thought to have been planted by Māori as markers on their way from the coast to the mountains. Photo: Val Clemens

Roadside lifelines Kānuka was once the dominant vegetation in the dry stony parts of the Canterbury Plains, covering 250,000ha. Now just 2.5ha forms the nucleus of the 11ha Harris Reserve, near Ashburton, where kānuka was left along internal fencelines by a farmer to provide shelter for his lambing paddock. Kānuka also bordered the roadside.

Local conservationists alerted the farmers, Arthur and Shirley Harris, to the value of the on-farm remnants in the 1960s, and it was protected with a covenant in 1988. The Ashburton Community Conservation Trust (formed by local Forest & Bird members) now leases the site and has planted it with thousands of kānuka seedlings and other plants representative of the plains.

But the roadside kānuka suffered a different fate – despite a pending roadside protection agreement with the QEII Trust, the farmer who owned the neighbouring block bulldozed 50 mature kānuka, a significant proportion of remaining kānuka on the plains. The loss is inestimable.

Elsewhere, farmers are protecting native dryland vegetation. A patch of Muehlenbeckia complexa on a fenceline near Ashburton was removed when the fence was replaced. The farmers were mortified to later learn of its value as food for the native copper buttlerfly, lizards, insects, and birds. Fortunately, the tenacious scrambler has recovered, and the owners are planting the rest of the fenceline in natives and removing exotics.

No longer a sentinel tree – this magnificent roadside cabbage tree was felled for no other reason than it was “in the way”. Photo: Val Clemens

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Biodiversity in crisis Groups return to Kapowairua basecamp at the end of the one of the bioblitz days.

Photo: Jen Carol

TIP OF THE TAIL

Northernmost iwi Ngāti Kuri is trailblazing a new path, as Dean Baigent-Mercer found out during a recent visit to Kapowairua/Spirits Bay. Before he died last year, Bruce Stewart, kaumātua of Tapu te Ranga Marae, in Wellington’s Island Bay, gave me a te reo Māori word to use. It is kaiparahuarahi and it means to be a trailblazer, far ahead of the others, traversing a new path. And that is what Ngāti Kuri are in Kapowairua/Spirits Bay: he iwi pakiri ki te takahī te huarahi hau.

East of Cape Reinga sweeps the beauty of Kapowairua/ Spirits Bay. Ngāti Kuri are the people of this place. They had already occupied Te Hiku o te Ika, the tail of Maui’s giant fish and the northernmost peninsula of Aotearoa, before the arrival of the many migratory waka from Polynesia. Ngāti Kuri maintain mana whenua here and have survived many challenges and tragedies, including war and colonisation.

Ngāti Kuri kuia Saana Murray initiated and led the Waitangi claim over native flora and fauna from the late 1980s, commonly known as “Wai 262”. There has been little Crown response since the comprehensive report back from the Waitangi Tribunal called Ko Aotearoa Tēnei/ This is New Zealand (http://bit.ly/2KzTz2p), which is recommended reading for all who live here.

Since their intergenerational journey of Treaty claims, research, hearings, negotiation, and a meagre $25 million settlement with the Crown, Ngāti Kuri aims to reclaim, restore knowledge and practices, revitalise, and rejuvenate themselves and the environments they have inherited in the sea and on land.

Expressions of kaitiakitanga look to the past for the pathways for the future, and Ngāti Kuri have three big goals in their sights.

The first is to see the Rangitāhua/Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary established. Ngāti Kuri Trust Board Chair Harry Burkhardt was at the United Nations in New York alongside former Prime Minister John Key, in 2015, to announce the intention to create the sanctuary, which would protect 600,000km2 of ocean from future exploitation. Ngāti Kuri 34

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are working with the current coalition government to turn this vision into a reality.

Rangitāhua means “God’s Breath” and is one of Ngāti Kuri’s most treasured islands. When the Pacific migration highway opened for waka, it was Ngāti Kuri who occupied the main island (also called Raoul) to ensure all those who stopped over could be refreshed, and knew where to drink and what they could eat. Ngāti Kuri maintain their relationship to this day.

The area is a migration pathway for whales, tuna species, turtles, and seabirds, which were used as tohu, or signs, for Polynesian voyagers to and from these islands.

The abundant and rich biodiversity within the vast area ranges from creatures of the deep that survive in boiling seawater around thermal volcanic vents to less charming blobfish and striking swordfish at the top of the food web.

The second pathway is Tip of the tail: Te Haumihi. Ngāti

Dr Wendy Nelson briefs bioblitz volunteers before they head to the rocky shore reef at low tide. Photo: Jen Carol

Kuri have their sights set on the construction of a 8.6km pest-proof fence spanning the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean via the Pārengarenga Harbour. It would cross one of narrowest parts of the North Island near Waitiki Landing.

Their aim is to remove introduced invasive species, let native species thrive, and reintroduce native species that have been lost.

The ambitious first-of-its kind project would need a fence to cross State Highway 1 that allows pest-free traffic through and ongoing pest control on each side targeting incursions. The mood of the ocean on each side will inspire different fence designs.

The third pathway is to document what species live in the Ngāti Kuri rohe. The very top of the country has many unique native species. It has high numbers of endemic plants in a small area and an array of endemic marine species 50m deep off Kapowairua.

This year saw the first ever bioblitz (see below), which was organised by Ngāti Kuri in partnership with Tāmaki Paenga Hira, the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It documented species – native and introduced – of the land, freshwater, and sea.

Fossils were also collected to give a window into the past. They will help indicate what needs to be returned once the area is pest free. A bioblitz is now planned for every second year for a different part of Ngāti Kuri rohe.

Securing the bioblitz records with the museum allows them to be kept in one safe place and for Ngāti Kuri to retain control over research – especially after the biopiracy attempts by a French company in the 1990s to patent the DNA of seven native plants, including kūmarahou, koromiko, puawānanga, and pōhutukawa.

Generating new and sustainable employment Ngāti Kuri Trust Board Chair Harry opportunities are also Burkhardt and trustee Sheridan woven into this pathway. Waitai. Photo: Vasiti Palavi

BIOBLITZING KAPOWAIRUA

Dean Baigent-Mercer joins the first ever bioblitz in the Far North.

A 20m section of State Highway 1 was washed out by a storm at Pukenui. News reports said nobody could pass, but the bioblitz was starting the next day and there was no phone reception at the site. We got word we’d make it through via a forestry road, and my group, like others, travelled in good faith.

Eventually, we were on the winding road down to Kapowairua/Spirits Bay flanked by the endemic Far North mānuka that has hairy leaves and large pink flowers.

Over the past three years, Ngāti Kuri have been building a relationship with the Auckland War Memorial Museum that led to this bioblitz. At the campground, three large marquees meet. Two are a pop-up wharekai with kitchen and dining area. The other is a lab with microscopes, small

aquariums, plant presses, and other technical gear.

The visitors are welcomed, and colourful camping tents fill the flats. There’s excitement in voices everywhere. This is the first bioblitz in the Far North and soon a hundred tamariki from schools at Te Hāpua, Te Kao, and Ngataki will join the investigations.

Over the days of the bioblitz, biologists are seen galloping through sand dunes scooping long white nets to catch moths, putting sausages on sticks and other baits while setting up trailcams to film night-time visitors, and sitting in a luminescent glow at night to attract bugs.

It’s a whānau affair. In the marquee, kaumātua chat and Aunty Betsy Young neatly weaves putiputi/flowers from pīngao waiting for the various expeditions to return.

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Darryl Jeffries has to be quick with his net to catch any of the moths, flies and other invertebrates living to the back of the sand dunes. Photo: Jen Carol

And return they do with samples of the past and present, large and small.

