1 | P a g e

Newsletter July 2017 Members As at June 2017 we have maintained our paid up membership at 54 individuals/families, which is the same number as at the end of our last financial year in October 2016. This is really pleasing. However, there are some who have been members in the past who have not renewed. If you are reading this we would really like to engage with you and have you back. Any comments on our operations and processes from members and potential members are welcome. The subscription form is on our website.

Financial Position The Society is in good financial condition with Total Equity of over $63,000 at the beginning of June 2017. Of this, just over $45,000 relates to the remaining Special Funds Equity for continuing the Society’s projects. As at June 2017 we had spent $7,778 on Tangatapu plants and weeding since October 2016. There is now about $4,800 left from the grants of $36,100 received for this restoration project since 2013. This year we have also spent $5,874 in seven months on trap servicing along the Manawaora & Rawhiti Roads for Project Strip. This project is ongoing and is where your specific annual donation of $25 per member is directed. The project was also funded by a substantial grant of over $30,000 in 2015/16 from Nga Takuhe Rota. This grant will still provide about a further one year’s trap servicing.

Tangatapu Wetland Visitors are in awe of the incredible growth of the wetland plants in the last year. Although there have been a couple of huge floods in the last 8 months when the whole planting area was under water, the plants were remarkably resilient.

Flood October 2016 (photos by John Booth)

2 | P a g e

The new owners of the Tangatapu land (King and Willoughby whanau) are really enjoying getting involved with the restoration. After our May planting in which we had the largest contingency of local hapu participating, Robert Willoughby and whanau put on a fabulous lunch for everyone at their new home. This planting completed the final piece of the puzzle to connect the oioi and mangroves with the podocarp and kauri forests above.

May 2017 planting day (photos by Sandra Scowen)

A second infill planting day in early July attracted a few hardy planters who worked through rain showers and very boggy conditions. Much of the weed control has been carried out by a local whanau business, which has taken the pressure off the volunteers. Funding will be sought for another year to cover this and other expenses.

Pest Control Predatory Pests On Project Strip, the cycle of catches of pests (rats, possums and mustelids) followed the pattern of previous years (highest in late summer/autumn), and were about average in numbers. We are unlikely to ever see overall trap catches on Project Strip decline markedly because the Strip is a single line, the first defence against pests migrating from bush and farmland south of the road.

In January, Louise Dews coordinated Angela Newport’s pest control visits to members’ properties in Waipiro, Te Uenga, Parekura Bay and Rawhiti. Project Island Song has been contracting Ange and her two pest tracking dogs to help them with the greater than usual incursions of rats on the islands. Since the rats swim from the mainland, more pest control along the shoreline closest to the islands is key. Norway rats caught on the mainland are being sent away for DNA testing to determine exactly where the rats are coming from. Parekura Bay shorelines seem to be Norway rat hotspots.

Ange Newport and pest dog (photos by Sandra Scowen)

3 | P a g e

Weeds In April, the EBoIPS submitted comments on the pest-plant section of NRC’s Proposed Pest and Marine Pathway Management Plan. Many invasive weeds (such as blue iris, wandering willy and moth plant) were left out of this plan, bringing into question its effectivity. Weeds in the eradication or containment sections have limited distribution; weeds in the suppression section are plant pests that are widespread in suitable habitat throughout the region (e.g., pampas, privet and ginger). The intention is to reduce pest densities so that impacts on the community and the environment decrease. This will require quarry owners to control weed species that are distributed in gravel and soil.

Kakariki Release Project Island Song successfully released 40 kakariki (native red crowned parakeet) at Mangahawea Bay, Moturua Island in June. The weather was great. Helicopters arrived carrying boxes of birds from Little Barrier, where a team had trapped them over several days. Since these are the first birds able to fly away from the islands, keep your eye out for them.

Photo by Sandra Scowen Photo by Project Island Song

Native Skinks Native skink sightings are on the increase which is an indication pest numbers are low enough for skink survival. Rats, stoats and cats predate on skinks. Due to this many species only survive on pest free offshore islands, but the copper skink below is commonly found on the mainland.

Copper skink. Photo by Penny Brothers Copper skink Photo by Sandra Scowen

4 | P a g e

Sandra Scowen was pretty sure this was a plague skink (below). After photographing and zooming in on the head, plus sending the photo to a skink expert, it was identified as a native skink. Sandra thought the eggs below found in her plant nursery were those of plague skinks (which are oval, not round like these ones). She put them in a jar and a month later tiny garden snails hatched out, to her relief.

Copper skink (photos taken by Sandra Scowen) Plague skink eggs? No, snail eggs Here’s what you can do to attract skinks to your garden. (from DOC website)

Create piles of wood, brick and concrete in sunny dry locations for them to hide in

Grow thick ground cover for them to escape to - e.g., tussock grass, renga renga, muehlenbeckia

Grow berry or nectar-producing plants – e.g. coprosma, kawakawa, rata, flax, manuka, clematis

Reduce usage of herbicide, try going organic

Mulch garden heavily and leave piles of decaying material If you find a skink in your garden, try photographing it - including zooming in on the top of the head to identify the scale which will determine whether it’s a native or invasive. (A single scale means it’s Australian plague; two scales means it’s native New Zealand – easy to remember when you think we have two main islands and they only one.) Native skinks are protected, so must be released after identification. Please email photos to sandrascowen@vodafone.co.nz

Fish Forever Fish Forever has made little progress towards its goal to set aside up to 10% of the waters of the Bay of Islands as no-take marine reserves, in so doing capturing both representative and rare ecosystems in exactly the same manner as we do on land. Increasingly it is becoming clear how ecosystems free from fishing are much more than a nice-to-have: healthy native ecosystems, with their inbuilt complexity, are at the heart of human resilience and well-being. New directions for Fish Forever are on the horizon, to be discussed at the upcoming Bay of Islands Maritime Park AGM (5-7 pm on Monday 24 July at Bay of Islands Yacht Club, Waitangi ); please consider attending if you are interested in this important korero. Committee Your Committee this year has been constituted as follows: Executive Committee: Sandra Scowen (Chairperson & Secretary), Jim Frater (Treasurer), John Booth and Bryn Jamieson; and as General Committee: the aforementioned together with, Malcolm Waller, Philip Yates, Sarah Yates and Louise Dews.