Rare snail on the up, Tinline's Napoleon link and more from Project Janszoon

News from Project Janszoon - July 2015

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Rare snail doing well in Park

Imagine finding a critically endangered species, like the kakapo or Maui dolphin, was much more prevalent in an area than previously thought. You would jump for joy, right?

Well that is exactly what has happened in the Abel Tasman. A survey of carnivorous land snails has found the distribution of the nationally critical Rhytida oconnori snail is much wider than expected.

“To put this in context, if the Rhytida oconnori had feathers it would be the equivalent of a kakapo as they are both classified nationally critical. Imagine finding you had 20% more kakapo than thought, people would be popping the champagne corks,” says DOC biodiversity ranger Mike Ogle.

DOC and Project Janszoon undertook the survey to better understand the distribution of both the Rhytida oconnori and the Powelliphanta hochstetteri hochstetteri (P. h. hochstetteri) in the Park.

While historically R. oconnori would have had a wider distribution, as recently as 1998 this snail was reported as having been reduced to surviving within a 1km radius of Pages Saddle near Harwoods Hole. However this survey found evidence of the land snail up to 9km east and north-east of this area, with most south and west of Awaroa estuary. The nationally endangered P. h. hochstetteri was also found further east and west than previously thought. A further positive surprise was finding a high number of P. h. hochstetteri shells at Waterfall Creek, an area previously considered to be probably out of its range.

Project Janszoon Operations Manager Andrew Macalister says this survey has highlighted the importance of extending predator control to protect the snails.

In this issue

Eye on the people's beach

Robin under surveillance

Closer ties with the Brook

Tinline's Napoleon link

Rare snail doing well

Janszoon trapping team doing the k's

Road closure due to possum control

Dune work reducing fire risk

Education update

Robin under surveillance

The 50 robin transferred from Motuareronui Adele Island to Pitt Head by the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust are set to be intensively monitored in their new home.

Around 12 robin were spotted during the first monitoring two weeks after the late April release. Evidence shows that birds usually disperse after a translocation in the first fortnight. Ornithologist Pete Gaze says intensive monitoring will be carried out from July to September over the 150 ha rat controlled area at Pitt Head.

“We want to know whether rat control means the robin can survive and breed well on the mainland. We will now map the bird’s territories and will monitor around 10 nests to see how well breeding goes,” he says.

The information will show the extent to which birds have stayed in the area and whether the rat control has been effective enough to allow the population to grow.

To watch a video on the robin release here

Photo Dave Buckton

Kaka breeding programme to get boost

Project Janszoon is looking at the possibility of taking fledgling kaka from Nelson Lakes and Wangapeka this summer to ensure breeding pairs with Top of the South genes are part of the captive breeding programme.

Three wild caught juveniles found at Nelson Lakes in late 2015 are being raised at Nelson’s Natureland Zoo which recently opened its new Conservation Corner (click here for more details). The birds are all male, and along with two other male northern South Island kaka in captivity, now need mates.

Pete Gaze says this will maximise the chances of releasing birds into the Abel Tasman with northern South Island provenance. There have now been two kaka releases into the Park. Of those eight birds four juveniles are still resident within a a few km’s of the release site. Three birds have died, one from lead poisoning, two cause unknown, and another has left the Park.

To read more about the challenges of re-establishing kaka read Pete’s latest tweet.

Ron Moorhouse recovering young kaka Nelson Lakes Photo Dave Buckton

Temporary road and track closure due to possum control

The roads to Totaranui and Awaroa Inlet, and tracks in the north of the Abel Tasman, will be temporarily closed during the upcoming aerial possum control programme.

The pest control programme, to reduce possum numbers, is vital to limiting damage to forest plants and birdlife. It will take place in a period of good weather after 25 July 2016 and involve an aerial pre-feed of non toxic bait followed by an aerial distribution of 1080 baits over 3,800 ha in the north of the Park.

On the morning of the toxic operation, the Totaranui Road, between Pigeon Saddle and Totaranui campground, and the Awaroa Road, to Awaroa Inlet, will be closed until the roads have been inspected to ensure they are cleared of bait. Tracks between Awaroa and Wainui carpark in the north of the Park will also be closed temporarily.

Adjoining landowners and concessionaires have been consulted on the operation and will be notified of the toxic bait application before it takes place. Warning signs will be erected at access points to the treatment area and high public-use sites.