Paleontologists come back from Cape Maria van Diemen and Tom Bowling Bay with fossils that were deposited between 600 and 5000 years ago. They give a snapshot of the ecology of those times when the area was native rainforest, not the mostly manuka seen today, and indicate what could be returned if the area was free of introduced predators.

Bones and beaks of forest birds: kākāpō, North Island brown kīwī, kākā, kākāriki, and weka. Fossil bones reveal that beneath the roots of forest trees three seabirds had burrows – little blue penguin, fluttering shearwater, and diving petrel – that they would have shared with tuatara,

Fossil fossickers with their finds. Photo: Jen Carol

50 years ago

Ngā tamariki find out about native bugs with DOC scientist Eric Edwards. Photo: Jen Carol

Preserving Unspoiled Nature for Posterity When man has learned to control his own exploding population, to control air and water pollution, and to produce vast quantities of food from new sources or by new means, when nations learn to live together in peace, freed from the threat of instant annihilation by nuclear bombs, he will still need unspoiled nature for inspiration and recreation.

Surely as reasoning creatures of morality and vision, we should be worrying a little less about our own welfare and doing a little more for posterity. For instance, could we not acquire the bare hills of the Marlborough Sounds and restore them to their pristine glory? Could we perhaps afford a little more for research into problems such as the destructive invasion of rats into the Muttonbird Islands, a little more research into the means of ensuring the perpetuation of rare birds such as the kakapo, the kokako, the takahe and others?

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whose jaws were also found.

The flightless Finsch’s duck, kōhatu shag, coastal moa, and moho (North Island takahē), along with the historically common mainland sea lion bones, all reveal a vibrant past, though all now long gone.

A marine camera films snapper and a 3m great white shark – meticulous collections of mosses, seaweeds, plants, freshwater fish, lizards, micro-snails are made.

“Every few kilometres, there is often a different endemic species of micro-snails,” Dr Karin Mahlfeld tells me.

Lists of birds seen and heard are noted, and and the haul of passionate bug collectors documented, who were thrilled to find an endangered katipō spider. A trail camera snapped a stoat hunting for prey.

The tally at the end of the bioblitz covered 675 species of animals (including birds) and plants (including algae) from land and water. Follow up on samples may well increase that number.

The final word must go to Ngāti Kuri Trustee Sheridan Waitai: “We share whakapapa with all living creatures, and we are nothing without our taonga. They are in distress, therefore we are in distress. Western science complements mātauranga Māori [traditional knowledge]. Together, we can plan for a future that saves what is here and restores what we need.

“One day my mokopuna will bring tuatara back and many of the birds that belong here.”

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Branch news

RESTORING A DAWN CHORUS Forest & Bird’s North Canterbury branch has been supporting a wasp-eradication programme in the Craigieburn beech forest.

If asked to name the most widely distributed bird in New Zealand, which one would you choose? Most of us would hope the answer would be a native species such as a fantail, bellbird, or tomtit, but, sadly, that is not yet the case.

The most widely distributed bird in New Zealand is the blackbird, followed by the chaffinch, says Dr Eric Spurr, who heads the annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey.

We are talking about “widely distributed” birds, not the most numerous species – that was the silvereye in last year’s garden bird survey.

What about in our great native forests? You would hope native bird species might prevail there. That was the case 40 years ago, when Dr Spurr conducted a five-year study in the Craigieburn beech forests, of the upper Waimakariri River catchment. Between 1978 and 1982, he found that, overall, our native bellbird was the most common species throughout the year.

But recent bird surveys of beech forest carried out by the Waimakariri Environment and Recreation Trust (WERT), with financial support from Forest & Bird’s North Canterbury branch, paint a different picture when it comes to our native species.

The surveys were undertaken in 2014 and 2016 as part of a wasp control project in the Craigieburn forests, and the results compared with a “no-wasp-control” survey in Arthur’s Pass forests around the Andrews Stream area.

“On each of the two surveys, I observed about 4000 birds and 22 different species,” says professional ornithologist Andrew Crossland.

“The most common species at Craigieburn was the chaffinch, followed by redpoll, silvereye, bellbird, and then blackbird. In the Arthur’s Pass forest site, the same five species featured, with the silvereye the most common, followed by the chaffinch, redpoll, bellbird, and blackbird.”

Interestingly, there was no significant difference between the 2014 and 2016 surveys, either in the number of birds observed or in their order of frequency. The one exception was the fantail, which was virtually absent in 2014 but seen in most plots in 2016.

The results suggest that wasp control carried out between the two surveys had no obvious impact on bird populations.

“This is despite the fact that the control resulted in reductions of wasp numbers of over 95% in both 2015 and 2016,” says WERT’s wasp control manager, Penny Wright.

“The most likely reason is that it was too early to detect any increase in bird numbers that may have resulted from the wasp control,” she added.

Despite there being no measured increase in bird numbers, a long-time observer provided this anecdotal comment after the 2016 wasp control operation: “The morning chorus of birds has been the best I have heard in 25 years of working in the area.”

The reason for the greater bird song reported may have

been associated with the release of stress associated with wasp removal, particularly relative to competition for the major honey-dew food resource. ➜ Please support this year’s Garden Bird Survey – see page 50.

WIN A BOOK We have two copies of The Vulgar Wasp by Phil Lester (RRP$30) to give away. Email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org. nz, put WASP 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 WASP draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140.

Entries close 1 August.

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Wildlife rescue

Back from the brink

Sabrina Luecht explains why she decided to open up a sanctuary dedicated to helping injured wildlife.

The past season has been a busy one, with a huge number of native birds in need in Kaikōura, where I’m based, and also nationally. It has been a tough breeding season, with many young seabirds struggling with starvation because of La Niña conditions, which affects ocean temperatures and prey availability.

Here at Kaikōura Wildlife Rescue, blue penguins, Hutton’s shearwaters, petrels, gulls, and shags have been the most regular patients. Some days, I was receiving four birds a day, which is a lot for one person. A couple of less common patients this season were a giant petrel and a yellow-eyed penguin.

Kaikōura Wildlife Rescue opened last September as a facility dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of injured and sick native New Zealand birds in north Canterbury and southern Marlborough.

I have looked after more than 150 injured or sick native birds since opening. In most cases, injuries are humaninduced – from interference, vehicle, boat or window strike, dog attacks, or food shortages caused by overfishing and climate change.

So far, I have undertaken wildlife rehabilitation voluntarily and at my own expense. This means the facility has been self-funded to date. But purchasing ongoing medical, diet, and cleaning supplies and paying bills is expensive, and cannot be funded singlehandedly longterm. I’m in the process of applying for charitable status for Kaikōura Wildlife Rescue, so I can apply for national grants in the future.

The centre currently consists of a wildlife room and outdoor enclosure, while a second wildlife room is also planned. Eventually, funding permitting, there are also plans for a large purpose-built flight aviary.

Kaikōura Wildlife Rescue is managed under a 10-year Department of Conservation Wildlife Act permit and is a member of the Wildlife Rehabilitators Network of New

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Zealand (WReNNZ). I have a close working relationship with VetCare Kaikoura, the South Island Wildlife Hospital, and other wildlife vets nationwide. I can care for short-term patients, but complex or long-term cases are transferred to wildlife hospitals.

I believe restoring ill and injured wildlife back to health is a conservation tool. Wildlife rehabilitation is not just a service to native birds, but also to the respective local communities, and New Zealand as a whole, ensuring already declining species are given the best chance and will be around for future generations.

Wildlife biologist Sabrina Luecht studied a B.Sc. in Zoology at the University of Canterbury, then worked extensively in the New Zealand and international conservation sector. She specialises in endangered avian species and has worked for many conservation organisations.

“I have always aimed to make a difference in my lifetime, whether this be by working with species directly (research in the field, captive breeding programmes) or strategic planning and outreach,” she says.

Watch out for Sabrina’s new column in the next issue, where she will be focusing on highlighting some of New Zealand’s forgotten species.

