Forest & Bird Magazine 349 Aug 2013 by Forest & Bird

ISSUE 349 • AUGUST 2013 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Mackenzie’s bright future PLUS

Nature’s superstars

Kokako on the run

Sneaky tactics of weevils

ISSUE 349

• August 2013

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Interim Chief Executive: Nancy Ward Advocacy Manager: Kevin Hackwell Business Manager: Julie Watson North Island Conservation Manager: Mark Bellingham South Island Conservation Manager: Chris Todd Communications Manager: Marina Skinner Central Office: Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington. PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web: www.forestandbird.org.nz Auckland Office: 34A Charlotte Street, Eden Tce, Auckland, PO Box 108 055, Symonds St, Auckland 1150. Tel: (09) 302-0203, Fax: (09) 303-4548 Email: n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz Christchurch Office: Unit 4/Level 1, 245 St Asaph St, Christchurch. PO Box 2516, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 940-5522 Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No. CC26943.

Tiaki Taiao www.forestandbird.org.nz

Contents 2 Editorial 4 Letters 5 50 years ago 6 Conservation news

46 Catch me if you can Duncan the kökako

Nature of tomorrow

Water reflections

Environmental rights and wrongs

Garden café, Fiordland success, Undermining Northland, Eel warning, Arctic terns, Mäui’s dolphins, Bird website, Seabird action, Member survey, Sub-Antarctic trips, Love DOC, RMA reform

Freshwater for Life photo competition

Scary statistics

Soapbox

Our partners

How green are your mussels?

Treasures of the past

In the field

Wähi tapu

Climate change campaigner Bill McKibben Value for money Forest & Bird’s 90th anniversary

Best Fish Guide update

Cover story

Sex by stealth

Amazing facts about …

Our people

Rangatahi

A distant cousin called Myrtle

60 Going places

Saving the Mackenzie

Kaiköura Coast Track

Curious behaviour of giraffe weevils

Wood roses Carole Long, Grant Vincent, Mike Britton, Ian Price, Hermann Frank, Sue Millar, Arthur Hinds, Rod Morris, Rosalie Snoyink, George Mason, AGM, Council meeting and Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner, Johnny Kendrick, Vic Vercoe, Craig Potton, member feedback Oliver McClure

EDITOR: Marina Skinner

PO Box 631, Wellington. T (04) 801-2761 F (04) 385-7373 E m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz ART DIRECTOR /DESIGNER:

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

Community conservation

Observations

Book reviews

Parting shot

Whitehead release, Petrel nesting boxes, Fiordland DVD, J S Watson grants, Lilian Valder grants

KCC grown-up

Conflict of values

Save the RMA

Win for Hurunui birdlife

Danica Stent

Graeme Hill on the conservation war

Denniston deals Forest & Bird’s fundraising appeal The Upper Hurunui is finally protected

An Extraordinary Land, Treasuring our Biodiversity, West Coast Walking Bellbird by Jock Harrison

Printlink KEEP UP WITH NATURE

ADVERTISING:

Karen Condon T 0275 420 338 E mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & Circulation T 0800 200 064 F (04) 385-7373 E membership@forestandbird.org.nz

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Sign up to Forest & Bird eNews Fresh conservation news delivered to your inbox 6 times a year. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz COVER SHOT Maryburn station in the Mackenzie Country. Photo: Chris Woolmore

editorial

A broad church T

he term “broad church” originally referred to a liberal 19th-century form of Anglicanism that rejected the extremes of both traditionalists and evangelicals. These days the term is commonly used to describe a secular organisation that encompasses a broad range of opinion. I believe the reason why Forest & Bird is still strong after 90 years is because we are a broad church. Let me explain why. In recent months I’ve been fortunate to visit many branches to participate in celebrations of our 90th anniversary. During these celebrations I’ve met Society members who are farmers, commercial lawyers, scientists, orchardists, small businesspeople, retired people, students, teachers, social workers and home-makers. Among these people I’ve met members of the Greens, ACT, National, Labour and the Mäori Party. Doubtless we include members who are gay, straight or transgender, religious or atheist, capitalist, communist, vegetarian and gluten-free – the list goes on. We are diverse because everyone is welcome in Forest &Bird and everyone has a part to play, so long as you love New Zealand’s unique and beautiful natural environment. In recent years the idea of a “broad church” has become unfashionable. Single-issue organisations and all-or-nothing advocacy has become commonplace. Fortunately Forest & Bird has managed to avoid this trend. We remain involved in a broad range of issues, and we’ll work with anyone to get a better result for nature. For example, we’ve been a key member of the Land and Water Forum working cooperatively with farmers, industry and community groups to develop a plan to reduce pollution from farming and improve the management of freshwater. We are also part of a collaborative group, including farmers and landowners, working to find ways to protect the unique values of the Mackenzie Country. Often we don’t get all we want but we always get a better result than if we hadn’t been involved. In all these situations we bring our values and principles to the table and we always remember that our primary role is to be the voice for nature. I believe it’s because we are a diverse organisation with a broad view that we continue to grow and remain influential. By comparison most single-issue groups wither and die after a few years in the headlines. One other strength of being a broad church is that we all have to make an effort to live with each other and understand the other person’s view. As a result we’re generally a good-mannered bunch. There’s a generosity of spirit within the Society that is visible at branch meetings, planting days, working bees and even when debating issues at the AGM! All in all, there’s a lot to be said for being a broad church.

Ngä mihi nui

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Level One, 90 Ghuznee Street, Wellington. PATRON: His Excellency

Lieutenant General the Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae, GovernorGeneral of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT:

Andrew Cutler DEPUTY PRESIDENT:

Mark Hanger NATIONAL TREASURER:

Graham Bellamy CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS:

Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Craig Potton EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS:

Brent Barrett, Lindsey Britton, Tony Dunlop, Craig Potton, Ines Stager, Barry Wards, John Wenham DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS:

Bill Ballantine, Stan Butcher, Ken Catt, Linda Conning, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Stewart Gray, Philip Hart, Joan Leckie, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Carole Long, Peter Maddison, Sir Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, Margaret Peace, Eugenie Sage, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, Gordon Stephenson, David Underwood

Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. Forest & Bird is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and is the New Zealand partner of BirdLife International. • Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird.

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President

DIARY IT

Date

Event

More information

Sept 30

Denniston field trip

Debs Martin at d.martin@forestandbird.org.nz

Sept 30- Oct 29

Bird of the Year poll

www.birdoftheyear.org.nz

Sept 28- Oct 6

Forest & Bird week

Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestsandbird.org.nz

| Forest & Bird

Forest & Bird is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper made from FSC® certified wood fibre and pulp sourced from responsibly managed forests. • The magazine is bulk mailed in biodegradable cellulose film, which is made from wood pulp sourced from managed plantations. • Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright. All rights reserved.

Special Banking Package for all Forest & Bird members and supporters. We’re very excited to be working with Forest & Bird, another New Zealand organisation that believes, we have a vital role to play in supporting the prosperity and sustainability of our country for future generations. Working with Forest & Bird, we’ve set a goal to raise $300,000 over three years to support key environmental projects. You can help. When you choose The Co-operative Bank, we’ll make a donation directly to Forest & Bird. Check out the details below, and remember to quote Forest & Bird when you pop into your local branch, or call us on 0800 554 559.

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*Product terms and conditions apply. The pre-approved overdraft is subject to a satisfactory credit check. Personal loans must include a minimum of $3,000 of new lending. The home loan offers apply to loans of $100,000 and over and terms and conditions apply. For all lending products, The Co-operative Bank lending criteria, and fees, apply. The home loan discount is not available on Low Equity loans, and a Low Equity interest rate premium will apply. A copy of our Investment Statement and current Disclosure Statement are available from any branch of The Co-operative Bank. The Co-operative Bank reserves the right to change or withdraw the above offers, which only apply to personal banking accounts, from time to time without prior notice. These offers are not available in conjunction with any other special offers from The Co-operative Bank.

letters Forest & Bird welcomes your feedback on conservation topics. Please send letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address and daytime phone number. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or publish them in full. The best contribution to the Letters page of the next edition will win a copy of Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird by Quinn Berentson (Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99) Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or e-mail m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz by September 10.

Growth v environment

Miniature frogs

In “It’s about New Zealand” (May Forest & Bird) Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Claire Browning provides compelling evidence that the government’s obsession with policies for economic growth ignores the pressing need for policies to prevent further degradation of our natural environment. The government appears intent on undermining so much of what we cherish and need to protect in Aotearoa for future generations. We congratulate Claire on her forthright, comprehensive article exposing the government’s ruthless pursuit of policies that neglect the increasingly urgent need to protect our natural environment, on which all life forms, as well as our own prosperity, depend.

The article about Maud Island frogs (May Forest & Bird) was most interesting. Some years ago when touring in the Catlins our coach stopped on the roadside for us to alight and walk to the Cathedral Caves. On the ground was a tiny frog, no bigger than a thumbnail. One passenger stepped down right over it and the indentations in her boot sole were sufficient to save the frog being squashed. No one else was particularly interested in the frog and I failed to take a photo. Enquiries in the area failed to get any idea of what this little frog could have been. Are the whistling frogs ever so small?

J Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe, Wellington This letter is the winner of Above the Treeline: A nature guide to alpine New Zealand by Alan Mark.

Otago University frog expert Phil Bishop replies: The Catlins have healthy populations of brown tree frogs, aka whistling tree frogs. They don’t whistle, which is why most of us prefer to use the term “brown tree frog”. It’s also what they call them in their native Australia. There is even a café in the Catlins called The Whistling Frog Café! Depending on how much they eat as a tadpole and how quickly they metamorphose, newly emerged froglets can be quite big at 12 millimetres long or they can be a tiny 5mm or 6mm long so it’s most likely to have been one of these wee guys. The only other frog it could have been would be the southern bell frog and they would generally be a much bigger 15 mm-plus and normally bright green. Sadly, no native frogs are found on the mainland of the South Island, though there used to be since there are sub fossil remains of Hochstetter’s frogs on the West Coast and even an extinct species in Fiordland. No one really knows why they became extinct.

Following in US footsteps James Watt was the first Secretary of the Interior (and, as such, the political head of the United States of America’s National Parks and Wildlife Service) in Ronald Reagan’s first cabinet. He is noted for having decreased funding for environmental programmes, he tried to introduce legislation that would have reduced the number of national parks, he favoured making wilderness areas and coastal areas available for commercial oil and gas exploration and development, and he made statements such as “We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber.” Given the on-going budget cuts to the Department of Conservation since 2009/10, the intended gutting of the Resource Management Act, the increased funding for what now appears to have become a branch of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment entitled NZ Petroleum and Minerals, the recent calling of tenders for extensive petroleum and gas exploration rights, the intended advertising of platinum exploration rights, and the Minister of Conservation’s recent approval for an access agreement for Bathurst Resources for its open-cast mine on the Denniston Plateau, it seems to me that the current government is hell-bent on going down in history as our country’s version of Mr Watt.

Shirley Owen, Auckland

Wynston Cooper, Invercargill

Brown tree frog. Photo: Ngä Manu Images

| Forest & Bird

Kärearea a winner I was hugely impressed by John Douglas’s shot of the kärearea in Forest & Bird (May). Kärearea are among my favourite New Zealand wildlife and that shot (and story) really captures a number of their beautiful traits. Many thanks to Forest & Bird. I’m immensely thankful for your ongoing hard work and passion. Every time I tie on my tramping boots and head into the hills I’m reminded again of what an amazing job you do. Patrick Butler, Wellington

WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away two copies of An Extraordinary Land: Discoveries and mysteries from wild New Zealand by Peter Hayden with photographs by Rod Morris (HarperCollins NZ, $49.99). See review, page 65. To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@forestandbird.org.nz Please put Extraordinary Land in the subject line and include your name and address in the email. Or put your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to Book draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on September 10.

Garden Bird Survey Could you print the annual Garden Bird Survey form (May Forest & Bird) on the back of an advertisement next year? That would leave the magazine intact. Last year the Otago Daily Times revealed that Otago people responded well to the survey because the Otago Daily Times printed the form. Perhaps Forest & Bird members elsewhere could encourage their local newspapers to do the same. Lyndall Hancock, Dunedin The editor replies: Thank you for the sensible idea. We will follow up with the form in next year’s Forest & Bird magazine.

50 years ago

WINNING MEMBERS The winners of the Forest & Bird lapel pins in the May edition of Forest & Bird are Terry Kennaway, Waikanae; Margaret Crimp, Wellington; Alex Schanzer, Pukekohe; M Matthews, Dunedin; Lee McCracken, New Plymouth; Adrian Butcher, Auckland; L M Christian, Ötaki; Miss M Carson, Öamaru; Ms S Scott, Waipukurau; and Diana Monaghan, Palmerston North. Your pins will be posted.

New mountain and forest park, Nelson A new mountain and forest park in the north-west of the South Island has been approved in principle, the Minister of Lands, Mr Gerard, announced recently. While boundaries had not yet been defined, the park would take in Government-owned land on the West Coast from north of Karamea to Kahurangi Point, embracing the headwaters of the Karamea, Heaphy, Aorere, Takaka, and Wangapeka Rivers, as well as extensive areas of mountain country in the Tasman and Arthur ranges. In all, an unroaded area of almost 1,000 square miles was involved. The future administration of this region had been studied following representations from last year’s Nature Protection Conference, and from the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, Mr Gerard said. These organisations had sought Government action to protect native flora in the region, and provision of recreational facilities. Forest & Bird, August 1963

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Garden café W

inter and spring are the best times of the year to enjoy native birds in our gardens. Species such as tüï, silvereyes (tauhou), pïwakawaka (fantails), kererü, korimako (bellbirds) and käkä leave their forest homes in search of food. They have learnt that our gardens are often the best places to find food, especially if the gardens have plants with flowers, fruit and insects. We can top up our garden’s natural larder by putting out food for native (and introduced) birds. This can be as simple as chopping up pieces of apple or orange or mixing up a shallow bowl of sugar water and putting them on a raised table or board beyond the reach of cats. Or you can hang a mesh bag of fat in a tree. Several Forest & Bird members sent photos of their backyard birds this winter or posted on our Facebook page. Toya Heatley offers a varied menu for the visitors to her garden in Upper Hutt, near Wellington. “I feed them with bananas and oranges and with a mixture of sugar water,” she says. Her power-packed sugar water includes Complan (dietary supplement powder) and milk powder as well as the traditional sugar and water. “Last year we had about three or four birds visit. This year we have upwards of 30 waxeyes [silvereyes] and two tüï who feed daily. I am spoilt for choice when it comes to my passion, which is photographing birds.”

Kerri Walker, of Beach Haven in Auckland, has fed silvereyes every winter for years and has a regular clientele of about 20 feasting on hanging bags of fat. Last August she put out a tüï feeder and within three days had seven or eight birds queuing up. “We make sure the bottle is washed thoroughly with a bottle brush and the dish kept very clean too as we don’t want to be the cause of any health problems,” Kerri says. “It’s just been fantastic having them so close and listening to their different calls and characteristics.” Leanne Cullen has been planting native trees at her Waimäuku, Auckland, property for more than a decade in a bid to attract birds. She now goes a step further. “I started out placing sugar water into red bowls for the birds earlier this year as I was concerned that the drought was creating a food shortage,” she says. Silvereyes were the first visitors, then one tüï arrived. “No secret is safe with friends it would appear and before I knew it I had the whole neighbourhood and their friends coming to greet me each morning amidst a fantastic dawn chorus which lasted throughout the entire day. Literally I have counted in excess of 30 tüï.” Carrying home bags of sugar is a small price to pay for the pleasure Leanne gets from her backyard biodiversity.

Sweet tweet Nectar-loving birds such as tüï and korimako (bellbirds) will make do with sugar water if their favourite flowers are unavailable. Silvereyes (tauhou) eat a wide variety of foods and will also sip on sugar water in winter. This recipe is for a 15 per cent concentration of sugar but you might need to make it up to 50 per cent to attract tüï. Reduce the sugar once they are regular visitors so they don’t lose interest in natural (lightsugar) nectar.

Sugar water > Dissolve 3 dessertspoons of white sugar in 1 cup of water. > Pour into a shallow bowl and place outside on a table or other high spot safe from cats. > Change the sugar water regularly and keep the bowl clean. From Tea for the Tüï by Rosemary Tully (New Holland Publishers)

2 1 Silvereyes (tauhou) nibbling on an orange half. Photo: Toya

Heatley

2 Tüï tuck in at a sugar water feeder. Photo: Kerri Walker

| Forest & Bird

Please send your stories and photos of your backyard native birds to Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz or 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631 Wellington 6140.

Win for Fiordland fighters L

obby groups Save Fiordland and Stop The Tunnel and their supporters can chalk up a victory after Conservation Minister Nick Smith rejected the Milford-Dart tunnel proposal through Fiordland and Mt Aspiring national parks. Dr Smith declined Milford Dart Ltd’s concession application in July because “the environmental impacts are significant and beyond what is appropriate in two of New Zealand’s most spectacular national parks and a World Heritage Area”. The 11.3-kilometre bus tunnel between Glenorchy and the Hollyford Valley aimed to halve travel time for visitors from Queenstown to Milford Sound but would damage a delicate ecosystem. “The tunnel’s 268,000 cubic metres of spoil piled against the pristine Hollyford River would be a continuous source of leachate and sediment,” said Forest & Bird Otago/Southland Field Officer Sue Maturin. “Streams of buses would devalue the gateway to the Routeburn Track and we would have lost nearly eight hectares of forest at the Hollyford entrance.” Stop the Tunnel representatives Leslie Van Gelder, Ruth-Ann Anderson and Trish Fraser have driven the public campaign against the tunnel. They received papers under the Official Information Act that revealed the Department of Conservation had not met its obligations to UNESCO, and the proposed tunnel was likely to be incompatible with the

area’s World Heritage status. They reported their findings before a parliamentary select committee in July and presented a 50,000-strong petition. Stop The Tunnel supporters cannot completely ease off. A week before the decision, Milford Dart Ltd outlined an alternative tunnel that would be about 2km longer and move the eastern entrance. Dr Smith is yet to make a decision on the proposed monorail that would cut through Fiordland’s Snowdon Forest. n Sue Maturin

Glenorchy women protesting against the Glenorchy-Hollyford tunnel, from left, Corrine Davis, Amanda Hasselman, Kate Scott, Rosie Ferris, Sue Farry, George Railton and Debbie Crompton.

Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society

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conservation

news

Undermining Northland I

n 2011 nearly all of Northland, including private land, public land and land under Treaty of Waitangi claim, was aerially surveyed for minerals without consent from land owners. The government and northern councils paid for the mineral surveys then embarked on a publicly funded marketing drive to get international mining companies to tender for exploration permits. Most public conservation land of high conservation value in Northland has not been assessed for ranking under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which would protect it from mining. In June five new exploration permits were granted to three companies – Te Tai Tokerau Minerals, Waimatenui Exploration and De Grey Mining. Far North District Mayor Wayne Brown is a director of Te Tai Tokerau Minerals. Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges said there was no conflict of interest in Mr Brown’s company being awarded the permit to look for gold and other metals in the catchment of Whangaroa Harbour. “I am satisfied that Wayne Brown received absolutely no benefit or advantage from being the mayor of a local council,” he said. Northland’s gold and silver is locked in rocks of ancient volcanoes. To extract the metals rock needs to be crushed to dust and mixed with water and cyanide. This chemical

reaction separates the gold and silver but also frees heavy metals like mercury, zinc, cadmium and arsenic to become bio-available. This toxic waste needs to be stored out of the food chain beyond timescales we can imagine. At least 18 tonnes of toxic waste is produced to make one gold ring and it is usually stored in giant dams near the mine. A new exploration permit issued to De Grey Mining covers nearly all of the public conservation land of Russell State Forest. Only one per cent of kauri forest remains. Russell State Forest is an ancient kauri forest remnant and is home to Northland brown kiwi and giant northern rätä. It forms the catchments of the stunning Bay of Islands and Whangaruru Harbour. A drill rig and other exploration equipment commissioned by De Grey Mining is expected in the Russell State Forest and the Puhipuhi hills, 30 kilometres north of Whängärei, in November. During autumn, Reverend Thelma Connor, a Forest & Bird member and kuia of local hapü Ngäti Hau, sat in a three-week vigil at a picnic table surrounded by anti-mining signs on the side of State Highway One at the base of Puhipuhi hills. She was surrounded by anti-mining signs, passing vehicles tooted their support and people from around the region dropped off food and other gifts and learnt about the threat of toxic mining. And 74 year old Thelma’s motivation? “Clean water – there’s nothing more important”, she says. “I have lived on the side of Puhipuhi at Whakapara my whole life and our family has drunk the water that comes from the spring behind my house for generations. We don’t want drilling. We don’t want mining. We don’t want a toxic waste dump. We don’t want any contamination of the water from mountain to the sea.” n Dean Baigent-Mercer Three generations protest the threat of toxic hard rock mining of Puhipuhi near Whängärei: Kristi Henare, Connor Henare, 7, Ariki Henare, 10, Moana Henare, 5, and Thelma Connor. The protest had huge public support and put Puhipuhi and the waterways that flow from the mountain to the Kaipara Harbour and Helena Bay on the map.

Tiritiri Matangi Island Enjoy a day trip to a magical island called Tiritiri Matangi. From the moment you step onto the island to the moment you leave, you will be entranced by the serenade of gentle birdsong and the lush native bush. Tiritiri Matangi boasts around 300,000 native trees, 12 of New Zealand’s endangered bird species and 3 reptile species. There are numerous walking tracks throughout the island which vary in length and fitness levels. Book your cruise today!

Kokako - image c/o Simon Fordham/Naturepix 8

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In March a giant petition was presented to Parliament calling for a moratorium on commercial eel fishing. Forest & Bird helped gather some of the 10,000 signatures it carried. Photo: Jay Harkness

Stark warning about our eels T

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he battle to save the native tuna, or longfin eel, has been heating up as the species edges closer to extinction. In April the independent Parliamentary Forest and Bird Print ad.indd Commissioner for the Environment (PCE), Dr Jan Wright, released her report on the plight of the longfin. She put the situation bluntly: “Stop commercial fishing or longfin eels will perish.” In response the Ministers of Conservation and Primary Industries announced in June that they would form an independent panel to advise on the management of the longfin. The Ministers also opted to split the South Island quota between shortfin and longfin, and increase the regulated size of eel net escape tubes in the North Island – a suggestion from the industry. Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says that while in theory bigger escape tubes will allow younger eels to survive, the larger size of female eels will mean the change will do little to improve the species’ chances of breeding. He says the quota split in the South Island is a small start but it will have to be followed by strong measures to protect longfin eel populations there. He says it is positive that the government is acting quickly on the PCE’s report. He is optimistic that steps to save the longfin will be taken later this year after the independent panel reports back. Longfin eels’ breeding behaviour makes them particularly vulnerable to overfishing. Females take 30 to 100 years to mature before swimming down river and out to sea. They head to waters near Tonga to spawn and die. Ocean currents carry their eggs back to New Zealand. n Jay Harkness

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Arctic terns take NZ detour A

rctic terns have been tracked flying all the way from the Netherlands, past Australia and New Zealand and down to Antarctica in a new long-distance record for a bird. The birds flew more than 90,000 kilometres in 273 days. Researchers caught and attached tiny dataloggers to seven Arctic terns near Eemshaven in the northern Netherlands in 2011. The next year all seven birds were caught again in the same area and the dataloggers of five of the seven birds could be read.

The dataloggers had recorded the daily positions of the terns and showed the terns had migrated south past western and southern Africa, turned east into the Indian Ocean and past Australia. One bird flew on to southern New Zealand then south into Antarctic waters. A similar study in 2010 showed how Arctic terns from Greenland had migrated south past western Africa then flew west towards South America and on to the Weddell Sea, using a different part of the Antarctic during the southern summer. The results of a third study of Arctic terns from Spitsbergen/Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean will show if these terns join the Dutch or Greenlandic birds or fly to a different part of the Antarctic. Dutch Arctic terns were recorded making the longest known bird migration. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

Long wait for Mäui’s dolphins A

year has come and gone since the government promised to review its Mäui’s dolphin threat management plan – a plan meant to save the world’s rarest dolphin from extinction. As this magazine went to press there had been no official word of what, if anything, would come of the exercise. The review was initiated by an Auckland University study for the Department of Conservation that estimated only 55 Mäui’s dolphins over a year old are left in the wild. After the release of the population count, in July 2012 the area where gill nets are banned was extended south along the North Island’s west coast and further offshore. The government also opted to put observers on board fishing boats operating in deeper water. The move was described at the time as a step in the right direction, but Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar says: “The interim measures didn’t go far enough and they won’t stop dolphins being killed as key Mäui’s habitat remains unprotected.” Forest & Bird is campaigning for the creation of a marine mammal sanctuary that would extend over all the areas the

| Forest & Bird

dolphins are found. Gill nets, trawling, seismic surveys and marine mining would all be banned in the sanctuary. The population of Mäui’s is estimated to have fallen by 90 per cent since gill nets were introduced in the 1970s. In July the International Whaling Commission released its scientific committee report for 2013 in which it warned that without government action Mäui’s dolphins would become extinct in less than 20 years.

An announcement about a review of the Mäui’s dolphin threat management plan is months overdue. Photo: DOC

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Private charters available Fully accommodated & camping tours

Western Australia - Holland Track & Great Western Woodlands 12 Day Camping Tour - Departs 28th August 2013 See the wildlife of the world’s largest temperate woodland.

Western Australia - Mid West Wildflowers

10 Day Accommodated Tour - Departs 7th September 2013 See botanical hot-spots north of Perth during wildflower season.

Western Australia - South West Birds & Botany

15 Day Accommodated Tour - Departs 11th October 2013 Join our birding & botanist guides to explore the biodiversity of this beautiful region.

Sri Lanka - Wildife History & Culture Tour

18 Day Accommodated Tour - Departs 17th March 2014 See the exotic flora & fauna and discover the history of this enchanting island

Western Australia - Pilbara Reef & Ranges

10 Day Camping Tour - Departs 12 th April 2014 Experience Ningaloo Reef, Abrolhos Islands & Karijini National Park

A white heron, one of the many birds on the freshly launched New Zealand Birds Online website. Photo: Marcus Lacey

Bird website takes flight N

ext time your interest is piqued by a curious-looking bird, you’re just three clicks away from identifying it on the very new, very comprehensive New Zealand Birds Online website. The website is a digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand birds – living, extinct, native and not – put together by Te Papa’s Colin Miskelly. It’s free, user-friendly and includes search functions for identifying, researching and locating any avian creature ever to flap its wings in New Zealand. Project manager and editor Dr Miskelly says the website is “content rich” and represents three years’ work by his Te Papa team in partnership with the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Department of Conservation. The website has more than 6500 photos, information on 457 species, and more than 1000 audio clips of birdsong. It even has sound files of an imitation of the huia’s call, despite the fact it’s been extinct for the past 106 years. Each species has its own page, including a photo gallery, distribution map and information about its status, behaviour, breeding and ecology and threats. The page also includes links to related websites and digitised pages straight out of several bird books. Keen bird observers will particularly appreciate the search function that allows them to print out checklists of bird species found at any New Zealand location. Dr Miskelly says the aim of the project is to “provide comprehensive and authoritative information on New Zealand’s biodiversity in a readily accessible format. [It’s] for anyone with an interest in New Zealand birds, regardless of their level of knowledge and expertise.” www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz

Visit our website & sign up for our email newsletter for the latest wildlife news & details of our full tour program.

Phone: (61 8) 9330 6066 Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au Email: coates@iinet.net.au GSA Coates Tours Licence no 9ta1135/36

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| 11

conservation

news

Action promised to cut seabird toll F

orest & Bird welcomed the release of a governmentapproved plan to save native seabirds, including endangered albatrosses and petrels, from being killed by commercial and non-commercial fishing. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds (NPOAS) was released in April by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Forest & Bird Seabird Advocate Karen Baird was on the stakeholders’ committee that formulated the NPOAS, along with representatives of the fishing industry. The Ministry also said it will create a species-specific action plan to try and save the black petrel. The black petrel breeds only on Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands, and is at risk from commercial and recreational fishers, particularly in the Hauraki Gulf. Karen said she was “cautiously optimistic” that meaningful action – clear requirements in the Ministry’s annual fisheries plans – would result. Forest & Bird maintains that bottom longliners must use weighted lines, which sink before they can be reached by diving birds, and that fish waste and unused baits should not be thrown into the water while fishing to reduce the chances of birds swallowing hooks or getting caught in trawl nets. It is estimated that 15,000 birds die every year after coming into contact with commercial fishing lines or nets in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This doesn’t account for orphaned chicks that die on nests waiting for their parents to bring them food. Many of our seabird species are just as threatened as our land-based birds. For instance, every one of the 10 species of albatross that is endemic to New Zealand is considered to be under severe threat from the fishing industry.

IN BRIEF Tell us what you think With this copy of your magazine is a three-page member survey (on the other side of your address label). We value your opinions and we hope you will take the time to answer the questions to give us a clearer idea of what you think about this magazine and about Forest & Bird. Your responses will help us understand what’s important to you so we can give you more of what you want and help to steer Forest & Bird’s direction. We can assure you that your answers are confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside Forest & Bird. You can fill out the form or complete the survey online at http://survey.consumerlink.co.nz/fbms Everyone who completes the survey goes into the draw to win one of five $50 prize packs, which include, Craig Potton’s Rivers DVD and a copy of the pocket edition of New Zealand’s Wild Places book.

1 1 A New Zealand sea lion

checks up on Heritage Expedition voyagers on Campbell Island. Photo: Marina Skinner

2 Snow falls on Bulbinella

1 1 The black petrel is

especially at risk from fishing in the Hauraki Gulf. Photo: DOC

2 Shags caught in

fishing nets.

| Forest & Bird

rossii megaherbs on Campbell Island. Photo: Gunther Riehle

Discount on sub-Antarctic trips Heritage Expeditions has two expeditions to the subAntarctic islands in late December that are discounted for Forest & Bird members. The trips visit the Snares, Auckland and Campbell islands, where travellers can walk among flowering megaherbs and encounter nesting albatrosses, New Zealand sea lions and yellow-eyed penguins. Forest & Bird senior managers Kevin Hackwell and Chris Todd will be on each of the expeditions. Please mention you are a Forest & Bird member when booking to receive your discount – and to ensure a portion of the fare is donated towards Forest & Bird’s conservation work. For more information, see page 13.

conservation

news

Love DOC campaign hits target F

orest & Bird’s Love DOC campaign succeeded in getting an extra $20 million for the Department of Conservation and saving about 60 positions that would have been lost in initial restructuring plans. In April Conservation Minister Nick Smith announced that DOC funding would be boosted by an extra $5 million a year over four years in the May Budget. The immediate result was that DOC reduced the overall number of positions to be lost from 140 to 80. However, because of the cuts set in place in previous years, DOC will have less money in 2014/15 than it did in the last financial year.

Forest & Bird wasn’t alone in trying to get the government to reassess the value it attaches to DOC’s work. The Tourism Industry Association said publically that our environment drew overseas visitors to New Zealand and there could be consequences if the tourist experience was spoilt by DOC losing its ability to do its job properly. The Public Service Association also campaigned hard on the issue. New Zealanders saw through the claims that DOC’s restructuring was designed to “increase conservation” and instead recognised how the planned shedding of long-serving frontline staff would harm DOC’s pest control programmes, its maintenance of tourism facilities, its rural fire-fighting capability, its conservation advocacy and its management of endangered species, marine mammal sanctuaries and marine reserves. When DOC announced its restructuring, it said it would axe 140 positions overall. It didn’t tell the public that the figure didn’t account for staff who would trade frontline conservation work for finding corporate sponsorship, along the lines of Fonterra’s sponsorship of DOC’s waterways work. The reason behind the restructuring wasn’t hard to spot. Since 2009 DOC’s funding has dropped by $13.5 million a year. Without accounting for this year’s cuts, its workforce was already down by 10 per cent on 2008. Forest & Bird will continue to show the government how vital DOC is to our unique plants and animals, to one-third of New Zealand’s land area, to New Zealanders and to the international visitors that contribute $23 billion each year to the economy. 1 Forest & Bird, PSA and other DOC supporters spell out ‘Love

DOC’ in Parliament grounds in April.

2 Dunedin Forest & Bird members showed how much they care

on Love DOC Day.

RMA reform opponents rally Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer in May joined the chorus of concern about the government’s plans to reform the Resource Management Act (RMA). Sir Geoffrey, who led the drafting of the RMA before its launch in 1991, presented advice he’d given to Fish & Game on the planned changes. “Sir Geoffrey’s advice affirms and fully supports Forest & Bird’s own – that the government’s stated objectives of reducing uncertainty and cost, while continuing to meet New Zealanders’ environmental expectations and uphold Kiwi values, cannot and will not be met by these reforms,” Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Claire Browning said. “The truth is that on each measure, results will be a lot worse.” Forest & Bird is asking Environment Minister Amy Adams to reconsider the changes to the RMA. “The weight of evidence provided by a wide range of organisations closely involved in RMA environment planning and management should cause a rethink by the Minister of the Environment,” Claire said. 14

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The government is changing the RMA in two phases. The first was carried out in 2009, and the second is under way now and will include changes to the way freshwater is managed. Cabinet decisions on the changes were made in May, though the Minister had yet to announce them in July. It was expected that the third reading of the Resource Management Reform Bill would be introduced in August. Groups opposing the government’s proposals include environmental watchdogs, the New Zealand Law Society and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. “The government’s own officials, in a Cabinet paper released to Forest & Bird under the Official Information Act, gave clear advice that the government’s preferred options were not the best, and were poor solutions to the problems identified,” Claire said. To donate to Forest & Bird’s RMA fundraising appeal, see page 43

YOUR WINTER GETAWAY STARTS HERE

Bookings are now open for Forest & Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mount Ruapehu Lodge in Whakapapa Village. Stay at our comfortable, familyfriendly lodge from where you can hit the slopes, trek the beech forest and keep a look out for resident kiwi or whio. Forest & Bird members receive a discounted rate. Book at www.forestandbird.org.nz/ ruapehulodge.

Forest & Bird

| 15

soapbox

Wähi tapu National parks lie at the heart of what it means to be a New Zealander, says Mike Britton.

he concept of national parks and special protected areas comes from the realisation that beautiful and unique landscapes inspire the soul. They are special places. The spiritual nature of these places has long been recognised by first peoples in lands around the world and given effect in their traditions and stories. But it was Europeans who gave shape to the parks and protection concept. In 1835 English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a “sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy”. The painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, worried about the impact of America’s westward expansion on Indian civilisation, wildlife and wilderness. He wrote: “they might be preserved by some great protecting policy of government . . . in a magnificent park . . . A nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!” The first effort by any government to set aside such protected lands was in the United States in 1832 when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation to set aside land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, to protect the natural thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides. The first national park was Yellowstone in 1872, followed by Royal National Park just south of Sydney in 1879, Canada’s Banff National Park in 1885 and our own beloved Tongariro in 1887. The first Tongariro National Park Act became law in 1894 but the Act was later renewed and other legislation was passed to shape our protected areas system. The underlying purpose of national parks – so well stated in the National Parks Act 1980 – was that they contained “scenery of such distinctive quality, ecological systems, or natural features so beautiful, unique, or scientifically important that their preservation is in the national interest”. Another

important underlying principle is that they are not an asset of the government of the day but held for all the people of New Zealand, present and future. So our national parks and protected areas are the result of development of a concept over almost 200 years by Europeans and centuries by first peoples. How then does the focus on the economic values of our protected lands and the need for their intrinsic values to sit second to development fit with the history and values of our unique natural lands? How does the call for greater flexibility in planning and decision making sit with the long-term security of our parks system? How trustworthy are the current custodians of these lands? Are the first peoples of New Zealand, the tangata whenua, the true guardians? The recent settlement of the outstanding Treaty of Waitangi breaches with Ngäi Tühoe sets a new direction and shows an alternative way forward. For Tühoe Te Urewera is special. The place underpins their culture and spirituality – who they are. Despite the terrible history of wrongs related to Te Urewera, Tühoe remain its kaitiaki. The solution in the settlement is to make Te Urewera its own entity, to recognise the spirituality of the place and the values Ngäi Tühoe and other New Zealanders place on it. The new board, which will soon have a Tühoe majority, has accepted strong conditions of guardianship, both for Tühoe and the wider community. Similarly the Whanganui River catchment is also to become its own entity with two guardians who will advocate on its behalf. Their objective will be to restore the river that runs upside down to a pristine waterway that supports and nourishes the communities that rely on it. The government has said the Ngäi Tühoe settlement is a one-off, and it may be to an extent in ongoing governance. But with Tongariro, Whanganui and Taranaki national parks being part of present Treaty negotiations, might not the Urewera model be a starting point to restore the mana of our most special places, recognising their intrinsic ecological, cultural, historical, spiritual, landscape, inspiration and recreational values as beyond normal land status, as sentinels of what is in our hearts as New Zealanders, what the New Zealand story means to us. Mäori and all who love New Zealand are natural partners. Mike Britton was Forest & Bird’s General Manager from 2005 to July 2013. New Zealand’s national parks are held for all New Zealanders, present and future. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

| Forest & Bird

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How green are your mussels?

Forest & Bird’s new Best Fish Guide ranks farmed seafood. By Jolene Williams.

ver wondered whether that New Zealand-farmed salmon fillet on your plate was a good, sustainable dinner choice? Or those raw oysters or steamed mussels? Over the past nine years, Forest & Bird has regularly ranked the ecological sustainability of wild seafood caught in New Zealand’s waters and produced the Best Fish Guide to help shoppers choose eco-friendly seafood. And now, for the first time, we’ve added New Zealand-farmed seafood to the guide. The results prove New Zealand’s aquaculture is in pretty good shape. Two of the four aquaculture species, green-lipped mussels and farmed päua, are among the best-ranked seafood choices, and the other two additions, Pacific oysters and salmon, also make good choices when sourced from certain regions. Seafood farming methods can vary greatly, and so too their effect on the environment. The new Best Fish Guide assessed aquaculture species along geographic lines to account for differences. So while salmon farmed in the northern and southern ends of the South Island are poor seafood choices, marine-farmed salmon from the South’s central region is an okay choice, and freshwater-farmed salmon is the best choice of all. Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar says the generally positive result for our aquaculture industry is “great news for New Zealanders who like to eat seafood”. “It means that if people follow our guide, they can still eat all of their favourite seafood like oysters and salmon. At the same time, they know they’re supporting fisheries that aren’t damaging the marine ecological environment.” She says adding aquaculture species to the guide is an

important part of Forest & Bird’s broader push for a more sustainable fishing industry. “New Zealand’s aquaculture industry was worth $406 million in 2011 and it’s our fastestgrowing source of seafood production. The industry’s only going to get larger as more and more pressure is put on our wild stocks and wild fisheries,” she says. Though based on the same principles as the wild fisheries assessment, aquaculture required new criteria to account for the unique set of ecological impacts. For example, aquaculture farmers often have to import fish meal to feed the farmed fish stock. Our ecological assessment considers the impact 2 of fishing the fish meal species, many of which are in decline. In addition, our aquaculture assessment takes into account biosecurity issues, discharges to the marine environment and the effect on landscape and amenity values. Katrina says Forest & Bird has a vision for New Zealand to meet or exceed world’s best practice in fisheries and aquaculture management and environmental practice by 2030. Producing our Best Fish Guide is just one of the steps we’re taking to get there. 1 Green-lipped mussels are among

the best-ranked seafood choices. Photo: Waikato Regional Council

2 ‘If people follow our guide, they

can still eat all of their favourite seafood like oysters and salmon,’ says Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Katrina Subedar.

