Discovering Wellington's Regional Parks

Forest and Bird, Issue 298, 1 November 2000, Page 18

Discovering Wellington's Regional Parks

—Kathy Ombler.

—Kathy Ombler.

KATHY OMBLER

KATHY OMBLER finds mature beech, rata and podocarp forest dunelands and wetlands; kaka; falcons and masses of seabirds all in close proximity not in Westland but Wellington

e’'re talking about wilderness in Wellington, capital city — specifically in the city’s regional park network to be found within a mere 10 to 40minutes’ drive from the Beehive. In her guide to the natural plant communities of Wellington (Wellington’s Living Cloak, 1993), botanist Isobel Gabites wrote that Wellington has ‘one of the most wideranging and fascinating living textbooks of botany in the country’ She added: "Well, selected pages anyway. Many of the pages were ripped out by zealous colonisers and there are now some big gaps. Fortunately, fragments of our ancestral landscape have survived.’ Many of these fragments are now protected in regional parks, or water catchment forests. A network of council-established walking tracks, picnic areas and camping grounds has traditionally catered for recreational use in the parks. However, for many years limited funding has seen limited care of significant areas of forest, wetlands, dunes and rare plant communities — Gabites’ ‘selected pages’ — but for the efforts of a small army of self-motivated volunteers, including many Forest and Bird members, throughout greater Wellington. In recent years, however, change has been evident. A refreshingly new environmental focus has been sweeping through the regional council, an attitude embraced all the way to councillor level and one welcomed by the volunteers. The council’s new 10-year plan spells out an increased commitment to ‘environmental enhancement, education and community connection’ and earmarks an additional $2.5 million, on average per year over the next 10 years, for the environment.

‘T think it’s great, says Barry Wards, Upper Hutt Forest and Bird branch chair. "We have great respect for the regional council and the direction they’re taking in environment work. We're fully behind them, Council landcare planner Ross Jackson says the council is very much aware that a lot of volunteers have been involved in the parks over the past 10-20 years. "We want to build on these peoples’ experience and get younger people involved so they can carry on. For the groups and individuals who have toiled over the last 20 years or so — pulling blackberry, nursing seedlings, digging holes, planting trees and shrubs by their thousand, release weeding, and generally being environmental watchdogs — the council’s new environmental focus gives welcome recognition of the value of these special places, and hope for their future.

Wellington's regional parks: what's there, and who cares?

Queen Elizabeth Regional Park

t first glance, looking across farmland from the hectic Kapiti Coast stretch of SH1 at the accidentprone MacKay’s Crossing, one could be forgiven for thinking Queen Elizabeth was little more than a farm park, crammed with recreation facilities. There is much more. Within the park are some of the only remaining, almost complete dune sequences in Wellington, a small remnant of kahikatea dune swamp forest, and 10 hectares of ephemeral wetlands, which contain a number of rare plants and a significant ‘turf community. A nationally rare

Greening Wellington's Regional Parks ame changes within the Wellington Regional Council reflect a new focus in parks management. The recreation department which became the parks department is now, having merged with the conservation forestry group, called the Parks and Forests department. Susan Edwards, Manager Parks and Forests (strategy and marketing) explains the new council plan is about enhancing environmental values, working closely with the community, getting more people involved in the natural environment and encouraging good land management practices. Central to this new direction is the much-vaunted ‘Signature Values’ assessment that clearly sets out the environmental, heritage and _recreational values of each area. Susan Edwards says the assessment process is a refinement of similar concepts developed by Auckland Regional Council and Parks Victoria in Australia. ‘This framework provides an objective guide for council when considering management direction and setting priorities for maintenance, restoration and upgrading; she says. The process also helps identify ‘gaps’ in the park network, and as a result the council has set aside funds to bring new areas under the umbrella of the regional park system. Two such areas are Whitireia, near Porirua (see Forest & Bird, August 2000), and a possible role associated with the Lake Wairarapa wetlands. ‘We have a wider focus now than trees and forests. This is also about wetlands, dune systems and the fauna in our parks and forests, things on which we have concentrated less in the past, says Susan Edwards. Animal pest control, a major factor in the council’s ‘environmental enhancement’ programme, has been intensive throughout regional parks and forests in the past few years. According to volunteer revegetation groups, increased fruiting, seeding and bird numbers have been the

result.

