By

Yesterday at the 155th Canterbury A&P Show we meet the new Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity and Rural Communities, Damien O’Connor (pictured right) as well as the Director General of the Ministry for Primary Industries, Martyn Dunn (pictured left). As the 2017 Community Biosecurity Award winner Marie had been invited to meet with the Minister to discuss the Wildside Project.

This was a rare opportunity to tell the inspiring story of the Wildside, where rural farming families have driven conservation efforts on their own land to protect and restore nature for it’s own sake. After 30 years of conservation work, including predator proof fencing, fencing forest habitat and predator control the economic rewards are starting to match the ecological rewards as people come from far and wide to see the species of birds that are returning, such as the New Zealand Falcon, tomtit, penguins, titi and morepork and to walk in the regenerating forests.

It was also an opportunity to raise concerns around the future of the yellow-eyed penguin that is threatened by multiple threats both onshore and at sea.

I hope to work closely with the New Zealand Government into the future in sharing our unique perspective on community conservation, to engage and enable people to make conservation action and appreciation of nature as an important part of our everyday life. By envisioning Seven Generations past, we can create abundance Seven Generations into the future.

He aha te mea nui o te ao : What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata : It is the people, it is the people, it is the people!!!

The Banks Peninsula Sea Bird Survey 2017 got off to a spectacular start yesterday with perfect sea and weather conditions.

Marie Haley and a team from the Department of Conservation and Christchurch City Council surveyed the whole Wildside coastline from Le Bons Bay to Akaroa for the beautiful spotted shag, white fronted tern, red-bill gull and more.

Marie even landed on a predator free island to check out the fairy prion and little blue penguin colonies. The fairy prion are unable to nest where there are any mammalian predators such as rats or stoats as they are so small and delicate, but on these valuable islands they nest alongside other sea birds. In pictures shown here the different species are neighbours amongst the rocky rubble.

Banks Peninsula is a sea bird hotspot with 70% of the worlds population of spotted shags found along our coast and the white-flippered little blue penguins are endemic to our shores. With intensive predator control and predator fencing we hope to ensure that burrowing sea birds such as petrel and prions can again make mainland Banks Peninsula their home.

The coast of Banks Peninsula is spectacular in any weather but especially so on a fine day, we have had plenty of rain this winter and so all the waterfalls were flowing down to the sea. Dan Rogers and Nikau Palm waterfalls were especially spectacular.

Photos (left to right): spotted shag in breeding plumage, Nikau Palm Gully waterfall (the southern most palm tree in the world), Dan Rogers cliffs hanging gardens and rare waterfall, fairy prion on Crown Island, white-flippered little blue penguin nesting next to the prion. Credits: Marie Haley.

Titi or sooty shearwater were once common across Banks Peninsula along with many other species of burrowing petrel, by 1995 only one pair remained in mainland Canterbury (that is from Waitaki River just north of Oamaru to the Clarence River north of Kaikoura). Being on the edge of a 200m cliff for safeties sake landowner Mark Armstrong put a post in the ground and secured a rope to it and around his middle before lowering himself onto the slip prone and where the titi nest on the top of this sheer cliff. There he built a chicken wire fence round the last pair. He also established a dense defence of predator traps. This was enough to ensure that the last pair were never truly the last and six years later the first chick fledged.

In 2009 the joint decision of BPCT, DOC, ECan and CCC was made to build a predator ‘proof’ fence around the colony. In 2010 the fence was closed and dramatically the story changed for titi in Canterbury. In 2009, 21 adult pair attempted to nest with only one chick fledging. In 2010, 27 pair attempted nesting and 20 chicks fledged. Year on year numbers have increased until we had 50 nesting attempts this year.

Landowners Shireen and Francis Helps are well known examples of farming conservationists and are often called the ‘penguin farmers’. They were so used to the sound and smell of penguins that they were alarmed when in the 1980’s penguin numbers started to plummet. Instantly they felt a responsibility to step in and help, once it was known it was predators and most especially ferrets that were responsible they established a network of predator traps around the colony. Soon they found that this was not enough and traps needed to be on lines all over their farm to stop predators before they could smell the penguins.

