Forest & Bird Magazine Issue 379 Autumn 2021 by Forest & Bird

N E W Z E A L A N D ’S I N D E P E N D E N T VO I C E FO R N AT U R E • E ST. 1 92 3

TE REO O TE TAIAO

№ 379  AUTUMN 2021

THE

BIG MELT Our disappearing glaciers

Kokako CARERS

WĒTĀ WORLD

NATURE’S FUTURE IN HER HANDS CONSERVATION MINISTER KIRI ALLAN

Contents ISSUE 379

• Autumn 2021

Editorial

2 A new tourism 4 Letters

News 6 Looking ahead to 2021 7 8 10 11

Defending nature Let’s go carbon zero Explore your backyard Wonderful wetlands, RMA reform

Cover story

12 Aotearoa’s disappearing glaciers

Profile

Marine

Biodiversity

38 Protecting Antarctica’s oceans

16 Conservation minister Kiri Allan 19 Fairy tern flyer 26 It’s a wētā world 64 Beware photo poachers

Freshwater

22 Can ahu moana help save the Hauraki Gulf?

Forest & Bird project 24 Ark in the Park’s kōkako

Bequests

20 Clearwater no more 34 Whitebait hope

28 A tropical gift

No new mines

30 New traps and toxins

Predator-free NZ

21 Tunnel threatens rare frogs

COVER SHOT The shapes, colours, and textures of blue glacial ice in an ice cave on Franz

Josef Glacier, Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Petr Hlavacek www.nzicescapes.com PAPER ENVELOPE Kākāpō Jake Osborne RENEWAL Clematis puawānanga Jake Osborne

Thank you for supporting us! Forest & Bird is New Zealand’s largest and oldest independent conservation charity.

EDITOR

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Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384 (Print), ISSN 2624-1307 (Online). Copyright: All rights reserved. Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird.

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Books

32 Bird’s eye view

Arts

36 Living sculptures

Climate

40 Restoring Raumati’s Great Swamp

Bird of the Year 43 OK! Boomer

In the field 44 Sand stories

Economy

46 Apple growing revolution 49 Jobs for nature

KCC

48 Kōwhai and the giants

Wildlife rescue 50 Wildbase wonders

Conservation history 52 Tawhiti Rahi tales

Community

Our partners 55 Metal birds

Going places 56 D’Urville delights

Seabirds

58 Seeking shorebirds

Market place 62 Classifieds

Parting shot IBC Grey heron

54 Nature’s advocates

CONTACT NATIONAL OFFICE Forest & Bird National Office Ground Floor, 205 Victoria Street PO Box 631, Wellington 6011. T 0800 200 064 or 04 385 7374 E office@forestandbird.org.nz W www.forestandbird.org.nz

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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No CC26943. PATRON Her Excellency The Rt Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor-General of New Zealand CHIEF EXECUTIVE Kevin Hague PRESIDENT Mark Hanger TREASURER Alan Chow BOARD MEMBERS Chris Barker, Kate Graeme, Richard

Hursthouse, Monica Peters, Te Atarangi Sayers, Ines Stäger CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS Graham Bellamy, Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton, Fraser Ross, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand

EDITORIAL

A NEW TOURISM

ver the summer, I was privileged to lead a series of fundraising tours for Forest & Bird. They were great fun, full of eye-opening moments, and provided significant financial assistance to the Society. I hope they also gave participants an increased appreciation of Aotearoa’s amazing landscapes and biodiversity – and the leading role of Forest & Bird in protecting them. One fascinating aspect of the tours was the opportunity to show participants some of the country’s prime conservation areas while these scenic places were under much less stress from tourists. No longer are 3000 people a day walking up the stunning Hooker Valley, in Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, to enjoy the myriad of spring flowers and soaring alpine vistas. We didn’t see 70 tour buses a day driving through to Milford Sound to experience Fiordland – or a long line of walkers queuing up to traverse Tongariro’s volcanic moonscapes. In the post-Covid-19 world, a new model of tourism will be pivotal in ensuring the economic viability of many parts of this country. The question is: Will tourism revert to pre-Covid “business as usual” or transition to a more responsible industry as part of a sustainable future for New Zealand? We have the opportunity to reset our tourism objectives and goals. We can ensure tourism gives back more to the environment than it takes. We can have tourism that is right for Aotearoa – one that is economically viable but treads very lightly on the landscape. It will require government leadership to ensure a coordinated and coherent transition that is not dominated by parochial groups and vested business interests.

A reimagined tourism industry should not just cater for high-end visitors, as recently touted by the Minister of Tourism. There must be an increased emphasis on sustainable tourism development. This will include assisting visitors to lower their carbon footprint and adopting more sustainable travel practices. It can start with our own domestic tourism. We don’t need to wait or rely on overseas visitors becoming more responsible. New Zealanders contemplating overseas holiday travel overseas should also consider these things. But, as one Forest & Bird staff member said, “love miles” – travelling to see family and loved ones – are a special case. Tourism affects all of us. It is an opportunity for all of us. As guardians and advocates for nature for nearly 100 years, we at Forest & Bird have a responsibility to ensure this transition is high on the government’s agenda. We are looking forward to being involved in these discussions and providing a strong voice for the environment, our unique biodiversity, and the country’s climate change goals. Ngā mihi nui

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

Alpine tussock on the Kepler Track, Fiordland.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Jake Osborne

YOUR BACKYARD JUST GOT BIGGER

In the Wake of Scott & Shackleton

Forgotten Islands of the South Pacific

Beyond Fiordland – NZ’s Wildest Islands

Chatham Islands – A Land Apart

Galapagos of the Southern Ocean

Kermadecs – Land of Dreams

Experience unforgettable wildlife encounters and rugged landscapes well off the tourist route with New Zealand’s pioneering expedition cruise company Heritage Expeditions 10 February – 11 March 2022 – ROSS SEA, ANTARCTICA Invercargill return, from US$23,880pp Journey down to the heart of New Zealand’s Antarctica on our iconic 30-day bucket list adventure, as seen on Slow TV documentary Go Further South.

12 – 21 March 2022 – THE UNSEEN CHATHAMS Invercargill to Christchurch, from US$5,450pp Observe endemic wildlife on the Chatham, Antipodes, Mangere, Little Mangere and Bounty Islands including Erect-crested Penguins, Magenta Petrel/Chatham Island Taiko and Black/Chatham Island Robin.

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Freephone 0800 262 8873 info@heritage-expeditions.com WWW.HERITAGE-EXPEDITIONS.COM

31 December – 10 January 2022 – LEGACY VOYAGE Invercargill return, from US$6,395pp Experience the untamed wilderness of Fiordland, Stewart and Ulva Islands and New Zealand’s Subantarctic Snares, Auckland and Campbell Islands. 15 – 25 March 2022 – NEW VOYAGE! Tauranga return, from US$5,370pp Explore New Zealand’s remote, subtropical Kermadec Islands/Rangitāhua as we return to this hard to reach, pristine archipelago and conservation hot spot requiring a special permit to visit.

LETTERS YOUR FEEDBACK Forest & Bird welcomes your thoughts on conservation topics. Please email letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address, and phone number, to editor@ forestandbird.org.nz, or by post to the Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, 205 Victoria Street, Wellington 6011, by 1 May 2021. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or use them in full.

WRITE AND WIN The best contribution to the Letters page will receive a copy of Wonderland by Peter Alsop, a superb tribute to the New Zealand landscape photography of Whites Aviation. RRP $49.99, Potton & Burton.

Roads not beaches Sian Mair’s petition to Clutha District Council (Summer 2020) is interesting as it mirrors the situation on many different beaches throughout New Zealand. The nub of the problem is that, under the provisions of a Land Transport Act, beaches have been deemed roads. While this made sense in the early days of transportation, it is an anachronism, and the Act should be rescinded or a ruling made that restricts access to vehicles for specific retrieval purposes. Until that change is made, local bodies are having to go through steps to introduce bylaws to deal with vehicle use of beaches. This is taking place to lesser or greater effect throughout our country, and, in the case of my locality, a non-statutory plan initially drafted to deal clumsily with the problem became a statutory plan following the required fiveyear review. This has been an eight-year process, and it is barely adequate to address the situation of constant driver transgression. Being considered a highway, it is treated as such by some drivers. I would urge every Forest & Bird reader to speak or write to their MP, as well as signing Sian’s petition, asking for a national policy to be brought in that would either overturn the original Act or significantly change it. Sue Stewart North Canterbury

biodiversity. That a more consistent national approach is sorely needed becomes evident from a quick scan of the current rules. Could it be that there is no mention in the See No Evil report of unauthorised land clearance on the West Coast because it is, in most cases, permitted and, where discretionary, often consented? There are problems with effluent storage and discharge here too, but, again, they occur with impunity as the activities are permitted, consented, or ignored. See no evil. Rob Pieper West Coast The relevant sections of the plan and Rob’s comments are available on request from editor@forestandbird.org.nz.

BEST LETTER WINNER

Nature loss on private land With interest, I read the article in your magazine announcing the release of the report on biodiversity loss on private land, See No Evil. This made me check on the permitted activities on land and water in the operative West Coast Regional Council Land and Water Plan. It may shock your readers to know that largescale destruction of native vegetation, and the resultant loss of bird and insect habitat, along with increased sediment and contaminant run-off and leaching, has continued to occur within the rules on the West Coast. If anything, land clearing and drainage has increased in response to perceived threats from SNAs and a less-permissive national approach to water quality and

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Abundance on Ulva Island This is a photo of a kākāriki that I took recently when visiting Ulva Island, off Rakiura Stewart Island. One of the reasons I really like this photo is that it was not taken with a sophisticated SLR camera but a fairly simple and compact Canon SX710 HS. I think it shows that everyone can take quite attractive pictures when visiting open sanctuaries like Ulva Island and, by doing so, encourage others to also cherish our wildlife. Roland Stenger Hamilton

BOOK GIVEAWAY Unappreciated Antarctic life The Summer issue of Forest & Bird highlighted Max Quinn’s inspirational films of Antarctica and the Arctic. His emphasis on iconic marine animals such as emperor penguins and polar bears alerts us to the effects of climate change and unsustainable fishing in polar regions. Unfortunately, life on land in Antarctica is almost dismissed by the statement that a tiny springtail is “the only native land animal”. In fact, there are at least 10 species of springtails, 30 mites, two flies, 11 crustaceans, and 40 rotifers, nematodes, and tardigrades. Plants are also diverse, with two species of flowering plants, at least 100 mosses, 25 liverworts, and 250 lichens. There are thousands of species of microbes, but their diversity remains poorly known. All this life is in the 0.35% of Antarctica that is free of overlying ice. Habitats include soils and rocks, thousands of lakes, millions of ponds, and many streams and rivers. Icefree areas are beautiful, unique, and easily damaged wildernesses. Impacts on this terrestrial ecosystem include accelerating climate change and an expanding human presence. The construction of more bases and aircraft facilities on ice-free land and greater tourist numbers make it imperative that strict limits are placed now on the extent of our presence in Antarctica.

We are giving away two copies of Getting Closer – Rediscovering nature through bird photography by Paul Sorrell, RRP $44.99, Exisle Publishing. To enter, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org.nz, put CLOSER 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 CLOSER draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close 1 May 2021. The winners of A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand by Oscar Thomas were Stella Ramage, of Wellington, and Ngairene Collinson-Smith, of Whitianga.

2050, we need programmes with mandatory rules. Costfree and low-cost actions to reduce emissions and save operational costs should stand on the top of the list. Walter Breustedt Havelock North

Paul Broady Christchurch

Walter’s wishlist My wish for 2021 and the following years is for all of us, especially our authorities, to take urgent action against climate change, which lost attention under Covid-19. Our government, and regional and local councils, publish long-term goals but don’t develop and implement short-term action plans. The climate emergency call from the government to councils and businesses to buy electric vehicles is not enough and is one of the most expensive suggestions. European communities are thinking outside the square. The German town of Freiburg introduced car-free Sundays during certain times of the year, and unnecessary idling of cars is a criminal offence in London. These are lowcost examples of change. Councils should include an energy check for new buildings. An energy-conscious design can save 10% to 15% in future heating/cooling costs. Solar hot water should be compulsory in new buildings. The additional costs are paid back normally within five years. Compulsory requirements are not popular, but they deliver. Our government introduced a plastic shopping bag ban, which only became a success because it was mandatory. To achieve the 1.5°C goal by

Tiritiri Matangi Island

RECHARGE YOUR SOUL

Take a guided walk through the bush, serenaded by the sound of our magnificent native birds. See New Zealand’s oldest working lighthouse, or simply immerse yourself in the peace and solitude that is Tiritiri Matangi Island.

tiritirimatangi.co.nz | Ferry bookings: fullers.co.nz

Summer 2020

NATURE NEWS

THE CONSERVATION YEAR AHEAD

Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague sets out some of Forest & Bird’s priorities for 2021.

rogress has been made in recent years on some of the important issues we have been advocating for, but so much more remains to be done. This is a crucial year in setting Aotearoa’s response to the climate crisis, and this issue underpins all our other work. Nature will be decimated if we can’t limit the impact of climate change. We want to see a broad political consensus to back the Climate Commission’s proposals because this could lead to big shifts towards a low carbon economy. Another of our priorities for progress this year is marine conservation. We want new Fisheries Minister David Parker to move on creating marine protected areas, reducing by-catch, and recognising the need for cameras on fishing vessels, among other reforms. On land, Forest & Bird will press the government to keep its promise to stop mining on conservation land. I am concerned Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spoken about stewardship land as though it is not

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

conservation land when talking about mining. We will remind her that almost all stewardship land – about a third of all of the conservation estate – has conservation values and that a good proportion of those values are extraordinarily high. This year will also be important for finalising reforms to the management of freshwater. We also want to ensure the proposed three pieces of legislation to replace the Resource Management Act fully reflect the recommendations of last year’s independent Randerson report. Forest & Bird’s detailed conservation priorities are set out in our Strategic Plan, which covers the next five years. They also are reflected our new organisational structure established last year. Our income took a big hit last year following the Covid-19 pandemic, and this will continue to affect us in 2021 and likely for another year or two beyond. But the way our supporters and branches rallied around to avert an even more serious crisis was magnificent, helping us to fill a significant part of the financial hole. Without that support, we would have been in a dire situation. We are incredibly grateful to those who have supported us and continue to do so. Putting nature at the heart of the economy has been an increasingly important part of our campaigning over a number of years. The pandemic is a stark demonstration of the role of humans in creating crises that threaten our well-being and even our existence. The response of our government, backed by the “team of five million”, to the pandemic also showed when people join together they can avert or reduce the impact of crises. Last March, Forest & Bird’s argument that economic development must be within a framework of protecting and restoring nature struck a chord. Our Recovery for People and Planet proposals to the government to create jobs and economic activity while restoring the environment were the basis for its $1.245 billion Jobs for Nature package. This success, along with my role on the Ministerial reference group for Jobs for Nature, shows the government recognises Forest & Bird as a helpful and constructive partner in seeking better outcomes. The big question going forward is how “transformational” the Labour-led government will be for nature now that New Zealand First is no longer a coalition partner. The economic impact of Covid-19 has not been as severe as initially expected, which means there is a danger the momentum for positive change could be lost

if the government reverts to “business as usual”. Forest & Bird will keep up the pressure for the ambitious and urgent reforms needed to protect and restore nature. All of this is only possible because of our supporters,

staff, branches, and sponsors, who make nature’s voice heard in government, councils, courts, public forums, and on the ground at our conservation projects. So, once again, a sincere thank you helping to protect and restore nature in these difficult times.

Thanks to you, Forest & Bird’s legal team will be going into bat for New Zealand’s special population of blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight.

DEFENDING NATURE

heartfelt thank you to all the Forest & Bird supporters who put their love of nature into action by donating more than $330,000 towards Forest & Bird’s legal fighting fund in 2021. Last year, a very generous Auckland couple, who wish to remain anonymous, offered to match any individual donations dollar-for-dollar up to $80,000 to support our court-based work this year. Our initial target was $160,000, but your generosity saw more than double this amount raised – an incredible achievement given the Covid-19 economic crisis. Some of this money will be used to help fund an important legal appeal seeking to achieve a Water Conservation Order for the Lower Ngaruroro River in Hawke’s Bay. This is an outstanding area for native birdlife, but it currently has very little conservation protection under the law. This year, our legal team will also be defending the South Taranaki Bight and its unique population of blue whales from destructive iron sand mining. Another legal priority in 2021 will seek to establish more marine protected areas in Northland following the landmark Motiti decision.

Forest & Bird lawyers William Jennings (left) and Peter Anderson.

Thank you again. None of this would be possible without your incredible financial support – see www.forestandbird.org.nz/defendnature for more information.

Summer 2020

NATURE NEWS New Zealand’s tarns (alpine ponds) are at risk of drying up as the planet warms. Misty Tarn, Garvie Mountains, near Queenstown. Rob Brown

LET’S GO CARBON ZERO

Forest & Bird is working hard to promote a nature-first approach to reducing harmful emissions and helping Aotearoa become carbon-zero.

ew Zealanders need to contribute their fair share of the global effort to keep global warming to 1.5˚C, says Forest & Bird Effective action means getting rid of coal, phasing out oil and gas, and cutting emissions from agriculture. The government should embrace the ambitious targets set out in He Pou a Rangi – the Climate Change Commission’s initial report on how the country should tackle the climate crisis. “New Zealand has dithered for 30 years. Now we have no choice but to act decisively to bring down our carbon emissions,” says Forest & Bird climate change spokesperson Geoff Keey. “We welcome the proposal to restore at least 16,000ha of native forest each year by 2025 and 25,000ha annually by 2050. “But planting more trees won’t be nearly enough if we are to play our part in keeping global warming below 1.5˚C.” Forest & Bird also wants to see the Commission take a closer look at the role of wetlands, coastal environments, and pest control in storing carbon. It’s important the shift to renewable and clean energy sources doesn’t come at the expense of already vulnerable wild places. For example, great care will need to be taken in choosing sites for a projected five-fold increase in wind generation. “The report shows we can do our share in addressing climate change. If it’s done right, it

Weeds will migrate upwards in response to a warming climate, threatening alpine flowers. Phyllachne colensoi at Lewis Pass tarns. Euan Brook

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

will enhance our environment and well-being while maintaining a healthy economy,” adds Geoff. Forest & Bird has made a detailed submission in response to the Commission’s report. To find our more about Forest & Bird’s climate advocacy – see https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/ petitions/go-carbon-zero.

