Caring for dune lakes

Forest and Bird, Issue 292, 1 May 1999, Page 44

Caring for dune lakes

Kauri Coast Section.

Stephen

Soole,

auri Coast Forest and K is is undertaking protection work at Rototuna, one of several dune lakes on the Pouto Peninsula in Northland. The nine-hectare lake is one of several formed behind drifting sand on North Kaipara Head, some 50 kilometres south of Dargaville. The dune lakes are ranked as ‘ecologically outstanding’

because of their habitat for rare and threatened fauna. Rototuna is the home of endangered dwarf inanga, eels and a number of threatened bird species. Funding for the project comes from the Northland Regional Council, following a joint approach from Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation made with the support of local iwi, Te Uri o Hau.

The project is to fence the lake’s margin and plant suitable native species ‘to protect and enhance the environmental values of the lake’. By creating a riparian buffer between agricultural land and the water, it is hoped to filter nutrients and enhance the water quality of Rototuna, significantly reducing eutrophication. Stopping stock access to the lake should reduce presently high coeliform levels. Water levels in the lake are presently affected by pines planted in the catchment. All pines about the lake margin are to be felled. The restoration of a natural margin to the lake should also

enhance its lansdscape value. It is hoped to use this lake to raise public awareness of this and other dune lakes in Northland, and involve the public in protecting their environmental values. Revegetation and maintenance of the new plantings on the lake margin will be an ongoing project over a number of years. Rototuna will be used as a conservation programme for various conservation and community groups, including the Dargaville Conservation Corps, local schools and Forest

and Bird members. —