May 2009 Korimako, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter

8/8/2019 May 2009 Korimako, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter

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KORIMAKO

Lower Hutt Branch Newsletter MAY 2009

Chairmans Chat - .Well another year rolls onby, almost, and it is time for our Branch AnnualGeneral Meeting. This will be held at the nextmeeting on 7th May. The earlier date is becausethe Society now requires all branches to havethe same financial year.

Among other things we will be looking forsupport from our members to nominate newpeople to our Committee. A fresh set of eyesand new ideas is a must if the Branch is to

continue to succeed in inolvement in usefulenvironmental projects, and provide qualityguest speakers at monthly Branch Meetings aswe have done in the past. Time input is minimal,with the Committee meeting only once a month,on the last Thursday of each month. You canmake a difference!.

This has been a busy year for the Branch. Workcontinues on projects such as the revegetationof Matiu/Somes Island. After more than 20 years

of regular planting trips the rewards can alreadybe seen with the Department of Conservationrecognising the significant input of the Branch inrestoring the island vegetation to a point whereseveral rare and endangered animals have beenreleased. Work also continues in planting atPauatahanui, and at the Pencarrow Lakes. YourCommittee has been active in providingsubmissions to the likes of the Hutt City Counciland Greater Wellington Regional Council onmatters concerning park management plans anddisposal of council owned fee simple land, as

well as more national issues such as policy on

clean streams. Looking forward, we are indiscussions with DoC about possible newprojects on Matiu/Somes Island.

We are constantly on the lookout for newmembers. Gaining new members for Forest &Bird not only helps the activities of the Branch,but also supports the tremendous work of theSociety as a whole in a wide range ofconservation isses such as preserving some ofour High Country; opposing damming of the

Mokihinui; stopping shark-finning; and creatingclean streams. By increasing membership wecan ensure that our voice is stronger, and canbe heard more clearly by politicians and the like,when it comes to issues concerning thepreservation of our natural environment andwildlife. Next time you are looking for a gift forsomeone why not give a Forest & Birdmembership?

Forest & Bird will hold its National Annual

General Meeting in Wellington on 27

th

June inthe Victoria Room, at the Mercure Hotel, WillisStreet. Members and guest speakers will tacklethe most urgent conservation issues andchallenges we face today. All members arewelcome to attend.

Finally, have a look at the revamped Forest &Bird web-site. A mine of interesting and usefulinformation on the activities of the branches andthe Society as a whole. We are in the process ofupdating the Lower Hutt Branch section, so


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please keep your eye on this and give yourCommittee feedback..

Kevin Bateman

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 7 MAYElection of Committee.

Speaker: Melody McLaughlin Kiwi in RimutakaForest Park.

Speakers for the August, September andOctober meetings will be advised as soon aspossible.

PLANT SALE SUNDAY 2 AUGUST starting at

9.00am. Could helpers please come alongbefore 9 o'clock. Finger food welcome.

Set up day is Saturday (1 August) starting at12.30pm. Lots of help needed,. Please bringalong your plants during the afternoon.

Contact: Barbara De Ste Croix'phone 566 1055.

Remember there are lots of pots on the table atthe back of the room at the monthly meetings please help yourselves.

Thank you Cliff Mason Dr Cliff Mason hasmoved to Lyttelton. For the past few years hehas found speakers of exceptional quality. Wethank him for this and wish him well in his newabode.

Matiu/Somes Island Last November a groupof six members met with DoC staff and a paperprepared by Peter Russell (DoC) entitledRecommendations for secondary planting under(planted) forest and shrub land canopies onMatiu/Somes was outlined. Thirty sites/plotsscattered throughout Matiu, mostly within reachof the loop track have been identified as suitablefor planting recommended species. These sitesto be monitored to assess results and enablemethods for future plantings to be refined andthe environment maintained as necessary (eg

pruning to maintain adequate light levels).

