november 2005 kapiti mana, royal forest and bird protecton society newsletter

8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter

1/6

1

Kapiti Mana

Newsletter

Kapiti Children see prehistory live!

November, 2005

Kapiti Coast children joined with children from the Wellington Kiwi

Conservation Club (KCC) recently to see the tuatara research and recoveryprogramme at Victoria University.

About 50 excited children and adults

filed into a lecture theatre to learn more

about New Zealands livingsurvivor from the dinosaur era the

tuatara.

Enthusiastic hands shot up through-

out the question-and-answer session.Students learned that tuatara live in

the wild only on New Zealands off-

shore islands.

Stephens Island in Cook Strait isestimated to have up to 50,000.

They eat wetas, beetles, frogs,

lizards and even small sea birds or

their eggs.The young use a special egg tooth

on the end of their nose to break out of

the leathery shell.

Young tuatara are vulnerable tonatural predators such as kingfishers,

moreporks, weka, and gulls.

Victoria University raises tuatara in

captivity and then releases them onsafe off-shore islands. Sharyn Gunn

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE!Above: Hannah Douglas and Dallas Ortiz,and, below: Sharyn Gunn and Josh Douglaswith their ancient, scaly friend Oliver, thetuatara at Victoria University.


2/6

2

Hemi Matenga ReserveWaikanaes Hemi Matenga Reserve

is one of the largest remaining areas

of lowland kohekohe forest in the

lower North Island and is home to

many native birds and plants.

THEN: David Collingwoods survey

of Hemi Matenga for Forest & Bird in1976 showed that farmers were allow-

ing their stock into the reserve and that

reserve boundaries were being ignored

by developers.Reserve boundaries have since been

fenced and urban encroachment halted.

NOW: Possum control over the past

few years has greatly improved foresthealth in the reserve and DoC is intensi-

fying its efforts to reduce possums and

rats even further.

For possums, DoC uses bait bagsstapled to trees at chest height along

existing bait-station lines. Each bagcontains a pre-feed block and a small

feratox capsule containing cyanide.For rats, a major predator of tree

nesting birds, DoC is using racumin bait

in existing plastic bait stations.

It is perfectly safe for the public towalk on designated tracks, but dogs

should not be taken into the reserve.MEANWHILE: Kapiti F&Bs Errol

Hardy continues his private war against

possums and rats in Hemi Matenga.

Over the past 10 years Errol hastrapped more than 1500 possums and

poisoned untold numbers of rats.

Stacy Moore, DoC Kapiti Area Office &

Kapiti Mana F&B Committee Member.

STREET STALL SALES

RECORD

Street stalls in Paraparaumu and

Waikanae in June raised a disap-pointing $567, due to bad weather

and a poor site in Paraparaumu.

However, an additional sale of native

plants from our nursery in Septemberat Waikanae raised $546.

The total sales of $1,113 were $183

better than for the previous year. Maurice Andrews

Planting project nears

completion

About three years planting of

native trees and shrubs remain to be

done in the Kaitawa Reserve.

The season just ended has seen 3500planted by KCDC staff, plus another

1000 by F&B volunteers.

The longer-lived emergent

species e.g. rimu, totara, rata, miro,

kahikatea and matai are well estab-

lished and some of the 500 treefuchsia (F. excorticata) are already

flowering, attracting increasing num-bers of bellbirds.Fuchsia are a favour-ite food source for bellbirds if thebossy tuis permit!

There is still plenty to be done by

volunteers release work will keep usbusy for some time.

The Kaitawa group meets on Thurs-

day mornings at Riwai Street. JohnMcLachlan


3/6

3

Kapiti Island Monitoring

Committee

The Kapiti Island Monitoring Com-

mittee got off to a very poor start three

years ago, but is now functioning well.The committees purpose is to

monitor the KCDCs supervision of the

land use consent granted for a nature

lodge on private land at Waiorua Bay,Kapiti Island.

Some 80% of the island is desig-

nated as a nature reserve the strict-

est category of reserve in which DoCenforces very firm standards.

Another 19% of the island is Crownland, and the remainder, some 1%, is

private land divided into five informal

sections of some 2.5 hectares each. The

nature lodge is located on one of thesesections.

Forest & Bird believes its first

responsibility is the safety of Kapiti

Island, which plays a vital role as a

sanctuary and as a reservoir of endan-gered species. Errol Hardy, Forest

& Bird representative on the Commit-

tee.

KCCs up and running

Thanks to the initiative of

Wellington KCC Co-ordinator Donna

Sherlock, Kapiti Manas two KiwiConservation Clubs are active again.

Janet Hollow, Tawa, 237-6097,

and Sharyn Gunn, Waikanae,

04-293-7925, are local contacts.

Donna has already led the combinedgroups on several exciting trips,

(see p1) but more are planned:

November 12, Rock-pool Day on

Wellingtons south coast and on the19th, the third Kapiti Island trip!

A Christmas party on December 3 and

a tour of the South Wellington tip (!!!)

on the 10th.In January Donna hopes to organise a

bike-a-thon fundraiser for the fly-in

aviary in Ngaio, or for penguin boxes

in Shelly Bay. David Gregorie

INTERESTED IN FOREST

RESTORATION?

The Friends of Maara Roa, led by

Forest & Bird members, plan to plant at

least 4000 trees in the restoration area

in Cannons Creek Valley every year.

This is a very accessible 80ha site

where you can really contribute.

Why not register your interest now

and be ready to give a hand from Feb-

ruary? Sylvia Jenkin

Phone Sylvia at 237-4760

or email [email protected]

See www.maararoa.wellington.net.nz.

GENEROUS LEGACYThe late Iris Garside, one of Kapiti

Branchs long-serving members, left$95,933 to Forest & Bird.

She was always a very active Branch

member, attending meetings regularly

and always being available to deliverprogrammes and newsletters. Bill

Moore.


4/6

4

Greendale Nearly FullKena Kena School has all but completed its seven-year stint of planting at

Greendale Reserve.Phil Palmer, who has been keeping a fatherly eye on the reserve for the past

seven years estimates that there are about two years planting left, most of which

will have to be done by either KCDC staff or F&B volunteers, as some of the

areas to be planted are potentially too dangerous for children to work on.He estimates that 10 000 native trees, shrubs, flaxes and grasses have been

planted there since Kapiti F&B undertook the restoration of this reserve.

Of these, around 3000 were planted by children from Kena Kena School a

mighty effort and one of which the children and their very supportive teachers andparents can be proud.

The Greendale group meets at the reserve main entrance in Greendale Drive,

Otaihanga, on Tuesday mornings for planting and release work. David Gregorie

Sarah Pritchard and Gemma Rattenbury, Kena Kena School, planting at Greendale.

CONTACTS: Chairperson: David Gregorie, 04-904-2183, [email protected] Secretary: John McLachlan, 04-904-0027, [email protected]: Wellington Co-ordinator: Donna Sherlock, [email protected] Kapiti Coast Contact: Sharyn Gunn, 04-293-7925 Mana Contact: Janet Hollow, 04-237-6097,[email protected]


5/6

5


6/6

6

november 2005 kapiti mana, royal forest and bird protecton society newsletter

Documents