Forest & Bird Magazine 336 May 2010 by Forest & Bird

ISSUE 336 â&#x20AC;˘ MAY 2010 www.forestandbird.org.nz

The domestic life of gannets PLUS

Mining our parks

Wild river winners

Pohutukawa peril

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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. General Manager: Mike Britton Advocacy Manager: Kevin Hackwell Services Manager: Julie Watson North Island Conservation Manager: Mark Bellingham South Island Conservation Manager: Chris Todd 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 Terrace, 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: 190-192 Hereford Street, Christchurch PO Box 2516, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 366 4190 Fax: (03) 365 0788 Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz KCC Coordinator: Ann Graeme 53 Princess Rd, Tauranga 3110. Tel: (07) 576-5593 Fax: (07) 576-5109 Email: a.graeme@forestandbird.org.nz Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No. CC26943.

ISSUE 336

www.forestandbird.org.nz

Contents 2 Editorial

Seeing red

5 Letters 6 Soapbox

Two of us

Artist Grahame Sydney on his spiritual connection with the Mackenzie Country

Tuatara on tour

7 Conservation News

In the field

Rangatahi

Lost and found

Branching out

Book reviews

Pacific rat race

Parting shot

Barry Wards stands up for our natural heritage

Ellerslie Flower Show, water pressure, kiwi’s best friend, Garden Bird Survey, BioBlitz new species, Reel Earth Film Festival, Ruapehu lodge, Vanuatu eco-holiday, JS Watson Trust

The big dig

Forest & Bird leads the mining debate, Te Puke mine alarm bells, lessons from the past

Cover story: Sky divers

1080

The domestic life of gannets

Number crunching on pest control

26 EDITOR: Marina Skinner

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

E rob@dileva.co.nz PREPRESS/PRINTING: Kalamazoo

Wyatt & Wilson (NZ) Ltd ADVERTISING:

Vanessa Clegg, T 0275 420 337 E vanclegg@xtra.co.nz 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

• May 2010

Tararua Ranges put to the test

A project to return kaka to Wellington’s wild zone

Wild river winners

The top four photos from Forest & Bird’s summer competition

Garden Bird Survey

Going Places

Possums are destroying Northland’s pohutukawa

Legal and planning duo Erika Toleman and Anna Cameron

A reptile roadshow for kids

Curious case of shags and stones

Chelsea Robinson’s youthful voice for change

The quest to rediscover the giant Lord Howe Island stick insect

Bad news for bats, benefactor Margaret Hayes, pub meetings, yellow-eyed penguins, Michael Kearns obituary

The Bird Garden, Kahurangi Calling, Threatened Plants of NZ, Classic Walks of NZ

An ambitious Henderson Island project

Simon Fordham’s rifleman

The 2010 survey form

Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds

38 Last chance for an ocean Fishing threats to the Antarctic Ross Sea

COVER SHOT One of the many Australasian gannets Jordan Kappely photographed during a 12-hour visit to Cape Kidnappers.

Forest & Bird

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editorial Our natural heritage under attack He kura taiao e hokia. A treasured home will always be revisited We conserve and care for places and species because we value them. Their qualities are such that we may be inspired by their beauty, moved by a connection felt with lands or waters, animals or plants, or struck by the intricacies, power and enchanting qualities of living systems. These are the introductory words in the Conservation General Policy, revised by the Department of Conservation in 2007. They strike a chord with me for two reasons. First, because on April 25, I rose at dawn to take part in remembering those who fought to protect and preserve those places and values, notably my father, who had a deep love of the land and an endearing affinity towards looking after it, respecting it and preserving it. Second, because 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, during which we celebrate the variety of life on earth, and we note the need to safeguard its biodiversity. Since 1923, Forest & Bird has been fighting to preserve and protect our indigenous biodiversity, and the natural and wild places that support that biodiversity. We aim to protect the intrinsic values for present and future generations of New Zealanders to enjoy. My father fought for this country because he believed in those values. He was particularly inspired by the beauty of the South Island high country, the wild forests and rivers of the West Coast and had a strong connection with those landscapes as the heritage of his family and their families in turn. Those values are under threat. This Society is under threat. The core of our very existence – protecting biodiversity and natural wild places for their intrinsic values – is becoming increasingly compromised. Competition is coming from the commercial values that energy schemes, mineral exploitation, intensive agriculture and other development are putting on the conservation estate and on lands and waterways where New Zealand’s unique biodiversity is threatened. At times like these, there is a sense of despair and frustration, particularly as events seem so abundant and overwhelming that it’s difficult to comprehend how to respond. The decision in early April by commissioners to allow a hydro dam on the Mokihinui River to go ahead is the most recent example of this. What we may see here is the greatest manmade inundation of pristine conservation land in New Zealand’s history. Allowing this and development of places we have bound in legislation as sacrosanct is anathema to what my father fought for, the heritage he left, and the values Forest & Bird has held for more than 87 years. Now, more than ever before, is the time to stand up and be counted as a member of Forest & Bird. I urge every one of you to be a loud and strong voice for nature – for yourself, for your forefathers who fought for the places valued for their intrinsic biodiversity, and for your children and your children’s children.

Barry Wards, Forest & Bird President

50 years ago

The Manapouri – Te Anau petition If any Government in power for the time being can completely ignore legislation solemnly enacted by Parliament to preserve in perpetuity as national parks for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, scenery of such distinctive quality or natural features so beautiful or unique that their preservation is in the national interest, then the Act from which these words are quoted is a meaningless scrap of paper and our national parks have, in fact, no real security. Editorial, Forest & Bird May 1960

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

Sir Anand Satyanand, GovernorGeneral of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Barry Wards DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Craig Potton IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: Peter Maddison NATIONAL TREASURER: Graham Bellamy EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS: Andrew Cutler,

Anne Fenn, Mark Fort, Alan Hemmings, Joan Leckie, Janet Ledingham, Peter Maddison, Jon Wenham. DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS:

Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society. 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. Forest & Bird is printed on chlorine-free paper made from wood fibre sourced from sustainably managed forests. The magazine is bulk mailed in Reverte oxo-biodegradable plastic made from oil by-products. It is waterproof but will break down into CO2, H20 and biomass, and does not leave petro-polymer fragments in the soil. *Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright. All rights reserved.

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

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letters Forest & Bird welcomes readers’ letters and photographs on conservation topics. Letters should be no longer than 200 words and must include the writer’s full name, home address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited and abridged. The best contribution to the Letters page of the August 2010 issue will win a copy of The Best of New Zealand Geographic: Exploring our Land & Culture ($69.99), a collection of stories and photographs from New Zealand Geographic magazine. Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or e-mail m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz by July 14, 2010.

Where green is not good The vivid green of the irrigation circles in the Mackenzie Basin is not natural to New Zealand. The tawny lion colour of Canterbury and our mountain areas, including the Mackenzie Basin, is the natural, original colour. The clean, green New Zealand slogan has been a help to save our forests. But now this slogan is helping to destroy the terrific tawny tussocklands because, unfortunately, 95 per cent of visitors and nearly as many New Zealanders are ignorant of what New Zealand was like and should be like now. When seeing green, irrigated areas they think that the green patch is good and natural. The reality is that green equals stolen water for irrigation, artificial fertilisers and excess cow excrement. In opposition to the slick clean, green slogan, our tawny territories need their own slick slogan. We also need some slick anti-irrigation slogans for saving our rivers. These would make people realise how destructive irrigation is. N P Dodds, Auckland (This letter is the winner of Wild Encounters)

National parks belong to us I have written to Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Prime Minister John Key reminding them our national parks do not belong to any government but to the New Zealand people and they have no rights to interfere with them. I remember my father, Dr Bathgate, fighting to save Manapouri, Ball’s Clearing, Puketitiri and Whirinaki from sawmillers and past governments. Shirley Bathgate-Hunt, Havelock North

Loss of Helen Bain Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society wants to express our sorrow at the loss of Forest & Bird editor Helen Bain. She came to Taranaki to report the story of the new Tapuae Marine Reserve and made an impression on our committee. Helen was lively, digging into issues with boldness and clarity. She was able to listen carefully to the ups and downs of marine reserve applications, and we enjoyed her political edge. What a great loss to the conservation lobby and Forest & Bird, but what a great example she set.

On behalf of the members of Rangitikei Forest & Bird, we would like to express our sincere and deep condolences on the loss of Helen Bain. We are very aware of what an energetic, thoughtful member of Central Office staff Helen was, and we recognise what a loss she is to Forest & Bird. We also realise that she will be missed as an individual and lively colleague who enjoyed life to the full. Diana and Hugh Stewart, Marton (Thank you to the many Forest & Bird members who sent letters, cards, emails and online posts expressing their condolences on the loss of former Forest & Bird magazine editor and communications manager Helen Bain. Staff and Helen’s family greatly appreciate your thoughts.)

Myna menace We live in suburban Auckland with an array of plants to attract and feed native birds. But in the past 5-7 years, mynas have colonised the neighbourhood and their presence is obvious in the numbers that we now see and in the noise that they make. At the same time, native birds have virtually disappeared, with the exception of tui. The aggressiveness of the mynas is amazing. Recently, I came across a myna holding another bird down while it pecked at its victim. Is there anything that can be done to reduce the impact of these birds and restore some civility and diversity to our small part of the world? Paul Spoonley, North Shore Correction In the February issue of Forest & Bird, a photograph of a rowi was incorrectly captioned as a great spotted kiwi. The photo should have been credited to DOC ranger Liz Brown.

AGM Welcome Forest & Bird’s AGM will be at the Mercure Hotel, 355 Willis Street, Wellington at 8.30am on June 26. All Forest & Bird members are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Sam Partridge at s.partridge@forestandbird.org.nz

Anne Scott, Chairperson, Nga Motu Marine Reserve Society, New Plymouth Forest & Bird

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soapbox

Kiwi heartland Artist Grahame Sydney believes many New Zealanders feel a spiritual connection with the threatened Mackenzie Country.

he visionary one-time Superintendent of Otago province, James Macandrew, once berated his political colleagues that central government “would not throw away the Otago orange until it was sucked dry”. That was in 1876. Had the ghost of Macandrew been beside me as I drove the tedious, truck-heavy highway from Christchurch to Timaru earlier this year, he would have realised that Canterbury, too, was being drained of its lifeblood. I crossed dry river bed after dry river bed in tragic succession as I motored south. Scarcely a sheep remains visible from the highway now. Instead, large herds of cows crammed into lurid green paddocks and long lines of spindly centre pivot irrigators flag hefty investments in the current dairy boom. They raise disturbing questions about water entitlements and herald the new fashion in farming profitability. The dairying expansion into the Mackenzie Basin has brought attention to the otherwise insidious land use changes occurring in several areas of the South Island, dairying in the vanguard, wilding pines not far behind. Why is it we so often cling to the significance of one special place, one special spot, one particular view, and hold that to our hearts for comfort, for a clearer sense of where we come from and for confirmation of our identities? I suspect we all have a deep secret spot, a special place, a landscape that brings a profound and mysterious contentment, to which we retreat in times of reverie, holiday or need, with which we identify and somehow helps to define us. We seldom know why it contains such power over us – it is mystical and complex, and we sometimes only recognise its anchoring in our private depths when it is changed, spoiled or ruined. Then the sense of affront and anger we feel gnaws away at us. Something irreplaceable has been lost. The RMA reflects spiritual resonance of places in Maori culture, and it is past time the law recognised places have a similar depth of meaning to Pakeha New Zealanders, too. Fat chance, sadly. The present Government’s changes to the RMA

are concessions to developers and easy money. Anything that cannot be quantified in dollar terms is doomed. I believe that landscapes have a power and a meaning far beyond any temporary economics. Landscapes – the natural theatres of our personal experiences and dramas – perform a symbolic and emotional function miles beyond their economic or geographical rationale. The experience of the Mackenzie Basin/Upper Waitaki holds a particularly powerful grip on the imaginations, emotions and memories of untold numbers of New Zealanders and tourists. Being there is an experience incapable of replication anywhere else in this country, or this world. An impressive number of submissions were made opposing intensive dairying operations in the Mackenzie. I like to think that the implied insult to the magnificent landscape and our emotional and spiritual connection with it were what motivated people. One of the most attractive characteristics of New Zealand in the eyes of the rest of the world used to be its extraordinary variety of landscapes – a virtual continent’s range – from steep and sopping Fiordland rainforest to vast, semi-arid tussock basins like the hallowed Mackenzie; from the subtropical delights of the far north to the fractured splendour of the Southern Alps. The insidious and utterly inappropriate greening of the Mackenzie continues. More than 60 applications for irrigation rights remain in place. Another priceless and unique landscape looks set to disappear in the name of economic growth and short-term profit. What is lost is beyond mere dollar value, and is lost to us and our unimagined descendants. Is there political will to concede that some values matter more than temporary profit? The Mackenzie Basin issues are a critical litmus test. I have to be optimistic – after all, Mike Tyson is now racing pigeons.

I believe that landscapes have a power and a meaning far beyond any temporary economics.

conservation

news

Fresh light on Mackenzie threats T

he tussock turned out to be inconveniently green for a stand at the Ellerslie Flower Show designed to illustrate the beauty of keeping the Mackenzie Basin brown. But the problem was fixed with the right lighting, which washed the green right out of the plants – and won Forest & Bird a merit award for lighting, along with an overall bronze award, for the stand at the show in Christchurch in March. “Even tussock has a flush of green growth, and unfortunately the tussock we used, which came from a nursery in South Canterbury, looked extraordinarily green against the tawny backdrop we had for the stand. We had to use the lighting to fade the colour out of it,” admits Jen Miller, Forest & Bird’s Canterbury/West Coast Field Officer, who helped coordinated the stand. Miller says the public responded very positively to the sentiments behind the stand, which was set up to publicise one of Forest & Bird’s main campaigns for 2010 – to stop the spread of irrigation in the Mackenzie Basin, and in particular the development of intensive dairying in the area. “We had an amazing response. At least 90 per cent of people who stopped to look at the stand totally understood what our concerns were. The most common response was that the Mackenzie Basin just didn’t look right green. “We also talked to some dairy farmers from other parts of the country, who said they thought the idea of dairying in that kind of high-altitude country was just absurd.” Forest & Bird volunteers and staff handed out pamphlets to visitors to the stand, as well as Keep the Mackenzie Brown postcards addressed to Prime Minister John Key. As it happened, the man himself stopped at the stand while he was visiting the show – and was immediately handed a postcard by Wellington-based Forest & Bird Fundraiser Jolene Molloy. “Hopefully he will be getting a lot more of them – people were really keen to get the cards, and many took extras for their friends,” Miller says. The design for the Ellerslie stand was relatively simple. The backdrop was a large photograph of the Mackenzie Basin, and at the front were the appropriately faded

tussocks, as well as other plants native to the area. A large, green half-circle on the wall represented the circle of green grass created by a pivot irrigator, and cowskin ottomans represented the dairy cows Forest & Bird want to keep out of the area.

From left, Nik Colley, Nick Beveridge and Jen Miller and the award-winning Mackenzie stand at the Ellerslie Flower Show.

The original design was put together by a committee that included Miller and Forest & Bird’s Auckland/Northland Field Officer, Nick Beveridge, both of whom trained as landscape architects. They were joined by Christchurch landcape architect Nik Colley, who refined the design and supervised the construction of the stand, and Ines Stager, a Forest & Bird South Canterbury member who also helped with the design. Stager found all the plants for the stand and brought them to Christchurch from Geraldine. Miller says the main purpose of the stand was to demonstrate that while the Mackenzie Basin may look like a brown desert to the casual observer, it is in fact a complex and fragile ecosystem that needs to be preserved. “If the area is oversewn with pasture grasses that ecosystem will be gone for good. It’s already happened in some parts of the basin, and we don’t want any more of it to be destroyed.” n Ruth Nichol

Send a Keep the Mackenzie Brown e-card to Prime Minister John Key – see www.forestandbird.org.nz – or contact Forest & Bird for Freepost postcards – 04 385 7374. Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

High water pressure W

e are trying to squeeze the last drops from our rivers – for irrigation and hydro electricity. And the water that’s left in them is becoming more degraded. The wild Mokihinui River, north of Westport, is the latest river threatened with irreparable damage from a planned hydro-electricity dam. If Meridian Energy’s plan to build an 85-metre-high dam and flood a 14-kilometre stretch of the river goes ahead, this would be the biggest inundation of conservation land in New Zealand history. Forest & Bird has decided to appeal the decision by the West Coast Regional Council commissioners to allow a dam on the Mokihinui – despite an expected cost of about $100,000. “This beautiful river is too precious to destroy, especially since there are more appropriate hydro schemes planned for other West Coast rivers,” Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton says. “An appeal will put financial pressure on Forest & Bird, and we hope members and branches will contribute to the legal fund.” The Mokihinui River gorge is fringed with pristine forest and sustains rare native blue ducks (whio), giant land snails, longfin eels and other animals. In late March, the Government sacked Environment Canterbury (ECan) and replaced the elected regional councillors with appointed commissioners. The development-oriented commissioners have been given control over new water conservation orders (WCOs) in the region, and have the power to change or overturn existing WCOs. Aside from the undemocratic overtones of passing a bill under urgency to sack ECan, the move has serious implications for Canterbury’s already over-burdened rivers. Forest & Bird South Island Conservation Manager Chris Todd describes the change as a covert move to fast-track dams. “The democratic and legal defences of Canterbury’s wild rivers are being swept aside and replaced with a kangaroo court,” he says. A WCO for the Hurunui River – which would protect it in the same way a national park protects land – was due to be heard by the Environment Court in May. The commissioners will now decide on it.