WORRYING NEW STUDY

New Zealand scientists say climate change could reverse recent gains in biodiversity hotspots following intensive predator control efforts. Native species at risk include whitebait (Galaxias spp.), brown mudfish eels, Archey’s frog, tuatara, and tītī sooty shearwater. Using Aotearoa as a case study, a group of 15 New Zealand scientists concluded that, as well as sea-level rise, other climate change impacts will make existing threats, such as the loss of habitat, worse. They also say a paucity of data means there is much uncertainty about the ecological effects of future climate change. Clearly documented examples include the increase in male offspring for tuatara as temperatures rise and an increase in the frequency of seed-masting events leading to plagues of rats and stoats. Following an expert-guided workshop, the researchers identified New Zealand species, habitats, and ecological processes most likely to be impacted by a warming planet. For more information, see ‘Climate-change impacts exacerbate conservation threats in island systems: New Zealand as a case study’ by Cate MacinnisNg et al. Published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, February 2021.

NATURE NEWS TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

EXPLORE YOUR BACKYARD

Following the success of Forest & Bird’s inaugural fundraising tours, several exciting new itineraries have been put together for the 2021 season. Debuting in October, Te Ao o Tane will explore the wonders of our native forests in the central North Island, while Latitude 42 will get up close and personal to the diverse wildlife of the Top of the South Island. These tours will be repeated in April 2022. If borders re-open, Forest & Bird’s President Mark Hanger will lead two trips across the ditch – Western Australia Wildflowers and Wildlife (departing early September 2021) and Wild Tasmania – Marsupials, Flora, and Wilderness (departing late November). Also returning for 2021 is Alpine Aotearoa (departing late December) and Footsteps through Conservation Battlegrounds (departing October 2020 and March 2021). Both of these tours sold out last season. Mark is the owner-operator of Nature’s Quest, a bespoke ecotourism company that specialises in

taking small groups to biodiversity hotspots in New Zealand and Australia. After the Covid-19 pandemic closed New Zealand’s borders last March, he came up with the win-win idea of creating bespoke tours for Forest & Bird supporters who wanted to explore the natural world in their own backyard. All the profits go towards Forest & Bird’s conservation work. Participants loved meeting Forest & Bird staff and legendary conservationists such as Sir Alan Mark to hear about their work protecting and restoring New Zealand’s wild places. “It’s been an honour and a privilege to be leading these tours,” says Mark. “I’ve loved showing New Zealanders their own backyard and some of its incredible natural treasures. They also get to experience these places with fewer tourists around.” To date, Mark has raised $80,000 towards Forest & Bird’s conservation work, an incredible achievement in just six months.

To find out more about the upcoming tours and secure your place, email markhanger@naturequest.co.nz. Listen to Mark being interviewed about the tours on RNZ’s Nine to Noon show at http://bit.ly/2OMkAqF.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

A departure tax for everyone leaving New Zealand should be introduced to offset the environmental cost of flying, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Simon Upton urged the government to take advantage of the pause in international tourism to transform the sector to one with a substantially smaller environmental footprint. Tourists – and the tourism businesses that serve them – should be required to pay for the cost of the environmental services they use, he said. The Commissioner presented a set of four policy proposals in his report Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism: n A new departure tax, with the

revenue being used to support the development of lowemissions aviation technologies and provide a source of climate finance for Pacific Island nations. n Make future government funding

for tourism infrastructure conditional on environmental criteria and aligned with mana whenua/the local community’s vision for tourism development. n Strengthen tools the Department

of Conservation can use to address the loss of wildness and natural quiet at Aotearoa’s most spectacular natural attractions. Tighten up rules around commercial activity on conservation lands and waters. n Strengthen existing standards for

self-contained freedom camping and require rental car agencies to play a greater role in collecting infringement fees and fines. You can read the report at http://bit.ly/2ZHzhOd.

New Zealand’s last remaining wetlands are important carbon sinks. Iveagh Bay, Lake Brunner. Shelley Evans

WONDERFUL WETLANDS The government should draw up a plan to double the number of natural wetlands in New Zealand for the sake of our climate, says Forest & Bird freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen. Wetlands have a key role to play in helping combat the climate crisis. They are also important habitats for native wildlife and act as filters to keep our water clean. On World Wetlands Day, Forest & Bird released regional data showing how wetland restoration could be used to mitigate the effects of climate change. “Peat wetlands, in particular, are super carbon sinks. They hold twice as much carbon as all of the world’s forests combined, yet cover only about 3% of earth’s land surface,” says Annabeth.

RMA REFORM

Adaptation Plan. By comparison, drained and You can also help by contacting damaged peat wetlands emit your local council and asking carbon and are responsible for up whether they are mapping and to 6% of agricultural emissions in monitoring wetlands in their area. New Zealand. Coastal wetlands such as mangroves, salt marshes, and WILL YOU HELP PROTECT sea grasses also need protection WETLANDS? because they are also excellent at Please make a gift today to help storing carbon. On average, they protect New Zealand’s fragile can absorb carbon 35 to 57 times wetland habitats. Thousands of faster than tropical forests. people like you, who love our But only about 10% of Aotearoa’s incredible country, are giving a former wetlands remain after donation that gives nature a voice. draining for farm land and urban Show your support by visiting development. www.forestandbird.org.nz/ As well as restoring lost natural saveourwetlands. wetlands, Forest & Bird wants the Ministry for the Environment to map historic coastal wetlands ☛ Restoring Raumati’s lost peat and the Climate Commission to wetland – see page 48. include wetland restoration in its

The government is delivering on its promise to reform the resource management system based on last year’s Randerson review. The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) will be repealed and replaced with three new acts this parliamentary term. Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague says it’s vital that the government honours the intent of the Randerson review. “Randerson’s conclusion that developments need to have a net environmental benefit and environmental bottom lines are great changes. It’s pretty hard to develop a mine that has a net environmental benefit. “There will be strong industry pushback, so it will require some backbone from the government to stick with the intent of Randerson’s conclusions.” The RMA will be a key area of focus for Forest & Bird this year.

CHEQUING OUT

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Banks are phasing out paper-based cheques, with ANZ, Westpac, and BNZ due to stop accepting them this year. If you currently donate by cheque, please call our friendly team member Marissa Oliver on 04 803 1012 or 022 426 7143 and she will guide you through your options.

Summer 2020

COVER

Glaciers are really sensitive to temperature, so the difference between 1˚C and 4˚C additional warming by 2100 is the difference between having recognisable glaciers and only having tiny remnants on the highest peaks.

THE

BIG MELT

Haupapa Tasman Glacier, Aotearoa’s largest glacier, has retreated several kilometres since the 1970s. Caroline Wood

One the world’s most visible symbols of climate change, glacier retreat is reshaping our landscapes. Lynley Hargreaves

anterbury University glaciologist Dr Heather Purdie clearly remembers her first visit to Haupapa Tasman Glacier. She was seven years old, and it was 1977. “I was amazed at how big the glacier was. You could see it winding down from way up the top of the valley,” says Heather. “I also remember being fascinated by the sounds, the rocks and ice creaking and cracking. “We didn’t have family holidays very much, so it was

A young Heather Purdie (right) at the the Tasman Glacier during a family holiday in 1981 and Heather today (right).

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

a big deal. But my Dad loves the mountains and really wanted to show us.” That visit helped propel Heather into a career studying glaciers. “I’d always had this grounding of having been to see the glaciers when I was little. It really helped sow a seed.” But the visit was also memorable because it came at a pivotal moment for Aotearoa’s biggest glacier. While other New Zealand glaciers were already retreating, the terminus of the Tasman Glacier had barely shifted since first being surveyed about 100 years before. But, by the late 1970s, it had reached a tipping point. After long-term “downwasting”, when the glacier became thinner but didn’t retreat, the ice had dropped to the same level as the river outlet. Suddenly, meltwater had nowhere to go and pools began to form. When Heather returned as a teenager in the 1980s, crossing the glacier on foot to hunt in the Murchision Valley, she was surprised to see the ponds on the surface of the ice. By the 1990s, the ponds had joined together into a lake.

“Through my lifetime, I’ve seen these really dramatic changes,” says Heather. “Now we bob around in a boat on a 5.5km-long lake to do our research.” Despite this retreat, Haupapa is still by far and away the biggest of New Zealand’s nearly 3000 glaciers. This single glacier contains about one-third of all of Aotearoa’s glacier ice, and even today its sheer scale is hard to fathom. Standing on the rocky shore of the lake today, you can see past icebergs towards the distant dirty cliff of the retreating glacier. What you can’t see with the naked eye is how far its terminus ice cliff extends below the water. Further up the glacier, at its deepest point near Ball Corner, the 23km-long glacier has been measured to be more than 600m thick. It is partly this thickness that kept the glacier from retreating for so long, also helped by a layer of rocky debris over much of the lower glacier, which insulates it from the sun. “If it didn’t have this blanket of debris cover, it would have retreated way up the valley by now,” adds Heather. Other steeper clean-ice New Zealand glaciers have reacted more immediately to changing temperatures and precipitation. The best known of these is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere Franz Josef Glacier, which has retreated 3.3km since 1893. But, within that retreat, the glacier made some spectacular advances – including most of the time between 1983 and 2008.

Dr Heather Purdie’s research is exploring how crevasses affect glacier melt. Pictured are mountaineer Jane Morris (left) and scientist Tim Kerr installing monitoring equipment to measure air temperature in a Tasman Glacier crevasse. Heather Purdie

The Franz Josef Glacier in 1965 (top). Archives NZ. Below is the same glacier half a century later in 2016. Shellie Evans

Today, the Franz Josef Glacier is in retreat again, along with the vast majority of glaciers in Aotearoa and around the world. “With Franz, your great-great-grandfather might have seen that glacier retreat, then your aunty might have seen it advance. There have been so many fluctuations,” says Heather. “But families visiting the Tasman Glacier are only seeing one story – one of retreat.” For the past two summers, Heather and her team from Canterbury University have been investigating the story of the Tasman Glacier by looking at crevasses – the deep cracks that form in moving masses of ice. They can be exposed to the air at the surface or are sometimes covered in snow. “Anecdotally, we keep hearing from mountaineers that the glaciers are becoming more crevassed and that crevasses are exposed for longer,” she says. That can make the glacier’s surface rougher, which changes melt rates. She’s also found that, unlike in polar regions, New Zealand’s crevasses hold warmer air than the ice around them. Summer 2020

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These satelite images show the rapidly expanding Tasman Glacier lake. In 1990 there was virtually no water, but by 2020 a large lake had formed in front of the terminus. US Geological Survey

Tourists touching an ancient iceberg calved from the Tasman Glacier. Caroline Wood

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“So I started to think computer models might be underestimating the melt rates in the higher parts of the glacier,” says Heather. Melting all of New Zealand’s glaciers would not change sea level much. But research here can help us understand glacier-melt processes globally. “New Zealand’s glaciers are excellent natural laboratories,” explains Heather. Changes measured here in Aotearoa can help predict the future rate of glacial ice melt in other parts of the world. That’s partly because our glaciers are very sensitive to climate change because of New Zealand’s maritime climate. They get lots of snow through the winter but have high melt rates in summer. They also exist in a marginal environment, very close to freezing point. “So a very small shift in temperature will have a big impact,” adds Heather. Victoria University’s Associate Professor Brian Anderson uses computer models to predict how much the expected temperature changes of the 21st century will impact the glaciers of Aoraki Mount Cook.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

“We will lose another third of ice mass by 2050 under all climate scenarios of warming,” says Brian. But from then on, the models diverge rapidly, depending on whether we humans can keep a lid on global warming. “Glaciers are really sensitive to temperature, so the difference between 1˚C and 4˚C additional warming by 2100 is the difference between having recognisable glaciers and only having tiny remnants on the highest peaks,” says Brian. Back at Haupapa Tasman Glacier, many of its responses to climate change are poorly understood. Under less-extreme warming scenarios, the glacier’s future is hard to predict. Right now, the glacier’s terminus is still catching up to our current climate warming, but the interaction between the ice and lake means the speed of retreat is somewhat disconnected from climate change. “But if we get warming at the higher end of the climate scenarios, then basically everything melts and the nuances of the processes of Haupapa’s debris-cover and lake calving don’t matter anymore,” warns Brian. “There’s just nothing left apart from on the highest mountain peaks and a lump of deep debris-covered ice sitting in the valley.” Scientists say that, despite the ice loss to date, there is still time to reduce the future impact of global warming on our glaciers. “We all need to play our part in fixing this problem,” adds Brian. “For every 300m we drive, it melts another kilogramme of the world’s glacier ice. Brian Anderson “We all need to be making conscious choices about how we get to and around in the mountains.” And of course climate warming in our mountains is not just having an impact on glaciers. The disappearance of summer snow has an impact on alpine plant species and the birds that depend on them.

Only a few years ago, visitors to Fox Glacier could take a guided walking tour onto the glacier. This is no longer allowed because of safety concerns caused by the melting ice. Flickr.com

DOING OUR BIT

Rock wren.

Craig McKenzie

ALPINE SPECIES AT RISK

As temperatures rise, glaciers may run out of mountain peaks to perch on – and so too could some high-altitude plants and animals. Many of New Zealand’s alpine flora and fauna are specialised and limited to isolated high areas where migrating upslope may not be an option. Increasing temperatures also allow predators like rats and mice to get further up the mountains, allowing them to prey on the species previously out of their reach, such as rock wren. Some, like the threatened yellow alpine buttercup (Rannunculus godleyanus), which usually lives near permanent icefields and glaciers, are already under threat from high-altitude browsing animals such as chamois and tahr. These warming conditions are also allowing invasive plant species to grow at higher altitudes, reducing available alpine habitat. International research has shown that non-native weeds spread twice as fast as native plants in alpine areas. New Zealand has been in a biodiversity crisis for decades – but climate change impacts could tip some of our internationally important alpine species over the edge.

Forest & Bird wants to see the government commit New Zealand to its fair share of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, consistent with stabilising the world’s climate at no more than 1.5°C of warming above preindustrial levels. We need a transformation to a clean green economy, and that means producing and consuming things without generating greenhouse gases. The Climate Commission needs to promote faster emission reductions than in its draft plan. As a developed nation that has disproportionately benefited from being able to pollute the atmosphere, New Zealanders have a moral obligation – and the capacity – to do something about global warming. Keeping warming to safe levels will make a huge difference to New Zealand’s environment, including protecting our retreating snowlines and vulnerable alpine species from further losses.

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Clear, goodhearted advice

Summer 2020

Balancing

PROFILE

ACT

Conservation minister Kiri Allan holds a Kaikoura tītī (Hutton’s shearwater) chick. Ailsa Howard

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan shares her top priorities for the next three years. David Brooks

iri Allan will undoubtedly bring a fresh perspective to the conservation portfolio she took over late last year. The 37-year-old “Millennial Minister” is the youngest member of Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet and a strong supporter of the regions, te ao Māori, social justice, law, and agriculture. “I’m a proud child of the regions here in Aotearoa, the way we spend our time and connect with the whenua and each other,” she tells Forest & Bird in an interview to talk about her conservation philosophy and some of her priorities in the current three-year government term. Kiri Allan has packed a lot into her life since her childhood in Paengaroa, west of Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty. The second youngest of 10 children, of Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Pākehā descent, she was brought up by her birth mother’s older sister and her husband. She has been on a political fast track since entering Parliament as a list MP in 2017. She won the seat of East Coast, previously a National Party stronghold, in last year’s election before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promoted her to the Cabinet with the Conservation and Emergency Management portfolios. “The taiao [natural world] has been a life-long focus for me,” the Minister says. “I’ve been a longtime advocate, particularly on climate change, stretching back to when I was a teenager.” Before entering Parliament, she was a lawyer, including working with indigenous communities in New Zealand, the US, and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region to oppose mining, water extraction, and deforestation. She has also been involved in

My belief is firmly held that we conserve the whenua and we conserve the taiao by ensuring we can use the taiao. managing agriculture, forestry, and horticulture projects in the East Coast region. “My focus is probably multifaceted. In the te ao Māori arena, we conserve the environment by being able to use the environment, and that might be a different experience for some who see conservation as something you lock it up and leave it. “My belief is firmly held that we conserve the whenua and we conserve the taiao by ensuring we can use the taiao.” She sees a cultural shift coming in the way we understand and interact with nature. “Every generation that comes along will have different perspectives on how they perceive their obligations towards the whenua.” She says there needs to be a balance in the way we interact with the environment. “That balance has become a little disjointed in more recent times, and that’s why the focus at the moment really is on preserving the assets that we do have.” Regarding her priorities in the portfolio, she says marine conservation is very important to her. She reiterated the goal of achieving 30% protection of New Zealand’s oceans by 2030. “Yes, it is one of our priorities. I’m squarely on record as saying that. “I’m working alongside the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries to progress our Labour manifesto commitments.” These include making progress

The Minister meets staff at the Department of Conservation’s HQ in Wellington.

on the Sea Change project to better protect the Hauraki Gulf, updating marine protected areas legislation, and implementing the Hector’s and Maui dolphins threat management plan. On land, Forest & Bird has been arguing that the Labour-led government should honour its 2017 promise to stop allowing new mines on conservation land. “It wasn’t something we took to the campaign this particular year [the 2020 election campaign], but it’s something I’m personally committed to,” Kiri Allan says. Related to mining, Forest & Bird has also been concerned about the lower level of protection that stewardship land has compared to other categories of conservation land. A large proportion of stewardship land has high conservation values but has been in limbo awaiting assessment of these values since Te Papa Atawhai, the Department of Conservation (DOC), was created in 1987. “In 1987, there was an undertaking to review it, and it hasn’t happened, so that is at the top of my priorities,” Kiri Allan says. Tourism on the conservation estate is another issue the minister wants to address. In February, the Parliamentary Commissioner for

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Summer 2020

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the Environment, Simon Upton, released a set of recommendations for reducing the environmental impact of tourism. These included strengthening DOC’s ability to address the loss of wildness and natural quiet at some popular attractions and tightening up rules around commercial activity on DOC land. “There’s a whole range of things that are happening on the back of Covid at the moment that are forcing us to rethink the way that tourism has grown and evolved here in Aotearoa,” Kiri Allan says. DOC’s related heritage and visitor strategy, which was released the same week, outlined principles aimed at ensuring that tourism on conservation land is sustainable. “I think the key thing for us is really looking at how the Department of Conservation manages visitors, helps us to connect with our natural, cultural, and historical heritage, and there’s a whole range of opportunities, but obviously with that comes challenges. “There’s a range of work that myself and the Minister for Tourism, Stuart Nash, will be looking at over the course of the next little while,” she says, adding that the economic benefits of tourism must be balanced with environmental considerations. As a lawyer, reform of conservation-related legislation is also in Kiri Allan’s sights. She

WHITEBAITING REFORMS BEFORE NEW SEASON

Kiri Allan checks out a tiny biodegradable trap being developed by Goodnature as part of the government’s Predator Free 2050 goal. DOC

wants to ensure that the laws can be easily understood. “You shouldn’t have to have a law degree to understand how the law impacts on the environment.” “There’s over 20 pieces of legislation that operate within the conservation legal environment and all of the subsidiary legislation that falls under that,” she says, adding that over time these laws have become disjointed. Clearly, Kiri Allan will have her hands full as Minister of Conservation, but she is up for the challenge and well aware of what is at stake. “We are fortunate to have inherited the taonga that we have.”

