January-March 2022
Welcome to the January-March issue of Voice for Nature. Starting this year, the newsletter will be quarterly. We would really like to hear from you, so please send any content to Ross (jrosssinclair@gmail.com). For all other branch related issues please contact our Secretary, Annabel Riley (annabel@plotlandscape.co.nz).
Inside this issue
- From the Chair - Comments from the Chair of your local branch of F&B
- Latest news from the Southern Lakes Sanctuary - Here what's been happening with this exciting and ambitious project protecting biodiversity in our region
- Have your say on the review of conservation land - A review of conservation land could impact 9% of NZ. Please make a submission on this critical issue!
- Rees Valley eDNA Project - Cutting edge methods to find cryptic species
- Makarora Predator Trapping - What we are doing to protect nature at Makarora
- No More Bad Cats - Protecting river birds using automated humane traps
- Southern Lakes Sanctuary appoints Jo Tilson as Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinator - Experienced fieldworker joins the SLS
- Update from the Makarora Coordinator - News about work in Makarora supported by the Southern lakes Sanctuary
- Nature's Voice - A reprint of our monthly column in the Wanaka Sun: 'My New Year’s resolution is to save the world'
- Shake a stick at... short summaries of branch-related news: Lake Onslow Pumped Hydro; Why do some traps catch more rats?; Whakatipu Wildlife Trust Queenstown Trap Library; A new trapline on Mount Roy; Wanaka Backyard Trapping has a new Community Coordinator, newsletter and trap library; Mast season coming up?; Young Valley trapping; Pennycook Podocarp Restoration; Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust receives Jobs4Nature funding for Greenstone and Caples Valleys
- You can help! - Information about joining, volunteering and donating
- Up-coming events - Details of forthcoming events in the region
- One of the team - Highlighting one of the team and their work for F&B
- Thank you to our donors and supporters - a shoutout to our supporters
- Missed an issue? - Links to past issues of Voice for Nature
From the Chair
COP26 climate negotiations: Success or Failure?
Two decades have passed since the millennium celebrations. Remember the excitement: was it simply hope, or was it a realistic expectation that we were about to be part of new beginnings - a renaissance, perhaps?
How times have changed! As a young fellow in my seventies, it is difficult to recall a time when as a country, we have faced so many difficult issues. A short list would include the immediacy of the climate crisis, the pandemic, the dire state of the public health system, housing, the continuing loss of our unique fauna, and Three Waters, the need for change, and the opposition to it.
Late last year, Glasgow hosted the UN’s COP26 climate negotiations. New Zealand was busy, signing up to 27 pacts, alliances, and declarations. Of those pledges, three go right to the heart of New Zealand’s particular challenges. These are to make our land use, our farming, and our food production, respond to climate change and still keep our ecosystems sustainable. According to Rod Oram, Senior Newsroom Journalist who attended COP26, solving these challenges is by far our greatest opportunity to transform them into highly sophisticated, profitable, and enduring sectors.
The three pledges noted by Rod Oram are:
• The Global Methane Pledge; 109 countries are signed up to a 30 % cut in human-induced methane by 2030. Our present goal is barely a third of that. Our primary sector says that’s the best it can do.
• The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate; to address the climate crisis by uniting participants to significantly accelerate investment in climate smart agriculture and food systems innovation over the next five years.
• Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forest and Land Use; nature-based solutions are among the best ways to solve the climate crisis because they help restore ecosystems ravaged by climate change and destructive agricultural practices.
We are one of 141 countries that, in the declaration’s words, “commit to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation”
As a sample of what NZ and many other counties were up to at the conference in the cold Scottish winter, late last year, it all looks pretty encouraging.
However, our tenacious journalist in attendance dug a little deeper to see what others were doing apart from just talking. He found that First Milk – a Scottish farmer co-operative - is a standout in methane reduction. Adopting a range of practices, including regenerative agriculture, First Milk have cut emissions from their operations by 25% in the last few years.
Dr Emma Keller, the company’s Head of Sustainability for the UK and Ireland continued, “All these interventions, when you stack them up, can deliver not just amazing greenhouse gas savings, but actually multifunctional benefits that increase the overall performance of the farm. And ultimately reward farmers in their pockets, which is crucial.”
The question we can then ask is ‘are the climate plans of our farmers tracking with the best in the world?’
Certainly not in the view of Rod Oram. Two examples are on offer:
The first is the recently released He Waka Eke Noa, the farming sector’s programme with Government to work out how to measure, manage, reduce, and price-and-trade on-farm emissions. Sadly, it relies on the questionable Emissions Trading Scheme that has served the country so badly in the last decade. Decisions on the pricing have just been further delayed.
Secondly, in the search for new ideas from elsewhere that our government might adopt, he introduces the reader to the Emissions Reduction Plan due for delivery in May.
This will be the Government’s climate policy pathway to navigate us though the next 15 years. Out of 127 pages, the discussion document on the Plan devotes just 5 to agriculture – which accounts for 48% of our emissions. Even those pages largely ignore Soil Organic Carbon as a sequestration method. Yet the government is promising the world that we will halve our emissions in 15 years.
