Forest & Bird Magazine 347 Feb 2013 by Forest & Bird

ISSUE 347 • FEBRUARY 2013 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Canterbury water woes PLUS Our founder’s fighting spirit

False hope for Antarctic refuge

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ISSUE 347

• February 2013

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 Communications Manager: Marina Skinner Central Office: Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington. PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web: www.forestandbird.org.nz Auckland Office: 34A Charlotte Street, Eden Tce, Auckland, PO Box 108 055, Symonds St, Auckland 1150. Tel: (09) 302-0203, Fax: (09) 303-4548 Email: n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz Christchurch Office: Unit 4/Level 1, 245 St Asaph St, Christchurch. PO Box 2516, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 940-5522 Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No. CC26943.

Tiaki Taiao www.forestandbird.org.nz

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

Soapbox

Cover story

Ross Sea refuge on ice

Antarctic talks falter

48 Close watch on nature A new website

51 Observations

52 Backyard conservation

Canterbury’s rivers: How low can they go?

Cleaning up our water

Decent dairying

Land and Water Forum wraps up

Beside the seaside

56 In the field

Little ray of sunshine

58 Going places

Mangaräkau Swamp

Community conservation

beaked whales

Pelorus Bridge, Rätä growing, Tarnbrae weeding, Mangemangeroa Reserve, J S Watson Trust grants

28 Nature’s watchdog for

Book reviews

Parting shot

Southland farmers get it right

27 Amazing facts about …

An enduring voice for nature

Your help for Forest & Bird

Nature of tomorrow

Looking forward

ART DIRECTOR /DESIGNER:

Rangatahi

Graeme Hill on the little things

Our next extinct species?

Forest & Bird celebrates a birthday

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

Jessica Le Grice and kärearea

90 years

EDITOR: Marina Skinner

Proud to be a member

Megan Farley

Sea lions, Shark finning, Denniston update, Waitaki success, Kererü Count, World Watch, Thank you, Seabirds protection, Fracking report, Native trees book draw

Welcome sign for wildlife

Our partners

Our people

Shorebirds of New Zealand: Sharing the margins, Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The complete works of J G Keulemans, Butterflies of the South Pacific, Shelter from the Storm: The story of New Zealand’s back country huts Preening gannet by Helen Bucksey

Support for landowners Clean and green with Health Pak Alan Duncan, Daisy Thor-Poet, Barry Brickell, Jenny Lynch

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

KEEP UP WITH NATURE

PREPRESS/PRINTING:

Printlink ADVERTISING:

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

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Sign up to Forest & Bird eNews Fresh conservation news delivered to your inbox 6 times a year. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz COVER SHOT Upper Hurunui River near the Jollie Brook confluence near Lake Sumner. Photo: Rob Suisted/www.naturespic.com Correction: The November 2012 cover photo of a little spotted kiwi was taken by Simon Woolf/www.woolf.co.nz We thank Simon for his support for Forest & Bird.

editorial

In praise of tiny flowers A

s I’m writing, the tiny flowers of native jasmine (akakiore) are waving in the wind outside my window. A native hoverfly has been happily feeding among the stems, oblivious to the overhead rumbling of a frustrated bumblebee that is too big to land on the minute blooms. Around the house the spring flowers are almost gone from the native climbers. A Clematis paniculata is now a mass of fluffy seed heads and a C. forsteri has begun to scatter cream-coloured petals on the back deck. In the bush remnant below, other plants are taking their turn to flower – a putaputawëtä, rangiora and the ubiquitous ngaio. From akakiore to rangiora, hebes to orchids, many of our native plants have small, inconspicuous flowers, are slow growing and seldom brightly coloured. They don’t suit formal displays and their scent is subtle and easily lost on a windy day. These characteristics have not endeared our flora to some. From time to time a newspaper correspondent or radio personality bemoans the “dullness” of New Zealand plants by comparison with the “glorious displays” of civic rose gardens. It’s true, a rhododendron will always outbloom a five-finger but that’s not the point. The natives, big and small, showy or not, are part of a diversity that is ours to enjoy and protect. Sadly most New Zealanders will never see our native plants in an untouched environment. Pest animals have been eating their way through our forests for generations, often targeting the most attractive plants first for their fruits and blooms, for example, kohekohe or rätä. The glorious scarlet bloom of a rätä forest is now a very rare sight indeed but once seen it is a permanent antidote to any sense of floral inferiority. Maybe in time the development of urban sanctuaries will enable more people to experience something of what our forests once were, and better pest control is holding back the tide in some places. But ultimately we have to set our sights higher, to ridding our forests of the pests that are wrecking them and restoring not just the dawn chorus but the bloom and scent of tiny flowers.

Ngä mihi nui

Andrew Cutler Forest & Bird President

Forest & Bird AGM The 2013 annual general meeting and Council meeting will be on Saturday 29 June in Wellington. Venue to be advised. Our next conference will be in 2014. More information: www.forestandbird.org.nz, office@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 385 7374

| Forest & Bird

Registered Office at Level One, 90 Ghuznee Street, Wellington. PATRON: His Excellency

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

Andrew Cutler DEPUTY PRESIDENT:

Mark Hanger NATIONAL TREASURER:

Graham Bellamy CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS:

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

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

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

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

The delicate blooms of Olearia rani. Photo: Steve Attwood

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923)

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

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letters Forest & Bird welcomes your feedback on conservation topics. Please send letters up to 200 words, with your name, home address and daytime phone number. We don’t always have space to publish all letters or publish them in full. The best contribution to the Letters page of the May edition will win a copy of Shelter from the Storm: The story of New Zealand’s backcountry huts by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint (Craig Potton Publishing, $79.99). Please send letters to Editor, Forest & Bird magazine, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 or e-mail m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz by March 20.

Praise for river protection

More sweet-toothed sparrows

The article “Our greatest rivers” by Hamish Carnachan (November Forest & Bird) advocates strongly for the retention of water conservation orders (WCOs) as an effective means of protecting New Zealand’s wild and scenic rivers. I was encouraged to read that Fish & Game NZ, assisted by conservation groups, has started a campaign to raise the profile of WCOs. The article about the Manganuioteao River brought back a few memories for me – when I joined the Department of Conservation in 1987 one of my first tasks was to put together the department’s submission on the WCO application for this river – a challenging assignment but ultimately very worthwhile. Without a WCO in place there would have been hydro-electric power development on the Manganuioteao. A vital blue duck habitat would have been destroyed and the landscape of this part of the central North Island would have been very different. Water conservation orders have proved to be a very effective method of protecting the in-stream values of this country’s wild and scenic waterways, in many cases preventing what would have been major environmental damage by hydro-electric power development. Of all the provisions in the Resource Management Act they are one of the most effective and deserve to be further reinforced. The action by the Ruapehu District Council to establish a buffer zone to protect the margins of Manganuioteao River to reinforce the WCO is a farsighted move, which needs to be extended to other districts with protected rivers. Landbased and water-based protection measures need to be complementary.

I was interested in the letter from Sue Fitchett, Waiheke Island (November Forest & Bird) about the sparrows drinking from her sugar-water feeder. As well as putting out fat/seed/ fruit for the birds we also have a sugar-water feeder in our garden and the sparrows are frequent visitors to it, often happily shoulder to shoulder with the silvereyes. We too had wondered about the health benefits/hazards to them and are pleased to see that Eric Spurr doesn’t think they are at risk from becoming unhealthy, obese or diabetic! We also have starlings feeding from the flax flowers. Is this another learned behaviour?

Peter Nikon (retired environmental planner), Tauranga This letter is the winner of Craig Potton New Zealand.

Photo: Fish & Game

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Sheila Budgen, Motueka Garden Bird Survey organiser Eric Spurr replies: In Europe, where starlings are native, they eat mainly insects, fruit and seeds. However, where they have been introduced elsewhere in the world, they also ingest nectar. I think you could call this a learned behaviour. As a footnote, I have never seen or heard of starlings drinking sugar-water. Perhaps this is because they prefer fructose and glucose to sucrose.

Vanuatu achievements I was proud to be a Forest & Bird member by the end of the 2012 Vatthe Conservation Tour to Vanuatu in July. Forest & Bird has facilitated protection of Vanuatu’s last intact lowland forest, which became the nation’s first and largest conservation area in 1995. Major achievements since have been recognition by local communities of the intrinsic natural values of a conservation reserve over gardens, coconut plantations and logging; pioneering a highly effective method of management of the smothering super creeper, Merremia peltata or big leaf; a remarkable reduction in big leaf vine over 400 hectares, significant new growth and recovery of plant biodiversity, and a visible and audible increase in birdlife; a gentle style of eco-tourism where the traditional way of life and interaction with the environment is respected and a significant alternative income is enabled; Ni Vanuatu children are now writing poetry and singing about conservation; more than 150 Forest & Bird members have experienced conservation in action by working with local people. While great progress has been made, there is still work to be done. About two-thirds of the Vatthe Conservation Area has been treated. It is critical the remaining western part is completed for the changes to become self-sustaining. I hope Forest & Bird will continue to partner this unique and valuable project. It is one we can all be proud of. Sue Blaikie, Raumati Beach

Forest & Bird is extremely proud of the achievements of Sue Maturin and many Forest & Bird volunteers in Vatthe, and pleased we have empowered Vanuatuans to carry on the project. Forest & Bird has to make careful decisions about its conservation priorities in New Zealand and the Pacific, and we are not able to continue substantial support for this project. – Editor

90th birthday greetings Forest & Bird turns 90 and so do I on December 9, 2013. My husband remembered meeting Captain Sanderson when he was a schoolboy. I was on the Central Auckland branch committee and secretary for 13 years. I also took over running all the field trips, including to the South Island, Wairarapa, Rangitïkei and Bushy Park. I certainly have memories of troublesome times and happy times. Nancy Payne, Botany Downs Nancy has made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird over many years, and in 1987 received an Old Blue award. – Editor

Correction The fabulous Parting shot in the November edition of Forest & Bird described a white heron and spotted shag. The shag is in fact a little shag.

Thanks for Mackenzie win South Canterbury/North Otago is my (Päkehä version of my) whenua, my türangawaewae, and that of my parents, grandparents and siblings. The Mackenzie Country was my first experience of the high country. At the age of nine we reached the top of Burkes Pass and the astounding view of the Mackenzie plains and the Southern Alps beyond opened out before me like another planet, russet-gold tussock, smoke-blue snow-topped mountains beyond and vast blue skies shining above us. It looked changeless, it was beyond belief and magnificently beautiful to my young eyes. Now 82 years, I have never forgotten that experience. I’m not too up with the play on internet submissions but I did manage to join the Forest & Bird effort on this one to keep these golden landscapes without further damage, and especially to discourage intensive irrigation and dairy farming there. The news of Forest & Bird’s success getting Waitaki district landowners more closely watched before they can clear native plants (November Forest & Bird) is a real joy. There will be more effort needed, because the economic pressures are intense but this is a step on the way. Congratulations to those who have led the charge for us. We will work for no more of the wrong sort of changes in the Mackenzie Country. Sylvia Jenkin, Porirua

WINNING MEMBERS The winners of the draws in the November edition of Forest & Bird are: Buller’s Birds: Helen Henry, of Karitane. NZ Bird Calls: Susan Newell, of Christchurch, and D Bayne, of Motueka. Your prizes will be posted. Photo: Alpine Recreation

50 years ago

STOP PRESS As we go to press advice has been received that Her Majesty the Queen has graciously granted permission for the Society to use the prefix “Royal” to its title. This is a distinction not lightly bestowed and very few organisations are being so honoured these days. Those who are chosen receive it in recognition of long and distinguished service to the community in their respective fields, they must be of acknowledged stability, and their activities must be nation-wide. The bestowal of the title is indeed an epoch-making occasion and will be remembered as one of the milestones in the history of the Society, especially as it coincides with the Royal Visit (actually the advice was received on the day of the Queen’s arrival in Wellington) and our Fortieth Anniversary. Forest & Bird, February 1963

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conservation

news

Sea lions’ looming extinction ignored L

ife is getting tougher for endangered New Zealand sea lions, which the Department of Conservation says could be extinct within our lifetimes. Sea lions – now mainly found around New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands – are often caught in squid nets, the openings of which can be as high as 60 metres, and which can be as long as 200 metres. Primary Industries Minister David Carter announced in August that the maximum allowed number of accidental fishing-related sea lion deaths for the 2012-13 fishing season would remain at 68. He said this limit would remain until a review in four years, unless information shows fishing is causing a decline in the sea lion population. Carter also dramatically increased – from 1952 to 4700 – the number of trawls allowed in SQU6T, a squid fishing zone south-east of the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands that overlaps an area in which sea lions hunt for food. In November a story in the Dominion Post newspaper introduced some political intrigue. After Carter lifted the number of trawls by 140 per cent, Otago University zoologist Bruce Robertson wrote to him pointing out the danger that posed. Dr Robertson was surprised by the minister’s response to his warning. He says he received a handwritten note from Carter, attached to a letter, telling the academic: “I do not want to talk any further to you about this.” An Official Information Act request by Dr Robertson revealed that Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson – who has visited the Auckland Islands – had told Carter there should be no increase in the number of squid trawls.

Wilkinson even pleaded with Carter to be allowed into meetings between him and the industry. In one 10-year period, more than 700 sea lions were estimated to have been killed in the sub-Antarctic squid trawl fishery alone – not including unborn pups or those waiting for their mothers onshore. Since 1998 sea lion births have fallen 49 per cent. DOC said recently that sea lions, of which only 10,000 are left, were likely to become functionally extinct within 23 years given the levels of by-catch. Considered the world’s rarest sea lion, most breed in the Auckland Islands, though a small breeding population has been established on Otago beaches in recent years. They once lived all around New Zealand’s coast. The squid fishing industry takes a heavy toll on sea lions because its season coincides with the sea lions’ breeding season. In 2006 all the females caught by squid trawlers had recently given birth and were pregnant again. The industry uses sea lion exclusion devices (SLEDs) on its nets but sea lions are still caught. Scientists have major concerns about how many sea lions might escape a net but be fatally injured – a death toll that would go unseen. Forest & Bird is campaigning for the species to be moved from under the auspices of the Fisheries Act to the Marine Mammal Protection Act 1978. This would see our sea lions managed to a non-threatened status as soon as is reasonably practicable and within 20 years. Forest & Bird is also lobbying for the industry to adopt the jig fishing technique, a method that doesn’t kill marine mammals or seabirds. n Jay Harkness

How you can help Endangered New Zealand sea lions feed in the same subAntarctic waters where squid boats fish. Photo: David Hallett

| Forest & Bird

Sign Forest & Bird’s petition – which calls for an urgent review of the management of New Zealand sea lions – at http://bit.ly/Ys5VQw

From left, Gareth Hughes (Green Party), Ruth Dyson (Labour), John Banks (ACT), Peter Dunne (United Future), Eugenie Sage (Green Party), Milena Palka (NZSA representative) and Richard Prosser (New Zealand First) lend their political weight to help bring an end to shark finning.

Politicians pledge shark finning ban P

olitical parties don’t often wholeheartedly agree on an issue. But late last year, seven of the eight major parties came together to pledge their support to end shark finning in New Zealand. The Green Party, Labour, Mana, Mäori, United Future, ACT and New Zealand First signed the New Zealand Shark Alliance’s (NZSA) pledge to end shark finning. National was the only party missing, as its members had earlier refused to meet Forest & Bird’s NZSA representative, Katrina Subedar, to discuss the issue. Katrina says having such widespread political support sends a clear message that the Government needs to ban this “disgusting practice”. Shark finning is killing a shark, removing its fins and dumping the rest of the shark at sea. “It’s extremely wasteful for fishers to dump 98 per cent of a shark’s body overboard, and it is shameful that this practice is still legal inside our Exclusive Economic Zone. “Ninety-eight countries have already banned shark finning, and New Zealand needs to catch up,” says Katrina, who is also the Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate. The Ministry for Primary Industries has been recently reviewing the 2008 National Plan of Action for sharks, which

aims to conserve and manage our shark species. Katrina says it’s the perfect opportunity to bring New Zealand’s legislation in line with other countries that have already banned shark finning at sea. Green Party spokesperson Gareth Hughes later explained to media that the NZSA pledge supported a legislative change requiring all caught sharks to be brought to shore with their fins naturally attached. This international best practice would still allow fins to be removed and sold for export, but also encourage the full use of the shark carcass. Gareth said it was a win-win situation for the fishing industry and environmentalists. “It’s easy to regulate, it’s very cheap to monitor and it means your information about shark stocks is vastly improved.” The draft plan was scheduled to be released for public consultation in late October, but this was delayed until early this year. n Jolene Williams

To sign the NZSA pledge or find out more: http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/ shark-finning-new-zealands-shame

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conservation

news

Denniston’s creatures vs a mine W

e’ve had our day in court. We’ve listened as our 16 witnesses – specialists in ecology, tussocklands, snails, lizards, invertebrates, birds and wetlands, experts of economics, social impacts, resource management and law – argued why the Denniston Plateau must not be mined. Months of preparation, dozens of documents, more than four weeks in court, and now the fate of the plateau lies in the hands of an Environment Court judge and two commissioners. The hearing during November and December was Forest & Bird’s largest and costliest legal battle to date. The crux of our argument lies in our belief that the plateau’s unparalleled ecological wealth was worth more than the short-term economic benefits of an open-cast mine. Forest & Bird has been lauding the plateau’s outstanding biodiversity for decades. We assumed that Denniston’s status as conservation land protected it from mining, until 2010 when a mining company, later bought by Australianbased Bathurst Resources, applied for consents to develop a 190-hectare coal mine. During the hearing the court heard how a new species of cave wëtä was discovered on the plateau a few months earlier by Massey University scientist Steve Trewick. The associate professor says it’s not yet known if the Denniston white-faced wëtä is found anywhere else. However, it could be endemic to the plateau and if the 190ha coal mine goes ahead some of its habitat will be destroyed. As our Denniston chief campaigner Debs Martin points out, although the new discovery alone is not crucial to winning the case, its presence is yet another reason why the plateau should not be mined and demonstrates the plateau’s ecological significance. “This new wëtä highlights the fact that the plateau is a really rich, unique place that we don’t know a lot about. More research needs to be done before we start digging it up and turning it into something else,” she says. Unusually for Forest & Bird, we also argued against the mine on economic grounds. Bathurst has always claimed that mining the plateau would bring huge economic benefits to the West Coast. Bathurst’s economist initially told the court the project’s net present value was $467 million. Our economist, Peter Clough from the New Zealand Institute of Economic

Research, examined the figures and concluded they were too high because they were based on an “improbably optimistic” coal price of $240 a tonne and failed to recognise that the vast majority of Bathurst’s profits would go offshore. Mr Clough estimated the economic benefits in the region from wages, and concluded the financial benefits would certainly be less than promised and may be, in fact, quite modest. Bathurst Resources’ case relies partly on the alleged social benefits mining will bring to the West Coast. Dianne Buchan, a resource management and social impact consultant specialist, told the court Bathurst’s predicted social benefits were highly exaggerated. The mine would directly employ 225 people but actual benefits to the community would depend on workers moving to Westport. Ms Buchan said the mine posed risks to the social wellbeing of the community because out-of-town workers were unlikely to relocate given the short-term nature of the job. Mining operations would actually increase housing rental prices, she said. During the hearing the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board announced it had recommended the Department of Conservation investigate classifying the plateau as an “ecological estate”, where it could then be protected from mining as Schedule 4 land. Board chairperson Claire Backes told local media: “[The board] is not against mining per se, but it does think that areas like the Denniston Plateau with such high conservation values should be protected.”

