Community Newsletter
December 2014
Contents
Shorebird protection
Shorebird protection
The harbour’s endangered shorebirds have had a tougher time than usual this year
due to very high spring tides and erosion of their nesting sites on
Whangakopikopiko (Tern Island) and the Ōhope and Ōhiwa Spits.
Shore erosion at Ōhiwa
Uretara Island rat free!
Farming community joins OHSCG
Signage shelters welcome
Northern New Zealand dotterel, banded dotterel, variable oyster catchers, red and
black billed gulls and Caspian terns are all on the threatened species list and
breed, or spend part of their year, in and around the Ōhiwa Harbour.
Saltmarsh condition
Ōhiwa shorebird annual survey
Scion ecosystem services
Freedom camping formalised
Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy ‘refresh’
Mangrove clearing plans for summer
Upcoming events
Fluffy dotterel chicks and their nests are extremely vulnerable to damage done by people and
vehicles, and predation from dogs, cats, rats, hedgehogs and black-backed gulls.
This newsletter is brought to you by
the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy
Coordination Group (OHSCG), which
is a partnership between Bay of
Plenty Regional Council, Whakatāne
and Ōpōtiki District Councils,
Department of Conservation,
Upokorehe, Whakatōhea, Tūhoe
(Waimana Kaaku) and Ngāti Awa.
This group is responsible for
implementing actions from the Ōhiwa
Harbour Strategy (OHS) and keeping
the community informed.
Add your voice
Department of Conservation staff member Mithuna Sothieson, and a team of
volunteers, have been working steadfastly to protect the rare and endangered
shorebirds during the breeding season. The team, including Alan Haultain, Ohiwa
Reserves Care Group and the Bryans Beach Care Group, are doing most of the
‘hands on’ work, with DOC providing support, materials and where needed,
training.
Protection of the shorebirds includes trapping stoats, rats and hedgehogs around
the nesting areas, and fencing known nesting areas to exclude vehicles, people,
and dogs. Black-backed gull control is also important as, although native to New
Zealand, adults of the species are a serious threat as they predate eggs and chicks
of other threatened shorebirds. Mithuna noted that the group had found that
‘pricking’ the black-backed gulls’ eggs was the best way to reduce their populations
and causing the least disturbance to desirable species nesting nearby.
Mithuna and the volunteer team’s protection works will continue throughout
summer, until chick fledging is complete. Their goal is to see successful fledging of
an average of 0.5 chicks per breeding pair each year over a three year period (or
longer). This rate of fledging, productivity is considered effective to allow
population growth.
Your feedback is welcomed. If you
would like to share your stories or
find out more about any of the
projects in this newsletter, please
contact the coordinator of the Ōhiwa
Harbour Strategy implementation,
Tim Senior, at the Bay of Plenty
Regional Council. Email
tim.senior@boprc.govt.nz or phone
0800 884 880.
Volunteer Alan Haultain
erects a protective fence
around a shorebird
nesting site at Ōhope.
The rare birds and their
nests are so well
camouflaged; they are
very easy to tread on.
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Shore erosion at Ōhiwa
Farming community joins OHSCG
Shore erosion along Ōhiwa Harbour Road, including the area
in front of the holiday park, is being addressed by the Ōpōtiki
District Council through several simple measures.
The farming community is keen to be more involved in the
overall management of the Ōhiwa catchment and farming
representatives will now attend meetings of the Ōhiwa
Harbour Strategy Coordination Group (OHSCG). In
November, Norman Craig from Nukuhou and Robert
Brosnahan from Ōhiwa, attended the OHSCG hui.
Shore protection measures include plantings of oioi (jointed
wire rush) below the eroding banks, placement of rocks along
the waterline and construction of an access way for
swimmers and kayakers.
Regional Council land management staff and members of the
Nukuhou farming community are working to develop closer
links through such engagement processes. Dairy farmers,
who run highly productive and valuable businesses in the
catchment, are particularly interested in the Council’s water
quality monitoring results and the science behind them, as
this information will help guide farm management practices.
Regional Council staff and farmers hope to meet regularly in
the future.
Signage shelters welcome
New signage shelters are in place at Port Ōhope and more
are planned for Ōhiwa. In the coming months, signs will be
moved to the new structures and new signs, such as those
that highlight ‘things to see and do’, will be added.