For more information on the predator control operation click here

People's beach just a click away

Project Janszoon has made keeping an eye on the People’s beach a whole lot easier with a new camera capturing real time images of the beautiful spot.

The camera has been placed on the roof of Wilsons Abel Tasman’s Meadowbank Homestead and looks towards the 7 ha site that became famous earlier this year when the public bought it through crowd funding. It takes a photo every 10 minutes and you can then scroll through a days worth of images to see the beach in all its glory.

Dune restoration work reducing fire risk

Work to reduce the risk of fire and restore dunes that are under threat from high tides has been underway over the last few months.

The DOC field team have removed gorse from Apple Tree and Coquille Bays, these areas will be replanted with native species later in the season. Also as part of the ‘firesmart’ work volunteers removed gorse and planted native species at Mosquito Bay.

Spinifex will be planted at Apple Tree Bay and also at Sandfly Bay and Motueka High School students will plant more dune species at Anchorage. The native dune species can better withstand inundation by salt water and when they get their roots down will help to bind and rebuild the sand after erosion from storm events. At Coquille Bay the plan is to replant Ngaio.

Thanks also to the ATBT volunteers who have worked with Project Janszoon’s restoration supervisor Helen Lindsay to enhance plantings at Medlands Beach and Tinline. You can find out more about Helen and her conservation work here.

Photo : Lucy Hodgson from the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust planting at Mosquito Bay

Closer ties to Brook Sanctuary

Project Janszoon is delighted to have joined forces with the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary to reintroduce kaka and other native species back to the region.

The two trusts signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June, formalising a partnership that, along with other initiatives, could see a kaka creche established at the Brook before the birds are reintroduced to the wild.

The photo shows Devon and Brook Waimarama acting chair Derek Shaw signing on the bottom line.

To learn more click here .

Learning in the Park

Our 'Adopt a Section' partner schools have been busy in the Abel Tasman over the last few months. Motueka High School’s Science X class is now a 2 term elected course and is proving popular with students. They made two visits to Anchorage to collect data for their individually designed research projects.

Y12 Geography was back at Watering Cove earning 5 NCEA Level 2 credits for their data collection work. The highlight of the day was spotting one of the newly banded and transferred South Island robin about halfway up the track to the ridgeline. New this year, Y12 physics students are heading to Anchorage in August for an overnight astronomy lesson with support from Paul Fisher of the Astronomical Society and whanau class teacher Hamihi Duncan.

Enthusiasm is growing for Motupipi Primary School's newly presented restoration plan for the Wainui Sandspit. This student-led plan was presented by Student Advisory Board members to stakeholders at a meeting in late June. The planting programme is set for term three when spring arrives. After planting, the school is planning to take each of its classes on monitoring trips to their site.

Education advisor Wendy Reeve says the feedback from Motupipi’s all-school visit to their site in June is that they are really seeing the value of this trip being part of who they are as a school. Principal Mark Cullen says staff are amazed at how engaged students are and that kids of all ages are retaining significant information and understanding year by year.

The Student Advisory Board has been busy as well, with each school's leaders working on signage proposals for their sites. Two of the leaders from Motueka High School had the opportunity to act as ambassadors for Project Janszoon by leading a day at Anchorage for the Sir Peter Blake Youth Environmental Leaders Forum in April.

As part of his research into place names in the Park, Project Janszoon Trustee and author Dr Philip Simpson discovers Tinline has links with Napoleon and weeping willow.

Tinline Stream is named after a prominent and nationally important local citizen, John Tinline. The name was formalised by the New Zealand Geographic Board in 1968. It is the first substantial stream from the southern entrance to the Park and remains a popular picnic ground just an hour along the Coast Track with a lovely forest remnant walk.

The prominent point above Tinline Bay is the site of a former pa that was occupied when D’Urville visited and anchored in 1827 - just a decade short of 200 years ago! Today the pa site is clothed in bracken and regenerating bush, but then it was an open lookout over the southern part of Tasman Bay.

The stream flows from an inland high point (679m) and near the coast it creates a fertile flat that was once farmed by settlers including Tinline. It was then subdivided and holiday baches were built. Although the baches have now gone, the plants that grew around them remain: privet, cotoneaster and watsonia among them.

John Tinline himself was a much respected pioneer in Nelson, nick-named ‘Old Fizzlebilly’ because of his flowing beard.