Go fish

For help making better choices when buying wild or farmed New Zealand seafood: Pop the Best Fish Guide Visit Download the Best 1 inside this magazine in 2 www.bestfishguide.org.nz 3 Fish Guide app for your your wallet iPhone or Android phone If you or your branch would like extra copies of the new Best Fish Guide, brochure stands or posters, please contact Sharon Harvey at office@forestandbird.org.nz or 0800 200 064. 18

| Forest & Bird

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work alongside senior clinical staff to provide the highest standard of care. To continue, we need your help. Because without it, many treasured pets won’t be so lucky. Thanks for your generosity.

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ONLINE Please go to http://foundation.massey.ac.nz, click on the ‘Make a gift’ button and select ‘Vet Teaching Hospital’. BY CHEQUE Please make cheques payable to the Massey University Foundation and write ‘Vet Teaching Hospital’ on the reverse. If you are paying by cheque or direct credit and require a receipt, please email Foundation@massey.ac.nz Massey University Foundation, Freepost authority 114094, Private bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, NZ

TRACTA50084-FB

Every year, hundreds of sick and injured pets are treated at Massey University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Featured in a recent TV series, it’s a state-of-the-art facility where veterinary undergraduates

Saving the

Mackenzie Forest & Bird’s three-year campaign to protect the bronzed tussocklands of Canterbury’s Mackenzie Basin celebrated a major breakthrough in May. By Jay Harkness.

he announcement in May of an agreement recommending protection of 100,000 hectares of the best part of the Mackenzie Basin could be the best possible outcome for an area that has already changed markedly through a dramatic increase in irrigated farming. The recommendations to the government and relevant councils are a major step forward that would not have happened without our supporters, those who made donations to the Save the Mackenzie campaign and Forest & Bird Canterbury/West Coast Field Officer Jen Miller. The agreement focuses on a large part of the Mackenzie.

| Forest & Bird

Forest & Bird considers the area best preserved as a drylands park is the north-western portion of the basin, bordered by Aoraki/Mt Cook village to the north, Lake Benmore to the south, Lake Pükaki to the west and Tekapo to the east. Forest & Bird campaigned hard for the sake of this area, and it remains to be seen how much of it will be protected. Despite a long history of human modification – starting with the arrival of Mäori – the Mackenzie is teeming with life. This includes lizards, insects and birds, many of which live nowhere else. Some of the Mackenzie’s stand-out inhabitants include:

COVER STORY

An alpine wëtä species (Hemiandrus), which survives being frozen solid during the area’s severe winters n The ngutuparore, or wrybill, the only bird in the world that has a curved beak (which allows it to forage under small river stones) n The critically endangered kaki, or black stilt, of which only 93 adults are left in the wild n Sixty-eight rare or endangered plants The arguments for protecting a part of the Mackenzie aren’t all from the one side of the ledger, if you subscribe to the idea that a “balance” can be found between the environment and the economy. In the Mackenzie the environment is the economy since a million visitors travel there each year. Many of the visitors carry 2 on to somewhere else – which has been

identified as a problem that needs fixing – but nevertheless tourism is the region’s biggest earner and has the potential to be worth a lot more to the area. The Mackenzie has inspired, informed and appeared in a host of art, literature, movies – and beer commercials. Those who have used the Mackenzie landscape as an expression of their creativity include writer Laurence Fearnley and film director Sir Peter Jackson, who set one of his many epic battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings series in the Mackenzie. 1 From the summit of Mt John overlooking

Lake Alexandrina, left, and the edge of Lake Tekapo. Photo: Steve Attwood

2 The weta Hemiandrus survives being

frozen solid during the Mackenzie’s harsh winter months. Photo: Warren Chinn

Forest & Bird

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nyone who has recently driven between Twizel and Ömarama will understand the threats to the Mackenzie. Vast vivid green circles are spreading across the landscape at the expense of the native plants that used to grow there. Once tussockland is irrigated it dies and there is no going back. In 2010 there were 110 applications to take water for irrigation in the Mackenzie. Forest & Bird and the Environmental Defence Society called for a forum to consider how this special landscape could be protected while allowing for some further agricultural development. The Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust was set up shortly after. It involved farmers, tourism operators, fly-fishers, community boards, hunters, fish farmers and conservationists. And so the work began. Forest & Bird’s Jen Miller, who is based in Christchurch, made many trips south to Twizel for the discussions with other members of the forum. Those discussions were sometimes onerous and required compromise all around – co-operative forums always do. “Discussions were certainly robust,” Jen says with a wry smile. “However, I learned a great deal about farming in the basin and the dilemmas farmers face, as in many instances being able to irrigate a relatively small area of their property is vital for their on-going survival,” she says. Despite the inherent challenges for all, the process that led to the Mackenzie agreement is one the government favours. Its stated preference is for disputes to be settled between interested parties with agreed outcomes presented for passing into law. The same co-operative ethos gave rise to the Land and Water Forum, on which

Forest & Bird gave nature a much-needed voice. The real test of the success of the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust will be whether the government accepts all its recommendations. It will also be vital for ministers to heed each other when making decisions related to the Mackenzie. This will include the ministers of land information (who leads the South Island high country tenure review process, which will be crucial to achieving the vision set out in the agreement), conservation and environment. The goodwill shown through the process so far will also need to extend to deciding which parts of the northwestern basin should be included in the 100,000 hectares to be protected. Forest & Bird will be watching this process carefully, and will probably be making submissions to central and local government in the future. It is essential that the parties do not stumble at this final hurdle. We must secure a good outcome for the area’s remarkable native plants and animals, for those who earn a living from tourists and for the Mackenzie’s value in our cultural heritage. And it is essential for all New Zealanders who have not yet seen why the Mackenzie Country is such an important New Zealand landscape. 3 Kaki, or black stilts, were once widespread but now live only in

the Mackenzie. Photo: Craig McKenzie

4 Kaki in the wild. Photo: DOC 5 Forest & Bird Canterbury/West Coast Field Officer Jen Miller. 6 Massive pasture circles irrigated by pivot irrigators are replacing

native tussocks and other plants in parts of the Mackenzie Basin. Photo: Peter Scott

Discussions were certainly robust. However, I learned a great deal about farming in the basin and the dilemmas farmers face, as in many instances being able to irrigate a relatively small area of their property is vital for their on-going survival. Jen Miller 22

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COVER STORY

MT COOK

What’s proposed The Upper Waitaki Shared Vision Forum launched the Mackenzie Agreement on May 12. Its main recommendations to the government are: n Land development proposals are part of a balanced and integrated strategy, including setting up a Mackenzie Country Trust to negotiate with landowners to protect and restore priority areas of biodiversity. n Funding the new trust to manage 100,000 hectares of land for biodiversity and tussock protection. The forum’s main recommendation to the Mackenzie District Council, Waitaki District Council and Canterbury Regional Council is: n The councils work with central government and stakeholders to set up the Mackenzie Country Trust.

• TWIZEL

Map shows the boundaries of the Mackenzie Basin as a whole, and the areas of special interest within, which have the highest ecological values, and which Forest & Bird has been working to protect. The 100,000 hectares that will have some form of protection applied will spread across the larger area.

Forest & Bird

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Sex by

stealth Curious behaviour by a curious insect found in a Forest & Bird reserve has captured the interest of scientists around the world. By Jolene Williams.

1 24

| Forest & Bird

ery little is known about giraffe weevils. We know they’re endemic to New Zealand. We know they have the longest body of all the world’s weevils. And we know that, despite their name, they aren’t at all related to giraffes. We also know that male giraffe weevils vary hugely in size, with the largest growing up to 90 millimetres long, some six times longer than their smallest brothers. The species Lasiorynchus barbicornis is not to be confused with the giraffe weevil of Madagascar (Trachelophorus giraffa), though both species have an elongated, giraffe-like head. The elongated heads, or rostrums, are no mere biological quirk. Females cleverly use their elongated head, or rostrum, like a drill to bore holes in trees to lay their eggs. With the males it’s a different story. The rostrum is more pronounced in a male and makes up around half its total body length, and contributes to huge differences in size between individuals. The males’ size disparity raises some interesting questions. How exactly do smaller males compete in their quest to find a mate? In 2009 University of Auckland PhD student Chrissie Painting made it her mission to find out. Finding a population of giraffe weevils large enough to study provided Chrissie’s first challenge. Thanks to a tip-off from colleagues at Landcare Research, she discovered Forest & Bird’s Matuku Reserve in the Waitäkere Ranges was a haven for the weevils. “There’s a perception that giraffe weevils are quite rare,” says Chrissie. “But they’re really quite common in Auckland. We’re talking thousands of them [at Matuku Reserve]. “ It’s here that Chrissie spent full days and a few nights over the past four summers observing and cataloguing behaviours for her thesis. She identified individuals with colour-coded painted spots. Chrissie became interested in entomology when studying for a Bachelor of Science in ecology at Lincoln University. In 2009 she began hunting for a PhD topic with her University of Auckland supervisor Dr Greg Holwell and discovered little was known about the curious-looking giraffe weevils. Their strange appearance led them to predict the species would possess unusual behaviour. “The fact you can get males six times as large as the smaller males is pretty unique to the insect world. That, coupled with this huge elongation in the rostrum, opens

3 up some interesting questions about competition between males,” she says. “There are fewer females on a tree at any one time. There’s not going to be one for every individual, so [the males have] got to fight it out. “What became apparent early on was that competition by males for access to females was really intense. Males spend a lot of time wandering around the tree, pushing each other around to win females and sometimes engaging in combat that involved locking themselves together and attempting to dislodge their opponent from the tree. “[The rostrum] is used as a weapon to fight so if little guys don’t have this same advantage then what do they do to gain access to females?” After three years of observing and analysing hundreds of hours of field research Chrissie can say conclusively that smaller males successfully secure a mate by showing “a clever example of subterfuge”. The smaller male would typically avoid combat and instead hide underneath the female while she mated with the larger male. Afterwards, the larger male would stay mounted, fending off others trying to do the same. “At that moment the sneaky male climbs on to the female and proceeds to mate with her, all the while being protected by the large male, who doesn’t seem to notice his presence.” 1 The smaller male sneaks under the larger guarding male to

copulate with the female. Photo: Chrissie Painting

2 Two males locked in a fight. Photo: Chrissie Painting

3 Chrissie Painting meets the locals at Matuku Reserve.

Photo: Leilani Walker

Forest & Bird

| 25

4 This is scientifically known as an “alternative reproductive tactic”, or more commonly as “sneaking behaviour”, which can be found in other species where the males differ greatly in body or weapon size. An example of sneaking behaviour is exhibited by male dung beetles. Male dung beetles typically use their horns to fight for the female. Males with smaller horns overcome their disadvantage by digging side tunnels under the dung pads where females perch and quickly copulate with them before being detected by a guarding male. Chrissie says what makes giraffe weevils even more intriguing is they exhibit both sneaking behaviour and the more traditional guarding behaviour. “The smaller males could fight as well. We found they could change their behaviour if the other male was around the same size. It’s quite unique. For most animals, these tactics are fixed. We found that giraffe weevils are quite flexible in that they show an incredible ability to use the right tactic at the right time.” Chrissie also examined fighting behaviour to better understand how males assess when to end fights. She discovered that males are able to assess their opponents during battle. “This means that

males gain information about their opponent’s strength or size during fights and can figure out whether it is worth continuing the fight or giving up and retreating.” Chrissie’s thesis wasn’t without its challenges. The sheer lack of research meant she had to investigate more basic behaviours before she even knew if it was a feasible PhD topic. “My supervisor and I were warned by a lot of people we wouldn’t find [enough of] them ... And we didn’t even know what time of the day they were most active,” she says. For the first few outings to Matuku Reserve Chrissie would spend most of the day peering through close-range binoculars, cataloguing behaviours then keeping watch at night. “What I found was right on pitch dark they took off up into the canopy and they seem to just hang out to escape night

Fast facts n n

n n n n

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Larvae live for at least two years in wood before emerging as adults Larvae are wood-borers and typically found in karaka, mähoe and pigeonwood trees Adults typically live for a couple of weeks Adults are highly promiscuous Adults do not change in size The longest-lived adult during Chrissie’s study was two months

6 predators.” She also found ample populations on several karaka trees, mostly at eye level, so she could easily observe the insects without too much hardship or too many ladders. Chrissie’s research has piqued the interest of entomologists and biologists around the world, including BBC documentary-makers in Britain. In February two BBC crew members visited Matuku Reserve. With help from Chrissie and the reserve’s manager, Forest & Bird Waitäkere branch chairperson John Staniland, they spent 16 days at the reserve, from 8am to 7pm, filming the giraffe weevils’ peculiar behaviour. BBC producer and director Alex Lanchester says giraffe weevils were the “perfect subject” to show how one species can have two different mating strategies. “On top of their fascinating life history, they also look truly bizarre and have never featured on UK TV before so they were well worth the trip.” The series Survival is scheduled to screen in Britain later next year, and it’s likely to air in New Zealand after that. Chrissie finished her thesis in June and says she’d like to forge a career in behavioural ecology research. Part of that would include building public awareness about our unusual insect wildlife. Compared with our charismatic native bird species, New Zealand’s insects hardly get a look-in, she says. Chrissie’s study has prised the lid on this mysterious species, which, far from being rare, are in their thousands quietly making a home at Matuku Reserve. 4 PhD student Chrissie Painting watches BBC cameraman Kevin

Flay zoom in on the giraffe weevils. Photo: Caleb Nicholson

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5 Males’ rostrums make up about half of their body length. Photo:

Chrissie Painting

6 Grappling males. Photo: Chrissie Painting

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Rich reserve Just 32 kilometres from downtown Auckland, in the Waitäkere Ranges, lies Forest & Bird’s best-kept secret. The Forest & Bird-owned Matuku Reserve is a 120-hectare naturalists’ delight, cared for by Forest & Bird’s Waitäkere branch. As the honorary reserve manager, Forest & Bird veteran John Staniland is in charge of keeping the reserve’s three tracks open, organising pest control and liaising with visitors and researchers like PhD student Chrissie Painting. He says many visitors describe the reserve as a “hidden treasure”, largely because of the “richness and variety of vegetation”, birdlife and spectacular views. “Over 250 plant species have been recorded in the forest, from perching lilies and orchids to a luxuriant carpet of ferns and sedges that covers the forest floor,” he says. The forest and 20ha wetland in turn provide habitat for an array of native species such as matuku (bitterns), fernbirds, pükeko, tüï, tomtits, kererü, native eels, köura and banded kökopu fish. The reserve’s diverse ecology has been the source of several research studies in recent years. Chrissie’s project was the longest, but John says others on native fish, vegetation and geology have put research ahead of recreation in the reserve’s list of priority values. In 1979, heavy flooding broke up the naturally formed mats of vegetation that covered virtually all the wetland.

Amazing facts about…

WOOD ROSES

Photo: Ngä Manu Images

By Michelle Harnett

Gothic horror in the heart of the New Zealand bush? A cast of bats, rats and the flower of Hades suggest yes! Dactylanthus taylorii, pua o Te Rëinga, flower of Hades (or the underworld) or wood rose is a parasitic plant found only in New Zealand. It grows on the roots of Psuedopanax, Pittosporum and other woody shrubs and trees in the mid-central and upper North Island. Without leaves, roots or the ability to photosynthesise and living almost totally underground, it depends fully on its host. 28

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The area has significantly opened up for the benefit of water-loving wildlife, providing a better balance between open and closed habitat. In the 1920s the forest on the northern side of the valley was logged. Forest & Bird’s Waitäkere branch began acquiring the land in 1979, and later a successful pest control effort was one of the drivers in forming the nearby Ark in the Park. www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/reserves/ matuku-reserve

Chrissie Painting marking a weevil as part of her research at Matuku Reserve. Photo: John Staniland

At the interface between Dactylanthus’ swollen rhizome and its host, the host root is deformed into a structure that resembles a fluted wooden flower or rose, hence the common name of “wood rose”. It is hard to spot Dactylanthus above ground until it pushes up asparagus-like floral fingers in early February to May. The inflorescences are covered in fleshy stalks that carry about 50 simple pink-brown flowers each. Each plant can produce up to 60 inflorescences each season. The flowers smell like fermented corn on the cob and produce nectar to attract their main pollinators, short-tailed bats. The bats crawl across the flowers feeding and picking up pollen on their bellies and transferring pollen to other plants. Dactylanthus is endangered because possums love to eat it, human collectors love to pinch it, it has lost the habitat it needs and its pollinator is endangered. To help plant numbers, much research has been done using video surveillance of flowering plants. Unexpectedly, Dactylanthus has been found to have a second and most unlikely pollinator – the ship rat (Rattus rattus). Abundant seed set has been seen after rat visits, though the rats sometimes destroy the flowers. Pest control to protect the plants is important, and sometimes the plants are caged. Cages are successful but give away the plants’ locations, making them vulnerable to two-legged predators. To help preserve and encourage this plant, the Department of Conservation would love to hear if you discover new plants, see evidence that plants have been dug up or notice wood roses being offered for sale.

For more information visit www.honda.co.nz/environment

our people And once you take an interest in the environment you realise you can’t just enjoy it, you have to look after it so it’s there for the next generation says new Distinguished Life Member Carole Long. Photo: Bay of Plenty Times

Top honour for

Carole Long L

ong-time Forest & Bird member Carole Long is well known for her commitment to conservation across national, regional and local levels. The Te Puke branch committee member was made a Distinguished Life Member at Forest & Bird’s Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner in June for her decades of volunteer work, high-level of involvement and calibre of skills. Carole became a Forest & Bird member in 1974 after husband Brian suggested it as a way to spend more time exploring the outdoors. Under guidance from former Tauranga branch chairperson and Executive member Reg Janes, Carole soon became more involved in practical conservation. “He inspired me by the things he was doing and mentored me in the business side of things,” Carole says. The “business side of things” included terms on the Executive, branch committee and as a Forest & Bird councillor. However, it is her involvement on the front line that she most vividly recalls. Carole joined campaigns to save Lake Manapöuri, establish Whirinaki Forest Park and stop BP Minerals from gold prospecting in Te Puke. She also worked with Ann and Basil Graeme and local branches to counter Forest Service plans to log parts of the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park in the 1980s. More recently she has been helping protect a locally endangered Hochstetter’s frog colony, North Island brown kiwi in Ötänewainuku Forest, and is working in a cross-community group to stop an inappropriate cycleway going through Päpäoma’s main sand dunes. Carole spent many years working for the Wildlife Service and the Department of Conservation. During this time she’s “been lucky” to work alongside UK environmentalists David Bellamy and Gerald Durrell, and Forest & Bird advocates Gerry McSweeney, Sir Alan Mark and Kevin Smith. But she enjoys sharing her passion at any level. “Even if you’re talking to school kids, you’re opening people’s eyes to look at things. And once you take an interest in the environment you realise you can’t just enjoy it, you have to look after it so it’s there for the next generation.”