In April Forest & Bird obtained papers under the Official Information Act showing that from September last year briefings to Ministers and Cabinet papers focussed on the Hurunui and Rakaia rivers and how the Crown could help remove “blockages” – WCOs and council processes – that stopped development of the rivers. “The Wyatt Creech-led inquiry into ECan’s performance appears to have been a convenient and expedient way to enable the Government to take control of Canterbury’s rivers. It had little to do with ECan’s ability to function,” Forest & Bird Canterbury Field Officer Jen Miller says. “We can’t continue to increase the demands made on our rivers to provide water to expand the dairy industry. The Impact of dairying on the environment is well recognised and there are natural limits on how much the industry can expand. “Our braided rivers are unique. They are the habitat of endangered birds such as black stilts and wrybills. These rivers should be protected, not reduced to trickles where birds, fish, eels and other creatures cannot survive.” Forest & Bird and other environmental and recreational organisations involved in the Land and Water Forum – a Government-backed national group working on water management reform – expressed their disgust at the lack of consultation about the ECan changes. In mid-March, the latest Dairying and Clean Streams Accord report revealed the environmental performance of dairy farmers is getting worse. It showed that the average level of significant non-compliance by dairy farmers increased from 12 per cent to 15 per cent in the past year. The report card also revealed that farmers have not made sufficient progress toward three other targets – managing farm nutrients, fencing significant wetlands, and meeting regional plan and resource consent standards. n Marina Skinner 1 Endangered braided river dwellers. Juvenile black stilt (kaki). Photo: DOC 2 Wrybills. Photo: Jordan Kappely 3 Black stilt on a nest. Photo: DOC

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| Forest & Bird

A kiwi’s best friend T

he team working to save New Zealand’s rarest kiwi, the rowi, will soon be joined by an unlikely new member – a dog specially trained for finding rowi in the South Okarito Forest near Franz Josef. Dogs traditionally pose a serious threat to kiwi; they can catch and kill a bird in a few seconds. That means that even when Rein, a Hungarian Vizsla puppy, is fully trained she will not be allowed to enter the 11,000-hectare Okarito Kiwi Zone unless she is wearing a muzzle and is accompanied by a handler. It’s hoped that Rein will help find rowi that have not yet been located by Department of Conservation’s rowi team. According to the team leader Duncan Kay, finding new rowi is vital to help diversify the species’ gene pool. “Rowi have a very limited genetic diversity because the population is so small. The chicks we are breeding through our breeding programme come from the same set of genes year after year.” Rowi are New Zealand’s most endangered kiwi. They were once common throughout the upper South Island and lower North Island, but there are now only an estimated 350 birds. Rowi look different from other kiwi. They are greyish in colour and they often have patches of white on their faces. They are also softer to touch. DOC is working with BNZ Operation Nest Egg to increase the rowi population. Eggs and chicks are removed from their nests on the West Coast and taken to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch to hatch and grow. They are then transferred to Motuara Island, a predator-free island in the Marlborough Sounds. Once the birds weigh 1 kilogram they are released back into the Okarito Kiwi Zone, which is part of the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. At the moment Rein – whose name is a play on the rain that falls so abundantly on the West Coast – spends most of her time at the DOC offices in Franz Josef with trainer Iain Graham, getting used to the staff she will eventually work with. “First of all we need to make sure she’s the right dog for the job,” Mr Kay explains. “Then she can start going into the forest and begin her bird training.” Provided the training goes well, Rein will start working as a kiwi dog early next year. Meanwhile, Okarito locals have pledged $8600 as a reward to help find those responsible for a series of deliberately lit fires that damaged more than 10 hectares of swampland in the Okarito Kiwi Zone in February. The six fires were all set on the same night, and cost about $50,000 to put out. Mr Kay says that as far as his team has been able to tell, the fires did not harm any of the 120 birds that DOC monitors as part of Operation Nest Egg. “But the potential was certainly there, and the territory has been scarred and food sources destroyed. I’m shocked that anyone would think it’s all right to light fires in a World Heritage site.” n Ruth Nichol

Iain Graham holds kiwi dog Rein. Photo: Lizzy Sutcliffe

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Sparrows knock silvereyes off perch H

ouse sparrows were once again the most commonly seen bird in last year’s Garden Bird Survey, followed by silvereyes and starlings. The 2009 survey found that the average New Zealand garden has 12.1 house sparrows, 6.3 silvereyes, 3.3 starlings, 2.7 blackbirds and 1.4 tui. Those figures are similar to the results of the 2008 survey, but slightly different from the results of the first survey in 2007, in which silvereyes (pictured below) outnumbered house sparrows. Just over 1900 people took part in the 2009 Garden Bird Survey, which is a joint project between Forest & Bird, Landcare Research and the Ornithological Society. Participants were asked to record all the birds they saw in their backyard during a one-hour period between June 27 and July 5. Survey organiser and retired Landcare Research scientist Eric Spurr says it’s too early to say whether the latest results indicate that silvereyes – the only native bird in the top five – are being outnumbered by sparrows, or whether the figures are simply the result of a statistical blip. “After three years it does seem that the number of house sparrows is increasing and the number of silvereyes is falling, but that trend could easily be reversed in the next three years.” However, he is concerned about falling silvereye numbers in Otago and Southland, where some participants reported having seen birds with signs of disease, such as growths around their bills, eyes and legs. “Those growths could have been avian pox, which was detected in silvereyes in Dunedin in 2007 and 2008.” The good news is that, while our most commonly spotted bird is an introduced species, the number of native birds appearing in our gardens is on the rise. Tui numbers in particular have increased since the 2007 survey, when the average garden had just 0.7 tui, compared with 1.4 in 2009. “One participant from Matangi, near Hamilton, observed tui in his garden for the first time in 20 years.”

Other native birds spotted include stitchbirds (hihi) and kaka in Wellington, and red-crowned parakeets (kakariki) in Auckland, the Wairarapa and the Kapiti Coast. “One person reported that three kakariki came every day to eat crab apples in their rural Wairarapa garden.” Dr Spurr says the increasing number of native birds is probably related to better predator control by local and regional councils, and initiatives such as the Karori wildlife sanctuary (Zealandia) in Wellington. He says it’s also important to provide the right environment to attract native birds to your garden. Tui, bellbirds and stitchbirds, for example, eat fruit and the nectar in flowering plants. Good plants to attract these honeyeaters into your garden include flax (harakeke), kowhai and fuchsia, which flower in early spring. Plants such as coprosma, five finger and fuchsia also provide fruit during the winter. Introduced plants such as abutilon, banksia, protea, and red hot poker are also a source of nectar during winter.

Top 10 garden birds in 2009

Top five native birds in 2009

(average number per garden)

This year’s Garden Bird Survey form – page 33.

House sparrow

12.1

Silvereye

6.3

Silvereye

6.3

Tui

1.4

Starling

3.3

Fantail

1.0

Blackbird

2.7

Bellbird

0.4

Tui

1.4

Kereru

0.3

Myna

1.0

Fantail

1.0

Chaffinch

0.9

Song thrush

0.9

Goldfinch

0.8

| Forest & Bird

The next Garden Bird Survey will be held between June 26 and July 4 this year.

For the full report of the 2009 garden bird survey, visit www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/ biocons/gardenbird/

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Marine BioBlitz creature named N

ew Zealand’s first named acoel (pronounced “ay-seal”) flatworm has been found in Wellington’s Taputeranga Marine Reserve. Although tiny – just 7 millimetres when stretched out to crawl – it is brilliant scarlet and easily seen on the undersides of seashore rocks in the marine reserve. The species was discovered in October 2007 during New Zealand’s first marine BioBlitz, organised by Forest & Bird. Throughout that month, people collected or photographed seaweeds, fish, many kinds of invertebrates and microscopic life and identified as many species as possible. At least 20 new species were discovered, including the scarlet acoel. Many species of acoels are believed to live on New Zealand’s shores and seafloor. What makes the group interesting is its relative simplicity and ancient character. NIWA scientist Dennis Gordon was initially puzzled when he discovered the new creature – it was unlike anything he’d seen before and evidently new to science. It was sent to Austrian expert Johannes Achatz, who named it Polychoerus gordoni. One of the lessons of the BioBlitz is that New Zealand’s marine life is a long way from being fully documented and many more discoveries are in store. There are no New Zealand acoel experts and only a handful worldwide. Worryingly, the number of experts who do the work of taxonomy – the fundamental science of classifying and naming life – is at its lowest level since World War II.

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Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Rolling out the green carpet

he green carpet will be back at this year’s Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival in Palmerston North – this time with a pattern in it. Warren Jones, director of the two-week festival, says the 15-metre-long grass carpet that will lead guests into the awards ceremony on May 22 will be decorated with the festival logo. “We’re not sure how we’ll do it yet,” he says. “I have wondered whether I should just go down and crop the logo into the carpet with a pair of scissors. But more likely we’ll use some kind of vegetable dye – which will, of course, be totally organic and environmentally friendly. But however we end up doing it, the logo will definitely be there on the night.” Among those who will make their way down the green carpet is environmentally committed actress Robyn Malcolm, who will once again MC the awards ceremony. Wellington band The Black Seeds will also appear, along with guest speaker Vincent LaForet, a French-American photojournalist and film-maker. All the winning films will be screened at the Palmerston North’s Downtown Cinemas between May 23 and June 5. They will then go on tour around New Zealand. This year, for the first time, a 90-minute package of Reel Earth highlights will be shown at up to 2000 schools. Reel Earth has been held annually in Palmerston North since 2005, and is now the largest environmental film festival in the southern hemisphere. This year’s Reel Earth has attracted more than 200 entries from 36 countries – a similar number to the 2009 festival. However, the combined production budget is more than $75 million, compared with $50 million for last year’s entries. “Our goal is that three years from now Reel Earth will be one of the top five environmental film festivals globally”, Mr Jones says. n Ruth Nichol

www.reelearth.org.nz

Readership survey Thank you to the hundreds of readers who returned the readership survey in the February Forest & Bird magazine. Your responses will help us improve the magazine and Forest & Bird’s services to members. The winners of the 10 copies of Wild Encounters book are: K H Turner, Waitakere City; Rachel Coxhead, Havelock North; Rita Wilkes, Whangaparaoa; Judy Cunningham, New Plymouth; Wendy Berger, Pakistan; R J Long, Whangarei; Maxwell Watkins, North Shore; Carol Booth; Taradale; L Prince, Rotorua; Gaye Mountfort, Stoke. And the winner of Where to See Birds in Victoria, edited by Tim Dolby, Penny Johns and Sally Symonds, is Liz Wallace, Christchurch. Your books will be posted. 12

| Forest & Bird

Ruapehu lodge takes shape F

orest & Bird’s new Ruapehu lodge is well on the way to completion, and expected to open in late winter. Building consent was slightly delayed over summer, but pre-building was completed at Stanley Modular in Matamata. In early April the concrete footing was poured, floor panels laid and walls erected. Structural work was expected to be completed in May. Forest & Bird members and branches made generous donations to the rebuilding project, but there is still a $200,000 shortfall to finish and furnish the lodge. Bookings for the lodge open on August 1. The original lodge burnt down in October 2008. n Jon Wenham

Pacific work and play J

oin a Forest & Bird trip to Vanuatu this winter to warm up and do your bit for conservation in the Pacific. Forest & Bird Field Officer Sue Maturin’s trip to the Vatthe Conservation Area on the island of Espiritu Santo also allows time to relax after working in the bush along aside local teams to control a rampant convolvulus vine, known as big leaf (Merremia peltata), which is threatening Vatthe’s native forest. The tour group stays in a remote village, and members get to explore Vatthe’s tropical forest and marine life on the shores of Matantas; snorkel over coral reefs, experience cultural events and visit the live volcano on Tanna Island. The trip departs on 18 July, 2010, with a limit of 12 people. For more information or to book contact Sue Maturin – s.maturin@forestandbird.org.nz, PO Box 6230, Dunedin, Phone 03 477 9677.

JS Watson Trust grants for nature Robins, geckos, saddlebacks, tuatara, native fish, blackfronted terns, frogs and dolphins were among the wildlife to benefit from JS Watson Trust grants last year. The trust, administered by Forest & Bird, funds projects that support the conservation and understanding of plants, animals and natural features of New Zealand. Applications for grants for this year close 4 June 2010. You can download an application form at www.forestandbird.org.nz, or contact Forest & Bird’s national office on 04 385 7374.

Projects which received funding in the 2008–2009 year were: Assessment of acoustic anchoring in conservation of NZ robins

$3000 (David Bradley)

Study of interactions between ship rats and house mice

$3000 (Lucy Bridgman)

Study of impact on tuatara of sharing burrows with seabirds

$3000 (Ilse Corkery)

Study of diphacinone poisoning of short-tailed bats

$3700 (Gillian Dennis)

Study of translocations and genetic bottlenecks in NZ robin populations

$4000 (Sol Heber)

Research into impact of translocations on saddleback populations

$500 (Bryce Masuda)

A guide to setting up public displays of native fish

$2000 (Stella McQueen)

Investigation of survey techniques to detect jewelled geckos

$1323 (Rosemarie Muller)

Removal of wilding pines at Wakatipu

$2000 (Briana O’Brien)

Study of the interaction between braided river water flow and island formation, predation and impact on black-fronted terns, Rangitata River

$3000 (Georgina Pickerell)

Southland Community Nursery website

$3500 (Chris and Brian Rance)

Survey of frogs for presence of a fungus believed to be causing decline of frog populations

$2500 (Stephanie Shaw)

Assessment of deaths of common dolphins in recreational set nets

$4000 (Karen Ann Stockin)

Establishment of NZ robins in predator-controlled sanctuary

$3000 (John Sumich)

Study into genetics and inbreeding of SI robins

$2900 (Sheena Townsend)

Study into genetics of Chatham Island tui

$3800 (Sarah Wells)

1 4

1 Saddleback. Photo Marguerite Quin 2 Jewelled gecko. Photo Rosemary Muller 3 Tuatara. Photo Chris Turner 4 South Island robin. Photo DOC 5 Black-fronted tern. Photo Tom Marshall

5 Forest & Bird

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BIG THE

1 14

| Forest & Bird

DIG Forest & Bird is leading the drive to protect national parks from Government plans to mine them, Marina Skinner reports.

housands of New Zealanders have rallied against Government plans to open up national parks and other top conservation land to mining. Forest & Bird has played a significant role in the debate and the call to action to protect New Zealand’s most precious areas. On March 14, Forest & Bird revealed the Government’s plans to allow mining in 7000 hectares of conservation land until now protected under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. Forest & Bird revealed that the Government had scaled back and delayed announcing its plans because of public opposition to Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee’s announcement last year of a mining “stocktake”. Forest & Bird also disclosed the Government’s plans to survey hundreds of thousands of hectares of other national parks and prime conservation areas for their mining potential. New Zealand’s most important conservation land has been safeguarded from mining since 1997 when the previous National government created Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. When the Government finally announced its mining plans on March 22, it tried to soften the blow by including news of a conservation fund and other areas to be added to Schedule 4 protection. These areas had simply been waiting for official protection since the last review of Schedule 4 in 2008. The conservation fund seems a perverse way of doing conservation work – destroy conservation areas then use the fund to try to restore them. Prime Minister John Key talked about “surgical” techniques to mine conservation land without doing much damage. However, the minerals targeted by the Government are found in low concentrations so open-cast mining – not “surgical” mining – is the most likely way to extract them. “In New Zealand, you get an average 3 grams of gold for every 1400 kilograms of rock that’s dug up. A mining company is not going to drill small, unobtrusive holes to process huge quantities of rock,” Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says.

“In Paparoa National Park, for example, river terraces are being looked at. Open-cast mining is the only way to get at any coal or gold there,” he says. Forest & Bird members and many other New Zealanders have spoken up to oppose the Government’s plans. Hundreds of people marched in anti-mining rallies around New Zealand and thousands of submissions were made against the Government plans before May 26. Forest & Bird led much media coverage of the issue, with Kevin Hackwell and new Conservation Advocate Quentin Duthie interviewed on TV, radio and reported in newspapers across the country. The Government’s plans are an unprecedented attack on New Zealand’s most precious natural landscapes, plants and creatures, and Forest & Bird will continue the fight to protect them from mining. “In the search for economic growth, we need to focus on our strengths,” Hackwell says. “There is no comparison with the scale of minerals in Australia and we should not just try to follow them. Our brand is 100% Pure New Zealand. We need to be smarter in our use of conservation land. Conservation, recreation and tourism will make far higher long-term returns and create many more jobs than destructive, short-term mining.” 1 Martha open pit mine at Waihi is a graphic example of the damage a mine can cause. Photos: Kim Westerskov 2 Waste rock and chemicals from the Martha mine is carried to the tailings dams several kilometres away. The dams hold a toxic legacy, and around the world are many examples of chemicals leaking from dams.

