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Forest and Bird, Issue 298, 1 November 2000, Page 13

Meridian Energy special places; special responsibilities At Meridian Energy we re proud of the work we re doing to protect our Nine years on from the commencement of PRR; it is clear that this ini- environment. Our generating assets are located among some of the tiative has protected wildlife populations and habitats and has South Island's most beautiful and significant natural resources and we enabled the continued use and enjoyment of the upper Waitaki Basin. recognise our special responsibility as their guardians to make sure future generations are able to enjoy them: Fish Passage on the Waiau River The fish pass at the Manapouri lake control structure provides pas- Project River Recovery sage for trout from the lower Waiau River to the Mararoa River; Project River Recovery (PRR) is a river and wetland conservation Waiau River and Lake Manapouri programme funded by Meridian Energy and run by the The Waiau River is a well renowned fishery and the installation of the Department of Conservation (DOC): The project aims to mitigate fish pass has enhanced the fishery in the upper reaches of the catch- some of the adverse effects of hydro electric development on the ment and the lakes. It is one of the few fish passes in New Zealand unique ecological communities of rivers and wetlands in the upper that operates effectively with the minimum of maintenance It won Waitaki Basin: a merit award from the Association of Consulting Engineers NZ Funding is in the order of S400,000 per annum. PRR employs two 1999 conference_ fulltime staff and several more over the summer months, as well as Our resource consents also require passage to be provided for native a number of university students with research projects fish. An elver trap and transfer programme is operated during the migration season, with 198 kg (about 90,000) of juvenile eels (elver) transferred from Manapouri lake control structure to Lake Te Anau_ Effects monitoring Waiau River; lakes Manapouri and Te Anau Meridian Energy undertakes extensive effects monitoring of our activities associated with the Manapouri power scheme We fund approximately S300,000 of monitoring and research studies each year in the lakes and rivers of the catchment Effects monitoring Deep Cove Meridian Energy funds more than S200,000 worth of research each year in the Deep Cove fiord environment to assess the effects of our fresh water discharge on the marine environment_ This research is being undertaken by leading scientists at the University of Otago's Marine Science Department: Our braided rivers support a unique and diverse community of Scientists have learned that the fiord consists of two distinctive lay ers of water: The surface layer is fresh water that comes from the plants and animals, such as the wrybill plover; the rare robust grasshopper; the long-jawed galaxid (a native fish), and tiny colo- surrounding mountains which functions as a dark floating canopy nial daisies. Raising lakes has flooded many wetlands and braided that protects the underlying layers from sediment; light and strong water movement_ This has created a sheltered environment below; rivers, and has reduced flows in remaining rivers, making them more vulnerable to invasion by weeds and predators. which allows many beautiful and delicate marine species such as black and red corals to live at far shallower depths than outside the PRR's first priority has been to preserve those rivers and wetlands of the upper Waitaki Basin that are still in near-pristine condition. For fiord environment: an investment of a few days each year; an invasion of lupins, gorse, broom and wilding pines has been curtailed within the Tasman River bed, adjacent to Mount Cook National Park. Unchecked, weeds would have rapidly invaded the area, causing irreversible damage: PRR also removes heavy infestations of weeds from rivers with high conservation value, such as the lower Ahuriri River: Careful monitoring has shown that water birds rapidly return to these prime habitats once weeds are removed_ One of PRR's management experiments involves the construction of an 80 ha wetland near Lake Ruataniwha: As well as providing habitat for numerous aquatic plants and animals, the wetland pro- vides an opportunity to test the efficacy of an electric fence, which runs around half of the wetlands, in reducing predation rates on ground-nesting wetland birds. Results to date have shown that nesting success is much higher inside the fence than outside: Meridian Energy the Power of Nature