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Pestbusting preserves fragile forest Grant Vincent has won the Pestbuster award for his impressive leadership qualities and firm dedication to pest control at Gray’s Scenic Bush Reserve in Gisborne. The Gisborne branch chairperson spearheads the branch’s pest control project, which has seen 207 pests eradicated from the 12-hectare Gray’s Bush reserve since trapping began in October 2010. Grant has dedicated more than 150 hours to the project. Every fortnight he leads a small team of volunteers to clear and monitor the 20 DOC200 traps and 30 rat traps. He also co-ordinates volunteers, records results, maintains traps, engages local media and liaises with other conservation groups. Rats, hedgehogs and feral cats are the main pests but he’s also begun tackling weeds. The reserve is the last remaining patch of forest that once covered much of the Gisborne plains. The Department of Conservation describes the remnant kahikatea and püriri forest as a nationally rare forest type. Its fragile ecosystems support trees more than 400 years old and several native bird species. “It’s an example of what the forest would’ve been like,” Grant says. “We’re extremely lucky it’s still there because everything else has been cleared.” Gisborne Forest & Bird committee member John McLean praises Grant’s leadership, saying “he really commits to the project full-time. He sets a wonderful example for [the volunteers].”

Grant Vincent at Gray’s Scenic Bush Reserve in Gisborne. Photo: Dave Thomas/Gisborne Herald

Forest & Bird leader steps down General Manager Mike Britton stepped down in early July after eight years at the helm of Forest & Bird. He oversaw many conservation achievements and led the drive towards a stronger organisation with a more professionally run staff structure. Income rose from $2.8 million to $6.1 million, staff doubled to more than 40 and membership rose, reversing a long-term trend. Under Mike’s leadership Forest & Bird persuaded the government to abandon plans to open national parks to mining, new high-country conservation parks were opened, the Best Fish Guide was launched, the Mökihinui River was saved from a dam, Forest & Bird took part in several collaborative forums and a major campaign was launched to protect the Denniston Plateau from mining. Forest & Bird played a greater role on the world stage through its membership of BirdLife International, with Mike serving on the top-level Global Council for five years. He shared conservation lessons from other BirdLife partners and supported conservation work in the Pacific. Mike championed collaboration with iwi on environmental issues, including Treaty of Waitangi settlements. During Mike’s tenure, the first Forest & Bird fundraisers were appointed and face-to-face recruitment of members began. He oversaw the launch of a new Forest & Bird logo in 2009 and supported development of revamped Forest & Bird and Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) websites and social media to share conservation messages. He understood the great value of KCC for children and increased the resources for KCC. In the project to rebuild Forest & Bird’s Ruapehu lodge Mike assisted Executive member Jon Wenham.

During Mike Britton’s leadership Forest & Bird extended its influence.

Mike was a strong and committed voice for nature during his time at Forest & Bird and he leaves the Society in a stronger position to face the conservation challenges on the horizon.

Golden run for Paremata Reserve Nelson-Tasman’s conservation champion Ian Price was the clear winner for this year’s Golden Spade award. The retired farmer and property developer has been the driving force of the branch’s ambitious restoration project at Paremata Flat Reserve, near Nelson since 2011. The project, which aims to have 120,000 plants in the ground within seven years, has already captured media attention and earlier this year won an award at the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Community Awards. Ian dedicates up to three full days a week planting, controlling weeds and pests, collecting eco-sourced seeds and managing volunteer planting days. He also spends a further five to eight hours a week on administration and fundraising. Branch secretary Gillian Pollock says the branch is “extremely fortunate” to have Ian lead the project. “He’s enthusiastic, hard-working and thorough ... and almost single-handedly acquired funding and attracted a large number of volunteers.” The branch has raised more than $80,000 for the project, planted more than 31,000 trees over 18 months, and involved several hundred people. “This gives one hope and motivation,” Ian says. “What has been achieved gives real hope for the future of Paremata Flat Reserve and is an example of what communities can do to make a positive change to their local environment.”

Ian Price at Paremata Flat Reserve, near Nelson. Photo: Julie McLintock

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our people

Nature’s heroes Six outstanding Forest & Bird members received Old Blue awards at the Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner in June.

Hermann Frank

Sue Millar

Arthur Hinds

The hours spent trekking South Canterbury countryside, peering into rock crevices and on-going work protecting lizard habitats has earned Timaru’s Hermann Frank an Old Blue award. Thanks to a Royal Society of New Zealand year-long teacher’s fellowship, the South Canterbury branch committee member dedicated 2008 to researching the local lizard populations. He discovered four lizard species inhabited South Canterbury’s limestone outcrops and other habitats and he has mapped their distribution. Fellow herpetologist Marieke Lettink says Hermann’s work is especially important because “there was almost no [prior] knowledge of lizards in the area. Since 2008, Hermann and I have ... spent time together in the field, searching for rare lizards and discussing how their habitats could be better managed for conservation.” Hermann’s post-research advocacy work through the local museum and media has helped raise public awareness about the region’s unique lizards. He says the highlight is the rediscovery of the Canterbury spotted skink in 2012, last seen in the region more than a century ago. Hermann’s advocacy work includes engaging with the Department of Conservation, Timaru District Council and local landowners about the protection and management of lizard habitats, and he instigated a councilrun project to turn a disused 23-hectare gravel pit into a sanctuary for lizards.

With extensive botanical knowledge, planting skills and a gift for organising, Sue Millar has been an asset of Forest & Bird throughout her 30-plus years’ membership. She has been an Upper Hutt branch committee member for more than 20 years and has played a pivotal role behind the scenes and on the frontline. Sue has lent her skills to a long list of branch restoration projects, and for many she has played a leading role co-ordinating volunteers, monitoring progress, collecting seeds and seedlings and working alongside the troops. Upper Hutt branch chairperson Barry Wards says Sue is “usually the first to turn up to plantings ... and last to leave”. “She always ensures that volunteers are looked after ... [and] takes time to teach new and old volunteers about plants and what we’re trying to achieve at the planting site and the history of the group’s activities in the area.” One of Sue’s key contributions is running the branch’s native plant nursery. She was instrumental in establishing the nursery first at Rimutaka Prison in 1995, and later on council land at Maidstone Park. Her nursery work extends well beyond Forest & Bird and she regularly helps schools, community groups and local businesses manage their own native plant projects.

Arthur Hinds’ quarter century of conservation work in Waikato and Coromandel includes a key role in one of New Zealand’s most successful kiwi protection groups. The Coromandel dairy farmer recognises the importance of reversing some of the damage done to our environment. “It’s only as you get older that you realise that we’ve destroyed a lot and it really worries me the legacy we are leaving our greatgrandchildren. Farmers can do a lot for the environment because they work so closely with it,” he says. For many years he has carried out pest control on his farm at Whenuakite, which includes a large block of bush, and a neighbouring property he leases, and in 2000 he was key founder of the Whenuakite Kiwi Care group. The care group controls pests in an area of regenerating forest of about 4000 hectares. Call surveys showed the number of kiwi more than tripled between 2001 and 2010 and the number of other species such as käkä and kererü is also growing. Arthur’s policy of shooting dogs found loose in the care zone and his advocacy for the use of 1080 in suitable areas has brought verbal attacks and even a physical assault in 2011. He remains undeterred and his service to conservation also includes chairing the Waikato Conservation Board.

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Rod Morris

Rosalie Snoyink

George Mason

The Old Blue is a particularly apt award for Rod Morris, whose lifelong work for nature includes six years working for the Wildlife Service under the late Don Merton on projects including saving the Chatham Islands black robin. “Old Blue became a household word in New Zealand in those years,” Rod says. He spent more than two decades making award-winning documentaries for the Natural History Unit and its commercial successor, Natural History New Zealand. In the past decade Rod has devoted more time to still photography and writing books about wildlife and wild places. Since 2011 he has taken a more activist role as a driver of Forest & Bird’s campaign to save the Denniston Plateau from open-cast coal mining. “With Denniston, seeing the open-cast pit on nearby Stockton Plateau shocked me out of simply being an observer or a storyteller.” He played a key role organising last year’s BioBlitz on the plateau, bringing scientists and volunteers together to catalogue plants and animals. He also held meetings throughout New Zealand to show “The Hidden Treasures of the Denniston Plateau”. Hundreds of hours have also been spent showing the plateau to the media and others, as well as gathering photographic evidence for Forest & Bird’s Environment Court case to stop the mine.

Since retiring, Rosalie Snoyink has co-founded three community groups, all of which have had an extremely positive, long-lasting influence on the Canterbury region. The North Canterbury Forest & Bird branch member helped set up the Malvern Hills Protection Society, which advocates for the interests of the natural environment among the clamour to draw irrigation water from Canterbury’s rivers. Rosalie was also behind the Our Water – Our Vote group, which is campaigning for a return to the public of their right to have their say in how the Canterbury Regional Council manages the competing commercial, environmental and recreational demands on the region’s lakes and rivers. Rosalie also co-founded the Mackenzie Guardians, which is fighting to protect the tussocklands of the Mackenzie Basin. Former Forest & Bird staff member and MP Eugenie Sage wrote in support of Rosalie’s Old Blue that: “Rosalie’s ... principled advocacy, her quiet strength and determination, her love of people and extensive networks, her laughter, friendship and modest, unassuming style have inspired many in Canterbury and beyond.” Rosalie’s conservation efforts aren’t limited to the political arena. Like many Forest & Bird members, she has also cleared her fair share of rat and stoat traps over the years.

During the 50-plus years that Dr George Mason has been a member of Forest & Bird’s North Taranaki branch he has made a huge and long-lasting contribution that’s benefited Taranaki plant and animal species and science and scientists in New Zealand and overseas. George funds the George Mason Charitable Trust, which awards scholarships to university students studying environment or sciencebased topics. He backs other prizes and scholarships, too, including one that allows high school students to study at university over the summer break, and another that supports science students studying at the University of the South Pacific. George paid for a masters student to carry out research that informed a bid to create a local marine reserve, and equipment needed to monitor penguins on the Taranaki coast. He has given generously to a project to clear an invasive, smothering vine from indigenous forest in Vanuatu. George has also published several books and pamphlets aimed at educating Taranaki’s residents on their region’s stand-out natural features. Many of these had a practical focus, such as protecting penguins from dogs. Forest & Bird and a host of people from New Zealand and the Pacific owe George a huge debt of gratitude.

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Forest & Bird

family reunion

Forest & Bird members from around New Zealand celebrated our 90th birthday and our conservation high achievers at the AGM, Council meeting and dinner in late June. By Jolene Williams.

ancy Jordan, the daughter of Forest & Bird founding father Captain Val Sanderson, raised a glass in front of guests at the Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner in Wellington on June 29. “My father would have been extremely proud to see the Society that was his baby grow to such strength,” she said. The combined conservation efforts of the 150 Forest & Bird members, supporters, friends and staff at the celebration were mindboggling to imagine. There were long-standing members including Stan Butcher and Nancy Payne, who also celebrate their 90th birthdays this year. There was Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador Dr Gerry McSweeney, New Zealander of the Year Dame Anne Salmond, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright, Department of Conservation Director-General Al Morrison, MPs Eugenie Sage and Ruth Dyson, eight Distinguished Life Members, numerous Old Blue recipients and branch representatives from all over the country. Former Forest & Bird staffer Barry Weeber estimated there were 2250 cumulative years of conservation work in the room, based on an average of 15 years per person. The evening celebration concluded the day-long AGM and Council meeting at which councillors approved a new Executive and discussed changes to Forest & Bird’s Constitution. We also reflected on the achievements from 2012 and considered the way forward for the Society. Three themes recurred through the day: the invaluable conservation efforts of our members, the need to continue our fight for Denniston and the call for stronger advocacy of 1080 as the most effective way to control pests. President Andrew Cutler’s opening address touched on all three, first in acknowledging the hard work and persistence of members. “The enthusiasm is really inspirational and makes the great deal of paperwork this job involves worthwhile. It really helps to energise the people working for the Society and the people in the

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branches,” he said. Nine standout individuals were later recognised in the awards ceremony. Andrew also pointed to Forest & Bird branches’ contribution to the Denniston campaign. At March branches had donated more than $88,000, collected petition signatures and hosted talks. “We can’t do it alone and we can’t do it as individuals. We can only do it as an organisation,” he said. The day’s discussions repeatedly returned to pest control. A remit from the Tauranga branch was passed, which asked Forest & Bird strengthen its advocacy for 1080. A useful debate centred on proposed changes to the Society’s Constitution. The proposals had been circulated among branches for feedback, which generated more debate than expected. Several uncontroversial sections were approved but the more substantive issues will need further consultation to reach agreement. Issues to be discussed in the coming year are the Society’s purpose, the roles of Council and branches, membership and the processes for electing the Executive and Council. Andrew says: “There’s no doubt that the process for discussing the Constitution is time consuming and sometimes very detailed. I know that some councillors and committee members have found this process frustrating but these are important issues which affect how the Society will operate in the future and we need time to get them right.” In the evening, Conservation Ambassador Dr Gerry McSweeney returned to the topic of pest control in his Sanderson memorial address. He was resolute in his speech that DOC pest control was seriously lacking. We were “abandoning our conservation estate” to pests and the most sensible, most cost-effective way to control pests was with 1080, he said. “Much of the present spend [on pest control] is not particularly efficient or effective. Large areas of conservation land at present receive little or no effective pest control.”

He estimates that applying aerial 1080 across all 8.8 million hectares of DOC-managed public conservation land on a three-year cycle would cost $40 million a year. He said we could well afford this if DOC used its current pest control budget and topped it up with funds redirected from the Animal Health Board’s annual spending on TB Free programmes. He said Forest & Bird needed to keep fighting or we would lose those forests that we battled so hard to save from logging in the 1970s and 80s. He envisioned Forest & Bird taking a greater advocacy role to control pests on public conservation land while at a local level “citizen groups should do biodiversity work that complements rather than replaces DOC’s core pest work”. Nine decades after Forest & Bird was born Captain Sanderson’s words still ring true: “Plant eating animals in our forests mean no forests. No forests mean desert conditions. New Zealand’s prosperity means your prosperity. Should we all stand idly by?”

Forest & Bird thanks Photography by Woolf for the photos of the Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner and the Natural Wine Company (Wrights Vineyard and Winery) for discounted wine. 1 Distinguished Life Member and Old Blue Stan Butcher and Old

Blue Nancy Payne – who were both born in 1923 – cut Forest & Bird’s 90th birthday cake. Photos: Photography by Woolf/www. woolf.co.nz

2 Nancy Jordan proposes a toast to Forest & Bird during the

evening hosted by President Andrew Cutler.

3 Improved pest control was the theme for Conservation

Ambassador Dr Gerry McSweeney’s Sanderson memorial address.

4 Executive members, back from left, Graham Bellamy, Barry

Wards, Jon Wenham, Ines Stager, Craig Potton, Lindsey Britton and Tony Dunlop. Front, Brent Barrett and Andrew Cutler. Absent: Mark Hanger.

More about Forest & Bird’s 90th anniversary on page 56

Northern representation expands Mid North branch chairperson Tony Dunlop became the newest member of Forest & Bird’s Executive when he was elected to the board during the Forest & Bird Council meeting. His appointment is the only change to the Executive as all six previous Executive members successfully regained a seat. Andrew Cutler was re-elected as President, Mark Hanger as Deputy President and Graham Bellamy as Treasurer. Tony was nominated by other Auckland branch chairs. He joins Lindsey Britton, who was previously the single Executive member from the region representing nearly 25 per cent of the Society’s members across 10 branches. Tony says his varied career has given him business and people skills that will prove useful in the board room. “I’ve worked for most of my professional life with a management consultancy firm doing leadership development work and putting in place structures and systems to get better performances from staff. My role involved managing the organisation and providing direct consulting advice to GMs and CEOs,” he says. “I’m also a clinical psychologist so I have a good

background in people skills and conflict resolution.” Tony has been a Forest & Bird member for more than 30 years. He taught environmental studies at Auckland University in the 1990s, and is Auckland Coal Action’s spokesperson. He also founded the Stop Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels (SODOFF) Facebook group. Climate change is Tony’s number one environmental concern. “Most environmental problems are localised and on human time scales. But climate change is truly global, insidious, largely irreversible and will impact life on Earth for thousands of years. “Everything we do has implications on the climate. I believe climate impacts should be part of the criteria for making decisions on any action that we take.” Forest & Bird

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our people

Man behind the microphone Forest & Bird Old Blue award winner, former New Zealand Wildlife Service employee and audio-visual expert John (Johnny) Kendrick died aged 91 on June 18. After serving in World War II, Johnny spent eight years running his own radio business. Johnny’s stepdaughter, Forest & Bird’s Seabird Advocate Karen Baird, says: “Life was continuous adventure [for him] and he was always looking for the next one. “He was a founding member of the Waikato Tramping club, a ski patroller and helped establish the Hamilton

Junior Naturalists Club, which trained so many wonderful conservationists and continues to today.” In 1969, he took up a post at the Wildlife Service in what he called his dream job. There he spent the next 20 years as an audio-visual officer, filming and recording wildlife, talking to schools about conservation and creating a natural sounds library. Capturing the sounds of our rare and often secluded birds could be physically challenging work that required long tramps in the bush carrying up to 34 kilograms of gear.

Johnny Kendrick was the first person to record the call of the käkäpö.

But being a bird-lover since the age of five, he was rewarded by being the first ever to record the käkäpö call and the last person to see the now extinct native thrush (piopio). Johnny and his colleagues used his collection to help lure and capture endangered birds for transferring to predator-free islands. In the late 1970s he was awarded the Churchill Fellowship to study wildlife sound techniques at Cornell University in the United States, and to study wildlife film-making at the BBC in Bristol, where he worked alongside David Attenborough. Johnny will forever be known as the man behind Radio New Zealand’s iconic native bird calls. In 1969, he began donating recordings to Radio New Zealand to replace the “monotonous squawk” he regularly heard on the radio. Forty years on, and the bird calls are still a much loved characteristic of the network’s Morning Report programme. In 2010 he was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to wildlife. Tributes flowed online. One remarked: “It spilled out of him. The next trip. The latest discussion. This was his life. So glad to have known his passion.”

An eye for little critters It was with sadness that Forest & Bird’s Manawatü branch learned about the death in May of Vic Vercoe, a long-time, loved and valued branch member. At his memorial service much was said about his love of nature and his involvement with Forest & Bird. He served on the branch committee from 1982-2005, and helped in many ways including sharing his wonderful knowledge of (and uncanny ability to find) native orchids, being an expert on native snails, helping with many practical conservation projects and teaching children about bugs. 36

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Vic led many trips and always found interesting things that others didn’t notice. He had an amazing eye for detail, discovering and photographing native animals, including really small critters. His photographs of things only millimetres across captured them brilliantly. Heidi Morton of Kimbolton School remembered Vic sharing his love of nature with students. He was “like a young boy with his camera, so excited about the various shapes and sizes of wëtä and spiders that we found on the trees”.