2 Forest & Bird

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Te Puke mine rings

alarm bells

Forest & Bird has spent years trying to protect rare native frogs from a mine operator on Te Puke conservation land. Ruth Nichol looks at what could be in store for other precious conservation areas.

quarry on conservation land near Te Puke offers an alarming glimpse of the future if mining in national parks goes ahead. Earthworks by the quarry owner have damaged the habitat of rare native Hochstetter’s frogs there, but DOC and Environment Bay of Plenty (EBOP) have not taken adequate steps to make the owner fix the damage. Members of Forest & Bird’s Te Puke branch discovered the genetically distinct Otawa Hochstetter’s frogs on a field trip in May 1992 and they have been fighting to save their habitat ever since. Hochstetter’s frogs do not have a tadpole stage or live in the water, though they do need to stay damp. Forest & Bird Central North Island Al Fleming believes the failure of DOC and EBOP to protect the frogs’ habitat is an indication of what could happen if mining is allowed to go ahead on prime conservation land. “In terms of Schedule 4 land, DOC and the regional councils have a shared responsibility to protect the environment and make sure the mining companies meet the requirements of their permits and consents. But on the basis of what has happened at Te Puke, I don’t have a lot of faith in their ability to do that.” The quarry, 12 kilometres south of Te Puke, is owned by Te Puke Stone Enterprises. Quarry owner Con Puckey was given a mining licence by the former Mines Department more than 30 years ago, but because of a long-running dispute with DOC he has not mined the land for many years. However, Puckey has undertaken earthworks on the site, and this work particularly concerns Fleming and members of the Te Puke and Tauranga branches of Forest & Bird. Puckey cleared vegetation and dumped soil in a protected, 20-metre buffer zone next to the Raparapahoe Stream, which is home to the endangered frogs. This work was in breach of Puckey’s access arrangement with DOC, which says he cannot clear vegetation from the buffer zone. 16

| Forest & Bird

Fleming believes it also breaches EBOP’s regional soil and land plan. Fleming says Puckey has effectively destroyed the buffer zone, which is needed to help preserve the frogs’ habitat and stop sediment entering the stream. “The work Mr Puckey has done on the buffer zone can adversely affect the frogs in several ways. It can crush them, and it also destroys the vegetation that provides shade for the frogs, and for the invertebrates, such as insects that the frogs feed on.” Sediment entering the stream reduces the oxygen content in the water, which makes it harder for the frogs’ eggs to get the oxygen they need to hatch. Fleming says preserving the frogs is particularly important because they are genetically distinct from other Hochstetter’s frogs. “Once the frogs on the Te Puke site are gone, they will be gone forever.” As well as destroying the buffer zone, Puckey has carried out earthworks elsewhere on the quarry site. This caused land slips and led to more sediment entering the stream. DOC subsequently told Mr Puckey he would have to restore the buffer zone, and Environment Bay of Plenty issued an offence notice against him for dumping slip material into the stream. However, rather than enforcing their requirements, both organisations have now agreed that the affected areas can be left to “rejuvenate naturally”. This goes against Forest & Bird’s recommendation that the land should be stabilised and replanted with native plants sourced from local seed stocks. When Fleming visited the site in March he found that weeds had already started to colonise the buffer zones. During a visit to the quarry last year Puckey let down a tyre on Fleming’s car; he received diversion at Tauranga District Court after being charged with unauthorised tampering with a vehicle.

Fleming says the problems at the Te Puke quarry are an example of the difficulties associated with mining licences issued as recently as 2006. A recent report by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright also called for a review of old mining licences to overhaul weak environmental safeguards from a bygone era. But Fleming’s real concern is that it also shows what could happen if mining goes ahead on land currently protected by Schedule 4. “This is an example of where mining has already been allowed on conservation land, and DOC and Environment Bay of Plenty are not making sure the owner meets his obligations to protect the environment.” 1 Earthworks at the Te Puke quarry have caused slips and led to sediment running into a stream where Hochstetter’s frogs live. Photo: Al Fleming 2 Mining targets, Gog and Magog in Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island. Photo: Craig Potton 3 Coromandel’s Otahu Ecological Area. Photo: Kim Westerskov

7000

hectares to be removed from Schedule 4 protection immediately: Great Barrier Island – 700ha of Te Ahumata Plateau Coromandel – Otahu and Parakawai ecological areas plus 2500ha near Thames Paparoa National Park – 3000ha of the Inangahua sector

The Government will spend

$4 million

this year looking at the mining potential of: Parts of Northland Most of Coromandel Peninsula Central North Island areas Dun Mountain area, east of Nelson Inland Kaikoura Range South Westland Longwood Range, Southland Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island

What you can do • Send the postcard included with this magazine to John Key • Write letters to the editor • Phone talkback radio • Post online comments • Encourage friends and family to join Forest & Bird – we need financial support to advocate successfully to protect national parks

Lessons from the past Long-time Forest & Bird member Isobel Thompson says the environmental damage caused by historic mines in the Coromandel is an example of what could happen if mining goes ahead on top conservation land. Thompson, who was the Forest & Bird representative on the Coromandel State Forest Park Advisory Committee from 1983 until 1990, says her time on the committee gave her an insight into the long-term environment impacts of mining. “I soon learned about the lasting effects of mining,” she say. In particular, she is concerned about the effect that the pollutants from mining can have on streams and freshwater life. During the seven years she spent on the advisory committee she saw toxic waste seeping from the tailings of disused Coromandel gold mines dating from the 19th and early 20th century. “You would see it trickling down in a messy, semiliquid,” she says. “It makes its way into the streams and then into the sea. I was told at the time that you should never eat fish more than five years old from the Firth of Thames because of mineral poisoning.” Among the historic mines that were still causing water quality problems in the 1980s were those at Maratoto and Waiomu. Thompson, who has been involved with Forest & Bird for most of her 89 years, believes that the lessons from these old mines are relevant today. “What happened in the Coromandel is what would happen anywhere where they were doing rock extraction,” she says. “The mining companies talk about water quality, and that they are going to do all these things to protect it and take care of it, but I just don’t think they can. I’m sure modern mines are slightly better than they used to be, but there is always the danger of toxic waste seeping out – it’s bound to happen somewhere.” She is horrified that mining in the Coromandel is back on the agenda again. She thought the decades-long battle to protect the Coromandel was finally over when all coastal and conservation land north of the Kopu-Hikuai Road was included in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act in 1997. “I was delighted when that happened, and I thought the battle had been won, and that the area would be protected forever,” she says. “I am absolutely horrified to think they might go back to those areas that we battled so hard to protect. “I just can’t understand why the Government is looking at mining on conservation land, rather than in areas that do not have special environmental values.” n Ruth Nichol Forest & Bird

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Sky 18

| Forest & Bird

1, 2 Gannets coming into land at the Cape Kidnappers colony.

2 CAPE KIDNAPPERS

Along New Zealand’s coast, the domestic life of gannets is on display. By Sophie Bond. Photos by Jordan Kappely.

he first glimpse of a gannet colony is a truly fantastic sight: thousands of elegant golden and white birds, perfectly spaced, each sitting atop a little mound of a nest. In winter, when the birds are far away and fishing, the empty colony is just as striking: barren and exposed, the ground is covered in uniform hollows. The Australasian gannet, Morus serrator, is usually found living in large colonies on offshore islands of New Zealand and Australia. Called takapu in Maori, it is one of three species of gannet and belongs to the booby family. Gannets spend most of their life at sea, feeding on fish and squid with the help of their remarkable diving abilities. Dropping from heights as great as 30 metres, at speeds of up to 145kmh, they tuck their wings in close to the body as they slice into the water. Their torpedo-like shape and

egg, and if the first of the season fails to hatch, they will lay a second. Their nests are mounds of dried seaweed, compacted into a raised crater shape. One partner will travel as far as 100km to get food while the other minds the nest. New Zealand has the largest and most accessible mainland gannet colony in the world: Cape Kidnappers in Hawke’s Bay. Gannets have been nesting there since the 1870s and it’s estimated that today about 20,000 birds are found there. Protection of Cape Kidnappers gannets began in 1924, a decade after the land housing the main colony was gifted to the Crown by the station owner. A board was set up and wardens were appointed to keep an eye on the colonies. Birds were frequently found shot at the cape until Junior Wildlife Wardens came to the rescue. The young wardens would patrol the cape every weekend and holiday, based in tents until an eight-room bunkhouse was built. The Department of Conservation now manages the 13-hectare reserve, which is made up of the Saddle, Black Reef and Whalebone Beach colonies. The Plateau colony is on private land but is also protected. Gannets also breed on the mainland at Muriwai in West Auckland (where a reserve was established in 1979 with input from Forest & Bird) and at Farewell Spit at the top of the South Island. The Muriwai gannets can be seen from a walking track around the coast, and those at Farewell Spit can be visited on eco-tours.

divers speed means they can plunge up to 43m into the water in a single dive. Their natural airbags – inflatable air sacs beneath the skin on the lower neck and breast – absorb the shock of the dive. At just four months old gannet chicks set out on their first flight, a 2800km journey across the Tasman. After three or four years they will return to their birthplace to find a mate and breed. Parents take turns to incubate a single

Forest & Bird

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Auckland PhD candidate Stephanie Ismar has spent more time than most with the Cape Kidnappers gannets. She is studying the foraging and breeding success of the gannets and says relatively little is known about them. She is in her third year of monitoring the gannets: putting bands on the fledglings, taking measurements and tracking their flight paths. “They are very territorial and defensive of their homes – as far as a gannet’s beak can reach, that is his territory and if anyone or anything else gets near to his nest site it’s a potential intruder.” She says birds will always come back to their nesting site and it’s extremely rare for one to switch colonies. “The gannets have some very interesting habits. They preen their mates and have a lovely fencing ritual where they rub their beaks against each other.” An unseasonably cold spring last year set the breeding schedule back about five weeks. The first round of eggs at all the Cape Kidnappers Reserve colonies was lost and

parents had to incubate a second round. Much of the original coastal vegetation at the cape has been depleted. Replanting is under way in the Cape Kidnappers and Ocean Beach Wildlife Preserve – a 2200ha, predator-free area at the cape, which provides a haven for the reserve colonies. There is also careful control of weeds including nettle and boxthorne. Overall, the gannets’ future is looking bright, and numbers at the Cape Kidnappers Reserve are increasing by about 2 per cent a year. The greatest threat to gannets is from ocean pollution: oil spills and the flotilla of plastic junk in our waters. Like other species that depend on the sea for their survival, the gannets face depleted food stocks. There are some fishing restrictions around the reserve and ships must keep at least 9.5km from Cape Kidnappers. The gannets that nest on our coasts give us a fantastic opportunity to see communal birdlife in action.

3, 4, 5, 7 Gannets at work and play – courting and nest building. 6 Photographer Jordan Kappely takes a closer look at the gannet colony.

| Forest & Bird

So you want to see a gannet The best time to see gannets is from early November to late February. Some gannets will return to their colony in July, but nesting really kicks off in mid-September. Cape Kidnappers gives the most impressive gannet experience. You can’t walk among the gannets but you can see them nesting in their natural setting. From Clifton, drive to Scotsman’s Point to park. At low tide, you can walk along the beach to see the Black Reef colony. Guided tours also operate. Outside the reserve, on private land, is the Plateau colony which has track access and can be seen from the hillside above. Public access to the Plateau colony is closed from July 1 to Labour Weekend to avoid disturbing the gannets during courtship and early nesting. 6

Please don’t eat the gannets The Australasian gannet’s first acquaintance with Europeans in New Zealand was a festive one, though the gannets may not have seen it that way, given that they were Christmas dinner for Captain Cook’s crew on board the Endeavour in 1769. Joseph Banks’s diary records the event: “24th December 1769. Land in sight. An island or rather several small ones, most probably the Three Kings. From a boat they killed several gannets or solan geese, so like European ones that they are hardly distinguishable from them. As it was the humour of the ship to keep Christmas in the old-fashioned way, it was resolved to make goose pie for tomorrow’s dinner. “25th, Christmas Day: Our goose pie was eaten with great approbation; in the evening all hands were as drunk as our forefathers used to be upon like occasions.”

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1080 26.6 million chicks and eggs every season will fall victim to possums, rats, mice, stoats, ferrets and cats. 1 22

| Forest & Bird

four numbers that add up to bird life Dave Hansford crunches the numbers on the carnage introduced pests cause to native birds, and the value of 1080.

andcare Research ecologist John Innes has some chilling maths about native birds. About 30 million of them try to nest in forests every season. But 26.6 million chicks and eggs every season will fall victim to possums, rats, mice, stoats, ferrets and cats. Add the adult females killed sitting on the nest, and it’s a wonder we have any native birds left at all, says Innes. Possibly the only thing keeping our wildlife from looming extinction is 1080, or sodium monofluoroacetate. The Department of Conservation spreads it over more than half a million hectares every year in a bid to keep mohua, kiwi, kakariki, pateke, whio and an aviary of others safe from the teeth and claws of introduced pests. But is 1080 all that stands between them and oblivion? No, says DOC 1080 spokesperson John Cumberpatch. “But it’s the most cost effective, most efficient method we have to control pests.” 1080, applied by helicopter or hand, might have been designed for pest control in New Zealand. It’s highly effective against mammals. Refined application techniques and dirty tricks such as non-toxic pre-feeds to lull pests into scoffing baits have seen kill rates of possums soar to 98 per cent. The zinger with 1080 is that, at no extra cost, it also kills rats (again, with tolls in the high 90 per cents) and the stoats and feral cats that feed on their corpses. Because we only have two native terrestrial mammals (long-tailed and short-tailed bats, and studies have shown that they’re not seriously affected by 1080) we can apply the toxin with a degree of confidence other countries with populations of threatened native mammals, such as Australia, cannot. This is why New Zealand is among the world’s biggest 1080 users. DOC knows 1080 works because it lays down tracking tunnels – baited, ink-filled stations that record the footprints of any visitors – before and after poison operations. It also measures the leafiness of possums’ favoured trees with a reckoning called a Foliar Browse Index. DOC points to reams of pest kill rates to justify using 1080. Kakapo recovery programme chief scientist Graeme

Elliott says: “We know 1080 does a good job of killing rats and stoats, so one expects it to have a benefit. But unless the operations are timed to coincide with spikes in rat and stoat numbers, and unless they happen more frequently than once every six or seven years, then the benefits to birds won’t be as great as they could be.” A well-organised anti-1080 lobby argues 1080 is killing more native birds than it’s purported to save. That charge was probably never true, even in the bad old days in the 1970s of coarsely chopped, bright orange carrot baits and raspberry lure that birds found irresistible. DOC scientists have never denied that birds died in big numbers after some early operations but it’s important to realise the loss of individuals doesn’t necessarily translate into an impact on bird populations. In 1996, a 1080 drop in Pureora killed an estimated 54 per cent of robins, because, says now-retired DOC researcher Ralph Powlesland, “protocols were not stuck to. There was a lot of chaff [poorly screened baits] and the operational manager subsequently lost his job.” Another Pureora operation the following year killed 11 of 14 monitored tomtits, but since the chaff problem was rectified, birds have fared much better in the wake of 1080 drops. A switch to cereal baits and more even application rates saw tomtit losses plummet. No monitored tomtits died after a 1998 cereal bait operation at Pureora. Powlesland’s Pureora studies found robin nesting success after another 1080 operation jumped from 11 per cent to 72 per cent, with the loss of not a single female. Before the 1080 drop, robins were struggling to fledge an average of 0.4 chicks per nesting attempt. After it, they raised 3.7 chicks. “The difference is like chalk and cheese, and the evidence is the population one year later,” he says. More importantly, the proportion of females counted jumped nearly 10 per cent. That’s important when you 1 Yellowhead (mohua) have raised far more chicks when rats have been controlled with aerial 1080 in the Catlins. Photo: Rod Morris 2 Possums eat the eggs of native birds as well as plants. Photo: Nga Manu Images

Forest & Bird

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consider that predation by possums, stoats and rats disproportionately affects females, which are often killed while incubating eggs on the nest. As a result, sex ratios can be badly skewed, says Powlesland. “People still report seeing big flocks of kaka. What they don’t realise is that 90 per cent of that flock might be male.” That’s not so at Pureora, where kaka numbers increased by a third after a 1080 drop in 2001. Twenty birds were radio-tagged before the operation and all survived. At nearby Waimanoa Forest, five out of nine monitored female kaka were killed by stoats at the nest. Because 1080’s killing power depends on the ratio of poison ingested to body weight, heavier birds are generally less susceptible to 1080 poisoning, but they’re far from immune, as DOC discovered in 2008, when seven kea died after eating 1080 baits at Franz Josef. DOC has kept tabs on other large species throughout 1080 operations. Seven moreporks were radio-tagged before a 1080 operation along the Saxon River in Kahurangi in 1994, and were still alive and well a month later. Elsewhere, moreporks have died, possibly after eating poisoned invertebrates. A study between 1998 and 2002 followed the fate of kereru and kaka before and after an aerial 1080 carrot operation in Whirinaki Forest. Radio transmitters were fitted to birds inside and outside the drop zone, and monitored for a fortnight after the drop. None of the 17 tagged kaka, nor the 15 kereru died. In total, 73 kaka have been radio-tagged and monitored through four 1080 drops – in two studies they were monitored for a year afterwards – and not one died from 1080 poisoning, says Powlesland. Weka are known to eat carrot and cereal baits, and a bird was found dead after a 1080 operation in 1994 on the Gouland Downs, in Kahurangi National Park, in August 1994. Twenty-three other radio-tagged weka were followed for at least four weeks after the drop. Eight radio-tagged weka were monitored through aerial application of 1080 at Rotomanu, on the West Coast, in 1994, and all survived. More instructive are the findings of a 2000 study in the Copland Valley, where 1080 didn’t kill any of 15 radiotagged weka, but stoats dispatched five. DOC has never denied some native birds die in 1080 operations – particularly those by the Animal Health Board, which still sometimes uses carrot baits because they get a better possum kill – but many studies have shown that, while a few individuals may die, populations surge in the respite a well-timed 1080 operation gives them from the teeth and claws of pests. Nowhere has this been better demonstrated than Tongariro Forest, where, in 2004, Alison Beath started counting whio along the reaches of the Whakapapa, Tongariro and Manganui-o-te-ao rivers that drain the central North Island volcanoes of their snow melt. Beath, DOC’s whio recovery team leader, dolefully recorded 10 pairs lost every last duckling to stoats that year. In 2006, the department began an aerial 1080 operation over the Tongariro Forest, and gathered hard beforeand-after data. Whio duckling survival promptly doubled, and kiwi fledging soared from 27 per cent to 69 per cent. 24

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3 A stoat outside its den with a captured kereru. Photo: Rod Morris 4 Ship rats on the forest floor. Photo: Rod Morris 5 Southern rata brightens up Otira Gorge.