Time and space - your time and my space - prevent me from talking more about this future at this time. I will leave you with a headline and a link. The headline to the Oram article was “Our Climate Promises Are Vapourware” which gives a pretty clear picture of what one of our most distinguished and experienced journalists thinks of the country’s effort thus far.
Evan Alty is the Chair of your local branch of F&B. You can contact Evan at altyevan@gmail.com
Latest news from the Southern Lakes Sanctuary
Your local branch of Forest & Bird is one of the founding members of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary, an exciting and ambitious project that aims to intensively control or eradicate predators across 183,000 hectares in the catchments of Lakes Wānaka and Whakatipu to protect more than 20 threatened or at-risk bird and lizard species.
The Southern Lakes Sanctuary is building a highly skilled and passionate team from around of district including field crew, planners, community coordinators, biodiversity coordinators and trapping specialists. So far 10 staff have been hired with additional roles being added in the future.
Some of the highlights over the past 3 months:
Trap audit and calibration - The Southern Lakes Sanctuary have audited and serviced over 1000 traps throughout the region and have recalibrated 30% of those audited. The SLS is hoping that this will help our partners to increase the effectiveness of the amazing work that they are doing to safeguard our native wildlife.
Rees biodiversity monitoring - The Southern Lakes Sanctuary have initiated biodiversity monitoring up the Rees Valley and are also doing eDNA sampling of some of the tributaries (see article in this newsletter). Who knows, maybe The Southern Lakes Sanctuary will find a huia or a South Island kokako!
High altitude trapping line - The Southern Lakes Sanctuary helped to facilitate the Queenstown Climbing Club and Whakatipu Wildlife Trust to install a new trapping line up Wye creek on the southern arm of lake Whakatipu. This line could well be NZ’s highest, running 12km from Lake Whakatipu at 308m, with the last trap sitting under Single Cone at 2080m.
Trap building - The Southern Lakes Sanctuary will be building hundreds of traps over the next few weeks to be installed throughout the region, including the Blue River in Makarora.
Innovation – innovation and new technology will be crucial in the Southern Lakes Sanctuary project, and the team are trialing some new lures and traps over the next few months.
If you want to learn more about the Southern Lakes Sanctuary, click on the link below or contact Petrina Duncan (petrina.duncan@southernlakessanctuary.org.nz).
Have your say on the review of conservation land
A process that will affect 9% of Aotearoa NZ’s land area
DOC has stewardship over 2.5 million ha (9%) of Aotearoa NZ, one-third of the land DOC are responsible for protecting. Stewardship land currently has the lowest level of protection in the DOC estate (that is OUR estate). In our part of the world, stewardship lands include the Pisa Range, the Livingstone Mountains and Snowdon Forest, and the lowland forests around the Arawhata. Stewardship land was supposed to have been reclassified either for protection in categories such as National Parks or to be sold or exchanged. Only 100,000 ha has been reclassified, while the area under stewardship has increased as a result of tenure review.
Government has recently accelerated the Stewardship Land Reclassification process. The Conservation Minister last year announced the reclassification would now be a priority “to ensure land with high conservation value is protected for future generations” whereas that with low or no conservation value “can be considered for other uses”.
There is concern that the process which has languished under DOC for 30 years is now being rushed. Obviously this is a crucial matter, as the fate of huge areas outside National Parks will be decided. However, the deadline for submission is manifestly inadequate for such a large issue, and there are some concerning implications. The disposal of much of this land into private ownership is a real possibility (which other interests will be very alert to). Concessions and activities on the land will also be up for discussion (mining, grazing, tourism, fallen timber extraction?)
“The absence of these checks, combined with future politicised panel appointments, could see land of national park quality turned into future building sites, or privatised.” (FMC president Jan Finlayson, quoted by Newsroom).
Learn more about this important issue by reading an excellent overview by David Williams from Newsroom.
In November 2021, DOC released a discussion paper on ‘options to streamline processes for the reclassification and disposal’ of 9% of our country.
DOC is now calling for submissions on options for this reclassification process. The first round of consultation is on changing the laws governing reclassification and disposal, to make this more efficient and ensure a better process. Your local branch committee of Forest & Bird and National Office are urgently considering how to respond. You can also make a submission on this important issue. The deadline for submissions is 16 March.
(The summary above is based on an article by David Williams that first appeared on Newsroom)
Rees Valley eDNA Project
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is DNA found in the environment when cellular material is shed by organisms (via skin, excrement, etc.) into aquatic or terrestrial systems. These places can be sampled - for example by collecting water - and new molecular methods used to determine what species are present. Such methodology is important for the early detection of invasive species as well as for the detection of rare and cryptic species. For example, it is possible to collect water from a stream to get a picture of what species occur in the catchment.
Thirteen creeks and streams feed into the Rees Valley catchment from the Richardson Mountain side in the hills north of Glenorchy, coming down from the high country. The local station owners and community have long wondered what wildlife might be flourishing in this higher country that is rarely visited. Whio once flourished in some of those streams and Iris Scott of Rees Valley Station has been especially interested in seeing if they are still there, or could be re-established.