An outline of the proposed Adopt a Plotscheme is to be prepared on a sheet that can bedistributed to interested volunteers, F&Bmembers and others. DoC will no longerpurchase plants in root trainers. The first trays ofseedlings (plugs) they have on order should be

arriving in the near future and we will bag theseon as in past years. Several selected speciesmay still be propagated by members from seedor cuttings provided.

The Branch has undertaken to maintain thenursery and to assist during the planting season.Work parties averaging eleven members havebeen held for each of the past six months.Weeding, mulching and general maintenancework in the nursery and field work in the ex

workshop and house paddock areas releasingsuccessional plantings to maintain adequatelight levels have kept us all busy.

Work parties are likely to be held once afortnight once nursery work increases and theplanting season gets underway.

Alex Kettles

Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve At last DoC,the contractor, and the helicopter, came togetherto move the Estuary Hide from the stream bed

onto its foundations at the end of the track.Plimmerton Rotary have done a few repairs andpainted the hide.

We were disappointed that there was noplatform to allow easy access to enter the hide.DoC, however, have promised us that one willbe built. The hide is in a safer place now andaway from the stream edge, where it wassubject to flood tides, which washed away thesurrounding earth. It is a great location to

observe lots of bird life.

On a recent beautiful day I observed that therewas standing room only for Pied Stilts on theshell island in the South Basin.

In the Inlet itself a growing flock of RoyalSpoonbills, perhaps thirteen, gathered around afresh water stream outlet, together with anumber of Black Swans. A little way off a flock ofnoisy Black Backed Gulls, while a White FacedHeron caught and ate a small flounder near thewater's edge. I like to think by maintaining a


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healthy reserve, we are contributing in ameaningful way to the life of a healthy inlet.

On Sunday, 18 October, we will be celebratingour 25th year working on the reserve. It wasSeptember 1984, in conjunction with the Wildlife

Service, we started regular workparties todevelop the reserve. Since then ponds havebeen excavated, viewing hides have been built,walking tracks and car parks made, gorse andthistles removed and planting carried out and ahundred and one other tasks necessary tomaintain this asset for public use. We often getcomplimentary remarks from visitors.

Ron Freeston

Membership With this newsletter is our

chance once again to welcome new members tothe Lower Hutt branch.

Some of you are new to Forest and Bird andothers are those who have moved into the areain the last six months.

Karyn Grant, Helen Frost, Shelley Davis, LornaManson, Derek Wilshire, Amanda Woolley,Joanne Fellows, A Nahkies, Kerin Welford, Joanand Lindsay Wilson, Alison McIntyre, MarianLoader, Chris Jones, Jacinta Walkey, Stephen

Cornille, Alex Rodger and Karen Trotter.

If you have joined since the end of February,your name will not have come through fromCentral Office, but, of course, the welcome isextended to you all. Once again all membershipcategories are represented which means that weare a real mix. As well as new members it'sgood to see rejoining members back on the list.

The Branch invites you to take part in any of the

events and meetings you see in the programe.Everyone is encouraged to take part and do asmuch as they feel able to do.

There will be some interesting speakers atBranch meetings in the next six months sobrowse through the attached winter programmeand feel free to join us. You can, of course,attend any event listed and there are contactnumbers provided.

If you are unable to get to the meetings, theplant sale (Sunday 2 August at the Waterloo

School Hall, Hardy Street, off Waiwhetu Road) isalways a great way to introduce yourselves.There are always committee members availableto answer questions and the bonus of bargainplants.

Hope to see you soon.

Alison Sinclair (Phone 569 4252)

KCC Christmas and the new year have been aquiet time for KCC. We had no takers for ourtrip to Boulder Hill at the end of the year whichwas disappointing as it was a perfect day andour camping trip to Kaitoke had to be cancelledbecause of rain.

I would really appreciate any ideas you have thatyou think may appeal to families.Karen Baker

Forest and Bird House Staying overnight inF&B House on Matiu/Somes Island is becomingmore and more popular. Saturday nights arebooked out several weeks in advance andFridays are also busy. Most weekday nights areavailable at short notice except for November,December and January when bookings areheavy.