Vic Vercoe shared his love of nature with students. Photo: Brent Barrett

Honour for Craig Potton Forest & Bird Conservation Ambassador and Executive member Craig Potton was honoured with a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and conservation in the Queen’s birthday honours announced in June. The Nelson author, photographer and publisher developed an interest in conservation and activism in his high school years, when he collected

signatures for the Save Manapöuri campaign, and went on to join the Beech Forest Action Committee and Forest & Bird. For more than 40 years Craig has documented New Zealand’s wilderness through his photography, and he has written several books. He wrote and presented nature documentary series Rivers in 2010 and Wild Coasts in 2011.

Craig Potton has been a conservationist since his school days.

Thank you for your feedback Our fundraising appeal letter earlier this year asked you to tell us why you support Forest & Bird. We are very grateful for everyone who took the time to write to us. Your comments are very heartening and help staff gain an understanding of the conservation concerns you have now and for the future. Here are some of your comments: “We support Forest & Bird because

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a strong organisation is needed to protect our natural environment from the attacks made against it by governments and others.” “I trust Forest & Bird to challenge the government’s poor judgement on environmental issues at all levels. I am not aware of another organisation with the expertise to do that. I am concerned about the effects of mining, species extinction,

dairy farming at unsustainable levels, and the quality of waterways in an unregulated farming environment.” “I support Forest & Bird because New Zealand needs a nationwide effective organisation to watch over and protect our natural environment. I believe Forest & Bird is an ethical and trustworthy organisation whose focus is always on what is best for the environment.”

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rangatahi our future

Student’s vision for a forest A Hutt Valley teen is leading his mates in replanting the edges of a stream near their college grounds. By David Brooks.

lmost nothing remains of the podocarp forest that once carpeted most of the Hutt Valley but Oliver McClure hopes one day to walk underneath some of the tötara, kahikatea and other trees he is helping to plant in a restoration project on St Patrick’s College land in Silverstream. The 17-year-old head boy of St Patrick’s has been rallying other pupils to help the Friends of Mawaihakona restoration group clear willows and plant some of the podocarp species that once surrounded Mawaihakona Stream. The stream originates from a spring a couple of kilometres north of the college in Trentham Memorial Park and winds through a golf course, park and college land before joining the Hutt River. “I’m hoping to come back one day and see some forest starting to get established. I’d like to be able to walk under the trees,” says Oliver. When the Friends organisation asked for help from the college, teacher Mary Beth Taylor joined forces with Oliver to organise pupils. Members of Forest & Bird’s Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt branches are also involved in the restoration project on land owned by the college to the south and west of the school and its playing fields. Last year willows were cleared from about 250 metres of the stream and almost 1100 podocarp trees and other species were planted in the first stage of the restoration. The

podocarps include miro, rimu, tötara, kahikatea and mataï. Oliver says many pupils enthusiastically took up the project, focussing on different aspects, including planting, mulching and even designing bridges to be built across the stream. “There was a large group of people willing to do different things. Some students may not be interested in planting trees but may be good on a wheelbarrow with the mulch. “Some were interested in designing and building bridges. They are yet to be constructed but we have some designs from the boys. Some of them are a bit extravagant – I don’t know how we are going to fit the Sydney Harbour Bridge down there.” This year the second stage of the project is under way, with plans to plant another 1000 trees along 200 metres of the stream. Another two or three stages may be needed before completing the full length of the stream to where it flows into the Hutt River. Oliver has loved doing the work and leading the pupils’ involvement. “I find the planting side of it very relaxing. It’s great to step back at the end of the day and know the boys got 300 trees in the ground – there is a sense of achievement in that. It’s very satisfying to know you are doing good and helping the overall environment.” Forest & Bird’s Hutt Valley branches are working to establish corridors for native wildlife across the valley between the bush-clad hills on either side. Oliver appreciates the work at St Patrick’s is part of a bigger restoration scheme. “Just knowing you are part of a bigger picture is good.” Oliver’s enthusiasm for nature and conservation was encouraged at primary school by a teacher, Upper Hutt Forest & Bird member Glennis Sheppard. She took her pupils to nearby bush to identify plants and trees, organised tree planting at school and taught them about composting and growing vegetables. Oliver is pondering his future career options as he looks ahead to university next year, but already has a keen interest in politics. Whatever happens, he is sure that conservation and the environment will remain important to him. “I will always keep conservation as a hobby, regardless of what job I end up doing.” Despite his already busy life as head boy, he regularly attends Forest & Bird’s Upper Hutt branch meetings and helps with branch projects. “If you look at photographs from 100 years ago, you can see where my house is and it’s all dense bush. We’ve just come in and ripped it up. Almost all of it has been destroyed. I think it’s important to give something back whenever we can.” Oliver McClure, 17, planting beside the stream near his college land in Upper Hutt, near Wellington. Photo: David Brooks

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At home in the sea

GROWN-UP

Tiff Stewart tracks down a one-time Kiwi Conservation Club member who has followed in her father’s footsteps.

anica Stent was a member of KCC during the club’s early years when she lived in the milling town of Hari Hari on the West Coast. Her parents were heavily involved in conservation, including running nature tours. Danica’s father, Kevin Smith, was a strident advocate for an end to logging native forests. This made life tricky, says Danica. “My sister and I used to get teased at school for being ‘greenies’. I would retort it wasn’t me that was the greenie, it was my Dad.” For Danica, KCC magazines were proof that other kids also cared about conservation. In 1989 Danica’s father became conservation director of Forest & Bird, and the family moved to Wellington. This gave Danica, her brother and sister the opportunity to join KCC trips. With this almost total immersion in conservation, Danica gained a deep appreciation for the natural world. A snorkelling trip to Leigh’s Cape Rodney-Ökakari Point Marine Reserve at age 13 shaped her future. “That was what really hooked me. I still remember the brilliant blue maomao and swimming on the surface tracking an eagle ray cruising along the bottom. I thought it was so unfair that we didn’t have anything like that near us.” She realised then that whatever she ended up doing when she left school, it had to involve the marine environment. Danica studied for a Masters in conservation biology at Macquarie University in Sydney and Victoria University in Wellington, then began working in the marine conservation unit of the Department of Conservation. “When I first started working there I was just so rapt – I vividly remember walking home with a silly grin on my face because I had been given my first ministerial to write.” Her enthusiasm for her work continues, which she credits to the job’s huge variety. Marine reserves have been a big focus, and she’s developed standard practice guidelines and supported Marine Protected Area (MPA) forums, in particular the Sub-Antarctic MPA Planning Forum. The three large marine reserves proposed as a result of this are approaching the final stages of legislative implementation. Danica frequently dives in Wellington’s Taputeranga Marine Reserve, which she played a role in establishing. Forest & Bird was instrumental in creating the marine reserve. These days Danica is one of three international advisors in the strategic partnerships team at DOC. She got the bug for international conservation politics after attending a United Nations meeting on protection of

marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. She works with DOC staff, other government agencies, stakeholder groups and science providers from all over the world. “That’s a heck of a lot of inspirational people to work with towards a common cause of healthy, functioning and productive ecosystems. Sure, we may come from different perspectives but at the end of the day there is something pretty wonderful that unites us all – our oceans and natural spaces and all that they provide.” Contrary to her riposte to her classmates, Danica has turned out a greenie after all.

1 Danica Stent at Wellington’s Taputeranga Marine Reserve.

Photo: Mike Stent

2 A red crab at Taputeranga Marine Reserve. Photo: Danica Stent 3 A gold margined nudibranch. Photo: Danica Stent

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Conflict of values How much are nationally significant ecoystems on the Denniston Plateau worth? Jolene Williams looks at a deal offered by Bathurst Resources that the Conservation Minister says is good value.

ay 23 was a sad day for Forest & Bird’s Save Denniston campaign. Conservation Minister Nick Smith granted mining company Bathurst Resources the access arrangements necessary for it to continue its bid to develop a mine on Denniston Plateau at an event high on the plateau witnessed by a small group of our hardy supporters. As part of the deal Bathurst offered a $22 million compensation package. Some of it would be spent offsetting environmental damage on the plateau but most would fund pest control in the Heaphy area, 100 kilometres up the road. Access arrangements outline the conditions in which activities can be carried out. Without them, Bathurst would not be able to forge ahead with its mining plans. It is hugely disappointing for Forest & Bird that the Minister of Conservation gave approval to destroy what his own department identifies as “nationally significant ecosystems”.

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Dr Smith lauds the deal as “the largest-ever compensation package” negotiated by the Department of Conservation for a mine or other commercial venture. He says the deal will bring “more conservation benefits” than will be lost. His decision won’t affect the Environment Court’s decision about whether or not the mine will go ahead. But it certainly shows the government is willing to sacrifice our precious areas to foreign mining companies if the price is right. Forest & Bird and others believe the Minister’s decision was about politics not conservation. Forest & Bird’s Save Denniston spokesperson, Debs Martin, points out that the law prevents the Minister from taking a development’s economic factors into account when considering access arrangements. “The Environment Court stressed that the case for the mine was ‘finely balanced’ under the RMA,” Debs says. “If you take the economic benefits out of the equation then our logical conclusion is

that the Minister can only say no when making the an access decision under the Crown Minerals Act,” she says. Furthermore, Dr Smith’s decision lies in contrast to the ecological advice of his own department. DOC’s 246-page report on Bathurst’s application for access arrangements (dated May 6, 2013) does not make an explicit recommendation to decline or accept Bathurst’s application. But it states the application is “inconsistent” with objectives of the Conservation Act. It goes on to note it is “particularly concerned” about losses to the plateau’s natural and historic resources. Most disturbing, it says that the existing extent of disturbance may have already reached “a balance point” where it is no longer possible to preserve a viable representative sample of the plateau’s nationally significant ecosystems. Any further mining, it says, may pass the point of no return. In essence, the Environment Court has a make it or break it decision in its hands. Forest & Bird’s Save Denniston team was particularly frustrated by Dr Smith’s depiction of the plateau in his written decision and media statements. He describes the plateau as bearing the scars of historic mining, roads, bulldozed tracks and the spread of weeds. He ignores the fact that such modifications represent less than 5 per cent of the footprint, and in DOC’s own words, the vegetation is “predominantly intact” and “largely unmodified”. There’s no reference either to the numerous critically endangered species that inhabit the mine footprint. He then emphasises the plateau is stewardship land and therefore has the “lowest legal status” of DOC-protected land. Dr Smith doesn’t explain that stewardship land is effectively a holding pen for land not yet classified by DOC. It certainly doesn’t mean the land has low ecological values

2 1 Great spotted kiwi roam across the Denniston Plateau. Photo:

davidhallett.co.nz

2 Debs Martin and Nick Smith met on Denniston Plateau.

What can you do? We’re calling on all Denniston supporters to make a submission on Bathurst’s application to DOC to widen and use plateau roads for trucking coal to Westport. Up to 92 coal truck passages are expected every day. DOC acknowledges public access will be restricted and concerns of collisions with coal trucks will discourage visitors from the public conservation land. Submissions close 5pm on August 16. See the Save Denniston page of Forest & Bird’s website for more.

as Dr Smith implies. In fact, Denniston Plateau is ranked in DOC’s top 50 mainland sites for biodiversity. Questions have also been raised about the timing of his decision. The Minister made his announcement one day before amendments to the Crown Minerals Act came into play, which would have forced the issue to go out for public consultation. West Coast Environment Network spokesperson Lynley Hargreaves says Dr Smith deliberately rushed his decision to avoid public consultation. “Open-cast mining on highvalue conservation land is not something the public of New Zealand support, and the government knows that,” she says. While Dr Smith’s decision riled many of our supporters, our legal team has been fighting for Denniston in the courts. The month following Dr Smith’s decision we had mixed results in the High Court where we appealed various legal points that underpin our Environment Court appeal against Bathurst’s resource consents. The High Court declined our argument that the effects of the proposed nearby Sullivan Mine should be considered as part of the case. Forest & Bird believes the effects of the adjacent, undeveloped Sullivan mine need to be considered alongside the effects of Bathurst’s proposed mine. The ecological impact of Bathurst’s mining will be all the more devastating if you take into account the future environmental losses next door at Sullivan. Justice Fogarty ruled that while we put forward “a very powerful proposition … the RMA does not provide for comparative or joint hearings of applications which generate cumulative effects”. We did, however, have greater success appealing other legal points. The most notable win was the court clearly separating “mitigation” from “offsets”. A key component to our Environment Court case is challenging Bathurst’s ability to adequately address environmental damages caused by the mine and its surrounding operations. Its ability to mitigate the effects of a 106-hectare hole in the ground is severely limited. Once you tear up 40 millionyear-old sandstone pavements and the intricate growth in between, you can’t put them back together. And while the Minister of Conservation may be trumpeting the benefits of Bathurst’s proposed offsets, its value is substantially less than what will be lost. The High Court’s ruling helpfully clarifies this point ahead Forest & Bird

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of our Environment Court case. “It’s a really significant point for us, for Denniston and similar cases in the future,” Debs Martin says. “The High Court’s clarification that offsetting isn’t mitigation is helpful because applicants are, by law, required to avoid, remedy or mitigate their adverse effects. The Court has made clear that this can’t be achieved through offsetting.” On June 12 we headed back to the Environment Court, where it deliberated on these matters raised in the High Court. Here we also argued that it wasn’t enough for Bathurst to promise to use its “best endeavours” to establish a reserve on the plateau once it had been granted consent. The court adjourned its final hearing stating there were still several issues that Bathurst had to address before it would consider its currently “finely balanced” decision. No date was set for the final decision but the court encouraged Bathurst to act with some degree of urgency. The fight for Denniston has been going on for four years, and we are still far from the end. In 2011 we proposed a 5900-hectare reserve across the Denniston and Stockton plateaux. We’re continuing to meet with ministerial representatives, the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board, mining companies and other groups to secure some form of meaningful protection for this one-of-a-kind area. “With the potential tipping point so close, we can’t afford to play around and wait,” Debs says. Forest & Bird still needs support. “Despite some apparent losses, our core argument remains strong. We’re determined to show the Environment Court that the ecosystems within the mine footprint are too precious and too intricate to destroy. And no matter how you dress up a compensation package, it will never be good enough to replace what will be lost.”

The real value of $22 million The $22 million package Bathurst has offered to compensate for mining the Denniston Plateau will cover: n

$18.4 million pest control in the Heaphy River catchment over 35 years ($526,000 a year) n $3 million pest control on the plateau over 50 years ($60,000 a year) n $589,000 for historic projects on the plateau Dr Smith claims this will result in a “net increase” for key species. That would be true if DOC hadn’t already committed to undertake predator control at these sites. It’s been doing pest control in the Heaphy for the past 19 years and a DOC employee said in the Environment Court that irrespective of Bathurst’s offer, “there are definite plans for management to continue”. As for the plateau, the DOC report states the harsh climate naturally keeps pests to low levels so the conservation benefits from Bathurst’s offer are minimal. The proposal offers short-term benefits. There are no strategies to discuss what will happen when the tenure expires and the area is again vulnerable to invasion. Debs says the deal amounts to “shifting DOC funds around”. “It’s not going into any additional conservation work or adding land to the conservation estate. It’s funding a core DOC service that’s already been sufficiently catered for. “This just drives home our concerns around government cuts to DOC’s operating budget. The move to encourage corporate sponsorship at DOC in lieu of government funding is leading to deals where we’re selling off precious public land.”

Looking to the future Josh Stewart is well informed about the ongoing battle over Denniston. As well as being a KCC member since 2006, the now 14 year old has also read every Forest & Bird magazine cover to cover dating back to 2001. Josh recently became so incensed at the government’s endorsement to mine the plateau that he launched a petition and prepared a presentation for his schoolmates at Wellington High School. “I read this [in the newspaper] and I thought ‘no, this is wrong’,” he says. “Denniston’s got a good proportion of kiwi, Powelliphanta patrickensis, rätä, wëtä and geckos. The streams are home to native köura. It’s an ecosystem that New Zealand has very few of. [Mining on the plateau] is going to ruin a habitat and burning the coal will increase global warming,” he says. Josh collected 170 signatures for his letter to Prime Minister John Key asking him to stop the proposed mine. He has also started his own Facebook page, Save Denniston Plateau. Josh is adamant that mining for economic gain is “shortsighted” and “a huge mistake”. “Look what happened at Stockton now that it’s been mined. Powelliphanta augusta have been one of the 42

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failures. That’s what we don’t want to end up happening at Denniston,” he says.

170 friends, neighbours, schoolmates and teachers signed Josh Stewart’s Save Denniston petition. Photo: Carol Stewart

Photo: David Arthur

Forest & Bird acting to

save the RMA The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) is one of New Zealand’s most important laws and we need your help to protect it. This is the message of Forest & Bird’s fundraising appeal to save the RMA.

mong the major tools that we use in our work at Forest & Bird, the RMA might even be the most important. Unlike the National Parks Act or the Conservation or Crown Minerals Acts, it applies to all of our work all over New Zealand. The Mökihinui, Mackenzie and Denniston campaigns are three recent examples of Forest & Bird work in which the RMA has been key. The Act also allowed Forest & Bird’s Hibiscus Coast branch to successfully submit on Transit’s plan for the Örewa to Pühoi motorway in a project that has since won environmental awards (see the May 2013 edition of Forest & Bird). But it goes far beyond defending places that we love. It’s an Act that’s about New Zealand – New Zealand values and quality of life. In our communities, at our beaches, on our farms, and in our rivers it’s the RMA that determines what happens. It’s about defending environmental bottom lines – the balance, on the other side of the economic scales weighted heavily in favour of development. It’s a deeply democratic Act that lets New Zealanders have their say and is about protecting “the commons” – the things like water, clean air, soil and trees in our communities – and the ecosystems on which we all rely and on which our economic future is built. These are the things now under threat with the government’s proposals to give Ministers sweeping discretionary powers to ignore or override the RMA entirely in some cases or rewrite local plans done by community participation. Important environment-focused factors will be deleted – factors like maintaining and enhancing access to our coasts and rivers, maintaining and enhancing environment quality, amenity values and the ethic of stewardship , which is about looking after our environment for the future.

This cannot be allowed to happen, which is why we’re asking for your help to support us in our work. You may have received a letter about our RMA fundraising appeal or you can find more information here: www.forestandbird.org. nz/support-us/RMA In campaigning to save the RMA we know that the law isn’t perfect. But the charges of cost, uncertainty and delay laid against the Act are not only wrong but will be made worse by what is now proposed. Only half of one per cent of resource consent applications are turned down. Ninety-five per cent are done on time, with reasonable environmental safeguards built into their consents, often developed by agreement of all parties. In any reform proposal, the Act’s core principles of bottom line environmental protection and people’s participation must be kept. Forest & Bird is working to achieve this. We hope you will be able to help us.

