Offshore Acventures Wthlorest and Bird

Forest and Bird, Issue 295, 1 February 2000, Page 18

Offshore Acventures Wthlorest and Bird

GORDON ELL finds many Forest and Bird branches are working to restore island habitats for nature.

he romantic vision of an island as a special sort of place is given practical form by many Forest and Bird members who are working to restore the habitats of islands around the New Zealand coast. As volunteers with community teams, and with branch projects, Forest and Bird members are making a difference in places as diverse as the Whangarei and Kaipara Harbours, the wilder shores of Wellington, and in Lyttelton and Otago Harbours. Others join as individuals in volunteer work with the Department of Conservation, at such distant places as the islands off Stewart Island and on the conservation islands of the north. The fascination with islands is only part of the pull. The fact is that islands by their very definition are places where wildlife and plants can flourish undisturbed, defended by a natural moat of water. Forest and Bird people who work at restoring the nature of islands do so to create secure habitats for birds, lizards, insects and plants at risk on the mainland from pests and weeds. Their work ranges from eradicating pests such as rats, which threaten nesting birds and their young, to weed control, and gathering seeds and growing plants to restore the native cover of the islands. Restoring islands has been part of Forest and Bird’s practical work for a very long time: in his recent book Kapiti, Chris Maclean describes how Forest and Bird’s founder Captain Val Sanderson visited that island in the mid-1920s endeavouring to get rid of goats. Similarly, physically active Forest and Bird members have taken their place alongside other volunteers working with the old Wildlife Service, (and latterly DoC), in projects ranging from cat eradication on Little Barrier Island, the nature sanctuary in Hauraki Gulf, to capturing rare and

endangered birds surviving only on remote islands for relocation elsewhere. During the past 20 years, however, there has been a growing interest by Forest and Bird branches to adopt an island and take a lead in its restoration. There are famous examples such as Tiritiri Matangi Island, in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, which has become a major project for many community groups and schools, and which now has its own supporters’ group and restoration trust. When North Shore Forest and Bird celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday, 20 years or so back, members gave more than $5000 to help secure a

lighthouse cottage as a base for visiting restoration teams. With its cocksfoot pastures replanted in native shrubs, Tiritiri Matangi is now a much-vaunted ‘open sanctuary where endangered birds, including takahe, saddleback and stitchbird, can be seen by visitors who are free to come ashore and wander round. On a much smaller scale, Mid North Forest and Bird has worked on the tiny island of Moturemu in the Kaipara Harbour, paying for rat poison and helping the Department of Conservation to lay it. Moturemu is one of the few places where the endangered kakabeak survives

in the wild, while its shrub-topped profile provides nesting habitat for burrowing grey-faced petrels. (Pictures page 20) More spectacularly, Mid North branch agitated for the restoration of Motuora, one of a string of islands lying off the Mahurangi Coast, east of Warkworth. Initially their enthusiasm was dampened, as DoC officials felt the ‘locals’ were getting ahead of their programmes for nearby Tiritiri Matangi and Motutapu in Auckland Harbour. In the event, Mid North’s enthusiasm carried into practice, and weed control and replanting began on this sliver of an island which had been farmed for more than a century. The island is still farmed but fenced off areas of native trees show how a local community can get things moving when official budgets are stretched. Zoo-raised kiwi have

recently been released there, to become acclimatized to the ‘wild’ before their return to Northland. Surrounded by extensive reefs, Motuora was also chosen as a suitable place to reintroduce the shore plover to the mainland of New Zealand. (It was at that stage restricted to the shoreline and reefs of South East/Rangitira Island in the Chathams group). While the success of this has been variable (birds fly away to the nearby mainland and beyond; others are taken by moreporks), shore plover did breed successfully on Motuora for the first time in 1998-9. (See Forest and Bird, May 1998). Schedules of work and seed-raising are now co-ordi-nated by a dedicated Motuora Restoration Society; as with the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi, much of their support still comes from people who are Forest and Bird members. "The Motuora Restoration Society was set up by Mid North Forest and Bird to attract and include groups and sources of revenue that Forest and Bird would not, and because we could see the restoration of Motuora completely absorbing our resources if we tried to do it all ourselves, says Joe Crandle, long-time branch activist, and former Forest and Bird executive member. "The

restoration society has made remarkable progress in a short time, proving this is a good model — setting up single-goal organizations rather than trying to do it all ourselves, and separating the conservation politicking/lobbying from large planting projects. These initiatives are typical of the range and variety of restoration work undertaken by members of Forest and Bird. Their experiences are replicated by other branches trying to clean up their offshore islands and restore the native vegetation. Liberation of suitable species of birds, insects, and lizards commonly follows the removal of pests (and often weeds as well). In the Far North, Forest and Bird has been involved with the restoration of Motupapa, (Cocked Hat Island) in the Kerikeri River. The four-hectare island was formerly overrun with kikuyu grass. Forest and Bird executive member Linda Conning, initiated an ecological restoration based on local seed sources, while living in the area. Work through the winters of 1993-1995 involved growing and planting out 5000 trees to establish a canopy of coastal forest and smother out weeds. Some of the trees, pohutukawa among them, are already three metres high and resisting summer drought.

ffshore islands in harsher climates have also attracted Forest and Bird volunteers. Otamahua, or Quail Island, near the head of Lyttelton Harbour, is Canterbury’s largest island. It has been the focus of the Otamahua/Quail Island Ecological Restoration Trust for the past two years. The 86-hectare island has high cliffs, facing the distant harbour entrance and prevailing winds, and a gently rolling summit plateau. Three shelly beaches blend into sheltered mudflats at low tide. Farmed from 1851 till the mid1980s, the island has an unusual European history, including its use as a

quarantine station, a convalescent sanitorium, as the headquarters of a British Antarctic expedition, and a leper colony. The trust includes a Forest and Bird nominee and has other Forest and Bird members on its advisory committee, while numerous North Canterbury members help on volunteer work days. The Maori community at Rapaki on the nearby harbour shore is also represented on the trust, and involved in the restoration work. During 1997, the Department of Conservation organized efforts to rid the island of animal pests (rabbits, possum, cats, mustelids and rodents). The

trust has extended earlier plantings from the 1980s, with more than 8000 native trees over the last two years. This year the trust expects to put in a further 7000 plants, and complete its restoration plan to give direction to efforts over the next 10-20 years. Unlike several other islands undergoing restoration, Otamahua/Quail Island is a recreation reserve and its many other values — historic, recreational and visual — need to be taken into account. The restoration plan will integrate these other factors as well as creating a predator-free refuge and habitat where endangered species found only on Banks Peninsula may be introduced.