native grass, Amphibromus fluitans, has been recorded here and at least seven other species in these wetlands are considered rare elsewhere in Wellington. Typical trees of lowland swamp forest — kahikatea, matai, pukatea and swamp maire — grow within the park’s two hectare forest remnant, which is one of the only stands of this type remaining south of Levin. Although much of the park’s long expanse of constantly shifting coastal dunes is modified, with marram grass and blackberry, there are native sand-binding and sand-col-lecting plants, and coastal forest, also taking a hold. The northern area contains the only unmodified dunes remaining in the Wellington region. The Kapiti Environment Action Group (KEA) and Kapiti Forest and Bird have toiled for 10 years in the park’s kahikatea forest and wetlands. ‘We have been planting, release weeding and generally trying to convince people that money needs to be spent on the park, says a former park board member, June Rowland, who has spearheaded the volunteer effort. ‘Forest and Bird members have been very good to work with, they have a great knowledge of the plants and we didn’t have that expertise within our group. A Kapiti Forest and Bird branch member, David Gregorie, says new plantings in the swamp forest have included manuka, flax, toetoe and also tree lucerne, for ground cover and to attract native pigeons. ‘It’s surely working; he says. ‘One of the heartening things we’ve found is a lot of kohekohe coming up naturally, obviously brought by the pigeons. June Rowland says things changed dramatically when the regional council took

over the park and appointed a permanent ranger, three years ago. ‘No-one but us did anything in there for a long time. Now the wetlands and bush are all fenced off and protected, and weed control is a big focus for council staff? Last Arbor Day, students from Raumati School planted the wetlands with species they had raised at school in a programme co-ordinated by the park’s ranger, Nola Urquhart. She has an Australian degree in parks and recreation and worked with the regional council’s biosecurity division for five years. Park volunteers say she has been a strong supporter of their restoration efforts. In turn, Urquhart says restoration work in the park is the result of a huge community effort, including local KEA and Forest and Bird members, tramping clubs, iwi and schools. A wetlands restoration plan for the park is expected to be completed by council policy staff next year.

Belmont Regional Park

prawled along the hills between western Hutt Valley and the Porirua basin, Belmont contains several pockets of remnant and regenerating forests in between open pasture and plantation pine forests. This was possibly the first park in New Zealand to combine public and private land managed for the multi-uses of recreation, farming, forestry and conservation. It is extremely popular with walkers, mountain bikers, horse riders and runners. Stands of native forest in the park form a

Parks Problems

ellington’s Regional Parks are not without their problems. Despite intensive lobbying there are current threats from at least three roading proposals. The much debated Transmission Gully highway, proposed to ease the pressure on the current SH1 road access to Wellington, will cut through Belmont and Battle Hill regional parks. Transit New Zealand also plans to slice a portion off Te Marua Bush, at Kaitoke, and Queen Elizabeth Regional Park. Land ownership, where former Lands and Survey farmland has shifted to Landcorp control, and former Electricity Corporation land now sits in the Treasury "land bank’, is a potential issue at Belmont. While intensive pest operations have made a major impact on possum numbers in the Wainuiomata and Orongorongo water catchment forests, where native seedlings have flourished after 1080 poison drops, a much debated hunting ballot has had little effect on high numbers of deer, pigs and goats. Given such issues, the regional council’s apparent recognition of environmental values is_ timely.

critical part of the "Hutt Valley bird corridor’. One is in Korokoro Valley (10 minutes’ drive from the Beehive), which was closed as a water catchment for 60 years and contains mature kahikatea, rimu, matai and rata trees and, in its lower reaches, regenerating lowland forest. On the western side of Belmont, in Cannons Creek, a remnant stand of tawa/kohekohe forest includes rimu, totara, matai and kahikatea. Several freshwater fish, including giant kokopu, survive in Korokoro Stream and green forest geckos have been recorded in the park. Belmont ranger Chris Wootton says members of the local community, in particular Forest and Bird groups, are strong supporters of the park. ‘The Lower Hutt branch are avid users of the park and have always been great advocates, he says. A branch member and former park advi-sory-committee member, Bill Milne, has been waging a private war against possums in Korokoro Valley. With bait supplied by the regional council, Milne has run a line of bait stations through the valley for the past six years. ‘You can tell by the regenerating miro trees that it’s having an effect; he says. Another local resident, Kate Malcolm, initiated a planting programme in the lower valley six years ago. ‘We are not a group. I am not a woman to waste time at meetings. I raise native plants on my own property and the council matches these. We generate publicity to get enough people to help with plantings and this year we put in about 200 plants. We now have canopy enclosure from our first plantings of mainly ngaio. Over the hill at Cannons Creek, Mana Forest and Bird member Sylvia Jenkins has enlisted a number of branch colleagues and established the Friends of Maararoa Society, with the aim of restoring 100 hectares of tawa/kohekohe forest over the next 10 to 20 years. The Society has the support of the Mana Forest and Bird branch and the East Porirua Ratepayers Association.