If you find unwell wildlife Before attempting capture, try to work out whether it is truly ill or injured, or would be better off being left alone as wildlife can be harmed when you try to catch them.

Capture the bird with a towel and keep it in a box at room temperature in a quiet place. The bird will be in shock, so be sure to reduce additional stress – minimise handling and do not attempt to feed or hydrate it.

As soon as possible, take the bird to your nearest rescue facility, vet clinic, or local Department of Conservation office. For birds in the Kaikōura area, please call Kaikōura Wildlife Rescue on 021 585 586.

How to become a wildlife rehabilitator If you respect and admire native species, wildlife rehabilitation might just be the calling for you. You will need specific skills, knowledge, and permits before being able to successfully rehabilitate and release sick, injured, or orphaned birds.

It is illegal to hold any native species, or attempt rehabilitation, without the proper legal permits. The Wildlife Act 1953 protects all native and endemic New

Did you know?

Volunteers manage most of New Zealand’s wildlife rescue centres and rely on donations to keep running.

Everyone can do a little to make a difference – consider helping your local rescue facility by donating funds or supplies – for example, food, old towels, newspapers, etc.

Zealand birds, and, to work with these animals, wildlife rehabilitators and rescue centres must be issued a Wildlife Act authority permit from the Department of Conservation.

Rehabilitators must meet various requirements before receiving a permit, including specialised knowledge, training, and facility standards. If granted a permit, annual reporting and inspections may be a requirement.

Wildlife rehabilitators work alongside vets to assess injuries and identify a variety of illnesses and must be able to administer basic first aid and physical therapy. Some wildlife rehabilitators are also authorised by their vet to euthanise in severe cases.

Because wild animals are so different from domestic animals, rehabilitators need extensive knowledge about a variety of species in their care, including their life history, nutritional needs, behaviour, and housing requirements.

They also need to understand the injury and health risks – for example, zoonotic diseases related to working with wildlife and how to safely handle and restrain wild animals under their care.

Many rehabilitators learn the skills involved in wildlife rehabilitation through theoretical and practical experience.

Studying ecology, wildlife biology, zoology, or veterinary medicine strengthens your knowledge and understanding.

Volunteering for a rescue centre zoo or the Department of Conservation are ways to develop hands-on skills.

Further information The Wildlife Rehabilitators Network of New Zealand (WReNNZ) provides a nationwide support network for wildlife rehabilitators and those who have an interest in wildlife – see https://www.wrennz.org.nz/.

Wildbase, Massey University’s wildlife hospital, offers annual avian first aid training courses – see http://bit. ly/2IjBtF2.

To find out more about interacting with native wildlife or about Wildlife Act permits, contact the Department of Conservation at http://bit.ly/2L5pOYb.

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Restoration

PINE NO MORE

A regenerating stand of native plants in the former Maungataniwha pine forest, part of a conservation project that aims to convert a 4000ha pine plantation back to regenerating native forest.

New Zealand’s largest pine-to-native forest regeneration project has reached a major milestone, as Peter Heath explains.

The last pine trees have been felled in a major Hawke’s Bay conservation project that aims to convert a 4000ha pine plantation back to regenerating native forest.

More than 3500ha of the Maungataniwha pine forest have now been logged since 2006 and are now in the process of being re-converted back to native forest by the landowner, Simon Hall, chairman of the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust.

The conversion of the Maungataniwha Pine Forest is the largest project of its kind in New Zealand.

“It’s the end of an era. The pine forest had provided livelihoods for many people, from planting it to managing and harvesting it, but I’m pleased to be able to start completing the process of returning it to its natural state,” says Simon Hall.

The land lies next to the Maungataniwha native forest, a 6120ha swathe of New Zealand bush straddling the ridge system between the Te Hoe and Waiau Rivers in northern Hawke’s Bay, bordered to the north by Te Urewera and to the west by the Whirinaki Conservation Forest.

There is enough native species seed in the soil to enable natural regeneration, but the major challenge (and cost) is the elimination of regenerating pine seedlings, which crowd out the slower-growing native forest species.

The grasses are the first to take hold, native species such as hookgrass and toetoe, then shrubs or small trees such as mahoe and wineberry. These are followed by

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mountain cabbage tree, kānuka, and native fuschia. Once these species have recolonised the land, the stage is set for larger trees such as red and silver beech. Native birds, including kererū and silvereye, play a vital role in the regeneration.

It takes a decade to clear logged land of wilding pines completely and to get it to the point where it can be described as fully regenerated. During this time, the land is nurtured, treated, and monitored by the trust.

About a third of the area, 1400ha, can now be described as clear of regenerating pines and successfully regenerated with native species.

The trust, which was established in 2006 to provide direction and funding for the restoration of threatened species of native fauna and flora in forests within the central North Island, uses a mix of aerial spraying and manual clearance methods.

The Department of Conservation is interested in the trust’s land stewardship methods and the spray mix used to encourage the growth of native plants while inhibiting these “wilding” pines.

“Conservation in New Zealand is no longer the preserve of government agencies – the job’s too big and complex.

Everyone has a role to play, ideally working together as much as they can,” adds Simon Hall.

“We’ve been very grateful for DOC’s support. It’s been vital to helping us get the job done.”

LIFEFORCE CONSERVATIONIST Long-time Forest & Bird member Simon Hall, executive chairman of Tasti food manufacturing company, owns 23,762ha of forest in Hawke’s Bay that he has dedicated to the rejuvenation of New Zealand’s natural environment.

An avid hunter and tramper, Simon looks at the wilderness as his playground. But instead of a beachside bach, he picked up Maungataniwha, his own piece of native bush, for “a very good price”.

“The average person doesn’t appreciate native forest so there is no competition. They don’t realise the true value of the land,” he says.

Hall, who has been a member of Forest & Bird for nearly 20 years, established the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust in 2006 to turn his land into a sanctuary for New Zealand’s native environment, funded by Tasti dividends. Major initiatives to trap and poison predators have allowed native species to return in significant numbers.

The trust also runs several other restoration projects, including boosting the wild-grown population of kakabeak (see right), providing a secure breeding habitat for whio/blue duck, undertaking various pest control and eradication initiatives, and assisting with the re-introduction of forest birds to previously abandoned habitats. It’s also carving out a name for itself as one of the most prolific and successful kiwi conservation initiatives in the country.

One of the kakabeak being propagated in the wild in Hawke’s Bay.

Kakabeak comeback The Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust has developed a ground-breaking technique to propagate kakabeak in the wild – blasting their seed into the soil from a shotgun! It hopes this innovation will allow the future dispersal of seed from helicopters, creating the potential for an aerial propagation effort on a scale that hasn’t yet been possible.

Staff member Barry Crene developed the technique using reloaded shotgun shells packed with regular shotgun pellets, a pulp medium, and kakabeak seed. The shells are discharged into soil from a range of 20m, about the distance a helicopter might have to hover from likely nursery sites in the wild.

Such sites are frequently patches of topsoil on bluffs or cliff faces that are as inaccessible to humans as they are to browsers. Helicopters are often the only way to reach them.

Before settling on the shotgun technique, the trust reviewed a range of discharge mechanisms, including paintball guns. But shotguns proved best able to provide the directional force, accuracy, and penetration necessary for the seeds to propagate successfully.

Increasing the wild-grown population of the extremely rare kakabeak (Clianthus maximus) is one of the trust’s main projects in the Maungataniwha native forest.

It is collecting seed and propagating plants in two protected areas near Waiau Camp (designed to prevent access by browsing rabbits, hares, and ungulates such as deer, pigs, and goats) and at other sites around Hawke’s Bay. Planting of the first kakabeak returned to Maungataniwha took place during the winter of 2010, and genetic research by Landcare scientist Gary Houliston has provided clear guidelines for future plantings of kakabeak sourced from wild plants within Hawke’s Bay.

