Great Stories of New Zealand Conservation

By Alan Froggatt

New Zealand has an extraordinary range of plants and animals, yet a great many species are trending towards extinction. The arrival of humans to the country, and the predators we brought with us, pushed the natural world to the brink. But while we are the villains of the story, we can also be heroes.Great Stories of New Zealand Conservation tells 50 inspiring and thought provoking stories, covering all matter of conservation and ecological projects from right across the motu. Some of the projects have been driven by national organisations - such as saving the kakapo and the yellow eyed penguin. Other chapters in the book focus on locally led initiatives, such as the creation of off-shore island sanctuaries.Because of conflicting demands on our land, conservation stories can be controversial. The author has not shied away from probing topics including the control of Himalayan tahr and the perils of commercial forestry. Learn how New Zealand has innovatively led the way on conservation initiatives such as the translocation of birds and the development of predator-proof fences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Cloud Books
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781776940219

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Introduction – Setting the scene

The chief protagonists

Saving our scenic lakes

Saving the northern royal albatross

Saving the country’s largest farm

Savingthe kākāpō

Rediscovering the takahē

Dealing to pest pine trees

New Zealand’s first wildlife centre

The fight to save whales

The North Island saddleback’s recovery

The angst of pest fish

Saving a mountain clown and born thief

The amazing rescue of the black robin

Public outrage saves the Ōkārito Forest

The Queen Elizabeth II National Trust

Conservation restoration on Chatham Island

Weed-infested lighthouse island to open sanctuary

The world’s first predator-proof fence

Protecting the Hector’s and Māui dolphins

Corporations and trusts save the black stilt / kakī

Translocating the North Island kōkako

Captive Breeding saves the shore plover

Eradicating mice from Mana Island

Teamwork achieves great things

Saving the stitchbird from extinction

The creation of Rotokare Scenic Reserve

BioBlitz helps save the Denniston Plateau

Kiwi conservation

Nesting and roosting sites save the fairy tern

Efforts to save the endangered, yellow-eyed penguin

Saving the Mackenzie basin drylands

The Rena Oil spill clean-up

From wasteland to outdoor reserve

A self-sustaining population of blue ducks

An exciting environmental concept

Protecting waterways and wetlands

Off-setting carbon emissions

Awards for helping save the environment

Helping save a lone emperor penguin

Kauri dieback – A disaster for Māori and the forest

Conservation dogs

Eradication on Big South Cape Island And TīTī Islands

Eradicating possums from Kāpiti Island

Removing litter from the Fox River

Eradicating cord grass

From sewage ponds to wildlife refuge

Pest control Technologies

Eliminating biosecurity risks at the border

The hunt for the South Island kōkako

Controlling Himalayan tahr

Moving from conservation to restoration

Final word

Photo Section

Foreword

It might seem a little oblique, but when I think of the unique biodiversity of our wonderful islands, I’m reminded of the description of our soldiers on the Somme: ‘from the uttermost ends of the Earth’. (The Men of the Wellington Force 1916-1918, by Brigadier John H Gray CBE, OBE, ED, John Duncan Publishing.) So far out on the periphery of the human world has this place been that for millenia it stood shaped only by natural forces; so separate from any other land mass that the species that evolved here were almost completely isolated from those elsewhere and especially from land-based predators.

There’s an entertaining debate to be had as to which country is the most important to the world’s biodiversity. With its extraordinary range of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, and its crucial position in the world’s marine ecosystems, Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the strongest cases. Yet we indisputably hold a less desirable crown: we are the country in the world with the highest proportion of our native species trending towards extinction.

That’s largely down to us. Human beings first arrived around eight hundred years ago and immediately began to have an impact. These impacts have accelerated over the past several centuries for two main reasons. First we brought with us, mostly intentionally, plants and animals from elsewhere. Sometimes these have just shouldered native species out of the way, out competing them for space or nutrients. Sometimes it’s a more bloody affair, as birds, reptiles, and invertebrates that have evolved in the absence of land-based predators encounter stoats, and cats and all the other carnivores we brought, while our native plants and trees have been laid waste by possums, deer, goats and the like.