The Minister being greeted by Matua Bill Carter, kaumatua of Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, at a Jobs for Nature event in Waikanae.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Kiri Allan says she will introduce to Parliament reforms to the laws covering whitebaiting before the next season opens. “I’ll be looking to introduce some amendments in advance of this season, but I’m looking to do some longer-term work there [too],” she says. Forest & Bird has been calling for licensing for whitebaiting, a catch limit, and a data collection system to better understand the impact on whitebait species of fishing and other factors, such as pollution. Kiri Allan declined to specify the changes she will introduce this year but says she shares the widespread concerns about how the whitebait fishery has been managed, adding it’s an important issue to her. “In my family, we have a long life-time tradition of whitebaiting within our traditional areas that is for our personal use,” she says. “Our tikanga [customary practices] is dictated by a whole range of overarching obligations. With rights come responsibilities. Mahinga kai [food gathering] – preserving those traditions and practices, being able to look after our awa [rivers and waterways], so there are balances there.” “There are grave concerns for us. When I look at the practices I see across the country and I don’t see people taking for their families a kai, I see people taking extraordinary amounts to be able to sell commercially.”

BIODIVERSITY

FAIRY TERN FLYER

irdwatchers celebrated after spotting New Zealand’s rarest bird 600km away from her usual home. Local bird enthusiasts were delighted to discover a tiny New Zealand fairy tern making an unexpected appearance at the Manawatū Estuary, near Foxton, last December. It had been 21 years since a tara iti had been spotted at this location. Her leg bands revealed she had travelled more than 600km from Mangawhai, in Northland. It was a big trip for Aotearoa’s rarest breeding bird, which has only 45 adults and 12 breeding pairs left on Earth. The critically endangered fairy tern was sighted among a group of 70+ resident white-fronted terns. It was a first-year female from the 2019/20 breeding season.

Keen-eyed observers also noted the presence of a rare little tern and a common tern in the same group of birds. Not too far away, a couple of much larger Caspian terns made their presence known with their raucous calls. It was quite a red-letter day for everyone who visited – not often do we have the opportunity to see five species of terns in just one small area. The Manawatū Estuary is a bird watchers’ paradise, thanks to generations of Forest & Bird members who have looked after the area by planting, weeding, and trapping. One of the best known is Distinguished Life Member Joan Leckie, of Horowhenua. In 2000, she helped establish the Manawatū Estuary Trust and was involved with the move to clean up the

The critically endangered Northland tara iti that made a 600km flying visit to Foxton, delighting local birdwatchers. Roger Smith

Manawatū River. Five years later, Joan submitted a successful application to Department of Conservation for the Manawatū Estuary to become a Ramsar site, which means the wetland is of international significance. This was accepted at the Ramsar Convention, in Switzerland, a year later. Thank you to Roger Smith, of Waikanae, for providing this eye-witness view and image.

F R E S H WAT E R

CLEARWATER NO MORE

Every year for the past 35 years, Forest & Bird’s Ashburton Branch has organised an Annual Winter Bird Count at Lake Clearwater and surrounding high country lakes.

Forest & Bird wants to see councils doing more to protect New Zealand’s high country lakes.

n a sunny winter’s day at Lake Clearwater, the crisp air, cloudless blue skies, and snowcovered mountains reflected in the clear waters are enough to take your breath away. But just before Christmas, an algal bloom turned the high country lake brown and it was closed to the public. Canterbury District Health Board issued a human health warning, saying potentially toxic blue-green algae (planktonic cyanobacteria) had been discovered in the lake, which is used for recreational fishing, boating, and windsurfing. The lake is also a wildlife sanctuary for water fowl, including Australasian crested grebes and secretive wetland birds such as bitterns. Toxic algae in large quantities can kill fish and birds. Debs Martin, Forest & Bird regional conservation manager, was at Lake Clearwater the week it closed, visiting her family bach of 50 years. She was horrified by the brown cloudy lake water. “Right now it looks like pea brown soup, and it’s not safe to use. It’s just awful. You should be able to see down into the depths of the lake. That’s how the lake got its name and why fishers and holidaymakers love it so much,” she said. “This lake is incredibly important for wildlife, including diving birds, that need to be able to see prey in the water to feed. We’re wrecking their only home. The councils responsible need to do better.” The public health warning was lifted at the end of January after the algal bloom was found not to be toxic, but concerns remain for the lake’s ecological health. According to Environment Canterbury, Lake Clearwater is polluted with nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from farmland runoff, and it has not met the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP) standards since 2005 (see its report Canterbury Highcountry Lakes Monitoring Programme – State and Trends, 2005-2019, pages 117–120).

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Land use intensification of sheep and beef farming over the past 10 years is taking a toll on both nature and recreation at Lake Clearwater and neighbouring lakes and wetlands, including Lake Denny. Longdrop toilets in huts around Lake Clearwater are also contributing to nutrients entering the water, says Mary Ralston, from Forest & Bird’s Ashburton Branch. “While Ashburton District Council has committed to phasing out long drops over several years, and many bach owners have already complied, we’d like to see them expedite this in the face of the crisis facing Lake Clearwater,” she said. Forest & Bird is worried about the impact of farming on other sensitive and shallow high country lakes, including remote Lake Heron. “After 15 years of failing to meet their own water quality standards, Canterbury’s regional council has not taken the actions necessary to actually stop intensification and the extensive use of fertilisers,” adds Debs. “We want to see strong compliance and enforcement systems – like the ones for Lake Taupō – put in place to protect all lakes around New Zealand.” WATER QUALITY: Check out the Land Air Water Aoteroa website www.lawa.org.nz to see the latest water quality test results from your local lake, river, or beach. Crested grebes are one of up to 30 bird species that can be spotted on high country lakes. Michael Ashbee

NO NEW MINES There are plans to dig a mining tunnel underneath highvalue conservation land at Coromandel Forest Park. Chris Pryor

MINING THREATENS RARE FROGS Forest & Bird is preparing to challenge a gold mining company’s plans to build a tunnel under high-value conservation land. David Brooks

proposed Coromandel mining tunnel that threatens one of the world’s rarest frogs underlines why the government must keep its promise to end new mining on conservation land, says the leader of Forest & Bird’s No New Mines campaign, Debs Martin. The ban must apply equally to both surface and underground mining, she adds. “Going underground on conservation land is not acceptable. There are still huge problems caused by blasting, resulting instability, toxic waste, and the impact on nearby waterways and groundwater.” OceanaGold has been prospecting on high-value conservation land in the Coromandel Forest Park at Wharekirauponga near Waihi for several years, as we highlighted in a 2017 cover story. Late last year, Forest & Bird was disappointed to discover the company had quietly put a document on its website proposing a 6.8km tunnel under the forest park. OceanaGold says the tunnel is for exploration purposes only, but its construction would involve at least four ventilation shafts in the forest park, each with a footprint of 25m2.

The proposal covers high-value conservation land that is home to one of the world’s rarest and most evolutionarily distinct amphibians. The Archey’s frog population studied by Victoria University of Wellington frog expert Ben Bell crashed by 90% over six years from the mid-1990s. While the population appears to have stabilised since, Ben has said it is important that any future impacts on their habitat, including mining, should be minimised. Ground works and downstream impacts could affect both Archey’s and Hochstetter’s frogs, another rare native frog found in the area, he said. Other scientists have also said blasting and any impact on water above or below ground could have a devastating impact on the frogs. Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki coordinator and Forest & Bird member Augusta Macassey-Pickard says the blasting puts the frogs at risk. “The tunnel is not exploration. It is mining infrastructure being built under false pretences.” The area affected has the highest ecological value in the southern Coromandel Forest Park and contains valuable ecosystems and threatened species, as well as being the headwater of a major catchment, she adds. Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki is also concerned that removing water from the tunnel would affect streams above ground and set a precedent for other OceanaGold permits in the Coromandel. At the time of writing, OceanaGold said it was finalising its application for resource consent for the tunnel at Wharekirauponga, which Forest & Bird plans to oppose in a submission. Earlier, the company said it hoped to start production at the mine in 2026. A petition, Moratorium on Mining Permits for Conservation Land, calls on the government to halt any new mining activity on conservation land. You can sign it at http://bit.ly/3rRhcJk. Archey’s frog.

Euan Brook

Summer 2020

MARINE

On the surface, the Hauraki Gulf looks pristine, but beneath the waves tells a different story (see right). Darryl Torckler

CAN AHU MOANA HELP SAVE THE HAURAKI GULF? Waiheke Islanders are working together to foster a new way of thinking about marine protection. Alex Stone

ho will heal the Hauraki Gulf? The question posed on the cover of the Spring issue of Forest & Bird may well be answered with “The people of Waiheke Island”. As the largest population living entirely within, and surrounded by, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, we are at the epicentre of this crisis. It behoves us to do something about it. And, yes, for years good Waiheke folk have been working on this problem. Sandra and Mike Lee were

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

instrumental in the work towards the establishment of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, which came into formal being in February 2000. This while Sandra was the Minister of Conservation. The Waiheke chapter of Forest & Bird has done decades of good work in restoring island habitats and has become more actively involved in efforts to establish marine reserves. The success of Te Matuku reserve being ratified in 2005 can be chalked up to them and

passionate individuals such as Leith Duncan and others. A few years ago, a call by Friends of the Hauraki Gulf for more marine reserves on the northern shore of Waiheke was hampered by a vigorous antiprotection campaign, based on false information about a supposed “threat” to beaches. During that time, five scientific surveys and reports were conducted, including the comprehensive underwater mapping of the northern coast of Waiheke by Drs Vince Kerr and Roger Grace in 2013. A feasibility study for a network of marine reserves was completed by Dr Tim Haggitt in 2016. This recommended five protected areas around the Waiheke coastline. In January, the Friends of the Hauraki Gulf, supported by the Waiheke branch of Forest & Bird, challenged the Local Board to formally propose this network of marine reserves. The Waiheke Local Board, which commissioned the Haggitt report, has said it is duty bound by virtue of its strategic plan to support this initiative. Meanwhile, the Waiheke Collective, which has had great success in running the island’s Te Korowai predatorfree campaign, has also taken up an ocean mantle. Mike Lee is one of many Its Waiheke Waiheke Islanders who Marine Project have been working for has opted for an years on more marine inclusive process protection. Lesley Stone – a respectful partnership between iwi and the Waiheke community, following ahu moana principles (see right). Last October, it hosted a “Future Search” exercise, where 76 people from nine stakeholder groups gathered around a table and came

Overfishing has decimated snapper and crayfish stocks in the Hauraki Gulf, allowing kina “barrens” to flourish on reefs instead of an abundance of fish. Darryl Torckler

up with a set of nine areas of common agreement. They agreed that by working together they could learn and discover how to bring ahu moana to life. In particular, the group committed to developing effective marine protection by using the best mechanisms, including rāhui and MPAs. Perhaps the triumph of Future Search was the consensus gained among participants at the hui. Lucy Tukua of Ngāti Pāoa, the mana whenua of the island, said the collaboration is about whakawhanaungatanga, building and deepening our relationships to one another and to the environment. “Our whakataukī ‘Waiheke ki uta, ki tai, ki tua’ extends from the mountains to the sea and beyond. We are asking how we can be good ancestors for tomorrow; it’s about leaving a legacy for future generations,” she said. Given the consensus reached at Future Search, the way was open for immediate action. One of the first actions to be discussed was a long-term rāhui on

crayfish gathering on the northern shores of the island. A species survey conducted by the Auckland University Underwater Club, under the scientific direction of the late great marine biologist Dr Roger Grace, found that crayfish were locally extinct, despite there being swathes of ideal habitat. In late January, Herearoha Skipper, of Ngāti Paoa, facilitated a public meeting at Pritahi Marae. She proposed a long-term rāhui covering kūtai mussels, paua, tipa scallops, and kōura crayfish all around Waiheke. It followed a meeting of the Ngāti Pāoa trust board and the marae committee, where unanimous approval for the rāhui was given. The people at the public hui were equally supportive, and the rāhui was imposed at a dawn ceremony on 31 January. Meanwhile, we await the latest chapter in the long-running Sea Change plan, which recommended 13 new marine reserves in the Hauraki Gulf in 2017. At the time of writing, none of Sea Change’s underwater proposals have been implemented. There are hopes Conservation Minister Kiri Allan, who is considering a report from the Sea Change Ministerial Advisory Board, will support the proposed network of marine reserves.

The concept of ahu moana brings together mātauranga Māori and local knowledge alongside scientific data, providing a holistic approach to marine management based on these foundations: 1 A 50:50 co-management approach between mana whenua and local communities. 2 Ahu Moana areas and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will not dilute Treaty settlements. 3 Where Ahu Moana areas intersect with MPAs, the more stringent rules will prevail. 4 Commercial and recreational fishing are allowed in Ahu Moana areas. 5 Fishing and other activities may be restricted by mana whenua and local communities in Ahu Moana areas to protect fisheries or the environment. 6 Customary harvest may take place in all areas – except during rāhui or where more stringent rules prevail. 7 Ahu Moana areas do not restrict the establishment of future no-take marine reserves or other MPAs. 8 Ahu Moana areas do not restrict the establishment of future aquaculture areas. 9 Ahu Moana areas do not restrict access to the marine environment.

SAVE OUR SEAS

A two-year rāhui on gathering tipa, kūtai, kōura, and pāua was placed around the Waiheke Island coastline at a dawn ceremony in late January. Lesley Stone

Forest & Bird is calling for 30% of the Gulf to be protected with a network of marine reserves covering all the different kinds of underwater habitats found there. We also want to see commercial trawling banned from the waters of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

Summer 2020

FOREST & BIRD PROJECT

KŌKAKO CARERS A group of dedicated Ark in the Park volunteers spent their summer looking after kōkako nests. Harriet Jones

Harriet Jones holds one of the first kōkako chicks born in Ark in the Park this summer. Kirk Serpes

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

e had a whirlwind of a time monitoring kōkako nests at Ark in the Park over the summer breeding season. Forest & Bird’s Ark in the Park volunteers spent many hours of their time over Christmas and New Year looking after six breeding pairs, who between them had 13 nests. From October last year, our 10-strong dedicated kōkako team set up extra traps around the nest trees, checked the traps, and monitored the birds’ activity over the busy summer holidays. The first nest of the season successfully hatched and fledged a single chick. The pair sadly lost their second nest to predation. However, at the time of writing, they were raising another chick in their third nest! The team included two specialist contractors who were employed to locate the kōkako nests in the bush. Volunteers were assigned to look after individual nests. It takes a village to raise a kōkako chick, and more than 100 hours of volunteer time has been offered so far, with nests still being monitored into March. From last October, Waitākere residents Yvonne Vaneveld and Mike Siddens checked their assigned kōkako parents two to three times a week, including on Christmas Day. “We believe in putting effort close to where we live, so being involved in the Ark in the Park project has been perfect for us,” Volunteers Mike Siddens explains Yvonne. and Yvonne Veneveld. “We find it a joy to sit Samantha Lincoln quietly in the beautiful forest and direct our focus and attention on the kōkako pairs coming and going. “It’s definitely great for mindfulness and being present in the moment, and it gets us to places we wouldn’t see otherwise. How good is that? “We’ve been involved in conservation activities for the last 30 years. We love being part of a great group of

Ark in the Park contractors Dave and Amanda banding one of the kōkako chicks. Klaas Blokke

people, all with the same love of the natural world.” Some nests can be difficult to locate and reach, whereas others are easily accessible from tracks or even roadsides and backyards. Sadly, rats preyed on the first nests of three kōkako pairs, and the eggs in a fourth pair’s first nest weren’t fertile. Two of these pairs went on to build a second nest, one of which was predated again. They didn’t give up though, and at the time of writing had made a third nest producing one chick, then a fourth nest, which is being carefully watched. The other pair’s second nest was a success, hatching two chicks who successfully fledged. Another pair started breeding later than the others, and their first nest was looking successful. Two chicks hatched and were banded, and the nest was empty around fledging time. On closer inspection, there was quite a bit of damage to the nest bowl’s structure, suggesting a visit from a large predator. In summary, at the time of writing, we have had two successfully fledged nests, and two more were active with chicks or eggs. Seven nests are confirmed failures, and two are unconfirmed until potential fledglings are sighted. Tim Lovegrove, Auckland Council’s senior regional advisor for fauna, says the results of this year’s breeding season is similar to the mixed success seen during the early years of managing kōkako in the Hunua Ranges. “At Hunua, we started with just one breeding pair and about 20 spare males in 1995. The serious sex imbalance was the result of predation upon nesting females. Adult kōkako. Tara Swan

“We rescued that population just in the nick of time, and through intensive pest control and translocations of kōkako, the Hunua population now numbers over 120 pairs.” It is obvious kōkako breeding is a delicate business, and it only takes one predator getting past our defences to wreak havoc. Forest & Bird’s kōkako work wouldn’t have been possible without a generous bequest made by Shirley Mearns. Her gift has supported kōkako translocations into the Waitākere Ranges to ensure a strong, genetically diverse population. We’d also like to thank the funders who have supported this season’s kōkako census, nest monitoring, and volunteer management. These include Auckland Zoo, Foundation North, the Department of Conservation’s Community Fund, and the Trusts Community Foundation. If you are interested in volunteering your time or making a gift to this nationally important bird habitat restoration project – email Samantha Lincoln nature.project@forestandbird.org.nz.

ARK IN THE PARK

Forest & Bird’s Waitākere Branch came up with the concept of Ark in the Park, a landscape-scale restoration project, in 1999.  Predator control started in 2002, but there is no predator-proof fence, which makes removing introduced pests an ongoing challenge. Located within Cascade Kauri Park and the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, the project area is home to ancient giant kauri, pristine waterfalls and streams, and some very special wildlife. Ark in the Park is a collaborative project between Forest & Bird and Auckland Council, supported by mana whenua Te Kawerau ā Maki. Over the years, thanks to our team of volunteers, we have seen native wildlife bounce back thanks to translocations of locally extinct species, including kōkako. Today, Forest & Bird’s 400 volunteers look after more than 220ha, maintaining 550 predator traps and 4800 bait stations. They follow best practice hygiene protocols while undertaking pest management work to prevent the spread of kauri dieback disease. More information about how to undertake pest management safely within kauri reserves can be found at https://bit.ly/3psmWsd. To find out more about Ark in the Park – see www.arkinthepark.org.nz.

Summer 2020

BIODIVERSITY

Miotopus richardsae is a new species of wētā with a widespread distribution from Taranaki to Southland. Danilo Hegg

WĒTĀ WORLD

Seventeen new wētā species have been discovered in the last decade, shedding new light on their unusual lifestyles. Steve Trewick & Mary Morgan-Richards

here is a fascinating variety of wētā on Earth, with more than 100 endemic species found in New Zealand, and new kinds being discovered to this day. All wētā species are wingless and nocturnal, but that is about all they have in common. New research is uncovering new facts about their intriguing life histories and true diversity in our forests. Some species, such as Wellington tree wētā (Hemideina

Wellington tree wētā harem in artificial wētā roost. One male and five females. Steve Trewick

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crassidens) are vegetarians who form harems with polygamous mating systems. Other wētā are carnivores, with the males providing mating gifts of food to their partners. There are wētā species, such as the scree wētā Deinacrida connectens, that have “scramblecompetition” mating systems, pairing large heavy females with small long-legged males. This species lives on South Island mountains high above the treeline, where they survive the freezing and thawing ground. Then there are tiny green forest species that hide in moss and lichen hanging from West Coast trees (see right). In the last seven years, 17 new species of New Zealand wētā have been described, including eight cave wētā of all sizes, and work continues to reveal more. One new species Miotopus richardsae is common in South Island and Taranaki forests. This

species is found at night on the forest floor, where it eats fungi and lichen. It was named for Aola Richards, a taxonomist who studied New Zealand cave wētā in the 1960s

A pair of Maotoweta green forest wētā mating in the moss. The male is underneath the female which is typical of Rhaphidophoridae wētā. Danilo Hegg

and 1970s. It is remarkable that this fairly large, widespread, and common species with distinctive leg spines should have gone so long without being documented or named until 2018. Seven new cave wētā in the genus Pleioplectron, including P. rodmorrisi were described in 2019. All are South Island endemics, some living in forests and others in the mountains. One reason for the delay in naming new Rhaphidiphoridae cave wētā species is that there are nearly 20 different genera in

Hemiandrus brucei is a recently described ground wētā from North Island. Steve Trewick

New Zealand, and it can be difficult to determine which genus a new species belongs to. Over the past decade, nine ground wētā (Hemiandrus) have been given names and exciting details of their lives have emerged. For example, some ground wētā mothers with short ovipositors [H. maia] care for their eggs and nymphs in burrows, while others with long ovipositors [H. brucei] lay eggs in soil and leave them unattended. Ground wētā species are relatively small and rarely seen during the day because they hide in burrows in the soil and construct doors to conceal the entrance. At night, they emerge to feed – scavenging dead invertebrates, hunting live invertebrates, and eating fruit and sap. Their omnivorous diet has led some species to be successful in unexpected places, including

walking up and over plastic or along the vine trellis. Luckily, as well as eating some vine buds, these wētā also munch on range of invertebrates – some of which are likely to be pests in the vineyards. There is still much to be learned about Aotearoa’s wonderful wētā and their fascinating lives.

Hemiandrus maia, the “good mother” ground wētā, shares her burrow with nymphs in an Otago soil bank. Steve Trewick

Canterbury orchards and Marlborough vineyards. In the Awatere Valley, grapevine trunks are given plastic sleeves to keep the local ground wētā (Hemiandrus bilobatus) off the vines. The irrigation of the vines suits the ground wētā, who are unusually abundant in the vineyards (3.4 wētā per square metre). Unfortunately, the plastic wrap on the vine trunks is not totally effective, as wētā are capable of

Dubbed the “wētā professor”, Steve Trewick invented the wētā hotel and has a wētā named after him – the Hawke’s Bay tree wētā, Hemideina trewicki, described by his colleague Mary MorganRichards. As professors of evolutionary biology at Massey University, Steve and Mary research a wide range of ecological topics and are authors of the book Wild Life New Zealand – see https://sites. massey.ac.nz/wildlifenz/.

Pleioplectron rodmorrisi, the alpine cave wētā, lives among rocks near Kaikoura. Danilo Hegg

Summer 2020

COMMUNITY

St Croix is rich in indigenous tropical plants, and Margaret Hayes had an incredible knowledge of them.

A TROPICAL GIFT Margaret Hayes left Forest & Bird a plant nursery in the US Virgin Islands more than a decade ago. Today, it is up for sale to a lucky new owner. Caroline Wood

ore than 50 years ago, Margaret Hayes founded a nursery and landscaping company that grew a huge selection of interesting and rare plants – of the tropical Caribbean variety. The self-taught botanist established Cruzan Gardens on St Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, as her private garden. Over time, it became the largest and oldest nursery business on the island. Forty years later, Margaret sold the business to longterm employee Kenneth Holmes and his wife Cynthia. The couple agreed a repayment plan, with the Margaret Hayes Trust as beneficiary. When Margaret, who was a long-term supporter of Forest & Bird, died aged 84, she left Forest & Bird a generous gift and made the Society a beneficiary of her Trust. In 2009, we found ourselves part-owners of a Caribbean island nursery the other side of the world! Since then, through a 30-year agreement, the Holmes have paid Forest & Bird nearly $35,000 every year. These annual payments will continue until 2039 or until the property is sold. “It was an amazing arrangement that has supported nature in New Zealand for more than a decade,” says Forest & Bird’s relationships manager Jo Prestwood. “The regular annual donation we receive through

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Margaret’s foresight and careful planning makes an enormous difference to what can be achieved for nature.” Margaret Hayes was born on a farm in Te Kuiti, New Zealand, in 1924. Her parents lost the farm in the Great Depression, and the family moved to New Plymouth, where she grew up. The young Margaret was bright, graduating from New Plymouth Girls School with firsts in Maths, English, Spanish, French, and Latin. After World War II, she left New Zealand for Australia and England, and became a teacher. “Margaret lived an extraordinary life,” says her son David Hayes, who still lives in St Croix. “She taught in Argentina but had to flee the night [Juan] Peron came to power, leaving with just the clothes on her back and a small suitcase. She didn’t think much of Eva Peron!” Margaret arrived in St Croix in 1955 and met her husband Al Hayes, who was managing the Buccaneer Hotel. The couple married in 1956 and started two businesses on the island. They established Cruzan Gardens in 1965, and Margaret’s passion for learning and teaching was seen in the plants she grew and the indigenous plants she promoted.

David recalls many trips into the bush in the 1960s and 70s looking for a specific tropical plant or just having a look at what was there to be discovered. Today, the nursery contains a “veritable jungle” with a huge variety of plants. After selling Cruzan Gardens in 1998, Margaret became volunteer curator at the island’s herbarium, based at St George Village Botanical Gardens. There she catalogued plants and researched cultural knowledge about them. “She was an authority on the plants of St Croix and could identify and give the known history of many species,” according to the Botanical Gardens’ website. Margaret was a long-time supporter of Forest & Bird’s conservation work. We are extremely grateful for her generous and thoughtful gifts that continue to protect New Zealand’s natural heritage. In recognition of her significant bequest, we gave a native miro tree to her son David, who has also been a great friend to Forest & Bird. He planted it in Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, where Margaret grew up. Today, Margaret’s environmental and botanical legacies live on in New Zealand and in her beloved St Croix. Cruzan Gardens Nursery is for sale. If you fancy a slice of Caribbean paradise, check it out at http://bit.ly/3pf6Ilc.

Margaret Hayes checks specimens at the herbarium on St Croix. St George Village Botanical Gardens

Would you consider leaving a gift in your will to Forest & Bird and providing a lasting legacy to New Zealand’s incredible flora and fauna? To find out more, please contact Jo Prestwood on 04 801 2212 or email j.prestwood@forestandbird.org.nz.

THANK YOU CORPORATE CARERS! A big Forest & Bird shout out to all the companies who carried on donating towards protecting nature during 2020 despite the Covid-19 economic downturn. Here are three of our corporate supporters who went the extra mile.

PureNature is New Zealand’s leading online supplier of ingredients for aromatherapy, natural skin care, soap making, and natural health. The company donated $26,000 to Forest & Bird last year despite experiencing logistical issues receiving raw materials from overseas for their products. Ever fancied making candles, bath bombs, beeswax wraps, or soaps from scratch? There are some excellent “how to” blogs on the company’s website. All the ingredients and do-it-yourself kits are also available online – see www.purenature.co.nz. Our friends at packaging giant HealthPak gifted $24,000 to Forest & Bird’s conservation work last year despite the pandemic’s impact on the tourism side of their business. Healthpak is the leading supplier of guest toiletries to hotels, motels, and airlines. Luckily, many domestic accommodation providers switched to the Forest & Bird range of bathroom toiletries during 2020. The company’s innovative eco-stick range, primarily made out of paper rather than plastic, proved particularly popular. For more information, see www.healthpak.co.nz. One of our most recent corporate supporters is Good Tides, which pledged $20,000 last year in support of Forest & Bird’s efforts to protect and restore New Zealand’s marine habitats. Inspired by the oceans that surround the country, the Good Tides range features a refreshing low-sugar brewed beverage blended with a hint of natural fruit flavour, such as mango passionfruit or peach watermelon. Good Tides is a “beer seltzer” – a brew, but not as you know it! Check out the range at www.goodtides.co.nz. Forest & Bird is a registered New Zealand charity that doesn’t receive government funding. We rely on our incredible supporters, corporate partners, and bequests to pay for our advocacy and practical on-the-ground national and local conservation projects. Summer 2020

P R E D AT O R - F R E E 2 0 5 0 Cameron Baker and Samuel Vye, of ECT, with versions of their Spitfire trap that sprays toxins on the stomachs of passing stoats and possums.

NEW TRAPS & TOXINS Some clever Kiwis are working on a raft of new technologies to kill invasive mammals and let native wildlife flourish again. David Brooks

he current wave of innovation in predatorcontrol technology reflects the reality that achieving our Predator Free 2050 goal won’t be a matter of finding a silver bullet but rather a range of effective tools, experts say. A combination of tools will be needed to eliminate all the individuals of an introduced predator species, particularly when numbers are low, says Dan Tompkins, science strategy manager for Predator Free 2050 Ltd. Michelle Crowell, the Department of Conservation’s Biodiversity Threats Manager,

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agrees that individual predators may not be susceptible to a particular trap or bait. “Maybe that particular rat isn’t interested in bait bags or going into a tunnel, and so having a wider range of ways of presenting the traps or toxins is important,” says Michelle who manages DOC’s Tools to Market programme.. DOC, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, universities, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP), and other conservation trusts, private companies, and backyard inventors are all working on better ways to tackle introduced predators. New tools being developed include traps, baits, lures, and

toxins to eliminate rats, possums, and mustelids (stoats, ferrets, and weasels). One of the common themes behind many of the innovations is reducing the need for human labour to reduce costs and make it easier to work in remote areas. “The only way we’re going to scale up with these sorts of approaches is by reducing the human element. We’re focusing on re-setting devices, long-life devices, and also the lures that will enable long-life devices to function at their best,” says Dan Tompkins. Dan oversees Predator Free 2050’s Products to Projects scheme, which helps developers bring new predator control tools into production using Provincial Growth Fund financing. The first round of the scheme is supporting 13 different projects, with more than $6.5 million in Provincial Growth Fund money over the next three years. A second round for an additional $4 million closed in February.

Researcher Michael Jackson and Phil Green, of the Wakatipu Wildife Trust, with a new long-lasting rat lure.

Lee Shapiro, of Boffa Miskell, who is working on a new toxin that will only target rats.

Meanwhile, DOC’s Tools to Market programme is providing $1.4 million annually. This has a longer timeline of between one and five years for the development of smarter and more effective predator-control technology. Eight projects have started since 2017, and another funding round is planned this year. Tauranga-based Environment & Conservation Technologies (ECT) is looking at the use of large drones

to deliver toxins or traps to remote areas. Drones should allow more targeted applications and lower costs than conventional aircraft. Different types of self-resetting traps, which could be left unattended for up to a year, are being developed in a number of projects. For these to succeed, new long-life baits and lures will also need to be brought to market. Boffa Miskell Ltd is developing a low-cost open-source automated system for dispensing an eggmayonnaise lure to rodents, mustelids, and possums. The company is also involved in developing long-life lures based on environmentally friendly ceramic blocks that will last for months. The University of Canterbury is also working on a non-toxic, nonperishable lure that can be effective for six to 12 months. Work is also under way to develop baits designed to target specific species of predators. “To me, the biggest win if it’s successful is the rat-selective toxin norbormide. To have a toxin that will only impact rats and nothing

else will be a huge win,” Dan says. Norbormide is selectively toxic to rats, but new formulations are needed because rats don’t like its taste. Environment & Conservation Technologies is also developing the Spitfire self-resetting device, which sprays toxin on the stomach of stoats and possums when they pass over sensors. The toxin is consumed by the predator later during grooming. Detection and monitoring technology is also crucial to achieving the predator-free goal, especially for monitoring after control operations. “We need to have good tools for surveillance in those areas in which predators have been eliminated, so we can respond to incursions,” Michelle adds. ZIP has been using a suite of technology to monitor and target reinvasions in a trial in a 12,000ha area in the Perth River Valley on the West Coast. By late last year, the project had successfully cleared the area of possums, stoats, and almost all rats.

TOOLS LAUNCHING IN 2021 Two new predator control tools that could make a difference for community groups doing predatorcontrol work are due to come on the market in the coming months. Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research plans to release a web-based image recognition service linked to camera trap data management to community groups on the Trap.NZ platform after the first quarter this year. Manual processing of images from motion cameras is very time consuming. The project has used large numbers of images of introduced predators to develop artificial intelligence to identify predators in camera images, using software originally developed in Australia.

Meanwhile, the Cacophony Project is developing the Blind-snap Model A trap, which is designed to attract higher proportions of predators and capture the last few hard-to-catch animals remaining in an area after a control operation. The trap will be open from all sides, making it easier to attract trap-shy animals. When an animal enters and triggers sensors, the sides close. Auto reset and auto kill functions are also planned to be added. Deployed along with Cacophony’s thermal cameras, later versions of the trap will be able to recognise the animal, enabling the release of non-target species. The product is due to be available from the middle of this year.

NZ Auto Trap’s Kevin Bain and George Campbell with their AT220 trap developed with the help of Predator Free 2050’s Products to Projects scheme.

