Conservation blog

Hunting on conservation land

Brent Beaven — 26/07/2010

Hunters and DOC often seem to be seen as opponents, when the reality is that we both have very much in common. Hunting is a conservation activity, if for no other reason than the fact that hunters are out amongst it, enjoying and revelling in New Zealand’s fantastic outdoors.

A successful hunter at Hopkins River above Lake Ohau, Canterbury

Realising what an important component hunters were of our conservation oriented park users, DOC has been working toward providing better service for hunters. One of these key improvements has been to redevelop the hunting pages of the DOC website. The first phase of this upgrade has now gone live and can be viewed at www.doc.govt.nz/hunting. The new structure provides simpler and clearer pathways for finding information, held together in one place.

We know it isn’t yet perfect, but it is a lot better than what existed previously. We have set up a feedback link off the homepage, so that users can suggest any improvements, but you can also supply suggestions here via the DOC Conservation Blog.

Over the coming year, we will be improving the quality and standardising the Where to hunt information, as well as looking to create an on-line hunting permit facility.

In Hunting, Recreation

Raoul Island Diaries: Four fresh volunteers join the team

— 07/07/2010

Raoul Island is one of the Kermadec Islands, far North of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. DOC has a small team of biodiversity rangers that live there in relative solitude, doing research and maintaining the native species on the island. Since Raoul is so remote, we get the diaries from the team members and post them up on behalf of them.

Todays diary is by Heather Thorne

In mid-April four fresh volunteers joined the team on Raoul Island – Chloe, Nichy, my husband Stu and myself, Heather. Jokingly the year long team members saw our arrival as a dark day as they farewelled the previous team of vollies who returned to New Zealand on the Braveheart after their six month stay on the island.

New team Nichy, Heather, Stu, Chloe with Lachlan

Our main job on the island is to continue the weed eradication programme. The aim of the programme is to eradicate all weeds and return the island flora to its native state.

Firstly, you have to learn to recognize what is a weed – looking back now we were as green as grass in our first few weeks. The most common weeds we look for are Brazillian Buttercup, Black Passion Fruit and Peach but there are others including vetch (localized to one area), Air Plant, Paw Paw and Guava. Weeds can be seedlings, adolescents or matures. We usually weed for three days of the week and the team (usually 4 – 5 people) are allocated a plot which may take a few hours or a few days to cover. Plots are usually grid searched and previous finds are marked with pink tape tied in trees near the site. Competition for pink tape can be intense and there is nothing sweeter than arriving at a tape and seeing a host of weed seedlings at your feet!!! I know I am a noisy and competitive weeder but I just cannot contain myself.

Weeding is hard work. The island topography is steep – one minute you might be scrambling uphill steeply and the next minute yodeling down a steep descent. Scrambling under, over, around and through tree falls and bracken is also part of the day’s work. Cuts, bruises and sprains are pretty common. We do have lots of laughs though and it is a fabulous feeling to have a good haul of weeds at the end of the day. Previous teams have done an excellent job and there are days when you come home weedless.

Track maintenance

Life on Raoul is not all weeding – over the last week I have earned competency credits in road maintenance, painting and scrub barring . Chloe and I take care of the top vegetable garden and on arrival I envisaged planting carrots one week and struggling down to the kitchen a week later with one carrot that would feed us all for a week. Not so. Catepillers love the vege gardens on Raoul particularly courgette plant stems and broccoli seedlings.

Queens Birthday race

We make our own entertainment – quiz nights are often noisy and unusual (blind tastings of marmite vs vegemite), board games, darts, pool, listening to music, watching DVD’s. On Queen’s Birthday weekend we visited the hot pools at low tide. A ‘half half ‘marathon had been planned but had been postponed early in the day because of very heavy rain but at mid-morning it was decided to go ahead with the event. You can only get so wet! We all competed in the ten km run with Mike being the winner and Ian second.

Keeping in touch with the world outside our island paradise usually happens through internet or Skype. Recently we had a visit from the Soren Larsen a tall sailing ship and passengers and crew came ashore over two days to go walking and enjoy our hospitality at the hostel. We all also visited the vessel which was really special. Private yachts also obtain permits to land and we have our second yacht due to visit within the next week. An Air Force Orion buzzed the Soren Larsen on her arrival which was pretty exciting to watch. Hopefully (!!!) the Air Force is going to do a mail drop over the next few weeks. This means that goodies from home and mail can reach us!

I feel extremely privileged to be able to participate in such a practical way to a major conservation programme run by the Department of Conservation. Missing family and friends is hard but missing a Wanaka winter is not. Those on the island at the moment are a diverse bunch but we all contribute to the goal with individual skills and have so much fun in the process.