Construction of similar shelters is underway at the Ōhiwa boat
ramp and the reserve near the Ōhiwa spit.
Wayne O’Keefe (Coast Care), local residents and Todd and Nola
Morgan from the holiday park helped with the shore protection work
at Ōhiwa.
Uretara Island rat free!
Recent pest monitoring on Uretara Island has shown that the
island is now rat free. This is a great achievement by the
members of the Nukuhou Saltmarsh Care Group.
Visitors and community members have found the new shelters at Port
Ōhope to be ideal for picnics and quiet contemplation of the scenery
and environment.
With birds’ eggs, chicks, seeds and insects no longer being
eaten by rats, bird numbers, forest seedling growth and insect
numbers (particularly large tasty ones such as weta) will all
increase, restoring some of the historic biodiversity of the
island.
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Community Newsletter
December 2014
Saltmarsh condition
Ōhiwa shorebird annual survey
We now have a better idea about how the saltmarsh is faring
in and around the Ōhiwa Harbour. There is very little
historical research about this ecosystem, which is an
extremely important component of a healthy harbour.
Saltmarsh (consisting of specialised reeds, rushes, shrubs
and herbs growing in saline mud) buffers the soft estuarine
margins from storms, binds and filters sediment, oxygenates
water, provides a ‘nursery’ and food source for juvenile fish,
has a role in the food cycle for crustaceans and provides
habitat for native marsh bird species.
Meg and Mike Collins, with other volunteers from the
Ornithological Society of New Zealand, have been counting
wading and shore birds almost every year since 1997.
Monitoring sites include the Ōhope Spit, Tuamanui, Harris car
park, Ōhiwa Spit, Whangakopikopiko (Tern Island), Reeve
Road, Ōhiwa Beach, the Oyster Farm, and a shell bank and
sand island within the harbour.
The group noted 500 Godwit (pictured below) more than last
year and also found a slight increase in variable
oystercatchers and South Island pied oystercatcher.
A recent Regional Council Ōhiwa Harbour Saltmarsh
Condition Monitoring survey mapped and assessed sites of
regional, national and international significance around the
Harbour. Most of the sites were found to be in fairly good to
very good condition. However, small scattered saltmarsh
remnants were identified as most vulnerable and least able to
survive in the long term.
A significant and ongoing threat is weed encroachment,
particularly from saltwater paspalum and sea couch, which
trap sediment, raise the mud level and create an area too dry
for saltmarsh. Saltmarsh survives in a delicate balance of ‘wet
and dry’ conditions, so actions that alter water flow, such as
drainage, cause saltmarsh decline and a subsequent
reduction in juvenile fish and marsh bird populations.
Ōhiwa’s New Zealand dotterel numbers have not changed
significantly since last year. Many dotterel nesting areas have
been compromised this year by erosion of the dunes and
shoreline. Two nests were found, one on Whangakopikopiko
(Tern Island) and another at Ōhiwa Beach, where more nests
are expected. However, nests at Ōhiwa are very vulnerable,
and potentially less successful, due to human access,
vehicles, dogs and cats.
Notable were the eight whimbrels, journeyed to Ōhiwa for
winter from as far away as northern Europe, western Siberia
or North America. The ‘wary’ whimbrels could occasionally be
seen roosting on sandbanks within the harbour, generally
away from other bird colonies.
One lone wrybill (Ngutuparore) was seen on the Ōhope Spit.
The wrybill is the only bird in the world to have a bill that is
bent sideways. The species travels north for winter and is
more commonly seen on the shingle spits of mid-to-upper
South Island river beds. See more at www.nzbirds.com.
The healthy saltmarsh at Cheddar Valley is predominantly oioi. The
greener distant margins are mangroves.
Land reclamation, encroachment by people creating gardens
in saltmarsh adjacent to their sections and man-made
structures, such as stop banks, roads and culverts, have
impacted on the extent of saltmarsh areas. In order to
conserve saltmarshes long-term, regular monitoring will be
carried out and protection mechanisms will be investigated by
OHSCG. Protection may include the prevention of
reclamation and encroachments, fencing to exclude stock and
human access, sea couch and saltwater paspalum control,
the restoration of natural drainage systems and education.