Summer 2020

BOOKS

The reclusive brown creeper had eluded Paul’s attempts to photograph it at his local reserve. This image was captured during an expedition to Eglinton Valley, Fiordland. Camera: Canon EOS 7D. Lens: EF400mm f/5.6L USM. Settings: 400mm ƒ/6.3 1/320 sec ISO 800. © Paul Sorrell

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Paul Sorrell shares some top tips about how to take great photos of native birds.

ll serious birders have a local patch that they keep an eye on. It can be the park at the end of your street, a piece of urban wasteland, or even your own backyard — although a birding “patch” is usually somewhere further afield. Wherever it is, there are many reasons for visiting your patch regularly, in all weathers and throughout the year. It will contain resident birds that you will get to know very well. Weeks may pass in which nothing seems to change, but the march of the seasons will deliver a fresh avian cast, adding new actors to the old line-up. If you are lucky enough to live on a migration route, passage migrants may well drop in, often staying no longer than a few days. You’ll be surprised — and occasionally thrilled — by the rarities you’ll encounter. And the commoner birds will show changes in behaviour and movements of their own as spring arrives or colder weather sets in. Keep a journal of your visits, noting interesting behaviour as well as fluctuations in numbers. If you do this year after year, patterns will emerge that will enrich your birding and photography.

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In addition, your observations will potentially contribute to knowledge of wildlife in your area. Having a photo project on the go is another way of exploiting the potential of your patch. The experience you have built up over time will allow you to become familiar with a number of species, anticipate their behaviour, and choose the spots where the light and backgrounds will be most suitable. Regular visits over many years to Orokonui Ecosanctuary near my hometown have put me on intimate terms with the local birdlife. I’ve taken a special interest in the tomtit population that thrives there, observing them throughout the year and managing to photograph females as they collect material for nest-building and playful fledglings making their first forays away from the nest. This article was extracted from Getting Closer – Rediscovering nature through bird photography by Paul Sorrell, RRP $44.99, Exisle Publishing.

Photographing tomtits in Orokonui Ecosanctuary, a 20-minute drive from his Dunedin home. This local nature reserve has been a long-term project for Paul Sorrell. Here is Bungeye, a one-eyed tomtit. Paul took pains to photograph him showing his best side. Camera: Canon EOS 50D. Lens: EF400mm f/5.6L USM. Settings: 400mm ƒ/6.3 1/100 sec ISO 640. © Paul Sorrell

TOP TIP: If your subject is large in the frame, choose the upper centre focus point and place it on the bird’s head or eye to avoid cutting off its feet. By half-depressing the shutter button, you can move the lens and alter your composition before taking the shot while retaining focus.

A South Island robin poses on a lancewood sapling. The vertical format emphasizes the shape of the tree with its attractive textures and tones. Camera: Canon EOS 7D. Lens: EF400mm f/5.6L USM. Settings: 400mm ƒ/6.3 1/200sec ISO 800. © Paul Sorrell

Paul’s local patch is the predator-free Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Camera: Canon EOS 7D. Lens: EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. Settings: 30mm ƒ/8 1/50 sec ISO 800. © Paul Sorrell

Summer 2020

F R E S H WAT E R Juvenile īnanga. George Novak

GOING, GOING... GONE?

Forest & Bird is hoping the Minister for Conservation will introduce stronger whitebaiting rules to protect the future of the fishery.

argely unregulated, the current whitebait fishery may be about to change following overwhelming public support for stronger protections. Four of the native fish species that make up the catch are threatened or in decline, but they are caught in a fishery with few restrictions. There is no catch limit, and the government doesn’t know how much fish is being taken because there is no licensing requirement. The Department of Conservation is responsible for both the commercial and recreational whitebait fishery. Last year, it sought feedback about a raft of potential changes. Forest & Bird’s detailed submission called for a move to a sustainable whitebait fishery based on sound conservation principles. In particular, we want to see: n A licence requirement – so we know how many people are whitebaiting and on which rivers.

Whitebaiting huts line Titiroa Stream, Southland. Caroline Wood

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A catch limit for commercial and recreational fishing – to make sure fishers don’t take more than is sustainable. n A new data collection system – to better understand the impact of fishing and other factors like pollution and water flow on whitebait species. DOC also consulted on other management options, including phasing out exports, shortening the season, and creating some river “refuges” for whitebait. Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen says: “There is strong agreement among fishers and non-fishers that a licence and catch limit are reasonable and necessary. “A catch limit, licensing, and date collection are bare Annabeth Cohen minimum requirements of any fishery. “Implementing these changes would be standard operating procedure anywhere around the world. “It is now up to the Minister of Conservation, Kiri Allan, to save our incredible native whitebait species so they can thrive and be enjoyed by future generations.” Whitebait are the juveniles of native freshwater galaxiid fish – shortjaw kōkopu, kōaro, giant kōkopu, and īnanga. All four species are threatened or at risk of extinction. These fish are “diadromous” – spending part of their life in freshwater and part of their life in the sea. To thrive and survive, they need healthy habitats from the hilltops to the ocean.

Forest & Bird points out that the effects of climate change mean we could see a population collapse without much warning. It’s another reason why we hope the Minister will implement precautionary changes to protect our fish for years to come. “Overfishing is a pressure that the government can alleviate right now,” adds Annabeth.

A TASMANIAN TALE Overfishing caused the whitebait fishery to close in Tasmania.

In Tasmania, only 12 rivers were open for whitebaiters in 2020 and a strict catch limit imposed. River Forth, Tasmania. Steven Penton Flickr.com

he Tasmanian whitebait fishery introduced a raft of sustainable fishing rules following the collapse of fish stocks in the late 1980s. Experts say that New Zealand can learn from the Tasmanian experience and the actions they took three decades ago to save the fishery. These included introducing a licensing system with a set fee, limiting recreational whitebaiting to a set number of rivers, which rotated each year, and a shorter three-week season. The impetus for these changes followed years of declining fish stocks. Commercial whitebaiting started off gently in Tasmania the 1930s. It ramped up in the 1940s, with 480,000kg of whitebait being taken at its peak in 1947. Two years later, the fish had run out and the lucrative fishery had to be closed for a year. It reopened in 1950, but stocks had declined and some catches didn’t meet their quotas. The fishery was closed again in 1974. It took nearly a decade for the fish stocks to recover. Whitebaiting resumed in 1983 under stricter rules, prompting a dramatic rise in poaching. Despite this, the fish stocks recovered somewhat during the decade. It became clear the management of Tasmanian

“Ultimately, if there are plentiful fish, there can be plentiful fishing without worry. But we need to see the upstream adult fish returning to abundance before that’s possible.” At the time of writing, the Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan was expected to announce new whitebait fishing regulations before the 2021 whitebait season.

whitebait stocks needed to be informed by better science, so the government funded a three-year research study that was published in 1988. It made a raft of recommendations that were adopted to save the fishery. The number of fishing spots on the river was limited, catch maximums imposed, and fishing methods/net sizes controlled. The report also recommended commercial fishing be kept off the table until the whitebait stocks had recovered sufficiently. Today, the Tasmanian whitebait fishery is held up as a “sustainable fishery underpinned by conservation principles” that New Zealand could learn from, according to NIWA researchers in their report Potential options for regulation changes to the NZ whitebait fishery (2018). “Tasmania lost the ability to fish commercially for whitebait. If we could learn from their mistakes, we might be able to do things sustainably here,” says Annabeth Cohen, Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate. “To borrow from Prime Minister Ardern’s words, we will need ‘to go hard and go early’ for this to work, or else it may be too late for our special galaxiid species.”

Summer 2020

ARTS ARTS Chris Booth with his sculpture Ngā Uri o Hinetuparimaunga, Hamilton Gardens. Jenny Scown

LIVING SCULPTURES Award-winning artist Chris Booth talks nature, activism, and climate change.

culptures spring from the imagination of artists, but Kerikeri-based sculptor and Forest & Bird supporter Chris Booth also wants his works to embody the surrounding land, ecology, and human history. Stone is one of the most important materials Chris uses in his internationally renowned sculptures, but that doesn’t mean

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all his works are designed to remain unchanged over time. Some of his artworks incorporate wood, fungi, and plant life in structures that decompose or grow over time and reflect the cycle of life. Others are designed to offer shelter to insects, lizards, and other animal life, such as bats in his massive Wurrungwuri sculpture in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

Chris’s sculptures can be found in Australia, Europe, North America, and many parts of New Zealand, including Northland, Auckland’s Albert Park, Wellington Botanic Gardens, Hamilton Gardens, and next to Christchurch’s Avon River. He describes his ethos as holistic, and his works give the impression of being active collaborations between nature and the artist. “They try to encompass a feeling, a spirit that I hope will be received by the viewer and influence their attitude to Mother Nature,” Chris says. A love of nature came early to Chris, who grew up on his parents’ organic orchard in Kerikeri. “We were very lucky that we were brought up in a holistic way with our father’s organic orchard, and my mother was an artist,” Chris says. The Booth children were lucky to have a long stretch of the boulder-strewn Kerikeri River to explore and play in. “We didn’t have a car. We had a Fergie tractor, and on Sunday Dad would put a big old trailer on the back with a sofa and chairs and all the aunties and grandparents and people would jump on the back and off we would go to the beach in clouds of dust.” An important early influence on Chris was Selwyn Ngareatua Wilson, his art teacher at Northland College in Kaikohe for five years. “His philosophy being Māori was very influential, and the school was 75% Māori. We were brought up very broadly from a cultural perspective because of that.” When school ended, Chris studied at Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch before deciding in 1968 at the age of 19 to head for Europe. “I wanted to go and learn directly from some of the great artists in the world.”

He achieved his goal, and one of those who agreed to help Chris was renowned abstract sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who was based in the artists’ colony of St Ives in Cornwall. “She told me the most important thing about being an artist is being a good person. For me, that’s been a really important principle in my life.” Chris found much to be dismayed about when he returned to New Zealand, and protest motivated much of his work in the period. Targets included French nuclear tests at Mururoa, a planned aluminium smelter at Aramoana, and logging of native forest in Northland. “I made works that were specifically pointing fingers at those sorts of things, but once they started becoming collectible I felt they weren’t performing their function any longer, so I resorted to an idea I’d had of doing works that were holistic, and I’ve been doing that ever since.” Each work involves a period of intense research into the geology, ecosystems, and human history of the area in which the sculpture is to be placed. This includes working with leaders of local indigenous communities to seek their permission and support. For example, Nga Uri o

Hinetuparimaunga incorporates a design of the late Māori weaver Diggeress Te Kanawa in a cloak made of rounded stones woven together. Two of his works have survived devastating earthquakes in Christchurch and Kaikōura intact, but some of his sculptures are designed to respond to rather than resist natural forces and processes. In one series of sculptures, a boulder with a hole in the middle on top of stacked logs will gradually descend to the ground down a central pole over many decades as fungi decomposes the wood underneath. In another, stone slabs will open like petals as fungi decomposes supporting wooden buttresses. Chris has been lucky that, in a year of closed borders, he had local commissions to keep him busy. A work highlighting climate change has been given the go ahead for the entrance to Kerikeri, and one of his living sculptures will be included in the Hundertwasser Art Centre being built in Whangārei. Another work honouring threatened coral reefs has been shipped to Perth in Western Australia. Chris’s enthusiasm for his work and for nature remains undimmed after more than half a century as a sculptor.

Te Wai u o te Atakura living sculpture in Whangarei Quarry Gardens. John Stone

“My work has been informed by the fact that we are part of a generation that has enacted massive destruction on our planet,” he says. He receives messages from people who say his work has empowered their love of nature, and he is aware this is more important than ever. More information on Chris and his work can be found here chrisbooth.co.nz.

Wurrungwuri, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.

Richard Drew

Summer 2020

MARINE

Penguin

LIFE RAFT

Researchers used drones, satellite imagery, and good oldfashioned counting to assess Antarctic penguin populations. Christian Aslund

More needs to be done to protect Antarctica’s penguin species from overfishing, particularly by the commercial krill industry.

alls are ramping up for more marine protected areas to be established in the Antarctic, where human activities are increasingly disturbing the continent’s wildlife. Birdlife International recently added its voice by publishing a new study that pinpoints some of the most important areas for emperor, Adélie, chinstrap, and gentoo penguins in Antarctic waters. These remarkable birds are one of the few animals in Antarctica that span both land and sea, connecting these two very different habitats throughout their lives. Birdlife International is concerned about the increasing impact of human activities, including fishing, tourism, and research, causing pollution and wildlife disturbance. “One of the biggest worries is the overharvesting of krill, as this is a key food source for many species of Antarctic wildlife, including penguins,” says Jonathan Handley, lead author of the report. Despite a decade of inter-governmental negotiations, a planned network of large Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that would support all kinds of Antarctic wildlife in the Southern Ocean has yet to be established. Two of 26 member states responsible for managing Antarctic waters have so far refused to sign off on the network, arguing that not enough evidence to justify

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the changes has been provided. Fortunately, vital new facts have just been published in a study led by BirdLife International, with key support from the British Antarctic Survey. It shows how the area of high-quality penguin habitat under permanent protection would increase by 49%–100%, depending on the species, if the proposed network of MPAs were implemented. Researchers also found that, while the Antarctic krill fishery has narrowed its fishing zones over the past 50 years, it still harvests a disproportionate amount of krill within important penguin feeding grounds. “Since these tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans are a vital food source for many penguins, these results add significant weight to the MPA proposal – supporting information found in previous studies,” says Jonathan. Krill forms an important part of the diet for all four Antarctic penguin species, especially Adélie and chinstrap penguins. Until recently, Antarctica’s size and harsh environment would have made it impossible to know how many penguins live there and where they go to find food. Today’s on-the-ground research, combined with recent advances in satellite imagery and drone technology, have allowed scientists to determine

approximately how many birds inhabit different breeding colonies. Beyond the network of Marine Protected Areas, the Birdlife study also offers wider guidance as to where decision-makers should act to help Antarctic wildlife weather the uncertainties of climate change. Forest & Bird’s chief executive Kevin Hague is a councillor representing the Pacific region on Birdlife International’s governing body. “The restoration and permanent protection of Antarctica is vital. It can be a beacon of hope for rest of the world,” says Kevin. “We must turn the tide on those who see it as a new frontier for business-as-usual exploitation. This includes protecting the ecosystems, of which krill form such a vital part. We must also arrest the climate crisis. We cannot fail.” Every year, 25 countries and the European Union send delegations to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the body responsible for managing the marine environment of Antarctica. The Commission’s objective is to conserve Antarctic marine life while also allowing for sustainable fishing and resource use. In upcoming meetings during 2021, BirdLife’s Marine Programme, supported by the British Antarctic Survey and a team of scientists from seven countries,

Krill forms an important part of the diet for Adélie penguins. Heather Lynch

will provide additional evidence supporting the proposed network of Marine Protected Areas. “Given the decisiveness CCAMLR has already shown in marine conservation issues, this year they have an unprecedented opportunity to designate some of the largest MPAs on earth – safeguarding a unique and globally connected ecosystem,” adds Jonathan Handley. Forest & Bird is a Birdlife International partner and representative in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Summer 2020

C L I M AT E Four years ago, the regional council let the Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park restore an area of farmland back to wetland. Today this area is thriving – see overleaf to find out how they did it. Russell Bell

Restoring RAUMATI’S GREAT SWAMP The battle to restore a historic peat wetland near Wellington is helping address climate change. Russell Bell

ocal conservationists have spent the last five years challenging their regional council to think differently about how it manages 160ha of drained wetland at Queen Elizabeth Park on the Kāpiti Coast. These historic wetlands were part of the “Great Swamp” that once extended 100km from Paekākāriki to the Manawatū River. Māori used to canoe these ancient waterways gathering kai and harakeke. Over the past 150 years, much of the swamp was drained to allow farming and housing on the flat land behind the dunes. But a string of remnant swamps and lagoons remain, including at Ngā Manu bird sanctuary, near Waikanae. The Park, between Paekākāriki and Raumati South, attracts visitors from all over the Wellington region. They come to walk, picnic, or bike through the dunes and parkland, search for freshwater eels and fish in local streams, and swim in the

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ocean. When I moved to the Kāpiti Coast a few years ago, I realised a large part of the flood-prone “farmland” behind the dunes at Queen Elizabeth Park was actually drained peatland that had the potential to be restored back to its original “Raumati” wetland. It is owned by the Department of Conservation and administered as a recreation reserve by Greater Wellington Regional Council under the Reserves Act 1977. Our campaign started five years ago, when the regional council allowed the farmer to mass spray herbicides and insecticides on the park’s peat and dune lands triggering significant opposition from local residents. The Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park tried to persuade the council to stop allowing farming on the historic wetland as it was destroying native flora and fauna, and degrading local streams. It was also restricting public access to more than 60% of the reserve’s land area.

Our argument was simple. The large areas of flat land being farmed on the reserve used to be peat-forming wetlands and therefore should be managed as wetland not farmland. We called for the park to be managed in accordance with the Reserves Act and for 85ha of the historic peatland to be re-wetted. More than 750 mainly local residents signed our submission. Tuna longfin eels have been found in the restored wetland. Darryl Torckler

The destiny of urban wetlands lies largely in the hands of urban planners. Karen Palmer

We pointed out that farming (doing whatever you want to with the land) as distinct from grazing (allowing animals to crop excess vegetation) is not legally allowed in a recreation reserve. The council, we said, was circumventing the Reserves Act by calling the farming a “grazing lease” while allowing for certain farming methods (including the removal of indigenous flora) in the lease document. Damaged peatlands, including those being drained for agriculture, are a major source of CO2 emissions. These could be significantly reduced if the peatlands were rewetted and restored. The council did not agree, leading to several public and private arguments. At this point, we called on Forest & Bird for help. In 2020, the Society wrote to the council saying that allowing farming on the public reserve land at Queen Elizabeth Park was against the public interest. “Restoring the area as a wetland ecosystem with provision for public access would better meet the primary purpose of a recreation reserve, as well as enhance biodiversity and reduce carbon emissions in the region,” wrote Karen Evans on behalf of the Society. “Peat wetlands have a key role to play in addressing climate change.

Peatlands are the most significant natural terrestrial carbon store, with the ability to store more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world combined.” Finally, following local body elections in late 2019, attitudes began to change. Newly elected regional councillors – aware of the damaged peatlands and concerned about climate change and biodiversity loss – voted for a new approach in line with our campaign. In September 2020, we saw a major breakthrough. Councillors approved $1.4m for a restoration project to rewet and restore 76ha of peat wetland and to plant 53ha of forest on the dunes. We are delighted, but we hope the council will go further. We’d like to see the end of grazing in the park, the rewetting of the other half of the former wetland area, and the public able to access all of the park. It has been a five-year struggle, but we are looking forward to a co-operative future relationship with Greater Wellington Regional Council. It could set a precedent for the rest of the country – are there other drained peatlands in public ownership that could be restored? With strong council leadership, the whole 160ha wetland could be restored and become one of the largest in the Wellington region.

Close your eyes and imagine New Zealand’s natural world as you want to see it. With a gift to Forest & Bird in your will, we can help make your wishes come true.

If you’d like to talk about leaving

Russell Bell is chair of Forest & Bird’s Kāpiti Branch and Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park. In 2017, he received an Old Blue for his 40 years of conservation work. As Chair of Forest & Bird’s Lower Hutt Branch, he persuaded Greater Wellington Regional Council to buy the Pencarrow Lakes, near Eastbourne, one of New Zealand’s last relatively unspoiled wetlands and home to many birds, fish, and flora.

a gift in your will to Forest & Bird, contact Jo Prestwood on 04 801 2212 or email j.prestwood@ forestandbird.org.nz. We promise anything you discuss with us will be held in the strictest confidence.

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☛ See overleaf for Russell’s tips on how to restore a peat wetland. → Summer 2020

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C L I M AT E

Russell Bell (second from right) and some of his conservation volunteers on the newly restored peat wetland that was previously dry farmland. Wayne Mitchell

TWO PADDOCKS TRIAL How do you restore a “weed-land” back to wet-land?

he Wellington region has less than 3% of its original wetlands left, and unless you look carefully it’s hard to know where these lost swamps once were. Russell Bell and his team of volunteers wanted to prove the drained peatland at Queen Elizabeth Park could be “rewetted” and restored. So, four years ago, when the council offered to let them take over two unwanted farm paddocks, they jumped at the chance. “We removed the gorse and blackberry weeds, blocked some old farm drains to rewet the land, and planted native flaxes, carex, toetoe, and salt marsh ribbonwood to restore the original wetland habitat for birds, eels, and other water life,” says Russell. Rewetting the first paddock was relatively simple. Natural waterways had been diverted by a farm drain to dry the peatland and make it suitable for cattle and sheep grazing. “I looked at detailed contour maps of the area and determined the drain needed to be blocked in two places. “At first, there was no change, but when the winter rains arrived the wetland started to load up with water. “When it got to its maximum, we marked the wet edge by planting a row of flaxes, carex, and coastal cutty grass. “Within a year, wetland plants such as swamp sedge (Carex virgata) either spang back or self-introduced. We had not seen them there before.

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“A small stream has established itself around the lower drain blockage. This is important because we have found eels in the wetland.” The 5ha wet area has been seeded, but otherwise the volunteers are letting it restore itself. They are planting on the drier parts of the paddock. A second 6ha paddock alongside the rewetted area has not been restored yet. It is more difficult. It has large areas of gorse and blackberry, and a much smaller area of peat. Russell’s top tips for wetland restoration include: n First assess the site’s topography and decide what changes need to be made to its hydrology to rewet the site. n Use drain tailings to block drains so water can be redirected around the wetland. Don’t dig holes to obtain the fill. n Wetlands can recover relatively quickly but give them some time to respond to the seasonal rains. n Mark the seasonal “tide line” and let that determine which species to plant in the wet and drier areas. n Herbicides shouldn’t be used to get rid of the gorse and blackberry on peatland. The best way to deal with weeds is to rewet the land, then deal with leftover plants. n Include carbon impacts in your grant applications. We quoted research that showed drained peatland can give off 29 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare per year.

OK! BOOMER Our utterly endearing flightless kākāpō makes history by winning Bird of the Year.

he nation has spoken. New Zealand’s moss-green flightless parrot climbed to the top spot for the second time in Forest & Bird’s annual Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau. During the exciting two-week competition, the Antipodean albatross topped the leader board, but the kākāpō pipped it to the winning post after the preferential voting system was applied. “This is the first time any candidate has won the Bird of the Year title more than once, so our mighty ‘forest moss chicken’ can add yet another feather to its cap,” says Forest & Bird’s Laura Keown. “The kākāpō is the only flightless and nocturnal parrot on the planet. It’s also the heaviest and longest living.

“But the things that make kākāpō unique also make them vulnerable to threats. They are slow breeders, they nest on the ground, and their main defence is to imitate a shrub. “These endearing qualities don’t fool introduced predators like stoats, rats, and cats.” Kākāpō took its first Bird of the Year title back in 2008 and has remained a popular vote in every competition. The species was brought back from the brink of extinction by the intensive efforts of conservationists, including Forest & Bird and others. There were only 50 birds in the 1990s, and today there are still only 213 kākāpō, all living on predatorfree islands. The tiny population is vulnerable to disease and lack of genetic diversity in their population. Bird of the Year is run by Forest & Bird to raise awareness of New Zealand’s unique native birds and the threats they face. Last November’s contest saw a record number of votes cast – 55,583, up from 43,460 in 2019. Other highlights from the campaign trail included: n Strategic alliances between birds, including the Kiwi Koalition, the Beach Boi Party, and the Penguin Party. n Voter fraud discovered after volunteer scrutineers from Dragonfly Data Science found 1500 votes cast around 3am from the same IP address, all for the smallest kiwi species, pukupuku little-spotted kiwi. n The kākāriki karaka orange-fronted parakeet running under the banner “The orange face you can trust”. n A number of Bird of the Year couture garments, including t-shirts and the special edition Allbirds sneakers made in honour of the previous year’s winner, the hoiho. Avian democracy in peril! Last month, America’s award-winning Daily Show ran a segment about Bird of the Year featuring Team Kākāpō and Laura Keown – you can listen to it here http://on.cc.com/37MtiMh. BIRD OF THE YEAR RESULTS 2020 1 Kākāpō 2 Toroa Antipodean albatross 3 Kakaruia black robin 4 Kārearea New Zealand falcon 5 Kererū

6 Pohowera banded dotterel 7 Kākā 9 Ruru morepork 9 Whio blue duck 10 Pīwakawaka fantail

Summer 2020

IN THE FIELD

Te Paki dunes near Cape Reinga. Eli Duke

SAND STORIES

Why are some New Zealand beaches black and others pure white? Anne Graeme traces the histories and movements of sand.

very beach reflects its origin, and every handful of sand has a story to tell. In Māori legend, the spirits of the dead travel along Te Oneroa-a-Tōhe Ninety Mile Beach, bowling north along the sand with the spikey spinifex seed heads to their final resting place beyond Cape Reinga. The sands of Ninety Mile Beach are moving north too. Sand grains are young in geological terms, but they have been created from very old rocks. The sands of Ninety Mile Beach come from the ash of central North Island volcanoes and the weathering of sedimentary rocks along the west coast. The sand is on a journey that began thousands of years ago. The eruptions of the sand’s parent volcanoes were violent, shooting clouds of ash high into the air, spewing lava, and flinging boulders down the mountains. The lava and boulders cooled, cracked, and eroded under the unremitting forces of freeze and thaw, wind and rain. Large volumes of sand from ash layers roll down the rivers and streams, and flow to the west coast in Taranaki and to areas north. The sand grains are composed of various minerals from the volcanoes, including lighter ones such as quartz and feldspar and the much heavier iron sands composed of titanomagnetite. The sand grains reach the sea along the Taranaki

coast, and lesser volumes flow from the Waikato River into the Tasman Sea at Port Waikato. Out at sea, the waves pull and push the sand one way and then another, but the predominant direction is to the north. The sand joins the longshore drift that runs like a coastal highway from Taranaki all the way to Cape Reinga. As the sand drifts north, the waves sort and winnow it. The heavy grains, rich in iron, drop out first. They are deposited along the shore to create the black iron sand beaches, which stretch north from Taranaki as far as the Kaipara harbour. The grains of the quartz and feldspar-dominated sands are lighter in weight and colour. They travel further, and the beaches become whiter as you go further north. By the time the sand reaches Ninety Mile Beach, it will have travelled for thousands of years and hundreds of kilometres from its mountain birthplace. From North Cape to the Bay of Plenty, the east coast beaches tell quite a different story. Here the net longshore drift is weak. There is no longer an unbroken river of sand. The waves move the sand almost equally in both directions over time. Peninsulas and headlands create bays that often do not exchange sand with adjacent beaches. In many places, the beaches now have all the sand they are likely to get.

The black sands of Taranaki are rich in iron.

The sands of Ninety Mile Beach are moving north.

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Philipp Holler

Bryn Jones

Black sand beach at Karekare, west of Auckland.

Wikimedia

These eastern beaches are of white sand, sparkling with quartz and feldspar. They are primarily derived from many volcanic eruptions of the central North Island, including the one that ranks as one of the greatest on Earth – the Oruanui eruption 27,000 years ago, which created the crater of Lake Taupō. These eruptions threw out gassy clouds of ash and pumice, including large volumes of quartz and feldspar. The debris cloaked the North Island and the ocean beyond. At present, the Waikato River is flowing west into the Tasman Sea, but when these eruptions happened it was flowing east. These would have washed ash and pumice into the Hauraki Gulf, to feed the white sand beaches of the east coast. The beaches of the South Island are derived from the Southern Alps, the vast chain of mountains that is being pushed up as the submarine Australasian Plate forces its way beneath the Pacific Plate. The Alps are built of ancient sands and mud, consolidated as hard sandstone and mudstone called greywacke. As the greywacke erodes, sand grains wash down the rivers to become white quartz beaches. The fabled sands of Golden Bay are quartz that is coloured golden by rusting iron, as their parent granite rocks are exposed to weather and crumble. Farewell Spit is the longest sand spit in New Zealand. Waves sweep sand northwards from the greywacke-fed rivers far to the south. When this

current collides with turbulent Cook Strait, it drops its load, depositing millions of tonnes of fine white sand on the spit. The sand grains that travel to Cape Reinga do not end their journey there. Rounding Cape Reinga, they reach the vast shoals of the Pandora Banks and the deep sea beyond. Deep down, sand piled on sand is compressed into sedimentary rock that one day may pushed up as new land or dragged down by colliding tectonic plates, melted into magma, and hurled again from the throat of a volcano. It is a recycling system that is as old as the Earth itself. From wild surf beaches to placid harbour shores, we in New Zealand are spoilt for beaches. Look at the sand more closely. Fine, dark grains mean a concentration of iron. A predominance of glassy quartz and feldspar grains and fragments of white shell create a white sand beach. Parengarenga Harbour is on the eastern coast of the narrow neck of land at the tip of Northland. Its sand is dazzlingly white, the purest quartz sand in New Zealand. This sand comes from leached soils called podsols that formed beneath the kauri forest that once grew inland from here. In turn, these podsols are derived from the sand blown into the dunes from Ninety Mile Beach on the western coast. All sands have been on a journey, but few match the travels of the pure white sand of Parengarenga.

The dazzling white quartz sands of Parengarenga Harbour.

Sand-blown shapes.

Russell Street

Summer 2020

ECONOMY

APPLE REVOLUTION Choosing nature-friendly biological pest control and ditching toxic pesticides helped New Zealand growers create a world-leading apple industry. Tom Batchelor

he inside story of how 60 years of research completely transformed pest control in New Zealand apple orchards is told by Dr Howard Wearing in his new book Farewell Silent Spring – The New Zealand Apple Story. The shift away from frequent applications of broad-spectrum toxic pesticides used in the 1950s to today’s mainly biological pest control procedures revolutionised apple production. Today, Aotearoa’s thriving pipfruit industry exports $830m of environmentally friendly homegrown apples around the world. It was never going to be easy, but over time New Zealand scientists were able to unlock sustainable solutions by studying the life cycle and habits of pests. These procedures and many other innovative techniques were collectively implemented as Integrated Fruit Production (IFP). IFP spread rapidly, promoted by a premium price for fruit in return for less use of their sprayers. Growers were informed about the life cycles of pests in their orchards, pest thresholds for action, and how to keep alive natural insect predators. Farewell Silent Spring is told in chronological order, beginning in the late 1800s when orchardists used products ransacked from their kitchen cupboards to “clean” orchards of pests. It was the decision to use the environmentally damaging DDT in the 1950s that put orchardists on the pesticide treadmill. It was clear a new approach was needed after pests

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became resistant to these pesticides, consumers became aware of their damaging environmental impact, and supermarkets in Europe demanded sustainable production systems. Enter Dr Wearing – a well-respected research leader – quietly spoken, sharp as a tack, and politically astute. He is a master tactician, a trait essential for success. His hand-picked research team tested many pest control techniques. Whatever was developed had to be practical, clearly understandable, and cost-effective. Research on pest-control methods benign to natural predators started in the 1960s, based on practices first developed in Nova Scotia. But much more information was needed. And so began a period of ecological research here in New Zealand to better understand the life cycles and habits of pests. Progress over the years was difficult, due in part to unavailable technology. Some projects were abandoned because of ineffective pest control, while others were simply too costly to commercialise. There was some luck along the way. Dr Wearing and his team were in the right place at the right time to make use of it. The challenge was to solve a conundrum that had “economic, technical, social/marketing, cultural, organisational and political” dimensions, as he phrased it. The book describes the use of pesticide-resistant predators for controlling problematic mites.

Pest control in Apple Futures orchards is as nature-friendly as in organic ones, but most consumers will never have heard of the Apple Futures programme.

BEARS FRUIT Remarkably, moth pests were controlled by using their own sex pheromones to prevent mating, and moths resistant to pesticides were prevented from reproducing in a similar way. The last period, beginning in 1994, saw the widespread implementation of IFP, which was further improved in a programme called Apple Futures. New Zealand now has the most wide-ranging apple export programme in the world, with exports to about 70 countries. Pest control in Apple Futures orchards is now as environmentally friendly as in organic ones, but most consumers are unlikely to have heard of Apple Futures. Looking forward, the coming decade has opportunities and threats. Drones can be used to release millions of sterile male moths that mate successfully with wild females, preventing production of the next generation. The biggest threat is that new pest arrivals could wipe out 60 years of research if they cannot be stopped using orchard-friendly methods. Dr Wearing arrived in Nelson in 1967 as a freshly minted PhD graduate from the UK, and he has since Today New Zealand exports $830m of environmentally friendly homegrown apples around the world.

authored more than 150 scientific publications. He was awarded the NZ Marsden Medal in 2002 and the NZ Plant Protection Medal in 2007 for his research on apple orchard ecosystems, which led to IFP and Apple Futures. His book will appeal not only to researchers and apple growers but also to others with an interest in biosecurity, who will find plenty to love. There’s a timeline that shows reductions in insecticide use next to the rise in biological control methods. Success came in the end, despite insufficient and often unpredictable funding of science over the last 25 years. Dr Wearing has modestly painted himself out of the story. A sequel should describe his leading role in making the New Zealand apple export programme the best in the world. His huge influence inspired younger generations of scientists to work on apple orchard ecosystems. Farewell Silent Spring is testament to a lifetime of work that has truly been good for exports, health, and the environment. Dr Tom Batchelor is a scientist specialising in the biochemistry of biosecurity treatments. He is the former co-chair of an international UN committee on alternatives to agricultural chemicals that don’t deplete the ozone layer, and a former technical manager for the Apple and Pear Marketing Board. Summer 2020

KCC

KŌWHAI AND THE GIANTS

She enjoys watching wildlife, being near the forest and the sea, and finding ways to support our planet. “I wanted the work to support Aotearoa’s native diversity. Its intention is to grow awareness and send hope,” she explains. “It’s part of a greater shift across the globe, valuing the earth at the centre of everything we do, so you’re not just buying a book, you’re directly supporting the environment. “Forest & Bird have a strong commitment to support native diversity across Aotearoa, not only on land but also within its waters, and it felt akin to the ethos within the book.” Kate is based in West Auckland, where she works as a visual artist and theatre maker. The illustrations in the book were created from handcut paper placed in a plywood box and lit from behind. Kōwhai and the Giants by Kate Parker, RRP$30, Mary Egan Publishing. Available from your local book shop or you can buy a copy from the Forest & Bird shop – see www.shop. forestandbird.org.nz.

Author and illustrator Kate Parker hopes to inspire tamariki to protect trees with her debut picture book.

nspired by an artist’s residency in the Waitākere Ranges, Kate Parker hopes her first book will engage new audiences, making them aware of the natural world and issues such as kauri dieback. Kōwhai and the Giants is a poignant children’s story about a seedling with a big heart who dreams about creating a giant forest. Her plea to protect our biodiversity by planting a forest, one seedling at a time, is a timely message, and the author is gifting $3 from each book sold to Forest & Bird. Kate, who is of Ngāti Maniapoto, English, and Greek descent, grew up roaming the bush and riding horses in Kaeo. She studied theatre in Melbourne, returning to co-found New Zealand’s Red Leap Theatre.

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2021 Be With a Tree is KCC’s annual celebration of New Zealand’s trees, with 10 days of events, activities, competitions, and much more. This year’s theme is community – the animals and plants that live on, in, and under trees. It will also focus on the wider human community that can help our local forests survive and thrive. Be with a Tree 2021 runs from 29 May to 9 June 2021. For more information, see www.kcc.org.nz.

ECONOMY

JOBS FOR NATURE

Up to 1250km of migratory fish habitat will be opened up in the central North Island thanks to the government’s Jobs for Nature programme.

Example of a fish barrier. Waikawa Campsite ford, which has since been remediated.

