Winch's way

Forest and Bird, Issue 281, 1 August 1996, Page 44

Winch's way

JACQUI BARRINGTON

visits anew member of Forest and Bird's national executive and a passionate advocate for conservation in the Far North.

defending nature in Northland

SCENDING THROUGH thick forest on a steep four-wheel-drive track out of Totara North, visitors could be forgiven for thinking they are approaching the retreat of someone who’s turned their back on the world. But, to the contrary, the house at the top of the ridge — the home of Linda and Michael Winch — is the nerve centre for some of the more important environmental work currently being done in Northland. Surrounded by 75 hectares of native forest, the house embraces a 180 degree vista over Mangonui Forest extending to the coast, while glimpses of Whangaroa Harbour appear between regenerating kauri rickers. Here Linda prepares submissions for the Far North branch of Forest and Bird to all district and regional plans, scrutinises resource consent applications, has become something of a water extraction "expert" when she blew the whistle on grandiose pasture irrigation schemes (see Forest & Bird May 1994), raises funds for various conservation and restoration projects and tends her small

personal native plant nursery. When away from home, she may be attending the Northland Regional Council's Environmental and Rural Services Subcommittee meetings as their environmental representative — a position her persistent lobbying helped create some two years ago. Or she may be out surveying Northland DoC’s Protected Natural Areas network, a part-time contract position she has held since mid-1994. She revels in the fieldwork for its capacity to extend her ecological knowledge and skills, and also for the unparalleled opportunity of getting to know the special corners of Northland. Areas like the Ahipara gumlands plateau, or the coast north of Mitimiti threatened with neglect, grazing and forestry development, or Te Arai, the last remnant of pohutukawa coastal forest on the Aupouri peninsula but currently at risk from horses. Prior to taking on this work she was part way through a BSc in plant science from Massey University — which included writing a natural history of North Whangaroa, covering the rare and threat-

ened plant species of her own property. She plans to resume her course within the next two or three years. The Winches purchased their Totara North property in 1987 when they were still living in Auckland’s Wood Bay. As Michael is a civil engineer — he recently finished design-

ing and managing the upgrade of the state highway through Waipoua forest — they spent the following two summers creating the access track themselves, including several stream crossings. At the end of 1989 they sold their Auckland home and moved into a tiny caravan on site where they spent the next ten months building their new house. "It’s amazing what two people can achieve with pulleys and ropes," says Linda wryly. They designed it as a showcase for pine, and installed solar power and water heating. To minimise vegetation clearance, the house sits on an old logging skid where it was crossed by a pig hunters’ track. The design and orientation were further dictated by the presence of a large kauri — now visible just outside the bathroom window — and a mature kawaka tree which sprouts through the deck. The Winches organised a QEII Trust covenant over their forest soon after they bought it. "Being here has taught me the real responsibilities of living in such a wonderful place," says Linda. "The heavy obligations to protect our native species and control plant and animal pests."

UE TO ITS HIGH ecological rating, the Winches’ property was included in DoC’s 1080 drop over the adjoining Mangonui Forest in 1994. Their forest had only ever been selectively logged and never burnt, and contains more than 200 indigenous species of higher plants including 20 native orchids, and notable wildlife such as tusked weta, kauri snails and pied tits. After the 1080 drop, Linda and Michael observed a huge improvement in forest health. But they still keep a selection of possum traps as well as ten permanently set bait stations — all positioned well up off the ground to protect the resident kiwi pair. Linda lights up as she recalls the first probe holes she and Michael found in a potted native seedling, and the night the female kiwi woke them by screeching right under the bedroom window. Linda was born in 1954 in Pukekohe East, the winter her father put the cows into the hiich to oraze QOrigi-

robs ee Peon a 0° Paes Shae ated © a nally Cornwall, his was one of the first immigrant families to arrive in Franklin District im the: 1850s. Her mother was also from an immigrant English family arriving some 40 years later. Childhood memories include events that belong to a less ecologically aware past — totara regularly sacrificed for the family Christmas tree, puriri felled for firewood, and sliding in nikau frond boles down bush slopes devoid of any understorey.