Otira paints the town red Otira settlement, in Arthur’s Pass, celebrated a bumper blossom of rata last summer, and it’s all thanks to pest control. The mountains glowed with the red bloom that many locals rated the best in living memory. Department of Conservation staff and locals set up a marquee at Otira in February to mark the area as the rata capital of the world. Pest control has been under way in the area since the 1960s, and possum numbers have been kept low enough to protect the rata foliage. Nearby valleys without pest control have been reduced to forests of skeletons and the occasional rata survivor. Possum control happens once every four or five years using ground control at Otira and aerial 1080 in the inaccessible areas.

Fantails enjoyed the same respite – nesting success doubling to nearly 42 per cent. Subsequent monitoring challenges claims from the anti-1080 lobby that pests can be controlled by trapping alone. After the 2006 drop, DOC ran 650 rat and stoats traps to keep the pressure on pests knocked down by the 1080 operation. Despite fortnightly tending during the birds’ breeding season, losses have inexorably mounted. Kiwi breeding success has slumped to 23 per cent. Fantails’ fortunes have taken a similar tumble, down last season to 23.8 per cent. Another 1080 operation is scheduled for 2011. Perhaps the biggest lesson from the Tongariro Forest monitoring is the value of doing more of it. The costs of not controlling pests are already well-documented. Graeme Elliott says: “We know how many mohua we’d normally lose if we didn’t do any pest control – we’ve measured that over and over again. Normally, we would lose around two-thirds of nests.” By protecting mohua with a combination of traps and aerial 1080, nesting success in the Dart Valley and the Catlins jumped to 76 per cent between 2006 and 2009. Other studies show Powelliphanta snails increased by 43 per cent in the Wakamarama Range in Kahurangi National Park, and kereru counts increased from 29 to 142 at Kaitoke Regional Park near Wellington, after 1080 operations. More before-and-after population studies are needed. “The trouble with science is that you can’t do it in a week – it takes three to five years,” says Cumberpatch. “But it’s a no-brainer. We know from simple stuff like fiveminute bird counts that within 12 to 18 months there’s an enormous change. It’s the gut reaction of experienced field operational staff who have been doing this stuff for 20, 30 years. We know that they can go to a forest these days, and they’ll tell you that 10 years ago that forest was silent.” Last summer DOC launched a programme to monitor birds, vegetation, weta and pests before and after 1080 operations in treated and untreated blocks in the Tararua Range north-east of Wellington, in South Westland, and in another as-yet-undetermined locale. “We’re using electronics to count everything,” says Elliott. Hard data won’t come a moment too soon to counter misinformation from the anti-1080 lobby.

The real 1080 story

DOC has produced a 12-page booklet – Protecting our Native Wildlife – and a DVD – 1080: Good News for Conservation DVD – to show the value of 1080 in protecting native bird life. For copies, contact your local DOC office or Forest & Bird’s Wellington office.

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The Department of Conservation hopes its new pest control project in the Tararua Ranges will bring kaka back. Photo: Tom Lynch

Tararua Ranges put to the test

Aalbert Rebergen looks at a project that aims to return kaka to Wellington’s wilderness playground.

n early 2002 I flew into the Tararua Forest Park with three Department of Conservation colleagues to monitor fuchsia plots. They had been established years earlier to measure possum control because fuchsia is a favoured food for possums. We planned to be in the hills for a few days but the trip ended badly after I was knocked out by a falling rock and a colleague became ill. We both had to be flown out early. That monitoring trip wasn’t the only failure in attempts to restore the health of the Tararua Forest Park. DOC has concluded that there is little or no proof that pest control operations have succeeded in anything but protecting the forest canopy. The forest might look nice but it has little indigenous wildlife. The six-yearly cycle of aerial possum control was not followed up by ecological monitoring (other than the fuchsia plots), so there is no information about birds and other wildlife, other than some anecdotal evidence. Sensitive birds such as kakariki, kaka and rifleman are now rare in the Tararua Ranges. There are almost no records of skinks and geckos, and the area is a black hole on the lizard distribution map. Last year DOC’s Wellington conservancy launched

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Project Kaka, a new pest control strategy for the Tararua Ranges. About one-third (22,000 hectares) of the forest park will receive three-yearly aerial pest control, supported by rigorous monitoring. Baseline ecological monitoring started last spring, led by former Forest & Bird Lower North Island field officer James Griffiths. Tararua Forest Park has an abundance of rats, which is why native birds and other creatures are so hard to find. Project Kaka hopes to transform the area into a forest teeming with kererü, tüï, bellbird, whitehead, tomtit, rifleman and käkäriki. Maybe käkä will return from nearby Kapiti Island and Pukaha Mount Bruce, and perhaps one day locally extinct birds such as robin, whio (blue duck) and kiwi will be re-introduced. Forest & Bird’s Wairarapa branch and Masterton Tramping Club will do ground-based pest control in the Mt Holdsworth area, the most popular way into the Tararuas. With one-third of the forest park receiving more intensive pest control, what is happening to the rest? All DOC pest control will stop in these areas in the northern and southern parts of the Tararua Ranges , and possums, deer, rats and all the other pests will be allowed to build up and reach some sort of “balance”.

Tararua Forest Park

Kapiti Island

Pukaha Mount Bruce

Project Kaka Zone (22,000 ha)

TARARUA FOREST PARK

The Project Kaka area will end up surrounded by forest with possibly very high pest densities. Pest animals are expected to deplete the forest in non-controlled areas and there is likely to be constant migration of pest animals into the Project Kaka area and surrounding farm land. It is important that ecological monitoring takes place in “abandoned” forest areas, and that a date is set to review the non-treatment. DOC doesn’t have the money to intensively control pests everywhere in the Tararuas. It has chosen to change the old, little-tested aerial possum control strategy to a new one. The crucial aspect of Project Kaka will be the ecological monitoring and the ability to draw conclusions from it. There are serious concerns about abandoning pest control in most of the forest park but Project Kaka signals a new approach to large-scale pest management, with quality ecological monitoring. Ecological monitoring is often only a tiny part of conservation management, and sometimes it’s completely absent. Project Kaka may set a new trend. Aalbert Rebergen is Forest & Bird’s Lower North Island Field Officer. DOC wants to know if you see falcon, käkä, käkäriki and other rare wildlife in Tararua Forest Park – see www.doc.govt.nz

YOU CAN’T CUT DOWN A FAMILY TREE Leave a gift in your WiLL that WiLL Last forever A gift in your will can help make sure our native trees will be here for generations. Help us continue the work of protecting and nurturing all our indigenous animals and plants for many years to come. Bequests can be made to “Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated”. For a copy of our bequest brochure or to discuss leaving a gift in your will, please contact Kerin Welford, Senior Fundraiser. • • • •

0800 200 064 k.welford@forestandbird.org.nz PO Box 631, Wellington, 6140 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Help give nature a voice. Help Forest & Bird Forest & Bird

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holidaying student from Germany, Thomas Mannl, is the overall winner of Forest & Bird’s Wild Rivers: Captured photo competition, with his photograph of the Waimakariri River. The competition attracted 140 stunning entries in two categories: with people and without people. Top wilderness photographer – and Forest & Bird Deputy President – Craig Potton was the judge. Mannl won a Leica D-Lux 4 camera (worth $1700) from Camera & Camera. Brendon Doran won a rugged Outdoor jacket ($700) from Bivouac for his winning photograph of Tutea Falls, on the Kaituna River. Jude Murdoch and

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Steve Butel both won copies of New Zealand’s Wilderness Heritage ($100) by Craig Potton and Les Molloy for their runner-up photographs in each category. The photo competition aimed to get people out and enjoying a wild river over summer. Demand for hydroelectricity and irrigation dams is threatening our few remaining wild rivers, and Forest & Bird has joined other conservation and recreation groups to protect them from development. More of the photograph entries will be selected for other wild river events and promotions this year. All winning photographers will be contacted.

This photo is dedicated to the memory of Robert Mannl, Thomas’s brother, who died suddenly while Thomas was holidaying in New Zealand.

WINNER: With people Thomas Mannl, on a 2½-month New Zealand holiday from Germany, won the people section for his photograph of the Waimakariri River. Judge Craig Potton named the photograph the overall winner of the competition. He was tramping in Arthur’s Pass National Park, following the Harmann Pass route, when he took the photo. “After cooking my dinner, I went back to the river to enjoy the feeling that this places creates,” he says. “It was beautiful to see how clear and pristine the water is in this area. “When I first started this tramp in Arthur’s Pass National Park, I was amazed at how huge the riverbed was and how little the river itself was. Now I know how quickly a wild river can change from a friendly stream to a huge wild river. And

now I can imagine how strong the Waimakariri will be at times of strong rain and snow melt. “Having these remote and untouched places where you can be at one with the surrounding wilderness is in my opinion New Zealand’s greatest gift. Being at places such as the Waimakariri creates a deep and long-lasting satisfaction inside me and lets my mind flow as free as the rivers themselves.” Craig Potton says: “This is one of those glorious fortuitous shots and, like all such shots, it’s very well planned. The lad’s top and trousers parallel the dark hill slopes and the grey river rocks. The water pulls right, he pulls left; the mountains converge … movement and stasis in the one image. There’s great exposure throughout.” Forest & Bird

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WINNER: Without people Brendon Doran, an IT worker of Lower Hutt won the without-people section with his photograph of Tutea Falls, on the Kaituna River in the Bay of Plenty. “We had watched two rafts head down the Kaituna River and hoped to catch them going down Tutea Falls, but missed out as we hadn’t been to the location before and weren’t sure where on the river the falls were. When we finally found the spot it was a great place for a photo. It had been raining and the river was running full; the overcast sky and wet foliage meant the shot came out rich in colour.” Doran was on a two-week holiday when he took the photo. “Getting outdoors is something I do in my spare time,” he says. “I’d say I’m a regular visitor to wild places – rivers or otherwise.” Craig Potton says: “It’s a wonderfully executed photo that kept my eyes wandering over the picture frame, entranced by the details. There’s a nice tension in the composition between thirds and halves. A great full frame feel.” RUNNER-UP: With people Jude Murdoch of Dunedin was runner-up in the section with people. He took the photograph of the Beansburn River about 6 kilometres from the head of the Beansburn Valley in Mount Aspiring National Park on a tramp. “Carrying full packs to tackle the famous Five Pass route and enduring hot February temperatures made this gorgeous little section of the river more than just a little appetising for a refreshing dip,” he says. Murdoch is a keen tramper, fisherman and outdoors enthusiast. Craig Potton comments: “This photo is very dynamic and shows a great use of strong colour.” 30

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The photo competition aimed to get people out and enjoying a wild river over summer.

RUNNER-UP: Without people Steve Butel of Cromwell was runner-up in the section without people with his shot of the Nevis River. “I walked and camped down most of the Nevis River in just over 16 days (in three trips) in late February and early March,” he says. “The first five days I went downstream from the crossing but didn’t make it all the way through as it got very hard to get down to the water because of the heavy scrub and steep banks.

“The next six days I went upstream until the river started to get quite small. And for the last five days I revisited the best spots under different lighting.” Craig Potton says: “A great control of wonderful colour. Everything is subtle. The river emerges from the vanishing point but the echo of the road above it is enough to stop a potential deadening effect.”

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New Zealand

Who s in your garden?

Aotearoa

GARDEN BIRD

SURVEY 2010 26 June - 4 July Landcare Research and Forest & Bird are asking for the public s help again this year in spotting birds in New Zealand gardens. Taking part is easy spend just 1 hour (that s 1 hour only) anytime between 26 June and 4 July looking for birds in your garden, parks or school grounds, and record the largest number of each species you see (or hear) at once. Please count not just tick the species you observe. The easy to follow guide below will help you identify most birds you are likely to see. Then fill in and return the survey form overleaf or enter your results online (which helps us to process the results faster and more easily) at: www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/ gardenbird/

Photographs by: Andrew Walmsley Tom Marshall Craig MacKenzie Brian Massa Roger South www.istock.com

Regularly updated survey results will be available on the same website, and will provide valuable information about bird populations, giving scientists an indication of which species may be in decline, helping guide conservation efforts for the future.

Bird Guide

(not to scale) Small birds 15cm or less

Medium-sized birds Up to 30cm

Large birds Over 30cm

House Sparrow (m)

House Sparrow (f)

Yellowhammer (m)

Yellowhammer (f)

Eastern Rosella

Tui

Kereru

Greenfinch (m)

Greenfinch (f)

Goldfinch

Dunnock

Song Thrush

Bellbird

Magpie

Chaffinch (m)

Chaffinch (f)

Redpoll

Fantail

Myna

Starling

Red-billed Gull

Silvereye

Welcome Swallow

Grey Warbler

Blackbird (f)

Blackbird (m)

Black-backed Gull

Survey Details Physical address where you did the survey: Number & Street

Suburb Town/City Region Postcode (please tick one) Rural Park Urban Park Children (<18)

Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Master (circle)

Adults

Rural School

Urban School

Description of survey area Urban garden Rural garden

How many took part? Contact Details First name Surname Number and street

Town/City Postcode Tel Email We will not give or sell your details to anyone else, we require them so we can contact you if necessary to clarify your results. If you prefer us not to contact you again, please tick here

Please re-fold leaflet and tape along edge before posting

Fix Stamp here

Eric Spurr New Zealand Garden Bird Survey 145 Ashley St Rangiora 7400

Time

Please do the survey for 1 hour only, between 26 June and 4 July 2010

Date of Survey

Grey Warbler

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Fantail

Dunnock

Chaffinch

Black-backed Gull

Blackbird

Bellbird

Welcome Swallow

Tui

Starling

Song Thrush

Silvereye

Rosella (Eastern)

Rock Pigeon

Red-billed Gull

Myna

Magpie

Write down the highest number of each species seen (or heard) at once during the hour (but do not enter zero if no birds)

House Sparrow

Yellowhammer

Yes

Other (please describe)

Bread

(species and number)

Kereru

Other birds seen during the hour

Seeds

Sugar-water

Do you feed birds? (please tick)

Fruit

If yes, what? (please tick)

Fat

Does your survey area include an area where you feed birds? (please tick)

So far, raTS HaVE alrEady WIPEd oUT 14 NaTIVE BIrd SPECIES. Along with stoats and possums, rats take a heavy toll on our native birds. Our forests wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be safe for kiwi, kokako, mohua and other birds until introduced predators are wiped out. Help give nature a voice. Help Forest & Bird. Join at forestandbird.org.nz

Photo: Nga Manu Images

going places Sophie Bond is blissfully adrift on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

Island castaways 1

here is something about an island that invokes romance and adventure. In part it’s the knowledge of being cut off from the rest of the world, and then there’s the possibility for exploration, for circumnavigation, for being cast away. For a honeymoon, what could be more perfect than a small island in the Marlborough Sounds, a house and our own private bay. Arapawa Island is about 15 kilometres from Picton as the crow flies. To its west is Queen Charlotte Sound and to the south the Tory Channel, which is on the sea route to Wellington. The 75-square-kilometre island is mostly covered in native bush and pine plantations. My new husband and I left Picton late in the afternoon. Our boat was not speedy and we puttered out in the gathering dusk, past green-clad hillsides. It was 90 minutes before we reached Big Dog Cove, on the northern side of Arapawa Island. Our captain – and island host – had spotted Dusky dolphins earlier that day and he made a small detour to find them again. One moment there were distant splashes close to shore, the next about two dozen dolphins surrounded the boat, weaving through the wake, leaping, twisting and slashing back into the sea. They were the perfect welcoming committee to our week of island life.