The project aims to restore native fish populations in the region by providing a greater understanding of their population and distribution, identifying barriers to their migration, and removing those barriers. “This work is important as many of the region’s waterways have lower native fish diversity and numbers than expected,” adds Mr Brown. The Horizons region extends over 22,200km2 – from Ruapehu in the north and Horowhenua in the south, to Whanganui in the west and Tararua in the east. The regional council’s $3.2 million Enhancing Native Fish Populations through Fish Passage Remediation project was awarded $2.6 million from the government’s Jobs for Nature programme in July 2020. In early November, Horizons employed eight people and trained them in swift water and electric fishing before they were sent out into the field to record fish populations and assess/remove potential barriers. One of the team, Sean Georgeson, said: “I love working outdoors. I’ve wanted to make a difference for the environment since a young age, and I really feel like I’m fulfilling that dream through this work.”

team from Horizons Regional Council is busy removing 25 barriers on rivers and streams, so native species can move freely up and downstream as part of their natural life cycle. The five-year programme will open up at least 1250km of fish habitat and create 26 jobs over its lifetime. One of the key factors impacting the distribution and population of native fish is barriers to their migration. “Indigenous fish such as tuna eels and īnanga need to be able to move up and down freshwater habitats to access feeding and spawning environments and maintain healthy populations,” explains Horizons freshwater and partnerships manager Logan Brown. “Structures such as culverts, dams, weirs, fords, and tide gates can delay or prevent fish movement and stop them from accessing these critical habitats,” said Mr Brown.

Sean Georgeson holds common bully fish after completing assessment of its measurement and weight.

The Horizons fish passage team.

Forest & Bird successfully lobbied for the $1.3 billion Jobs for Nature programme, a government initiative creating nature-based jobs to benefit the environment and support the economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. “This work is crucial in helping native freshwater fish access more space to play, breathe, and breed,” says Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Annabeth Cohen. “Sadly, there are a vast number of structures that restrict fish movements all over the country. No-one know how many in total, but it’s thought to number in the hundreds of thousands. “While this project is commendable, and we hope other regional councils follow Horizons’ lead, it’s just a drop in the bucket in terms of its national impact. “Turning off the pollution tap and protecting nature first is the only way we can avoid endless future expensive restorations and clean-ups that can take decades.” Summer 2020

WILDLIFE RESCUE

WILDBASE

Wonders

In the final part in our series about treating injured native species, Alex Stone visits one of Aotearoa’s leading wildlife hospital. Lesley Stone

taff at Palmerston North’s Wildbase Hospital are dedicated to caring for sick and injured native wildlife, providing medical and surgical care before returning the animals back to the wild. Based in Massey University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, this venerable national wildlife hospital is at the forefront of caring for our native species. Under the leadership of Brett Gartrell, the institution has made many breakthroughs in treatment protocols for native species. During our visit, we met senior practising vet Megan Jolly and Pauline Nijman, the centre’s supervisor and a self-confessed “bird nerd”. Wildbase started as an oil spill response unit and still holds the contract with Maritime New Zealand for this work nationwide. The centre maintains a transportable treatment centre, and in the case of the Rena wreck at Astrolabe Reef and subsequent oil spill along the Tauranga coastline in 2011, was on-site and at work within 24 hours. During the Rena episode, they treated more than 400 kororā alone. In the 2019 asper outbreak among kākāpō, Wildbase treated 14 birds and acted as an auxiliary diagnosis centre in helping Auckland Zoo. But they’ve treated just about every native New Zealand species. “We see about 50 species a year,” says Megan. Their speciality, however, is treating kiwi. “We wrote the book on how to treat kiwi,” says Pauline.

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The kiwi diet used in all New Zealand wildlife Hospitals, including Wildbase, was developed at Massey University by a Masters-level student. It’s a mixture of ox-heart mince and fruits. The birds find it easy to pick up and transition to better health on this diet. Wildbase’s aim is for recovered birds to be “releasable” in the wild. This means, in practice, keeping kiwi fit by giving them plenty of exercise space and even sometimes letting them run on treadmills! They make sure recovering kārearea New Zealand falcons fly as much as possible before being released. Wildbase offers residency programmes for vets hoping to specialise in wildlife medicine. When we were there, they had four students, including some from Australia. An interesting ethical sub-issue of wildlife treatment arises from the question of what to do about native parasites. Some endangered species carry parasites unique to them. At Christchurch’s wildlife hospital, we had noticed fingernail-long mites moving among the feathers of a southern royal albatross feathers and were told they were a species endemic to the toroa. “There’s a delicate balance between what’s best for the bird species versus its parasites, if they’re both endangered,” says Megan. Wildbase has noticed one recent unwanted trend in avian medicine. Lead levels, especially in urban birds like tūī, are increasing. Kea have also presented with

high lead levels in their blood – probably from snaffling roofing nails and eating roof paint from high country DOC huts. Fortunately, lead toxicity is treatable when caught in the early stages. Wildbase has testing equipment that can get fast results and monitor a bird’s response to treatment, which includes an antidote that binds the toxic metal, Calcium EDTA. It’s equally important to provide supportive care, including good nutrition. With lead toxicity continuing to cause disease in many native species, including tūī, kea, kākā, and kāhu Australisan harrier, and the antidote being increasingly difficult to source internationally, preventing the exposure of native birds to sources of lead, including lead shot, is becoming even more important. While we were there, Megan and Pauline were treating a tawaki Fiordland crested penguin. They removed sutures that were holding together a large upper-thigh wound probably caused by a predatory fish. The bird, astonishingly, had been found on a beach near Whangārei, well north of its normal range. It was kept in rehab during its moult before being released, surviving on a diet of New Zealand king salmon, anchovies, and yellow mullet. One challenge in avian medicine is that the antibiotics used are often developed for humans or other mammals, and the dosages for birds must be gleaned from limited published research on common species such as chickens and educated guesses, taking into account the bird’s weight and metabolism rate. But what holds for one species may not work for another, with some species reacting in more extreme fashion. It’s a delicate business. The staff restrict themselves to certain handling protocols, remembering that many of their patients are wild birds, not pets. “We don’t lovey-dovey them, and we avoid habituation. If we want contact with a pet animal, we

Wildbase supervisor and "bird nerd" Pauline Nijman with senior vet Megan Jolly.

One of Wildbase Hospital’s specialities is treating kiwi.

Recent patients and their successful recoveries feature on the hospital’s noticeboard.

can go next door to the Companion Animal Hospital and pet a dog,” says Pauline. Still, they have their favourite species. We learn that, in their opinion, kea are the cleverest of all birds. Kākā are sharp too, terrific mimics, with great vocal capacity. Kererū “are not particularly bright – but they are good at eating!” Wildbase’s clinical and rehabilitation work relies on the generosity of corporate and public donations. The hospital is fortunate to have the support of Massey University, but its day-to-day running relies on generous gifts large and small. An impressive bespoke rehabilitation centre for Wildbase’s recovering patients has been built at Palmerston North’s Victoria Esplanade Park in the city centre. It holds birds in the final stages of recovery, after treatment at Wildbase Hospital or Wellington Zoo. Funded largely by the Palmerston North City Council and Central Energy Trust, the interpretation at the centre is especially impressive, with a commitment to complete bilingualism using te reo and English in all the messaging. Its aim is to provide bird rehabilitation without putting them at any risk or subjecting them to additional stress. Summer 2020

F O R C E O F N AT U R E

POOR KNIGHTS MEMORIES

You can snorkel and dive around Tawhiti Rahi, but you are not allowed to land on the Poor Knights Islands. Caroline Wood

Gerry Brackenbury looks back at the events that led to the creation of one of New Zealand’s most significant marine reserves.

here was a time, I was told by the marine conservationist, the late great Wade Doak, when you could walk the 12 miles from Tutukaka to Tawhiti Rahi on the backs of trevally without getting your feet wet! Not any more. I was interested in Michael Pringle’s “Fascinating Finds” article in the Spring 2020 issue of Forest & Bird, particularly the section “Protecting Poor Knights”. I worked for the Department of Conservation in Whangārei for a number of years and was privileged to visit Tawhiti Rahi on a number of occasions. In Michael’s story, we see a 1924 photo of Māori pig hunters. On close examination, there are two women and a man holding a mere. In another image, a young man is holding what looks like a piglet, quite possibly brought back from the pig-hunting expedition to the Poor Knights. The photo is attributed to William Mackenzie Fraser (1878–1960), who was a wellknown entity in the early years of Whangārei. He was a local politician, a selftaught ethnographer, and the Whangārei Harbourmaster, and it was in this role that, with easy access to a boat, he would regularly visit Tawhiti Rahi (see box). The Poor Knights Islands were given their English Archives NZ name by Captain Cook as

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he travelled up the east coast of Northland. It was in November 1769, when the pōhutukawa were in flower, and the rugged islands crowned in red reminded him of a jam-topped pudding eaten in England. Pigs are thought to have been gifted to the island dwellers by Governor King, of New South Wales, and they became a valuable resource for the islanders. The pigs inhabited only one of the two large islands, Aorangi, and the islanders used them to trade for hardto-get materials, such as timber and metal fishhooks. During the Māori Musket Wars of the 1820s, the well-known Māori chief Hongi Hika took a sea-bound war party south to harass tribes with his newly acquired muskets, gained following his visit to England to meet King George. When passing the Poor Knights islands, all the young men jumped on board his waka toa fleet, leaving the islands exposed. Sure enough, a Hokianga chief called Waikato heard from an escaping slave that the islands were undefended and took a war party there. They massacred nearly all the old men, women, and children. When the island men returned, they encountered a truly hellish sight. The various chiefs of the islands promptly put a tapu on the islands and left them forever. This left the pigs to breed with no control and brought on the destruction of most of the second-largest island of Aorangi. But the largest island, Tawhiti Rahi, was pig-free, and it quietly returned to some semblence of what it once was, allowing Buller’s shearwaters, endemic to the Poor Knights, to recover and multiply.

Interest in the Poor Knights by the government came into being because of the need for a lighthouse. Fortunately, the islands were too rugged for permanent lighthouse accommodation, thus lessening the chance of introduced pests such as rats and cats. Surprisingly, Māori never took kiore, the Polynesian rat, to the Poor Knights, which might have provided protein in times of stress, thus saving the unique biodiversity on the islands. Following government interest in the islands, senior scientists from museums in Auckland and Wellington also visited the islands and realised what a natural and historic treasure they were. In the 1920s, William Fraser tried to remove pigs from Aorangi Island, and in 1936 a government expedition led by Captain Yerex finished the job and removed the last pig from the island. Yerex went on to become an Executive member of Forest & Bird. I did an oral history with the son of one of the cullers, who said the pigs were much smaller than any on the mainland and probably practised cannibalism to keep themselves alive and to control their own numbers. The Poor Knights Islands are now a full-blown marine reserve, one of the few decent-sized and accessible ones in the country. One has to ask how much longer New Zealanders have to wait to see more of our coastline fully protected. Buller’s shearwater. John Oates

OCEAN TAONGA

Trevally in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve.

Darryl Torckler

FASCINATED BY FLORA

From the time he was a young surveyor in the Northland bush, William Mackenzie Fraser was interested in the native flora and fauna of the area. In the 1920s, he became honorary caretaker of island sanctuaries within the Whangārei district and was a member of several expeditions to offshore islands. In 1924, he assisted a Dominion Museum expedition to the Poor Knights Islands to collect the rare Poor Knights lily Xeronema callistemon, which is unique to the islands. A foundation member of Forest & Bird, he was vice president for more than 30 years from 1927, wrote for the Society’s magazine, and represented it on the Waipoua Forest Sanctuary Advisory Society. Fraser was instrumental in having large areas of native bush at Whangārei Heads, Bream Head, and the district’s outlying islands set aside as reserves, and in having Whangārei Harbour declared a bird sanctuary in the early 1940s. Over the years, through friendship, personal gift, purchase, or his own searching, Fraser accumulated about 90 Māori artefacts. Despite subsequent controversy over some acquisitions and legal problems concerning ownership, the Fraser collection, cared for by the Whangārei Museum, is a memorial to his lifetime interest in Māori lore. Extracted from William Mackenzie Fraser’s biography by Mim Ringer (Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1998).

During the late 1960s and 70s, divers discovered an amazing diversity and abundance of marine life in the waters surrounding the Poor Knights Islands, some of which had never been seen before in New Zealand. Many were endemic, others were tropical, carried to Tawhiti Rahi by the East Auckland current. Schools of trevally fed on the surface, and kingfish, snapper, and hāpuka were found in vast numbers unheard of today. The Poor Knights became New Zealand’s second marine reserve in 1981. In 1998, the islands were fully protected to 800m from the shore. Today, less than 1% of New Zealand’s coastal waters are protected by marine reserves. Fishing interests continue to fight proposals for new marine protected areas. It’s hard to understand this stance. Ultimately, marine reserves mean more fish to catch and eat – for everyone.

Summer 2020

COMMUNITY

NATURE’S ADVOCATES

ur new regional manager for Otago and Southland Rick Zwaan brings a wealth of experience in conservation and campaigning. Before joining Forest & Bird, Rick was press secretary for the previous Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage, and he has worked for the Green Party and ActionStation. Taking over from Sue Maturin, who recently retired after 29 years in the role, he will have his hands full with a range of issues. These include the impacts on nature of irrigation and agricultural intensification, and protecting marine environments and wildlife. “I’m delighted to be able to contribute to Forest & Bird, which has such a rich history of playing a vital role for protecting nature in Aotearoa,” Rick says.

Rick Zwaan at St Clair cliffs where the Dunedin branch has a project to protect nesting fairy prions.

outh champion Britt Little is looking forward to using her passion for empowering young conservationists in her new role. Forest & Bird’s youth network support coordinator is a co-founder of the New Zealand Young Sustainability Leaders Programme for university students, which operates in universities throughout New Zealand and Australia. She was also co-founder of Future Proofers, a sustainability community of Auckland University of Technology students. “I am so excited to work alongside Forest & Bird staff, youth, and members to support more of our rangatahi to connect and protect nature,” Auckland-based Britt says. “I deeply believe that, through reconnecting to nature, others, and ourselves, our society can be transformed.”

Youth advocate Britt Little believes in the power of reconnecting with nature.

FAREWELL SPIT: AN IMPORTANT BIRD REFUGE

50 years ago

Measures to introduce a local permit system at Farewell Spit and the development in recent years of a tourist industry from Collingwood to the Spit caused pressure on the Society to take the matter up. As the Society regards the Spit of great importance both to New Zealand and internationally, it sent its President and secretary to visit the area to investigate. Over a period of six days, they met all the interested parties and heard the views of many local residents, as well as those of park administrators, tourist operators, and ornithologists. As a result a report has been prepared with six key recommendations. Forest & Bird, February 1971, Issue 179

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O U R PA R T N E R S

Phil Walters in his workshop.

BACKYARD BIRD ART We meet the creative brains behind Metalbird’s global art project.

hen the kākāpō won Bird of the Year last year, Metalbird jumped at the chance to create a silhouette artwork to honour our chubby native parrot in time for Christmas giving. Metalbird donates 30% of all kākāpō proceeds, as well as other native bird figures, sold through Forest & Bird’s online shop. The gorgeous metal artworks have been winging their way out of the door since last October, raising an incredible $11,000 for Forest & Bird’s conservation work. “I’m super happy we can make a meaningful contribution to nature and hope the relationship continues to grow, and we can get more involved in things we love, like Bird of the Year,” says Metalbird founder Phil Walters. Auckland-based Phil began making the birds in 2009 as a street art project after he became disenchanted with his industrial design career and a little envious of his photographer wife Helena’s creative outlet. At first, he gave the birds to friends and put them up around the neighbourhood, inspired in part by one of his heroes, the British street artist Banksy. Helena died of cancer in 2012, and in her memory Phil installed some of the artworks at favourite places the couple had shared.

He began selling the birds at markets and to wholesalers before taking his business online. Metalbird has since expanded overseas to Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, the US, and Canada. Each country has its own range of native birds manufactured in small family-owned factories, supporting local communities and causes. In New Zealand, Metalbird’s range of Corten Steel silhouettes includes 14 of Aotearoa’s native birds. “Birds like tūī and pīwakawaka fantail are iconic to New Zealand and to being a New Zealander,” Phil says. “It’s been an eye-opener to discover the mystical and spiritual attachments people have to them.” Metalbird and Forest & Bird share many values and one of those is sustainability, he adds. “Doing the right thing by our customers, staff, suppliers, and the environment is super important to us. We use premium quality recycled material to produce beautifully crafted products that will last for decades.” The company aims to become carbon negative this year, and 70% of its steel is recycled, with packaging made from recycled cardboard and biodegradable inks. Jo Prestwood, Forest & Bird’s relationships manager, says the partnership has been a great success and the Society is very grateful for the financial support. “It’s such a great fit for us, and working with Metalbird gives our supporters another way to celebrate our special native birds,” she says. Metalbird artworks can be bought from its own website, many retail outlets, and on the Forest & Bird online shop at https://shop.forestandbird.org.nz. To find out more, see www.metalbird.co.nz.

Everyone can have a kākāpō in their garden after Metalbird honoured its Bird of the Year win. Summer 2020

GOING PLACES

Rangitoto ki te Tonga D’Urville Island. Tamzin Henderson

D’URVILLE DELIGHTS

Eco-tour guides Rose and Will Parsons are passionate trappers, and their travel company is supporting communityled efforts to remove stoats from Rangitoto ki te Tonga.

wners of Driftwood Eco Tours, Rose and Will Parsons have been running sustainable tours to some of the most rugged and remote parts of the South Island for 16 years. One of their most popular is a five-day “trip of a lifetime” to New Zealand’s eighth-largest island – Rangitoto ki te Tonga D’Urville Island, in the Marlborough Sounds. Rose’s family have a deep connection with the area. Her great-grandparents chose to settle in a beautiful and remote part of the Sounds near French Pass, where

Rose attended the local 20-pupil school until her teenage years. The family farm overlooked the southern end of D’Urville Island, which was named after a French explorer and is rich in Māori and Pākehā history, as well as home to interesting wildlife. Most of the island is covered in native bush, regenerating farmland, and coastal broadleaf and beech forest under the protection of the Department of Conservation. On the western and northern end are steep hill country farms running high-quality sheep and cattle. DOC says the island has “exceptional ecological values” because it’s rat, possum, goat, and weasel-free, but stoats and deer are a problem. D’Urville is surrounded by several beautiful offshore islands, some of which are under strict conservation management, including Takapourewa Stephen’s Island, home to 50,000 tuatara. Just 800m separates D’Urville from the mainland, but once you are there it’s like stepping back in time.

