2007 Overview: Storm of the year

On the 9th and 10th of July 2007 a storm hit the Barrier the like of which had never been seen before. South East winds gusting up to 160km an hour were recorded on the island. This played havoc with our robins with a loss of 7 of our 14 resident birds as well as uprooting trees and collapsing half of our Unimog shed and destroying the roof.

brochure to advertise to the pest proof fence

The damage from the storm

 

Pest Control

The cats have got wise to our trapping methods so that we have only caught 8 juvenile females and 4 kittens over the last year. This is our 6th year of rat control in Glenfern Sanctuary, the 5th year at Orama and the 3rd full year in Kotuku Scenic Reserve. The Department of Conservation permit for baiting in Kotuku Scenic Reserve had expired so when we applied for a new permit we requested the use of Diphacinone blocks instead of Racumin sachets. While they both are 1st generation anticoagulants which required the rats to have multiple feeds to obtain a lethal dose we could get more Diphacinone into the stations secured to the pins. We still had to re-bait every 2 weeks to always maintain bait in the stations. The permit took a long time to get signed off so we were 2 months late getting started. The rats only need one dose of the 2nd generation anticoagulant (Pestoff) that we use on the rest of the peninsula to get a lethal dose so they are re-baited monthly.

Pest Proof Fence

In February we made the decision to proceed with building a pest proof fence across the Kotuku Peninsula in 2008 if sufficient funds could be raised. Jo Ritchie was employed to prepare a feasibility study, an ecological assessment, help with consultation and prepare resource consent applications. Her experience in being the prime person responsible for the Tawharanui pest fence made her well qualified for the job.

Letters of support were obtained from all adjacent land owners’ including the Department of Conservation and an application was made to Ngati Rehu, the Great Barrier Iwi, for support. Ngati Rehu examined the route of the fence and gave us unequivocal approval that endorsed our project as a major contribution to endangered wildlife. Funding was recieved from the ASB Community Trust, the Condition Fund, the Bouzaid Family Trust and by the end of the year private donations totalled a further $11,000.The Glenfern Sanctuary guided walks and sales of T shirts and accessories contributed a further $8,000.

With help from Joel Bouzaid and Scott Sambar from OPC (Outdoor Pursuits Centre) a power point presentation was compiled to promote the project and hopefully find sponsors. In July the night after the one in 200 year storm we hosted a dinner at Orama for 59 invited guests from the local North Barrier community to see the presentation. Ian Luxford from OPC had to chainsaw a fallen tree across Karaka Bay Rd to enable the guests to attend so the turnout was not great. Two further presentations were given with the whole of the North Barrier community invited which generated a much better attendance.

The route of the fence had to cross over our boundary onto the Department of Conservation land in order to stay on the top of the ridge and avoid excessive earthworks. The support from Iwi enabled us to start negotiations with the Department for an agreement to the use of a stretch of 100m of reserve land up to 7m in depth for the fence.

brochure to advertise to the pest proof fence

The brochure

A brochure was designed by Sue Malcolm and printed by Broderick Print to explain the where, how and why the need for the fence and promote sponsorship. Members of the contracting team Xcluder Pest Proof Fencing Ltd made several trips to Great Barrier Island to ascertain the feasibility and confirm the route of the fence. From this it was realised that there were some 60 odd pine trees on the Orama side that had to be removed in advance of the fence being constructed to allow a 4.0m clearance outside and 2.0m inside the fence without the danger of trees of branches falling and damaging the fence. As this was outside the contractor’s price we would have to deal with it ourselves.

Robin Monitoring

After the disastrous storm that wiped out half the resident robin population on the peninsula we managed to employ Marina Thurau to monitor our remaining robins. An ecology graduate from Germany who had been monitoring blue duck and kiwi at Ohakune was enticed away with the prospect of doing all the data analysis and report writing on the robin breeding season.

The 2006-07 season had seen 11 chicks fledge successfully from 7 pair of robins. The 2007-08 season started badly with the loss of 2 females on the nest to rats. A further female was lost while off the nest with 2 chicks in the nest left to die from lack of food or exposure or both. With only one female left and 4 males she had four attempts at nesting with different partners. One nest was abandoned with three fertile eggs in the nest while the other three all hatched chicks. Two of these were predated by moreporks while the third was unknown as the chicks and male disappeared when the chicks were at the fledging stage.

Our goal of creating a safe haven for our native wildlife is a step closer with the pest fence project well on the way. The pest control programme may have kept pests to low levels but as has been proven with the robins a combination of natural events and a few remaining rats are enough to prevent a sustainable population being established. Once the introduced pests are eradicated the wildlife will only have natural predators like the raptors, moreporks and harriers to contend with.

Tony Bouzaid