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Arapawa rises steeply from the sea, and for much of our stay the high points were dusted with cloud. The owners of our house were working to pull down the pines and muttered angrily about the erosion problems the plantations are causing. There was felling going on much further up the hill and the occasional grumble of machinery was the only disturbance of the peace. The native vegetation on the island represents remnants of forest once found all around the Cook Strait area – a mix of kohekohe, tawa and montane beech – and is completely free of possums. The Department of Conservation manages a scenic reserve at the north-eastern end of the island. This is partially fenced to keep wild pigs and goats from destroying regenerating forest. Arapawa is home to the native giant Powelliphanta snails and the unique green and yellow Marlborough gecko. The property we rented had been lovingly replanted with native trees, a vegetable garden and a small orchard. There were bugs and birds everywhere: jumping spiders in the toilet; weta in the porch; sandflies in the kitchen; cicada, butterflies and native wasps in the garden. And then there were the weka. We had been advised to keep doors closed and, sure enough, on the first evening we heard strange

scuttering movements outside the window and a low melodic call. We looked out to see first one, then five weka pacing around on the deck and gobbling up the last of the cat’s dinner. We were almost indignant to see a boat pull up at our jetty on day two. We were getting used to the total stillness – this was our slice of paradise. We trotted down to say hello. They were after Betty the Goat Lady so we shrugged and sent them on their way. Curious, I read up about Betty and her goats. Sadly, Betty passed away in 2008, but her goats live on – and not just any goats. Arapawa goats are believed to be survivors of an otherwise extinct old English breed, possibly descended from those released on the island by James Cook in 1773. In the 1970s, DOC began culling goats around and in the reserve. Appalled that a rare breed was under threat, Betty and husband Walt sprang into action and transformed their farm into a goat sanctuary. Though they fought a long battle to stop the culling, it continues to this day and the bush in the reserve is regenerating well. The Arapawa goats still seem to maintain a viable breeding population on the island, and they are now being bred in other parts of New Zealand to ensure genetic survival. Island life passed without cellphones, internet, traffic or television. We scrambled around the rocks gathering sea urchin shells, swam to the pontoon and watched boats out in the sound or rowed our dinghy out half a kilometre to a rocky islet. At dusk we wandered down to the jetty and sat, feet swinging, to feed the pet blue cod, summoned by the vibrations of our footsteps on the boards. If we stood at the water’s edge on the pebbly beach we could see the eagle rays a few feet out, hovering as they laid their eggs in the

pebbles or ‘flying’ smoothly through the water, their wing tips breaking the surface from time to time. The house owners had told us that by walking to the top of their property we could join up with the path leading to Cook’s lookout. This is the spot from where James Cook first saw 2 Cook Strait and realised New Zealand was not one island but two. We didn’t find the neatly trimmed path but instead took an unwanted shortcut through a tunnel of gorse – like the pines, it has really made itself at home on the island. We followed a track that led us into the next bay, and here we found sweeping views over turquoise waters with glimpses of roofs through the thick green bush. It was tranquil but far from silent. The cicadas drowned out conversation at times. When we moved out of the pines and into native bush they swooped around our heads. The thwack as they banged into our caps made us feel as though they were trying to scare us out of their hood. The final push to the lookout was tough work. We were relieved to find the lookout sign at the top of the steep and winding track, and we stood on the picnic table as the clouds rolled in from the north. We had about two minutes to look out beyond Blumine and Motuara islands and the waters of the strait. The North Island sat behind a bank of cloud. Then the rain began and we scribbled in the visitor book before scuttling home.

3 Getting to Arapawa Arapawa is reached by boat, and the most logical starting point is Picton. From here it is at least a 40-minute trip, depending on the part of the island you intend to visit. Several water taxi companies operate from Picton. There are no camping grounds, motels or hotels on the island, but a few baches are for rent via bookabach.co.nz. A homestay is on the southern side.

ARAPAWA ISLAND

1 A rocky islet a short row from Arapawa Island. Photos: Sophie Bond 2 Sea urchin shells gathered from rock pools. 3 At dusk, the jetty is the perfect spot to feed tame blue cod.

4 Weka will polish off the cat’s dinner if the cat is slow.

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• Ross Ice Shelf

ROSS SEA

New Zealand is leading the charge to fish unspoilt Antarctic waters. But a group of scientists is taking a stand to protect the Ross Sea. By Ange Davidson. Photos by John Weller.

Last chance for an T

he Ross Sea is the last ocean for Antarctic ecologist Dr David Ainley and his colleagues. It’s Earth’s only intact open-ocean ecosystem and the last natural laboratory to study fundamental ocean processes. And commercial fishing threatens its near-pristine waters. For the past 14 years, an international fleet has broken through the Ross Sea ice to fish Antarctic toothfish, a key predator in the ecosystem. New Zealand commercial interests, with the Government’s blessing, led the charge into these pristine waters in 1996. Since then, the floodgates have opened, with up to 20 ships from a dozen nations taking up to 3500 tonnes of Antarctic toothfish every year. Scientists have been alarmed to see 40-year-old fish being caught. “If fishing continues in the Ross Sea, the last chance to understand the complexity of a healthy ocean ecosystem will disappear forever,” Ainley says. The Antarctic toothfish fishery follows the near collapse of the Patagonian toothfish, its warmer-water relative. The Patagonian toothfish’s oily, moist flesh features on the menus of fashionable, pricey eateries overseas. Renamed Chilean Sea Bass for greater market appeal, it is the most

2 38

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ocean expensive white fish on the market and at NZ$50 a kilogram not a fish you will find on New Zealand dinner plates. Raising awareness of the Ross Sea’s dynamic ecosystem and the threat from fishing is The Last Ocean Charitable Trust’s mission. With several projects under way, including a documentary, a book, touring photographic exhibition and building a political campaign, it aims to have the Ross Sea safeguarded as a marine reserve. It would be administered by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which is part of the Antarctic Treaty System. Driving the project with Ainley is Christchurch documentary maker Peter Young and Colorado photographer/writer John Weller. Trust chairman is New Zealand ecologist Dr Peter Wilson who, like Ainley, has spent more than 20 seasons working in the Ross Sea. Young and Weller have filmed and photographed in the Ross Sea for the Last Ocean campaign. “The documentary [The Last Ocean] quickly moved from wildlife and nature to business and politics as I tried to understand why fishing was allowed in this most pristine place,” Young says. “I’ve spoken to politicians, fishermen, campaigners and,

of course, I’ve been to the place where it all began, the Ross Sea. It’s been a fascinating ride and the fact that it is our country that created the fishery in the first place makes this an issue of special interest for New Zealanders,” he says. When the Antarctic Treaty was drawn up, the waters around Antarctica were left out, becoming the high seas and part of the global commons. About 20 years after the treaty was signed, CCAMLR was drawn up and charged with protecting the Southern Ocean. It allows for rational use of marine resources, and this clause allows commercial fishing in the Ross Sea. Ainley wryly notes that the larger fish being caught were probably born before most of the fishermen since these giant cold-water fish take as long as humans to mature and can reach up to 2.5 metres long and weigh 140kg. “CCAMLR says in its charter that fishing cannot alter marine ecosystems beyond their ability to recover in 20 to 30 years,” Ainley says. “The current CCAMLR managers

1 A Weddell seal heads towards a crack in Ross Sea ice. 2 The Ross Sea is home to 26% of the world’s emperor penguins.

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haven’t read their charter as their stated goal is to reduce the Ross Sea toothfish spawning biomass to 50 per cent of pre-fished levels. “How can a fish that doesn’t mature until 16 years old, with the very oldest individuals contributing disproportionately to production, possibly recover its role in an ecosystem, once depleted, in two to three decades? In the ocean, size means everything in ecosystem function, and this fishery is taking all the large fish.” Young, who has travelled to every continent as a freelance cameraman, describes the Ross Sea as one of the world’s greatest natural treasures. “The Ross Sea stands out, not only for its stunning landscapes and abundant wildlife but for the sum of both those parts: the ecosystem. Nowhere else on Earth can you find a marine ecosystem of this size with a natural order that has evolved without major human impact … these places need protecting not exploiting.” In the Ross Sea, the top predators put pressure down through the food web rather than relying on the amount of production at its bottom. This creates a food web shaped more like a column rather than the pyramids characteristic of marine ecosystems elsewhere. All ocean ecosystems were once shaped like the Ross Sea’s – before they were over-exploited, Ainley says. “When large predatory fish, like the Antarctic toothfish, have been removed, all kinds of things change on all levels of the ecosystem. An example is along the east coast of

As the last intact ocean ecosystem on Earth, the value of the Ross Sea ecosystem to humanity is huge. 3 40

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North America, where the removal of sharks led to the disappearance of scallops. While sharks don’t eat scallops, they do eat fish that eat scallops. With the shark numbers in severe decline, the fish that predate on scallops have proliferated and the scallops are now gone.” The largest concentration of Antarctic toothfish live at the northern edge of the Ross Sea, along the dropping slope of the continental shelf where upwelling creates a very productive habitat. Since the fishery began, it is estimated that well over a million fish have been taken. Scientists working at the southern edge of the species range at McMurdo Sound believe this is why it is almost impossible to catch toothfish for their research. In the previous 30 years, scientists easily caught, tagged and released 200-500 fish a season. For the past few years they haven’t caught any. In 2005 more than 50 Ross Sea scientists from seven nations including New Zealand set up Friends of the Ross Sea Ecosystem (FORSE). Last year FORSE, with the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), worked on a proposal for the entire Ross Sea to become a marine reserve. It was presented to the Antarctic Treaty Powers in April and to CCAMLR in September last year. At the other end of the spectrum, the New Zealand and UK fishing industries have applied to have the Antarctic toothfish fishery certified as sustainable by the industry body, the Marine Stewardship Council. ASOC, supported by FORSE, has objected. The New Zealand fleet is also hoping to persuade CCAMLR to move towards a full quota system, with New Zealand having a lion share of the quota because

it pioneered the fishery and because of its historical association with the Ross Dependency. Already New Zealand takes 55 per cent of the catch. “As the last intact ocean ecosystem on Earth, the value of the Ross Sea ecosystem to humanity is huge,” Wilson says. “This wonderful natural asset has taken all preceding history to evolve yet we treat it like a larder, and it’s not like we are feeding thousands; we are destroying this incredible asset to feed a wealthy few.”

Hotspot in a cold climate Ross Sea is a biodiversity hotspot. It accounts for a mere 3.2 per cent of the Southern Ocean, yet is the ocean’s most productive stretch of water. Of the world’s populations, in the Ross Sea are found: • 38 per cent of Adélie penguins • 26 per cent of emperor penguins • 6 per cent of Antarctic minke whales • 50 per cent of Ross Sea killer whales There are impressive numbers of snow and Antarctic petrels, South Polar skua, Weddell and crabeater seals, the rare Arnoux’s beaked whale, leopard and Ross seals. The Antarctic toothfish – the most voracious piscine predator of the Southern Ocean – holds the ecological niche of sharks in warmer waters. The toothfish and its favourite meal, the Antarctic silverfish, are both primitive members of the Nototheniidae family and are neutrally buoyant. This allows them to feed at all depths. The toothfish has a heartbeat once every six seconds and produces anti-freeze called glycoprotein that allows it to survive in Antarctica’s ice-laden waters. Almost all other Antarctic fish are benthic, or bottom dwelling, and feed on zooplankton and molluscs. The Ross Sea is also rich with invertebrates. More than 400 Antarctic invertebrate species were first described from Ross Sea specimens, and at least 40 are endemic to its waters.

How you can help Write to the Minister of Fisheries and Minister of Conservation and ask them to stop the Antarctic toothfish fishery and to press for the Ross Sea to be protected as a marine reserve. Visit www.lastocean.co.nz and join FORSE.

3 An Adelie penguin leaps from the bracing waters of the Ross Sea. 4 Sunset over the Ross Sea ice pack. 5 Snow petrels fly alongside an iceberg. 6 A light shaft through the ice spotlights a Weddell seal.

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Seeing 42

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NORTHLAND

Northland’s pohutukawa-fringed bays are in trouble. Dean Baigent-Mercer reports on the possum destruction of these treasured trees and the need to step up pest control.

uki Smith, a kaumatua of Ngati Uru, remembers seeing dead possums on the road over the Brynderwyn hills south of Whangarei in the 1960s. It was evidence the Australians were heading north. “By the late 1960s, early 1970s they were up here,” he says of the Kaeo, Mangamuka and Kaikohe area. The Far North is one of the last places that possums reached, and it took some time to register their impacts. In 1989 there was a national media outcry when it was shown that coastal pohutukawa were significantly endangered across their range, from near Kawhia in the east, up to North Cape and down to Gisborne. Only 10 per cent of pohutukawa were estimated to be alive compared with pre-European times, and possums were putting the rest at risk. Since then we’ve learnt that possums target new shoots and softer year-old pohutukawa leaves. Leathery 2-3-yearold leaves are not attractive to possums and are eventually shed. Possums will repeatedly use “call trees” each night to call from and eat. Possums have also have been recorded travelling more than 3 kilometres in a night and swimming several hundred metres.

red

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take many possums to do significant damage. A pohutukawa becomes stressed by heavy canopy browse and reacts by aggressively trying to create a new canopy, sending out epicormic shoots from underneath the bark of a stem or branch so it can continue to photosynthesise. It is a last line of defence. If these new shoots are eaten or damaged by extreme salt-laden winds the tree’s life is limited. In many other parts of the country, the Animal Health Board has been eradicating possums to stamp out bovine tuberculosis, sometimes on DOC-managed land. This in turn has freed up DOC funds to extend its pest control work. But because there is no bovine tuberculosis in Northland the Animal Health Board has not done possum control on DOC land. As a result, there has been proportionately less government money spent on pest control in Northland. Dr Gordon Hosking, who has worked with Project Crimson for 20 years saving pohutukawa nationwide, has noticed major recovery of pohutukawa in areas where the Animal Health Board has used 1080 to kill possums.

1 The sparse canopy of a pohutukawa at Ranfurly Bay Scenic Reserve, which has missed out on pest control. Photo: Dean Baigent-Mercer 2 Heavy-flowering pohutukawa on Wairaupo/Milford Island, which has pest control. In the distance is unprotected Ohauroro/Peach Island. Photo: Tony Foster

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A case of collapse Like Lyttelton Harbour, Whangaroa Harbour near the northern town of Kaeo was formed when a giant volcano blew itself to bits millions of years ago. Now the open sea flows in over its heart. The crater edge creates a miniFiordland landscape. Lieutenant Richard Cruise noted in 1820: “The interior is lined with richly wooded hills.” Not anymore. Our earliest timber exports turned ancient Whangaroa kauri into San Francisco buildings. Still, despite logging, fire and various attempts at farming, Whangaroa remains a striking “singular and beautifully romantic place”, as Cruise put it. In 1843 Ernest Dieffenbach wrote: “Pohutukawa trees and others overhang these black walls and form a very picturesque contrast with them.” For Ngati Uru the flowering of pohutukawa indicates it’s time to harvest kina. It’s a shock to be confronted with dead pohutukawa right in front of the popular Lane Cove DOC hut in the Ranfurly Bay Scenic Reserve. The striking location is overshadowed by pohutukawa in various stages of attack. All around are skeleton trunks and dying trees with leaves clearly shredded.

These pohutukawa haven’t just dropped dead. They’ve suffered years of sustained neglect. Further stress may have been caused by months of strong north-easterly, often saltladen winds in 2005. Ranfurly Bay Scenic Reserve has important waahi tapu sites, a tree (Pseudopanax gilliesii) and a shrub (Coprosma neglecta) that naturally grow nowhere else on the planet, a host of threatened and rare plants and possibly a few kiwi still hanging on. The reserve ranks highly for habitat protection for DOC’s Bay of Islands Area Office but has missed out on pest control because most of the conservancy’s possum control money is spent in Puketi Forest. Now barely a native forest bird is heard or a pohutukawa flower seen. The most benefit would come from an aerial 1080 drop. The trees are so damaged this would halt the immediate leaf consumption and be the best start for effective groundbased pest control. When a patient is dying, doctors don’t withhold what gives the best chance of survival.

2010: A snapshot From Mangonui to south of Cape Brett is prime pohutukawa coastline. Notable areas of sick or collapsed pohutukawa with no known or limited pest control occur between Taemaro south to near Taupo Bay, north-eastern Whangaroa Harbour, Matauri Bay to Waiaua Bay. South of Cape Brett is under pressure and Elliot’s Beach is awful in places. Land ownership spans privately owned Pakeha, Maori and public conservation land. Impressive community efforts are under way, mainly on private land in sizeable areas inbetween, to protect kiwi and coastal lowland ecosystems. These also benefit pohutukawa. 3

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2004

2008

Whangaroa timeline 1989/1990: Public outcry as collapse of pohutukawa is recognised nationally. Project Crimson is formed.

3 Dead pohutukawa outside DOC’s popular Lane Cove hut. Photo: Brad Windust

1994:

Aerial 1080 drop in Ranfurly Bay Scenic Reserve, Whangaroa Harbour. Ecosystem health begins to recover.

1998/99:

Ground-based possum control contractors put in tracks and bait stations that were used for two years.

4, 5 Spot the difference. Holiday snaps taken in 2004 and 2008 from the Duke’s Nose show the death of pohutukawa on Okahumoko, Ranfurly Bay Scenic Reserve. Photos: Tony Foster and Dean Baigent-Mercer

2001:

Resources withdrawn.

2009:

DOC negotiates for $2000 to be spent on Feratox cyanide possum poison that is laid over four days by volunteers and Mahi tahi o Whaingaroa, a community max group of the Whangaroa Maori Trust Board. The possum density was so great that some workers saw possums running away in daylight. Swift possum reinvasion is expected.