How you can help Please support Forest & Bird in standing up for the RMA – and the New Zealand values and places that it protects – on behalf of all Zealanders by making a donation today. To make a donation: Visit www.forestandbird.org.nz/support-us/RMA Phone 0800 200 064 Email fundraising@forestandbird.org.nz Send a cheque to PO Box 631, Wellington 6140

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Win for Hurunui birdlife

Forest & Bird’s work to protect Canterbury’s Upper Hurunui River from irrigation dams has finally paid off. By Jay Harkness.

fter years of hard work by Forest & Bird and others, a set of independent commissioners has finally agreed that no irrigation dams should be built on the South Island’s Upper Hurunui River. The decision was released in April as part of Environment Canterbury’s Hurunui and Waiau River Regional Plan. The decision also includes two sites recently threatened by dams on the outlet of Lake Sumner and on the Hurunui South Branch. Fish & Game, supported by Forest & Bird and other conservationists and recreational users, sought a water conservation order (WCO) on the river in 2010 to permanently protect its nationally outstanding natural values. The WCO application was derailed at the 11th hour by special legislation (the “ECAN Act”) introduced to accelerate the development of irrigation schemes in Canterbury. Even though Environment Canterbury’s latest decision has been appealed by irrigation interests, Forest & Bird South Island Conservation Manager Chris Todd says it is fantastic news for the river. “The Upper Hurunui has it all – outstanding landscapes, a huge variety of wildlife, lakes, gorges and braided riverbeds,” he says. The Upper Hurunui is hugely popular with the public, including kayakers, anglers, trampers, hunters and picnickers. “The Upper Hurunui is a very special place that has been threatened by dam proposals for decades so this decision is a huge relief,” Chris says. The Upper Hurunui catchment has 58 resident bird species, of which 17 are classed as threatened. Three are nationally endangered – the black-fronted tern (tara), black-billed gull (taräpunga) and the banded dotterel (tuturiwhatu). Twenty-five species of native fish have been

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2 found in the catchment, six of which are endangered. The beech forest that grows throughout the catchment is also home to threatened bird species, including möhua (yellowhead), käkäriki, käkä and kiwi. Evidence presented on behalf of the Department of Conservation, Forest & Bird’s ecologist, and conservation ambassador Sir Alan Mark and others concluded that having a dam on Lake Sumner would have adverse effects on the distinctive lake-margin vegetation, including stands of rätä, Hall’s tötara, mountain beech and köwhai. However, April’s decision is not all good news. DOC also presented evidence at ECan’s hearings on an appropriate

flow regime for the Lower Hurunui. That evidence was that certain flow levels were needed to protect riverbed bird nesting and breeding habitats. Birds such as the blackbilled gull and the black-fronted tern rely on weed-free islands in braided rivers to nest and breed. Dams reduce flood peaks, resulting in embedded channels. The lack of gravel turnover encourages woody weeds to proliferate, reducing habitat for specialised braided river birds. The commissioners agreed that higher flow levels were required to protect the habitat of these important species but nonetheless they decided in favour of allocating more of the Lower Hurunui’s water for irrigation and less to wildlife. Chris says the minimum river flow rates set for spring and summer are far too low, and will further endanger the threatened native birds that breed beside and feed in the river. The pressure to dam upper catchments in Canterbury is a result of the dramatically increased demand for water for irrigation. The agricultural activity resulting from that demand has already led to a dramatic increase in the levels of animal effluent and fertiliser entering Canterbury’s waterways. The regional plan decision on the Hurunui further accommodates this pollution, setting maximum nitrogen levels for the Hurunui at 25 per cent above present levels despite the science clearly showing that such levels will promote excessive algal growth. Chris says the decision to prohibit dams is a boost for nature in the midst of the dairy boom. “Forest & Bird will continue to speak up for braided rivers and the wildlife that depends on them,” he says.

HURUNUI RIVER

• LAKE SUMNER

SOUTH BRANCH HURUNUI RIVER

1 Dams on the Upper Hurunui would have kept water levels

unnaturally stable along the edge of Lake Sumner. Photo: Di Lucas

2 The banded dotterel is nationally endangered. Photo:

davidhallett.co.nz

3 Black-fronted terns rely on weed-free braided river islands to

nest and breed. Photo: davidhallet.co.nz

4 The black billed gull is one of 58 bird species living in the Upper

Hurunui catchment. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

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Catch me if you can 1

An adventurous kökako got a taste for suburban life. By Mandy Herrick.

uncan – a kökako missing for two years from Auckland’s Ark in the Park – turned up in a suburban backyard on the other side of town in May. The endangered kökako travelled 31 kilometres across the bustling metropolis before he was spotted by a resident birder in the suburb of Glendowie. He rallied his neighbours to keep a close on eye on Duncan – and their cats. Several neighbours did a mail drop to inform the locals, and soon after a team of experts from the Department of Conservation and Auckland Council arrived to catch Duncan and return him to his Waitäkere home. It’s the first time a DOC-led catching operation has returned a stray sanctuary bird. “If Forest & Bird had had to replace Duncan with a wild bird it would have been an expensive proposition,” says Forest & Bird North Island Conservation Manager Mark Bellingham. “The overall costs of catching and monitoring kökako is about $20,000 per bird, so the decision to catch Duncan was a no-brainer.”

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It was important to return Duncan to the safety of Ark in the Park because kökako are poor fliers and are easy prey for cats. And Duncan would be unable to contribute to the survival of his species in an area without other kökako. The catching team played taped kökako calls to lure Duncan into their mist nets, however, this failed to spark his interest. After five days the team’s luck changed and they caught him and returned him to Ark in the Park, a 2100-hectare pest-controlled project managed by Forest & Bird and Auckland Council in the Waitäkere Ranges. Ark in the Park has 33 kökako after several transfers of birds from Pureora and Tiritiri Matangi Island and two years of successful breeding. The national kökako population sits at 750 pairs and DOC aims to increase the population to 2000 by 2020. For now, it is unknown whether Duncan will couple up and do his bit for his species this summer or next, but he’s definitely raised the profile of kökako and has, surprisingly, become an ambassador for a predator-free New Zealand.

• ARK IN THE PARK GLENDOWIE • WÄITAKERE RANGES

Ark in the Park Project Manager Gillian Wadams was glad to see Duncan back at the Ark. “We hope that our kökako survey work in spring will confirm that he is still here and ideally forming a breeding pair with one of the other single kökako in the Ark,” she says. During his one-week sojourn in Glendowie, he become a media starlet and was stalked by TV crews and reporters day and night. Social media, such as Facebook, provided a unique platform for residents to give regular updates to concerned birders and boast to far-flung relatives about this seldom-seen bird in their gardens. “There was a real buzz in the neighbourhood and crowds started to form wherever he cared to wander. People began to really grasp the idea that if they controlled pests, they could begin to see these incredible bluewattled birds in their gardens,” says Forest & Bird Volunteer Co-ordinator Jane Ferguson. “Some of the residents shed a tear when they bid him farewell. Hopefully locals will be inspired to do more rat and possum control in their backyards, and they’ll start to host more and more rare birds in their gardens.”

Sound of success Kökako at Ark in the Park have gravitated to an area in the south of the Ark where the forest is the most botanically diverse, with eight pair territories identified there over the past season. Predator control has expanded by another hundred hectares to include all the habitat chosen by these pairs and several single kökako . The Waitäkere forest is very dense because it has no deer or goats, and finding the kökako is extremely difficult. Monitoring the released birds, finding pair territories and watching for breeding success is important in measuring the translocation. Analysing sound recordings contributes to the monitoring. Volunteer Eric Wilson has placed sound recorders in sites where kökako are likely to be. The recorders come on at dawn and run for 3-5 hours when the birds are most vocal. Eric retrieves the cards after a week or two and analyses the spectrograms to check whether the site had kökako present. Searchers on foot then investigate sites with activity. Calls recorded through the fixed recorders can be downloaded on to hand-held amplified MP3 players that the ground crew use to try and draw in the birds for positive identification. This technique has shown that most kökako have chosen the part of the Ark now called “kökakoville”.

How you can help

2 1 Residents of Glendowie in Auckland rallied around a kökako

named Duncan in May. Photo: David Bryden

2 A kökako chick born in Auckland’s Ark in the Park.

Analysing a week’s recording session for each recorder takes 2-3 hours. With up to 16 recorders in the forest, the total time is building up. Ark in the Park would like help from people in other parts of New Zealand to download and install software and download 300-500MBytes a week of recordings. This would help with analysis and locating the kökako. To help, email nature.project@forestandbird.org.nz

3 Eric Wilson analysing hours of kökako recordings.

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Environmental

rights Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

New Zealand is a global late starter in recognising nature in our laws. By Claire Browning.

his year the “constitution conversation”, a result of the Mäori Party’s confidence and supply arrangements with the government, is asking about aspirations for Aotearoa New Zealand and how we want our place to be looked after and run in the future. That includes New Zealand’s constitution, and the Bill of Rights Act (BORA). New Zealand is among only 16 countries in the world to have failed to recognise and provide for the right to a healthy environment in its laws in some way, such as in a written constitution, bill of rights, environment laws or through the courts. 177 out of 193 countries have done so. We do have a law, the Resource Management Act (RMA), which provides for sustainable environmental management, including safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soils and ecosystems, and sustaining resources’ potential to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations. But it doesn’t give this the status of a recognised or enforceable human right - and the RMA, as we know, is under attack. Other countries, revisiting their constitutions, are including rights to a healthy environment among their most basic human rights. British lawyer turned campaigner Polly Higgins has a separate but similar idea: to create a fifth

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international “crime against peace” of ecocide (joining genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity). Basic environmental standards, like clean air, fresh water, fertile food-producing soil and a temperate climate, are fundamental conditions of a civil society and preconditions for other rights and freedoms, like the right to life. The preamble to the French Environment Charter puts it nicely: “That the future and the very existence of humanity are inseparable from its natural environment” and “That the preservation of the environment must be sought at the same level as the other fundamental interests of the Nation”. Our natural environment is the foundation on which those other fundamental interests are built. The Constitutional Review Advisory Panel is now drafting its report, to be given to Ministers by the end of the year. For Forest & Bird this is a chance to ask, at the very minimum, for an environment clause in our Bill of Rights. Among the world’s 193 countries, it’s interesting to consider the constitutional laggards: the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, Oman, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Brunei Darussalam, Lebanon, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea, Malaysia and Cambodia.

NATURE OF TOMORROW

and wrongs Even countries “like us” are thinking about it. In the United Kingdom a joint committee of the House of Commons and the House of Lords recommended that the right to a healthy environment be included in a proposed Bill of Rights and Canada reportedly came close in 2011 to legislating for an environmental bill of rights. At provincial level in Canada six states or territories already recognise it in their constitutions. This is not a radical move. It started with the United Nations’ Stockholm Declaration in 1972, which included this clause: Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations. There are as many variations on how this might be done as there are countries that have done it. Portugal was the first, providing that: “Everyone has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment and the duty to defend it.” Among the most well-known examples are Bolivia and Ecuador. Bolivia, with an indigenous majority in its population and its Parliament, also has the most radical approach: the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans.

The Law of Mother Earth, or Pachamama, creates 11 new rights for nature, like a whole separate bill of rights: the right to life and to exist, the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration, the right to pure water and clean air, the right to balance, the right not to be polluted, the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. It goes further: the right of nature “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities”.

Nations recognising the right to a healthy environment in constitutions, legislation, or international agreements as of 2012 Nations not recognising the right to a healthy environment at the national or international level as of 2012

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Basic environmental standards, like clean air, fresh water, fertile food-producing soil and a temperate climate, are fundamental conditions of a civil society and preconditions for other rights and freedoms, like the right to life. Granting that a bit might have been lost in the translation, if we tried to superimpose the Bolivian approach on a Western legal system, it could be a challenge. Bolivia gives nature the same rights as humans. Its law doesn’t resolve (or perhaps even perceive) a clash of rights between humans and the rest of nature. In Ecuador – where government is attempting to keep oil under Yasuni National Park in the ground but seeking compensation for lost revenue – the constitution offers some support. It gives nature the “right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution”, and mandates that the government take “precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles”. The Ecuadorian provisions are more like an environmental bottom line - the kind that our own RMA was meant to enforce but has failed to. In the Kenyan constitution you can find a whole chapter for land and environment, alongside other chapters dealing with different parts of democracy, including one for the Bill of Rights, others addressing citizenship, leadership and integrity, and representation of the people. In France, too, a whole Environment Charter was amended to the constitution in 2005. Article 1 says that “everyone has the right to live in a stable environment which respects health”. Under Article 2 “all persons have a duty to take part in the preservation and the improvement of the environment”. And according to article 6 “Public policies should promote sustainable development ... they should reconcile the protection and enrichment of the environment, with economic development and social progress.” It’s interesting to think about how a constitutional provision like article 5 of the French charter might influence policy on deep sea oil, for example, or coal or climate change: As soon as realisation of damage could affect the environment in a serious and irreversible manner, even though [its recognition] might be uncertain in the current state of the scientific knowledge, public authorities should monitor, by the application of the precautionary principle in their relevant domains, the implementation of risk assessment procedures and the adoption of proportionate, provisional measures in order to prevent the realisation of the damage. Clauses such as these, written into a constitution, are only the first step. How will they be enforced? What are the consequences of a breach? New Zealand’s Bill of Rights is not entrenched. It can be changed by a simple majority in Parliament. It is not superior. Unlike the American constitution, it cannot be used to strike down inconsistent laws that may sometimes 50

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be passed by Parliament. It requires most laws to be scrutinised for consistency, with a declaration of inconsistency when the BORA is breached. (Sometimes, as in the case of the recent deep sea oil anti-protest laws, that doesn’t happen either.) However, it’s open to our Constitutional Advisory Panel to now decide to do something different, including making BORA stronger. Kenyans can sue. In Ecuador the 2008 constitution has a clause allowing citizens to take action to defend the rights of Mother Earth anywhere on the planet. This has been the basis for a court case filed in 2010 against BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Whether or not we go this far, there’s good reason to think that explicit recognition for the environment in our constitution could help in writing a happy ending for our New Zealand story. According to author David Boyd, constitutional provisions of this kind have a direct correlation with and influence on better environmental laws and outcomes: Nations with environmental provisions in their constitutions have smaller ecological footprints, rank higher on comprehensive indices of environmental indicators ... are more likely to ratify international environmental agreements, and made faster progress in reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and greenhouse gases than nations without such provisions. And while not conclusive (more environmentallyconscious and committed cultures may also be more likely to constitutionally include such provisions), this seems quite persuasive. The Bill of Rights chapter of the South African constitution, which, incidentally, looks a lot like our Bill of Rights, has the following clause: 24. Environment. Everyone has the right (a) to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and (b) to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that (i) prevent pollution and ecological degradation; (ii) promote conservation; and (iii) secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. Like our BORA itself, the language is very reasonable, rather weak, open to value judgements about what is “reasonable” and “justifiable”. But its very great advantage is that it could happen in New Zealand now without any further constitutional change. Parliament, if it chose, could do this tomorrow. Claire Browning is a Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate.

Member since 200,000,000 B.C.

Thank you for being a member of Forest & Bird. With your support Forest & Bird has protected and restored New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native environment since 1923. In that time we have planted hundreds of thousands of trees and killed millions of predators. We have created safe and healthy forests for our native wildlife to return to. We also speak up for nature to our politicians, in the courts and at forums around New Zealand. Forest & Bird continually looks for ways to make your support go further, and we find that our regular giving memberships reduce administration time and costs. Please convert your annual membership fee to a monthly payment.

You can do that at www.forestandbird.org.nz/joinus or call 0800 200 064 for more information.

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Water reflections S

teve Attwood took out two of the three prizes in Forest & Bird’s Freshwater for life photo competition on Facebook. His photo of a wrybill, or ngutuparore, was first in the wildlife category. Competition organiser and Forest & Bird Marketing Manager Phil Bilbrough said the shot was technically very good. “And the wrybill is a bird whose life is intertwined with fresh clean water.” Steve also won the dirty water category with his shot of Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere). “This foreboding yet beautiful shot belies the fact that this water body has been severely impacted by nutrient runoff,” Phil said. The landscape prize went to Monika Vieregg for her sharp photo of Lake Mackenzie on the Routeburn Track. “It felt like it captured the essence of New Zealand and the importance the shaping forces of freshwater have on our landscape,” Phil said. The Facebook competition attracted 168 entries. www.facebook.com/forestandbird

1 A wrybill, or ngutuparore.

Photo: Steve Attwood

2 Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere).

Photo: Steve Attwood

3 Lake Mackenzie on the Routeburn Track.

Photo: Monika Vieregg

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Scary statistics When US climate change campaigner Bill McKibben was in New Zealand he criticised plans to mine Denniston Plateau. By Jay Harkness.

ill McKibben spends his life scaring people. The American founder of 350.org has been telling people since 1988 that if we don’t stop global warming in its tracks the Holocene era – the one in which we live and which has allowed us to thrive – will be over. He has been travelling the world telling audiences they should lobby organisations with shares in oil or coal companies to get rid of these shares to help halt the progress of climate change. McKibben, who visited New Zealand in June on his Do the Maths tour, says he’s not so much motivated by fear of the effects climate change will have on economies or people. Instead he wants to protect the beauty of the natural world. “I love the world we’ve been given. To see that wrecked in my lifetime would bring a great, great sadness,” he says. McKibben’s roots are in the conservation world. He lives in Vermont, the United States’ second-least populous state. He has spent much of his life living and hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in the state of New York. One of his early books contrasted watching a day’s worth of all cable TV stations with a day spent alone on top of a mountain. In a later book, Wandering Home, he describes

Our partners

Value for money Forest & Bird has a range of corporate and commercial partners – organisations that share our passion for the environment and want to make a positive and lasting difference to our natural world. They have chosen to financially support Forest & Bird and we’d love it if members could in turn choose to support them.

RentaCrate RentaCrate is an innovative New Zealand company that rents out solid reusable moving boxes. Instead of using large numbers of cardboard boxes that often end up in landfills, people moving house can turn to RentaCrate for an environmentally friendly alternative of reusable boxes. This significantly reduces the carbon emissions generated through a typical house move and the amount of waste going to landfills. 54

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RentaCrate’s reusable boxes are an environmentally wise choice for people moving house.

For the next 12 months, quote your Forest & Bird membership number (it’s on your address label with your magazine) to get 15 per cent off the standard RentaCrate rate. www.rentacrate.co.nz

a three-week hike through the wilderness between Vermont and the Adironbacks, during which he mulls over current environmental issues. The economic cost of not doing anything about climate change is a key part of McKibben’s campaigning but he says it’s still vital to highlight the damage climate change is increasingly doing to the natural world. He cites his organisation’s campaign against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States – which would pump oil from Canada’s tar sands projects – as an example that pulled together many disparate groups, including those with conservation-based concerns. While in New Zealand, McKibben criticised Conservation Minister Nick Smith’s decision allowing Bathurst Resources to dig an open-cast coal mine on Department of Conservation land on the Denniston Plateau. McKibben says it would “take a nature reserve and turn it into a coal mine, which will help wreck nature reserves all over the world. I don’t know how a country that trades on its clean green image quite makes that decision. We need New Zealand to be playing to a higher standard than that. Digging up more [coal] is mathematically ... unwarranted.” McKibben’s 350.org organisation uses civil disobedience as a way to create change. The idea might evoke images of hippies, but 350.org activists are asked to wear shirts and ties or dresses. It’s part of McKibben’s strategy to highlight the people he identifies as the real radicals of today – oil and coal company staff who are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

350.org activists aren’t all young. McKibben tells of asking a group of 350 protestors which US president was in power when they were born. Most answered either Franklin D Roosevelt (1933-1945) or Harry S Truman (19451953). “Young people shouldn’t have to be cannon fodder. Besides, past a certain point, what the hell are they going to do with you?” he asks. McKibben was arrested outside the White House during a Keystone XL protest. Being arrested “wasn’t the end of the world. The end of the world is the end of the world. So I don’t begrudge my night in the pokey [prison]”.