Building nest boxes, monitoring and encouraging DOC to get involved ensured that the decline of penguins was halted, in other areas of Banks Peninsula penguins where pushed back to caves and cliff faces where predators had less access. In 2000 the first survey of Pohatu was undertaken and 717 pair were counted, even then this was found to be the largest mainland colony of penguins in Australia or New Zealand. In 2004, 893 penguin pair were counted. In 2008, 1063 pair and in 2012 a staggering 1304 pair, a year on year increase of 5%. This year when the survey was again repeated 1250 pair were counted and it is believed that Pohatu has finally reached a population limit and is spilling out into areas where penguins have not been found nesting for 20 years.

The wider impact of this is a community that feels that it lives in a very special and unique environment. There is an overall appreciation of the natural beauty within which we live and work, an appreciation for the native species such as when morepork are heard calling at night. A pride in knowing that iconic species like the New Zealand falcon are returning naturally to breed and that penguin numbers are increasing.

Yellow-eyed penguins are found at their northern nesting limit on Banks Peninsula and while the population is small it appears to be robust from the mass mortality and disease events of Otago which makes this population on the mainland valuable. In the late 1980’s up to ten nests produced eleven chicks per year. However, each year a number of predated penguins were also recorded by Peter Dilks, DOC researcher. Over time this loss had a real impact on the population until a dramatic collapse of penguins down to one nest and no chicks occurred throughout the early 2000’s.

Yellow-eyed penguins have been an inspiration for Wildside Coordinator Marie Haley, she will often talk of how as a child she would be at the stream white-baiting with her family when five or six yellow-eyed penguins would come ashore and make their way across the beach to their nests. With the collaboration of the Wildside and working with the community Marie spends much of her summers monitoring nests. The population now averages six nests and six chicks per year, but most importantly there has been no predation recorded in nine years. For the first time in 2017 microchipped chicks from the previous year have been recorded throughout their juvenile year and eight other juveniles have been recorded.

Hinewai Reserve is an outstanding success story of vision and perseverance. Hugh Wilson’s vision for native restoration through gorse as a nursery plant was a first and its impact has been widespread. Hugh’s vision of a Hinewai that protects the full range of vegetation from summit to sea is still in the process of being realised but it did inspire neighbouring landowners to ensure that it happened through their farmland connecting Hinewai summit to sea via a different catchment.

Slowly and organically from the grass roots our community has showed a willingness to care for our environment in a very special and unique way. Long before the Wildside officially existed our landowners have in their own ways taken on the protection of their land and special biodiversity. We now have at our core the largest private reserve in New Zealand, Hinewai at 1570ha. Hinewai turned around a farm that was covered in invasive gorse and was continually ‘managed’ through slash and burn, bulldozing and spraying. Within 30 years much of that original farm has turned back to native forest that is now enjoyed by thousands of freely admitted visitors per year.

But Hinewai is not alone, it is connected by the NZ Native Forest Restoration Trust into Akaroa Township, by Misty Peaks Christchurch City Council Reserve and DOC Ellengowen Reserve along the summits in both directions. By the first summit to sea stream covenant in New Zealand through private farmland. By QEII and BPCT covenants in all directions, other DOC and private reserves and finally connected into the ocean by two Marine Reserves, Pohatu and Akaroa. One quarter of the 13,500ha’s of the Wildside is now legally protected regenerating forest.

It was not our project that changed our environment but the community who has done so and continues to do so out of their own free will and inspiration. The Wildside is coordinated by the BPCT to support landowners in doing what they wish for conservation, we have stream fencing projects currently underway on five properties, while ALL of the thirteen bays within the Wildside have some level of freshwater protection ranging from full catchment  covenanting, to partial catchment covenanting, to fencing to exclude stock. We aim to be national leaders in stock exclusion and protection of freshwater. Most landowners on the Wildside are predator trappers, focusing efforts on mustelids and cats for penguin and titi protection. All of our landowners have possum control operated by ECan through a target rate that landowners requested. The Wildside has a special biodiversity possum operation down to less than 2% residual trap catch, this is much lower than the 5% recommended for biodiversity protection. Some landowners are extending upon this by employing contractors to bring possum impacts even lower. Some rat control is being trialled in high biodiversity covenants, however rat control in our rugged terrain and with limiting factors, such as working farms and well connected forest, is very expensive and has limited impacts and is a great challenge. More research and developments in this area would greatly support our rat control ability.