6 Pohutukawa collapse between Waimahana and Motukahakaha bays, east of Mangonui. Photo: Brad Windust

What you can do If you are concerned about the health of pohutukawa in your area: • Set up or join a landcare group. All sorts of skills are welcomed, from trapping to accounting. • Apply to your regional council and/or Project Crimson (www.projectcrimson.co.nz) to fund pest control and locally sourced pohutukawa and rata trees for replanting. • Traps and pest control toxins can be bought from farm supply stores, via regional councils and the Connovation website (www. connovation.co.nz) • Get a cyanide licence. • Set a yellow Timms possum trap at the base of tree. Over time it can make a huge difference!

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two of us

Standing up for natural justice E

rika Toleman and Anna Cameron are more than just colleagues – they have also become good friends. It’s not surprising, given how closely they’ve worked together since they joined Forest & Bird in January 2009, Toleman as the environmental lawyer based in Wellington, and Cameron as the resource management planner based in Christchurch. “We’re on the phone to each other nearly every day – we get on really well, and we also work together really well,” says Toleman, a keen cyclist who has spent so much time in Christchurch working on cases such as the Hurunui water conservation order that she now keeps a spare bike at Cameron’s house. Their first year at Forest & Bird has been a steep learning curve. Both are Otago University graduates who began their working lives in private practice – Toleman with a large Wellington law firm and Cameron with a planning consultancy in Queenstown. They gained valuable experience, but both realised they wanted to be more actively involved in helping to protect the environment. “I had been working on Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and an iwi client wanted to do an Environment Court case,” says Toleman. “It was my first taste of resource management work and I really enjoyed it. Treaty settlement negotiations are really important, but I also had an overwhelming sense that our environment is in real trouble, and that if we don’t get the environment sorted there won’t be anything left to negotiate about.” Cameron – an enthusiastic skier who recently spent two months on the slopes in Kashmir – felt the same way: “I made the switch to Forest & Bird because I have always been a keen conservationist, and I wanted to work for the environment.” Court rooms and planning forums are a long way away from the wild places that they work so hard to preserve. But they believe that Forest & Bird has an important role in making sure local and central government carry out their statutory responsibilities to protect the environment under the Resource Management Act and under district and regional plans.

“We need to make sure that the RMA and the plans – some of which have been established to protect special features or landscapes – are upheld,” says Cameron. “We’re trying to use the RMA to make sure we get the best environmental outcomes possible.” “We are one of the only independent voices for the environment,” adds Toleman. “I think we play an important role in supporting the Department of Conservation, particularly at the moment when DOC is under increasing political pressure to step back from its conservation advocacy role. “It can be really hard to be at a hearing listening to people talking about these beautiful places in purely economic terms. We’re there to make sure that those places are seen as important and of value in themselves.” The work can be slow and sometimes frustrating. An Environment Court hearing into the West Coast Regional Council’s wetlands plan in December last year followed seven years of disagreement between the council and a coalition of organisations – Forest & Bird, DOC and Friends of Shearer Swamp. Fortunately the court action was largely successful, so more hearings on the matter are unlikely. “It’s been a really great result for wetlands on the coast, because it has ensured a much higher level of protection for them,” says Toleman. “It has also provided an excellent set of significant criteria for wetlands, which will hopefully be picked up in other regional plans.” Forest & Bird often works with other organisations on cases. For example, it worked with DOC and Ngai Tahu to support Fish & Game’s application for a water conservation order on the Hurunui River, in North Canterbury, at a special tribunal hearing last year. Forest & Bird had been supporting Fish & Game’s appeal against part of the tribunal’s decision, which recommended there be no dams on the main stem and the north branch of the Hurunui, but did not recommend protecting the south branch from dams. However, with the Government’s law change in late March, the new Environment Canterbury commissioners will take over control of the water conservation order from the Environment Court.

We’re trying to use the RMA to make sure we get the best environmental outcomes possible.

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“We have to work with other parties because of our limited resources – we basically divide the work up between us,” says Toleman. “It also means we have to pick our battles. We can’t fight five cases a year and expect to have an impact. We have to be more selective.” The pair find it a challenge facing opponents who are much better resourced. “The way the RMA has progressed, it has become an expensive process, and you are required to use experts and they’re expensive, which does make it hard for us because we have far fewer resources,” says Cameron. “Sometimes it feels as if the big companies and law firms have carte blanche to spend as much as they like,” says Toleman. “It means you can end up engaging in endless battles over minor points, rather than concentrating on the real issues.” Fortunately they get invaluable support from Forest & Bird branches and volunteers. “That really is one of the strengths of the organisation,” says Cameron. “The members do outstanding work – they keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the regions and they feed that information to us. They also help by doing things such as writing well-thought-out and well-constructed submissions.” Despite the frustrations and the difficulties of being an advocate for the environment, she says the job also provides plenty of satisfaction. “The timeframes are really drawn out, which means it takes a long time to get a result, but I know we are making a difference.” n Ruth Nicol 1 The Hurunui River, which Cameron and Toleman have been working to protect. Photo: Chris Todd 2 Forest & Bird resource management planner Anna Cameron, left, and environmental lawyer Erika Toleman. Photo: Marina Skinner

A special offer for Forest & Bird readers 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 will retail in shops 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, or provide your credit card details in the form below and send to: Wild Encounters Forest & Bird PO Box 631 Wellington

Please send me my copy of Wild Encounters for a total price of $35 (price includes post and packaging and my $10 contribution to help Forest & Bird’s conservation projects). Your details Name Postal address

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Tuatara on tour N

elson school children have been getting the chance to meet a natural treasure. The Spinyback Tuatara Education and Conservation Charitable Trust has developed a roadshow, which has been touring Nelson primary schools. The reptilian stars of the show have wowed their audiences. “The children think they’re really cool and I think the adults enjoy the presentation just as much,” trustee and roadshow presenter Louisa Paul says. “Many people have never seen a tuatara before or have only seen one behind glass.” The trust plans to take the roadshow to other parts of Nelson region, and eventually other parts of New Zealand. The Nelson-based trust was formed in 2007 so Ngati Koata iwi – from the top of the South Island – could tell people about tuatara and explain the iwi’s role as kaitiaki, or guardian, of tuatara on Takapourewa, or Stephen’s Island. The island has the largest tuatara population on the planet. An iwi representative on the trust, Mike Elkington, says initially iwi members had planned a commercial venture taking groups to Takapourewa to see tuatara in their natural habitat. However, they saw a need to educate children about tuatara. The idea for the trust crystallised when he met winemaker Mike Brown, then general manager of

Waimea Estates, at a social function. Waimea Estates wanted to create a wine label with a real New Zealand story behind it, and the tuatara tale appealed. The trust was formed, and Waimea Estates launched its Spinyback wine range, with 5 cents from each bottle sold going to the trust. The money has helped develop the roadshow, source tuatara and build a special enclosure for them at Natureland Zoo in Nelson. Louisa Paul – a primary school teacher of Ngati Koata descent – put together the roadshow while on a six-month Royal Society of New Zealand teacher fellowship. The roadshow has a strong conservation message and includes a slideshow, and live appearance by the tuatara, which came from Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch. The tuatara are only handled by the presenter at the show’s end. Trust chairperson Nicky Nelson, a tuatara researcher and senior lecturer at Victoria University’s School of Biological Sciences, says the tuatara are monitored closely to ensure they don’t get stressed. Shows are on hold to allow the tuatara to gain weight before they slow down over winter. The shows are expected to resume next summer. n Karen Clark

Nature Tours Australia and beyond! • • • •

Informative naturalist/birding leaders Small groups (6 - 14 participants) Scheduled tours or private charters Fully accommodated or camping tours

Inspiring natural history destinations include:

Spinyback Tuatara Education and Conservation Charitable Trust members Mike Elkington and Gail Sutton with a Natureland Zoo tuatara, Koi.

Fair trade Trade Me sellers have donated more than $36,000 to Forest & Bird since June 2008 by rounding up their success fees. Donations through success fees are now averaging about $500 a month. Trade Me has also supported Forest & Bird with advertising and in other ways, and the relationship is continuing to grow. We encourage people selling items on Trade Me to round up their success fee and donate it to Forest & Bird.

• • • • • • •

Western Australia’s Kimberley; Canning Stock Route; Pilbara including Karijini National Park; Rudall River & South West; Anne Beadell Highway & Flinders Ranges; Abrolhos, Christmas & Lord Howe Islands; PLUS Bhutan, India, Galapagos Islands, Africa, & Borneo.

For full tour details of our 2010 program contact:

COATES WILDLIFE TOURS

Phone: (61 8) 9330 6066 Fax: (61 8) 9330 6077 Web: www.coateswildlifetours.com.au Email: coates@iinet.net.au Mail: P.O. Box 4502 Myaree, Western Australia 6960 GSA Coates Tours Licence no 9ta1135/36

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HON3554A/FOREST

Every day Aucklanders cart tonnes of soot into the city. How clean is your city? Each year in Auckland vehicles travelling to and from the city release an estimated 390 tonnes of contaminants into the air. We’re only using Auckland city as an example, the problem is nationwide. The smog is a toxic mix of Hydrocarbons (HC), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), and fine particulates, this vehicle pollution is attributed by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand to be “responsible for 400 deaths annually.”

combined HC and NOx than Euro IV standards for petrol vehicles. Put simply, if all vehicles on Auckland roads achieved the Euro IV petrol standards then emissions would fall to just 4% of current levels. What can you do about it? Well, when the time comes to replace your vehicle, you can make a significant difference by choosing one that meets the Euro IV Petrol, Euro V Diesel, or the more stringent US LEV II standards.

So make a change and we can all move more Although technology has improved in this area, NOx distribution in Auckland quickly towards a future where we can breathe there remains a distinct difference in the levels of easier. All new Honda vehicle emissions fall within the combined HC and NOx emitted by petrol and diesel engines. US LEV II standards. Accepting this reality EU regulators allow diesel vehicles, under the Euro IV diesel standards, to emit 5.6 times more Honda, the world’s largest engine manufacturer.

How smoggy is your area? Find out at www.honda.co.nz/environment Call 0800 255 666 Monday – Friday 8am – 5pm

in the field

Curious case of shags and stones A scientific project springs from Ann Graeme’s beach holiday.

“

t’s an amazing sight,” said Jenny Treloar. “All those birds assembled at dawn on the beach. And then they throw up! They regurgitate little piles of stones all over the beach.” We were visiting the chairwoman of Forest & Bird’s Golden Bay branch, and she was telling us about the spotted shags that regularly gather on Tata beach. We just had to see this. Next morning we got up in the dark and drove to Tata beach. While the locals slept in the baches lining the bay we sat among the spinifex and shivered in the half-light before dawn. It was cold, and nothing happened. But then – out of the pearly grey mist – a flight of spotted shags appeared. More came, and more and more, echelons of birds winging silently in to land on the beach, scarcely 20 metres in front of us. As the light brightened we could see them more clearly, a tightly packed mass of more than a thousand birds. Truly, it was an amazing sight. The birds quietly shuffled about, a kaleidoscope of black and white. Many were in their nuptial plumage sporting white plumes and vivid green patches around the eyes. And then, as we watched, first one and then another bent forward, retched and spat out a pile of stones. Ten, then 20 minutes passed. The birds stopped arriving. The throng on the beach became restless, some waddling into the shallows and splashing and diving. Then, wings beating hard, they took off from the water, flying low out beyond the islands into Golden Bay. More and more of the flock paddled into the water. It became a frenzy of splashing and beating wings. Soon they were all leaving, groups of birds streaming away towards the horizon. Less than an hour after the first bird arrived, the beach was deserted. We walked down on to the sand. Everywhere there were piles of stones, little stones and big stones and among them ran a pair of red-billed gulls, scavenging fragments of partly digested food. Why did the shags come to the beach? Why did they regurgitate stones? What did it all mean? It was a year before we could return to Tata beach but we came determined to observe and count the birds more carefully and try to unravel the mystery. But a few mornings of observations uncovered more and more perplexing questions. Sometimes few birds came, sometimes hundreds. We saw that many were diving and swallowing stones before they came ashore, only to vomit them up again. Clearly we were not going to solve this mystery with a few days of observation. The local community became involved. Jenny asked Forest & Bird and Ornithological Society members to help, and a team of volunteers was formed. John Barraclough became the record keeper for the project and his grasp of methodology and ability to integrate observations into

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1 tables and graphs turned an amateur project into one of scientific rigour. Noted ornithologist Dr Ralph Powlesland was intrigued and came to offer help. Under John’s guidance, the volunteers set out to count the shags and monitor their behaviour on five consecutive mornings every month for a year. In summer that meant a 5am start. In winter the dawn came later – but it was colder. The volunteers became very acute in their observations. When the shag numbers approached their peak, the recorders had to count hundreds of birds arriving simultaneously from several directions. The year is now completed but still the volunteers continue their research. Some of their results: • The spotted shags come from the nearby Tata Islands, where they nest and live throughout the year. • The number of birds coming to the beach fluctuates during the year, up to 5000 recorded one morning in winter and fewest coming in summer. On occasions no birds came at all. Rough weather may keep them away. • The stones they swallow are the rough granite pebbles abundant on the beaches of Golden Bay. The average pile of regurgitated stones weighs 50 grams. • The swallowed stones collect in the bird’s thin-walled stomach. Shags do not have a gizzard like domestic hens. • Most of the birds gather and swallow stones from the shallow water off the beach and less frequently from the beach. • By counting the piles of stones after the birds have flown, it appears that about half the shags regurgitate stones on the beach. • This means that many birds fly away with stones in their stomachs.

Animals may swallow stones (or gastroliths) for several reasons. They help digestion in grain-eating birds and fish like mullet. Stones have been found in fossilised dinosaur stomachs. Stones prevent constipation in ostriches. Stones provide minerals to many species. Birds of prey swallow and regurgitate stones to clean their stomachs. Crocodiles, seals and penguins swallow stones, possibly for ballast to decrease their buoyancy. Spotted shags eat small fish, as do most shag species. But only spotted shags and the king shags of the Marlborough Sounds have been observed swallowing stones. So why do they do it? Perhaps it cleans their stomachs of parasitic worms. Some of the stone piles contained roundworms. Perhaps the weight of the stones helps the shags achieve neutral buoyancy when they swim just below the water surface chasing shoals of little fish. As any diver knows, diving becomes easier the deeper you go because the increasing water pressure reduces your buoyancy. The first few metres down require the greatest effort. Birds like gannets dive from a great height, and their momentum carries them down into the water. Shags simply flip under from the surface. Maybe an extra 50g of pebbles helps. Perhaps the birds swallow stones to clean their stomachs and for ballast, or perhaps for other reasons altogether. And what of the ritual gathering at dawn on Tata beach? Smaller gatherings have since been reported on other Golden Bay beaches and elsewhere along the South Island coastline, but none to rival the size of that at Tata.

3000 2500

COUNT

Average Daily Total of Spotted Shags Observed at Tata Beach Feb–Dec 2009 Total number of shags Total of stone piles

2000 1500 1000 500 0

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

The more they look, the more the Tata beach volunteers are finding out. Maybe they haven’t got all the answers yet but they have added a great deal to our knowledge of an endemic bird and its fascinating life story. This project is a wonderful example of a group of lay people undertaking a scientific project – and having a thoroughly good time. Acknowledgements: John Barraclough, Dr Ralph Powlesland, Jenny Treloar, Melissa Skipworth, Helen Kingston, Rosemary Jorgensen and Bob Kennedy

1 A spotted shag throws up stones on the beach. Photo: John Barraclough. 2 Rugged-up volunteers count spotted shags arriving at Tata beach at dawn. Photo: John Barraclough.

When the shag numbers approached their peak, the recorders had to count hundreds of birds arriving simultaneously from several directions. Forest & Bird

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Discover your own backyard

Join the Kiwi Conservation Club Kiwi kids learning about and exploring New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wild life and wild places. Get five issues of our magazine Wild Things from just $19 a year. Join us at www.kcc.org.nz

Rangatahi

Kiwi: Dick Veich, Ruru: Ian Gill/DOC

Young voice for change C

helsea Robinson bubbles with enthusiasm as she describes her experiences in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The 18 year old from Waitakere – now based in Wellington studying geography and environmental studies – came from an environmentally aware family and at 15 was stirred into action. Chelsea credits a speech by Kiwi environmentalist Carl Chenery for inspiring her. “Carl explained that my generation has the opportunity to rewrite the rules in the name of the environment and I realised that I might have something to offer,” says Chelsea. She was hooked and changed her career dream from dentist to environmentalist. Her passion for sharing her ideas and her role as leader of Rutherford College’s 150-strong environmental group led her to become one of 12 New Zealand youth delegates at the Climate Change Conference in Denmark last December. The New Zealand youth delegation set out to make young Kiwis’ voices heard loud and clear at Copenhagen. Chelsea and the other delegates had the challenges of translating complicated climate change policy jargon and unravelling what was being discussed at the conference for people back home. They also fitted in daily meetings with Environment Minister Nick Smith and International Climate Change Negotiations Minister Tim Groser. “It was fast paced, exciting, tiring and hugely inspirational all at once,” says Chelsea. “Being among so many people who were incredibly passionate was encouraging, despite New Zealand managing to get a fossil award on more than one occasion after being seen to be obstructing progress in the talks, which was disappointing.” Chelsea was part of the communications team, which worked with media and sent a daily news update about the climate change talks. The delegates started Love Letters to John Key, a website where people could write to Prime Minister John Key encouraging him to represent them and their views. Each letter was then hand written and delivered to Key, keeping him up to date with the feelings of the New Zealand public. The delegates carried a giant Team New Zealand spinnaker to Copenhagen. It was covered with messages to the world leaders from individuals, schools and organisations around New Zealand. “We used the

spinnaker during the march for climate justice – the largest demonstration at the conference – as a visual symbol of the people back home who wanted their voice recognised,” says Chelsea. The outcome at Copenhagen wasn’t the strong stance on climate change Chelsea was hoping for but it made her realise the importance of changing behaviours and making information more accessible to people. It’s now central to Chelsea’s vision for the future “I want to make environmental issues more mainstream by talking less to the people already involved and aware of the issues, and focusing more on changing values sets among people who don’t see environmental issues as affecting them.” n Jenny Lynch

I want to make environmental issues more mainstream.