In the spring of 2021 an anonymous Glenorchy resident, a small group of land owners, interested community members, and two SLS trustees offered to financially support eDNA testing of those streams to see if it was possible to get a baseline understanding of the wildlife in the area. eDNA kits were purchased from Wilderlab and in early January two of the station owners, a Massey University vet student, and one of the SLS trustees went out to trial testing. The process involves putting 3 drogues into a waterway over a 24 hour period where the water can flow through. Wilderlab’s process is easy for the user, and other than the joys of wading through cold mountain water to find places where the drogues would be secure, it was an accessible and enjoyable process.
Three streams were trialled to ensure that the technique was correct before attempting to collect further samples from more remote areas. The results recently came through and have been fascinating to the landowners and SLS. While so far no whio have been detected (nor did we expect them on these streams), we were pleased to see an absence of both hedgehogs and ferrets. From our trapping we have not seen them at the head of the lake, and the eDNA has offered one more layer of information to help us in developing our strategy. The project will continue throughout 2022 and we hope to be able to encourage local catchment groups to get involved and help us to eDNA baseline map all of our waterways.
Leslie Van Gelder is involved in many conservation projects in the Glenorchy area and beyond, is a committee member for our branch of Forest and Bird, and a Trustee on the Southern Lakes Sanctuary
(leslie.vangelder@gmail.com)
Predator Trapping at Makarora
Trapping update, December 2021
The Central Otago-Lakes Branch trapping team of 50 volunteers runs a network of over 650 traps along 14 trapping lines in Makarora at the head of Lake Wanaka. Each month the team reports the number of predators captured. Every three months the team also runs tracking tunnels to give us an independent way to monitor predator numbers.
In a major step forward, Di Liddell was recently employed by the Southern Lakes Sanctuary to coordinate F&B and new SLS trapping at Makarora.
Di has organised all the baits and eggs for our trappers to be picked up from a big blue box at the Hawea Garage, next to Mo’s Café - so we can kill two rats with one stone and get coffee and bait at the same time.
After discussions with DOC, we are putting our remaining possum traps back on line at Makarora with further measures to keep kea interference to a minimum. The traps will be de-activated again during high-risk periods, and we hope to divert the Bad Cats trap system onto possum control as a less risky alternative. December at Makarora was fairly quiet in terms of critters caught: stoats were still very thin on the ground which is good. Possums were zero as all the traps were closed, not because there aren’t any. As this Newsletter goes to press in February, stoat numbers are climbing alarmingly.
The new Kiwi Flat trap line, funded through the DOC Community grants scheme, is now up and catching. Pete and Joy Lynd and their teams put the last of the 37 traps out in mid-January. The new line runs along the true left side of the Makarora River from Davis Flat to Cameron Flat, mostly in mature beech forest on high terraces with a few detours onto the riverbank and adjacent swamp. 5 stoats were picked up off the line last week, so it is earning its keep.
The next new line will run from the end of the Kiwi Flat line, along the true right of the Makarora down to the Blue River confluence. It will be going out in March. Both these lines will help protect the prime mohua habitat on the slopes below Castle Hill where Jo Tilson has been finding breeding pairs of birds. Work on the new Blue Valley trap line funded through the Southern lakes Sanctuary has also begun. This line will help protect both mohua and whio: several whio have been seen in the Blue (and the Leven) recently so we still have a small population in the Makarora catchment.
Mo Turnbull has passed the management of trapping at Makarora over to Di Liddell. He remains a committee member for our branch of Forest and Bird. (sandymount@actrix.co.nz)
No More Bad Cats
The COLB uses a satellite-based platform for the humane live trapping of cats on braided riverbeds. Live capture traps are used as cats are more willing to enter the larger traps and any kea or pet cats caught can be released unharmed. Because the system sends a message when an individual trap is tripped, we only need to check traps at those times, not daily, and cats do not remain in traps for longer than a few hours. This trapping programme is designed to complement the extensive kill trap network in the adjacent forest areas of Makarora.
The No More Bad Cats trapping has been very successful over spring 2021 with totals now of 76 cats, 158 hedgehogs and 100 possums caught around Matukituki River and 48 cats, 143 hedgehogs and 50 possums around Makarora River, since trapping started. The Makarora satellite Hub has demonstrated the reliability of the system - we have not had to visit the hub since the day we installed it 15 months ago!
An analysis from our first year operating at Matukituki Valley revealed that satellite monitoring was 3 to 4 times more efficient than the traditional walk-through method, in terms of time, but the amount of travel was similar because most days a trap had triggered, necessitating a trip to the site.
The original concept of No More Bad Cats was to have networks that could be moved from river to river on a regular basis. We experimented with this when we took 30 traps to the Rees River, for a trial run for the Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust (RDWT), operated by local Rusty Varcoe. This was very successful and netted 38 cats in just 3 months, but the extra time involved in dismantling and reassembling the aerial and moving and relocating traps was considerable. Although a success in terms of predators caught, it demonstrated to us that it is much more efficient to have a resident network of traps that stays in place and can be quickly opened up or shut down as required.
The brilliant news is that based on the success of our live-capture programme, the Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust have just purchased their own satellite monitored live capture network which will be a valuable addition to trapping efforts in the Dart-Rees catchments.