Simon Hall, of Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust.

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Focus on flora

Devastating loss at

Kaitorete

Kaitorete Spit from the air showing two paddocks where some of the last remaining population of Muehlenbeckia astonii was cleared. A Department of Conservation scienfic reserve lies to the left.

Forest & Bird takes legal action over rare plant destruction on a farm near Lake Ellesmere. By Lynley Hargreaves.

Forest & Bird has applied for court enforcement orders after a farmer near Christchurch destroyed up to 30% of New Zealand’s remaining wild population of shrubby tororaro.

The vast majority of the nationwide population of Muehlenbeckia astonii exists on one farm on Kaitorete Spit, a narrow stretch of ecologically significant land between Lake Ellesmere and the sea.

According to Forest & Bird’s ecological evidence, the farm’s clearing and sowing of oats on three paddocks damaged or destroyed an estimated 29.3% of the total nationwide wild population. Numerous other threatened or at-risk birds, lizards, plants, and invertebrates depend on this habitat.

Muehlenbeckia astonii, which has small bright-green heart-shaped leaves, is a popular landscaping plant but extremely rare and threatened in the wild.

“Biodiversity is in crisis in New Zealand. Often it’s a case of small impacts adding up to a major loss, but here a single incident has made it far more likely for a species to become extinct in the wild. Imagine if someone deliberately killed 30% of our wild kiwi or kākāpō,” said Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague.

“These plants are found in people’s gardens, but this does nothing to mitigate the impact – we have a responsibility to not let these species go extinct in the wild.

We don’t want to see our threatened plants and animals only remaining in zoos and people’s gardens.”

Forest & Bird has applied to the Environment Court to prevent further destruction and to require rehabilitation of the area. Much of the rest of the national population of Muehlenbeckia astonii exists on the farm’s other paddocks.

Forest & Bird is also concerned about a Christchurch City Council district plan rule that allows the clearance of indigenous vegetation on “improved pasture”. It was claimed that the Muehlenbeckia astonii at Kaitorete Spit was removed under this rule.

“We don’t have a problem with a well-crafted rule that

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allows normal farming activities while protecting important native species. In this case, the rule is poorly drafted and lacks clarity,” added Mr Hague.

Forest & Bird has sought legal declarations about the “improved pasture” rule and its precise definition.

We believe the rule is so unclear that it could be unenforceable.

“This is only one example of many in the Christchurch district where threatened plants are growing on land that has been grazed. Unless the rule is changed, this could happen again and again, risking ecological destruction on a much larger scale,” says Mr Hague.

“The Our Land report, released by New Zealand Statistics, showed lowland and coastal environments are our most threatened and worst protected areas, particularly on the east of the South Island. Our natural environment is already pushed to the limit. And yet we can’t have confidence in local government to stop the destruction.

“We have complained to the Christchurch City Council, but we have no confidence they will address the matter appropriately and promptly.” ➔ Our land, our future – see page 46.

CHRISTCHURCH LYTTELTON

• KAITORETE SPIT

Muehlenbekia astonnii

Te reo o taiao

A whale’s tale Melanie Nelson explains the inspiration behind Forest & Bird’s new manaia.

A striking new brand element representing Forest & Bird through Māori design is now in use across a wide range of resources.

Chief executive Kevin Hague said that Forest & Bird is increasingly seeking to work more collaboratively with Māori and to be an organisation that has cross-cultural appeal.

“I want this to be a visual reminder that respecting the mana of iwi and engaging with Māori is important to the Society, as we take meaningful steps to ensure there is substance behind the symbol.”

A manaia is a traditional design widely used by Māori throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Will Farmer, of Kūmara Creative, designed the new brand element. He explains that the manaia is known as a spiritual guardian and speaks to kaitiakitanga and guardianship.

“The manaia is traditionally depicted as a bird-like figure with the head of a bird, the body of a man, and the tail of a fish. It acts as a provider and protector over the sky, earth, and sea,” Will explained.

Connected to the manaia are several other patterns representing the key work and campaign areas of Forest & Bird. Koru (unfurling fern fronds) signify the ngahere (forest) and new growth. Whenua (land) rests beneath the manaia, and wai (water) flows into an ocean wave. The ocean wave in turn becomes a spiral or weather system shape – readily conjuring up the impacts of climate change.

In one of the designs pictured below, the manaia is carried through to a whale tail, to represent oceans and freshwater. In a second design, the whale’s tail is replaced by an unfurling koru signifying new growth and beginnings.

Will knows that Forest & Bird adopting a Māori design as part of their branding is an important step in increasing the organisation’s appeal to Māori.

“The power of design to speak to people and to enable Māori to see a doorway for themselves and their values in Forest & Bird is significant. There is much connection for Māori communities with the work of Forest & Bird, but that is not always apparent. We need to be combining forces

The unfurling of the fern or koru signifying new growth and beginnings representing the ngahere or forest.

The manaia speaks to guardianship or kaitiakitanga.

Land.

The fish or whale tail of the manaia for marine or fresh water.

Water flow or ocean wave.

This spiral, weather system type shape relates to climate change.

White-capped albatross. Photo: Richard Robinson.

to address the environmental issues that affect us all and to look after the places we all love.”

The designs will be used on all new Forest & Bird promotional material. Phil Bilbrough, group manager marketing and communications, said: “A modern New Zealand organisation is one that is relevant to all New Zealanders. We want to show that we respect tangata whenua and their values inform how we go about things,” he said.

You will see the manaia or parts of it gradually appearing on Forest & Bird’s resources. You may already have spotted it on our new website – see www.forestandbird.org.nz.

To find out more about the manaia and how to use it in your branch or project branding, contact Phil at p.bilbrough@forestandbird.org.nz.

Forest & Bird

| 43

In the field We are NOT weeds!

Here is a plant you might mistake for a seedling pine, but it is the native giant moss Dawsonia superba.

Photo: Phil Palmer

Spot the stranger Home gardens are the biggest source of invasive weeds and all of us can play a part in stopping their spread into the wild, as Ann Graeme explains.

S

tan Butcher was a man ahead of his times. Forty years ago at national Forest & Bird meetings, he would leap to his feet and passionately exhort the delegates to exterminate new weeds.

“Don’t wait!” he would say. “If you see a new weed, dig it out. If there is a handful of heather on the hillside, next year it will be a patch and the next year it will have spread too far for you to manage.” How right he was, even if the delegates would smile at his enthusiasm.

He used heather, that curse of Tongariro National Park, as an example, and, curiously enough, years later when we were crossing the Coromandel on the 309 Road, we spotted a plant of flowering heather on the roadside on the high crest.

We backed up and pulled it out. Decades later, and heather is not established in the high land of the Coromandel. Perhaps, with this small action, we helped to keep it that way.

Regional council weed officers do their best to control invasive pest plants, but they can’t be everywhere. An army of eagle-eyed Forest & Bird walkers and gardeners are well placed to spot an unusual or unknown plant growing in the wrong place. Watch for strangers in native ecosystems such as wetlands, dunes, or tussock or along the margins of forest tracks.

As well as spoiling crops, introduced weeds can wreck whole ecosystems, covering sand dunes, invading wetlands, and strangling native forests.

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| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

If you are sure they don’t belong, pull them out! If you’re unsure, take a photo and look on the website weedbusters.org.nz. It has a comprehensive weed list with clear pictures.

Tall, intact plant communities are less at risk from weed invasions, but, where animal pests browse, weeds can sneak in. The sunlit gap where a tree fell and deer and goats have eaten the native seedlings offers an opportunity to a wind-blown seed of old man’s beard or a honeysuckle seed in a bird’s dropping. Even when the canopy is tight, shade-loving weeds such as wandering willie and African club moss can take root and smother native ground plants.