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

Kokako - image c/o Simon Fordham/Naturepix 8

| Forest & Bird

www.360discovery.co.nz 0800 360 3472

Forest & Bird’s Debs Martin welcomed the board’s move, saying “until something has been mined, it was never too late”. The Environment Court is not expected to reach a decision until the second quarter of this year. n Jolene Williams

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There’s still time to register for the guided weekend field trips to Denniston Plateau. The first trip will be on February 23 and 24, with a second trip likely in March. Forest & Bird’s Denniston expert, Debs Martin, will lead explorations of the plateau’s natural treasures, and will be joined in February by acclaimed naturalist and wildlife photographer Rod Morris. For more information and to register interest, please contact Debs at d.martin@forestandbird.org.nz or 03 989 3355.

8 Day Accommodated Tour - Departs 2nd March 2013 Discover the diverse range of bird life that populates this beautiful area.

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15 Day Camping/Accommodated Tour - Departs 15th June 2013 Explore the wildlife & gorges of this unspoiled wilderness area.

Thank you everyone Forest & Bird is very grateful for the many donations made by individual members and Forest & Bird branches around New Zealand. It’s been heartening to receive nationwide support for our work in the courts and elsewhere to protect the Denniston Plateau. 2

Visit our website & sign up for our email newsletter for the latest wildlife news & details of our full 2013 tour program.

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

Accidents cAn hAppen to Anyone take a McMurdo FastFind pLB with you

Be Safe, Get Help Fast!

1 The Denniston white-faced wëtä, a new species found on the

plateau at the Denniston BioBlitz. Photo: Steve Trewick

2 A kea on Denniston Plateau. Photo: Peter Langlands

NEW!

Become a Denniston donor We’ve launched a unique appeal to help raise funds for our fight to save Denniston. Donors can choose from three levels of giving – $50, $150 or $1000 – and as acknowledgement of their gift will receive a signed, limited-edition Craig Potton print. All proceeds will go directly to our campaign to save Denniston from coal mining.

It’s small, light and has saved many lives.

More information: www.savethedennistonplateau.org.nz

For your local supplier: Ph: 0800 713 656 www.brightideas.co.nz

$699 RRp

Your position is transmitted to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre within a few minutes and the search area is narrowed down to a few square metres.

Forest & Bird

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conservation

news

Another win for tussock lands F

orest & Bird late last year won an important Environment Court case that will go a long way to protect the famous and ecologically important tussock lands of South Canterbury’s Waitaki Valley. Forest & Bird took the case against the Waitaki District Council and Federated Farmers over a rule in the council’s district plan that exempted native plants from the council’s vegetation clearance rules if they were growing on land that had been privatised through the government’s tenure review scheme. The tenure review programme was set up to transfer high country pastoral lease land with high conservation values that should be protected to the public conservation estate. The remaining land is freeholded to the farmers who have leased it. The court found that the council’s exemption for posttenure review properties did not fit with the district plan’s overall goals, or the sustainable management part of the

Resource Management Act (RMA). The court agreed with Forest & Bird that while the environment is meant to be considered as part of the tenure review process that’s not always the reality. More than half the lower-altitude land that the Department of Conservation says is ecologically significant has been lost to private hands through tenure review, says Forest & Bird solicitor Sally Gepp. “The remaining areas were freeholded with no form of protection. The problem is that the Waitaki District Council then decided that its plan wouldn’t protect those areas either,” she says. The Waitaki region is often used as a location by the advertising and film industries because of its wide open landscapes and natural beauty. It’s also a favourite of many native birds, such as the critically endangered black stilt (kaki) and wrybill (ngutuparore) as well as insects, lizards, beetles, mountain grasshoppers and a species of alpine wëtä that survives being frozen solid during the winter. Much of the Waitaki’s tussock lands have already been cleared for forestry, dairying and lifestyle blocks. Because so much land with native tussock grasslands, herb fields and shrub lands has wound up in private hands through tenure review it was vital that Forest & Bird won this case. While there is still an issue with farmers being able to use irrigators and let stock feed on post-tenure review properties where natives are growing, the ruling will go a long way towards providing opportunities to protect what’s left of the Waitaki’s natural environment. n Jay Harkness Lower-altitude shrub lands, tussock grass lands and herb fields like this Halls tötara remnant are frequently freeholded and left vulnerable to clearance. Photo: Sue Maturin

Kererü Count returns The Kererü Count is on again this month, and we are asking people to log on to the dedicated website between February 24 and March 4 to record their sightings of the native wood pigeon. This is the second year the Kererü Count has been run by the Kiwi Conservation Club – Forest & Bird’s club for children. Everyone (of any age) is asked to log where they saw kererü during the survey period. The project aims to collect data every year to build a picture of kererü population trends around New Zealand. Last year 2148 kererü sightings were recorded by individuals and school classes. Highlights were a flock of 40 seen on the West Coast and a flock of 70 spotted in Otago. Log your sightings between February 24 and March 4 at www.kererucount.org.nz 10

| Forest & Bird

Photo: David Brooks

IN BRIEF World watch Climate change stalling: The last round of climate change talks in Doha, Qatar, in December ended with governments agreeing to a compromise that fails to limit global average temperature rises to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. BirdLife International – to which Forest & Bird belongs as the New Zealand partner – represented its member organisations at Doha. “There was an opportunity to reach fair, ambitious outcomes, but this is not it,’ said BirdLife International head of policy Melanie Heath.”The lack of ambition against a backdrop of increased climate change impacts across the world is intensely disappointing.” The Kyoto Protocol was extended for another eight years to 2020, with the second commitment period starting in January 2013, and developed countries setting emission reduction targets. Unfortunately, New Zealand was one of several countries, including Canada, Japan and Russia, that dropped out of the mechanisms. The nations still committed to the Kyoto Protocol account for just 15 per cent of global emissions. At least some developed countries are taking a lead to reduce their carbon emissions. Panama threat to shorebirds: A stopover site for migrating shorebirds and one of the most important coastal wetlands in the Americas is under threat. Up to two million individual birds of 30 species stop at the Upper Bay of Panama, an Important Bird Area, on their way south after breeding. Demand for urban and resort development, including hotels and golf courses, led to legal protected status being withdrawn last May. Regulations on mangrove cutting have been relaxed and developers were reported to be at work in the wetland area. The Panama Audubon Society and local and international environmental groups including National Audubon are taking legal action for protected status to be restored, and working with local communities to make sure their voices are heard. “If these wetlands are lost, you break the chain of wetlands shorebirds need for successful migrations,” Panama Audubon executive director Rosabel Miro said. Turtle numbers rise: Turtle surveys by the Sea Turtle Society of Japan indicate that last year was a record high for turtle landings and egg-laying for the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. This is good news for the turtles, and points toward the success of conservation efforts that began in the 1980s.

Thank you for your gift We send a huge thank you to our wonderful supporters for once again getting behind Forest & Bird’s Christmas appeal. The focus of the appeal was on pest control, which is at the heart of Forest & Bird’s work. As you know, New Zealand is overrun by introduced pests such as possums, stoats and rats, and they are arguably the single biggest threat to our native plants and animals. To see such wonderful support for this appeal gives us valuable income for our work and inspires our mission to be the voice for nature.

THE TRUST COMPANY

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conservation

news

Plan aims to cut seabird deaths A

fter six months of deliberations, the Department of Conservation and Ministry for Primary Industries released their draft National Plan of Action (NPOA) for seabirds last November. Public submissions have closed but the final version is expected to be released before the middle of this year. Forest & Bird Seabird Advocate Karen Baird was part of the independently chaired group of experts and stakeholders who developed the revised NPOA. She is relieved there is now a plan that can provide direction on effectively reducing seabird by-catch in New Zealand, and says it’s a “vast improvement” on the draft released last year by the Ministry for Primary Industries, which was rejected by stakeholders. The plan aims to reduce the number of seabirds accidentally caught by fishers to negligible levels. Progress had been made since the original 2008 plan but the revised version takes account of the latest international best practice guidelines developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, and is tailored to fit the New Zealand situation. “The National Plan of Action for seabirds will shape government and fishing industry efforts to reduce New Zealand’s very high seabird by-catch problem over the next five years. So it’s imperative that we get this right,” said Karen. One noticeable addition is the provision of a NPOA Seabird Advisory Group to monitor and assist implementing the plan. “This group will also be involved in evaluating just how successful this new plan is,” said Karen. Recent estimates suggest that up to 15,000 seabirds die each year in New Zealand waters after getting caught in fishing nets or on fishing hooks. Meanwhile, an agreement from a December conference in the Philippines is welcome news for the albatross

species that raise their young in New Zealand. The resolution was passed at a meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) – which manages the fishing industry over much of the Pacific Ocean. The agreement will mean longliners operating south of 30 degrees south, in areas where albatrosses are known to feed, will have to adopt two of three techniques to avoid albatrosses swallowing their hooks. Longliners typically set thousands of hooks a day on lines that can be more than 100 kilometres long. Seabirds, especially albatrosses, often become caught as they try to take bait from the hooks, and are drowned as the line sinks. Vessels will have to choose between using bird streamers, also known as tori lines, which scare birds off; adding weights to make hooks sink more quickly; or setting hooks at night, when most birds are less active. Scientists estimate that more than 300,000 seabirds are killed every year by longliners, and it’s believed this is the main reason that 17 of the world’s 22 species of albatrosses could soon become extinct. “If implemented, this decision could reduce the number of albatrosses killed by 80 per cent,” said Karen Baird, who attended the Manila conference. “So this decision could make the difference between several species of albatross surviving, or disappearing forever,” she says. Half the world’s albatross species nest and raise their young in New Zealand. They spend the rest of their lives at sea, which makes them vulnerable to fishing. Six of the species that nest in New Zealand are now on the decline. If adopted, the WCPFC’s new rules will apply in New Zealand waters – and the waters of all member countries – from July next year. Forest & Bird provided support and advice at the Manila conference, and helped shore up support for the proposal among delegates from other countries.

1 Albatrosses caught by

commercial fishers.

2 A black petrel in the Hauraki

1 12

Gulf. Photo: Dave Boyle

| Forest & Bird

Caution urged for fracking

he Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s (PCE) interim report last November has not ruled out the possibility that fracking to extract previously inaccessible oil and gas could be part of New Zealand’s future. The report outlined the environmental impacts of fracking and concluded that there are real risks. If fracking was properly regulated and managed it may be possible to be done safely in some cases. But commissioner Jan Wright had “significant concerns” about the fragmented and complex regulation processes in New Zealand. She warned that if not well managed fracking could have “significant environmental impacts including polluting water and triggering earthquakes”. The report found that despite the environmental risks, a moratorium on fracking was not yet justified. It took issue with the absence of robust rules and safeguards. This will be the focus of the PCE’s second report, which will be issued this year. Fracking – a contraction of “hydraulic fracturing” – extracts oil and gas by injecting fluid containing sand and chemicals at high pressure to fracture rock. More information: www.pce.parliament.nz

WIN A BOOK

Forest & Bird is giving away a copy of Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees book by John Dawson and Rob Lucas (Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99). To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@forestandbird. org.nz Please put Native Trees in the subject line and include your name and address in the email. Or put your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to Native Trees draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on March 20. Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees is for sale at Forest & Bird’s online shop at www. forestandbird.org.nz or send a cheque for $55.50 (includes packaging and post in New Zealand) to Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees book purchase, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. A portion of each sale goes towards Forest & Bird’s conservation work.

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soapbox

Our next extinct species? Mark Bellingham weighs the value of New Zealand fairy terns against the value of Northland real estate.

ecently I was involved in an Environment Court case trying to protect the feeding habitat for half the world’s breeding pairs of New Zealand fairy terns at Mangawhai in Northland. The critically endangered fairy terns once bred around the North Island and upper South Island but are now confined to four nesting sites on the lower half of the Northland peninsula. Their entire population is only 43 birds with between eight and 10 breeding pairs. Their survival is due to a small band of dedicated members of the Ornithological Society and Forest & Bird, in conjunction with the work of Department of Conservation (DOC). Breeding terns at the largest site in Mangawhai feed on the small fish and shrimps that live among the 87 hectares of mangroves in Mangawhai Harbour. But some of the locals don’t like mangroves and the local Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society wants to remove all the mangroves from the harbour to “restore” it to a state in the 1950s, when roaming cattle and sheep had eaten all the mangroves. We don’t yet know whether the loss of these mangrove areas will reduce numbers of fairy tern chicks. What we do know is we can’t afford to take the risk. The harbour restoration society’s initial application was declined by Northland Regional Council in April 2011. It appealed that decision in the Environment Court last year. The group’s “restoration” efforts and court cases are being funded by the Northland Regional Council and Kaipara District Council. Kaipara District Council has been driving coastal development at Mangawhai. The growing

Critically endangered fairy terns at Mangawhai rely on small fish and shrimps found among the mangroves that a local group wants removed. Photo: David Hallett

| Forest & Bird

residential area and subsequent increase of people and dogs has put a huge amount of pressure on the harbour’s wildlife. Fairy terns are the most sensitive species in this small estuary. All three fairy tern breeding sites on Northland’s east coast are threatened by coastal subdivisions, but Mangawhai is the most critical to the population because it’s home to four or five of the eight breeding pairs. The birds breed on a large sandspit, which is mostly a wildlife reserve where DOC has undertaken good predator control, and the birds feed in the adjacent harbour. During the Environment Court hearing, Forest & Bird had to prove beyond all doubt that fairy terns are endangered and the fish they eat and feed to their chicks is threatened by mangrove clearance. Our experts showed that the fairy terns feed on these small fish and that the chemical “signature” of these fish is in both the fairy tern adults and chicks. It appears that almost all the food for the chicks comes from these fish that live in the mangrove-lined part of the harbour. But there was an underlying ethos in the opposition’s submissions and in the court’s ruling that nature had got it wrong. The court found that mangroves were “compromising the ecological integrity of the harbour and displacing other valued vegetation and habitat”. The court decided that some mangrove clearance could go ahead and the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society may be able to clear about 14ha. The parties are still discussing conditions for this to go-ahead. It was unfortunate Mother Nature wasn’t there to explain why the mangroves were growing over the mud that was coming down the catchment. It was also unfortunate that her plan for the natural order of the harbour was balanced against large-scale landscaping and engineering projects to improve real estate and local amenity values. Thankfully Forest & Bird was there. I am saddened that the development-at-any-cost mentality that we’ve unleashed over the past two centuries is thriving in New Zealand. Still, when a bunch of people want to improve their real estate values at the expense of the world’s rarest shorebird, I would hope common sense would prevail. I would hope our planning system might engender a little bit of precaution. Meanwhile, Forest & Bird is working on a proposal to restore another breeding site on the Kaipara Harbour. If that works it will give fairy terns a chance but they still need a 10-15-year break to let their population build to a safer level. If it doesn’t work and we continue to destroy important feeding grounds we could be looking at fairy terns being our next extinct species. Mark Bellingham is Forest & Bird’s North Island Manager.

How low can they go? Canterbury’s rivers are being run dry and the water that’s left is polluted. So how do the native birds, fish, insects and plants that live in and beside waterways survive? By Jay Harkness.

any Cantabrians will remember a time when the region’s lakes and rivers weren’t a problem that needed fixing. Back then waterways were taken for granted as places to swim and fish. The region’s braided rivers were home to native wildlife. Until recently, Canterbury’s waterways were in excellent health, with few exceptions. However, Canterbury’s freshwater has deteriorated badly over the past two decades. It is no coincidence that the decline has come at the same time as intensive irrigated farming, which has capitalised on the dairying boom. The national dairy herd is now at more than six million, with two million dairy cows in the South Island. Canterbury’s

| Forest & Bird

dairy herd is increasing at the fastest rate. High-input dairy farms use more fertiliser, and New Zealand’s use of nitrogen fertiliser (urea) has increased by 800 per cent in the past 20 years. Urea dissolves in water and gets into streams and springs. Nitrates are toxic to juvenile fish, and they fertilise algae, which clog up waterways and, when they die, can deprive fish of oxygen. Manure from dairy cows adds even more nitrogen to the land – about five times the amount from nitrogen fertilisers. When the nitrogen from that manure reaches a waterway – which can take years – it too can lead to algal blooms. Environment Canterbury (ECan) has led the development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy. It could mean

COVER STORY

1 the region will have up to 850,000 hectares of dairy farms in the next 50 years. At 3½ cows per hectare, Canterbury would then have nearly three million cows. The wastewater contamination load of this is equivalent to a population of 48 million people, releasing 260,000 tonnes of nitrogen a year into the environment – even before fertiliser is added to the equation, let alone faecal coliform bacteria and waterborne diseases. It’s no surprise that throughout Canterbury signs beside lowland rivers warn people not to swim. Canterbury’s braided rivers need water – and lots of it – to keep their gravels clear of weeds and to provide relative safety for nesting birds such as the wrybill (ngutuparore) and the black-fronted tern (tara). Put simply, more water for irrigation means a decline in habitat for wildlife. Forest & Bird South Island Conservation Manager Chris Todd says that unless something major changes soon, future generations of Cantabrians won’t recognise Canterbury’s lakes and rivers as anything like they were even two decades ago.

2 1 Headwaters of the Waimakariri River. Photo: Steve Attwood 2 Kayaking on the Hurunui River. Photo: Lesley Shand

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t’s impossible to tell the story of Canterbury’s waterways without telling the story of ECan. In 2010, the National government took the extraordinary step of firing ECan’s elected councillors and replacing them with appointed commissioners. Last September the government extended the commissioners’ terms to 2016. University of Canterbury law professor Philip Joseph told The Press in 2010 that the legislation that allowed the councillors to be fired was “constitutionally repugnant”, that it contained “elements of subterfuge” and that it was a “constitutional affront”. Responses to Official Information Act requests show clearly that the government was motivated largely by a desire to fast-track large-scale water storage and irrigation schemes. The ECan commissioner responsible for freshwater issues is the deputy chair, former Labour government minister David Caygill. He refused to be drawn on the justifications for replacing the commissioners, saying it was

not a question he could answer. He does point out, though, that 10 of the region’s mayors asked for ECan’s councillors to be replaced. When asked what it is about ECan that means it can’t be run by elected officials – like every other regional council in New Zealand – David gives the demand for irrigation as the reason. He accepts that some rivers in Canterbury should remain unmodified. It’s not a particularly reassuring statement for wildlife or wild rivers. One of Chris Todd’s big concerns is that the zone committees the commissioners set up (and sit on) to make decisions on local water management aren’t accountable to the public and are dominated by farming interests. Chris applied to sit on a zone committee but was barred. An ecologist specialising in braided river birds and environmental management, Professor Ken Hughey from Lincoln University, was also turned down because he was too “high-powered”. After the story broke in the media ECan invited Professor Hughey to reapply.