Chelsea Robinson, far right, and Liz Willoughby-Martin protesting against mining national parks at Parliament in March.

See New Zealand youth delegation stories from Copenhagen at www.youthdelegation.org.nz Forest & Bird

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Lost and 54

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LORD HOWE ISLAND

The Lord Howe Rise, a long undersea ridge connects Lord Howe Island to New Zealand

The quest to rediscover a giant – and extinct – Lord Howe Island stick insect inspires Rod Morris.

ny New Zealander would recognise the trees growing among the palms and banyans of Lord Howe Island, 700 kilometres north-east of Sydney. It has its own native tree broom, two rata and even a kowhai. Despite the island’s location, its plants and animals are more closely allied to New Zealand than to Australia. This is due to the Lord Howe Rise, a long undersea ridge that connects Lord Howe Island to New Zealand. This ridge forced New Zealand to separate from Australia 60-80 million years ago, opening up the Tasman Sea. Despite more than 160 years of European colonisation, 70 per cent of the 1450-hectare volcanic island’s forest remains preserved and protected. However, the bird life has not been so fortunate. Lord Howe once had its own species of fantail, bush robin, warbler, silvereye, morepork and redcrowned parakeet but all are now extinct, thanks to cats and rats. Among the survivors are flax snails, flightless mole crickets, geckos and skinks all closely related to species found in New Zealand. Lord Howe is a special place, and when my children were young they cycled the island roads, snorkelled over the world’s most southern coral reefs, and explored forests that were both exotic and familiar. On our holidays, they always hoped to find one large invertebrate – the

spectacular and bizarre land lobster – reported to have become extinct. This news never discouraged our young optimists. Hadn’t Geoffrey Orbell rediscovered the takahe, and Don Merton rescued the black robin from extinction? These success stories encouraged us when we searched for the mysterious creature. The land lobster was a unique stick insect. Some locals were old enough to remember it. One old timer we met outside the museum recalled them as the size of large cigars and jet black. They behaved more like our weta. They came out only at night, preferring to hide by day in rotten wood and damp tree hollows and sometimes in the walls of old buildings. Several dozen could gather in these roosts, and their hiding places were marked by great piles of dung underneath. They could not fly but could run surprisingly fast, and they didn’t seem as defenceless as other stick insects. The 12.5-centimetre-long females had stout legs with hooks, and the slightly shorter males had massive thighs armed with evil-looking spines, hence the name “land lobster”. In 1918 the supply ship Makambo ran aground on Lord Howe Island. The cargo was salvaged and taken ashore, along with ship rats. Like New Zealand’s giant weta, the land lobsters were extremely vulnerable to rats, and rapidly disappeared from their old haunts in the warm, damp tree hollows and old buildings. The last confirmed sighting of a land lobster was in the 1920s, and by the

found 1 On Ball’s Pyramid, land lobsters feed on the endemic Lord Howe melaleuca. Males have robust, heavily armoured hind legs. Photos: Rod Morris 2 Most of volcanic Lord Howe Island’s forest is protected, though many of the island’s birds became extinct once cats and rats arrived.

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1930s they were well and truly gone. Despite regular surveys, they have never been seen on Lord Howe Island since. There are very few stories of an extinct species staging a comeback, but recently land lobsters have done precisely that. In the late1960s, reports came in from Ball’s Pyramid, a sheer rock stack 24km south-east of Lord Howe Island. Rock climbers had found three separate dead stick insects. Despite further searches, all later expeditions drew a blank. In February 2001 a party of four naturalists landed on Ball’s Pyramid, determined to prove whether stick insects existed there or not. I’ve flown over Ball’s Pyramid. The kids and I fantasised about going out there but simply landing on it is an achievement. It is the world’s tallest sea stack, and its cliffs rise for 550 metres straight out of the sea. It is exposed to high winds, and little more than a few scraps of natural vegetation cling to its steep sides. It is amazing where you’ll go if you’re keen. The party of naturalists scrambled and climbed the dry crumbling rock terraces on a section of the south-east corner of the rock stack and searched for anything that might indicate stick insects. Eventually, almost 100 metres above sea level they came upon a large Lord Howe Island tea tree. On the ground beneath the bush they found the droppings of some kind of insect. Back at base camp and already exhausted, the two fittest climbers resolved to repeat the dangerous climb by torchlight after nightfall. That night, after reaching the ledge again, they played the light over the tea tree bush – and found two large shiny black female land lobsters quietly feeding on fresh foliage. Nearby they found a third smaller female. How land lobsters got to Ball’s Pyramid from Lord Howe Island is a mystery. They are thought to have been carried there long ago, possibly by seabirds. One of the dead insects found in the 1960s was woven among the sticks of a seabird’s nest. They might have been taken there by Lord Howe fishermen, who once used the land lobsters as fish bait. Since their rediscovery, the population on Ball’s Pyramid seems to have hovered around two dozen individuals – all confined to an area measuring 30 metres by 6 metres on one 3

ledge. The risk of a small landslip or other mishap is high, so two years after their discovery, two pairs were carefully taken back to Australia. Stick insect expert Patrick Honan took one pair to the Melbourne Zoo for captive breeding, and the other pair went to a Sydney insect breeder. Honan says captive breeding was difficult because nobody knew anything about the biology of these unusual animals. Within six weeks, the Sydney pair had died, and the Melbourne female became so ill that she stopped feeding. Lying in Honan’s hand with her feet curled up, she looked close to death. He tried to revive her with a home-made concoction of glucose, calcium and mashed-up tea tree leaves. He dripped this on to her mouth parts while holding her under a microscope. Miraculously, she rallied and survived. The surviving female lived for another 18 months, and she produced more than 260 fertile eggs, which took an anxious nine months to hatch. Every step of the way more crucial information is being learned about land lobster biology. There are now about 500 in captivity, with funding to encourage school children to rear more insects. Back on Lord Howe Island, a rat eradication campaign is being considered. The islanders are weighing the social costs of closing the island to holidaymakers for a month against the long-term ecological benefits to the island and its precious species. I love the land lobster story. It carries a message of hope, not just for me, but for my children, who will never forget the stick insect we thought had been taken away forever. My youngest son is grown up now and lives in Melbourne. I am visiting him soon and we’re off to Melbourne Zoo in search of land lobsters. It’s not often you get a second chance like that. 3 Melbourne Zoo insect wrangler Patrick Honan holds two large female land lobsters. Photos: Rod Morris 4 Mountain rose (Metrosideros nervulosa) on Lord Howe Island – related to New Zealand’s pohutukawa – would probably have been a food for land lobsters. 5 Ball’s Pyramid – a sheer rock stack 24km south-east of Lord Howe Island.

Strange but true • The Lord Howe Island stick insect or land lobster (Dryococelus australis) is critically endangered. • Young land lobsters are bright green and active during the day, but turn black and become nocturnal as they mature. • Unusually for stick insects, males and females appear to form a social bond. • A pilot programme is under way for Australian school children to rear these endangered insects in classrooms.

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The party of naturalists scrambled and climbed the dry crumbling rock terraces on a section of the southeast corner of the rock stack and searched for anything that might indicate stick insects.

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branching out

Bad news for bats F

orest & Bird volunteers helping to search for native bats in the top of the South Island had disappointing results over the summer. Bat scientist Brian Lloyd says the volunteers found only a handful of bats during the 20092010 survey, despite being equipped with special detectors to help pick up the bats’ high-frequency echo-location calls. That contrasts with the first bat population survey the previous summer, when Dr Lloyd and his team of branch volunteers found populations of long-tailed bats at Pelorus Bridge and Wakamarina in Marlborough, in the Hacket and Skeet Valleys in Tasman, and near Bainham in Golden Bay.

Julie McLintock and Brian Lloyd put up a harp net at Pelorus Bridge. Fishing lines are stretched inside the frame. Bats fly into the lines and gently drop into a bag at the bottom of the frame.

Dr Lloyd – who is based in Nelson as Forest & Bird bat survey project leader - says the bad weather during the early part of the 2009-2010 survey didn’t help. “The weather was atrocious in November and December – there was continuous wind and rain, and when it’s cold and wet the bats stay home,” he says. “Also, bat detectors don’t work very well when it’s wet – they tend to switch off.” He believes wasps in the local beech forests could be the cause of reduced bat numbers. The wasp population explodes during summer as they harvest honeydew made by the beech scale insect. The wasps also feast on insects and moths. “At the height of the summer there can be up to 300 wasps in a patch of honeydew beech forest the area of an average house. At that density they devour all the moths and other insects that the bats feed on. It’s probably affecting not just bats, but all the insect-eating birds in the honeydew beech forests.” 58

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Dr Lloyd says the fact that one of the only healthy populations of long-tailed bats so far found in the area is based in the podocarp forest at Pelorus Bridge supports his theory. “The bats at Pelorus hardly ever go into the surrounding honeydew beech forest.” While Nelson-Tasman branch Forest & Bird volunteers carried out their survey work, Dr Lloyd helped with two other bat-related projects. In the first, he spent two weeks on the West Coast unsuccessfully trying to move a population of short-tailed bats at Oporara, north of Karamea. “My conclusion is that that population, which was only discovered in 1996, has gone to extinction. That leaves one population of short-tailed bats in the whole of the South Island, in Fiordland.” The second project, in which he tried to catch and attach transmitters to long-tailed bats at Pelorus Bridge so that he could start monitoring the population there, was just as unsuccessful. “I thought it would be dead easy, but I couldn’t catch any bats. They either spent all their time foraging high above the street lights, where heavy traffic and high-voltage power lines meant we couldn’t use our traps. Or else they were flying near the upper canopy of the podocarp forest, more than 45 metres above the ground, so we couldn’t get near them.” New Zealand now has just two types of native bats – long-tailed and lesser short-tailed. A third species, the greater short-tailed bat, became extinct in 1965. Both species are smaller than a mouse, with a wing span of about 30cm. Long-tailed bats are related to similar bats in Australia and New Caledonia, but short-tailed bats are unique to New Zealand. Unlike most bats, short-tailed bats are omnivorous, feeding on a wide range of foods such as pollen, fruit, nectar and insects. What makes them truly unique is that they can walk using “legs” they form by folding up their wings. “Shorttailed bats are the only bat species that have the ability to walk freely on the ground. They are seen as one of the most unusual bats in the world.” Dr Lloyd believes there were once as many as 12 million short-tailed bats in the central North Island alone, but the New Zealand population has now shrunk to less than 50,000 individuals in only11 populations. No one has tried to put a figure on the current long-tailed bat population. He says the aim of Forest & Bird’s four-year bat population project is to identify and conserve any remaining bats at the top of the South Island. “It’s important to save native bats because they are part of our natural heritage, and they contribute to global biodiversity.” And despite the fact that many people are frightened of bats, he won’t hear a word said against them. “Bats are just fantastic. They are really hi-tech, amazingly sophisticated creatures. Echo-location, which allows them to navigate and locate things in total darkness, is astounding. Using echo-location, they can detect things that are less than a millimetre in size.” n Ruth Nichol

Miro marks botanist’s legacy A

former Forest & Bird member was honoured in February with a tree planting at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. Margaret Hayes was a long-time member of Forest & Bird and she left a generous bequest to the organisation in her will. Margaret grew up in New Plymouth but spent most of her adult life living on St Croix, in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. She and her husband, Al Hayes, ran a landscaping company and garden centre, Cruzan Gardens. She was an extremely passionate botanist and her son David says his mother treated the centre like her own private botanical garden. Margaret was also actively involved with the Herbarium at St George Botanical Garden for many years. Margaret was remembered by her surviving family and friends in a memorial service on February 19 at Pukekura Park. About 30 people attended the service at the park’s band rotunda.

David Hayes plants a miro in memory of his mother, Margaret, at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

During the service, Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton presented David with a miro tree, which he planted in the park. The tree was given in recognition of Margaret’s contribution to Forest & Bird.

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branching out

Cheers to Forest & Bird

pub might not be the usual venue for a Forest & Bird meeting but it seems to be working in Wellington. For more than a year, Forest & Bird’s Wellington branch has been running themed gatherings in the relaxed settings of a local cafe and bar. Blue Wellington is the name of a Wellington branch sub-group that is a forum for marine enthusiasts and conservationists to meet, share ideas, learn new things and inspire involvement and action. Many branches are finding it hard to get people along to monthly branch meetings. We need to remain relevant to attract and maintain committed and energetic individuals and to increase our membership and profile. Since it started in December 2008, Blue Wellington has grown from a handful of keen marine conservationists sharing passions over a beer or two to a network of more than 200 people. The group has its own planning team of dedicated volunteers (many of whom are new to Forest & Bird) who liaise directly with the branch committee on marine conservation and awareness raising. The monthly pub gatherings feature talks, discussion forums, skill workshops and film screenings. They are advertised through an email invite and attract 25-80 people. Members are also kept up to date with a monthly email newsletter and through web pages on the branch’s Forest & Bird site. Blue Wellington also connects with new people through the online social networking of Facebook. It’s not all about raising a glass to marine conservation. The group has run beach and underwater clean-ups, public film screenings and a photo competition in its first 18 months. Blue Wellington offers a relaxed and welcoming social setting. People don’t have to attend every meeting, and it’s not only for Forest & Bird members. It’s more a hello, we’re Forest & Bird, we care about our harbour and marine areas, we’re happening, we’re fun and you’d be crazy to miss out. n Kirstie Knowles

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Blue Wellington meets on the first Wednesday of every month, 6-8pm at Katipo Cafe and Bar, Willis Street, Wellington.

are proud to sponsor the fantastic work of the NZ Forest & Bird Society

Red eyes for yellow eyes Volunteers worked into the night to count 85 adult yellow-eyed penguins, or hoiho, during the annual count at Southland Forest & Bird’s Te Rere Reserve in late December. Nine people, in two shifts, covered the 12hour count from two vantage points. Counting over an afternoon and evening as the penguins pop out of the sea and make their way to their nests in the native vegetation adds to the monitoring data, which has been collected for about 20 years. Once one penguin of the breeding pair returns from fishing with food for the chicks, the other leaves the nest to go to sea to feed and return with its contribution. “These numbers are a hopeful sign when comparing results from recent years,” Forest & Bird organiser Brian Rance says. “The counts give a good idea of how many birds are about without disturbing them.” Reserve caretaker Fergus Sutherland found 20 nests, including four new ones. Twenty-five chicks

were seen in 18 nests, and two nests were empty. “Six stoats, all young ones, were caught in the traps we have set there as part of our ongoing predator-control programme and two trap sets had two stoats in each, which was rather unusual,” he says. The Te Rere yellow-eyed penguin colony is within the 72-hectare Te Rere Scientific Reserve on the Catlins coast and is one of the largest colonies of this rare bird in mainland New Zealand. Forest & Bird members and other volunteers help at the colony during planting bees and with the bird counts in December and in October, when the birds return to start nesting. “Despite all the effort put into the reserve, the recovery of the penguin colony following a devastating fire in 1995 has been slower than anticipated,” Rance says. “The counts are a great opportunity to see penguins and it is quite relaxing as you sit on a headland waiting for penguins to come and

Michael Kearns

go. Although the evening rain today was not helpful for us volunteers, the penguins came and went about their serious business of rearing their chicks in spite of human interest.” n Jenny Campbell

Obituary

Northland veterinarian, ornithologist and conservationist Mike Kearns’ work as a vet took him over the back roads of Tai Tokerau that many had never travelled. His passion for the bush, beaches and birdlife was matched by his love of people and getting groups mobilised. From beach patrols surveying washed-up seabirds to trips into the Puketi Forest to count kokako, he combined his knowledge of fauna and flora with scheming walks and expeditions in the region. The co-founder of the Northland branch of Forest & Bird was a member of the Northland Conservation Board and was active in the Ornithological Society and an organiser of the Junior Naturalists Club. He was a founding member of the Veterinary Association Wildlife Society, and his veterinary skills were often applied to the avian

convalescents recovering at the Kearns’ Whangarei home. He was a volunteer on the first team working to rid Hauturu (Little Barrier Island) of feral cats and worked on tieke (saddleback) transfers off Taranga (Hen Island). He instigated the reforestation of Matakohe (Limestone Island) in Whangarei Harbour. When Mr Kearns left Northland for Waiheke Island in 1994, he received an Old Blue award for his work for Forest & Bird. This followed a 1991 commendation for his efforts and achievements from the DirectorGeneral of Conservation. As a fellow Forest & Bird branch member wrote for his memorial in February: “He was on an exciting journey through life and wanted to take us all with him.” n Robin Kearns

Mike Kearns at an Earth Day rally in Whangarei with other Northland Forest & Bird members.