Weeds are entrepreneurs.

They have come from another country and another ecosystem where they competed with other plants, were eaten by animals, and were afflicted by diseases. Leaving all that baggage behind them, in New Zealand, they are free to become botanical thugs, aggressive, invasive, and dangerous. As well as spoiling crops, introduced weeds can wreck whole ecosystems, covering sand dunes, invading wetlands, and strangling native forests. Stan Butcher, QSM and Distinguished Life Member Despite the best efforts of of Forest & Bird, who died in our biosecurity officers, new 2016.

weed seeds constantly arrive in New Zealand, unwittingly brought by people and cargo. Travellers need to be vigilant and make sure they are not culprits. But most weeds don’t arrive like this. They are already here, growing in our gardens. As council pest officers will tell you, home gardens are the biggest source of weeds.

The sculptural yucca is a botanical thug, often spread unwittingly into the wild by gardeners. Photo: Meg Graeme

Weeding out weeds

I AM a weed! An introduced native pine seedling, sometimes mistaken for our native giant moss (pictured left).

Photo: Ann Graeme

What can you do to help? n Spot the strangers in your local native ecosystems and destroy them. n Never put weeds in your garden waste.

Compost them or take them to the Green Waste facility.

What introduced plant grows easily – too easily – often becomes rampant, and is difficult to kill? Here in the Bay of Plenty, the yucca fits the bill. It comes from the deserts of south-west USA and finds life a breeze in the Bay. Striking and sculptural, a yucca will grow from any stalk stuck in the ground. And when it gets too big, the gardener often lops off branches and puts them on the roadside for another unwary gardener to pick up. Even worse, sometimes the branches are thrown over banks or tipped into estuary margins.

Carried by the tide, the yucca can take root in the salt marsh or, smothered with sand, grow on the dunes among the spinifex. Pieces snapped off by storms will take root further along the dunes.

Of course, most garden plants are well behaved, but now, with climate warming, there is extra scope for weediness. Already more than 2500 non-native plant species are established in the wild, and many came from gardens. Think of ginger, honeysuckle, wandering willie, agapanthus, Mexican daisy, the list is long.

The global advance of weed species is leading towards a more homogenised world, where specialised and local species are driven out by Jacks-of-all-places. In The end of the wild, Stephen Meyer says: “The wild will give way to the predictable, the common and the usual.”

Our native biodiversity is unique. Only vigilance will keep it that way.

Tai Haruru Lodge

LODGES Arethusa Cottage Near Pukenui, Northland Sleeps 6 herbit@xtra.co.nz 03 2191 337

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 www.mangarakauswamp.com

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

Waiheke Island Cottage Onetangi Sleeps 8 hauraki.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

021 141 0183

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

Tautuku Forest Cabins Ōwaka, 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.

Forest & Bird

| 45

Forgotten places Erosion is a significant problem in Aotearoa, accounting for 1.7% of global sediment loss despite New Zealand having only 0.2% of the world’s land area.

OUR LAND, OUR FUTURE We need stronger protections to reverse the tide of loss we are seeing in New Zealand’s lowlands and forgotten places. By David Brooks.

The loss of 190 million tonnes of soil every year from erosion, shrinking native habitats, and the threatened status of four out of five native birds and animals all point to the need for action to protect New Zealand’s environment and long-term economic prosperity.

While a recent government report on New Zealand’s land environment shows an overall trend of continuing decline, it also reveals that it is possible to turn the situation around with the right management and resources.

A total of 20 bird species, including North Island brown kiwi, northern New Zealand dotterel, and Otago shag, improved their threat status between 2012 and 2016 because of intensive management.

Our Land 2018, a summary of New Zealand’s land environment compiled by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand, is the fourth report in a series on the state of our environment. This latest report focuses on issues such as land cover and use, soil erosion and quality, biodiversity, habitats, and climate.

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Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague said the continued decline of New Zealand’s land environment detailed in the report was the result of an economic focus on low value commodities such as milk powder, raw logs, and bulk tourism.

“Our forests and wildlife are the country’s treasures, and taonga for Māori, and we’re seeing them decline and degrade during our lifetime,” he said.

“Land-based nature in New Zealand urgently needs investment, stronger rules to reverse the tide of loss we are seeing in our lowlands and forgotten places, and an economic approach that works with our natural environment rather than against it.

“Twenty land-based bird species are doing better because of intensive management, showing investment really works. But the vast majority of our native land birds, reptiles, and frogs are in trouble, and the government will need to substantially increase investment to protect them.”

The neglect starts with our soil, the basis of our land environment and economy, and host to a quarter of biodiversity. New Zealand’s excessive soil erosion leads to increased flooding and damages the health of freshwater, estuaries, and coastal waters.

Our hilly landscape, young and erodible rocks, and generally high rainfall combine to make New Zealand prone to erosion, but our conversion of steep hill slopes from bush to pasture has worsened the problem. New Zealand accounts for about 1.7% of global sediment loss despite having just 0.2% of the world’s land area.

A total of 84 million tonnes, or 44%, of the total soil lost annually comes from exotic grasslands, the report said.

In the Gisborne region, the annual rate of soil loss from erosion is 4844 tonnes per km2 – compared with a national average of 720 tonnes – due mostly to bush clearance for pasture on highly erodible hills.

According to the Land Cover Database, last updated in 2012, exotic grassland is the country’s dominant land cover at 10.7 million hectares, or nearly 40% of the total land area. Native forest accounts for 26%, compared with over 80% before human settlement, and exotic forest 8%, tussock grasslands 9%, and scrub 7%.

Although we no longer cut down our publicly owned native forests, indigenous habitats have continued to decline. The report showed that, between 1996 and 2012, there was a net loss of about 31,000ha of tussock grassland, 24,000ha of indigenous shrubland, and 16,000ha of indigenous forests. There are no more recent figures available in the report, but dairy conversions in the Mackenzie Basin, for example, have led to significant losses of tussock grasslands since 2012.

About 90% of New Zealand’s estimated original wetland area of nearly 2.5 million hectares has been lost since human settlement, and this continues to shrink. In the period between 2001 and 2016, a total of 214 wetlands were lost and another 746 declined in size, with the worst damage occurring in Canterbury and the West Coast.

DISAPPEARING NATURE A total of 71 rare and uncommon ecosystems have been identified in New Zealand. Almost two-thirds are classified as critically endangered or threatened. Despite their relatively small extent (less than 0.5% of New Zealand’s total land area), these ecosystems contain half of our nationally threatened plant species and 38% of threatened butterflies and moths.

Many native habitats are becoming increasingly fragmented, especially in lowland and coastal areas on privately owned land. The edges of these habitats become degraded with weeds and pests, and less mobile species, such as lizards, become isolated, leading to the loss of genetic diversity.

More information is needed about biodiversity outside public conservation land, said Ken Hughey, Chief Science Advisor at the Department of Conservation.

“Habitat fragmentation and habitat quality need attention, and we need to get information on data deficient species in those habitats,” he said.

The pressure on ecosystems leads to pressure on individual native animal and plant species. The loss of habitat and the impact of introduced predators have led to the extinction of at least 76 land species.

Nearly 83% of native birds, bats, reptiles, and frogs are currently classified as either threatened or at risk of extinction. However, we have only enough information to assess the status of about a quarter of land species,

and many of the less visible species, including earthworms, spiders, snails, and insects, have not been assessed at all.

The Our Land report identifies a large number of other gaps that make it difficult to properly assess the state of our environment. There is a lack of data for land use, soil, and indigenous ecosystems and how this is changing. Problems include inconsistency in sampling methods and an Orange-fronted parakeets/ uncoordinated approach kākāriki are in serious trouble. to monitoring.

Photo: Sabine Bernert David Fleming, a recent Fellow at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, said New Zealand needs better data to better meet its environmental challenges.