No More bad Cats has operated mostly on volunteer help including a devoted local trapper at Makarora, Christine Poundsford, and the Upper Clutha Deerstalkers for Matukituki. The combined effort of all these people has been fantastic.
We are always on the lookout for volunteers with their firearms permit, to help.
Andrew Penniket is a committee member of our local branch of Forest & Bird and the driving force behind the 'No More Bad Cats' project. If you are keen to assist on cat trapping, contact Andrew (apenniket@yahoo.com)
Southern Lakes Sanctuary appoints Jo Tilson as Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinator
Jo Tilson has been appointed as Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinator for the Southern Lakes Sanctuary. Jo will be heavily involved in work at Makarora – where she has done extensive survey and monitoring work on Mohua and other species — and across the district.
Initially the role will involve cataloguing all the biodiversity monitoring that is being undertaken for both animal pests and protected species across the region to identify gaps. Where gaps exist, the Southern Lakes Sanctuary will then instigate monitoring so there is a good baseline for all sites that are priority for protection and/or expansion of predator control.
Monitoring will in involve indicator species are for each area. For example, the Rees Valley is an area without much monitoring so we will probably set up tracking tunnel lines to monitor rats as well as transect lines for monitoring birds.
For areas like the Makarora and Matukituki where monitoring is being undertaken, it might be a matter of expanding monitoring, whereas at new sites monitoring mat be set up for species such as rock wren, whio and skinks.
Another important component of the job will be training to get local groups participating in bird monitoring in the urban areas or even their trapping areas using the citizen science platforms.
Jo's path to this role has been a interesting one. Originally from Tauranga, Jo very quickly fell in love with the South Island as an 18-year-old when she moved to Dunedin to study at University of Otago, spending all of her spare time tramping in the Southern Alps.
It was this love of the wild spaces that led Jo to seek work with DOC, quickly realising that it was in protected species management where she wanted to be. A range of short contracts and volunteer stints in various places led to Jo getting permanent work in the newly formed Tongariro Forest Kiwi Sanctuary in 2000. Since then she has worked extensively with kiwi species all over NZ, most notably with Great spotted kiwi / roroa in the Paparoa Range.
“I consider herself very privileged to have spent the majority of my adult life working in species conservation in some pretty remote, stunning and special parts of the country” said Jo.
Jo has also worked with other iconic species such as whio, mohua and kakapo and has done a lot of pest control and monitoring.
In 2009 Jo took a break from the bush to spend time in a new and most important role as a mum. At the same time that her daughter came into the world Jo moved from the West Coast to Wanaka.
Once her daughter Maddy was old enough to spend time away from mum, Jo went back to work part time helping DOC with various species projects on the West Coast, and with mohua at Makarora.
In conjunction with part time work for DOC Jo has a small contracting company, Kiwicentric Ltd, that undertakes monitoring and bird survey work for DOC and Save the Kiwi Ltd.
Jo loves tramping, lake swimming and when conditions are good, cross-country skiing.
Jo is a local committee member for Forest & Bird and is delighted to have been appointed as the Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinator for the Southern Lakes Sanctuary.
“I look forward to working with this new team and can’t wait to start working to establish species monitoring projects in the region” she said.
You can contact Jo at josnowyt@gmail.com
Update from the Makarora Coordinator
Di Liddell is the Field Operations Coordinator for Makarora. Di coordinates the logistics of supporting and expanding the existing trapping network. She manages both paid field staff, and the large number of volunteers (50 at last count) who do the mahi on the trap network. This part-time position is with the Southern Lakes Sanctuary and is funded for 3 years through DOC's Mahi mo te Taiao/Jobs4Nature.
Di reports: "I’ve had a busy couple of months getting to grips with the work Forest and Bird have been doing in the Makarora area, and becoming familiar with the various traplines and processes currently in place. It’s a very organised set up and all the volunteers and organisers are doing a fantastic job of clearing traps regularly and installing new lines. The birdsong in the area and recent sightings of a family of mohua are testament to their work."
"As well as organising supplies and bait for the monthly trap checks, one priority is to complete an audit of all the current traps to ensure they are functioning correctly, are weight calibrated, clean, marked well and gps’d correctly. No point having an asset in the backcountry if it isn’t operational. It’s early days in the audit but so far the traps checked are in excellent condition."
"My other priority is installing a new trap line up the Blue Valley with the goal of protecting whio. The new trapline will have around 170 new traps, running from Camp Flat all the way to the head of the Blue Valley. Traps will need to be assembled, transported into the Blue and installed along the 16 kilometres of river – a big job. To help with this and the audit we have recruited two field staff, Tom Reeves (pictured) and Paul Millis."
"Southern Lakes Sanctuary has also recently hired Jo Tilson as a biodiversity monitoring coordinator. She will carry out some baseline monitoring so we can measure the success of our traps."
You can contact Di at di.liddell@southernlakessanctuary.org.nz
Lowburn Valley Tenure Review
Lowburn Valley pastoral lease on the south end of the Pisa Range, between Roaring Meg and Lowburn, is pushing ahead with its tenure review. This process started over 25 years ago.
