Conservation Grants Announced

Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 49

Conservation Grants Announced

Several of New Zealand’s threatened plants and animals will benefit from conservation projects being funded this year by the J.S. Watson Conservation Trust which is administered by Forest and Bird. On its selection committee are two eminent scientists, Dr Ian Atkinson and Dr Sandy Bartle, and Forest and Bird’s conservation director Kevin Smith. The seven successful applicants join a notable list of beneficiaries who have received funding from the Trust since it was established in 1986. Recipients of grants for1998-99 are: @ Rachel Keedwell, Twizel, who will research reasons for low survival rates in eggs and chicks of banded dotterels and blackfronted terns in the Mackenzie Basin. She will use time-lapse video cameras at the nests of birds to identify predators. The project is being carried out as a Ph.D. research programme through Massey University and will provide information which can be used for managing vulnerable river bed species such as the black stilt. @ Joshua Kemp, University of Otago, whose ongoing work on keas was funded by the Trust last year. He is monitoring the nests of keas around the Rainbow Skifield and using long-life radio transmitters to track fledged birds for up to five

years. Recommendations will then be made to DoC on the management of kea populations. Kea numbers are a small fraction of what they once were and there is little information about trends in the population since full protection was granted in 1986. @ Brian and Chris Rance, Southland, whose community nursery project has been running successfully for two years, gaining recognition from Southland Regional Council in June 1998 with a ‘commendation’ in their Environmental Awards. The Rances provide a facility and materials for use by conservation groups, Landcare groups, schools and individuals, for the propagation of native plants for local restoration schemes. (See p.42, Forest & Bird, August 1998). @ South Taranaki Branch, Forest & Bird, who are voluntary caretakers of a reserve known as the "Collier-Dickson QEII covenant’ covering 359 hectares, 20 kilometres east of Eltham. They will undertake predator control in the reserve to protect the local birdlife, including native pigeon, tui, bellbird, fantail, kiwi and North Island robin. @ The Otago Tree Society, who are undertaking revegetation of the Warrington Esplanade Embankment. They aim to