More directly, though, our own activities have taken the habitats that native species require and replaced them with farming, forestry and urban activities. Nature has in so many cases been forced to the brink.

But while human beings have so often been the villains of the story, there have also been heroes. These heroes have often been unsung, but we need their stories to inspire and encourage us, and to help future generations believe that it is possible to restore one of the absolute treasure troves of the natural world.

Alan Froggatt will already be known to many readers, but this book, by turns both astonishing and inspiring, and with a sprinkling of dry humour, may be his most important yet. The stories he tells are fascinating and important in their own right, but collected together like this they become almost a manifesto for all those who love nature. I heartily recommend it.

Kevin Hague

Chief Executive 2016 - 2022

Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand (Inc)

About the Author

Alan has been a long-term member of Birds New Zealand, Forest & Bird, the Kāpiti Ecological Restoration and Maintenance Trust, Nga Manu Nature Reserve, the Pukorokoro Miranda Naturalists Trust, Friends of the Kaitawa Reserve and Friends of the Waikanae River. He has also been involved in a wide range of other conservation and ecological restoration projects, as well as search and rescue operations and has been a keen tramper, hunter, bird watcher, wildlife photographer and freshwater angler.

He uses a wide range of projects from across the country to highlight how they came about, their successes and their unresolved issues in the hope that the reader, if not already involved in conservation or ecological restoration work, will be persuaded to do so, or to develop an interest.

During his lifetime Alan has been involved in, or observed, heard, or read about the issues he writes about in this book and has visited all the areas mentioned in this book excepting for the Big South Cape and Whenua Hou Islands. His stories are simply representative of the amazing work that has so far taken place across New Zealand and identifies significant outstanding issues.

This book will make it obvious why, over the years, New Zealand has become widely known and respected for its conservation and ecological restoration experience and expertise.

Other Books by the author:

Bird Watching for Beginners in New Zealand: A Complete Guide, New Holland Publishers, 2019

The Story of New Zealand’s Unique Birds. From Adzebill to Yellow-eyed Penguin, New Holland Publishers, 2021

Acknowledgments

I need to thank the following individuals for the ways they have helped with this book, Jason Froggatt, Chris McCormack, Andrew Digby, Rob Cross, Colin Plowman, Sarah Irvine, Emily Court, Ross Quayle, Kim Meo, Odelia van Leeuwen, Kennedy Warne, John Topliff, Vince Cholewa, Lucy Roberts, Jude Tewnion, Rebecca White, the Chatham Islands Council and, the late John McLauclan.

I also need to thank that great conservationist Kevin Haque for providing the Foreword and the staff at Upstart Press for their support, editing and layout skills and above all my wife, Rosemary, for her support and encouragement to see this book to fruition.

The source of any image not from the authors collection are identified where they appear. In this regard I want to thank Will Parsons, Neil Silverwood, the Issac Conservation and Wildlife Trust. The National Library of New Zealand, the Department of Conservation New Zealand, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand Post, Maritime New Zealand, Driftwood Eco Tours, Goodnature New Zealand, and the Picton Museum and Historical Society as well as Will Parsons and Neil Silverwood for images.

One

Introduction – Setting the scene

This book arose from the author’s concern at the significantly increasing rate of the degradation of the country’s natural environment and biodiversity. He hopes to illustrate the importance of the threat to the environment from global warming and habitat destruction, and on the other side, the depth of conservation and ecological restoration projects undertaken to help in mitigating this. Like many he has done his bit in helping make the environment better able to cope with current and future threats and help ensure we can continue to live in a biosphere where humans, animals and plants can continue to survive and hopefully flourish.

Our natural world is fading. A growing number of scientists agree that we are heading toward a mass extinction, perhaps in as few as 300 years. But this means both destruction and opportunity. The demands on land for agricultural industrial use and forests for export logs grow unabated while the demands for land for housing continue to soar. But nature is not an infinite resource. Scientists around the Western world have been increasingly warning that an imbalance in nature caused by biodiversity loss could threaten us all. Nature gives us enjoyment, supports our economy, is part of our culture and way of life and is also good for our physical and mental wellbeing. The health of our natural environment is a critical component of who we are as a people and a nation.

