KAPITI ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 106, 29 January 1935, Page 3

KAPITI ISLAND

Getting Back to Natural State DR. OLIVER’S VISIT Kapiti Island, in the ten years since goats and sheep were removed from it, is slowly and steadily recovering its original forest, plant, and bird state, according to the Curator of the Dominion Museum, Wellington, Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, who recently spent fourteen days on the island. “Young forest trees have grown six feet high in the bush, have got a grip of the open spaces in the long grass, and seem likely to replace the manuka growth,” he stated yesterday. The birds are doing very well. We had wekas about the camp looking for scraps all the time we were there. There were blue penguins breeding in the house at which some parties stayed, and occasionally they made weird noises in the night. Pigeons, tuis, and bellbirds were plentiful about the camp. One could often see four pigeons together at a time. Going through the bush one saw robins, tomtits, fantails, and whiteheads. “What I chiefly was interested in was the growth of the vegetation since the goats and sheep were killed out,” he “When the island was overrun with them the grass would be kept short in the open country and in the forest all the undergrowth was eaten out too. Now the grass is knee deep and shrubs are growing through it everywhere. Also growing through the scrub, which is replacing the grass, several kinds of forest trees are reappearing. “It is obvious that the forest will eventually cover all the country now open. Then in the forest itself there is a thick growth of shrubs and young forest trees up to 6ft. or more in height. This undergrowth is especially, thick in the manuka forest and consists of young forest trees, so that evidently the tendency is for ordinary mixed forest to replace the manuka forest. “In time, provided the island is kept free from goats and other herbivorous animals, the forest will come back to its original state. It is going to be a great example. The caretaker, Mr. A. S. Wilkinson, takes a great interest m tlie island and knows all the species of plants and birds. He has discovered many plants not hitherto recorded on the 'island. In fact I did not .see a single species not known to him.