“Without consistent national integrated data sources, it will be very hard to track future environmental conditions and the effects of policies or programs intended to reduce human impact,” he said.

The conservation status of the following species declined between assessment periods.

Common name

Status change

Previous category (2012)

Current category (2015)

Australasian bittern/matuku hurepo,

Worse

Threatened – nationally endangered

Threatened – nationally critical

Kākāriki/orange-fronted parakeet

Worse

Threatened – nationally endangered

Threatened – nationally critical

Hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin

Worse

Threatened –nationally vulnerable

Threatened –nationally endangered

Whitehead/popokatea,

Worse

Not threatened

At risk – declining

South Island robin/toutouwai,

Worse

Not threatened

At risk – declining

North Island robin/toutouwai,

Worse

Not threatened

At risk – declining

Campbell Island mollymawk

Worse

At risk – naturally uncommon

Threatened – nationally vulnerable

Common name

Status change

Previous category (2010)

Current category (2014)

Ground weta

Worse

At risk – naturally uncommon

Threatened – nationally critical

Common name

Status change Previous category (2012)

Current category (2015)

Nelson green gecko

Worse

At risk – declining

Threatened – nationally vulnerable

Central Otago gecko

Worse

Not threatened

At risk – declining

Cromwell gecko

Worse

Not threatened

At risk – declining

Source: Our Land 2018 report

Forest & Bird

| 47

Going places

Wild coast

Tautuku Bay. Photo: David Brooks

On his first visit to the Catlins, David Brooks encounters a treasure trove of rare wildlife.

Five sleek grey shadows appeared ghost-like inside the wave as it rose and surged towards the shore. Two of the Hector’s dolphins suddenly burst out of the wave’s crest as it peaked and surfed down its face. Seconds before the wave broke in the shallows, they flipped back into deeper water.

During the afternoon, we had seen the dolphins cruising along the bay in twos and threes. As the tide came in and the waves became more powerful, they ventured into the surf. Up to five or six would surf one spot for a few minutes, before cruising along the bay to follow the best waves or check out a group of swimmers or surfers.

We were watching all of this from the front porch of our rented house on the beach front at Porpoise Bay in the Catlins. Excited calls from people on the beach confirmed others were watching too. We felt very privileged to see the world’s smallest – and one of the rarest – dolphins expressing spectacular mastery of its element.

I had heard a lot about the Catlins region over the years, but its location at the far south-east corner of the South Island is a long way from our North Island home. But the rare wildlife, bush-fringed sandy beaches, dense rainforest, and even the notorious wild weather meant we had to go.

Right at the top of my wish list were endangered native taonga I had never seen before – Hector’s dolphins, New Zealand sea lions, and the hoiho or yellow-eyed penguins.

Even by New Zealand standards, the Catlins coast is thinly populated, and that was part of the attraction, even though popping down to the shop from Porpoise Bay involved a 60km round trip. Most of the vehicles we encountered were camper vans and hire cars driven by foreign tourists.

Porpoise Bay is on one side of a small headland. On the other side lies Curio Bay, home to a 180 million-year-old fossilised forest and a small population of hoiho. The yelloweyed penguin is one of the world’s rarest, and the largest penguin species breeding on the New Zealand mainland, but its numbers continue to decline at a perilous rate.

The work of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and others led to the population rising from an estimated 150 pairs 48

| Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

on the South Island coast in 1990/91 to about 600 pairs in 1996/97. Threats including fishing nets, starvation, and disease have unfortunately led to the population falling to about 250 pairs currently.

Camper vans and hire cars filled the Curio Bay carpark at sunset, proving the appeal of the hoiho. About 50 people gathered behind a yellow rope, overseen by a volunteer couple, ensuring the hoiho were not frightened or disturbed by the crowd.

I was surprised to find out that the hoiho population at Curio Bay is very small. Only two adults were known to have gone out to sea that day. Another four were hidden in the flax and scrub during their annual three to four week moult, which prevents them going to sea. The dedicated volunteer couple were staying at the adjacent campground for a month, and every evening they were on the beach ensuring the wellbeing of the birds when they came ashore.

For nearly two hours, we waited as daylight receded.

Just as it was starting to get dark, a murmur in the crowd alerted us to a white-fronted figure bobbing up and down as its tiny legs negotiated the rocks about 100 metres away.

Purakaunui Falls. Photo: David Brooks

Unconcerned by the audience, the hoiho paused frequently to preen its feathers, and darkness fell before it reached the bush.

During our wait for the hoiho, there was plenty of time to examine the petrified forest, which is clearly visible on Curio Bay’s rocky platform at low tide. The shapes of fallen logs and tree stumps as well as growth rings and the texture of timber were still visible 180 million years after the forest was felled and covered by a flood of volcanic mud. Once part of the Gondwana supercontinent, the forest remnants were transformed into stone as silica was absorbed into the timber.

Back at our rented holiday house, we were hoping for another penguin experience with a little blue penguin that lived in the garden. We never saw it but heard calls at night, and in the morning there were tell-tale tiny footprints on the sandy track leading from the garden down to the beach.

Hector's dolphins at Porpoise Bay. Photo: David Brooks

Getting there Access:

Kaka Point at the eastern end of the Catlins is about 100km south of Dunedin.

From Invercargill to Fortrose, at the western end of the Catlins, is 46km. The main Catlins coastal road from Fortrose to Kaka Point is 162km long.

Accomodation: As well as various motels, campgrounds, and holiday homes, Forest & Bird’s Tautuku Cabins are centrally located on one of the most beautiful stretches of the coast where the bush meets the sea. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-wedo/lodges/tautuku-lodge-otago for more information or phone (03) 415 8244.

More information:

Sea lions at Surat Bay. Photo: David Brooks

Close to the eastern end of the Catlins, Surat Bay is one of the best spots to find New Zealand sea lions. Sure enough, almost as soon as we walked out onto the beach, we found ourselves about 10m from a pair of sea lions at the base of the sand dunes. Ignoring us, they appeared to be playing affectionately, with no sign of the male sexual aggression I had read about.

In my book, he was no George Clooney, more like the star of Beauty and the Beast. His stubby almost bulldoglike face with yellow teeth was set in a rotund body covered in scruffy chocolate brown fur marred by battle scars. She was less than half his size, with a sleek grey and fawn body and much finer facial features. The female gently nipped and nuzzled her mate, proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Further along the long sandy beach, virtually empty except for about eight resting sea lions, a young male emerged from the surf. His wet fur slicked down, he looked as powerful as a bear and cut a similar profile walking upright on his flippers.

Offshore, a powerful swell pounded rocky islets as the wind whipped the tops off waves in a plume of spray. Surat Bay is a place of wild and unspoilt beauty and is just one of many good reasons to visit the Catlins.

The official Catlins website www.catlins. org.nz has good information on the region’s attractions, accommodation, and services.

BE NATURE-INSPIRED ON KĀPITI ISLAND! Day tours or overnight kiwi spotting tours Fantastic birdlife Incredible bush & coastal walks Cabins & luxury tents

TO BOOK: 0800 527 484

kapitiisland.com Forest & Bird

| 49

Biodiversity

Backyard barometers Birds are signalling major changes in our environment, which is why it’s more important than ever to take part in this year’s New Zealand Garden Bird Survey, as Catriona MacLeod explains.

Birds act as “backyard barometers” – telling us about the health of the environment we live in. We should be listening.

Birds are signalling significant changes in our environment during the last 11 years, according to the State of NZ Garden Birds 2017 | Te Āhua o ngā Manu o te Kāri i Aotearoa 2017 report just released by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research.

Using cutting-edge techniques, researchers have distilled a substantial information base – bird counts gathered by New Zealanders from more than 31,000 surveys since 2007 – into simple but powerful metrics.