While the community has been undertaking predator control for 25 years they were first fully supported in their efforts when the Wildside was established as a collaboration between all parties, landowners, conservation organisations and government agencies in 2010, with the employment of a Wildside Coordinator by the BPCT. This has created a cohesive inclusive project that aims to support landowners. The wider impact of this is a community that feels that it lives in a very special and unique environment. There is an overall appreciation of the natural beauty within which we live and work, an appreciation for the native species such as when morepork are heard calling at night. A pride in knowing that iconic species like the New Zealand falcon are returning naturally to breed and that penguin numbers are increasing. Landowners feel part of something greater, and even those not naturally drawn to conservation are supportive of the project and additional benefits it brings to the area such as tourism, or a reduction of possum numbers on their valuable farm land.

I started Seventh Generation Tours to allow me to share with the world my passion for this place, my enchantment with nature and the history and people who bring this beautiful place to life.

I grew up walking these hills observing nature and was blessed with one of the greatest riches in the world, time. Living far away from the many distractions of the modern world I had many hours as a child where I would go out with the aim to get lost in the bush, sadly for me I never achieved this aim and always found where I was. It was through these many hours that I developed the skills of a adventurer, nature observer, philosopher and dreamer.

Now I find my life as an adult is hardly different from the life I led as a child, my most enjoyable hobby is to daydream in nature whether that is whilst undertaking conservation tasks such as monitoring penguins, checking on weta motels, or whilst doing farm work, walking the dogs, gathering mushrooms or swimming in our creek.

This unguarded time has developed into a deep love of nature, this when planted in the deep and fertile soil of knowing well my family history and the epic stories that have created a rich culture in Akaroa, has allowed in me a deep rooting that is my tūrangawaewae – my place to stand.

It is this particular perspective of the world that I wish to share and the hundreds of stories that together form my world view.

The Wildside is an area on the outer edge of Banks Peninsula recognised for its high biodiversity value and a community of landowners who have become conservation leaders for their protection of endangered species some of whom are found nowhere else in the world. Recognised in 2017 with a national Green Ribbon Award from the Ministry for the Environment(MfE) and Department of Conservation (DOC) for Conservation Leadership.

 The Wildside started off more than 25 years ago when a farmer Mark Armstrong, who grew up with little blue penguins all over his farm, was showing a visitor a penguin nest under his woolshed. He lifted the floor board to find a ferret in the nest eating the two chicks. Local farmers had wondered why penguin numbers were dropping but this was the first definitive proof that something was really wrong and action needed to be taken! Landowners approached DOC and were able to borrow half a dozen traps. Soon it was found that predators had to be stopped well before they reached the penguin colonies and so trap lines were established by the landowners up the valleys and ten years later DOC established extensive trap lines.

 Now over 700 predator traps cover 7000ha of Banks Peninsula in a coordinated program managed by the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust in a long established partnership with DOC, Christchurch City Council (CCC), Environment Canterbury (ECan) and landowners. Initially the Wildside was a reaction to the issue of predation of the little blue white flippered penguins (endemic to Banks Peninsula) but at the same time Hinewai Reserve was being established by the Maurice White Native Forest Trust and visionary botanist Hugh Wilson. Around the same time the community of traditional farmers were struggling with the 1980’s financial downturn and started to look to diversify their income and the Banks Peninsula Track was formed. This bought about a change from traditional farming to regenerative farming where beautiful scenery, biodiversity and healthy forest was valued for economic reasons.

