Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
Upper Hutt Branch Newsletter
Nov/Dec/Jan 2015
PO Box 40 875 Upper Hutt
Meetings held at Read, Write, Plus
7.30pm opposite the Cossie Club, Logan Street,
every 4th TUESDAY
25th Nov 2014
24th Feb 2015
Date: Tuesday 25th Nov 2014
Subject: Reflections & the Future
Location: Read, Write, Plus Rooms
Time: 7.30pm
Money, Money, money...
A Christmas get-together, slide show and
general discussion as to direction /where we
spend money for 2015. Treats provided.
Date: Tuesday 24th Feb 2015
What? Shared picnic
Location: Maidstone Park, behind the
shadehouse
Time: 5 pm onwards
Dec 2014
Christmas!!! – Have a break.
(Potting starts again on 20th Jan.)
The Conductor and...
Photo – A Sheppard
…the Choir Matt, Lynne, Glennis, Sue.
Photo – Allan Sheppard
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
A new Government hasn’t diverted our focus on
conservation and the environment – if anything,
it’s made it more important as the National
Government pushes ahead with its intentions to
amend the RMA, as well as continue to progress
exploration of offshore deep sea waters. At
the last Branch meeting, we got a scary insight
into the rapidly declining state of bats in New
Zealand and the paucity of resources available
to address this. So we’re not without old and
new problems. Now, more than ever, we need
member support to fight these battles.
FROM THE CHAIR
Chairman Barry Wards
Being away from New ZeAlland makes you
appreciate it even more. I’ve just spent 9 days
in San Diego where the weather was hot and
sunny – every day! While we bemoan getting 4
seasons on some days in Upper Hutt, 9 days of
hot sunny weather was too boring. The other
thing that the east coast of the United States
makes you yearn for is ‘green’, particularly the
forest cloaks of the Tararuas, places like
Trentham Park and the Western Hutt hills.
Even the trees and other flora of San Diego
seems ‘brownish’ rather than green.
Mawaihakona Report
Written by Pat van Berkel
The Mawaihakona Stream starts at a spring in
Trentham Memorial Park, picks up a few more
springs as it passes through the Wellington
Golf Course, continues through Heretaunga
park and St Pats College lands, and then adds
its contribution to the flow of the Hutt River.
Five years ago this stream was a gorse and
blackberry ridden stream, clogged by willows.
I’ve also recently had 5 days tramping the
Rees-Dart Valleys beyond Glenorchy, immersed
in green forest cloaks, snow, ice and rock.
There’s lots of notices in the track huts about
poison drops, particularly to address the
declining Mohau population. We didn’t see any,
but the bird life in the forest was nevertheless
pretty spectacular. A fantastic walk but a hard
one – lots of climbing and descending over
rock. A new lake now exists in the Dart Valley
following a massive avallanche which wiped out
a fair chunk of the track, adding to the
difficulty of the track.
Back in Upper Hutt, there’s lots happening in
the conservation space. While we’re nearing
the end of the Branch meeting year, planting,
weed clearance and potting up of new plants
continues at a steady pace – more helpers
always welcome! Greater Wellington has
released its draft Natural Resources Strategy
so please advise the Branch committee of any
issues that you as a member would like us to
focus on in a submission.
By the time you receive this newsletter, the
North Island Branches meeting would have
been held at Ruapehu – we’ll provide an update
of that meeting in the next newsletter. We’ll
be discussing the next Society Strategic Plan
so will be seeking members input on where you
would like the Society to move towards over
the next 5 years. Start thinking about that
now.
Pat water sampling at the Mawaihakona
Photo – Allan Sheppard
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
Bart Hogan, ex-pupil of St Pats, started a
project in 2011 to restore the stream to a
lowland forest stream. With the agreement of
St Pats management, Bart and a band of willing
assistants (“Friends of the Mawaihakona
Stream”) plus staff and pupils, have
progressively removed the weeds. St Pats
removed the cattle that were trampling in the
stream. Funding was provided by Forest & Bird
and public donations.
South Island Gathering
Written by National Treasurer Graham
Bellamy
The South Island branch gathering was held on
17-19 Oct at Pohara Beach in Golden Bay. Lyn
and I had a very enjoyable weekend with
representatives from most of the SI branches
and National Office.
We had presentations from each branch on
their activities. Really interesting hearing what
branches are doing & issues that they have in
achieving their varied environmental projects.
On Saturday morning, about 6 am!!! 15 people
went around to Tata Beach & watched the
shags come ashore from the near islands for
their morning ritual. They land in the shallow
water on the foreshore, flap their wings,
swallow small stones and shells, then come up
onto the beach to regurgitate to clear their
digestive system before flying out to sea to
feed. There were about 150 birds and it was
really fantastic to watch this weird
phenomenon.
Photos – Graeme Bennett
The team have planted totara, kahikatea, rimu,
and native bush plants. Already families of
shovellers and pied stilts are making the
stream their home, and native fish have been
reintroduced.
Bridges and tracks have been built and a fish
passage constructed at the mouth of the
stream. The project should largely finish by
the end of 2015 with maintenance of plantings
continuing for a while after that. As you bike
along the river trail, cast an eye over towards
the St Pats poplars and note the tips of native
trees just visible above the grass – keep an eye
on those tips – one day they will be as high as
the poplars.
The first presentation of the day was given by
Andrew Yuill (an engineer) who has been
investigating the Takaka Karst Landscape &
Aquifer. This is the large area of limestone
rock on the top of the Takaka hills and
surrounding land where water enters the cave
system and, something like 15 years later
comes to the surface in the Pupu Springs as the
purest water in the world. Andrew has been
working on getting a Water Conservation Order
for the area as the smallest contamination of
the aquifer could impact the water purity and
this would be irreversible. The eco ballance of
this area is not completely understood but does
need to be protected.
Debs Martin & Al Fleming presented on the
status of Stewardship Land held by DoC. 10%
of NZ land is held as Stewardship Land
whereas 30% of DoC’s land holding is in
Stewardship.
This
means
it
has
no
environmental
classification
within
their
ownership system, so it is has no classification
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
as nature reserve, national park, heritage land
and has no greater protection than any other
piece of ordinary land held by DoC. This is
mostly land that was given to DoC on their
formation that had been owned by Gov’t
departments such as Forest Services, Lands
and Survey. It was meant to be classified and
given appropriate protection during the years
following DoC’s formation, but has not. The
issue here is that some of this land has very
high biodiversity value eg Denniston Plateau,
and consequently is open for economic
development
through
sale
or
licence
agreements.
These partnerships include the current one
with Bathurst who will provide $20m to DoC
for conservation work in exchange for mining
rights on the Dennison Plateau. Others included
the rights to develop mountain bike trails on
DoC land in return for helping with
conservation
work.
Many
felt
these
partnerships were not necessarily advantages
with good environmental outcomes.
David Melville gave a very enjoyable
presentation on Migratory Waders & in
particular the Bar-Tail Godwits which migrate
from Alaska to NZ each year. They travel from
NZ to China on their northern trip where they
feed & refuel. Unfortunately, these feeding
grounds are being reclaimed for commercial and
port developments, and are contaminated with
DDT and its derivatives. This is impacting on
bird health and therefore their ability to
breed and undertake the long flights. The birds
then carry on to Alaska to breed before
returning to NZ to fatten up for the next
cycle.
Graeme Elliot (DoC) gave a very well informed
presentation on 1080 use and effectiveness in
DoC controlled parks & reserves. They have
also been monitoring the relationship between
yearly temperatures and Beech tree mast years
and the impact of 1080 on mice, rat & stoat
populations. The results indicate that they do
get significant reduction of these rodent
numbers by doing 1080 drops after mast years.
The Acolyte – Biodiversity Plus (Bellbird)
Photo – Allan Sheppard
The Priest... (Tui) Photo – Allan Sheppard
Chris Rowe presented on both the Project
Mohua and Project De-Vine. This is designed to
rid Golden Bay of invasive vines in parks,
reserves & private land. There is a real problem
with passion fruit vine. They have been
removing vines with trunks up to 30cm in
diameter. Some infestations on native trees
are so large that they have been able to walk
on top of the vines to spray them.
On Sunday morning we had a discussion on the
update of the Society’s Strategic Plan, a Board
document to lead the Society forward over the
next 5 – 10 years. This is a revision of the last
strategic plan document prepared 3 years ago
by the Board. Mark Hanger (Deputy President)
lead the discussion and then members were
asked to comment on the categories, being
Climate
Disruption,
Protected
Areas,
Freshwater, Predator Free NZ, Marine
Conservation, Restore Large Landscapes, Public
Jan Hana (DoC) gave a very controversial, but
brave presentation on DoC’s current process of
Partnership Relationships or conservation work.