A positive picture is emerging for a native garden bird, tūī (kōkō) – this species has increased in all regions, albeit at a relatively low rate (about 22% over 11 years).

In sharp contrast, silvereye (tauhou) counts have almost halved during the same period. Scientists don’t yet fully understand what is driving these changes. Tūī may be benefiting from improved predator control in urban and rural landscapes, and warmer winters may mean silvereyes are less likely to come into gardens, but more research is needed in both cases.

Six of the most common species (starling, goldfinch, chaffinch, dunnock, blackbird, and song thrush) in our gardens have also experienced shallow to moderate declines (10–31% over 11 years). It might be tempting to dismiss these declines as unimportant because these species were all introduced to New Zealand from Europe.

However, these birds are signalling change in our urban and rural environments that we need to better understand.

This year’s Garden Bird Survey takes place from 30 June to 8 July.

“Join us for this year’s New Zealand Garden Bird Survey so we can all learn more about our birds and the environment we live in,” says Dr Eric Spurr, the survey organiser.

“All you need to do is select a garden, park, or school ground, look for birds for one hour, and for each species record the highest number seen (or heard) at one time.

“There are activities to get children and the young at heart excited about birds, including online quizzes, a colouring competition, and printable bird masks.”

To learn more and download survey forms, go to http://gardenbirdsurvey.landcareresearch.co.nz.

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Nature’s Future

BIRDS, BATS, AND BUNKERS Nature’s Future supporter Charles Hurford has been helping to protect the natural heritage of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands.

Guernsey has some of the most species-rich coastal habitats in north-west Europe and the UK, and is an important resting site for migrating birds that pass west from Europe to avoid the harsh European winter.

The island, which is 6.5km by 11km, is in the English Channel, 32km off the coast of France. I’ve been living here with my family for three years, working as a hospital radiographer alongside 65,000 islanders and 10,000 dogs.

Guernsey suffers from the same problems as everywhere else in the world. Fragmented plastic washes up on the beaches, and discarded fishing equipment kills seabirds.

There are no winter restrictions on the beaches for dogs, which constantly disturb fatigued seabirds. Encroaching urban development removes habitat.

The ancient farming practices of cattle grazing that supported bird-friendly grassland diversity have been discarded for modern farming practices that use fertiliser and mono-specific pastures. Invasive species are continually introduced, and the terrible bee predator, the Asian hornet, has recently been discovered. The high rate of vehicle ownership creates pollution and demands land for car parks.

But the island’s diversity is resilient to all this humaninduced environmental chaos, and in summer Guernsey becomes a stunningly beautiful place. The ancient hedgerows become alive with wild flowers, and the sea is warm and crystal clear. Tourists and the mega-rich flock to the island to enjoy the island’s environmental riches.

Like most conservationists, I arrived in Guernsey motivated to learn about the island’s ecology and get involved with conservation. I joined the natural history organisation, La Societe Guernesiaise, and presented a lecture on New Zealand ecology. The islanders are fond of New Zealand, which is a popular place for Guernsey people to emigrate.

I first looked to my workplace as a means of improving the environment, instigating the planting of a hospital orchard, with 44 fruit trees now thriving on the last remaining green space. My latest project has been searching the island’s tunnels and bunkers for bats.

Guernsey has been a military base since the Middle

Ages through to the cold war and is literally riddled with underground tunnels and bunkers. Now abandoned, they make great bat habitat and are being investigated by the newly formed island bat group.

Hopefully, things will get better for the island’s changing ecology, as finally the Guernsey government and public are becoming aware of the threats to the island. In 2017, the government secured funding, created a biodiversity plan, and employed its first biodiversity officer. They are working with experts from La Societe Guernesiaise to restore the island’s ecology so it can meet the challenges of the future.

NATURE’S FUTURE Charles Hurford has been a member of Forest & Bird for 15 years and has helped with some of our major campaigns despite living 18,000km away. For example, he gathered 1000 UK signatures in support of our Save Denniston campaign.

Charles studied Botany at Otago University and moved to the UK in 1995. He retains strong links with New Zealand, where his sister Rachel Hurford is involved with the North Canterbury branch.

“I grew up in Hororata, in central Canterbury, and remember swimming in the Hororata River and shooting rabbits along the hedgerows. I returned last year and saw the water races had been shut down, the hedgerows removed, and the rivers polluted,” he says.

Forest & Bird is very grateful for the many Kiwi expatriates who continue to care for Aotearoa’s natural world despite living overseas, says Helen Ward, Nature’s Future manager. n Becoming

a Nature’s Future supporter is a way to support Forest & Bird’s work, wherever you live – see www.forestandbird.org.nz/ naturesfuture.

Forest & Bird

| 51

Buy solar power not panels and remove the upfront costs of going solar.

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1

23/02/17 3:05 pm

Climate

MERCURY RISING

A new study is the first to assess the impact of rising temperatures on the world’s insects, vertebrates, and plants, as Forest & Bird’s climate expert Adelia Hallett explains.

New research shows how bad climate change is for nature.

By the end of the century, the global average temperature will be some 4.5ºC warmer than it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution – assuming we carry on emitting greenhouse gases at the current rate.

That would be disastrous for humans and for the species and ecosystems that make New Zealand unique.

The world is already about 1ºC warmer than it was before humans started burning fossil fuels in vast quantities to power industrialisation. The Paris Agreement, which has been signed by every country in the world and ratified by 177 (including New Zealand), seeks to hold warming to no more than 2ºC and has an “aspirational” target of 1.5ºC. But signing an agreement and taking action are two different things. The emissions cuts that countries have promised to make – and so far are failing to achieve – put the world on course for warming of 3.5ºC by the end of the century.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have taken three temperature rises – 1.5ºC, 2ºC, and 3.2ºC – and looked at what they mean for the world’s insects, vertebrates, and plants, using changes to their current distributions as a measure.

And it’s not pretty. At 3.2ºC, they say, nearly half (49%) of insects will lose more their half their current range – putting them at risk of local or even species extinction.

Forty-four percent of plants and 26% of vertebrates would also lose more than half of their ranges.

At 2ºC of warming, the figures fall to 18% of insects, 16% of plants, and 8% of vertebrates.

But at 1.5ºC of warming – and climate scientists say it is possible to hold warming to this level, but we must cut emissions quickly and deeply – the number of plants and invertebrates losing more than 50% of their ranges is more than halved, and the number of insects losing more than half their ranges falls by 66%.

What does this mean for New Zealand, where 83% of land vertebrates are already threatened or at risk of extinction?

It means we have a lot to gain from ensuring the world does what has to be done to keep warming to 1.5ºC. So far we haven’t done a very good job, but there are signs we are making progress. The government has banned new permits for oil and gas exploration, is introducing a Zero Carbon Act, and is commissioning all sorts of reports on how to cut carbon out of our economy.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP? It’s easy to get depressed by these figures, but, as people who care about nature, there are things we can do to help.

Making sure our native species and ecosystems are in as healthy a state as possible so that they have the best chance of surviving what’s coming is important.

But so too is public support for cuts to greenhouse gas emissions at a rate and scale that will really make a difference for nature.

Powelliphanta fletcheri is an alpine snail living just at and just above the tree line at 1100–1300m, where it is found under the litter of scattered leatherwood shrubs, tall tussocks, and large-leaved alpine herbs.

This species is found on the western-most end of both the Newton and McArthur Ranges, as well as Mt Tuhua. Classified as “rangerestricted”, our giant snails are threatened by deer, weka, and loss of habitat.

Powelliphanta fletcheri, Mt Brown, Hokitika. Photo: Euan Brook Reference: ‘The projected effect on insects, vertebrates and plants of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC rather than 2ºC’, R. Warren, J. Price, E. Graham, N. Forstenhaeusler and J. VanDer Wal, published in Science, May 18, 2018.