Kakapo safe after Anchor Island rat poison accident

Reuben Williams — 29/06/2010

Resident kakapo are safe after rat poison was accidentally dropped from a helicopter over Anchor Island.

In Animal pests, Native animals, Southland

Volunteer Awareness Week 20-26 June

hchristophersdoc — 23/06/2010

Buzz words usually get up my nostrils but one particular word strikes an accord with me because I like the active engaging process that is sounds like. That word is ‘Synergy’.

There is a lot of synergy between the Department of Conservation and volunteers. Without the energy and enthusiasm that volunteers bring to conservation work, many tasks that may be lower in priority, can get done and add real value to the overall conservation effort.

Volunteers relax during a days work.

I did that!

It’s about making a positive difference. It could be painting a hut, planting a wetland, helping on a species recovery programme, clearing predator traps, being a hut warden and the list goes on. Being a conservation volunteer is about taking responsibility for your environment and having a good time into the bargain. The mutual benefits for DOC and volunteers are etched on the smiling faces of everyone involved.

A young volunteer chips in with tree planting.

Up up and away!

Volunteering may mean getting to places that are out of the way and almost inaccessible. Take the case of some keen rock climbers who, under normal circumstances, would never have gotten to the middle of Fiordland to climb. An opportunity arose to look at a rare lizard that lives on steep rock faces and to access the site, rock climbing skills were needed. The climbers were able to access the steep cliffs, bag some climbing and provide support to understanding a species that is known from only one site in the world! Now that’s a win-win, isn’t it?

On a less arduous scale, there are opportunities to work in visitor centres. Become involved in telling stories about landscapes, historic sites, natural values and other !!

Volunteer work isn't necessarily easy.

Put your best foot forward!

So if pounding the pavements and sitting in an urban jungle doesn’t raise your pulse rate, click into the DOC website or contact your nearest DOC office and ask about volunteering opportunities. See you out there.

Links

In Volunteers

Natural Attractions

hchristophersdoc — 16/06/2010

An isolated island archipelago in mid ocean with a relict population of plants and animals found nowhere else and under threat from invasive species. Does that sound familiar? Nahh! Not New Zealand this time!

What’s natural?

The Azores are a group of volcanic islands in mid Atlantic and have small remnants of forest types that once covered much of the land around the Mediterranean Sea. These remnants are fragmented and scattered over the 9 main islands of this Portuguese autonomous region. The native plants and animals have taken a huge hit over the last 600 years of human occupation and live on the verge of oblivion with many already extinct from human induced activities. You know the story… Clear the land, bring in domesticated beasties to enable farming. Oh, and don’t forget a few unwanted hitch-hikers!

Indigenous Azorian forest remnant

What spins your wheels?

Still, the attractions in the Azores are stunning! The overlay of historic, cultural and natural attractions has put it among my favourite places on Earth – OK I haven’t been to Kazakhstan!

And weeds! Whoa! I was staggered to find so many of the weeds there are our dire enemies here too. The cliffs are strewn with ginger, woolly tobacco weed and bamboo. The exotic forests are asserting themselves in the spread and conquer process and hydrangers are the adopted regional flower in spite of being a noxious weed.

Grapes, bananas and bamboo going wild

Homesick?

An interesting feature of the landscape was the use of New Zealand pohutukawa in main amenity areas. The islands are at the same latitude as Auckland and my guess is that the pohutukawa found their way back to the Azores with whalers in the 1800s. And, the former flax industry has left New Zealand’s harakeke all over the main island.

Pohutukawa planted in a park on Sao Jorge

On the beaches, there is New Zealand spinach and on the shore line there are karaka trees and cabbage trees.

New Zealand spinach on the rocky shore

In spite of any degradation in the original natural state of the region there is a fierce pride in retention of the remaining natural values and there are the same tensions we have here. You can imagine that power supplies on an island archipelago are difficult. Wind power is going full tilt ahead on the islands to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Dairy farming has intensified (the cheese is magnificent!) but cows dot the upland landscape to fill out the postcard quotas. The grapes eek out an existence in harsh conditions and produce good rich wines from rough volcanic soils. Quality water is at a premium.

So next time you are thinking that New Zealand is the only island archipelago with major invasive pest problems, give a though for the Azores and pop in to mid Atlantic to say Hola! They would love to see you.

Links

In International, Native plants, Weeds

Hunting on conservation land

Raoul Island Diaries: Four fresh volunteers join the team

See also:

Kakapo safe after Anchor Island rat poison accident