The numbers • Bill McKibben founded 350.org in 2008. • The name comes from the 350 parts per million (ppm) that scientists say would be a safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to avoid a climate tipping point. • The level was about 270ppm before the industrial revolution. It is now at 400ppm. • We can emit 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2 degrees Celsius of warming. • Fossil fuel companies have reserves that if burned would release 2795 gigatons of carbon dioxide. • www.350.org.nz

I love the world we’ve been given. To see that wrecked in my lifetime would bring a great, great sadness Bill McKibben

KiwiKarma

Go Green Expo

New Zealand is full of wonderful places to visit and KiwiKarma makes choosing accommodation easy. This New Zealand-owned company allows you to compare and book accommodation at the same rates as the best sites but with one special advantage. It will donate 3 per cent of the cost of your room directly to Forest & Bird. You don’t pay any extra – KiwKarma donates on your behalf. There are no booking or credit card fees and the site has more than 3000 listings nationwide. www.kiwikarma.co.nz

Efficiency, sustainability, organics and everything green is the headline for the Go Green Expo on October 1213 at the TSB Arena in Wellington. The expo is New Zealand’s premier organic, efficiency, sustainability and green products and services event. It will have interactive demonstrations and presentations and opportunities to taste, buy and talk to exhibitors about their products. People are asked to make a gold coin donation when they enter and this year Forest & Bird will be one of the recipient charities. A business function with guest speakers and drinks will be on the Friday night for networking and checking the latest green fashion. www.gogreenexpo.co.nz

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90 years EST. 1923

Treasures of the past

The Sanderson family shared mementoes of Captain Val Sanderson at Forest & Bird’s 90th birthday dinner in Wellington. By Marina Skinner.

he family of Forest & Bird’s founder, Captain Val Sanderson, played a starring role at the Sanderson 90th anniversary dinner in Wellington on June 29. The Captain’s daughter, Nancy Jordan, made the toast to Forest & Bird, and grandson Justin Jordan displayed many items of Sanderson memorabilia, including his typewriter. Justin said his grandfather would probably have written many of his letters and articles about the need to conserve native birds and trees on the portable Underwood typewriter. On the back of an old Forest & Bird envelope Sanderson had jotted: “Plant eating animals in our forests mean no forests – No forests mean desert conditions – New Zealand’s prosperity means your prosperity – Should we all stand idly by?” The Sanderson family gathered up Val’s possessions when his wife, Nellie, moved from their Paekäkäriki house in the 1980s. Justin says his grandfather was very inventive, and built detachable roof gutters and installed a sunken bath for Nellie, who was disabled. Val had many tools, which he used to fashion useful items, including sprinkler heads made from brass doorknobs. The sprinkler system helped establish a garden full of native plants, which he grew as a challenge to people who doubted that the plants would survive in coastal conditions. Justin visited the property as a child when his grandmother was alive. “The house was extremely interesting, full of photos of birds and pictures of [painter Charles] Goldie Mäori.”

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3 1 Captain Val Sanderson with a hunting mate in his younger years.

Photo: Courtesy of Nancy Jordan

2 Captain Val Sanderson’s portable Underwood typewriter, on

which he probably wrote letters for Forest & Bird from 1923 until his death in 1945. Photo: Photography by Woolf

3 Sanderson family members at the Sanderson 90th anniversary

dinner in Wellington in June, from left, grandson Justin Jordan and his wife Rochmana Jordan, grandson Guido Panduri, daughter Nancy Jordan and her husband Morton Jordan. Photo: Photography by Woolf

Lifelong supporter

A 40-year connection

Val McElrea could be Forest & Bird’s longest-standing member. Her father signed her up in 1930 when she was aged 10 and her membership has never lapsed. Val grew up at Washpen Falls, a farm in Canterbury’s Rakaia Gorge with many forest remnants. “I loved nature from an early age,” she says. “I remember busloads of Forest & Bird people coming to Windwhistle in the Malvern Hills. We had bush wrens then, though not anymore, of course.” In 1969 Val started Forest & Bird’s Mid-Canterbury branch, which later became the Ashburton branch. She and other members, including Alison and David Ryde, led advocacy for local rivers and lakes and weed control. The branch began several restoration projects and members went on many weekend trips. In the mid-1970s Val joined the Native Forest Action Council (NFAC) and helped the campaign to save native forests on the West Coast. After spending 40 years in Ashburton, Val has returned to her roots and now lives in Darfield, not far from Washpen Falls, which her son and daughter-in-law now farm. Until recent years she joined Forest & Bird members Rosalie Snoyink, Peter Howden and Phil MacArthur checking stoat traps around Lake Howden. “I have loved the fellowship and enthusiasm of fellow Forest & Bird members,” Val says. “The rewards have been our successes. We have never given up.”

Coromandel-based Tina Morgan has been a member of Forest & Bird since 1972, after migrating to New Zealand from Britain. In 1988 Tina and another Forest & Bird member set up the Upper Coromandel branch, and from 1998 she was the chair. With a loyal group of members, Tina planted, cleaned up beaches and carried out pest control, and in 2009 she was awarded an Old Blue for her contribution to Forest & Bird. “Although our branch is small, we do our best to care for the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula on which we live,” she says. “I would have far fewer friends if it were not for Forest & Bird. A better bunch of folk one could never meet.” Among Tina’s work for nature, she has sat on a Waikato Regional Council subcommittee on catchment and pest control, and given talks about the environment and conservation. In July Tina returned to Britain to live to care for her father. “I shall remember my Forest & Bird years with pleasure and affection,” she says. Each edition of Forest & Bird this year will feature a story on the Society’s history. If you are a longstanding member with photos or stories about Forest & Bird, please contact Forest & Bird editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington.

Who’s who? We didn’t receive any clues about the identity of people in the photo in the May edition of Forest & Bird magazine. We feel more confident about this photo taken during a 75th anniversary event at Paraparaumu in 1998. Please contact editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington if you can identify everyone.

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A distant cousin called Myrtle

Ann Graeme traces the links between the aromatic feijoa from South America and our beloved pöhutukawa and rätä trees.

hen the feijoas fall in autumn so too do the seeds from the pöhutukawa. They swirl like dust into the yard, their tiny sharp seeds burrowing into abandoned socks. How strange, I think as I shake them out (for they are very itchy), that these two fruits are related. They had a common ancestor millions of years ago when New Zealand was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. Feijoa, guava, pöhutukawa and rätä all belong to the myrtle family. Their fruits don’t look a bit alike, but their flowers give the game away. It’s not the petals that make the show, it’s the stamens. Brightly coloured and tipped with orange pollen, they are crowded like a pincushion around the central female stigma. The feijoa is native to the lush forests of South America. It likes a sheltered place and soil rich in nutrients to grow its fat, juicy fruit. They are designed to attract birds, bats and primates, which disperse the seeds in their droppings. Pöhutukawa is much more rugged. It clings to rocky, windswept crags and forces its stems between boulders. Its seeds are not wrapped in juicy fruit but have papery

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wings to carry them far and wide. The tiny seeds have little reserves of food and can’t cope with competition, but they can germinate in the most inhospitable cracks and crannies. I have seen a cohort of hardy (or foolhardy) pöhutukawa seedlings growing on White Island, in a moonscape made barren by continuous volcanic eruptions. The seeds could have blown all the way from Whale Island or the mainland. Rätä trees, pöhutukawa’s cousins, have a similar strategy. Few northern rätä trees start life on the forest floor. It’s too dark and crowded there. But high up in the trees among the perching plants are crevices where a tiny seed can lodge and grow. For years the rätä seedling will endure this uncertain life until its roots snake down to the ground and thicken and encircle the host tree. Does it strangle its host? Opinions vary. Its host tree is already mature and the two grow together for many years. Maybe the rätä hastens its host’s demise – but maybe it props it up in its old age. Besides the tree rätä, there are several white-flowered climbing rätä and the magnificent scarlet rätä vine. Rätä and pöhutukawa belong to the genus Metrosideros,

In the field ANN GRAEME

which means heart of iron, a tribute to their very hard wood. Iron-hearted too are their relations, the eucalypts, that huge assemblage of more than 700 species whose members have adapted to the extreme habitats of Australia. Eucalyptus species range from some of the tallest trees on Earth – the karri of Western Australia and the misnamed mountain ash of South Australia – to the stubby multi-trunked mallee of the arid outback. Eucalypts used to grow in New Zealand until they became extinct in cooler eras. Like the eucalypts, mänuka and känuka are aromatic. This is a distinguishing feature of the myrtle family. Tropical myrtles provide us with cloves and allspice, so prized that nations fought the legendary Spice Wars over the tiny Spice Islands where they originally grew. The common myrtle was a valued plant in ancient Greece and Rome. It was used as perfume and in medicine and was the symbol of love and immortality. In 1770 Carl Linnaeus, the father of plant taxonomy, used it to define the myrtle family. He based his classification on the number of parts in its flower, the single style – the female part – surrounded by many stamens – the male parts. It seems ironic that he used the common myrtle, the only member of its family found growing around the Mediterranean, not knowing that the vast majority of myrtles would be discovered in the Southern Hemisphere, in South America, Australia and the Pacific region. The common myrtle

traces its ancestry through Africa to Gondwana. But back to feijoas with their large, juicy fruit. They are quite unlike the woody fruits of mänuka and pöhutukawa, which dry and split and shake out seeds. We have only a few fleshy-fruited myrtles in New Zealand. One is the popular shrub, ramarama, with its shiny, dimpled leaves. Another is maire tawaka, or swamp maire, a wetland tree now quite uncommon because it has been destroyed by drainage and grazing. It’s an uncomfortable tree to walk around because it grows spiky aerial roots that stick up out of the sodden ground, absorbing oxygen for the roots to breathe. With its cream flowers and red fruits, it looks like its Australian relation, the acmena or lilly pilly. So when the pöhutukawa and rätä flowers blaze, the mänuka blossom whitens the hillsides and later the feijoas fall, remember these plants are all connected, far back, in the lost continent of Gondwana.

Possums’ pick

A healing brew The ever-resourceful Captain Cook made tea out of mänuka leaves and gave the plant its common name of tea tree. To make mänuka tea I gathered some sprigs and steeped them in boiling water. The result surprised me. The leaves make a fragrant drink. The first sips were pleasant and refreshing but then it seemed a little like medicine. Trust Captain Cook to know what was good for you!

Pöhutukawa and northern and southern tree rätä are perhaps the best-known and best-loved of our native trees. Sadly they are loved by possums too. Possums strip the trees of their new, young leaves. Each leaf only lives for two years so if the new growth is constantly browsed the tree will die. Such was the fate of the pöhutukawa that clothed Rangitoto Island until a massive pest control operation in 1990 eliminated the possums (and the wallabies). Tree rätä have been less fortunate. Few survive in the northern forests and their glory is only seen in forests like Wellington’s Kaitoke Regional Park where they have enjoyed decades of protection from possums. In southern forests, the flowering South Island rätä trees run red along the Arthur’s Pass highway where possum control prevails, a sad contrast to the derelict trees in neighbouring possumridden valleys. 1 Southern rätä. Photo: Craig McKenzie 2 Mänuka. Photo: Luc Hoogenstein 3 Possums destroy rätä, pöhutukawa and other native plants.

Photo: Ngä Manu Images

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going places

air

Walking on

Helen Ward discovered that you don’t have to be a rugged, super-fit tramper to enjoy getting off the beaten track.

he thought of sacrificing home comforts to get among nature can be a real barrier for people like me who love the outdoors and want to get completely away from it all every now and then. New Zealand’s private walks are a welcome solution, offering cosy features like warm beds, pillows and hot showers. There are more than 25 throughout the country, and generally cost $200 to $300 for three days, with optional add-ons including meals and bags transported between stops. Some, like Tora Coastal Walk in the Wairarapa, specialise in gourmet meals, and the walk becomes almost incidental to the next dining experience. Glamping, or boutique tramping, has opened the door to a new kind of holiday for me. It’s about adventure, challenge, fun and stunning natural backdrops all with bonuses like a hot shower and a cold beer at the end of each day. Private walks have also challenged my perception that you have to be of Coast to Coast fitness. In March this year seven like-minded friends and I dubbed ourselves the G8 and completed the Kaiköura Coast Track. One of New Zealand’s oldest private walks, it has been run by the Handyside and Macfarlane farming families for 20 years. It covers 40 kilometres over three days.

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The cost of transporting one bag per person is included in the price of the walk. We kept costs down by taking our own food and sleeping bags. With a big group, cooking is well spread out and it doesn’t feel like a chore after a tiring day’s walking. The G8 was keen on a challenge but we wanted to have time to smell the mänuka. We set out each day about 9am and walked for six hours on average with time to take in the panoramic views and listen to the native birdsong. In late March we encountered only two other walkers so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The walk is well sign-posted and we didn’t need a guide, though our hosts called on us each evening with advice on what to expect on the next day’s walk. The landscape and wildlife on the Kaiköura Coast Track are diverse, from the beach and views of Hector’s dolphins cavorting to inland native forest. Day one sets out from Ngaroma. We walked for about two hours along the beach before climbing up to the lookout, with views of Banks Peninsula to the south and the Kaiköura Peninsula to the north. The track includes pockets of native bush, plenty of small river crossings and the chance to see some of New

Getting there

Starting point:

The walk begins at Ngaroma, 40 kilometres south of Kaiköura. It is about 140 kilometres from Christchurch to Ngaroma, and a little further from Picton. It is possible to catch a bus from Picton or Christchurch and get dropped off at Conway River Bridge. Ngaroma hosts will pick you up.

Cost:

$230 for three days, including bag transport per person.

More information: www.kaikouratrack.co.nz www.privatewalkingtracks.co.nz truenz.co.nz/walking-tracks

PICTON •

KAIKOURA •

4 Zealand’s oldest mataï and kahikatea trees. The owners belong to the Conway Coastal Landcare Group and have won awards for their conservation projects. The walk also covers farm land, and the highest hill climb reaches 600 metres above sea level. We were serenaded by birdsong and at one point fantails followed us along the tracks. Bellbirds are a feature and I saw my first one – a real treat. We also spotted kererü. Personal touches along the walk include shelters equipped with a billy, tea bags and gas hob to boil water for a cup of tea. Water to top up drinking bottles is at rest stops. The G8 broke in to two groups of four for most of the walk, with those built for speed heading to the front and the rest of us taking a more contemplative approach. Uphill stretches were fairly short and interspersed with flat walks along ridges and down into patches of gully bush. A pitcher of homemade lemonade and biscuits awaited us as we wound up the walk back at Ngaroma on day three. After covering 40km there was an air of satisfied weariness among us. It seemed like we’d been let in on a well-kept secret - one that hard-core trampers might soon find out about.

5 1 The walk features panoramic views of mountains and the

coastline. Photo: Dave Arthur

2 A lunch stop at Skull Peak on day two looking out towards the

Kaiköura ranges. Photo: Dave Arthur

3 Part of the walk’s first day crosses the beach. 4 Some of the G8 resting up. 5 Falcons, or kärearea, can be seen. Photo: Pete Sommerville

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community

conservation

New home for songbirds The release of 100 whiteheads, or pöpokotea, at Auckland’s Ark in the Park is adding to the chorus at the Waitäkere Ranges reserve. The whiteheads were taken from Tiritiri Matangi Island to the 2100-hectare pest-free sanctuary in March, bringing the total number of whiteheads released into the Ark to 353.

The translocation appears a success, and Ark in the Park Manager Gillian Wadams says that by May “unbanded birds have been seen, indicating that they are breeding here”. Tiritiri Matangi volunteers spent three days catching the birds, then measuring, weighing and ensuring they were suitable for translocation to their new mainland home. Tiritiri Matangi supporter Simon Fordham says: “[Catching the birds] requires the right kind of weather to ensure a smooth operation. If there is no rain or wind they can catch 100 birds in 24 hours, with the first day spent setting up sites and the aviary.” Whiteheads are released into their new home at Ark in the Park. Photo: Jamie Shute Whiteheads

are very responsive to the playback of recorded calls but Simon says overuse can lead to them becoming uninterested. To catch the latest band of birds, recorded calls were played through two switchable speakers, one each side of a net. Birds were lured low on one side, then the sound was switched to the other side. The birds struck the net as they flew from one side to the other. Supporters from Forest & Bird and Tiritiri Matangi, a local iwi representative and Ark in the Park staff had a hand in opening the crates to release the whiteheads at the Ark. Ringi Brown of Ngäti Manuhiri has attended all three previous releases of whiteheads at the Ark. “While there is a healthy resident population on Tiritiri Matangi, they are less abundant on the mainland and therefore it is satisfying to see these taonga being reintroduced to a protected area which is accessible to the public.” n Jamie Shute

Nesting boxes for petrels Nine odd-looking wooden boxes each fixed with a 90-centimetrelong pipe are in Gary McCracken’s garage. They may look incongruous now but by January they will be laid underground to provide safe nests for grey-faced petrels at Rapanui Reserve, north of Tongapörutu, 68 kilometres north-east of New Plymouth. North Taranaki branch members have been volunteering at the reserve for more than 10 years and since 2006 have helped the Grey Faced Petrel Trust maintain the coastal nesting site. Branch members the late Margaret and Robert Molloy were also founding members of the trust and encouraged the branch to join planting and weeding working bees at the reserve. Gary says the branch decided to honour the memories of Margaret and Robert, who “worked tirelessly on the project from the start”, by funding 62

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materials for nine new nesting boxes. It took just one day for the registered builder to construct the 40 cubic centimetre nesting boxes. The next stage will have to wait until next season. Gary says the male petrels began preparing nests in June. “Incubation of the egg takes eight weeks. Most of the chicks have left the nests by the end of December, so we will start [distributing boxes] after that.” The Rapanui Reserve is protected by a predator-proof fence and already contains nine artificial nesting boxes. Branch member Barry Hartley says 43 active burrows were recorded at the reserve last year, which was a “significant increase on previous years” as a result of predator control. Barry hopes the nesting boxes will discourage petrels from nesting outside the fenced reserve, and also from burrowing underneath the fence, which lets in predators. It’s hoped that planting threatened

coastal plants at the reserve will enable the future introduction of other rare native animals. n Jolene Williams

North Taranaki Forest & Bird member Gary McCracken volunteered his building skills to construct artificial nesting boxes.

DVD helps protect Fiordland Forest & Bird Southland branch members Lance Shaw and Ruth Dalley have been protectors of Fiordland for many years, especially from 1993 to 2010 when they took eco-trips around the fiords on their boat Breaksea Girl. The couple started Fiordland Ecology Holidays, and their no fishing and no hunting policy distinguished them from many other tourism businesses. Their last charter trip on Breaksea Girl in 2010 was recorded by filmmaker Wayne Birchall, who has made a DVD, Breaksea Girl – A Fiordland Adventure. The film shows Lance skippering the boat from Doubtful Sound to Dusky Sound with the

backdrop of Fiordland’s magnificent scenery. The six-day trip includes Resolution, Indian and Anchor islands, and wildlife includes whio, dolphins and mollymawks. Ruth and Lance funded pest eradication on Indian Island over recent years and were members of the Pomona Island Trust. Both islands are now important pest-free havens. Proceeds from sales of the DVD go to the Fiordland Conservation Trust for continued work on Indian Island. The DVD is $25 plus post and packaging from Wayne Birchall, 20 Muritai Road, RD4, Parua Bay, Whangarei or w.birchall@xtra.co.nz n Chris Rance

A new DVD tells the story of Ruth Dalley and Lance Shaw’s Fiordland eco-tourism trips.

Regional projects funded The J S Watson Trust, administered by Forest & Bird, contributed more than $35,000 towards 11 conservation projects this year. They are: Applications for next year’s grants close early next year. www.forestandbird.org.nz

n Örokonui n n

n n n n

Two projects studying käkäriki received grants. Photo: DOC

Ecosanctuary permanent plot remeasurement, Chris Baillie, $4000 The sensory adaptations of seabirds, Megan Friesen of the University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences $4000 Health and disease in käkäriki on Tiritiri Matangi; causes of feather loss and implications for conservation management of New Zealand parakeets, Bethany Jackson of Auckland Zoological Park and Murdoch University, $3600 Restoration of mussel beds to the Hauraki Gulf, Andrew Jeffs of University of Auckland Leigh Marine Laboratory, $1000 Halfmoon Bay habitat restoration – deer control, Letitia McRitchie of Stewart Island/Rakiura Community & Environment Trust (SIRCET), $3441 The metapopulation approach to conserve orange-fronted parakeets, Luis Ortiz-Catedral of Massey University, $4000 Behavioural ecology and conservation of bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncates, New Zealand north-east coast, Catherine Peters of Coastal-Marine Research Group, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Albany, $1404 Understanding attacks by kea on sheep, Clio Reid of Massey University, $4000 Transfer stress and success and foraging ecology of the mottled petrel, Rachael Sagar of University of Auckland, $4000 Do translocations for species cause pathogen pollution, Ellen Schoener of Massey University, $4000 Are fenced forest sanctuaries unappreciated conservation sites for the endangered brown teal, Katie Sheridan of Karori Sanctuary Trust, $2000

Conservation grants Forest & Bird’s Waikato branch each year awards grants in memory of Lilian Valder for conservation projects. Each grant is usually $1000-$2000 and can be awarded to individual or group projects. The closing date for applications is September 30. For more information and application forms, email macd@wave.co.nz or write to Secretary, Waikato branch, Forest & Bird, PO Box 11 092, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3216. Forest & Bird

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Observations GRAEME HILL

Breaking through enemy lines M

aking any comparisons with the horrors of war can be perceived, often correctly, as diminishing those very horrors. You might feel I’m doing just that and you might be right but when it comes to the history of conservation in New Zealand I cannot help but see parallels with World War II, albeit stretched over two centuries. I also see great hope in completing the analogy, so please read on. After getting here by stealth or invitation, predators spread through New Zealand blitzkrieg fast and they left destruction in their wake. It seemed as though the case was hopeless. Imagine the opening titles of Dad’s Army if you like. Some allies surrendered and capitulated, resigning to preserve dead birds as specimens of a lost past. Battles are being won but when will be our conservation D-Day? In desperation, island sanctuaries were established away from the perils of the occupied mainland. Some of these refuges were infiltrated and lost but others provided the platform for an eventual fight back after a long period of planning and resistance. Today we have won some important battles and morale is improving. It does not feel hopeless. Some large islands have been thoroughly liberated. This was made possible because of the amazing work done by the conservation equivalent of the Bletchley Park codebreakers who figured out how the enemy works and how to defeat them. These people are equally national heroes in my mind. Because of them we have even taken sub-Antarctic Campbell Island, which was thought by many to be impossible to make pest-free. This is the parallel war period in which I perceive New Zealand conservation to be at right now. We are immediately after the El Alamein victory when the allies realised they could win and Churchill declared: “This battle

was not fought for the sake of gaining positions or so many square miles of desert territory. General Alexander and General Montgomery fought it with one single idea. They meant to destroy the armed force of the enemy, and to destroy it at the place where the disaster would be most farreaching and irrecoverable. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Could that be any more apt? There are brave and dedicated pockets of resistance throughout an occupied nation, constantly vigilant and perpetually fighting the invader rats, stoats and possums. It’s dirty work. No sane person I know actually likes killing but the alternative is the permanent loss of our native population. Counter-attacks are under way and, as in military strategy, we are retaking peninsulas like Tawharanui and cutting the enemy off at the thinnest point. A constant bombing campaign of aerial poison drops continues to undermine the enemy’s ability to spread and consolidate. Battles are being won but when will be our conservation D-Day? I can’t help having the dream that a mainland liberation force will, one marvellous day, come over the hill, relieving the resistance forces from constant unending struggle. It will take enormous planning, resources, cleverness and courage. Not all battles will be won and there will be some strategic retreats but surely we must try to liberate this land. We should all become resistance fighters or at least join the home guard today. Maintaining the will to fight on often depends on some hope of eventual victory. This was the bold vision proposed by Sir Paul Callaghan and is being taken seriously by many people who know a thing or two and aren’t afraid of big ideas. I hope we shall we look back at this time as the end of the beginning.

2 1 John Staniland, a member of Forest & Bird’s ‘home guard’ against predators.

Photo: Marina Skinner

2 Stoats, the enemy. Photo: Donald Laing

| Forest & Bird

An Extraordinary Land: Discoveries and mysteries from wild New Zealand By Peter Hayden, photographs by Rod Morris HarperCollins NZ, $49.99 Reviewed by Marina Skinner How many New Zealanders appreciate the wow factor of our wildlife? We tend to forget that many of our birds are one-offs and we take for granted the world’s only nocturnal flightless parrot, the kakapo, and the kiwi, with a beak that not only has nostrils at its tip but has recently been found to have motion sensors. Peter Hayden and Rod Morris have pulled together the tales of our weird and wonderful plants and animals into a riveting collection. Some stories share scientific revelations. Who would have thought that the extinct Haast’s eagle – with claws the size of tiger’s – would be most closely related to the Australian little eagle? And congratulations if you knew that our pöhutukawa has colonised the Pacific and is now found 6000 kilometres away in Hawaii. The book never misses an opportunity to weave in a conservation lesson, so when talking about rätä we learn that 1080 has protected southern rätä in Ötira Gorge from possum decimation. Peter Hayden’s storytelling is warm, engaging and personal, though at times I wondered whether he was writing for a teen reader rather than an adult. Rod Morris’s photos offer beautiful and quite extraordinary glimpses of animal behaviour. One chapter focuses on scientific discoveries, where we learn that curiosity is the key. One of Rod’s sons, Jamie, discovered the world’s rarest fly, the bat-winged fly, while on a family holiday when he was just eight years old. His father and Peter Hayden have captured the same spirit of wonder in An Extraordinary Land.

1 Male Archey’s frogs carry their young on their back.

From An Extraordinary Land. Photo: Rod Morris

Treasuring our Biodiversity: An EDS guide to the protection of NZ’s indigenous habitats and species By Lucy Brake and Raewyn Peart Environmental Defence Society, $39.95 Order at www.eds.org.nz Reviewed by Linda Conning This book is aimed at people who want to learn about effective management of indigenous biodiversity and those whose activities impact on it, including landowners. It is structured in two parts, the first focusing on the range of agencies involved and the mechanisms available for management. The second part is an overview of the range of ecosystem types, including forests, freshwater and the threats to each, with a summary of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches for protection, including case studies and best practice. The inclusion of production and urban environments is welcome and constructive. The chapters are short. Each contains tables summarising the mechanisms and threats with useful references at the end, which makes for a very good guide. Overall this book provides a good overview for the uninitiated or layperson, including checklists for submitters on district and regional plans. As a life-long practitioner, I found it less useful for more in-depth guidance on complex issues such as climate change or managing mangroves. The overriding message is that decision-makers are not using the tools available for protecting indigenous biodiversity, especially in the marine environment. I also felt the book understated the effects of *human *disturbance. I found the reference to other guides frustrating, though understandable, especially as they cannot be read on the internet. As with any such publication, some details quickly become outdated, for instance the number of DOC conservancies, and there are numerous points about which I wanted more information. I found the Index omitted some subject entries. Another niggle was the lack of place identification for most of the many photographs. However, if you are new to indigenous biodiversity and its protection in New Zealand, this is a very good place to start.

Forest & Bird

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West Coast Walking: A naturalist’s guide By Kerry-Jayne Wilson Canterbury University Press, $39.95 Reviewed by Andy Dennis On the West Coast of the South Island natural character has most extensively survived the impacts of human settlement, especially in lowland and coastal landscapes. Here are far and away the most extensive tracts of indigenous lowland forest, the greatest survival of lowland freshwater wetlands, the longest stretches of largely unmodified coastline and endless magnificent vistas of seemingly wholly natural New Zealand from the mountains to the sea. Kerry-Jayne Wilson is a former long-time teacher of ecology and conservation at Lincoln University who has lived near Charleston south of Westport since 2009. Her descriptions of 140 easy and accessible West Coast walks and a handful of flatwater kayaking opportunities carry us along, with the story of

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landscapes and plants added to that of our native animals. The walks, which are never more than five hours return and are usually on well-formed tracks (and hence largely in lowland and coastal areas), are described and graded first and foremost for their natural history interest from “strongly recommended” (three-star) walks to those “worth doing if time allows” (one-star). Often complex matters of natural history are described in language that is always exceedingly readable. The descriptions are preceded by 70 pages of the best overview of West Coast natural history that I have yet encountered. The numerous photographs enhance the readable text and boxes provide clearly drawn portraits of plants and animals of special ecological or conservation interest. The book reminds us of the reasons why Forest & Bird is so often involved in campaigns on the West Coast to protect the kind of values Kerry-Jayne Wilson helps us so well to understand and to cherish.

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Wild Encounters Our popular Going Places articles and other naturethemed travel stories from Forest & Bird magazine have been collected together in a handy book edition, Wild Encounters, published by Penguin. From the rocky shore to dense rainforests, from braided riverbeds to alpine meadows, Wild Encounters is a handy guide to the best place to experience New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places. Wild Encounters retails for $40, but Forest & Bird readers can purchase this book for just $35, including post and packaging, with $10 from each copy ordered going towards Forest & Bird’s important conservation work. That means you will receive this beautifully illustrated guide and get to help nature in New Zealand. Please send a cheque for $35 to: Wild Encounters Forest & Bird PO Box 631 Wellington

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Forest & Bird

| 67

Parting shot A

bellbird, or korimako, standing on tiptoes to reach a red hot poker flower was irresistible to Jock Harrison, of Golden Bay. Jock’s semi-rural property borders the Täkaka river delta and has a small patch of native bush and secondary growth of känuka and other small trees and shrubs. They provide shelter and food for many birds, including tüï, korimako and visiting kererü, herons, owls and others. He used a Canon 5D and 300mm lens.

If you are a Forest & Bird member and you have a stunning photo that showcases New Zealand’s special native plants or animals, it could be the next Parting Shot. Each published Parting Shot photo will receive a GorillaPod JGP3 worth $159.95. The GorillaPod SLR Zoom is a portable, packable heavy-duty tripod that keeps your camera equipment steady, no matter where you might be. Please send a low-res digital file and brief details about your photo to Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz Winners will be asked for higher-resolution files.

| Forest & Bird

branch directory

Upper North Island Central Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Robert Jones; Secretary, Charlene Fitisemanu, Tel: (09) 570 0824. centralauckland.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Far North Branch: Chairperson, Dean Baigent-Mercer; Secretary, Michael Winch, Tel: (09) 401-7401. farnorth.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Franklin Branch: Chairperson, Keith Gardner; Secretary, Vacant, Tel: (09) 238-9928. Franklin.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hauraki Islands Branch: Chairperson, Karen Field, Tel: 027 599 8811; Secretary, Katie Lucas. haurakiislands.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hibiscus Coast Branch: Chairperson, Pauline Smith; Secretary, Katie Lucas, Tel: (09) 427-5186. HibiscusCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaipara Branch: Chairperson, William McNatty; Secretary, Barry Wilson. kaipara.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Augusta Macassey-Pickard; Secretary, Lynn Hampton, Tel: (07) 866 2463. mercurybay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Tony Dunlop; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, Tel: (09) 422-3110. midnorth.branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Shore Branch: Chairperson, Richard Hursthouse; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, Tel: (09) 479-2107. NorthShore.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Northern Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, Tel: 022 092 0721. Northern.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Auckland Branch: Chairperson, John Oates; Secretary, Lee O’Leary, Tel: (09) 948-3867. SouthAuckland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Thames-Hauraki Branch: Co-chairperson, Ken Clark; Secretary, Frances Burton. thameshauraki.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, vacant; Secretary, vacant. uppercoromandel.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waitakere Branch: Chairperson, Robert Woolf; Secretary, Jan Edmonds, Tel: (09) 833-6241. Waitakere.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch: Chairperson, Mark Fort; Secretary, Peter Fergusson, Tel: (07) 304 9494. EasternBayofPlenty.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Gisborne Branch: Chairperson, Grant Vincent; Secretary, Wendy Vincent, Tel: (06) 868 8236. gisborne.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rotorua Branch: Chairperson, Chair rotates among committee members; Secretaries, Margaret Dick, Tel: (07) 357-2024 or Delight Gartlein Tel: (07) 357-2575. Rotorua.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, Tel: (07) 886-7456. SouthWaikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Taupo Branch: Secretary, Laura Dawson, Tel: (07) 378 5975, laura@reap.org.nz Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, Richard James; Secretary, Pam Foster, Tel (07) 571-0974. Tauranga.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Margaret McGarva, Tel: 027 2417625. TePuke.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waihi.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, Tel: (07) 849-3438. Waikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Lower North Island

Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Debbie Waldin; Secretary, Angelina Smith, Tel: (06) 368 3337, and Joan Leckie. horowhenua.branch@ forestandbird.org.nz Kapiti-Mana Branch: Chairperson, Ian Corder; Secretary, Judy Driscoll, Tel: (04) 904-2049. KapitiMana.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Lower Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Russell Bell; Secretary, Jennifer Vinton, Tel: (04) 565-1379. LowerHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Paul Demchick; Secretary, Alexandra King, Tel: (06) 354 8370. manawatu.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Napier Branch: Chairperson, Neil Eagles, Tel: (06) 844 3904; Secretary, Cheryl Nicholls. Napier.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Taranaki Branch: Chairperson and Secretary, Carolyn Brough, NorthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rangitikei Branch: Chairperson, Graeme Smith; Secretary, Kate Williams. Tel: (06) 327-8790. Rangitikei.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Dave Digby; Secretary, Carol Digby, Tel: (06) 765 7482. SouthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Barry Wards; Secretary, vacant. Tel: (04) 569-7187. UpperHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wairarapa Branch: Chairperson, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Peta Campbell, Tel: (06) 377 4882. Wairarapa.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wanganui Branch: Chairperson, Esther Williams; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, Tel: (06) 345-2651. Wanganui.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wellington Branch: Chairperson, Peter Hunt; Secretary, David Ellison, Tel: (04) 233-1010. Wellington.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Island

Ashburton Branch: Chairperson, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, Tel: (03) 308-5620. Ashburton.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Central Otago-Lakes Branch: Chairperson, Mark Ayre; Secretary, Denise Bruns, Tel: (03) 443-5462. CentralOtagoLakes.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Dunedin Branch: Chairperson, Jeni Pelvin; Secretary, Secretary, Vacant, dunedin.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Golden Bay Branch: Chairpeople, Mark Hanger, Beatrice Lee and Robin Wilson; Secretary, Janet Ledingham, Tel: 027 623 4948. goldenbay.branch@ forestandbird.org.nz Kaikoura Branch: Chairperson, Ailsa Howard; Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Tel: 022 165 3644. kaikoura.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Secretary, Evin Wood. Marlborough.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Julie McLintock; Secretary, Gillian Pollock, Tel: (03) 548-8583. NelsonTasman.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Cathie Brumley; Secretary, Rachel Hurford, Tel: (03) 337-3132. northcanterbury.branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, Tel: (03) 686 1494, and Justine Carson-Iles, Tel: 021 202 5180. SouthCanterbury.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Secretary, Jane Young, Tel: (03) 415-8532. SouthOtago.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, Tel: (03) 248-6398. Southland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Central Hawke’s Bay Branch: Chairperson, Dan Elderkamp; Secretary, Rose Hay, Tel: (06) 858 8828. Centralhawkesbay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Waitaki Branch: Chairperson, Zuni Steer; Secretary, Chloe Searle, Tel: (03) 437 0127. Waitaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Vaughan Cooper; Secretary, Nick Sage, Tel: (06) 877 4708. HastingsHavelockNorth.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

For branch postal addresses, please see www.forestandbird.org.nz

lodge accommodation

Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North. Near Pukenui in wetland reserve. 6 bunks, fully equipped kitchen, separate bathroom outside. For information and bookings, contact Anita Herbert, 71C Totara North Road, RD2 Kaeo, Northland 0479. Tel: 09 405 1720. Email: herbit@xtra.co.nz

Tai Haruru Lodge, Piha, West Auckland A seaside haven set in a large sheltered garden on the rugged West Coast, 38km on sealed roads from central Auckland. Close to store, bush reserves and tracks in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges. Sleeps up to 6 in 1 dble brm, 1 brm and lounge, Lounge has wood burner, dining area and kitchen. Self-contained unit has 4 single beds. Bring food, linen and fuel for fire and BBQ. Off peak rates apply. Booking: Jean and Peter King, 10 La Trobe Track, Karekare, Waitakere City. Tel: (09) 812 8064. Email: hop0018@slingshot.co.nz

Waiheke Island Cottage Located next to our 49ha Wildlife Reserve, 10 mins walk to Onetangi Beach, general stores etc. Sleeps up to 8 in two bedrooms. Lounge, well-equipped kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, laundry. Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland. Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island. Tel: (09) 372-7662.

West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; Secretary, Clare Backes, Tel: (03) 755-8697, WestCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

William Hartree Memorial Lodge, Hawke’s Bay Situated 48km from Napier, 8km past Patoka on the Puketitiri Rd (sealed). The lodge is set amid a 14ha scenic reserve and close to many walks, eg: Kaweka Range, Balls Clearing, hot springs and museum. The lodge accommodates up to 10 people. It has a fully equipped kitchen including stove, refrigerator and microwave plus tile fire, hot showers. Supply your own pillows, linen, sleeping bags etc. For information and bookings please send a stamped addressed envelope to Mike and Linda Hay, 172 Guppy Road, Taradale, Napier 4112. Tel: (06) 8444651. Email: hayhouse@clear.net.nz.

Ruapehu lodge, Tongariro National Park The newly built lodge is 600 metres from Whakapapa Village. It sleeps 32 people – three bunkrooms sleep 4 each, one sleeps 6 and two upstairs sleeping areas sleep 14. Supply your own bedding and food. Bookings and inquiries to Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington. Tel: (04) 385-7374. Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz

Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour Joint venture accommodation by Lower Hutt Forest and Bird with DOC. A modern family home with kitchen, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and dining room, just 20 mins sailing by ferry

from the centre of Wellington or 10 mins from Days Bay. Ideal place to relax in beautiful surroundings, with accommodation for 8. Bring your own food and bedding and a torch. Smoking is banned everywhere on the island, including the house. Forest & Bird members get a 25% discount. For more information, visit www. doc.govt.nz and for bookings, contact the DOC Wellington Visitors Centre at wellingtonvc@doc. govt.nz, ph (04) 384-7770 or mail to PO Box 10420, The Terrace, Wellington 6143.

Mangarakau Swamp Field Centre, North West Nelson Borders Kahurangi National Park and Te Tai Tapu Marine Reserve. New, 10 bed lodge with two bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen. Sleeping bags, towels and food required. Contact Jo-Anne Vaughan – Golden Bay Branch Secretary for details: javn@xtra.co.nz or phone (03) 5256031.

Tautuku Forest Cabins, Otago State Highway 92, Southeast Otago. Situated on Forest and Bird’s 550ha Lenz Reserve 32km south of Owaka. A bush setting, and many lovely beaches nearby provide a wonderful base for exploring the Catlins. The cottage, the cabin and an A-frame sleep 10, 4 and 2 respectively. No animals. For information and rates please send a stamped addressed envelope to the caretaker: Diana Noonan, Mirren St, Papatowai, Owaka, RD2. Tel: (03) 415-8024, fax (03) 415-8244. Email: diana-keith@yrless.co.nz

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