3 Million

Dairy cattle in the South Island 2

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

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Canterbury, Otago and Southland are the South Island’s three main dairying regions. Canterbury is the biggest. In 2009, cattle numbers topped one million – representing roughly half the South Island herd of two million. At this rate, there will be three million cows in Canterbury by 2062.

COVER STORY

“The zone committees are appointed by the commissioners, the commissioners are appointed by the government and the government’s stated objective is to accelerate irrigation in Canterbury,” Chris says. “The public is heavily consulted but all final decisions are made by appointees – unelected, unaccountable and beyond legal appeal, thanks to Canterbury’s unique laws. They are making vital decisions about our commons that will dog us for decades to come.” David Caygill accepts ECan could have done some things better of late. But he says ECan has made a lot of progress and done a lot of things right. Environmental and recreational concerns were a big factor in turning down a plan to take water from the Hurunui and Waiau rivers in favour of what he describes as the less significant Waitohi. Chris agrees in part but says opening the door to the Waitohi should mean closing it to the upper Hurunui. Developers will be allowed to dam the Waitohi but they can also apply to dam Lake Sumner (which the Hurunui flows in and out of) if they think the Waitohi is “too expensive”. David also cites the Proposed Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan, on which submissions are still being heard, as another example of the advances ECan has made since 2010. Chris agrees that the plan is a positive development because the cumulative effects of pollutants have to be taken into account when new development occurs. But Chris says the plan won’t actually fix the problem because the timelines are too loose, pollutants already in the groundwater (which end up in streams) are not counted, there is little comeback on the plan if standards are not met and each of the 10 zone committees is allowed to decide how dirty streams in their area can be allowed to get and can recommend how low rivers should go. “Zone committees should not be making these types of assessments, and the land and water regional plan should set region-wide, scientifically defensible standards that cannot be undermined by local committees,” Chris says. “Zone committees should be focussed on implementing the standards not making them up. If implemented properly, the plan would mean we get a healthy environment as well as a vibrant economy.” If the government accepts the recommendations in the third and final report from the Land and Water Forum, ECan’s regional standards will be replaced by a set of national standards, Chris says. “Local communities would be able to set their standards higher but not lower than the national ones. This would be a positive step for Canterbury and the whole country.”

Conway River

Waiau River Lake Sumner

Waipara River Rakahuri / Ashley River

Waimakariri River

Waikirikiri / Selwyn River

Lake Ellesmere Te Waihora

Rakaia River Lake Tekapo

Hakatere / Ashburton River Hinds River

Rangitata River Orari River Opihi River

Nutrient Allocation Zones Unclassified Water Quality Outcomes Not Met At Risk

Lake Ohau

Meets Water Quality Outcomes

Pareora River

Sensitive Lake Catchments Wainono

Waitaki River

3 Irrigators are now a common sight in Canterbury. Photos:

Peter Langlands

4 An irrigation out take on the Hurunui River.

Hurunui River

0 Km

100

Hurunui- Waiau catchment zone, which is mapped by Ecan on a different plan. Generally consistent with the rest of Canterbury, i.e. with a high proportion of ‘red’ and ‘orange’ zones on the plains, with ‘green’ areas in the mountains.

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What Forest & Bird is doing n

Guardian of the land Current regulations are allowing too many farmers in Canterbury to turn a blind eye to the damage they are causing for the sake of maximising their share of the current dairy boom. But some farmers are doing a good job of self-managing the waterways in the catchment in which they farm. Bryan Clearwater, who runs an organic, low-input/lowimpact dairy farm at Mt Peel, near Geraldine, and who manufactures his own brand of yoghurt, is one. He describes his business approach as optimising profits rather than maximising them. He says the key difference between his operation and many others is his use of natural fertilisers (which are less soluble), seaweed compost and a diverse pasture mix. Bryan says solutions to freshwater environmental problems are easily fixed but, thanks to the broader dairying industry’s mind set, the quality of the stream water in his area is poor and getting worse. 5 Bryan Clearwater on his organic dairy farm.

6 Wrybills (ngutuparore) have a lot to lose if Canterbury’s

freshwater problems aren’t fixed. Photo: David Hallett

South Island Conservation Manager Chris Todd has been involved in numerous working groups set up as part of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, including a cross-sector advisory group to work out for ECan the most effective and workable approach to nutrient management. The advisory group recommended dealing with the cumulative effects of nutrients, and setting limits by catchment and sub-catchment – the approach now being taken. He also made submissions on the Hurunui-Waiau River Regional Plan, and the region-wide Land and Water Regional Plan. ECan failed to set any minimum flow levels for the Conway River, near Kaiköura, making it possible for irrigators to pump it dry. Through mediation, Forest & Bird won stronger conditions on the irrigation consents. Through submissions from conservation groups and iwi on the subsequent plan change, allowable minimum flows were increased from zero (in late summer) to 700 litres per second (we had asked for 830 litres per second). Conservation and recreational interests have staved off several dam proposals on the upper Hurunui River. As a result of strong representation from Forest & Bird and our allies, dams in the upper Hurunui are non-complying, meaning developers have to make a stronger case for getting a resource consent under ECan’s proposed plan. Dams on the upper Waiau are prohibited, a status we are still pursuing for the upper Hurunui as well. Forest & Bird, particularly through Field Officer Jen Miller, has been a key player in the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Forum, which has made good progress in getting all parties together to maintain the special natural values of the region. Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell has spent three years on the Land and Water Forum. The forum has recommended a set of national water quality and quantity standards. If these are passed into law they will help protect the habitat of native wildlife and provide for cultural and recreational needs while allowing businesses the water they need.

How you can help n

Speak up for your favourite river, lake or wetland. Notice what’s going on. Get involved in decisions and plans that affect freshwater in your area. Report problems to your regional council. If you don’t get any action tell the media or tell us. n If you’re in Canterbury, have a say on how freshwater is used in your region. Zone committees must consult with the public through draft Zone Implementation Programmes (ZIPs). Once these are released, you can give feedback through zone committee meetings or written submissions. More information: tp://tinyurl.com/d46ls6f 6 20

| Forest & Bird

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Cleaning up our water

Forest & Bird played an integral role in the Land and Water Forum, which brought together all groups that care about freshwater. It’s a credit to the forum that it delivered consensus on how to improve our waterways. By Jay Harkness.

lean freshwater is vital to everyone and just about every organism living above the high tide. It’s also vital to all sorts of industries, iwi, a host of recreational users and to us, Forest & Bird, whose job it is to give a voice to the native birds, fish and plants that rely on New Zealand’s streams, rivers and lakes for their survival. There are many claims over how our freshwater is divided up and used, and many examples of how it hasn’t been managed well – groups in Canterbury would attest to that. In November an article in the International Herald Tribune (the global edition of the New York Times) asked whether New Zealand, which trades on its clean green reputation, deserved to get the tourists it does, given

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the poor standard of our rivers. In 2008 the quality of our lowland waterways had been getting worse and tension between environmental, iwi and farming interests has grown. Frustratingly, there had been very little response from central government. That year the different parties decided to come together to sort out their differences and they formed the Land and Water Forum. In 2009 the government gave the forum a year to get a common agreement on how to sort out New Zealand’s freshwater issues. The forum was made up of a small group, including farmers, iwi, power companies, forestry interests, recreation and conservation groups – including Forest & Bird – and a plenary group of 68 national organisations.

It’s extremely unusual to have such a large and diverse range of interests all sitting at any one table. Kevin Hackwell The forum delivered three major reports. The first recommended that land and water use management be much more closely integrated and that water quality and quantity limits be established. It also recommended a collaborative approach to land and water planning issues rather than one that pits different interest groups against each other. After all, the interests of the different groups often intersect. The second report provided the detailed framework for setting national objectives and limits and the new collaborative framework for freshwater policy and plan making. The third report, published last November, for the first time set out how water quality issues can be managed within a system that has hard numeric limits. Right now, less than 5 per cent of our catchments are protected by numeric water quality limits. Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell invested a great deal of time as Forest & Bird’s representative on the forum’s small group. “It’s extremely unusual to have such a large and diverse range of interests all sitting at any one table,” he says. “As a result, you might think that coming to any kind of agreement would have been tortuous. While it’s true that all the parties had to do a lot of give and take during negotiations, the discussions were, on the whole, positive.” This is largely because it is now accepted – at least among the leaders of the various groups – that their best environmental performers are often their best economic performers. “This means that even under a new limits regime, policies and strategies that encourage all players to improve their performance towards best practice have the potential to benefit the environment as well as the economy,” Kevin says. This shift has come in part from the modernisation of farming practices so there is now a greater focus on efficiency. If a farmer’s fertiliser is entering a waterway, for instance, that farmer is losing money. Many in the farming and forestry sectors also recognise that New Zealand’s markets generally want their goods to meet the highest environmental standards. The report codifies what is common sense: that we (and New Zealand’s precious native plants and animals), regardless of our special interests, all depend on having plenty of clean freshwater. Therefore, it is in everyone’s interest to agree on how that will be achieved. With the delivery of the forum’s last report, the government has in its hands an agreed blueprint on how to govern and manage freshwater resources. Like the other forum members, Forest & Bird is now waiting for the government to turn the forum’s report into law. If it fails to take all of the forum’s advice, a huge opportunity will be wasted and something that should have happened years ago will be pushed even further into the future.

3 1 Polluted water in a Canterbury stream. Photo: Tom Moore 2 Longfin eel numbers have declined because of commercial

fishing, poor water quality and reduced habitat. Photo: Gerry McSweeney

3 River control work on Wairarapa’s Waingawa River. Photo:

Aalbert Rebergen

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individuals from 60 stakeholding organisations. “Of course the forum should have been convened years ago. New Zealand’s lowland lakes and rivers are generally in extremely poor health. It’s a crime that they were allowed to reach this state,” Kevin says. A big problem needs a big solution, and the forum has certainly provided that. Its recommendations are made up of many parts that Kevin says the government must keep as a whole. “It’s a package, not a wish list that the government can pick and choose from. Taking only some parts from this would be like taking parts from a car ... without all the key bits it’s not going anywhere. “I’m optimistic that the government will do the right thing. After all, every major stakeholder has actively participated and signed up to the forum’s recommendations. These groups know what’s best for them individually, and as a whole they know what’s best for New Zealand when it comes to freshwater and its wildlife. “We’ve given them the good advice ... and now we’re waiting for the next step.”

Kevin Hackwell (in black shirt) at a Land and Water Forum public meeting in 2010. Photo: Marina Skinner

Our man on the inside Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell represented the Society on the Land and Water Forum, and was one of the forum’s three trustees – overseeing the forum’s processes, budget and secretariat – and chaired the forum’s water quality working group. He says it took three years of hard work, and that all parties made difficult concessions in some areas. As a whole, the forum worked well together. Consensus was achieved on almost all issues between the 100-plus

world outdoors summit

More information: www.landandwater.org.nz

THE

THE VALUE OF THE OUTDOORS TO SOCIETY

18-22 NOV 2013 ROTORUA NEW ZEALAND

OUTDOOR EDUCATION OUTDOOR RECREATION ADVENTURE TOURISM

• Networking & social functions • Presentations & panel discussions • Workshops & seminars • Awards Gala Dinner Discuss, debate and determine the future positive growth of the outdoors. Leave with strategies and tactics to present the value of your outdoors product or service to the world. Gain insight, knowledge and wisdom from local and international experts. Learn and experience Maori outdoor education, bush skills cultural heritage.

CALL FOR SPEAKERS CLOSES 1 APRIL To register, submit an abstract or for more info visit:

| Forest & Bird

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

Decent 1

A group of Southland dairy farmers is showing how to get the cows milked and look after the environment. By David Brooks.

he headlines about dirty dairying and worries about declining water quality can obscure the efforts of many farmers who want to do the right thing for the environment. One operation near Southland’s Curio Bay has gone the extra mile by improving water quality in creeks coming off the farm after converting a beef and sheep operation to dairying. Owned by five families in the South Coast Dairy partnership, the 200-hectare farm has been managed by Chris and Lynsey Stratford since the land was bought and the conversion started in 2009. All the waterways have since been fenced, and about 8000 natives have been planted. A 29ha podocarp forest remnant on the farm has been fenced and protected under a QEII National Trust covenant and a pest control programme keeps down the numbers of possums and mustelids such as stoats and weasels. Curio Bay in the Catlins is a treasure, a place where surfers sometimes share the waves with Hector’s dolphins and yellow-eyed penguins. So it was no surprise the proposed dairy conversion attracted controversy and protests when it was first publicised. But criticism has since turned to praise, and last year South Coast Dairy won regional council Environment Southland’s environment award for farming. “Maybe people jumped to a conclusion and didn’t look at what we were actually proposing and instead went by the reputation of some poor-performing dairy farmers,” says Lynsey Stratford. “Dairying does get bad press, which I don’t think it always deserves. While there are some people who are not performing as they should be, on the whole farmers do try to take care of their land.

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“We acknowledge it is a special piece of land and there are a number of outstanding natural features. We wanted to protect and enhance those features. We were lucky we were starting with a blank canvas so we took out the old fence lines and started again. That gave us the scope to take advice and work out the best places to put the new fences to take account of the environmental factors.” From the start South Coast Dairy sought advice from Environment Southland, the Landcare Trust, local iwi, Fish & Game, Department of Conservation botanist and Forest & Bird Southland branch committee member Brian Rance and others. Each year they are invited back to see the progress. “This gives us a lot of positive feedback and we can see the benefits of the work we are doing. I think this model of stakeholder consultation and feedback could work well for other farmers.”

The first work was fencing off streams, gullies and the edge of a 30ha reservoir as well as the forest remnant containing tötara and other podocarps, which attract kererü, tüï and other native birds. Riparian areas 5-30 metres wide around creeks, gullies and the reservoir edge were planted with flax and other native plants. More planting has been done for shelter and to expand the forest remnant. The Stratfords carry out pest control, including maintaining 20 traps for possums and 10 for mustelids. In the podocarp forest, they are also trialling 15 Good Nature possum traps, which can reset themselves up to 24 times, saving a lot of labour in the dense bush. An effluent pond was built to hold up to 120 days of cow waste – well above the 90-day minimum under planning rules. This ensures effluent can be stored before respraying it on pasture when conditions are at their best for the nutrients to be absorbed. About 385 cows are on the farm at a stocking rate of 2.8 cows a hectare. This is lower than most other dairy operations but profitability is still good. “We might have a lower stocking rate but we have very good production per cow and per hectare through good management. We concentrate on producing more from fewer animals,” Lynsey says. Life is very busy on the farm with planting and maintaining the native plants and pest control on top of the dairy operations. Lynsey insists the effort is well worthwhile. “We’re both confident we’re leaving this piece of land in a far better condition than we found it, so that is very rewarding for us.” 3

• INVERCARGILL

CATLINS

CURIO BAY

1 New plantings next to the reservoir on the farm. 2 Planting on the farm with volunteers from the YMCA

conservation training course.

3 The South Coast Dairy partners, with Lynsey and Chris Stratford

far right.

Amazing facts about…

BEAKED WHALES

Photo: Karen Stockin

By Michelle Harnett

ew Zealand’s coast is a delight in summer. People flock to the seaside to go swimming, fishing and sailing, but there is a down side to the seemingly endless kilometres of shore – the highest number of whale strandings in the world. Incredibly, there can be a positive side to a whale stranding. Sometimes it is the only way to find out more about some of the most mysterious mammals on Earth – beaked whales. Named for their elongated beaks, the species sport one pair of tusk-like teeth; some have two. The shape and position of the teeth varies between species and is often reflected in different whales’ common names: strap, shovel, spade or even ginko-toothed, for example. The teeth are only visible on male whales. Females probably identify and choose their mates based on tooth shape. The teeth also come in handy to ward off any rivals for female attention. Beaked whales are some of the sea’s most extreme divers, descending to more than 1500 metres (that’s as high as the top peak in the Tararua Range) and remaining submerged for 30 to 60 minutes or more. Such deep dives and long periods without oxygen have necessitated a few adaptations. The whales have special pockets to tuck their pectoral flippers into for extra streamlining. Extra oxygen is stored in their blood and muscles, and their heart rate slows, reducing blood flow and directing oxygen to the tissues that need it. In the ocean depths they hunt squid, but don’t use their teeth to capture their prey. Instead, they suck it up, vacuuming up as many as 30 squid with each dive. The Gray’s beaked whale is the most common of about 13 species that have been seen swimming around New Zealand. Other species are only known through strandings. A shovel-toothed whale and her calf, so rare only bone fragments suggest it existed, were stranded in the Bay of Plenty in 2010. Spending most of their lives underwater, very little is known about beaked whales, including how many there are and what effects human activities are having on them. With live whales so rare, most of what is known comes from studying stranded whales. Whether it’s nice or not, our country, with its long shoreline, leads the world in research on beaked whales. Forest & Bird

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Nature’s watchdog for 90 years

90 years EST. 1923

Forest & Bird has played a huge role in shaping the Kiwi view of nature and conservation. Marina Skinner looks at Forest & Bird’s early years from 1923 and whether there’s still a place for us.

“

uccess is attending the movement for the greater protection of native birds,” Wellington’s Evening Post reported on March 31, 1923. At a public meeting three days earlier the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society was launched, and a former prime minister, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, elected president of a group of august men. The driving force behind the new organisation was Captain Val Sanderson, who called the meeting to spur New Zealanders into action to save native birds. He despaired at the loss of birds such as the huia and was angered by officials passing the buck instead of protecting wildlife and forests. He was also concerned that children didn’t care about or know their native birds. The fledgling group aims were: “To advocate and obtain the efficient protection and preservation of our native birds, a bird day for our schools, and unity of control of all wildlife.” It cost five shillings (50 cents) for adults to join for a year, and one shilling for children. Today mainstream New Zealand has a wide appreciation of native plants and wildlife so it’s hard to grasp how radical the new society was in 1923. For more than a century entire forests had been hacked and burned for farmland and towns; settlers had drained wetlands; acclimatisation societies had introduced possums, rabbits, deer and trout for fur and sport; and stoats, weasels and ferrets had joined the menagerie in a failed attempt to control rabbits. European birds and trees were imported to re-create a Britain of the south. Populations of native birds plummeted as habitats were destroyed, introduced mammals ate them and people shot them as pests or for food. Some noticed the dramatic loss of birds and collected specimens of the rarest as stuffed reminders of soon to be extinct species. Many believed that, like Mäori, native birds would be displaced by superior Old World genes. By the late 19th century a tentative sense of identity had begun to emerge. Illustrations of native birds became symbols of a new and distinctive nation, and national parks and island sanctuaries were created to preserve pockets of biodiversity.