The Information Sheet and Booking Forms forF&B House are available fromwww.forestandbird.org.nz and from theAccommodation Officer.

Income from the house is being spent onimproving the accommodation andrefurbishment of the interior. A water supply filterhas been installed and carpets are to be laid inthe bedrooms. These two items have been

organised by DoC as part of upgrading all thehouses on the island.

The Branch committee has resolved to refurbishthe interior using voluntary labour. Twovolunteers are working on stripping wallpaperand repairs to ceilings at the moment.

We need more volunteers to paint walls, windowframes and ceilings, and for other work over thewinter, particularly in the bedrooms before thenew carpet goes down. Volunteer workers can

stay in the house without charge, ferry fares will


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be paid and all materials and paint brushes etcwill be provided.

Could someone please volunteer to coordinatethe work as I go overseas at the end of April. Inthe meantime, would anyone who could help

with the refurbishment please contact me.

Bill Draper - Accommodation Officer for F&BHouse - Telephone 569 2542e-mail [email protected]

Members may be interested to know about theBerhampore Nursery Open Day on Saturday16 May 10am to 2pm. Bring back the birds plant sales, talks and stalls.

World View Assuming a continuing world-

wide dependence on fossil fuels, theatmosphere concentration of CO2 will be nearly700 parts per million by the end of the centuryalthough by 2040 it will not have passed 500ppm. (The pre-industrial concentration was250ppm and we are now 387 parts per million.)Glynn Dyer in Climate Wars 2008

The Earth was once covered in ancient forests.Today a staggering eighty per cent have beeneither destroyed or degraded, and half of that

has been in the last thirty years. Illegal anddestructive logging, industrial-scale farming and,increasingly, climate change all threaten theremaining tracts of forest that have stood forthousands of years. Countless species faceextinction and entire communites are beingdisplaced. If current rates of deforestationcontinue, some of the last areas of ancient forestcould be lost within our own lifetimes

Economic growth can't go on and on. In generalpoliticians (and economists) see no limits toeconomic growth, despite warnings from rationalscientists that the current global economy iskilling the planet.

Unfettered economic growth is driving air andwater pollution, climate change, peak oil,deforestation, massive biodiversity losses and,arguably, the current economic crisis. Scientistswarn that Earth's biosphere cannot support thecurrent global economy, let alone an economythat continues to expand.

Dr George Preddy DomPost 17.11.08

A few statistics from the Department ofConservation - Each year DoC spends $18million eradicating weeds. $26 million on pestcontrol and $36 million protecting and breedingendangered species like kiwi, kokako, whio andkakapo on land and islands it controls.

Apart from its offshore island reserves DoC alsohas six mainland islands managed areas, suchas the Boundary Stream, near Lake Tutira,which it defends and restores, mainly throughbait stations and traps around the area ratherthan erecting a fence.

DoC assists community-run sanctuaries byproviding technical support when they transferand breed species and carries out pest control

on any public land (some sanctuaries are a mixof public and private land) under sanctuarycontrol.

Wildlife Sanctuaries you may care to visit -

Karori: 225 fenced hectares. $14 for visitors.$60 for Kiwi Night Tour.Brook Waimarama: 715 hectares near Nelson,with a fence still being built. Admission is free.Bushy Park: 92 hectares near Wanganui.Fenced. Open to paying visitors.

Maungatautari Ecological Island (nearCambridge): The largest at 3,400 hectares.Fenced through a Department of Internal Affairsgrant. Free admission.Rotokare Scenic Reserve: 230 hectares insouth Taranaki. 8.4km fence. Admission is free.Orokunui Ecosanctuary: 250 hectares nearDunedin. Open to paying visitors.Tawharanui Peninsular: 530 hectares north ofAuckland. A partnership between the AucklandRegional Council and a voluntary group that

fundraises to run the restoration project. Nocharge for admission.

From DomPost Your Weekend dated4 April 2009

Documents

May 2009 Korimako, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter