Mana Island—a Wellington nature treasure house

Forest and Bird, Volume 17, Issue 1, 1 February 1986, Page 27

Mana Island—a Wellington nature treasure house

The long awaited draft management plan for Mana Island is now up for public comment until 28 February 1986. This island is already nationally important for native wildlife and plants primarily because it is still free of introduced pests other than mice — its future potential however is enormous. Mana Island's remnant natural areas contain the threatened McGregor’s skink, the gold-striped gecko and the giant weta along with the Anogramma leptophylla fern and Cook's scurvy grass. Sooty shearwaters and blue penguins also frequent its shores as do an increasing number of people, mainly for recreation and education as the island also contains several interesting historic sites. The Society supports the plan and in particular recommendation that farming on the island should cease because it is uneconomic and that the island should become a haven for selected rare or endangered native plants and animals. A really exciting initiative which our Society supports is the proposed native plant planting programme. However, we do believe that there is a need to strictly control visitors going to the island as indiscriminate boat visits could spell disaster if rats were inadvertently introduced. Obviously the survival of existing or introduced nationally threatened wildlife hinges on keeping the island free of predators. Its overall management should naturally fall to the Department of Conservation. The Lands and Survey Department are to be congratulated on this excellent plan.