november 2005 kapiti mana, royal forest and bird protecton society newsletter
TRANSCRIPT
-
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.
-
8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter
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
-
8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter
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.
-
8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter
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]
-
8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter
5/6
5
-
8/8/2019 November 2005 Kapiti Mana, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter
6/6
6