 In 2001 the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust was formed as the only community group in New Zealand who has the legal statute to covenant private land. Suddenly landowners were empowered to manage their own conservation projects and a new era on Banks Peninsula began. BPCT Trustees as landowners were able to talk over the fence to neighbours and promote habitat protection. Hinewai Reserve was an example of how to turn unprofitable and unmanageable gorse infested land into valued forest.

 In 2010, the Wildside coordinator was employed to bring together into one cohesive project all of the many diverse conservation efforts. Born and raised within the Wildside Marie Haley has a grounded understanding of the people and place and worked within the community to set outcomes in a visioning process.

 The Wildside outcomes have four broad themes, people, economy, habitat and species. To engage people in the project, both landowners and the future generations through education. To add economic value to the land, by protection of its environmental health and beauty and to promote a unique story. To protect forest habitat, stream health, sites of ecological significance and promote marine protection. To protect the species that we love and by their presence make this place special; yellow-eyed penguin, little blue white-flippered penguins, titi, Akaroa daisy, Banks Peninsula tree weta, jewelled gecko, morepork, falcon and many more. This process showed people what we had to protect and what we had to lose.

The aim of the Wildside has moved on from the initial protection of pelagic sea birds to become a whole landscape restoration project within a living working environment. That means we love and protect our land while we still continue to thrive here ourselves. Collaborative predator control has seen a dramatic turn-around in the sea bird species. Twenty-five percent of the Wildside is protected through covenants or reserves. But something else is happening on the Wildside, we have the first whole stream protected from summit to sea through farmland in New Zealand. The landowners who created this have quietly inspired landowners all around them and BPCT is in the process of covenanting a second whole stream, the upper catchment being already protected completely by Hinewai Reserve. Many other landowners are protecting the streams in their property.

Across the mainland hōiho or yellow-eyed penguins (YEP) are having a tough time of it. This year the number of breeding pairs on Otago Peninsula was only about 200 compared to 600 in the 1990’s. Otago University researcher Thomas Mattern reports the outlook for populations around the South Island is bleak “the situation is all but lost, but we need to act and we don’t have much time’.

With an estimated breeding population of 1700 pair, the YEP is one of the rarest species of penguins in the world, around 60% of the population is thought to breed on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands with the rest on the south-eastern coast of the South Island. However, little is known about the sub-Antarctic population and in the southern South Island mass mortality events from unknown toxins and barracouta attacks regularly decimate numbers.

Thirty-five years of sea surface data from Boulder Beach on Otago Peninsula shows that sea temperature is the main environmental influence, with lower fish stock during warmer periods. However, other factors play a significant role, the impact of fisheries is poorly understood due to a lack of data and fisheries monitoring. Predation both at sea and on land remains an issue in some areas and unregulated tourism is an important and growing threat. While humans love to see hōiho walk across a wild beach, hōiho do not feel the same at all about humans and become incredibly stressed by the mere presence of a human. 

Yellow-eyed penguins have just been upgraded to Endangered and researchers agree that South Island hōiho are facing almost certain extinction by 2060.

Thankfully on Banks Peninsula, our small hōiho population is remaining steady. We have a strong collaborative conservation program on the Wildside to control predators on land. Banks Peninsula is blessed with many sheltered bays and penguins are doing especially well in bays with restricted human access. Landowners protect the penguin colonies fiercely against these impacts and each nest is monitored closely by BPCT, DOC and CCC staff. If a penguin is in trouble, we take it into expert veterinary care as soon as possible and penguins are able to recuperate with dedicated intensive care nurses. All of this, just to ensure the population holds steady.

2017 was a year of highlights for the Banks Peninsula hōiho team. We had our first microchipped chicks return, in a species where >80% of chicks do not make it through their first year at sea, this is monumental. Eight juvenile birds, in their first year, were recorded and we hope some of these will remain and breed. A total of 25 birds were found with four nests and six chicks fledging. Only three penguins died during the breeding season.

These small successes always lead to hope that hōiho nests will increase, that more chicks will be born and fledge and that they will return again next year. But yellow-eyed penguins have just been upgraded to Endangered and researchers agree that South Island hōiho are facing almost certain extinction by 2060.