Forest and Bird are not permitted at this stage to carry out site visits, but independently F&B members Anne Steven and Sue Maturin joined a site inspection on 28 January organised by LINZ.
In summary, the innermost areas up the head of the Meg and in Skeleton Creek are proposed to be added to the Pisa Conservation Area. Remaining summit areas between 900 and 1300m asl approximately are proposed as freehold with a conservation covenant permitting 2 months of grazing in summer only, as well as the construction of three private huts for ecotourism activities such as cross country skiing. No public access would be permitted except on proposed easements. The Roaring Meg/Kawarau and Lowburn faces are proposed for unencumbered freehold. Whilst the summit areas for freehold have high landscape and ecological values (such as a number of small wetlands), the mid to low altitude faces were looked at most closely, as the district plan offers scant protection of the network of shrublands and small wetlands in this area. The shrublands include a stand of Olearia hectorii, and an unusually large stand of Myrsine divaricata on rock talus. Matagouri, Olearia and native broom species (At Risk-Declining) are present throughout the grey shrublands. No protection is proposed for these shrublands except for very tight covenants around the special populations, which do not allow for any context or buffer. There has been no survey or assessment of invertebrates or lizards on the property.
F&B will be making a submission on the proposed tenure review which is due in by 7 March. Branch members are encouraged to make their own submissions. Click below to see all the documents and find out how to make a submission.
Anne Steven is a landscape architect and committee member of your local branch of F&B. Contact Anne at a.steven@xtra.co.nz
My New Year’s resolution is to save the world
Thinking about my New Year’s resolution this year I have decided that rather than another doomed gym membership, a better one would be to stop the global extinction crisis, halt climate change and prevent future pandemics.
Clearly, I am planning a big year!
My involvement in the catastrophes of extinction, climate change and pandemics has been personal and professional. Over the past 30 years I have worked in the Asia-Pacific with local communities and their governments to protect forests from clear-felling and species from the illegal wildlife trade. With a team of wildlife vets, we sampled wildlife for novel viruses in an attempt to predict the next pandemic.
As different as they may seem, these three catastrophes have several things in common, and one big difference. One of the things they have in common is they are infinitely solvable, but I will get to that later.
Most disappointingly, the first commonality among the three catastrophes is we knew they were coming because the science told us so.
We have known for decades that spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while at the same time destroying things like tropical forest that absorb CO2 will result in global climate change and its negative consequences. Likewise, conservation scientists have been telling us for just as long that we cannot continue to rip down rainforests, pollute rivers and destroy ocean food-chains without a loss of species, the ecosystem services - like clean water and air - they provide, and ultimately the collapse of the ecosystems themselves.
Less well known among the general public is that research projects over the past decade have been attempting to predict the next global pandemic. Teams of researchers have been sampling wildlife, domestic animals and human populations in frontier towns to identify what viruses are circulating that could potentially ‘jump’ to humans and result in a new global pandemic. The team I worked with in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam identified numerous viruses unknown to science, and many that could potentially cause a pandemic, including several coronaviruses (although sadly not the one we have come to know as COVID-19).
The second thing the three catastrophes have in common is we ignored the threat they posed. How did that work out for us?
By the mid 2000s, scientists and conservationists like myself thought the debate about global climate change was over because even then the science was so compelling and the time for action had come. While we busied ourselves planning the climate change adaptation and mitigation projects that went largely unfunded, vested interests like the fossil fuel industry busied themselves funding a misinformation campaign that succeeded in stifling climate action.
Our approach as technical people to preventing future pandemics followed a different path with similar results. We found the new viruses and assessed their risk as emerging diseases and new pandemics. We dutifully reported our results to governments, published them in peer reviewed scientific journals, and then sat back and watched the world remain unprepared for the coming pandemic.
The one that is now here.
There were no vested interests marshalled against pandemic preparedness, but rather most politicians ignored it because like the rest of us they are not very good at assessing risk, and presumably because it would cost money. Aotearoa New Zealand was among the least prepared developed countries: the 2019 Global Health Security Index ranked this country 35th in preparedness below Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa.
The global extinction crisis is tracking exactly as the other catastrophes: we are largely ignoring a problem that the science tells us is real, with denial now evident in the pushback against action to prevent extinctions. With the success of climate denial, a well-used and effective playbook is being deployed: downplay the extinction crisis by framing it as a historical problem, claim economic growth alone will fix it, and also claim technological fixes and some targeted conservation interventions is all that is needed.
Meanwhile business as usual.
So those are the similarities among the three global catastrophes. The one big difference among them is our response to the most recent one, the COVID-19 pandemic. What this tells us is that when we are sufficiently motivated and we feel the threat is sufficiently immediate, we can do what is required to tackle a global threat and ultimately defeat it, as we surely will with COVID-19.
The irony is that if left to unfold unchallenged, climate change and the global extinction crisis are far greater existential threats to human well-being and survival than COVID-19 could ever be.
But rather than just catalogue these crises, the challenge for us is to bring the same approach we are using for COVID-19 to the other unfolding catastrophes that do not immediately threaten the lives and well-being of us and our immediate families. Our collective personal, political and technical response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a blueprint of how we must address the other crises. First, we need to stop denying they exist. Second, we need to follow the science. Third, we need to act now.