However she points with pride to her maternal grandfather, who died when she was only 14 months old, and who donated several hectares of a Mahurangi headland for conservation. At Pukekohe High School she excelled in the arts, maths and biology. Contemplating joining the diplomatic corps or doing social work, she eventually obtained a BA in English and history from Auckland and Victoria Universities and went on to teach. She met and married Michael during her student days, moving back to Auckland with him from Wellington in 1975. Four years later the young couple embarked on their big "OE", visiting North America, Britain, parts of Africa, the Indian Ocean and Asia. The pollution they witnessed in northern hemisphere industrial regions made them acutely aware of the very special qualities of New Zealand and turned them into active conservationists. Michael’s family had

always enjoyed camping and tramping, and on their return they settled in the Waitakeres. Galvanised by a Stephen King slideshow of Pureora logging in 1982, Linda joined Forest and Bird and the Native Forests Action Council and has been writing submissions ever since. "Just do it," she says. "Don't be intimidated, it’s like composing a letter. You get better with practice." Linda stayed a member of NFAC until 1991 when its philosophies took unpalatable directions and she turned her attention and skills to Forest and Bird. Since 1992 she has been secretary and then chair of the Far North Branch. Under Linda’s leadership the branch’s sheer tenacity has won the grudging respect of local authorities. It is now consulted over resource management and wider environmental matters. With an active committee, the bank balance also looks distinctly healthier, boosted by good local sales of Forest and Bird diaries and

calendars — more last year than any other branch. "You don’t need a great brain or outstanding courage," she says. "It’s the kind of unglamorous work like staffing stalls that will keep the society alive and financially afloat." Four years ago the Far North branch, working closely with DoC, undertook the revegetation of Motupapa Island in the Kerikeri Inlet. This has given those involved enormous satisfaction and also led to Linda receiving a DoC conservation award in 1993. The ambitious Whangaroa Ginger Project was set up in the same year under the auspices of the branch, with Linda as convenor of the nine-member committee. In collaboration with DoC, and funding from the Lottery Grants Board, it has coordinated five Task Force Green employees who have cleared 70 percent of Whangaroa’s massive ginger infestation. Linda marvels at the amazing diversity

of Northland plant and animal life, and bewails the inadequate regional and district plans which refuse to take into account natural values beyond soil erosion and water quality. The branch’s appeal on the Northland Regional Policy Statement for its inadequate protection of the natural environment will soon be heard by the Planning Tribunal. Other threats to Northland’s dwindling native wildlife and habitats are the clearance of regenerating shrublands — a stronghold for many kiwi — to fuel the boom in plantation forestry. Plus an ignorance of the threats to kiwi from pig dogs, and the spread of invasive forest plant pests like mistflower — which Linda insists should be renamed mistweed. Cannabis growing, pig-hunting and kereru shooting — all often targeting conservation lands — are on the rise. Many of the conservation issues of the Far North are overlain with the huge unemployment levels and racial tensions of the region. It is one thing to tackle challenging conservation problems, but Linda sometimes despairs that the social and racial factors driving many of them are so complex and seemingly intractable.

S NIGHT FALLS, a morepork positions itself in a taraire tree overlooking the deck. Velvety green puriri moths flutter out of the wet darkness, lured by our light, and the morepork sweeps down silently to feast, soon to be joined by a second. They’re still around when we turn in for the night, and as I fall asleep to their cries, I recall another of Linda’s childhood reminiscences: how she loved to lie in bed listening to the ruru’s call from a puriri tree — one that escaped her father’s axe — and how that sound signalled to her that "all’s right with the world." Well, all may not be right with the world Linda, but conservation in Northland is certainly in a lot healthier state with you around. @

JACQUI BARRINGTON 15 Forest and Bird’s northern field officer.