Kaitoke Regional Park

aitoke, a major water collection area just 40 minutes’ drive north of Wellington, is visited by some 100,000 people each year. The park contains nearly 2500 hectares of mature native forest including hard beech, black beech, red beech, rimu, northern rata, hinau and kamahi. In one popular recreation area, by the Pakuratahi Forks, magnificent rata and rimu tower over a canopy of kamahi, hinau and miro. Ferns present include regionally

uncommon Sticherus cunninghami, an umbrella fern, and Blechnum colensot. Matai forest lines part of the Hutt River gorge, a popular stretch for wilderness rafting. The park, located on the southern end of the Tararua Ranges, supports common forest birds as well as North Island kaka, yel-low-crowned parakeet and a significant number of New Zealand falcon. Barry Wards, Upper Hutt Forest and Bird chair, says branch members have provided volunteer support for possum control and tree planting at Kaitoke, and enjoyed a close working relationship with the regional council. The branch operates a nursery at Rimutaka Prison which supplies plants to the council, and involves the Kiwi Conservation Club in its plantings.

Te Marua Bush

his small remnant of podocarp forest by the entrance to Kaitoke Regional Park is considered particularly significant. Just three hectares of predominantly matai, totara and maire which grows on an old alluvial terrace, it is typical of the river terrace forests which once covered this area.

Since 1990 Wellington Botanical Society (Botsoc) has worked with regional council staff, conservation corps and Upper Hutt Forest and Bird members to restore this area. Botsoc stalwart Barbara Mitcalfe admits the area is small, but there are bigger plans. ‘It is only just sustainable because it’s such a small site, but we’ve been planting into an adjacent area hoping to provide a buffer. We hope this current mosaic of remnant forests will eventually be joined together. You don’t get this sort of forest mix elsewhere until about Otaki,; [farther up the Wellington West Coast]. Te Marua volunteers and council staff are also working together trialling chemicals for weed control, aimed to combat Tradescantia (wandering Willie) without affecting mature native trees. In a special ‘millennium planting’ at Te Marua last June, all past and present council members and families were invited to plant a totara or matai. The event was attended by the Hon. Marian Hobbs, Hon.

Paul Swain, children and parents from nearby Plateau School, Liz Mellish from the Wellington Tenths Trust and members of the Upper Hutt Branch of Forest and Bird and the Botanical Society.

East Harbour Regional Park

ature beech and rata forests and wetlands with rare plant communities are the special features of this park, which as its name suggests occupies the hills and coastline on the eastern side of Wellington Harbour. The regional council has adopted an ‘umbrella role’ for the co-ordinated management of the park, which encompasses a collection of regional council land, Hutt City Council reserves and DoC-administered wildlife and recreation reserves. Recreation use is high in some areas of this park, in particular the forest tracks behind Eastbourne and Days Bay, and the Pencarrow coastal road. On the southern Pencarrow coast, Lakes Kohangapiripiri and Kohangatera are rated as nationally important wetlands. Plant communities of the wetlands and raised

beach ridges include several threatened species and the lakes provide habitat for waterfowl, including the regionally rare banded dotterel. More vulnerable plant species, including Muehlenbeckia astonti, survive further along the coast at Baring Head, along with a ‘nationally uncommon’ spotted skink Leiolopisma lineocellatum. The beech and rata forests that cover the

eastern hills behind Eastbourne and Days Bay are the only forests of this type so close to a major city. Although significant areas of these hills have in the past been cleared, burnt or devastated by high winds, they are now regenerating well around substantial stands of mature northern rata and black and hard beech. Special plants surviving in these forests include red mistletoe and 19 species of native orchids. Besides the common forest birds, there are New Zealand falcon, whitehead, yellowcrowned parakeet and long-tailed cuckoo. Six lizard species have been recorded in the park and the main waterway, Gollans Stream, contains eight species of native fish, including the regionally rare giant kokopu. The Eastbourne forests have been the subject of major volunteer restoration work. A two-year attack on the local possum population, by the community and the Hutt City Council, resulted in an impressive increase in bird life and plant flowering, and encouraged further effort. The East Harbour Environment Association, made up of committed local residents, has now embarked on an intensive pest control programme they call MIRO. This stands for Mainland Island Restoration Operation, which mirrors DoC’s mainland island programmes and focuses on 160 hectares of untracked forest in the park.

Battle Hill Regional Park

his multi-use farm and forest park on Paekakariki Hill Road is well used by large camping groups, walkers and mountain bikers. Natural features at Battle Hill include a 33-hectare remnant of kohekohe forest and an area of wetlands. The regional council policy advisor for wetlands, Paula Reeves, says a restoration plan for the Battle Hill wetlands will be formulated in 2001.

writes about the out-

doors, from her base in Wellington.