And acting is quite simple. If you have been reading the Forest & Brid articles in this newsletter and places like the Wanaka Sun, we have had some tips for you.
Just like we can mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic by getting vaccinated, practicing social distancing and wearing masks, we can also take action to address the global extinction crisis and climate change.
You can address the global extinction crisis by promoting sustainable production and consumption (by supporting farmers using regenerative agriculture and food producers focusing on sustainability, and by following the Wanaka Wastebusters and similar organizations' missions to reduce, reuse and recycle) and by supporting increased conservation efforts (by getting behind conservation projects by local community groups such as the Southern Lakes Sanctuary).
You can address global warming by reducing your carbon footprint by reducing your consumption, and where you cannot, by offsetting it (by planting trees in our own backyards or as part of one of the many community groups such as Forest & Bird that plant trees in our region).
To defeat any and all of these crises requires us to change our behaviour, and we need to do that before the problem smacks us in the facemask.
Ross Sinclair is on the local committee of Forest & Bird and has been working in international conservation longer than his grey beard. You can contact Ross at jrosssinclair@gmail.com
Shake a stick at...
'Shake a stick at...' are short summaries of branch-related news
Lake Onslow Pumped Hydro
Like many people in the catchment of the Clutha River, our members are reading with interest reports of a possible “pumped hydro scheme” using a dramatically expanded Lake Onslow as a storage reservoir. The scheme would pump water from the Clutha when it is plentiful and power is cheap, and run that water back to the river through turbines when power is in demand and attracts a premium.
According to MBIE the Lake Onslow project could be anticipated to provide at least 5-7TWh of annual generation/storage (Editor: NZ’s total annual electricity usage is about 40 TKh). This type of project provides dry year storage/support when the hydro dams may not be able to generate sufficient power, intermittency back-up (back-up to ensure electricity supply and demand is met when generation from solar, wind and existing hydro are not enough) and fast response reserve (to ensure system stability in the electricity market). MBIE estimate a construction timeframe of 4-5 years, with commissioning and filling taking a further 2 years, and at its construction peak creation of 3,500-4,500 jobs.
As a branch we don’t have much knowledge of using pumped storage lakes as a ‘battery” as apparently proposed. We know however that both the existing lake, and its wetlands and adjacent lands have high ecological values. We do know that Lake Onslow is already highly modified - it is the third iteration of a dam first built last century, and the surrounding farmlands are no longer the pristine tussock grasslands of old. We are concerned to ensure that the case for modifying the area meets a very high threshold and includes a mitigation package in return for the losses of natural values that would inevitably arise. We are also keen to see comparisons between the apparent energy gains to be achieved, and alternative uses for the huge amount of public money that will be invested.
It is against this background that we have been planning a public field trip to the lake which would include speakers with specific knowledge of the critical issues. Research papers from relevant experts, courtesy of the government, are expected to be available in April and with these in hand the trip should be able to proceed in the autumn. Interest so far has been strong so public notification of the event will cover the Clutha catchment. (Evan Alty altyevan@gmail.com)
Why do some traps catch more rats?
The final report on our Otago Participatory Science Programme “Why do some traps catch more rats?” project has been sent in to the Otago Museum and the project is winding down – or up. Our MSc student Peter Doyle has submitted his thesis and written up his findings for a paper in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. An article on the project appeared in the Summer issue of Forest & Bird magazine, and Peter’s initial report is available on line in the Southern Lakes Sanctuary web site. We intend to complete the project by preparing some guidelines for setting out traps in beech forest, and make these widely available.
Basically, traps in beech forest which are close to berry-bearing understorey shrubs like horopito, putaputaweta, and karamu tend to catch more rats. Easy, eh! As with most science, there are many caveats: will this apply in mixed podocarp forest? What factors did we not look at? Is seasonal variability in fruiting a major influence? More work is needed.... (Mo Turnbull, sandymount@actrix.co.nz)
Whakatipu Wildlife Trust - Queenstown Trap Library
In October 2021 the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust, in conjunction with the Queenstown Department of Conservation Office, opened a trap library in Central Queenstown.
We have a total of 27 traps that can be loaned out to people who want to try trapping or to rid their property of unwanted predators. The traps were partly funded by ASB Bank. We have chew cards and tracking tunnels for people to use, and hope to get funding for a beginners pack of tools for each lender.
People are fully trained in the use of the traps and their catches and locations are recorded in TrapNZ. We are able to follow up with borrowers to learn about their experience and hopefully convert them into committed volunteers.