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Our partners

HELPING HANDS

Claire Robins (holding sign) with other staff who contribute to the Helping Hands programme outside the JB Hi-Fi store at St Lukes in Auckland.

JB Hi-fi has been supporting Forest & Bird for six years, helping protect nature through an innovative payroll-gifting scheme. By David Brooks.

Claire Robins says making a regular donation to Forest & Bird through her employer JB Hi-Fi’s payroll giving scheme is all about taking care of New Zealand.

“I chose Forest & Bird because it helps protect our flora and fauna. They’re doing great work to re-establish native birds and plants. They are looking after our country,” says Claire, who works at JB Hi-Fi in Auckland. The keen tramper has fond memories of wildlife encounters in the bush, including watching rare whio (blue duck) in a fastflowing stream in the Whirinaki Forest Park.

Thanks to JB Hi-Fi’s generous policy of matching staff donations dollar for dollar, Forest & Bird benefits twice over, says Forest & Bird relationships manager Jess Winchester.

“What the staff and the company are doing is pretty awesome. They’ve been supporting Forest & Bird since 2012, and they have really made a difference to what we are able to do, from protecting our endangered species to ensuring our kids will still have the opportunity to enjoy our iconic rivers and landscapes.”

JB Hi-Fi’s Helping Hands programme allows staff to support one or more of five charities – which were chosen by staff themselves – by donating a small amount from each pay. Staff receive an immediate 33 cents tax credit for every dollar donated, saving them from having to claim back the credit at the end of the tax year. In effect, because of the company matching staff donations and the tax credit, Forest & Bird receives two dollars for every 66 cents donated by individual staff.

Claire says Helping Hands is an ideal way of supporting Forest & Bird. “You can donate as much or as little as you like, and it’s entirely up to you whether you support one charity or split it among different charities. It’s easy when you are giving a few dollars from each pay.”

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“Helping Hands is a really good idea and a great way for JB Hi-Fi and its staff to give back to the community,” she says.

The company agrees, saying Helping Hands is an efficient and effective way of making a big difference every month.

JB Hi-Fi and its team members donate about $2000 a month to Forest & Bird – a total of more than $102,000 since the programme began – which amounts to a very big helping hand.

“We want to celebrate their contribution to protecting and nurturing New Zealand nature and to say a big thank you to JB Hi-Fi and their great team,” adds Jess Winchester.

Payroll giving Payroll giving is a relatively new way of supporting charities in New Zealand, and Forest & Bird would love to encourage other companies and employers to adopt similar schemes to give staff a simple way to support our work.

Any organisation that electronically files an employer monthly schedule and deduction form with the Inland Revenue Department can offer payroll giving to their employees. If you are not sure if your employer offers this option, you can ask them – maybe they will set something up!

Any business or organisation wanting to find out more about donating to Forest & Bird through payroll giving can contact Jess by emailing her at j.winchester@forestandbird.org.nz or phoning her on 04 801 2219.

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Books VOICES FROM THE SEA by Raewyn Peart, RRP $19.95, Environmental Defence Society, available from www.eds.org.nz

THE HUNTERS – The Precarious Lives of New Zealand’s Birds of Prey by Debbie Stewart, RRP $50, Random House NZ

In 1986, New Zealand embarked on a bold experiment introducing a market-based quota management system to New Zealand fisheries. Thirty years on, this report takes an in-depth look at New Zealand’s fisheries management system. Written with a broad audience in mind, it includes 60 in-depth interviews with people involved in fisheries management from a range of sectors.

It has a particular focus on the Hauraki Gulf, Kaipara Harbour, Marlborough Sounds, and Tasman/Golden Bays.

From an extinct giant eagle and an owl that sounded like the devil, to the morepork we hear calling at night, the falcon that appears on our $20 note, and the hawks we see swooping on the grisly remains of dead critters on the road, this book takes a close look at these fascinating birds and the people who are working to keep the species that are still with us safe.

TO THE MOUNTAIN – A collection of New Zealand alpine writing selected by Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey, RRP $45, Otago University Press.

From the Darrans of Fiordland to Denali in Alaska, New Zealand climbers, both experienced and recreational, have captured their alpine experience in letters, journals, articles, memoirs, poems, and novels. Drawing on 150 years of published and unpublished material, Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey, two top contemporary authors, have compiled a wide-ranging, fascinating and moving glimpse into New Zealand’s mountaineering culture and the people who write about it.

BEYOND MANAPOURI – 50 Years of Environmental Politics in New Zealand by Catherine Knight, RRP $39.99, Canterbury University Press Environmental historian Dr Catherine Knight traces the history of environmental governance in Aotearoa New Zealand since the heady days of the 1969 Save Manapouri campaign and tackles the reasons for the failure to address our biggest environmental issues. Written for a wide audience, Beyond Manapouri covers topics of freshwater management, land use, climate change, and the strengthening role of iwi and hapū in environmental management.

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DOWN A COUNTRY ROAD – Stories from New Zealand’s Heartland by Tony Orman, RRP $24.99, New Holland, available July 2018.

What is it that has made and still makes New Zealand’s back country and in particular the South Island so indelibly endearing to many? Tony Orman decided to seek out a collection of stories that included colourful – at times eccentric – personalities who have made the remote back country their home. This book celebrates the indefatigable and resilient settlers, and a lifestyle and connection with the natural environment that Kiwis still strongly identify with today.

SEABIRDS BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN CREST – The history, natural history and conservation of Hutton’s shearwater by Richard Cuthbert, RRP $45, Otago University Press The fascinating story of New Zealand’s Hutton’s shearwater, which breeds in only two remote locations, high in the Kaikoura Mountains. Amateur ornithologist and Forest & Bird member Geoff Harrow discovered the two remaining nesting sites in the 1960s. For five decades, he visited the mountains whenever he could to observe and record the birds, and encourage government authorities to protect them. As a result, scientist Richard Cuthbert spent three years living with 200,000 Hutton’s shearwaters studying their behaviour and observing their interactions to build a detailed picture of why and how these birds had survived.

Parting shot These Chatham Island black robins/kakaruia live on Mangere Island, one of 10 islands in the archipelago, 800km east of the South Island. I was making notes about the plants in the forest where these little birds reside.Their curiosity got the better of them, and soon they were sitting on a branch just above my head peering intently at me (probably hoping I had mealworms in hand ... I didn't). It was a magical moment.

Forest & Bird’s Old Blue awards are named after this species, which is famous worldwide for its recovery from imminent extinction in the early 1980s. The population now numbers about 250, and their protection has led to an amazing resurrection of Mangere Island’s ecosystem. What was farmland for decades prior to the mid-1970s is now transforming back into a forested seabird haven, following years of planting by volunteers. *Catherine Beard visited the Chatham Islands in March 2018 as part of a Department of Conservation biodiversity research team.

The best entry to our Parting Shot nature photo competition will win a prize, and the image will be published in the next issue of Forest & Bird magazine. Share your photos of native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, marine mammals, fish, and natural landscapes, such as rivers and lakes, and you could be in to win.

To enter, post your image on the Forest & Bird New Zealand Nature Group page on Flickr.com.

Alternatively, send your high res digital file (maximum 7mb) and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

THE PRIZE This issue’s winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Rimu Sleeping Bag and Kiwi Camping 6cm Self-Inflating Mat (total value $219).

The Rimu is lightweight and compact, ideal for hiking and backpacking.The heat-encapsulating mummy design and silvertherm lining will keep you warm and cosy all year round.

The durable Self-Inflating Mat with compressible foam core, which expands when unpacked, provides plenty of padding for a good night’s sleep. Complete with compression straps and stuff sack.

The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping.

For more details, see www.kiwicamping.co.nz.

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Bivouac staff members Dave Laffan & Silvia Horniakova Mount Adams Photo: Jeremy Herbert

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