Kapiti Island was designated a bird sanctuary in 1897 and later became the symbol for Captain Sanderson’s frustration at the government’s half-hearted conservation efforts. The retired businessman and war veteran visited Kapiti Island in 1914 and returned in 1921 to find it overrun with possums, goats and the sheep that should have been fenced on the private land at the northern tip of the island. “We have robbed the birds of tremendous areas of bush on the mainland. Are we not patriotic enough to give them a last secure resting place on this small island, seven miles by one mile in area, in order that our children and children’s children may see and learn what New Zealand was really like when their daring fore-fathers first set foot in this land of ours?” he wrote in Forest magazine in 1922. Captain Sanderson was Forest & Bird’s first advocate and first communications manager. He was a master of spin and adept at capturing media attention. If he couldn’t achieve change by direct lobbying at Parliament, he could get onside with newspaper reporters, whose stories would influence their readers and persuade reluctant politicians. He educated members on conservation issues through letters, information sheets and reprints of newspaper articles. The first magazine for members appeared in 1924, a 14-page A5 edition called Birds and labelled Bulletin No 6. The articles could easily feature in this edition of Forest & Bird – the 2 1 A Society poster from 1926/27 encourages New Zealanders

to better appreciate native birds and to join the Society. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library

2 The first magazine for members was a 14-page A5 edition

called Birds.

Forest & Bird

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perils of introduced pests, the urgent need to protect native forests and wildlife, the beauty of wild places and praise for a Hokianga conservationist looking after native pigeons. Early Forest & Bird members exploited new technology. In 1934 they began broadcasting news about nature on the radio and by 1930 an early vice-president of the Society, Lance McCaskill, was using a projector to show slides. By 1934 films were part of the publicity arsenal. Children were a key audience from the start. A children’s page began in Bulletin No 9 of Birds and continued until the first Kiwi Conservation Club magazine in 1988. The Society began principally as a national advocacy organisation, with the first branches formed in 1930 in Otago and Southland. These branches folded during the Depression and it was not until 1946 that the next branch (known as a “section”) was established in Christchurch. Almost all of today’s branches were created between 1954 and 1978, due to a growing membership and a heightened interest in local conservation issues. The Society recognised native birds wouldn’t exist without their habitat, and in 1948 changed its name to the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.

After 90 years it’s worth reflecting on whether Forest & Bird has achieved its original goals, and whether there is still a place for our Society. We can’t claim to have ticked off a bird day in schools but we have made great progress in obtaining “efficient protection and preservation of our native birds” and “unity of control of all wildlife”. Captain Sanderson could only have dreamed of the Department of Conservation, created in 1987, which was achieved through significant Forest & Bird advocacy. Forest & Bird was instrumental in saving Lake Manapöuri from being raised for a hydro dam. The Society worked to create the Abel Tasman, Paparoa and Kahurangi national parks and several high country parks and marine reserves, extend Westland Tai Poutini National Park and have Te Wähipounamu in the South Island recognised as a World Heritage site. We stopped native forests being logged, supported greater pest control, contributed to the recovery of endangered species, protected important areas from mining and improved the state of our freshwater. The tally is long and impressive. We have never been politically partisan. We are a watchdog over everyone.

4 3 Captain Val Sanderson in his younger years. An Evening Post

report in 1923 described him as “a shootist of thirty years’ experience and an honorary ranger of local acclimatisation societies for twelve years”. Photo: Courtesy of Nancy Jordan

4 The August 1946 edition cover featured käkäriki painted by

English-born artist Lily Daff.

5 In 1931 the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society received

government permission to hold a Lucky Bird art union lottery (the forerunner of today’s Lotto). The net profit of more than 13,500 pounds gave the Society the financial foundation to spread its nature messages through posters, bird charts for schools and other publications. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library

6 In the late 1920s Forest & Bird commissioned Lily Daff to paint two

Forest & Bird’s milestones

1923 March 28, New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society formed

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series of native bird illustrations, including New Zealand Sea and Shore Birds.

1930 1942

1948

1952

Southland and Otago branches formed

Name changed to Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand

10,000 hectares of Waipoua Kauri Forest protected

Abel Tasman National Park established

Forest & Bird volunteers have contributed probably millions of hours to restoration projects, animal and plant pest control and local advocacy for wildlife and wild places. Several projects started by Forest & Bird have been taken over by new organisations and are thriving. Does Forest & Bird have a role in the 21st century when we have myriad government, independent and community organisations looking out for the health of our wider environment and “efficient protection and preservation of our native birds” and other wildlife? It is difficult to imagine a time when Forest & Bird won’t be needed. Threats to nature arise in the most unexpected places, as we saw in 2010 when some cabinet ministers thought mining in national parks was a good idea. We have species such as Mäui’s dolphins and fairy terns on the cusp of extinction, and perils such as climate change. We’re helping New Zealand make great gains for conservation, too, such as a Kermadec ocean sanctuary and a predatorfree country. Forest & Bird’s strength is in the breadth of our organisation – our 80,000 members and supporters, 48 branches and committee members, our staff and

Executive, all of whom are dedicated to protecting the health and wealth of our environment. People join Forest & Bird for different reasons – to support national conservation and advocacy campaigns, to volunteer for community projects, to learn about conservation through local activities, our publications and online material, and to pass on to our children a love of nature. Forest & Bird has a new vision for the 21st century: “The unique natural environment and physical grandeur of New Zealand are maintained and restored to protect their intrinsic value and ability to sustain our people, native flora and fauna.” A gargantuan effort is needed to realise this aspiration. Thank you, Captain Sanderson, for making a bold start. Each edition of Forest & Bird this year will feature a story on the Society’s history. If you are a longstanding member with photos or stories about Forest & Bird, please contact Forest & Bird editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington.

Let’s celebrate Forest & Bird branches will be celebrating our 90th birthday this year, especially during Forest & Bird Week from September 28 to October 6, with events and other activities. For more information about what will be on in your area and more about Forest & Bird’s history see www.forestandbird.org.nz

1952 1952 1963

1970

National Parks Act passed

Forest & Bird delivered Save Manapöuri petition of 264,907 signatures to Parliament

Fiordland National Park established

Name changed to Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand

1972 Lake Manapöuri protected

Recollections of my father Captain Val Sanderson’s Auckland-based daughter, Nancy Jordan, was eight years old when her father died in December 1945 but she and her older sister, Ruth Panduri, spent a lot of time with him. They would all potter in the garden at their family home in Paekäkäriki on the days Captain Sanderson wasn’t in Wellington on Forest & Bird business. “He always talked to us a lot about what was wrong with the world,” Nancy remembers. “He said the motor car would be the destruction of the planet, which was probably true.” Nancy believes her father was ahead of his time. “He felt the world should be in its natural state if it was to survive. He admired the Mäori – that they could live with nature and respect it.”

Captain Sanderson taught his daughters about the native plants in their garden, and they have retained their interest in nature. Their mother, Nellie, whom Captain Sanderson married in 1934, lived in their Paekäkäriki house until the 1980s. She died in 2002 aged 104. “He could be quite a difficult man temperamentally,” Nancy says of her father. “There were very firm rules in the house. We weren’t allowed to cut toetoe because it was a native plant.” She is proud of her father’s legacy. “I think he would be amazed and delighted at the strength of Forest & Bird now.”

Roy Nelson’s reflections Forest & Bird President Roy Nelson marked the 50th anniversary with his recollections in the March 1973 edition of Forest & Bird magazine. Roy, who was president from 1955 to 1974, wrote of life in earlier days for the magazine’s regular junior section, which inspired children before the Kiwi Conservation Club’s magazine began. It’s hard to imagine children even 40 years ago having the attention span for Roy’s nostalgia but there’s a surprising poignancy in the reflections of a man who looks so stern in photos.

1984

1987 1987 1988

1991

1995

Pureora and Whirinaki forests saved from logging

Department of Conservation created

Forest Accord signed to stop native forests being logged

Marine mammal sanctuary established around sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands

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Paparoa National Park established

Kiwi Conservation Club for children started

Roy, who died in 1988 aged 91, writes of his love of nature from his boyhood in the early days of the 20th century, and the degradation of forests, coastlines and rivers through pollution, pests, erosion and fire during his lifetime. His experiences drove his commitment to repair the damage done to nature. He salutes Forest & Bird founder Captain Val Sanderson: “Long before most men he realised what was happening to lovely New Zealand and he set out to awaken the people to the need for real efforts to be made to protect and preserve the wonderful heritage we have in nature in New Zealand. He steadfastly kept at this task as long as he lived. “Sometimes I asked him to go out to camps to talk to my scouts on nature. I would offer to provide transport to get him there. He did not need it, as his two legs were good enough and he would always be there on time, trudging in carrying his little haversack. He was self-reliant; he had set out to do a job for New Zealand he never gave up. We are carrying on where he left off.”

An act of patriotism From the Evening Post’s March 31, 1923 report of the public meeting in Wellington that was the beginning of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society: “Why, some people ask, does Captain Sanderson go to all this trouble over birds?” said the lecturer [Captain Val Sanderson]. “The reply is,” he said, “that our soldiers in their sentiments and songs amidst the oven-like heat of Egypt and the mud and cold of France turned much to their bush and birds in far-off New Zealand. They almost saw the rushing stream midst the waving tree-ferns; they almost heard the fluff-fluff of the lazy forest pigeons as they flew from limb to limb of the trees; they almost saw the tui perched high up in the towering rata tree. Yes, they felt and almost saw these emblems of their country, and learned to love their homeland. But now, alas, it sometimes seems that this fair country is in danger of being destroyed by the ignorant and the vandal, equally as it might have been destroyed by the enemy we fought so hard to exclude.”

7 Captain Val Sanderson’s widow Nellie, daughter Nancy and

grandson Justin at the unveiling of a memorial plaque at Paraparaumu in 1973.

8 Forest & Bird President Roy Nelson (at back) and Forest & Bird

Secretary D McCurdy with Lake Manapouri petition signatures for Justice Minister Dan Riddiford, right. Photo: Dominion Post collection/Alexander Turnbull Library

9 Photo: Evening Post collection/Alexander Turnbull Library

Who’s who? Do you recognise any of these Forest & Bird members photographed for Wellington’s Evening Post newspaper? The photo was taken on December 6, 1958. Please contact Forest & Bird editor Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz, 04 801 2761 or PO Box 631, Wellington if you can help.

Nature baby Forest & Bird’s all-time youngest member might have been Cynthia Cass, of Pahïatua, who was given a life membership as a christening present by her great-aunt Ethel Richardson. Ethel was a champion of conservation, an artist and a Department of Lands and Survey draughtswoman, and made the gift after Cynthia’s birth in 1940. “I have always enjoyed the magazine and like the aspirations of the Society, and most certainly my great-aunt left an enduring impression on all she knew,” says Cynthia.

1996 2006 2010

2011

2012

Kahurangi National Park established

Appeal against resource consent to mine Denniston Plateau lodged

Mökihinui River saved from a hydro dam

High country parks created

National parks protected from mining

An enduring 1

hat is it that makes New Zealand so different from the rest of the world? Take a look around you. That bird on the $20 note? That’s a kärearea. The emblem emblazoned on our national sports teams’ uniform? That’s a silver fern. Our forests, our birds, all our native creatures are what set New Zealand apart. They are the cornerstones of our national identity. The very name Forest & Bird denotes the Society’s important role in New Zealand since it began in 1923. We are nature’s voice. For 90 years we’ve been trapping predators in the bush, handing out petitions, monitoring birds, working with councils, businesses and governments, and weeding, potting and planting trees.

And that’s only the beginning. We have a long history, but we can have an even longer future. It starts now with investing in the next generation. Forest & Bird is a movement of people who care about our country. Without us, New Zealand would be a very different place. As former Governor-General Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand said in 2009: “It is difficult to imagine New Zealand without the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society.” Forest & Bird is a charity and we need your support. Donate to Forest & Bird’s Voice For Nature appeal to help us protect our present for the future, and acknowledge the past.

PAST

Pérrine Moncrieff

Sir Thomas Mackenzie

British-born Pérrine and her husband had no intention of staying in New Zealand when they visited in 1921. But the lush natural surrounds of Nelson soon became their permanent home, and two years later the enthusiastic tramper and bird-lover became a foundation member of the Native Bird Protection Society (later Forest & Bird). By 1927 she was a vicepresident. Through her advocacy, articles and books, Pérrine became an authoritative voice for the protection of native birds. For nearly 50 years she was this country’s foremost female conservationist. She led Forest & Bird’s campaign to establish Abel Tasman National Park in 1942, and she served on the park’s board from 1943 to 1974. She was also part of successful campaigns to protect Lake Rotoroa as a scenic reserve and Farewell Spit as a sanctuary, and she donated a large area of coastal bush at Ökiwito to the Crown as a reserve.

Captain Ernest Valentine Sanderson is widely recognised as the founding father of Forest & Bird. But less widely known is that a former prime minister, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, was beside him in the driver’s seat. Sir Thomas suggested the captain form the Native Bird Protection Society in 1923 as part of a crusade to stop Kapiti Island sanctuary being overrun by pests and stock. And Sir Thomas was the Society’s first president. Scottish-born Sir Thomas combined his love of New Zealand’s wilderness with his political might. The keen explorer led the Society in its first years of raising awareness and appreciation for native birds, both on the ground and in the political sphere. In 1927 the Society voiced opposition against the government’s intention to transfer South Island native birds to North Island reserves without considering the possibility of hybridisation. The government listened and the transfers were abandoned.

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PRESENT

FUTURE

Jenny Campbell

Flynn Cosslett

Forest & Bird Southland branch secretary

Ten-year-old Flynn Cosslett is, as his mother describes, “a typical KCC kid”. He helps the local Forest & Bird branch plant trees in the weekend, loves doing the activities in the Kiwi Conservation Club magazine and really cares for the environment. Flynn’s second-favourite animal after the cheetah is the shark. So when he read in the September KCC magazine that globally more than 273,000 sharks are killed every day only for their fins he wondered what he could do to help. Flynn spoke to his teacher at Upper Hutt’s Pinehaven School about his concerns, which prompted the 29 students in Room 9 to research more about the extremely wasteful practice of removing fins from sharks and dumping the rest of the body overboard. The class subscribes to KCC and used the magazines to learn more about shark finning. From there, they wrote letters to local MP Chris Hipkins and Primary Industries Minister David Carter asking for shark finning to be banned. Flynn also gave a presentation during the school assembly, and in his lunch breaks collected about 100 signatures for his hand-designed petition. “We’re just trying to get as many people as we can to support the cause,” he said. “I thought we could get David Carter into this and change the laws on sharks.”

Volunteers are a fabulous group of people and I am proud to be one, particularly for Southland Forest & Bird. Our members are quite literally a ‘voice for nature’. We’re continually advocating for nature to friends, neighbours, councils, non-government organisations and the media. We also write and present submissions on local, national and international environmental issues. We volunteer our time to plant, weed and pot up native plants, organise summer field trips and interesting winter talks. For over 25 years, Southland Forest & Bird members have been working at Te Rere Yellow-Eyed Penguin Reserve replanting paddocks with natives to create a safe breeding area on the Catlins coast. The best thing about being a Forest & Bird supporter is getting to know the passionate and knowledgeable people who give their skills, energy and enthusiasm towards making a difference for our environment.

Jen Miller Forest & Bird Canterbury/ West Coast Field Officer Water is a major issue in Canterbury. Land is increasingly being converted for agribusiness, which puts huge pressure on our rivers and lakes as more water is taken for irrigation and nutrient run-off entering our waterways increases. If not managed correctly, this can degrade water quality, destroy threatened plant species and permanently spoil outstanding natural landscapes. Forest & Bird has recently supported Environment Canterbury regional council’s decision to decline water take and use for irrigation in the Upper Waitaki catchment by participating in mediation that has followed several court appeals. We’re also involved in ongoing discussions with two appellants outside of court mediation in an effort to resolve outstanding issues. Our involvement is likely to see robust conditions attached to water consents such as keeping stock out of waterways.

Your help

1 Pérrine Moncrieff, left, in the field. Photo: Alexander Turnbull

Library

2 Volunteers planting for Forest & Bird’s Places for Penguins project.

The people of Forest & Bird in the past, present and future are vital to the conservation work that we are able to do. Please support our appeal to ensure we can continue to be the voice for nature. To make a donation:

Visit www.forestandbird.org.nz/support-us Email membership@forestandbird.org.nz Phone 0800 200 064 Send a cheque to PO Box 631, Wellington 6140 Forest & Bird

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Looking

forward

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Photo: Luc Hoogenstein

NATURE OF TOMORROW Claire Browning weighs up Forest & Bird’s contribution to the natural heritage of Aotearoa-New Zealand and imagines how we might take a lead in finding new ways to bring people and nature together. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things, at the World Social Forum, 2003

n 16 June 2012, Forest & Bird turned its face to the sun. It was the day of our annual conference – Face Up to the Future, it was called – and it was about hope and a journey: seeing a destination and stepping forward. It was also a simple statement of truth because every day, in so many ways, this is what we already do. Saving iconic landscapes, rivers and kauri for our children and their children, so they too may hold in their hearts treasures we’ve lived among and loved. Making our place in nature, by bringing wildlife back to farms and towns; speaking for a climate and an economy that can sustain a good life. And here, in the “land without teeth” – among ecology so special and remote that it’s said to be like life on another planet – striving to protect and pass on that global legacy. Forest & Bird is living the old proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” As we work to salvage and restore damaged landscapes and ecosystems, as we guide the next generation into wild places through the Kiwi Conservation Club, or step towards a predator-free New Zealand, the things that we do today will make New Zealand in 20 years, or generations ahead. Although so much of our work is future-focused, we are oddly not often very focused on the future. We’re down in the ecological detail – and having one’s fingers in the soil is a great place to be – thinking about fixing broken things and stopping the rot. But we ought to be keeping our eyes on the horizon, too, and all the time telling a story about our work. Forest & Bird’s place in this country, its 90-year-old legacy and ecological wisdom, its mission as a voice for nature, are as rare and special as the places and creatures for which we speak. We have done so much that is good. But by simply re-describing what we already do, we can tell a story that is better. In that story, Forest & Bird would be a voice for the future, as well as for nature. An ecological, collaborative approach to everything would be the thing we all have to look forward to. New Zealanders live close to nature, with mountains always in view and the sea a short drive away, criss-crossed by a thousand rivers in which the life of this country runs.

In 2010 40,000 people marched down Queen Street in defence of our national parks and conservation land. It was the biggest demonstration for a generation. In 2011 voters in a 3 News pre-election poll ranked the cleanliness and quality of our natural environment as their number one election issue, with a ranking of 8.2 out of 10. In 2012, in a survey by the Department of Conservation on conservation attitudes, 69 per cent of New Zealanders agreed conservation is at the heart of what it means to be a New Zealander. 73 per cent thought that conservation should be considered in all key decisions about New Zealand’s future. 77 per cent agreed that spending money on conservation is a good investment in the prosperity and well-being of New Zealanders. The political power of these messages has yet to be felt in 2013. But its echoes are 40 years old, in the Maruia Declaration – which, circulated as a petition for native forests, received 340,000 signatures – and the Save Manapöuri campaign. In a vignette that makes me smile, Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Te Ara captures “staff of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society” displaying Save Manapöuri petition boxes, piled above the heads of the women in heels beside it. Later this would spark political change in the LangePalmer government, which established conservation and environment ministries, passed conservation laws, drafted the Resource Management Act and set aside public conservation lands. Conservationists’ job once again is to be advocates and persuaders: to speak to what I truly believe runs deeper than mere sentiment. Somewhere lies something visceral, some nerve, or part of Kiwi identity, and people rise up, and politicians dare not tread, or venture into policy places they otherwise wouldn’t. That said, we have an idea of ourselves, as a country and a people – and then, some other things that we do, and have done to this “last, least and loveliest” place. Sparsely populated, yet New Zealand is sliding down world rankings for environmental, as well as economic, performance. In November the International Herald Tribune (the global edition of the New York Times) slammed “the realm New Zealand’s marketers have presented” for being “as fantastical as dragons and wizards”. We’ve a long way to go in the next 40 years. First is the need to devise an ecological economy in which all of nature – people too – can thrive.