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
Conservation Areas, Threatened Species,
Urban Conservation, Ecologically Sustainable
Economy, One Society. These are all categories
that involve the Societies core workload & we
need to clarify priorities and areas that we can
provide leadership, environmental impact &
political advocacy on. This can either be
achieved by ourselves or in collaboration with
other NGOs. One of the key factors with the
current plan is that we do need and encourage
the work & involvement of branches in
achieving these goals.
bees free of charge as the temperatures begin
to rise. Bees, pleez, not wasps. Tel: 526 9180
The last presentation was given by Devon
McLean on Project Janszoon. This is a project
in Able Tasman Park to restore the biodiversity
values in the park, so it is no longer threatened
by invasive weeds & pests. This work is being
financed by a privately funded trust & has a
time frame of 30 years. It involves work such
as predator control, plant species restoration,
bird species re-introduction & wilding pine &
invasive weed removal. Have a look on their
website www.janszoon.org A huge task being
done by a mixture of volunteers and paid
contractors.
Unfortunately we had to leave and come home
on Sunday afternoon, but we will be returning
to Pohara Beach soon to enjoy more, having
spent 3 days there in February & now another 3
in October.
Fortunately, DoC were contacted and the
transient was returned home. This is the
second time it has happened (different bird),
and highlights the need for us all to be vigilant
with our pets as both cats and dogs are a known
danger to kiwi.
Fantastic, Fenomenal Find!!!
(Yes, I know... “phenomenal”, but it got your
attention – Ed.)
A fugitive was spotted and captured in Upper
Hutt. A kiwi of the flightless variety with the
wanderlust has headed north from the
Orongorongo valley to visit our fair city.
From the Committee
Any old bees?
Clematis forsteri
Photo – Allan Sheppard
There is a lot of hot air and scribing going on
behind the scenes.
The committee are
currently working on Greater Wellington’s
draft Natural Resources plan and UHCC’s draft
Significance and Engagement policy and Arts
Culture and Heritage strategy. All these things
take time and energy from a small dedicated
group of people who need your assistance.
Is anyone out there? Are there any members,
please, who have the time to surf the net
(Google) for information?
This would be
ongoing as it is not specific to the stated
Photo – Aunty Google
Noticed a swarm of bees in your backyard?
Beekeeper Ivan Pedersen is offering to collect
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
projects. Please contact Lynne McLellan on
526 7775.
can be sold/built on tomorrow. It’s already
happened with Craig’s Flat/Riverstone Terraces
and Mt Marua, it could happen elsewhere too.
The time to act is now, so if you’re interested
in helping the subcommittee in any way, please
contact Pat on pvanb@clear.net.nz or
Margaret for helping with the petition on 9711
794 or Mobile: 021 10 20 233.
The hard work is yet to come, of course. “A
Green Belt” makes a lovely sound-byte, but
even if the UHCC and WRC are on board with
the idea, what does that mean in reality? Some
land is in private ownership, and for the land
that is in UHCC control, the lesson of the
Southern Hills is that zoning has not worked as
protection. The subcommittee would like to
see the Green Belt in reserves or covenanted.
Growing the young at heart, 1 tree at a
time.
Photo - A Sheppard
Green Belt Subcommittee
A lot has been achieved since the last
newsletter. What we can say is that we have
been working very hard; Pat van Berkel and
Allan Sheppard negotiate with UHCC, WRC and
landowners, thanks to Lauren Prestney, we now
have a strategic plan; Nick Saville creates maps
of land owners, Sue Millar provides long term
history, background wisdom and a place to meet
and Margaret Craigie is making initial contact
with landowners and running a petition.
Ideally, an Act of Parliament as with the
Wellington Green Belt would be fantastic, but
we simply don’t have the spare energy/staff.
What can you do to help? Talk about it to
friends (particularly if they own undeveloped
land that you think might be in the Green Belt
area), write to your city councillors, help
collect signatures, get involved with the
subcommittee, walk the hills and enjoy the
views!
All this has the purpose of having a protected
Green Belt (green spaces, ideally ecological
corridors) surrounding Upper Hutt. Wellington
has one, whereas in theory our beautiful hills
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec14/Jan15
(Previous page) Leo & Lynne taking a break from hard slog at Ecclesfield Reserve
Photo – A Sheppard
Glennis Sheppard admiring the Green Belt from Ecclesfield Reserve lookout.