We know how important the natural world is to us and we know it’s not in good shape. So what of the future? Climate change has been on the radar of meteorologists’ for several decades as well as the popular press. For some years international scientists have agreed that the world is going to have higher temperatures, worsening air pollution, more acidic rain and warming oceans, higher sea levels and more frequent and extreme weather events. With record crushing heat waves, enormous forest fires, socially and economically devastating floods, long droughts, monster tornadoes and hurricanes, rising sea temperatures and levels, and the Antarctic, Arctic and Greenland ice caps melting few among us could deny the weather has changed over the last decade.

Earth orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture by collecting many types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world and this data reveals the irrefutable signs and symptoms of climate change. Much of this evidence coming from ice cores drawn in Greenland, Antarctica, and from mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rock. This evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age, while carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last ice age.

Not surprisingly 97 percent of publishing climate scientists now agree that while the earths surface has changed throughout history the warming is happening at a rate not seen before and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has agreed the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land and resulted in widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and, biosphere.

As land and sea undergo rapid changes, the animals that inhabit them are doomed to disappear if they cannot change or adapt quickly. Some have already begun to do so by shifting their geographic zones to cooler water, cooler climes or, higher altitudes. Animals with backbones such as fish, mammals, birds, amphibians and, reptiles are already disappearing 114 times faster than expected. The key drivers of this are climate change, pollution and, deforestation. Science tells us the world is heading for 3 to 4 degrees C increase. Some scientists believe that a 2.8 degrees Celsius increase may result in the world’s sixth mass extinction event.

Many people don’t seem to understand that if climate warming climbs higher than the projected 1.5 - 2 degrees Celsius the effects will be, by a degree of magnitude worse. The change won’t be linear it will be magnitudes much worse.

The process of evolution has continued in fits and starts for thousands of years but the evolution of humans, and our impacts, have accelerated at a rate and at levels never before experienced on Earth. In the past, the Earth has undergone ancient catastrophic events so wrenching that the diversity of life on Earth plummeted. Five of these were so bad they were put in their own category and became known as the ‘Big Five’.

Various names have been suggested for this new age that we seem to be entering with the generally accepted favourite being the ‘Anthropocene Epoch.’ This term was invented by a Dutch Chemist Professor Mario Molin who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the effects of ozone-depleting compounds. It was also he who coined the term Holocene Epoch to describe the wholly recent Epoch that began at the conclusion of the ice age, 11,700 years ago, and which continues officially to this day. Based on the global area of habitat loss, estimates put the number of extinctions of species at 140,000 a year, though there is no specific figure that has been agreed on.

Climate change, habitat destruction, the loss of species, air, plastic and other pollution, a looming clean water crisis, over-harvesting in all its forms, invasive pests, and excessive population growth all affect a healthy biosphere. We also cannot ignore the impacts of the environmental and biosecurity disasters caused by past mistakes. Experts are now talking about the seven key tipping points, being the catastrophic events that could push the world into the age of the Anthropocene. However, this is still emerging science and it’s not clear at this stage if any of the identified tipping points could be discerned with enough time to make the necessary changes to head them off. The drawback is that once the climate shifts to a new state, it may be too late.

The larger continents, have different climates because of their geographical location, size and, topography, but they are all being impacted to a greater or lesser extent by population growth, while their agricultural and, industrial processes contribute to the destruction of their environments and ultimately to global warming.

On top of this, it is important to reflect on the profound impacts rampant population growth will have on what natural resources remain and, on our environment as these resources are consumed. And it is important to reflect even more deeply on what is happening as the Greenland, Arctic and Antarctic ice-sheets and, the inland glaciers and snow fields melt. Given the available evidence from the worst affected countries some scientists believe one or more of these countries may have already crossed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold.

Separated from the rest of the world by the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand is 1,600km-long and at its widest point is 450-km from coast to coast. Almost 60 per cent of the land is higher than three hundred metres and 70 per cent is hilly or steep. It was the last major land mass and the last primeval wilderness on Earth to be inhabited.

When the first humans from East Polynesia arrived about c.AD 1150 -c.AD1400, they found a unique ecology and weird and wonderful birds that lived in forests, scrub and in the open, but no mammals.

The Pacific rat they had brought with them served as a reliable source