We believe that we have a clean economy and a clean green image, and do not see the lack of honesty which surrounds this branding. We are merely a small population spread over a large area which provides an impression of clean and green. Sir Paul Callaghan Forest & Bird

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This task, of maintaining our own living standards while not degrading environmental ones, is as complex as ecosystem design; untried anywhere else in the world; and time is very short. It’s a task that Forest & Bird, alone, could not possibly tackle. But conservation’s first challenge now lies in the carbon- and resource-intensive, growth-based economic development on which we’ve all built our modern lives. Economically, environmentally, socially, this is a time for fresh thought: at its most fundamental, it may mean relearning what our culture has thought and taught us, about human being in the world. This is not a new idea; in its way, it’s as old as New Zealand. Thoreau, in 1854, wrote “that humankind is neither superior nor inferior to nature but ... an integral part of it”. Mäori have always known it. In its recent WAI262 report, the Waitangi Tribunal considered ways of tangata tiriti (Treaty people) joining tangata whenua (Mäori) in kaitiaki of the natural world. There’s common ground here on which we all can stand, which is the concept of a partnership, with each other, and

with nature – or not even a partnership: people as part of nature. Other ways of understanding nature as an entity can be found in international lawyer Polly Higgins’ ecocide, the fifth global crime against peace, or nature’s rights constitutionally enforced in 2 Bolivia and Ecuador. These can help and yet they’re founded on a concept of nature as one thing, ourselves as other and giving nature “human” rights. As with te Tiriti o Waitangi, collaboration and recognition is an important place to start. Collaboration has been another theme running through Forest & Bird’s recent work. The world needs activists, perhaps more now than ever before, but it also needs dialogue.

This task, of maintaining our own living standards while not degrading environmental ones, is as complex as ecosystem design; untried anywhere else in the world; and time is very short.

We have pioneered new ways of working together on protecting the parts of New Zealand where development and primary production happens and biodiversity is most threatened. That means private land over most of the country, almost all of our oceans – and other parts of the commons, freshwater most recently. Dame Anne Salmond’s “Te Awaroa” – bush-buffered corridors for water and wildlife, which featured in the November Forest & Bird – or the Aorangi Restoration Trust, described by Department of Conservation Director-General Al Morrison as “the future of conservation”, are ideas about ecosystem-based networking and connectivity. Forest & Bird is nature’s largest and oldest spokesperson in this country. It is also a very small voice in a large and noisy crowd: we can’t do all of this, or even half of it, alone. What we lack in power, we can substitute in vision. History teaches us others will follow. The place we want to get to is one in which conservation really is something to look forward to but also business and politics as usual. We must persuade others of what we already know: not only that this can work but it is the only thing that will. It’s about time we started shouting that story from the mountaintops. It’s not much more than very faint lines on a page right now but it would be a mistake to underestimate its transformative power. Claire Browning is a Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate.

1 Forest & Bird staff Mrs Lawson and Miss Bellett with boxes

of Save Manapöuri petition in 1970. Photo: Dominion Post collection/Alexander Turnbull Library

2 Historian Dame Anne Salmond is developing a vision of

Te Awaroa, a network of river restoration.

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

Current Account • • • •

No monthly account fee No transaction fees on one account No monthly Telephone banking facility fee No charge to set up Automatic and Bill Payments in the first month

Pre-approved Overdraft* • An initial pre-approved overdraft of up to $1,000 • No establishment fee (saving you $25)

Personal Loan* • 2% p.a. discount off our personal lending rate for unsecured and vehicle loans when you credit your full salary into a transaction account with The Co-operative Bank. • Half price administration fee (saving you $100) • We’ll donate up to $200 to Forest & Bird when the loan is drawn down

Home Loan* • • • •

0.20% p.a. discount off our standard floating home loan rate 0.20% p.a. discount off any of our standard fixed home loan rates Up to $1,000 towards your costs We’ll donate $350 to Forest & Bird when the loan is drawn down

Savings* • We’ll donate $25 to Forest & Bird when you open a savings account and: – Credit your full salary into a transaction account, or – Set-up a monthly direct credit to the savings account of at least $20 per month. • Limited to the first 200 accounts opened every 12 months. One donation per customer.

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

Welcome sign 1

Forest & Bird is trialling a new scheme to help landowners become front-line conservationists. By Jolene Williams.

here are 74 different plant species on Colin Merrin’s Bay of Plenty property. It’s not bad for a dairy grazing farm, which in theory needs only cows and grass to make a profit. Colin’s 240-hectare farm is interspersed with patches of native bush. The forested areas are dotted around the farm and in various conditions. The fenced bushy areas are doing well, with flourishing püriri trees and resident North Island robins, kererü and fantails. Colin has done a lot of conservation work already but there’s potential to further improve his farm’s environmental scorecard. And through Forest & Bird’s Land For Wildlife (LFW) programme, he can undertake informed conservation work that positively contributes to nearby ecosystems and the region’s biodiversity as a whole. By joining LFW Colin has a ready supply of advice and resources to help improve his farm’s ecological values, tailored to the needs and purposes of his land. LWF is new to New Zealand, and is being piloted in part of the Bay of Plenty and Waikato. It’s designed to complement similar schemes run by other organisations such as regional councils and New Zealand Landcare Trust, and is free and voluntary to join. The programme works on a basis of mutual agreement where Forest & Bird offers the technical know-how and insider’s tips, and points out available resources. LFW blows the old farming versus conservation argument right out of the water. Colin says fencing off the bush has already made it easier to manage stock. Similarly, one of the recommended LFW strategies included planting flax on forest edges which, among other things, is “apparently good for stock to chew”.

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LFW project manager Hamish Dean says it’s not just for farmers. “It’s basically for all landowners who are already doing conservation work on their properties or are aspiring to do so. They could be orchard owners, lifestyle block owners, schools, businesses, councils or sports clubs,” he says. The combined effect could be a boon for the region by linking habitats, cleaning waterways and supporting native wildlife. Colin had already undertaken some conservation measures before signing up to LFW. But since joining, he’s had extra guidance through Hamish’s property assessment. The assessment details the current biodiversity on Colin’s farm and illuminates areas for improvement. Seventyfour plant species were found on the property, as well as 12 bird species, köura (freshwater crayfish) and cave wëtä. Hamish’s report provides more than just a checklist of things to do. For example, it spells out different ways Colin can control pests and why it’s advantageous to attack all species at once. He suggests which types of possum traps are available, where to buy them and how much they cost. From a landowner’s perspective, the answers are right there in black and white but it’s up to individuals what advice is 2 followed and when. Colin says

Our partners that’s a major bonus for landowners because they have the freedom to do the work on their own terms. Hamish says the programme will ultimately improve the regions’ biodiversity. “Some of our most threatened ecosystems are on private land so hopefully we can expand the network of protected and enhanced land outside the conservation estate. “This will encourage more native birds and plants to farmlands, lowlands and orchards, and it could improve ecosystem services like water filtration and carbon sequestration,” he says. The programme has already received financial support from the government’s Biodiversity Advice Fund, WWFNew Zealand and Waikato Regional Council, and it’s hoped it will take off in other regions. LFW is based on the successful Australian programme that’s been running since 1981 and involves 13,300 properties. It came to Forest & Bird’s attention when former Society President Peter Maddison and his partner Eila Lawton stumbled across the programme while holidaying in Australia. They broached the idea to Forest & Bird’s Kaimai Mamaku campaign steering committee, and after thorough investigation it was decided that LFW was a perfect, and practical, fit. Central North Island Field Officer Al Fleming says the programme can strengthen Forest & Bird’s current restoration work in the Kaimai Mamaku Ranges. “Land For Wildife can be a key programme in restoring ecological corridors that link the Kaimai Range with the Tauranga Harbour, and the Waihou River in the Waikato.”

3 1 Colin Merrin proudly displays the Land For Wildlife sign that

acknowledges landowners’ participation in the programme. Photo: Hamish Dean

2 Hamish Dean is the new Land For Wildlife project manager. 3 North Island robins make a home on Colin Merrin’s Bay of Plenty

property. Photo David Hallett

Forest & Bird staff members Susan James, left, and Heidi Quinn showcase the eco-friendly Forest & Bird toiletry range that’s raising money for conservation.

Clean and green Forest & Bird’s partnership with toiletry manufacturer Health Pak initially seems an unlikely pairing. But on closer inspection we have a lot in common. Health Pak is genuinely concerned about its impact on the environment. The company’s products, sold to hotels and airlines throughout the South Pacific, are made in New Zealand and are GE-free. They’re not tested on animals, the packaging is recyclable and the formulas are biodegradable. They also proudly display the Forest & Bird logo. Forest & Bird Development Manager Dave Bellamy says Health Pak’s commitment to the environment and sustainability echoes our own philosophy. And the relationship exemplifies how Forest & Bird can work with the corporate sector to help us achieve our conservation goals. “We receive 5 per cent of the proceeds from each of their sales. That’s tens of thousands of dollars a year going back into protecting nature,” Dave says. “But it’s also a valuable platform to grow our public profile. The hotels get Forest & Bird magazines for their guests, the products carry our brand and each display stand has information about the Society and how to join. It’s a great way to promote Forest & Bird’s work and recruit new supporters.” Like Forest & Bird’s national and regional lobbying work, the corporate sector is another area where we can advance our conservation goals, Dave says. “What we’re trying to do is create a culture of environmental sustainability in the corporate sector. We recognise that corporates focus on profit but you can be profitable and environmentally aware at the same time. “More corporates following Health Pak’s lead can only be a positive for the environment.”

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our people

Legacy to inspire a new generation A

lan Duncan was a long-time member of Forest & Bird, with a great love of native plants. Educating others about the importance of our forests and wildlife was another passion, and when Alan died last year he left a generous bequest to Forest & Bird for nature conservation education. Alan’s nephew, Neil, says Alan and his wife Heather visited many of New Zealand’s wilderness areas. “They both enjoyed exploring the bush and New Zealand – and being real Kiwis,” Neil recalls. “He had a lifetime interest in New Zealand flora and fauna. At his house in Ötaki [where he lived during his retirement] he would only have native plants.” Alan, who died aged 96, tramped into his 80s and was skilled at bushcraft. After starting a career as a surveyor, Alan enlisted in World War II and later moved into the new avionics industry. He set up and maintained flight navigation

systems around the Pacific, and retired in the early 1970s. Alan understood the importance of teaching children about nature and conservation. “He wanted to educate others to stop the destruction he’d seen in his lifetime, and to try and reverse it, to make the country the way it was when he was a young man,” says Neil. Following Alan’s wishes, the bequest will go towards the work of Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club, which teaches children about the special native plants and animals of New Zealand and the importance of protecting them. “We are extremely grateful to Alan for his contribution to Forest & Bird,” General Manager Mike Britton says. “It will allow us to enhance the work we’re doing now and introduce some new projects that will make learning about nature fun for children. Bequests from people like Alan enable Forest & Bird to take on work that we wouldn’t normally be able to fund.”

Forest & Bird Legacy Club If you would like to join Forest & Bird’s Legacy Club or leave a bequest to Forest & Bird, please phone 0800 200 064, email legacy@forestandbird.org.nz or write to us at PO Box 631, Wellington 6140

Heather and Alan Duncan explored New Zealand’s great outdoors.

Cycling film wins D

aisy Thor-Poet, 14, of Wanaka won the Forest & Bird-sponsored environment category in the Inspiring Stories Film Competition late last year. Daisy won the section for On Yer Bike, a short video of Daisy’s younger sisters cycling through a nature reserve, stopping to pass on some hints about caring for the environment. Inspiring Stories is a nationwide charitable trust that aims to encourage storytelling and discussions to create a better world and to showcase New Zealanders taking action. Daisy’s film is here: http://vimeo.com/45342272

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A driving force for restoration B

arry Brickell’s conservation tendencies were evident, though not necessarily appreciated, even as a child. At the age of 14, he scattered mänuka seeds throughout his mother’s rose garden at their family home in Devonport, Auckland. The seeds were promptly removed. But Barry’s efforts to re-establish native plants have only increased in scale and ambition, and for the past 35 years he has planted thousands of native trees across his 22-hectare property near Coromandel township. Barry, 77, is the mind, muscles and heart behind the Driving Creek Railway and the surrounding regenerating native bush. He also set up the Driving Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in 1999, where wildlife such as päteke (brown teal), endangered geckos and Hochstetter’s frogs have found a home within the 1.6ha area protected by a predator-proof fence. As his earlier attempt to plant mänuka shows, the longstanding Forest & Bird member has an unwavering will to enrich the land with native species. In 1960 Barry graduated from the University of Auckland with a degree in botany and geology. Despite his father’s hopes Barry would lead a professional life, Barry instead moved to Coromandel where there are wild open spaces, remnant native bush and an opportunity to put his conservation knowledge and skills to good use. Barry also developed an early talent for art and sculpture, and so the yellow plastic clay in the Coromandel hillsides only further enticed him from the city. In 1973 he bought the property three kilometres north of Coromandel town. Determined to get to the clay on the steep hills, Barry used his engineering skills to build 2.6km of railway lines across the property. The narrow-gauge railway provides access to clay and pinewood to fire kilns, and in the other direction helps transport native trees for planting. It was here where conservationist Barry began to make plans. The land had undergone “a terrible history”. The original kauri forest had been wiped out by logging and colonial governments clearing the land for farming. By the time Barry bought the land only a wasteland of scrub scattered with pines remained.

“What I came across was about 60 to 70-year-old känuka, and ponga on the moister slopes, with a limited range of biodiversity. There wasn’t a kauri tree on the entire property, only one rimu and hardly anything else. Rotting old kauri stumps could still be seen from where farmers had burned the forest and stripped it away,” he said. Barry embarked on an ambitious native plant restoration project. He’s since dammed a stream to create a wetland, planted thousands of native trees, removed invasive pines, established the predator-free sanctuary and built boardwalks and bridges. Barry said the restoration project sparked the community’s interest in nature at a time when conservation was a foreign concept. His was one of the first restoration projects in the region, and as a result encouraged locals to grow native plants in their gardens. The railway was completed in 2001. These days however, it transports more people than raw materials. It has become a popular tourist attraction in its own right, taking more than 40,000 people a year on a winding journey through the restored bush-clad hills. Next to the railway lies the Driving Creek Sanctuary, which has attracted a diverse range of wildlife – birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects. About a third of visitors are from overseas, and the sanctuary offers a rare, up-close view of New Zealand’s unique wildlife. It’s a unique experience for locals, too, who may spot resident kingfishers, shining cuckoos, bellbirds, käkä or one of three gecko species. Barry said the sanctuary is also building awareness around pest control. “It’s on a small enough scale for ordinary people to realise what they can do in their own little patch by using pest eradication methods.” It’s difficult to comprehend that the changed landscape has stemmed from the vision and hard work of just one man. Despite the success, Barry insisted his work was far from done. “There’s still a long way to go. It’ll take two or three more generations to even begin to restore the original indigenous biodiversity – so unique to New Zealand – that our kauri, podocarp, flowering plants, ferns, fern allies and soil organisms once had to offer.” n Jolene Williams

A Driving Creek train rounds the bend among restored native shrub and trees. Photo: KPI

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our people

Farewell to Jenny F

orest & Bird is sorry to say goodbye to Kiwi Conservation Club Officer Jenny Lynch, who left late last year after almost five years at the Society. Jenny was also the part-time Wellington Places for Penguins Co-ordinator, and had the most interesting desk in the office, with an eclectic mix of traps, penguin nesting boxes, children’s drawings and craft equipment. Jenny nurtured a new generation of nature lovers with her teaching and ecology skills. She contributed to the wealth of information for children on the KCC website, supported volunteer KCC co-ordinators and was the saviour of hundreds of children needing last-minute help with homework. She led the nationwide KCC Kererü Count launched last year. Jenny is continuing her work in conservation as a community conservation coordinator at WWF-NZ.

proud to be a

member

Family tradition of conservation M

egan Farley was aged just seven when she received her first Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) magazine. But she was much younger when her parents Grant and Chris first got her hooked on nature. “Before I could walk [they were] taking me on bush walks. Dad used to take me possum trapping and hare hunting. He taught me to identify the birds of the bush and how to handle wildlife,” she says. Megan and her sister Tessa grew up on a remote bush block in Golden Bay. It was only natural that the bush provided their playground and classroom, and Megan says the regular KCC outings were a fantastic way to meet other like-minded kids, which was important for her and her sister during their correspondence schooling.

Megan’s penchant for hands-on conservation hasn’t waned. She’s now 22 and studying towards a diploma in environmental management at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, and she hopes it will lead to a career in species preservation programmes. Last year she joined Forest & Bird to go on branch outings and find a much-needed outdoor respite from her studies. Despite being younger than the average Forest & Bird member, Megan has already earned her stripes as a conservationist. For the past five years she’s worked seasonal shifts on the Department of Conservation’s Operation Ark, which finds and protects käkäriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet) nests in Arthur’s Pass National Park and Sumner Forest Park. These sites support the only mainland populations of käkäriki karaka. “I love carrying out this work due to the connection you can make with the orange-fronted parakeets species and the forest over the years. It has also been great being involved with such close-knit teams. They are like your family for six months of the year,” she says. Her practical skills and her growing expertise in botany, conservation issues and bio-surveying will no doubt prove a valuable asset for Forest & Bird’s conservation work. So it’s heartening to know she sees the Society as holding an important role in the community. “For me it’s about people becoming aware and learning what’s going on. Some people have a disconnect and we need someone like Forest & Bird to stand up for nature.”

1 Megan Farley gets set to monitor käkäriki karaka nests for

DOC’s species protection programme. Photo: Kate Beer

2 Megan aged 7 with a hawk.

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rangatahi our future

Fledgling scientist helps kärearea A student is contributing to research on how to increase numbers of native falcons. By Jolene Williams.

hile many secondary school leavers have been toiling away in low-paying summer retail jobs, Jessica Le Grice has been paid to feed juvenile New Zealand falcons. The 17 year old, recently graduated from Papakura High School, was one of the six students to receive the BayerBoost scholarship for 2012. The scholarship is worth $5000 and funds Jessica’s work assisting a Massey University Masters project to introduce four juvenile falcons, or kärearea, in the Hünua Ranges south-east of Auckland. For 10 weeks over summer, Jessica has had a hands-on role that indulges her love for animals and propensity for research. Winning the scholarship “was really really cool” for the teenager, who lives on a small farm near the Hünua Ranges. “I really couldn’t have hoped for a better summer job.” To win the BayerBoost scholarship Jessica had to find a host organisation for environmental research. Through the local park ranger she got in touch with conservation biology Masters student Alex Schanzer. The release of juvenile kärearea is part of a pilot study for Alex’s two to three-year Masters research project that investigates the dispersal behaviour of juvenile falcons in indigenous habitat. Under the pilot, four month-old chicks from Rotorua’s bird of prey centre Wingspan are kept in hack boxes in the ranges for two to three weeks before they are released into the wild. Jessica explains the hack boxes are grated on only one side so the immediate landscape is imprinted on the falcons’ senses. She’ll have to be careful the falcons don’t see her when she’s feeding them during those initial couple of weeks. “We’re not allowed any human imprint because otherwise they’ll come to rely on us for food,” she says. The chicks are fitted with back-mounted transmitters and, once released, Jessica will help monitor the birds, assist with occasional feedings and use the data to write reports. It’s not all frolicking with falcons, though. “One of the main things I’ll do is continue the work in the predatorcontrol area of the ranges. I’ll be doing a lot of clearing stoat trap lines, pest monitoring and laying out bait.” The pest control takes place within the range’s mainland island. Jessica has already proved herself at pest control after volunteering for the Auckland Council at the site for the past five years. Jessica says the project could have significant repercussions for the threatened species that is currently in a population decline. “Since predators were introduced, falcons have moved out of native forests like the Hünua Ranges and into exotic pine plantations. The project will see whether they will stay there. “We’ll be tracking them, watching what they do and, by gaining the ability to successfully reintroduce species

into specifically chosen and maintained habitats, it would greatly reduce the vulnerability of the falcon,” Jessica says. Alex and Jessica will use satellite telemetry to monitor the juveniles’ dispersal behaviour patterns. One of the project’s aims is to assess the translocation potential of the Hünua Ranges, with the ultimate goal of establishing a viable population in the Coromandel and Waitäkere Ranges via natural dispersal and additional releases from hack boxes. The project will help formulate potential population density models that can be used in future conservation management strategies for kärearea in native habitats. It could also provide information on translocations that could be applied to other endangered native species. Jessica is thrilled to be part of the pilot study before she starts her first year at Auckland University. “Being involved in this project and working with such amazing birds with the potential of aiding the survival of a threatened species is an incredible opportunity. I can’t believe how lucky I was to be offered such an amazing project to work on.”

1 The threatened

kärearea was voted Forest & Bird’s 2012 Bird of the Year. Photo: David Hallett

2 Jessica Le Grice

is spending her summer in the Hünua Ranges thanks to a scholarship.

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Ross Sea refuge 1

An Antarctic meeting last year failed to agree on a vast Ross Sea marine reserve. But the United States and New Zealand have a new proposal and there is hope for agreement this year. By Geoff Keey.

ew Zealand and the United States ended two years of competing marine reserve proposals for the Ross Sea region in Antarctica by agreeing to a joint proposal at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources’ (CCAMLR) annual meeting in Hobart in late October. Early in the meeting delegates from a range of countries urged New Zealand and the US to come to agreement on a joint marine reserve proposal for the Ross Sea region so progress could be made. The New Zealand government had previously rejected a joint approach with the US. Unfortunately, the joint proposal came too late in the negotiations and, with major disagreement between countries over marine reserves, the meeting failed to deliver on its promise to create a network of marine reserves or marine protected areas (MPAs) in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean.

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The New Zealand-US joint proposal has three zones. The core of the proposal is a 1.6 million square kilometre marine reserve that protects some of the areas sought by the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), of which Forest & Bird is a member. In the north of the Ross Sea region, both countries are proposing to create a spawning protection zone that would protect Antarctic toothfish spawning grounds, but only in winter when no one goes fishing. Antarctic toothfish are believed to spawn in winter though no one has seen a spawning toothfish. In the south of the Ross Sea region both countries agreed on a special fishing zone where “light fishing” would be allowed. It appears this would allow New Zealand to undertake commercial fishing inside the marine reserve under the guise of research. This was a compromise between the US, which wanted to protect the zone,

and New Zealand, which wanted to fish it. Once it became clear that no agreement could be reached at last year’s meeting on marine protected areas, CCAMLR agreed to hold a special meeting in July in Germany to consider the East Antarctica and Ross Sea marine reserve proposals. This is only the second time CCAMLR will have met outside its annual October meeting in Hobart. “The world has been watching CCAMLR this year to ensure it would deliver on its commitment to establish significant Antarctic marine protection, but all delegates have achieved is an agreement to meet in eight months,” said the AOA’s Steve Campbell. “CCAMLR members failed to establish any large-scale Antarctic marine protection at this meeting because a number of countries actively blocked conservation efforts.” Steve said the US, European Union, France, Australia, New Zealand and others worked hard over the two-week meeting to propose a workable way forward. “All member nations must now take responsibility for ensuring this international body delivers on its commitment to establish a network of MPAs and no-take reserves in the Southern Ocean, albeit later than its promise to do so in 2012.” CCAMLR, made up of 24 countries and the European Union, has been considering proposals for two critical areas in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, including 1.6 million square kilometres of protection for the Ross Sea, the world’s most intact marine ecosystem, and 1.9 million square kilometres of coastal area in the East Antarctic. The AOA’s research has identified more than 40 per cent of the Southern Ocean that warrants protection in a network of large-scale marine reserves and MPAs based on conservation and planning analyses, and including additional key environmental habitats. Public support for Antarctic marine protection has grown significantly over the past year, with more than

30 international environmental organisations convening and amassing more than 1.2 million calls for large-scale protection. The AOA is made up of 30 international organisations including the Pew Environment Group, WWF, Greenpeace, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), Forest & Bird and many others from countries including China, Korea, Russia, Norway, New Zealand, the US and the United Kingdom. 1 Antarctic toothfish are at risk from overfishing. Photo:

Rob Robinson

2 An Adelie penguin. Photo: John Weller 3 A Weddell seal with a toothfish. Photo: Jessica Meir

What you can do Sign the petition at http://antarcticocean.org

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Close watch A new website hopes to make citizen scientists of all Kiwis. By Jon Sullivan and the NZBRN Trust.

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n a sunny day in September my son Max and I went for a walk in a reserve in Christchurch. We found lots of neat grey beetles swarming over the yellow flowers of Scotch broom and nearby lemonwood. We watched them for a while and took some photos. That evening I loaded our photos on to a new website – NatureWatch NZ at http://naturewatch.org.nz – and clicked “ID Please”. Less than a day later, someone we’d never met – a Finnish-trained entomologist working in Wellington – had signed on and identified the beetles for us. A week later someone else had confirmed his ID. New Zealand got an archived record of this species. Max and I learned what those beetles were and why they liked Scotch broom flowers so much (they were waiting for the seed pods since their larvae eat the developing seeds). You can do this too, with any species anywhere in New Zealand. It’s important and it’s fun. Our natural world is changing more quickly and in stranger ways than ever before. To detect, understand and manage these changes we need the combined vision of lots of eyes. For most of New Zealand’s history very little of what people observed was recorded and what was remains widely scattered in notebooks and library shelves. We’ve seen a lot individually but collectively we remain blind to most changes in nature, and that’s dangerous. Furthermore, most Kiwis’ engagement with nature is limited to an appreciation of clean water, dramatic

information, you can make a comment. You can also draw new places on the map and join projects on your favourite places and species. If you don’t find the project you need, start one and invite other users to join. You become part of a vibrant online community of nature watchers. NatureWatch NZ is about open data. Anyone can download public observations or put a widget with a live feed of observations on any other website. NatureWatch NZ is connected to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) so researchers and other biodiversity websites can easily find and use NatureWatch NZ’s public observations. The public data on NatureWatch NZ is shared but you share only as much as you want. You retain ownership of your observations and photos and can choose a variety of copyright options. You can also obscure or make private any of your observations. Obscured observations are fuzzed within a 10-kilometre radius, and this is applied automatically to all critically threatened species and lizards

topography and wild shades of green. My surveys of Lincoln University’s first-year domestic students found that 99 per cent know kiwi are native to New Zealand but only twothirds know bellbirds are native and a quarter know grey warblers are native. More than a third think brown trout are native. This lack of connection to our natural history doesn’t bode well for society’s stewardship of nature. NatureWatch NZ wants to turn all this around. It is a free website with free apps for iPhone, iPad and (soon) Android software. It’s built by the New Zealand Bio-Recording Network Trust (NZBRN) and powered by the open-source iNaturalist platform. NZBRN is an independent charitable trust dedicated to bio-recording since 2005, largely funded by grants from the government and operated by a board of scientists. NatureWatch NZ aims to make it easy and fun for people to find out about nature and share what they find. You can record any species – native or introduced, wild or cultivated, microbial to massive, marine to alpine. If you don’t know what it is, upload photos and find out. If you think someone else has made an incorrect identification, you can suggest the right one, and if you need more

Photos: Jon Sullivan, Stewart Armstrong, Nichola Baines, Murray Dawson, Craig McKenzie, J Hunt and Thomas Walsh.

on nature

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vulnerable to poaching. You need an email address to sign up but everyone comments on your observations via the NatureWatch NZ website and your email is not visible on the website. Modern technology is making it increasingly easy to combine the observations of lots of regular people. It’s a revolution in how we learn about the natural world. Other New Zealand projects are part of the revolution. The Ornithological Society of New Zealand runs a New Zealand portal of eBird (http://ebird.org/nz), which is a great tool for dedicated birders. Like NatureWatch NZ, eBird shares its data with GBIF. You can log plant observations with the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (http://nzpcn.org.nz), which is a useful web resource for plant information (at the time of writing, it doesn’t share via GBIF). We can all make a big difference by getting stuck in and sharing what we see and where and when we see it. If you see anything really unusual, it is important to log the observation promptly in case it’s a new biosecurity incursion. If you think it is, also call the Biosecurity NZ hotline on 0800 80 99 66. Just picking one favourite species you can reliably identify and noting when and where you see it and don’t see it, is immensely valuable for figuring out how well that species is faring. It’s time for New Zealanders to open our eyes to our natural history, and NatureWatch NZ is here to help. Jon Sullivan is a senior lecturer at Lincoln University and a founder of NZBRN.

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Make a Mark One person can make a big difference. Mark Crompton, a retired weather man from Hokitika airport, has logged an incredible 41,692 observations (and counting) on NatureWatch NZ and its predecessor NZBRN, mostly from his travels about the West Coast. A flock of 100 white-fronted terns is counted as one observation, making Mark’s contributions alone larger than most New Zealand institutional biodiversity databases. Mark has logged so many observations that you can search on his observations of harriers, for example, and see the highways of the West Coast written in harrier observations. This will be an important long-term legacy for understanding changes in West Coast nature. Imagine how much more we’d know about nature if we had a Mark in every suburb and town.

Observations GRAEME HILL

It’s the little things that count C

ryptozoologists are so annoying. You are infinitely more likely to find an undescribed species in your own backyard than if you drained Loch Ness. At this moment hundreds of Bigfoot hunters are tramping through remote bush in search of their elusive legend but paying not the slightest attention to the seething web of life all around them. This is more mysterious and arguably no less remarkable than any sasquatch – and is real. What a grand lack of curiosity. Monster hunters only like big stuff, preferably spooky, but always big. It reflects a human prejudice. People like big and ignore small. Size prejudice is myopic and has serious consequences. It leads proponents of open-cast mining at the incredibly fragile and biodiverse Denniston Plateau to refer to it pejoratively as stunted “scrub”. By acreage the Waipoua Forest with its mighty kauri is less special but can you imagine the opposition there would be to any proposal to chop it down and mine the land? If the cryptozoologists want to find something novel and unusual they need only consider insects. Science knows something about approximately 1 million species. The number of species we know nothing about is obviously guesswork but current thinking is it could be anything from 2 million to 25 million distinct species. It behoves us all to know a little more about what is under our noses and shoes and, even better, how much of it is unique to New Zealand. Nearly the whole of the rest of the globe, aside from Antarctica, has been modified and vastly changed over the last 80,000 years, but New Zealand only entered the human era a mere 750 years ago. Human impact has been sudden and as transforming as throwing a Mentos in a Coke bottle but plenty remains to remind us of the special place this land has in global biology – the tiny as well as the large. A moth flew in my Auckland window one December evening. It’s red. It’s the only red one I’ve seen but there must be many flitting about. I think it’s beautiful, and not only because of its appeal to our colour perception but because it makes one wonder in its millions of years of evolution, why is it red? What do we know about it?

It is a Geometrid, or looper moth, because its caterpillars loop about. It is a red variant of Xyridacma ustaria. It’s a moderately common moth throughout New Zealand, though not abundant. The caterpillar feeds on Pittosporum species, is extremely well camouflaged on its host plant, takes a long time to develop and, like about 90 per cent of our moth species, is endemic. We know this because we have boffins, and I want you all to be upstanding at once please... all hail the boffins! These people are dedicated to serious study of the living world and are often sniggered at by the general masses for their quasi-autistic dedication to our less glamorous tiny life forms. In fact, the smaller you go, the more pivotal species generally become in the scheme of life. The real heroes in any future biological catastrophe will almost certainly be the boffins of tiny things. If we scale way down to the microbial level, just like going subatomic, things get really important and really weird. Consider bacteria ... We hear catchphrases such as The Age of Dinosaurs and The Age of Mammals, the KT extinction and so on. For the vast proportion of living things on this planet these epochs and events are recent and mean next to nothing. From the beginning of life onward, this planet has been overwhelmingly in the age of bacteria, still is, and I feel confident enough to say, always will be. Everything else, totally everything, while fascinating and wondrous, is proportionally a thin emergence on the edges of planet bacteria. Want proof? In one gram of gardenvariety dirt there are 10 billion viruses, 10 billion bacteria of 50,000 species and 1 million fungi. That’s just in one gram. Microbes on and in your body outnumber your human cells by 10 to 1. By population, even you are more microbe than human. With thanks to Ruud Kleinpaste, Dr R J Hoare, J T Trevors and Siouxsie Wiles. Graeme Hill hosts the Weekend Variety Wireless show on Radio Live. 1 Forest gecko. Photo: Peter Langlands 2 Sundew. Photo: Peter Langlands 3 Xyridacma ustaria moth. Photo: Graeme Hill

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Beside the Seashore gardens have special challenges and responsibilities for their owners. By David Brooks.

f you are lucky enough to live by the sea or have a coastal holiday home there are several good reasons why it makes sense to plant natives in your garden. Native coastal plants, especially eco-sourced ones, are adapted to the harsh seaside conditions and once they are established they should largely look after themselves. Another good reason to go native is because the extensive development along our coastlines has resulted in the loss of so much indigenous vegetation. Putting native plants in our gardens is one small way we can put back a little of what has disappeared. Many people imagine comparatively mild coastal climates mean they will be able to grow many plants that struggle in inland areas with harsher winters. But especially if the site is close to the sea, many plants will be ill-suited to the harsh sunlight, salt-laden winds and sandy soils with low fertility. “It’s easy to be fooled by the warmer climate by the sea. The coastal environment is far from benign and many plants just hate it. You can’t grow roses by the seashore,” says Kiwi Conservation Club National Co-ordinator Ann Graeme, who lives close to Tauranga Harbour. “But we have native plants that have been growing on our seashores for thousands and thousands of years and they are good at it,

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and I like growing things that actually want to grow. Go with what wants to live in your garden.” There are different types of coastal environments, including dunes, rocky coastlines and estuaries. Soils can vary a lot, too, from sandy to stony and to clay, and most have low fertility. Most coastlines are exposed to strong saltladen winds, fierce light, and soils have too much drainage in sandy areas and too little where clay is prevalent. Many people dream of an ocean-front home with just the dunes separating them from the surf. But the range of plants that will thrive on the dunes is very limited and many dunes have been heavily modified by development and invaded by exotic marram grass and foreign succulents. “Restoring dunes can be really hard but very worthwhile. You are into restoring a little bit of New Zealand as opposed to having a marram dune from Europe,” says Chris Rance, a Forest & Bird Southland branch committee member and founder with husband Brian of the Southland Community Nursery. Pïngao, also known as pïkao or golden sand sedge, is an attractive native green-gold plant that has become increasingly rare on dunes throughout New Zealand, except where active restoration has been carried out. The silvery-

BACKYARD

conservation

green spinifex is another valuable sand-binding native that is found throughout most of the North Island and in the top of the South Island. In areas further back from the dunes but still close to the sea, it is still important to look for salt-resistant species because wind can carry salt hundreds of metres inland. Some of those recommended by the Southland Community Nursery include cabbage trees, flax, broadleaf, mänuka, mingimingi, tree fuchsia, Coprosma lucida or karamü, and Olearia arborescens or common tree daisy. These grow around New Zealand but others are native to some regions only, though their range has increased by people taking them to new areas. The natural range of pöhutukawa, for example, is the top half of the North Island but they are now commonly found in many areas further south. You can get information about which species suit your area from regional councils and native plant nurseries, particularly those that practise eco-sourcing, which mean their seeds and cuttings come from the local vicinity. Using eco-sourced plants ensures the plants are adapted to local conditions and are most likely to thrive in your garden. “We think of it as a practical thing. If you plant things from the North Island down here, they won’t survive. Things survive better if they’re grown from local sources,” Chris Rance says. Planting native plants is also good for native wildlife and insects. Coastal köwhai species, flax and pöhutukawa are a

good food source for tüï and other nectar-loving native birds, and muehlenbeckia and other coastal shrubs and ground cover plants provide shelter for native lizards and insects. As gardeners we can make a difference to the decline of our native ecosystems and once the native plants get established we will be making our job easier too. 1 Flax thrives in coastal areas such as Wellington’s Island Bay.

Photo: David Brooks

2 The flower of the tree fuchsia. Photo: Chris Rance 3 Southland Community Nursery founder Brian Rance, centre,

explains how to plant pïngao to a group of volunteers. Photo: Chris Rance

4 Coprosma lucida, or karamü. Photo: Chris Rance

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Build a coastal garden 1 2

conservation

Your choice of native plants will depend on the type of habitat. Seaward foredunes can be planted with pĂŻngao or spinifex, and backdunes further away from the water will support a wider variety of shrubs and other plants. Other types of coastal environments include rocky foreshores or headlands, estuaries and wetlands, and it is also important to consider the type of soil. Check your regional council website or local native nursery for information on the type of native plants that flourish in your area. If the plants are ecosourced, you can be assured they are adapted to local conditions.

DIY

5 6

Sandy soils are fast draining, so plants will need to be well watered when planting and until they become established. Some will benefit from mulch and slowrelease fertiliser. Regular weeding will help the plants become established. Pest control and fencing may be necessary. Many coastal areas have large numbers of rats, rabbits, and possums that can damage plants.

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Most plants will need some kind of shelter, especially until they become firmly established. You can use already established plants to provide shelter from the wind or shade cloth. If you are in the early stages of establishing a garden, select higher numbers of colonising plants, which can grow quickly and provide shelter for other plants to be added later to increase your gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diversity. If, for example, you plant flax bushes, other plants can be placed around them. In tough coastal conditions it pays to use reasonably sized plants to increase their chances of survival. It is best to plant them in the planting season in autumn and early winter so their root systems can become established before the dry conditions of summer. Some will need to be staked to help their root systems withstand strong winds.

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8 5 The threatened Euphorbia glauca, or sea spurge. Photo:

David Brooks

6 Muehlenbeckia astonii, or shrubby tororaro, is rare in the wild,

where it is only found at the south of the North Island and the north-east of the South Island. Photo: David Brooks

7 Flax and cabbage trees thrive in coastal gardens. Photo:

David Brooks

8 Olearia arborescens, or the common tree daisy. Photo:

Chris Rance

WHAT ARE YOU LEAVING YOUR KIDS?

50% of lakes are polluted 90% of wetlands have been drained 90% of lowland forests have been destroyed 90% of our freshwater native fish are endangered 21 of our bird species have been wiped out by introduced pests 96% of our lowland streams have pathogen levels too high to swim in

Kiwi kids deserve to live in one of the most incredible natural environments on Earth. But our native animals, plants and wild places are under threat. You and your children can help change the story. Become a Nature’s Future supporter of Forest & Bird, and help ensure that New Zealand will always have an untouched natural environment. You’ll receive a Forest & Bird membership, and your kids will become members of the Kiwi Conservation Club. They’ll receive Wild Things magazines and develop an interest in nature that will last a lifetime, and inspire them to make a positive difference to New Zealand. Please become Nature’s Future supporters now by visiting forestandbird.org.nz/joinus

in the field

Little ray of

sunshine

Plants long ago figured out how to tap into solar energy. Humans are trying to catch up. By Ann Graeme.

ost of the energy that powers our planet comes from the sun. It drives the rain and the wind, the ocean currents, the forces of erosion and life itself. Every day 120 quadrillion watts of energy stream down to Earth from the sun and billions of little solar panels quicken to receive it. Leaves are nature’s solar panels. Even the weeds in the garden can directly harness the sun’s energy – but we can’t. We can’t because we are animals and animals are designed to get their energy second hand, by eating plants or eating other animals that eat plants. But our species, alone of all the animal species, needs more energy than that provided by raw food. Ever since cavemen lit fires to cook food and keep themselves warm we have depended on extra energy to sustain our lives. Until quite recently this extra energy came from renewable sources, from wood burning, from water flowing

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over water wheels and from wind turning windmills. But then we discovered a treasure trove of oil, coal and gas – fossil fuels amassed over millions of years and buried deep in the Earth. By using this buried energy our species has developed technology that supports a population far beyond its natural constraints. But it can’t go on. If we keep on using fossil fuels we will change the climate and change our planet so profoundly that it may no longer support us and the biodiversity of which we are a part. We need to turn to sustainable, clean energy and of the many sources available the biggest by far is the sun. But it’s hard to pin down. We are the smartest species on Earth but we’re struggling to emulate the processes of a humble weed. Capturing the sun’s warmth isn’t too difficult. Already we build and insulate our homes to maximise the sun’s light and

heat. We can use solar panels to heat our water and if widely implemented this could save a great deal of electricity. But if capturing the sun’s warmth is relatively easy, transferring the sun’s light and heat into electricity is a lot harder. There are a number of ways to do it. In the Mojave Desert lies a solar thermal power plant called Nevada Solar One. It is a field of mirrors, 182,000 of them, covering 100 hectares of desert. At night the mirrors are parked facing the ground. As dawn breaks they awaken and follow the sun across the sky like a field of sunflowers. Each mirror concentrates sunlight and heat on to pipes filled with oil, heating it to a blistering 400 degrees Celsius. This heat is used to boil water and generate steam, powering a turbine and dynamo and pushing sufficient electricity into the grid to power 14,000 homes. This is clean energy but it has drawbacks. Energy is lost at every step along the way. It is expensive in materials, in space and in the cost of transmission lines to carry it to the cities. It is certainly more expensive than using fossil fuels. It needs government subsidy to make it competitive and in the wake of the financial crisis few new solar power stations are being developed. The second way to harness the sun’s energy is to absorb and convert sunlight energy directly into electricity using photovoltaic panels. These panels use a semiconductor like silicon. Sunlight is made up of tiny photons, travelling at the speed of light. When they hit the solar panel the energy of their impact “excites” the electrons in tiny slivers of silicon. They give up a minute source of energy and this is what we capture as electricity. It all sounds wonderfully simple – no pipes, heat exchangers, boilers or turbines, and no long transmission lines because photovoltaic panels can sit on the roof and feed their electricity into the national grid. But these solar panels are very expensive because they rely on silicon, a hard, crystalline substance that is difficult to cut into waferthin slices. But back to leaves. Leaf solar panels don’t use silicon as semiconductors; they use carbon-based chlorophyll. They don’t make electricity; they make chemical energy in

the form of energy-rich glucose. When sunlight is absorbed by chlorophyll molecules the light photons “excite” the electrons which, in a series of chemical reactions, unite carbon dioxide and water into glucose. The challenge is to replicate this process in our solar panels to create a renewable source of electricity. Andreas Mershin from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has succeeded in harvesting and stabilising chlorophyll from grass clippings. This is a breakthrough in itself but there is a problem. The efficiency of Mershin’s solar panel is only 0.1per cent so you would need to cover your whole roof with cheap solar panels to power a single LED – a light-emitting diode. A more promising approach is to create a carbon molecule that mimics the behaviour of chlorophyll. Unlike rigid silicon, plastics can be easily rolled into thin flexible sheets. Patented plastics and polymers are being developed by a company called eight19, one of whose founders, the eminent physicist Sir Richard Friend, recently toured New Zealand lecturing about them. The company is using plastic semiconductors to provide solar power for LEDs and smart phones in third world communities. Sir Richard also takes his inspiration from plants. He notes that leaves are thin and thin is good. Being thin maximises the surface presented to the sun and it is cheaper because it uses fewer materials. Traditional solar cells can’t convert more than 34 per cent of the available sunlight into electricity because they can’t extract energy from all the different colours of light. Now a solar cell has been developed that also captures blue photons, which has raised the energy conversion rate to 44 per cent. Will solar technology really take off? There is still a long way to go but these developments may point to a future where solar cells become the Earth’s primary source of energy, which could make vast, polluting power stations obsolete. Science isn’t the silver bullet though. We still consume too much and the global population is still rising at an unsustainable level. These must be addressed if we’re to create a sustainable future that depends not on dirty fossil fuels but on the sun. Photos: Luc Hoogenstein

Why would a solar technology company be called eight19? Eight minutes and 19 seconds is the time sunlight takes to reach Earth.

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going places

Bog beauty 1

A wetland at the top of the South Island is an ecological treasure house and a stunning spot for a holiday. By Jo-Anne Vaughan.

angaräkau Swamp and the nearby lodge share their neighbourhood with Westhaven (Te Tai Tapu) Marine Reserve, Kahurangi National Park and the beautiful north-west coast of the South Island. The lodge is on an elevated ridge and from every window are beautiful views of the nearby forested and turreted limestone range that borders the coast. Upstairs is a bedroom with four beds, and in the main living room is a single bed/couch and a settee that converts into a double bed. Downstairs is a 10-bed bunkroom and a second bathroom. Families usually stay upstairs and there’s plenty of space for large groups or several families holidaying together. The kitchen has a fridge, freezer, microwave, oven and all utensils, but you will need to bring your own food plus bedding and towels. There is a wood burner with lots of firewood, and a collection of games and books for the evenings. The nearest shop is at Collingwood but a cafe within walking distance serves delicious meals and snacks on the weekends over some of the summer months. Don’t rely on cellphone coverage because it is unreliable. An old village community hall on the property stands where a thriving village once housed coal and gold miners, flax and timber workers and their families. The hall has been restored and turned into a visitor centre and museum, telling its stories of the wetland and the area’s rich history. It

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is popular with day visitors who walk the swamp tracks. Mangaräkau Swamp is the largest remaining wetland in the Nelson-Marlborough region and is on the Department of Conservation’s register of nationally important wetlands. It supports a diverse range of native plants and is home to bitterns, fernbirds and a brown mudfish that is genetically unique to the swamp. Nearby are snail sanctuaries for rare varieties of Powelliphanta gilliesi. The swamp is being considered for recognition as a wetland of international importance through a Ramsar application. The New Zealand Native Forest Restoration Trust bought the property, its lodge and visitor centre in 2002 from three private owners at the request of the Golden Bay Forest & Bird branch. The Friends of Mangaräkau Swamp Society looks after the property, and members of Forest & Bird and the trust can use the lodge. From the lodge, visitors can take several walks or drives. Many people make the easy four-hour walk to Knuckle Hill, which has magnificent views of the area including Mangaräkau Swamp. You can also visit the nearby beach at the Patarau River mouth. A scenic drive takes you to the end of the road at the Anatori River mouth. Continue across the river if you have a four-wheel-drive vehicle, park at the Tuamawiwi River and walk down a wild, bush-fringed beach to Kahurangi lighthouse where you can stay overnight in a DOC lodge.

Getting there Travel there: Mangaräkau Swamp is an hour’s drive from Collingwood. Travel along the road to Farewell Spit and turn at the Pakawau Community Hall, just past the Pakawau settlement and inlet. Stay on this road until you hit the tar seal of Mangaräkau. Drive past the little café and wood carver’s studio and you will see the sign saying Mangaräkau Swamp. Staying there:

The 10-bed lodge has two bathrooms and a kitchen.

Cost:

By koha to cover costs and to contribute to restoration. $10 per adult per night works well, and children are free.

To book:

Contact Jo-Anne Vaughan at javn@xtra. co.nz or 03 525 6031.

More information: http://www.gbworkcentre.org.nz/ Mangaräkauswamp/index.html

WHANGANUI INLET COLLINGWOOD MANGARÄKAU SWAMP

KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK

It’s important to cross the rivers along the way at low tide. Part way to the Anatori River, where the gate at Sandhills Creek crosses the road, a new public walking track along farmland has been opened up, and is signposted by flags. A map and information panel is at the start of the easy track, which takes you amid looming limestone cliffs along the edge of beautiful Lake Otuhie. Canoeing the creek to Lake Otuhie is a memorable experience and access doesn’t depend on the tide. Another lovely drive is up the road to Te Hapü at the southern end of Westhaven (Te Tai Tapu) Marine Reserve. The road runs behind the Westhaven (Whanganui) Inlet to the limestone escarpment tops with good views of the ocean on one side and the inlet on the other. There are good canoeing trips up Muddy Creek and the Wairoa River, or short trips paddling around the entrance of the Mangaräkau River estuary nearby. Watch the tides: go in about two hours before high tide and turn back at the turn of the high tide for Wairoa River. You’ll see beautiful old forest scenery, deep gorges and hear the echoing sounds of tüï. Mangaräkau Swamp is a beautiful and little-known spot to completely relax. A sense of peace envelopes the visitor to the lodge, on its elevated site with extraordinarily beautiful views. This north-west corner of the South Island is one of the few accessible places left where one can feel what early, unmodified New Zealand was like. Jo-Anne Vaughan is Forest & Bird’s Golden Bay branch secretary.

1 The lake called Big

Pond, from near the lodge on the Lake Mangaräkau track. Photo: John Gilardi

2 Fernbirds live in Mangaräkau Swamp, a nationally significant

wetland. Photo: Craig McKenzie

3 Mangaräkau lodge, known as the field centre. 4 A view from the Lake Mangaräkau track quite close to the lodge.

Photo: John Gilardi

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community

conservation

Pelorus Bridge celebrates centenary T

he Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve on SH6 is known to locals as a great camping spot and a convenient ice cream stop when driving between Blenheim and Nelson. But during its centenary celebrations late last year, visitors discovered the reserve’s unique ecology and the fortunate move 100 years ago that saved the reserve’s lush alluvial forest from being cleared. Forest & Bird, with DOC and the Pelorus Bridge Cafe & Motorcamp operators, organised a weekend of activities in October to celebrate the anniversary. Heavy rain thwarted plans, but a second weekend was organised in November. Forest & Bird Top of the South Field Officer Debs Martin gave tours of the reserve, talking about its ecology and importance to Forest & Bird’s Bat Project. Debs said people especially enjoyed the talks by Nelson-Tasman branch’s Julie McLintock on the local population of long-tailed bats. “Often people don’t realise how small they are, nor do they realise how endangered they are. Some people didn’t know we had bats in New Zealand,” she said. The Nelson-Tasman Kiwi Conservation Club organised a night-time bat experience, up-close lessons in pest control and a scavenger hunt. Hundreds of travellers took part in the celebrations – some took advantage of discounted camping and saw glow worms, others read display boards of the reserve’s history and let the kids loose on the bouncy castle.

Most of the surrounding lowland forest was destroyed by logging from the 1894 until 1939. The reserve area was initially spared as it was earmarked for a town. But in 1912 Governor Lord Islington proclaimed the land a scenic reserve, as it was, in the words of a Blenheim commissioner, “all that remains of the once striking scenery of the Pelorus and Rai valleys”. Debs said that fortunate move preserved a “very special spot” with some native tree species no longer found in the wider region and which are critical to the survival of local bats. n Jolene Williams

Debs Martin shows a lancewood to Tri Zar Tin, 7, and Arthur Gepp, 4, at Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve centenary celebrations. Photo: The Blenheim Sun

Growing nature lovers Forget iPads and the internet … Jane Young from Forest & Bird’s South Otago branch has got kids interested in growing plants. The branch deputy chairperson ran a competition for under-12s to grow the best rätä seedling. The seedlings were judged at the South Otago A & P Show in Balclutha in November. The winning rata was 7cm tall, which, for the slow-growing species, wasn’t too bad, Jane says. The secret ingredient for the winning plant was regular application of coffee grounds. The idea for the competition took root when Jane found she had more than 700 tiny rätä seedlings in her native plant nursery. She delivered some to a local garden centre and various playcentres. Kids had eight months to love and care for their seedlings until judging day. Jane sees it as a way of getting children actively engaging with nature. “It’s all part of them feeling positive towards plants and all living things.” A former biology teacher, she’s seen firsthand how children gravitate to plants. “You see it in a classroom, when they walk in the first thing they want to do is see how their plants are growing.” While the competition may be a simple way to interest children in native plants, Jane says it teaches them a key principle of conservation. “Rätä are slow-growing plants, so [the competition] helps them understand that you can’t destroy a forest and expect it to grow back next week,” she says. Three-year-old Hadley Gutsell from Owaka Playcentre adopts a three month-old rätä seedling. Photo: Jim Young

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Clans converge on Tarnbrae A

nne Steven is wild about a Mackenzie Basin wetland and wild about the introduced trees that could easily obliterate its special native plants. A hardy team of weed whackers from Otago and Canterbury converged on Tarnbrae in south Canterbury in early November. The 2044-hectare conservation area of tussock, shrubland and wetland is on the rolling basin floor moraine south of Lake Öhau. It is sandwiched between a three-kilometre multi-row shelter belt of mature introduced Pinus contorta, Douglas firs and larches and the Ben Öhau Range so a continuous rain of seed falls over the area. Drifts of wilding conifers come perilously close to the open tussock and scree slopes of the Öhau Range. The Nature Heritage Fund bought Tarnbrae from the Lory family in 2008 for $4.25 million, and the area is now called the Öhau Moraines Wetland Complex. It has extensive red tussock wetlands, among the most intact in the Mackenzie Basin, and rare and threatened species such as the nationally threatened native lily (Iphigenia novaezelandiae). As a large compact area of basin floor it is a valuable addition to the Ahuriri Conservation Area, which largely comprises mountain lands. Until 2008 light grazing by stock kept the pest seedlings at bay. Since then young conifers have emerged in their thousands and require constant removal to protect the values of Tarnbrae and the Öhau Range.

2 The annual weedbusting event at Tarnbrae is nicknamed the gathering of the clans and organised by DOC biodiversity threats officer Peter Willemse, aka Pedro, as the culmination of DOC’s volunteer week. Last year members of the Dunedin and Central Otago branches of Forest & Bird and the Lindis Pass Conservation Group helped get rid of the wilding trees and had the chance to share information, facilitated by ample beer and fresh venison at a DOC barbecue. The 20-25 volunteers arrived at Tarnbrae on the first weekend of November to find the basin blanketed by a late snowfall but the weather cleared and the snow melted so they could get their loppers into action. The snow returned at the end of the first day, which tested the hardiness of the volunteers camping out. By the end of the weekend thousands of seedling trees had been removed from a 200-metre-wide swathe along the northwest side of the shelter belt – a repeat of an exercise carried out in 2010. Further out we could see larger trees, but we were assured that they are all dead, thanks to a basal bark spray technique, effectively a chemical ringbarking. The best pest management is to remove the seed source. It does little for morale to be clearing young saplings and seedlings from an area cleared just two years ago with the seed source towering above and growing a whole new crop of cones. Peter Willemse has been working with the landowner, who has agreed to remove the Pinus contorta, the worst offender, once a harvesting method has been found that leaves fences (for rabbit proofing) and natural values intact and covers the cost of removal. Wilding trees will need to be removed from this conservation area and the nearby Wairepo Kettleholes until the entire seed source has been exhausted. The gathering of the clans is likely to be a fixture in the social and weed whacking calendar for a while. “It is such a wonderful landscape to work in that we will always be keen,” says Anne. 1 Forest & Bird member Rex Johnson from Cromwell deals to a

Pinus contorta seedling threatening the survival of the native coral broom on his right. Photos: Anne Steven

2 Volunteers were almost snowed in after a hard day cutting out

wilding conifers.

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community

conservation

South Auckland reserve thriving

ative birds and people are flocking to Mangemangeroa Reserve in south-east Auckland thanks to two decades of hard work by Forest & Bird’s South Auckland branch and, later, the Friends of Mangemangeroa. Tüï and kererü are thriving, and other native birds range from the white-faced heron to the grey warbler. Banded rails live among the mangroves and salt-marsh, says South Auckland branch committee member Graham Falla.

Many local people enjoy the extensive track network, with plans to extend it. An environmental education centre is on the drawing board, with Auckland Council backing. Volunteers have planted about 60,000 eco-sourced native plants in the reserve during the past 13 years, with Forest & Bird members contributing 30-40 per cent of the effort. Under the council’s umbrella, volunteers have raised plants in home and school nurseries and kept on top of weeds. Pupils from many schools around Howick have also helped. At the Forest & Bird planting last May, members and many locals planted about 2200 plants. One of the most special plants at Mangemangeroa is the rare carmine rätä vine, which survives in a steep gully. It

1 1 Manukau Harbour from Mangemangeroa Reserve. Photo:

Graham Falla

2 A planting day. Photo: Liz Hessell 3 The rare carmine rätä vine survives in a steep gully at

Mangemangeroa Reserve. Photo: Graham Falla

J S Watson Trust aids research T

he J S Watson Trust made grants towards 10 nature conservation projects for 2011-2012. Forest & Bird administers the trust, which can allocate up to $20,000 a year, with a maximum of $4000 for each project. Applications for the next round of grants must be made by April 19. An application form is at www.forestandbird. org.nz or email office@forestandbird.org.nz or phone 04 385 7374.

The latest people and projects supported were: n Susanne Claudia Krejcek of Victoria University of Wellington, who identified reptile-friendly ways of converting marram dunes to native plant-dominated dunes. n Kyle William Morrison of Palmerston North, who studied factors affecting the population dynamics of eastern rockhopper penguins on sub-Antarctic Campbell Island.

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Will Rayment of University of Otago, who investigated the recovery and recolonisation by New Zealand southern right whales. Kate Richardson of Massey University, who studied the dispersal and habitat selection in an establishing hihi population. Lindsey Rowe of Kaikoura, who conducted research to determine the feeding range of little blue penguins breeding at South Bay, Kaiköura. Jay Ruffell of Auckland, who studied the interactive effects of forest loss and invasive mammals on New Zealand birds. Wayne Todd of Moehau Environment Group, who continued work on the Waikawau Bay Estuary and Wetlands Restoration project. Sarah Jane Wells of the Institute of Natural Sciences at Massey University, who investigated

is one of very few remaining natural sites around Auckland for this spectacular plant. The vine is protected after gates were locked to keep out cattle grazing in the gully. Forest & Bird first planted in the area in 2000 as a Millennium Project, with plants raised from natural seed sources in the reserve. Today those plantings are a young forest tall enough to walk underneath, bringing back not only the natural plant life but also birds, insects and lizards. The name “Mangemangeroa”, meaning valley of the mangemange, recognises the former abundance of the remarkable twisting, climbing fern Lygodium articulatum, now quite rare in the area. Until 1992 the land was farmed by the Somerville family. After the death of Archie Somerville the farm was put up for sale, with the likely prospect of residential subdivision. Former Forest & Bird South Auckland branch chair Betty Harris played a key role in persuading the Manukau City Council to buy the land as a public reserve in 1994. The branch wanted the surviving native forest saved from further destruction. On the new 26-hectare reserve the forest was fenced and cattle confined to the pasture. The fencing was a lifesaver for the battered forest of taraire, köwhai, püriri and kohekohe. “After the cattle were removed the interior of this remnant coastal forest quickly recovered, with an army of weeds soon routed by hangehange and kawakawa,” Graham says. The council directed planning of how Mangemangeroa Reserve should be managed, and invited public submissions. Several Forest & Bird recommendations were incorporated in the management plan. Forest & Bird has been prominent in maintaining and developing the reserve. Removing large amounts of gorse, privet and wattle was a big job early on, and Forest & Bird volunteers continue weeding work. Council contractors keep animal pests at low levels with baiting.

Council staff also played key roles in developing the reserve. Manukau City parks field officer Bill Teaukura organised weed clearance and parks landscape architect Robin Duncan encouraged volunteers and oversaw walkway construction and restoration of the bush edges. In 2000 the Howick Rotary Club started planting at the southern end of the reserve. The Friends of Mangemangeroa Society was incorporated in 2002 and now has a formal partnership agreement with Auckland Council. Members include Forest & Bird and other citizens around Howick, with the support of the Howick and Somerville Rotary Clubs. The reserve’s long-term future looks bright, and the council has drawn up a restoration plan up to 2021 to restore and extend natural habitats, check erosion and protect the exposed forest edge.

1 the phylogeographic origin and consequences of geographic isolation in the Raoul Island tüï. n Kerry Anne Weston of the Department of Zoology, University of Otago, who studied the conservation genetics of the alpine rock wren. n Benjamin Hayden Wiseman of the Department of Ecology, Lincoln University, who identified reservoirs of genetic diversity on Banks Peninsula.

2 1 Southern right whale.

Photo: DOC

2 Stitchbird, or hihi.

Photo: David Hallett

3 Rock wren. Photo:

David Hallett

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Shore plovers were common on New Zealand coasts until the 20th century. They are easy prey for rats and cats. Photo: Ian Southey

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The complete works of J G Keulemans By Geoff Norman Te Papa Press, $150 Reviewed by Hugh Robertson

Shorebirds of New Zealand: Sharing the margins By Keith Woodley Penguin, $50 Reviewed by Kate Graeme It is a real skill to be able to convey factual information like this – in a way that is not just facts and figures but something the reader can’t help but be amazed and interested in and really care about. That Keith is deeply interested and concerned about the plight of shorebirds, about their future and about the diverse landscapes they occupy is apparent in the beautifully crafted Shorebirds of New Zealand: Sharing the margins. Keith mixes the lifecycles, habits and histories of our shorebirds with personal accounts of his and other conservation groups’ interactions with them. He brings home to the reader the vulnerability of shorebirds as they occupy some of the most pressured environments in the world. By necessity shorebirds really do “share the margins” because humans are naturally drawn to the same habitats – the tidal flat, braided river and lake edges. The greatest pressures on these birds are habitat disturbance from humans through encroachment and recreation, water extraction, predation and sedimentation of waterways, all intensified by the growing threat of climate change. More extreme weather events threaten them with more floods or extended low flows on rivers, and the looming danger of sea level rise means the already limited high tide roosts could disappear with few alternatives available to replace them. It is hard not to marvel at the photos of massed flocks of oystercatchers, dotterels and knots, and wonder at the oddities of the wonky-billed wrybill and marathon migrators the godwits, and not feel compelled to care about what happens to them. Shorebirds is a beautifully written and presented book with a strong conservation message.

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John Gerrard Keulemans was one of Europe’s best known and respected natural history artists of the 19th century. It was therefore fortunate for New Zealand ornithology that Sir Walter Buller commissioned him to illustrate his landmark book A History of the Birds of New Zealand that was published in 1873, his much expanded and revised second edition in 1888, and finally the Supplement to the Birds of New Zealand, published posthumously in 1906. Buller’s books are not readily available due to their scarcity and high value, but the illustrations of Keulemans are well known to middle-aged and older New Zealanders through their use on school stationery, postage stamps and bank notes, and the well-known tüï of Forest & Bird’s original logo is based on one of his works. Given that Keulemans worked largely off museum specimens, his illustrations are remarkably realistic, apart from a few oddities, such as his petrels all standing on stiff upright legs. The use of New Zealand flora and backdrops provide extra realism. The 95 colour plates that Keulemans prepared for Buller’s three books are brought together in this magnificent book by Geoff Norman. Each plate is reproduced at its original size, and is accompanied by the original facing text written by Buller. Norman and Te Papa Press must be congratulated for the superb quality of its reproduction of the colour plates, its layout of the book in late 19th century style, complete with gold edging and cloth covers in a matching cloth-covered box. Norman provides an introductory chapter on natural history art in the 19th century and the use of lithography, of which Keulemans was a pioneer, short biographies of Keulemans and Buller, and some historical context to the perception of New Zealand wildlife in the era when the three Buller books were published. Stephen Fry says in the foreword that this is a precious and beautiful book. I wholeheartedly agree, and have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone with an interest in natural history.

Butterflies of the South Pacific By Brian Patrick and Hamish Patrick Otago University Press, $49.99 Reviewed by Rob Jones Father and son team Brian and Hamish Patrick have completed a comprehensive re-survey of the distribution of butterflies of the South Pacific. This area covers more than 50 million square kilometres of tiny scattered islands and island groups from Kiribati, Tuvalu and Fiji in the west to French Polynesia in the east, Hawaii in the north and down to New Zealand in the temperate south. A concise book like this has been much needed as a reference guide, with updated field research of butterfly movements, current locations of where they can be found and even new discoveries in New Zealand by the authors. This

includes sub-variations of the black mountain butterfly (Percnodaimon) plus recent discoveries in Niue by Rob Lachlan. This fine book displays good illustrations of the butterflies of the South Pacific, including many subspecies we have in New Zealand together with those rare migrants that occasionally reach our shores. Butterflies of the South Pacific is a must-have book for any butterfly enthusiast because it has detailed pictorials for easy identification in the field. It is also for those of us who wish to make a difference in our own backyards by planting the right plants to encourage native butterflies back into our urban environments.

Shelter from the Storm: The story of New Zealand’s backcountry huts By Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint Craig Potton Publishing, $79.99 Reviewed by Chris Todd First a disclaimer about my objectivity: I fell in love with New Zealand’s mountain huts as a youngster and have stayed in more than half the 90 huts profiled in the book. I also have a great respect for the craft of its authors with pen and camera and their depth of experience in the hills. I found myself inevitably drawn in and connected to the places and people in the book. A black and white photograph of the old Dart hut features my uncle, Colin Todd, sitting in the doorway c1947. I stayed there with Pat Deavoll in 1979 a few months before it was replaced. Brian Ahern dropped in for the night and we yarned round the fire, two young climbing bums and the senior ranger. Because the mountains are our commons, there we are equals. The book’s huts are arranged both by purpose (eg mining, tourism, recreation) and by institutional origin (eg New Zealand Forest Service, Lands and Survey). Huts often represent an eruption of social or economic energy, which the authors document – pastoral huts built for musterers in the era of vast sheep stations and week-long musters, huts built to mine gold or scheelite or, in the case of Asbestos Cottage, used to conceal an unusual love affair. All text satisfyingly weaves together anecdotes with historical research. There is a wonderful quote from the 1929 NZ Railways magazine: “Now summer is here ... the knapsack and campfire are calling us. Very few modern girls can resist a long day in the open, a jolly lunch miles from the ‘maddening crowd’ and a limp home in the twilight.” Indeed. A staggering amount of detailed research lies behind the book, and the photographs are consistently of high quality. In these times of unparalleled assaults on our commons from powerful vested interests, this book reminds us of our common heritage and why every new generation needs to stand together to defend it. Hut etiquette of leaving it better than you found it applies equally to the natural world. History and politics aside, the real pull of this book will be for those of us who already love huts because of the personal meaning and experience we attach to them.

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 retails for $40, but Forest & Bird readers can purchase this book for just $35, including post and packaging, with $10 from each copy ordered going towards Forest & Bird’s important conservation work. That means you will receive this beautifully illustrated guide and get to help nature in New Zealand. Please send a cheque for $35 to: Wild Encounters Forest & Bird PO Box 631 Wellington

An Eco-Retreat

Forest & Bird’s fabulous Ruapehu Lodge is a wonderful spot for a summer weekend. The Tongariro Crossing is nearby, as well as many other spectacular day walks in Tongariro National Park. Summer off-peak rates now apply. Check out www.forestandbird.org.nz/ruapehulodge for more information.

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One-stop nature shop

Keep your photos and videos safe for future generations

For sale at Forest & Bird’s online shop Forest & Bird lapel pin ($5)

Sirocco: The Rockstar Käkäpö, by Sarah Ell ($35)

Kermadec: Nine Artists Explore the South Pacific, edited by Bronwen Golder and Gregory O’Brien ($40)

Special offer for Forest & Bird members SanDisk Memory Vault 8GB $99 $69 SanDisk Memory Vault 16GB $139 $99 To order, contact Lacklands Ltd 09 630 0753 or info@lacklands.co.nz

Prices include post and packaging within NZ https://secure.forestandbird.org.nz/shop

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

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At Flooring Xtra, our local roots mean more. Each of our stores has developed a business from the ground up, founded on honest to goodness local values, assisting people within each local region with their flooring to create better home or business environments. Now, together as we grow beyond 50 stores nationally, we have a combined will to help better New Zealand’s greater environment. It’s why we have developed a partnership with New Zealand’s largest national conservation charitable organisation, Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand. The environmental programme, which we’ve called ‘Restoring New Zealand’s Forest Floor’, commits regular funding from every local Flooring Xtra store to Forest & Bird. Because, like you, we’re locals who want to see local environments looking beautiful for generations to come.

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on the tranquill waters of the hauraki plains. Trips of two or three hours duration on the meandering streams of the Waihou, Ohinemuri or Hikutaia rivers. Travel on the restored river launch ‘Ariana’, bring a picnic lunch if you like and enjoy the wildlife [and cows], of these historic waterways. Contact Peter Vandersloot for sailing times Phone 07 862 8896 or 021 041 0521

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Parting shot H

elen Bucksey was watching gannets coming and going from the gannet colony at Muriwai, west of Auckland. “I witnessed one adult arriving back and greeting its mate on the nest, followed by the exchange of their egg before the nest-bound bird took off to feed. Later on I was attempting to capture some gannets in flight, which proved to be very difficult, when the one in my viewfinder kept coming closer and closer, until it landed about five metres away, just over the barrier. With my largest lens on I was able to shoot some good close-ups of this one preening after its soaring flight.” Helen, of Mt Eden, used a Panasonic Lumix G10 with a 100-300mm zoom lens. 68

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If you are a Forest & Bird member and you have a stunning photo that showcases New Zealand’s special native plants or animals, you could be the next Parting Shot photographer. Each published Parting Shot photo will receive a 16Gb SanDisk Vault for long-term storage of photos and files from Camera & Camera. It is worth $139. Please send a low-res digital file and brief details about your photo to Marina Skinner at m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz Winners will be asked for higher-resolution files.

branch directory

Upper North Island Central Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Robert Jones; Secretary, Marvynne Kalaugher, Tel: (09) 638 7964. centralauckland.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Far North Branch: Chairperson, Dean Baigent-Mercer; Secretary, Michael Winch, Tel: (09) 401-7401. farnorth.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Franklin Branch: Chairperson, Keith Gardner; Secretary, Vacant, Tel: (09) 238-9928. Franklin.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hauraki Islands Branch: Chairperson, Corin Gardiner; Secretary, Glenda Came, Tel: (09) 372 3432. haurakiislands.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Hibiscus Coast Branch: Chairperson, Pauline Smith; Secretary, Katie Lucas, Tel: (09) 427-5186. HibiscusCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaipara Branch: Chairperson, William McNatty; Secretary, Barry Wilson. kaipara.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Augusta Macassey-Pickard; Secretary, Lynn Hampton, Tel: (07) 866 2463. mercurybay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Tony Dunlop; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, Tel: (09) 422-9123. midnorth.branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Shore Branch: Chairperson, Richard Hursthouse; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, Tel: (09) 479-2107. NorthShore.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Northern Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, Tel: 022 092 0721. Northern.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Auckland Branch: Chairperson, John Oates; Secretary, Lee O’Leary, Tel: (09) 948-3867. SouthAuckland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Thames-Hauraki Branch: Chairperson, Ken Clark; Secretary, Marcia Sowman, Tel (07) 868 8307. thameshauraki.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, vacant; Secretary, vacant. uppercoromandel.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waitakere Branch: Chairperson, Robert Woolf; Secretary, Jan Edmonds, Tel: (09) 833-6241. Waitakere.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch: Chairperson, Mark Fort; Secretary, Lesley Swindells, Tel: (07) 307-0846. EasternBayofPlenty.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Gisborne Branch: Chairperson, Grant Vincent; Secretary, Wendy Vincent, Tel: (06) 868 8236. gisborne.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rotorua Branch: Chairperson, Chair rotates among committee members; Secretaries, Margaret Dick, Tel: (07) 357-2024 or Delight Gartlein Tel: (07) 357-2575. Rotorua.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Ian Noble; Secretary, Jennifer Hartley, Tel: (06) 870-3477. HastingsHavelockNorth.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Debbie Waldin; Secretary, Angelina Smith, Tel: (06) 368 3337. horowhenua.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kapiti-Mana Branch: Chairperson, John McLachan; Secretary, Judy Driscoll, Tel: (04) 904-2049. KapitiMana.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Lower Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Russell Bell; Secretary, Jennifer Vinton, Tel: (04) 565-1379. LowerHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Paul Demchick; Secretary, Alexandra King, Tel: (06) 354 8370. manawatu.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Napier Branch: Chairperson, Neil Eagles; Secretary, Barbara McPherson, Tel: (06) 845-0425. Napier.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz North Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Carolyn Brough; Secretary, Shirley Schofield, Tel: (06) 758-3680. NorthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Rangitikei Branch: Chairperson, Diana Stewart; Secretary, Dot Mattocks, Tel: (06) 327-8790. Rangitikei.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Dave Digby; Secretary, Carol Digby, Tel: (06) 765 7482. SouthTaranaki.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Upper Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Barry Wards; Secretary, Fred Fowler, Tel: (04) 569-7187. UpperHutt.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wairarapa Branch: Chairperson, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Peta Campbell, Tel: (06) 377 4882. Wairarapa.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wanganui Branch: Chairperson, Esther Williams; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, Tel: (06) 345-2651. Wanganui.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Wellington Branch: Chairperson, Peter Hunt; Secretary, David Ellison, Tel: (04) 233-1010. Wellington.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

South Island Ashburton Branch: Chairperson, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, Tel: (03) 308-5620. Ashburton.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Central Otago-Lakes Branch: Chairperson, Mark Ayre; Secretary, Denise Bruns, Tel: (03) 443-5462. CentralOtagoLakes.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Dunedin Branch: Chairperson, Jeni Pelvin; Secretary, Secretary, Vacant, dunedin.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Golden Bay Branch: Chairperson, vacant; Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Tel: (03) 525 6031. goldenbay.branch@forestandbird.org.nz Kaikoura Branch: Secretary Jody Weir, Tel: 027 8973 444. kaikoura.branch@ forestandbird.org.nz

South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, Tel: (07) 886-7456. SouthWaikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Secretary, Lynda Neame, Tel: (03) 578-2013. Marlborough.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Taupo Branch: Secretary, Laura Dawson, Tel: (07) 378 5975, laura@reap.org.nz

Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Craig Potton; Secretary, Gillian Pollock, Tel: (03) 548-8583. NelsonTasman.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, David Dowrick; Secretary, Pam Foster, Tel (07) 571-0974. Tauranga.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Bev Nairn, Tel: (07) 533-4247. TePuke.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waihi.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, Tel: (07) 849-3438. Waikato.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz

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

lodge accommodation

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

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

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

North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Lesley Shand; Secretary, Rachel Hurford, Tel: (03) 337-3132.. northcanterbury.branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, Tel: (03) 686-1494. SouthCanterbury.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Secretary, Jane Young, Tel: (03) 415-8532. SouthOtago.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, Tel: (03) 248-6398. Southland.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; Secretary, Clare Backes, Tel: (03) 755-8697, WestCoast.Branch@forestandbird.org.nz For branch postal addresses, please see www.forestandbird.org.nz

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

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

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

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

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

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

With each of our stores stocking over 7500 products from 150 different suppliers, we are able to offer the best performers in each category. We present cutting edge technology from leading international manufacturers such as Arcâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;teryx, Berghaus, Black Diamond, Exped, Osprey, Outdoor Research and The North Face. Every item has undergone a selection process during which the product has proven itself to be a top contender in its category.

Exped SynMat UL 7 Exped Ultralight fabrics are extremely lightweight yet robust. The abrasion resistance is high, but puncture resistance is lower than with Exped's standard fabric. High frequency welded seams for durability FlatValve Technology easy inflation and deflation valves Synthetic filling is internally laminated to both top and bottom of the mat to prevent any loss of loft Spacer baffles welded between the synthetic filled chambers prevent cold spots and provide a stable sleeping surface Fabric grommets to attach a pillow or the included multifunction stuffsack (which feature double cords on the inside to allow attachment to the grommets) Repair kit with adhesive and fabric patches included

Length 163cm (Small), 183cm (Medium) Width 50cm Thickness 7cm Rolled Size 23cm x 9cm (Small), 24cm x 9.5cm (Medium) Fill 60 g/mÂ˛ Texpedloft Microfibre Average Weight mat/packsack and mat combined: 440g/454g (Small), 470g/485g (Medium) Relative Warmth (R Value) 3.5 (0.62m2.kelvins/watt) Warranty for all Exped UL products is 2 years From $139 RRP (Small)

QUEEN STREET NEW MARKET SYLVIA PARK ALBANY MEGA-CENTRE TAURANGA HAMILTON PALMERSTON NORTH WELLINGTON TOWER JUNCTION DUNEDIN