Will and Rose Parsons.

“The island is just a 15-minute two-vehicle ferry ride from the village of French Pass, but once you cross that water you are in another world,” says Rose. “It is the real New Zealand, with a population of around 50 residents spread around its coastline.” Meeting some of the people who choose to live in this remote environment, whether farming, fishing, or saving native species, is a highlight for Driftwood’s visitors to the island. The French Pass was once on the busy trade route from Nelson to Wellington, and you will also hear many stories of ship wrecks, explorers, whalers, and early settlers. In earlier times, it was a leading centre for the production and trade of quality argillite tools used by Māori for vegetable cultivation, waka building, and weaponry. The Parsons were already running a successful eco-tourism business when they decided to offer eco tours to D’Urville Island in 2017.

Will explains the local history of the island, with views over Port Hardy.

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Tamzin Henderson

They wanted to give something back and support the tiny community’s 16-year effort to rid the island of stoats. “Stoats have contributed to the local extinction of little spotted kiwi, yellow-crowned kākāriki, and South Island kākā,” explains Will. “An important population of pekapeka South Island long-tailed bats is also at risk.” After witnessing the benefits of trapping predators at their own property, Rose and Will jumped at the chance to support a community-led stoat eradication project on Rangitoto ki te Tonga. Driftwood Eco Tours began donating $300 from each of their island tours to the D’Urville Island Stoat Eradication Charitable Trust (DISECT). Eradicating every single stoat

South Island fernbirds were discovered by Will and Rose on their Marlborough property. Will Parsons

is a challenging project, given the rugged terrain and the 16,782ha island being about 15 times bigger than other islands previously cleared of stoats. In some good news, the trust recently received a significant $3.1m funding boost from Predator Free 2050 Limited and others to ramp up their efforts over the next six years. DISECT chairman Oliver Sutherland says the trust’s relationship with Will and Rose has been beneficial for both sides. “Having our trustees share our ambitious goal with visitors to the island not only draws attention to

the problem of predators but also demonstrates that something can be done about it,” he says. “Given the special biodiversity we have here in New Zealand, it’s critical that people understand the nature of the threats and what we can do to help. “The more people understand what’s going on, the more likely they are to support similar projects in their own backyards.” The Parsons know this from their own predator-control work on their family property over the past two decades. From 1999 until recently, the Parsons lived on a wetland property along the Ōpaoa River in the lower Wairau Valley, Marlborough. Not long after they moved onto the property, Will, an avid birdwatcher and photographer, spotted a South Island fernbird, a small, long-tailed songbird with a declining population in New Zealand because of diminishing habitat. Excited by the discovery, Will put a photo of it up on New Zealand Birds Online, and the Department of Conservation soon responded. “It was big news because most people thought there were no fernbirds left in this area,” Will says. “The Department of Conservation told us they were possibly the only ones to be found between Havelock and Oamaru. “Needless to say, it certainly heightened our feeling of kaitiakitanga and responsibility to look after the place.” Will and Rose began a trapping programme on their property and caught more than 100 ferrets,

Beach at Mo Awhitu, D’Urville Island.

Some of the wildlife found on D’Urville Island. Driftwood Eco Tours

stoats, and hedgehogs using DOC200 predator traps. “We quickly noticed other birds and wildlife on our property, with the appearance of some unusual wading birds, such as the glossy ibis and Australasian bittern.” Today, thanks to the Parsons’ hard work, the birdlife on the property is significant, and the wetland and bush is protected by a QEII covenant. Want to find out more about visiting D’Urville Island? See www.driftwoodecotours.co.nz or ring Will and Rose on 0800 708 844.

Tamzin Henderson

Summer 2020

SEABIRDS

SEEKING SHOREBIRDS Athena Rhodes meets five feathered residents of New Zealand’s shoreline when she goes bird-watching in the Coromandel.

very summer, birds flock to the Coromandel to roost, forage, and live, just like we humans do! On a recent visit, I was lucky enough to have many seabird coastal encounters. Here are five of my highlights.

PĀREKAREKA SPOTTED SHAG Spotted shags aren’t a common sight in the North Island, but as I was driving up a winding Coromandel road I came across a tree with many roosting birds. At a distance, I thought they were pied shags but decided to take a closer look. I made my way to the colony along the narrow road, with cars whizzing past me on the left, and a precarious cliff drop into the wild sea below. When I arrived, I noticed that they were actually spotted shags fighting for the best spot on this gnarled old tree. This was my first time seeing spotted shags in the North Island. They get their name from the black dots that appear on the tip of the back and wing feathers during breeding season. Pārekareka, which are endemic to New Zealand, feed in waters far out to sea and roost on coast edges. These birds form monogamous pairs and, when breeding, create platform nests on cliff edges, made from sticks and grass. Outside the breeding season, they can form colonies of up to 2000 birds. They are not classified as threatened, with an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 breeding pairs. The strongholds for pārekareka are the Marlborough Sounds, Banks Peninsula, and the Otago coast. They are more localised in parts of the North Island, including the Hauraki Gulf, West Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, and Wellington Harbour.

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TŪTURIWHATU NEW ZEALAND DOTTEREL The New Zealand dotterel or tūturiwhatu is a small solid-looking shorebird with stilt-like legs that scurries around the sand looking for sandhoppers to nibble on. I came across quite a few of these delightful birds while walking along Hot Water and Hahei beaches. This was very heartening, as they were in big trouble 30 years ago, but dotterel minding pioneered by Forest & Bird volunteers in the 1980s has led to their recovery in the North Island. However, they still remain vulnerable to human activities on the beach, including driving and dog walking, as well as predation from introduced mammalian invaders. Other threats include loss of their breeding sites to housing developments and high tides washing away their nests. Many parts of North Island beaches are closed off to protect these vulnerable New Zealand dotterels during the breeding season. Their simple nests – a scrap in the sand with a few pieces of vegetation flung around for décor – contain sandcoloured eggs. This is why it’s important to watch where you are walking during the breeding season, as they are extremely well camouflaged. If you inadvertently venture too close to a nest, the dotterel will protect the nest by employing a number of tactics to distract you, such as feigning a broken wing. Once hatched, the tiny chicks dart around but crouch and freeze if danger, such as a dog or walker, approaches until it passes.

There are two widely separated subspecies: the northern New Zealand dotterel is more numerous and breeds around the North Island; the southern New Zealand dotterel was formerly widespread in the South Island but now breeds only on Rakiura Stewart Island.

TARĀPUNGA RED-BILLED SEAGULL This avian food-rustler is as quintessential to New Zealand’s beaches as jandals and the smell of suncream. The red-billed seagull or tarāpunga is the most commonly seen shorebird and is very distinctive with its bright red bill and white eyes. They like to hang around seashores keeping an eye out for discarded hot chips and will grab your sandwiches if you are not careful. Despite their widespread range along New Zealand’s coastlines, the largest colonies in different parts of New Zealand have seen a marked decline in numbers. Predation by cats, ferrets, rats, and stoats on breeding birds is a major threat. Climate-induced changes in the availability of krill, the birds’ principal source of food during the breeding season, also has a major impact on breeding success. This species is largely monogamous. An important part of courtship is the male feeding the female in the form of regurgitated food. Nothing says love like shared vomit. If the female has been fed adequately, then they can remain on the nest for most of the day rather than scouting for food.

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TŌREA PANGO VARIABLE OYSTERCATCHER These shy and elusive shorebirds can be hard to see up close. If you are on a beach and see a running blur of black, white, and orange in the distance, it may be a variable oystercatcher darting out of sight behind a rock. At Hot Water Beach, I was lucky enough to be able to watch a variable oystercatcher in the surf hunting for food. This guy would stab at a shell in the water and run back to the sand and crack it open. Tōrea pango will breed in monogamous pairs, and fidelity between mates is high. Once they have found prime real estate to set up shop, by which I mean nest, they will defend this area quite aggressively. They are long lived, with some birds reaching 30+ years of age. Its nest is just a scrap in the sand with pieces of vegetation and driftwood in it. It’s not going to get top marks for architectural genius, but it does the job. The sand-coloured eggs are hard to see, which is great for camouflage from predators but puts them at risk from human walkers, drivers, and dogs. But if you go near a nest, you will know about it. Oystercatchers defend their nesting space with fiery determination – dive bombing and screeching at the intruder like little fighter jets in the sky. If this happens to you, move away fast because you are stressing them out while they are trying to incubate their eggs. Variable oystercatchers are found around much of New Zealand. Previously shot for food, tōrea pango reached low numbers before being protected in 1922. Today, the species is classed as “recovering”, and some birds on the east coast of the northern North Island benefit from conservation protection programmes for New Zealand dotterels and fairy terns. Like other shorebirds, oystercatchers face a number of challenges: the predation of eggs or chicks, flooding of nests by big tides, and disturbance from human recreational use of the coast.

Athena Rhodes is a writer and photographer, who spends a lot of time lying on the ground getting muddy trying to capture photos of New Zealand’s birdlife. When she’s not out on birding adventures, she loves reading about birds, learning new things, and drinking copious amounts of coffee.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

TĀKAPU AUSTRALASIAN GANNET I was surprised to spot a tākapu soaring over the surf at both Hot Water and Hahei beaches. Coming across these giants of the ocean, with their 1.8m wingspan, flying off the Coromandel coast was a treat. They seemed to dance along with the rolling waves, their long pointed wings caressing the water. The bulk of the breeding population nest in Aotearoa, with around 13% breeding in Australia. Fledglings from New Zealand fly directly to Australia and typically do not return to their home colonies until their third year. The largest mainland gannetry is at Cape Kidnappers, in the Hawke’s Bay, with about 5000 breeding pairs. Other mainland breeding sites include Muriwai and Farewell Spit. They build their nests using grass, seaweed, and also fishing line and other plastic items discarded by us humans. They lay one egg that they incubate by tucking beneath their large webbed feet. After hatching, the chicks are black and featherless. In less than six weeks, they will weigh as much as their parents, about 2kg. During this time, they are fed regularly by the parents on a diet of regurgitated fish. Australasian gannets can be commonly seen all over New Zealand’s coastal waters. Their torpedo-like plunge dive is a spectacular sight, particularly when large foraging flocks form over surface aggregations of fish.

FOREST & BIRD’S WILDLIFE LODGES Arethusa Lodge Near Pukenui, Northland Sleeps 6 herbit@xtra.co.nz 03 219 1337

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

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

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

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

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

Forest & Bird members can book all of these lodges at reasonable rates. Join today and feel good knowing you are making a difference for New Zealand’s nature. See www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus. Summer 2020

MARKET PLACE

Paheke Historic Bed & Breakfast Ohaeawai, Bay of Islands ‘Carry less, enjoy more’ Come explore with us! • Heaphy Track • Abel Tasman • Old Ghost Road • Cobb Valley

www.kahurangiwalks.co.nz Phone: 03 3914120

A Little Blue

is a children’s picture book for all ages. It is a tender story of separation, isolation, love and the power of nature to heal. To find out more and purchase your copy go to: http://jeanettegoode.co.nz email: alittleblueinfo@gmail.com

A Little Blue is $22.99

with a donation from the sale of each book going to the West Coast Penguin Trust for conservation of little blue penguins on the West Coast.

Experience a restful stay in luxury accommodation with historic charm, surrounded by peaceful gardens. 09 405 9623 | www.paheke.co.nz

PHILPROOF

PEST CONTROL PRODUCTS

WIPE OUT: Possums, Rodents,

Mustelids, Rabbits Standard & Mini Possum Bait Stations & Timms Traps • Rodent Bait Stations and Block Baits • Rodent Snap Traps • Fenn Traps (MK4 & 6) • Trap Covers • DOC 200 trap and lightweight cover. Also available: Monitoring Tunnels, Flagging Tape, Rabbit Bait Stations.

PHONE

07 859 2943 MOBILE

021 270 5896 PO Box 4385 Hamilton 3247 WEB:

www.philproof.co.nz EMAIL:

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CLEAR SKIES AT RUAPEHU

orest & Bird’s Ruapehu Lodge offers affordable and comfortable accommodation a short drive from Whakapapa ski field. There are lots of interesting and varied day

tramps in the area. The village with its cafes and restaurants is a 10-minute walk away and there is good whio-watching near the lodge. For more information and to make a booking, see www.forestandbird.org.nz/our-community/lodges/ruapehu-lodge.

Bryce McQuillan

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

Join our knowledgeable local guides on walking tours in the stunning Glacier Country region. Learn about glaciology, flora & fauna, geomorphology, geology & history of this world renowned landscape. We cater for all ages & abilities, with 2 hr, half day & full day tours in our small groups, at your pace.

0800 925 586 www.glaciervalley.co.nz

Explore with us at Okarito Boat EcoTours and discover the magic of the superb birdlife and untouched serenity of New Zealand’s largest unmodified wetland, over 3000 hectares of lagoons and wildlife-rich waterways.

03-753 4223 OkaritoBoatTours@gmail.com www.okaritoboattours.co.nz

Short sleeved Birdlife shirt Part of our Made in NZ range

Ron and Edna

Greenwood MENSWEAR

19 O’Connell St, Ak CBD ph: 09 309 0600 www.strangelynormal.com

Environmental

TRUST

The trust provides financial support for projects advancing the conservation and protection of New Zealand’s natural resources, particularly flora and fauna, marine life, geology, atmosphere, and waters. More information is available from the Trust at PO Box 10-359, Wellington.

Forest & Bird SHOP This striking tūī t-shirt, features a high-quality reproduction of one of Forest & Bird’s historic NZ Railways posters ($45+p&p).

Advertise to Forest & Bird readers here and reach 80,000 people who are passionate about nature and the outdoors.

We have lots of other natureinspired gifts in our online shop. Every dollar goes towards Forest & Bird’s conservation work. See https://shop.forestandbird.org.nz.

Please contact Karen Condon PHONE 0275 420 338 EMAIL karenc@mpm.nz

Summer 2020

BIODIVERSITY

BEWARE PHOTO POACHERS

Could your photos be unwittingly leading poachers to vulnerable flora and fauna? Ellen Ozarka

magine you’re out for a walk when you come across an interesting plant or animal. You take a quick photo so you can share it with friends later and maybe post it online. You may not realise it, but this simple act might lead a poacher to the location of the plant or animal in your photograph. Modern cameras have started to record metadata, or data about data, in the photo file. Metadata is ordinarily used to make it easier to store and organise information about a photo, such as its location and usage rights. It’s illegal to take New Zealand’s flora and fauna from the wild, and animals like green and jewelled geckos are prized among private collectors. In some areas, poachers have figured out that they can use metadata to track down animals. Fortunately, you can change your camera settings to make this harder from them.

Jewelled geckos like this one have been taken by international poachers and smuggled overseas, where they sell for large amounts of cash to collectors. Carey Knox.

Forest & Bird Te Reo o te Taiao

On an iPhone, open Settings and select Privacy, then Location Services, then Camera. Under “Allow Location Access”, tick “Never”. On an Android phone or digital camera, disabling the location varies between brands. Generally, you should be able to find a way to disable geolocation services somewhere in the camera settings. If you run into trouble, do a web search for “Disable camera location” and your phone or camera’s make and model. It might be a small chance, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. No-one wants their photo to be what leads a poacher to the location of a rare plant or animal. By disabling this feature on your phone, you can be sure that the bad guys won’t be able to use your posts to track our precious native species.

Parting shot Roger Smith took this close-up of a juvenile heron practising his fishing techniques on the Kāpiti Coast. The young white-faced heron had been recently released at the Waimanu Lagoons, Waikanae, after being looked after by the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust, in Ohariu. Being used to the presence of people, he was happy to allow close encounters. In this particular shot, he was practising his fishing techniques in the shallows – instinct told him what he should be doing, but he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it! He spent ages looking at the small fish below but, sadly, was woefully inaccurate with his spearing! He’ll learn eventually.

PHOTO COMPETITION How to enter: Share your photos of native birds, trees, flowers, insects, lizards, marine mammals, fish, or natural landscapes, and be in to win. Send your high-res digital file and brief details about your photo to Caroline Wood at editor@forestandbird.org.nz. The best entry will be published in the next issue of Forest & Bird magazine.

The prize: The winner will receive a Kiwi Camping Rifleman 2 Hiker Tent (RRP $299). This two-person single room tent is ideal for overnight escapes and hikes. It’s lightweight and compact, compressing down to fit in a backpack. The double entrances with vestibules mean you can come and go regardless of the weather direction and can keep packs and wet boots separate and dry. Made from doublecoated polyester with 3000mm aqua rating, it will stand up to rigours of the outdoors, all year round, and boasts a three-year warranty. The prize is courtesy of Kiwi Camping. For more details, see www.kiwicamping.co.nz.

we ARE climbing

Alec McCallum sends Dr Strangelove (32) second go Photo: Tom Hoyle

For over thirty years Bivouac Outdoor has been proudly 100% New Zealand owned and committed to providing you with the best outdoor clothing and equipment available in the world. It is the same gear we literally stake our lives on, because we are committed to adventure and we ARE climbing.

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