A bachelor, he devoted himself to government service, farming and philanthropy, more or less in that order. His government roles stemmed from his training as a lawyer before he migrated from Scotland in 1839. He lived in Nelson and shared accommodation with a young Maori from whom he learnt Maori language, and this ability led him, in 1844, to a position of Interpreter for the Nelson Magistrate under which native affairs were managed, including the purchase of Maori land and the identification of land reserves.

Known as a fair man he served in the Provincial Government. During this time he explored parts of Nelson, and Tinline River (a tributary of the Pelorus). He purchased large areas of sheep run country in Marlborough and in 1857 he purchased a block that extended from the Marahau estuary to the stream. He owned the land for at least 30 years before it was sold to a succession of owners and it finally became crown land and part of the Park in 1965.

Having a rich estate he was well known for his gifts to various educational institutions and was the benefactor for several scholarships. He is remembered for paying for part of the historic chain-link fence along Rocks Road in Nelson (the piles for Haven Road having come from Marahau), but he is also known for bringing in weeping willow to New Zealand (from Napoléon Bonaparte’s grave in the Canary Isles), for growing the salmon that were introduced to the Motueka River and for advocating the building of local railways. Perrine Moncrief was one who supported his life being remembered in the naming of Tinline Stream. Ironically, there is nowhere in the Park named for the woman who was instrumental in its formation.

People of the Park

The Janszoon southern trapping team

It is the smell that often lets them know they have a body to deal with. Or the incessant buzzing of the wasps as they fly in and out of the wooden trap box.

“If it’s a real whiffy one you know it when you’re a couple of metres from the trap box. Most kills are fine to deal with but they can be a gooey, fluffy, bony mess which is pretty gross,” says DOC ranger Steve Holloway.

Steve and colleagues Bill Knox, John Whibley and Megan Bleakley are the Motueka based rangers responsible for checking the southern end of Project Janszoon’s stoat trapping network. The network, which covers 70% of the Park, currently has 3,000 traps and will soon be extended north of Totaranui thanks to new funding from Air New Zealand.

3,000 traps equate to about 200km of trap lines to be walked every month. Each of the four rangers spend seven to eight days a month checking the trap network. Over a year it is the equivalent of walking on SH1 from Cape Reinga to Bluff and then back to Oamaru.

It can be a tough, lonely job. The rangers work in tiger country, tramping up and down the trap lines through awkward bush terrain. In winter it can be a bit dismal walking around in the wet bush and in the peak of summer it is hot and dry with the sun reflecting off the granite.

“You can do half a day in the wet and then you can start feeling a wee bit rubbish. Once your undies are wet it’s downhill from there,” laughs Steve.

But all in all he says he loves the job. A typical month would see two of the rangers helicoptered into bivvies at the top of the Park near Evans or Glennies Clearings. Over three days they will check trap lines and walk out to either Awaroa or Torrent Bay. The other five to six days are checking trap lines around Canaan and Wainui, or around the coast.

Steve is a plant person. He sees it as a personal challenge to spot rare plants when walking in the remote bush and so far he has found a dozen mistletoe sites that were previously unknown.

“You get lots of time to contemplate. I have four kids at home so for me getting into the bush means I can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet,” he says.

Steve says rats are common, but he thinks he sees less stoats these days. Every catch is recorded and collecting the data has got high tech recently. Each ranger now has an app on their phone that is connected to the Stoat database. As they walk the trap line the phones’ GPS will ping as they get close to a trap box. If nothing has been caught they don’t have to pull their phone out of their pocket, but if there is a kill they enter that into the app. When they are back in coverage it all uploads to a central database.

“We used to have to enter everything into a notebook and it would take at least an hour to enter the data when we got back to the office. Now it takes ten minutes max. One hour, times four people means it’s saving half a day of data entry every month which is great,” he says.

Steve says the best part of the whole job is watching the transformation of the park each and every day.

“I have been here since the first traps went in and I think there are definitely more birds around, especially riflemen up in the Canaan / Wainui area. I have also seen kakariki about 3k’s inland from Bark Bay so they are obviously heading towards the coast which is cool. Over the near 3 years I have been here, I have had several encounters with kea, found a pair of whio in Wainui and falcons over towards Awaroa. I got to see the first kaka that went to the aviary, and even my first saddleback out on Adele Island. More recently I met a pair of robins out at Pitt Head that have recently been relocated from Adele.”

Steve Holloway takes a selfie out on the job

Bill Knox checking a trap - photo Dave Buckton

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