The trap library is located in the DOC Visitors Centre in Stanley Street, Queenstown and is open seven days a week. For more information or to check trap availability, please email queenstownvc@doc.govt.nz or phone 03 4427935. (Jo Conroy, Executive Officer, Whakatipu Wildlife Trust, Ph 0272201188, hello@whakatipuwildlifetrust.org.nz)
A new trapline on Mount Roy
A new trapline was successfully started at the end of November 2021, on Mounts Roy and Alpha, overlooking Wanaka township. 17 traps were installed, co-funded by DOC and Forest & Bird, thanks to a kind donation from Brian and Jannie Gillman. The traps are aimed in particular at catching hedgehogs, to protect alpine wetas and lizards. Chew cards were put out at the same time and revealed hedgehogs scattered across the mountain, and possums residing amongst the Stacks - the cliffs and boulders visible from downtown Wanaka. The traps are being checked and serviced every two weeks by members of an informal group of masochistic alpine runners, who also service a trapline up Daniel’s Spur, across the lake from Wanaka. Like the deerstalkers, this is another group of wonderful locals doing their bit to help the environment. (Andrew Penniket, apenniket@yahoo.com)
Wanaka Backyard Trapping - a new Community Coordinator, newsletter and trap library
Petrina Duncan has been appointed as the new Community Coordinator for Wanaka Backyard Trapping with the support of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary. Petrina is producing a quarterly seasonal newsletter which goes out to all Wanaka Backyard Trapping volunteer trappers, supporters and coordinators via email.
The newsletter will showcase the volunteer efforts of some of our local trappers. If you, or someone in your family or trapping group, would like to feature in a short article and photograph in upcoming Wanaka Backyard Trapping newsletters, please get in touch with Petrina: sharing your story may help to inspire others to follow your example!
Wanaka Backyard Trapping will be introducing a Trap Library in a couple of months. This will start out small at first. Access to a trap library will give more locals a way to control pest species on their property without the added financial burden of buying a $100 trap and box outright.
Wanaka Backyard Trapping are looking for more volunteers to start trapping in their own backyards or in neighborhood lines/networks or local significant areas (e.g. near a wetland, creek, or track) and to assist with checking traps along existing lines.
For more information about Wanaka Backyard Trapping, please email Petrina: petrina.duncan@southernlakessanctuary.org.nz
Mast season coming up?
Late last year there were rumours that we were facing another beech mast season with its downstream rat and stoat plagues. DOC do actually monitor all this stuff:
When summer temperatures are warmer than the previous summer, it is more likely that beech trees will flower the following spring. This means they will drop seed the following autumn, giving rats and mice more food; more rats and mice (and their predators, stoats) mean more pressure on our at-risk wildlife. Given that every summer is getting warmer across the planet, the long-term prospects for our endangered bush birds do not look good. However, for this season it looks as if the Southern Lakes area is not likely to be heavily impacted by beech masting this season. We and the birds can be thankful for that. On the other hand, many people have noticed a particularly heavy flowering of kanuka this summer, giving us a great display. What impact will all this kanuka seed have on predator numbers? We just do not know. (Mo Turnbull, sandymount@actrix.co.nz)
Young Valley trapping
Forest & Bird trapping continued in the Young Valley through spring and summer, with a two weekly roster of keen volunteers, catching an average of 4 rats and a couple of stoats each round. A trap line all the way up the valley into the south branch is complemented by another trap line up the north branch: over 100 traps in all. The Young Valley holds the best remaining population of mohua in the Makarora area, and still has a few whio, so trapping here is vital to help these populations. Kea have recently been causing more problems for the trapping efforts, even destroying fake eggs and triggering traps. Yet more modifications are under way with help from the Southern Lakes Sanctuary, with Paul and Tom calibrating traps and fixing boxes. (Andrew Penniket, apenniket@yahoo.com)
Pennycook Podocarp Restoration
This long-term replanting programme has finished its second year with 100 podocarps going in amongst bracken and broom at Makarora. There has been 100% survival and some kahikatea have reached 2 m in height, almost doubling in size in 18 months. The project is on land owned by Heather Pennycook, and protected by a QEII Covenant. (Andrew Penniket, apenniket@yahoo.com)
Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust received Jobs4Nature funding for Greenstone and Caples Valleys
Jobs4Nature funding of $416,000 received by the Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust will be invested in additional stoat, possum and feral cat control in the Greenstone and Caples Valleys on the north west side of Lake Wakatipu. This work is estimated to employ six people over three years, and will help protect some of the country’s most vulnerable native species. Working with DOC, RDWT will increase and update the trap lines in the valleys.
So far the work is progressing well and the employees have already started. (Geoff Hughes, ghrdwt@gmail.com)
Updated webpage for local branch of Forest & Bird
Forest and Bird has a series of websites for both its national organisation and for each of its branches.
The Central Otago Lakes Branch of Forest & Bird website is currently being updated. Sign in to our website to see what is happening and for the latest events. We also have links to our latest newsletters.
If you have any suggestions for our website or anything you would like to have posted, please email Ben at perchikben@gmail.com
You can help!
If you would like to volunteer with our local branch, please contact Annabel: annabel@plotlandscape.co.nz
Keep abreast of the latest Branch news and events by following us on Facebook:
If you would like to donate to the work of your branch here in Central Otago Lakes, please contact Lesley (And your donation is tax deductible!): lesleyma2016@gmail.com
If you want to support our national efforts, click here:
Pass it on!