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book reviews

A fantail watches over her newly hatched chicks. Photo: Fay Bolt

The Bird Garden By Fay Bolt Hartford Books, $29.95 Reviewed by Aalbert Rebergen Author and photographer Fay Bolt has recorded the varied bird life in her beautiful Motueka garden in a way many of us would like to do, but never get around to doing. We may think nobody else is interested in what lives in our garden or that we just can’t take good photos. Bolt’s beautifully presented book proves otherwise. The bird photos are the main attraction of the book. It’s great to see 11 excellent photos of tui in the chapter called The Godfather, or 14 of fantails, including the black form. Other indigenous birds found in Bolt’s garden are bellbird, kereru, kingfisher, grey warbler, silvereye, pukeko, ruru, parries and sky weavers (welcome swallows). The well written book has interesting things to say about the lack of tolerance some people have towards the birds that live near our homes, their noise or the “mess” they sometimes make (such as swallow nests). She says some Wellingtonians are known to have even complained about tui calls, and Bolt has only slowly warmed to spur-winged plovers. I like the way Bolt herself equally appreciates the exotics in her garden – the sparrows, Charlie the chaffinch, yellow hammers, starlings, goldfinches, blackbirds, thrushes, California quails and pheasants. Our gardens are places for all sorts of birds – some native, some exotic – just like the plants we grow. Some birds live in the garden all year round, and others visit every now and then, such as a shining cuckoo in spring or late summer. They all give us pleasure, which is so well illustrated by Bolt in her selfpublished book. The Bird Garden is well presented and is highly recommended.

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Kahurangi Calling: Stories from the backcountry of northwest Nelson By Gerard Hindmarsh Craig Potton Publishing, $39.99 Reviewed by Quentin Duthie Kahurangi Calling is a wonderful collage of personal stories – the author’s and others’ – that illustrate a colourful history of human interaction with the area known as Kahurangi, formerly northwest Nelson. It covers the main aspects of Kahurangi’s social history and celebrates the area’s landscape, flora and fauna. The stories centre on Pakeha men, unsurprisingly, from early explorers to contemporary characters. Many subjects are “men alone” types who tenuously made the area home. Starting with the early promotion of the area’s natural values and the genesis of two levels of park status, the book goes on to stories of grazing, mining, logging, hydro-damming and eeling. Key historical elements such as the 1929 earthquake, Kahurangi Point lighthouse, and the natural history of diversity and the impacts of pests are also covered. The book brings to life many places I have visited in the park, and people I have met, such as the late John Mitchell. Like Hindmarsh, I have rafted the Mokihinui, sought out “forgotten” huts, and tramped to remote places, including the Herbert Range. How much deeper these experiences would have been if I had known these stories first. I was pleased Hindmarsh has reached beyond today’s park boundaries. Nearby places such as the Mokihinui catchment and the Taitapu coast are integral parts of the region, some of which deserve to be in the park. Hindmarsh’s advocacy for huts, and ongoing issues such as Meridian’s Mokihinui dam proposal are part of the area’s story. Only a couple of minor errors were apparent: the spelling of former Forest & Bird president Roy Nelson’s name (not Ray), and a seemingly incorrect map series (NZMS1 not 260) in a quote. And I would have liked a concluding chapter that cast forward. However, the strength of passion, personal research, great images and enjoyable reading make Kahurangi Calling a gem, just like Kahurangi.

Threatened Plants of New Zealand

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By Peter de Lange, Peter Heenan, David Norton, Jeremy Rolfe and John Sawyer Canterbury University Press, $99.95 ($80 for NZPCN members) Reviewed by Aalbert Rebergen Just before I read this beautiful book I was weeding in my Masterton garden and found a few patches of a small endemic plant called Leptinella filiformis, given to me 10 years ago. Reading the book, I learnt it no longer occurs in the wild. Threatened Plants of New Zealand, written and illustrated by some of our best botanists, contains detailed descriptions of the 190 New Zealand plants at risk of disappearing forever. Already 25 have fewer than 200 known individuals left. Most of the 190 plant species classified as threatened are described on two pages each, illustrated with photographs and a distribution map. Six plants that are already extinct, such as the mistletoe Trilepidea adamsi, are included. The book relates closely to the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network and its excellent website. Most of the text on each plant is a very formal and detailed botanical description of the species. I’m not convinced that this book is the right place for it. I want to read about the habitat, remaining populations, the threats and what is being done to protect the species. Author John Sawyer told me he felt “depressed [that] it’s such a big book”. One in 13 of our plant species is threatened with extinction. I fear the proportion will only continue to grow.

Classic Walks of New Zealand Revised and updated edition By Craig Potton Craig Potton Publishing, $39.99 Reviewed by Marina Skinner Craig Potton’s voice gently yet persuasively calls the reader from the armchair with his descriptions of nine great multiday walks. The trails are briefly and lyrically described, but the photos by Potton and other top wilderness photographers offer the strongest motivation to lace up the tramping boots. This updated edition of the 1997 title aims to inspire readers rather than provide a trail guide. It’s for the coffee table, not the pack, though it’s a better-value pictorial book than many, even with its soft cover. With the photographic dominance of the book, it’s an unexpected pleasure to find Potton’s essays on each walk so informative and well-written. It shouldn’t be a surprise since this man knows his back-country stuff. We’re in there with him when he leads us through Stewart Island’s deep mud and even deeper podocarp forests. And he captures the multi-coloured clarity of an Awaroa Bay sunrise on the well-worn Abel Tasman coast track almost as well with his pen as his camera. The nine walks – Milford, Heaphy, Kepler, Routeburn, Abel Tasman and Waikaremoana tracks plus Stewart Island, Mt Taranaki and Tongariro/Ruapehu circuits – have summaries of their main features, huts and the time and kilometres between huts. Unlike the original edition, each walk gets a 3D Bird’s Eye Map, which clearly shows the track and surrounding terrain.

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pacific

The Pacific rat race A

n ambitious project to banish kiore from Henderson Island is under way. Halfway between New Zealand and Ecuador, Henderson Island is one of the planet’s most remote islands. It’s the largest island in the Pitcairn Group, and the last pristine raised coral atoll of significant size in the world. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989, Henderson is home to four unique land birds found nowhere else on earth: the Henderson fruit-dove, Henderson lorikeet, Henderson crake and Henderson reed-warbler. It is also the only known nesting site of the endangered Henderson petrel and a global stronghold for the gadfly petrel group, the most truly oceanic of all birds. Combine this with nine unique plant species, eight endemic snail species, dozens of unique invertebrates and crucial nesting habitat for marine turtles and you’ve got a jewel of Pacific biodiversity. Little was known about Henderson and its wildlife for many years. One of the group of so-called mystery islands, it shows evidence of long-term Polynesian settlement but was uninhabited when discovered by Europeans in 1606. They never established a permanent settlement on Henderson, leaving the island’s virgin forest and wildlife preserved in a near-pristine state. It was not until a major 15-month expedition to the island in 1991-2 that scientists realised the devastating impact that introduced kiore, or Pacific rats, are having on Henderson’s biodiversity. More than 95 per cent of the chicks of the four species of petrel are killed within a week of hatching. Petrel numbers are in serious decline and the endangered Henderson petrel is being driven to extinction. It numbered in the millions before humans and rats arrived, but today just thousands of breeding seabird pairs remain on Henderson.

Rodent eradication is urgently needed, but the Pitcairn Island community of just 48 people can’t finance this. As part of United Kingdon territory, the island is not eligible for many international environmental funds normally open to small-island Pacific states, and it can’t access British funding because it is outside the UK. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Forest & Bird’s BirdLife Partner in the UK, has been calling on the UK Government to step in and honour its legal responsibility to conserve this astonishing island. The RSPB has been among those leading work to restore Henderson Island for several years, working closely with New Zealand eradication experts to ensure the most up-to-date knowledge is used. At 3,700 hectares, Henderson would be the largest island yet targeted for kiore eradication, and the largest tropical or sub-tropical island ever cleared of rodents. An expedition visited Henderson in September 2009 and concluded a kiore eradication project is technically feasible. The eradication team is tentatively scheduled to leave New Zealand in July 2011, with the aim of declaring Henderson rat-free by late 2013. The RSPB is now fundraising for the project. The conservation benefits would be enormous: the Henderson petrel would be saved from its slide towards extinction and at least 10 more unique species safeguarded. A globally significant seabird sanctuary would be created – scientific research suggests seabird populations would dramatically increase, perhaps hundred-fold. 1 Henderson Island is an important wintering spot for the bristle-thighed curlew (Numenius tahitiensis). Photos: Richard Cuthbert, RSPB 2, 3 Rat eradication would help the Murphy’s petrel (Pterodroma ultima), one of four petrels in serious decline on Henderson Island.

3 More information: Contact Henderson Project Coordinator Jonathan Hall at jonathan.hall@rspb.org.uk

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Shipshape fundraising Forest & Bird readers who live in England, Wales and Scotland have a chance to win one of two luxury trips for two to visit Henderson, worth more than £16,000 (NZ$35,000). The 400 raffle tickets are £500 each.

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Parting shot Environmental photographer Peter Langlands captured this shot of a southern Buller’s albatross, left, and a Campbell Island black-browed albatross squabbling over fish scraps off the Kaikoura coast. Langlands was about 30 kilometres offshore on an all-day Albatross Encounter trip in March when he photographed the endemic albatrosses. He was about 10 metres from the birds and used a 400mm lens. 68

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Both species are comparatively small albatrosses, each weighing about 2.7 kilograms. Tens of thousands of albatrosses are killed every year when they are caught in fishing nets and long lines, and when they hit fishing boat cables. Forest & Bird has been working to change fishing practices to reduce these deaths. Langlands admires their markings. “They have simple but striking colouring on their heads – it’s like make-up on a model.”

branch directory

Upper North Island Central Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Anne Fenn; Secretary, Isabel Still, PO Box 1118, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140. Tel: (09) 528-3986. Far North Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Michael Winch, 119D Skudders Beach Road, RD 1, Kerikeri 0294. Tel: (09) 401-7401. Franklin Branch: Chairperson, Keith Gardner; Secretary, Michelle Leman, 8 Second Avenue, RD 1, Waiuku 2681. Tel: (09) 235-3512. Hauraki Islands Branch: Chairperson, Brian Griffiths; Secretary, Sue Fitchett, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island 1081. Tel: (09) 372-7600. Hibiscus Coast Branch: Chairperson, Pauline Smith; Secretary, Katie Lucas, PO Box 310, Orewa 0946. Tel: (09) 427-5186. Kaipara Branch: Chairperson, Suzi Phillips; Secretary, Suzi Phillips, PO Box 187, Helensville 0840. Tel: 021 271 2527. Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Eve McCarthy; Secretaries, Sharon Barnes Tel: (07) 866-5583 or Vanessa Ford Tel: (07) 866-4355. PO Box 205, Whitianga 3542. Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Warwick Massey; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, PO Box 552, Warkworth 0941. Tel: (09) 422-9123. North Shore Branch: Chairperson, Alan Emmerson; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, PO Box 33873, Takapuna, North Shore City 0740. Tel: (09) 479-2107. Northern Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, PO Box 1375, Whangarei 0140. Tel: (09) 432-7122. South Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Dene Andre; Secretary, Brian Gidley, PO Box 23602, Hunters Corner, Manukau 2155. Tel: (09) 278-0185. Thames-Hauraki Branch: Chairperson, Marcia Sowman; Secretary, Hazel Genner, PO Box 312, Thames 3540. Tel: (07) 868-9057. Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, Tina Morgan; Secretary, Vacant, PO Box 108, Coromandel 3543. Tel. (07) 866-6720. Waitakere Branch: Chairperson, John Staniland; Secretary, Janie Vaughan, PO Box 60655, Titirangi, Waitakere 0642. Tel: (09) 817-9262.

Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch: Chairperson, Mark Fort; Secretary, Sue Greenwood, Forest & Bird, PO Box 582, Whakatane 3158. Tel: (07) 307-1435. Gisborne Branch: Chairperson, Grant Vincent; Secretary, Wendy McLean, 1 Dominey Street, Inner Kaiti, Gisborne 4010. Tel: (06) 868-8236.

lodge accommodation

Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North. Near Pukenui in wet-land reserve. 6 bunks, fully equipped kitchen, separate bathroom outside. For information and bookings, contact: John Dawn, Doves Bay Road, RD1, Kerikeri. Tel: (09) 407-8658, Fax: (09) 407-1401. Email: johnfd@xnet.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. 1 dble brm and 1 brm sleeps 3, plus large lounge with 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, wellequipped kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, laundry. Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland.

Rotorua Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretaries, Margaret Dick, Tel: (07) 357-2024 or Delight Gartlein Tel: (07) 357-2575. PO Box 1489, Rotorua 3040. South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, 37 Waianawa Place, Tokoroa 3420. Tel: (07) 886-7456. Taupo Branch: Chairperson, Ann Gallagher; Secretary, Trevor Hunt, PO Box 1105, Taupo 3351. Tel: (07) 378-5975. Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Liz Cole, PO Box 15638, Tauranga 3144. Tel: (07) 577-6412. Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Bev Nairn, PO Box 237, Te Puke 3153. Tel: (07) 533-4247 Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, 17 Reservoir Road, Waihi 3610. Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, PO Box 11092, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3251. Tel: (07) 849-3438.

Lower North Island Central Hawkes Bay Branch: Chairperson, Max Chatfield; Secretary, Barrie & Judith Bayliss, PO Box 189, Waipukurau 4242. Tel: (06) 858-8765. Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Ian Noble; Secretary, Lorna Templeton, 11/15 Devonshire Place, Taradale, Napier 4112 . Tel: (06) 845-4155. Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Robert Hirschberg; Secretary, Belinda McLean, 47 Te Manuao Road, Otaki 5512. Tel: (06) 364-5573. Kapiti-Mana Branch: Chairperson, Tony Ward; Secretary, John McLachlan, 78 Langdale Avenue, Paraparaumu 5032. Tel: (04) 904-0027. Lower Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Kevin Bateman; Secretary, Stan Butcher, PO Box 31194, Lower Hutt 5040. Tel: (04) 567-7271. Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Brent Barrett; Secretary, Anthea McClelland, PO Box 961, Palmerston North Central, Palmerston North 4440. Tel: (06) 353-6758. Napier Branch: Chairperson, Neil Eagles; Secretary, Margaret Gwynn, 23 Clyde Road, Bluff Hill, Napier 4110. Tel: (06) 835-2122. North Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Carolyn Brough; Secretary, Murray Duke, PO Box 1029, Taranaki Mail Centre, New Plymouth 4340. Tel: (06) 751-2759. Rangitikei Branch: Chairperson,Diana Stewart; Secretary, Betty Graham, 41 Tutaenui Road, Marton 4710. Tel: (06) 327-7008. South Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Dave Digby; Secretary, Lynda Sutherland, 39 High Street, Eltham 4322. Tel: (06) 764-7479.

Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island. Tel: (09) 372-7662.

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.

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.

Upper Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Barry Wards; Secretary, Fred Fowler, PO Box 40875, Upper Hutt 5140. Tel: (04) 528-3127. Wairarapa Branch: Chairperson, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Roger Greenslade, 18 Johnstone Street, Masterton 5810. Tel: (06) 377-5255. Wanganui Branch: Chairperson, Esther Williams; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, PO Box 4229, Wanganui 4541. Tel: (06) 345-2651. Wellington Branch: Chairperson, Peter Hunt; Secretary, Janet Coburn, PO Box 4183, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 971-8200.

South Island Ashburton Branch: Chairperson, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, PO Box 460, Ashburton 7740. Tel: (03) 308-5620. Central Otago-Lakes Branch: Chairperson, John Turnbull; Secretary, Denise Bruns, 4 Stonebrook Drive, Wanaka 9305. Tel: (03) 443-5462. Dunedin Branch: Chairperson, Janet Ledingham; Secretary, Mark Hanger, PO Box 5793, Moray Place, Dunedin 9058. Tel: (03) 489-3233. Golden Bay Branch: Chairperson, Jenny Treloar; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Puponga Road, RD 1, Collingwood 7073. Tel: (03) 524-8072. Kaikoura Branch: Chairperson, Ailsa Howard; Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Pooles Road, RD 1, Kaikoura 7371. Tel: (03) 319-5086. Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Secretary, Lynda Neame, PO Box 896, Blenheim 7240. Tel: (03) 578-2013. Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Helen Campbell; Secretary, Jocelyn Bieleski, PO Box 7126, Nelson Mail Centre, Nelson 7042. Tel: (03) 548-6803. North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Bruce Coleman; Secretary, Catherine Timbers, PO Box 2389, Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 338-3084. South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Marijke Bakker-Gelsing; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, 29 Mountain View Road, Glenwood, Timaru 7910. Tel: (03) 686-1494. South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Secretary, Suzanne Schofield, 64 Frances Street, Balclutha 9230. Tel: (03) 4184415. Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, PO Box 1155, Invercargill 9840. Tel: (03) 248-6398. West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; Secretary, Jane Marshall, 115 Hoffman Street, Hokitika 7810. Tel: (027) 388-5887.

Smoking is banned everywhere on the island, including the house. 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) 5248072.

Tautuku Lodge, 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 lodge, the Coutts 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@ruralinzone.net

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