A colony of about 200 red and black billed gulls moved to
Whangakopikopiko (Tern Island) this year where they nested
and hatched chicks in late November. The volunteers noted
that they hoped all hatchings were completed before the
higher December tides. The last time such a large gull colony
was seen in the area was in 2006.
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Scion ecosystem services
Mangrove clearing plans for summer
Scion scientists completed a ‘desktop’ Ōhiwa catchment
Ecosystem Services Assessment. Humankind benefits in a
multitude of ways from both natural ecosystems and those
modified by man and, collectively, these benefits are known
as ‘ecosystem services’. For example, ecosystem services
are involved in the provision of clean drinking water, food,
timber, the decomposition of wastes and pollination.
Last summer’s mangrove clearing working bees attracted a
small handful of hardy people from Upokorehe Iwi and the
local community.
The season’s work was mapped and reported in November,
in accordance with resource consent requirements.
Upokorehe hold the mangrove clearance resource consent
from the Regional Council and manages the project.
The study established values for the benefits provided by
dairying, dry stock farming, horticulture, exotic forestry, native
forest, indigenous scrub and wetlands. The study found that
wetlands were the highest value ecosystem on a net
dollars/hectare basis, as they provide recreation, species
conservation, waste treatment, water supply and protection
from erosion.
This summer, Upokorehe and the Ōhiwa partners will review
progress and plans in order to establish what can be
achieved by a small group of people. For example, instead of
removing all mangroves outside of the consented boundary,
the project may focus on removing just mangrove seedlings
and very small plants. Final decisions about what is to be
done, and how and when, will be made by Upokorehe. If
you’d like to help out, give Trevor Ransfield a call on 07 315
4990.
The study will inform management of the catchment and the
report is available from Tim Senior.
Upcoming events
Freedom camping formalised
What’s going into that storm-water drain?
Both the Whakatāne and Opotiki District Councils are
preparing a Freedom Camping Bylaw, which will give
provision for dedicated freedom camping sites in the district.
The Freedom Camping Act 2011 permits freedom camping
on public land but bylaws and Reserve Management Plans
can apply certain rules for freedom camping on Council
controlled land.
Residents around the harbour are reminded that everything
that goes into a drain quickly ends up in the harbour so
please be especially careful what you allow to flow into
storm-water drains. Washing cars, for example, is best
done on the lawn so that any detergent and oily
contaminants are filtered by the soil before flowing into the
harbour.
Freedom camping is currently permitted for fully selfcontained vehicles at three council sites in Ōhope and one in
Whakatane. In the Ōpōtiki District, no Ōhiwa reserves permit
freedom camping. The bylaws will formalise these areas and
associated rules.
Also, please remember to make sure your septic tank is in
good working order!
Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy ‘refresh’
Waiotahe Beach Sand Sculpting Competition
Friday, 2 January 2015 – 10:00 am to 3:00pm
The Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy has been redrafted to
incorporate community, iwi and stakeholder feedback. This
draft was presented to the Ōhiwa Harbour Implementation
Forum - OHIF - in early November.
Ōhope Concert in the Park – Mahy Reserve Ōhope
Friday, 2 January 2015 - 2:00pm to 7:00pm
Ōhope Craft Market – Bluett Road, Ōhope
Saturday, 3 January & 7 February 2015 - 8:00am
OHIF members considered further work was needed on the
‘front end’ of the Strategy to create a more bicultural
document that embodies the cultural and spiritual essence of
Ōhiwa. This will be advanced by the Ōhiwa Strategy partners
in early 2015 with a view to resubmission to OHIF in March.
Subject to OHIF approval, the refreshed Strategy will go to
iwi, stakeholders and community in mid-April for further input.
EBOP Tri Club Monthly Triathlon – Port Ōhope
Sunday, 4 January 2015 - 10:00am
Ōpōtiki Movies under the Stars – Waiotahe Beach
Wednesday, 7 January 2015 - 8:30pm to 10:30pm
Ōhope Sprint Triathlon – Port Ōhope
Sunday, 15 February 2015 - 10:00am
As yet, there has been very little feedback on the proposed
actions. Endorsement of the new actions by OHS partners,
stakeholders and community is essential as these will guide
work programmes for the coming years. The refreshed
Strategy is available from Tim Senior.
NZ BBQ King – Ōhope
Saturday, 21 February 2015 - 9:30am to 2:30pm
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