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Learn more about F&B
Forest and Bird's Purpose: We Protect and Restore Nature in a Climate Crisis
Forest and Bird's Vision: Aotearoa, New Zealand Working Together for Nature
Forest and Bird's Mission: We Stand, Speak, and Act for Nature
Up-coming events
- Planting at Grandview Creek on Lake Hawea Station (above) is part of the Branch's carbon offset project. In February we will be spending a day making sure our efforts to establish a carbon offset forest are not wasted. We need to do some weeding, watering, mulching, and general TLC for our trees in Grandview Creek: the day and date depend on weather. A notice will come round asking for you to do at least a little bit to help save the planet. Contact Anne Steven: a.steven@xtra.co.nz ph. 021-293-9207.
- Lake Onslow Field Trip. (Please see the article above on this subject) We are planning a public field trip to the lake, bringing along speakers with specific knowledge of the critical issues. Research papers from relevant experts courtesy of the government should be available in April and with these in hand, the trip should proceed later this summer. Interest so far has been strong so public notification of the event will cover the Clutha catchment. Keep an eye out for a further announcement.
One of the team
Each newsletter we highlight people who are part of our Voice for Nature
Ben Perchik is an active volunteer in the Queenstown area and on the boards of the Central Otago-Lakes Branch of Forest & Bird and the Wakatipu Wildlife Trust. He is a retired operations research systems analyst (ORSA) who spent just under 30 years in his field, beginning in Kentucky with the Armour School and later in Virginia with the US Army Training and Doctrine Cmd. and the U.S. Army Materiel Command. He also served as the executive officer for the US Army Europe ORSA Cell in Germany. Earlier in his career, Mr. Perchik worked as an education specialist in both New Jersey (Ft. Monmouth) and Kentucky (Ft. Knox).
In retirement, Ben became the owner and director of Spiritual Tours Ltd. in 2007. Based in Reston, Virginia, the business provided tour services that are spiritually based. In 2009, he became the business development manager and director of Red Carpet Tours Ltd. in Auckland, New Zealand. Combining his passion for the highly acclaimed “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy with his new career, his professional tour guiding services take clients on various adventures to Middle Earth.
Outside of his daily routine, Ben held several other positions, including as a teacher for the Fairfax County High School System from 2004 to 2009 and chairman of the supervisory committee for the Commonwealth One Federal Credit Union from 1980 to 2010.
Ben authored “Automatic Data Processing Program and Repair” and Cost and Training Effective Analyses for military armoured vehicles. He has since been writing, editing and publishing Mensa Speculation and Investments, an international newsletter, since 1983.
During his time in both Virginia and Queenstown, Ben was involved in a plethora of civic activities: a volunteer for his local chapter of the Cancer Society since 2018; notably served in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and in the New Zealand Volunteer Coast Guard; member of the Fernhill and Sunshine Bay Community Association and the Queenstown Car Club. Among his most notable and memorable affiliations, however, Ben volunteered with the Crisis Link Suicide Hot line and was a teacher and rehabilitation mentor for over 20 years for male and female prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail and the Alexandria Virginia Detention Center.
Ben received a Bachelor of Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in 1964 and completed postgraduate coursework at the New York Institute of Technology from 1964 to 1965. He has been a licensed pastoral counsellor since 1998.
Ben has benefited from membership with several professional organisations. He is a member and treasurer of the National Integrative Health Congress and the Prayer Vigil for Earth and was a member and secretary of the Wharf Cluster Association.
In his efforts to improve the planet, in Virginia Ben served as a board member of the Reston Citizens Association Ecological Advisory Committee as well as volunteering with the National Wildlife Federation where he became a Certified Habitat Steward and a Certified Habitat Ambassador and a Climate Ambassador. In Queenstown, Ben is currently a trustee for the Wakatipu Wildlife Trust since 2018, and a committee member for the Central Otago-Lakes Branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Society since 2014.
Ben lives in Fernhill with his wife Sue.
You can contact ben at perchikben@gmail.com
Thank you to our donors and supporters
The Central Otago-Lakes Branch would like to again thank our many generous donors and supporters: Maori Point Vineyard (Marilyn Duxson and John Harris) for providing a huge amount of piping for watering our carbon offset forest-in-the-making at Grandview Creek; DoC's Mahi mo te Taiao/Jobs for Nature through funding to the Southern Lakes Sanctuary has enabled a paid coordinator to be hired for Makarora, and for other generous support; Brian and Jannie Gillman once again gave a substantial donation that went toward the No More Bad Cats control system; Stu and Karen McKerchar from Central Gold Eggs in Roxburgh continue to donate fresh eggs; Wonderland in Makarora offers our trappers a local’s discount that is much appreciated – we drink a lot of their coffee; DoC Community Fund supported the expansion of the trap network by 275 traps over 3 years, and DOC continues to pay for some of the baits we use in trapping.
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Photo credits
Mo Turnbull - sequence 1,8,9,19,25,27,28,29; Evan Alty - 2; Pixabay (Makalu) - 3,5; Pixabay (InfiniteThought) - 4; Leslie Van Gelder - 6,7; Andrew Penniket - 10,11,18,23,24; Jo Tilson - 12; Di Liddell - 13; Anne Steven - 14,15,16,22; Pixabay (Tumisu) - 17; MBIE - 18; Jo Conroy - 20; Petrina Duncan - 21; Ben Perchik - 26.