Photo – A Sheppard
Meets 1st Thursday of the month
F&B Wellington Branch Meeting
Meets 3rd Thursday of the month
Chalkle
www.freshthinking.chalkle.com
Doc has some innovative new classes, most with
a small cost, others free. These include
sessions such as Landscape Heritage While
Running, Nov 13th, Backyard Habitat Creation,
Nov 15th, Mapping Your Project, Nov16th,
What Bird is That? Nov16th, Snorkelling
Skills, Nov 22nd, Snorkelling & Marine Life,
Nov29th, Maori Forest Wisdom & Healing, Nov
30th, Inspired by Nature, Dec 5th.
Working Bees
Thursday Evenings
Keep the following dates and times free:
Thursday 27th Nov 2014 5pm – 7pm
Thursday 18th Dec 2014 5pm – 7pm
Supper provided afterwards
Tel: Sue Millar 526 7440
Potting Up
Runs until 16th Dec and restarts on 20th Jan
2015.
They like enrolment to be online on the chalkle
website, but I’m sure if you prefer the personal
touch, then ringing DoC direct would work too.
Website
Forest & Bird Local Branches
F&B Lower Hutt Branch meeting:
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec/Jan15
Forest and Bird has a great website with heaps
of interesting information. It includes past
copies of our newsletter.
www.forestandbird.org.nz
The deadline for the next newsletter is:
January 25th 2015.
Please send any items to Lynne or Margaret,
preferably by email (so we don’t have to wear
out our fingers typing!) Thanks 
DoC educational classes
lynne@letterlinks.co.nz
powertalkspeakwell@yahoo.com
www.freshthinking.chalkle.com
Nature Space
www.naturespace.org.nz
NZ Ecological Restoration Network
www.bush.org.nz
NZ Plant Conservation Network
www.nzpcn.org.nz
National Wetland Trust
Many thanks to our contributors this month.
Photos by Allan Sheppard, his expertise is very
much appreciated.
The views expressed in this newsletter are not
necessarily those of Forest and Bird as a whole.
Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy.
Any errors or omissions are regretted.
Correspondence should be addressed to P O Box
40 875 Upper Hutt.
Editors’ Note
Jean and Phillipa
Current Branch Committee
Barry Wards
Graham Bellamy
Sue
Millar
Sheppards
Roz Brown
Pat van Berkel
Kathryn Hicks
Margaret Craigie
Lynne McLellan
via
Phone
04 970 4266 (hm)
04 894 0475 (wk)
04 526 3053
04 526 7440
04 526 7573
04 528 8072
04 526 7881
04 971 1794
04 526 7775
Chairperson
Email
barry.wards@forestandbird.org.nz
Treasurer
Horticulture
glbellamy@slingshot.co.nz
owlet@xtra.co.nz
Committee/Submissions
Committee/FOTHR
Secretary
Newsletter
Newsletter
rozab@slingshot.co.nz
pvanb@clear.net.nz
hicks144@xtra.co.nz
powertalkspeakwell@yahoo.com
lynne@letterlinks.co.nz
Calendar of Events
Month
Date
Time
MEETINGS
Nov
Tues 18th
8am
Tues 25th
7.30pm
Jan
Tues 20th
8am
Feb
Tues 17th
8am
Tues 24th
5.30pm
onwards
Event
Contact
Committe Meeting
Kathryn Hicks
04 526 7881
Barry Wards
04 970 4266
Kathryn Hicks
04 526 7881
Kathryn Hicks
04 526 7881
Lynne McLellan
04 526 7775
Read, Write, Plus Rms
opposite Cossie Club
Committee Meeting
Committee Meeting
Maidstone Park picnic
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
WORKING
BEES
POTTING
SHED
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec/Jan15
Thu 27th Nov
5pm – 7pm
Hulls Creek, releasing
Thu 18th Dec
5pm – 7pm
Details from Sue
Up to 16 Dec
From 20 Jan
Tuesday
9-noon
Tuesday
9-noon
Potting up
Potting up
Sue Millar
04 526 7440
Sue Millar
04 526 7440
Sue Millar
04 526 7440
Sue Millar
04 526 7440
Growing young minds one tree at a time.
Photo – A Sheppard
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec/Jan15
Winter flowering orchid (Diplodium alobulum) Bracket fungi at Ecclesfield Reserve
What Nature does, simply because it can...
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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society
Upper Hutt Branch Nov14/Dec/Jan15
Birdsnest fungi
Fungus at Kaitoke
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