I would love to be woken up by the sound of the kiwi. We want to see kiwi come back into Wellington

Transcription

1 Capital Kiwi

2 I would love to be woken up by the sound of the kiwi. We want to see kiwi come back into Wellington Wellington Mayor Justin Lester Key Species Kiwi Crofton Downs has become NZ s first predator free suburb, and a string of others are following suit in backyard trapping (with Predator Free Miramar Penninsula on the table courtesy of the first stage of Predator Free Wellington). Go Wellington, you re showing the rest of the country what can be done Facebook comment on the news of tīeke/saddleback nesting in Polhill Reserve Kiwi Capital For millions of years the only kiwis in Wellington were err kiwis. But the feisty flightless birds with the chop-stick bill have been absent from Wellington for over a century, unable to survive habitat loss and the suite of predators introduced by the people who re named after them. Most New Zealanders have never seen a kiwi in the wild, and if they have had an encounter, it s likely to have been in a zoo nocturnal house. Kiwi are central to our sense of identity, with Māori myth and settler backstories. They re emblematic of the otherworldly evolutionary path that Aotearoa s long isolation enabled. They look as though they were dreamt up by Dr Seuss. Like us, they re just a bit different: the dad incubates the over-sized egg, their feathers are like fur and despite the running style, they re Beauden Barrett-fast on the ground. Being kiwi defines us: it s how the rest of the world knows us and it symbolises everything from national flag options (laser kiwi!) to our defence force, sports teams and money. Our rugby league team is the Kiwis, NBA star Stephen Adams boasts, I am just a Kiwi. The flightless bird is the symbol of our air force (which is a bit cheeky, but that s how us Kiwis roll). Birds In Our Wild Backyard Wellington has become a front-running biodiversity hotspot off the back of urban conservation efforts like Zealandia Ecosanctuary, council pest control programmes and volunteer mahi. Wellingtonions have embraced their returning avian originals as part of city life: mountain bikers check trap lines on lunchtime rides and kids track pests at primary schools. The spillover halo is still tenuous but its effects are palpable. Karearea (NZ falcon) are lunching on pigeon in city parks and kaka are breeding behind Garage Project Brewery. But the special k is kiwi. By 2025 imagine kiwi wandering around beneath the Brooklyn Wind Turbine, or probing around Government House: with tourists posting of their encounters, and locals beaming with pride at their iconic manu mate is National Geographic s Year of the Bird. They launched it with a visit to Wellington: Zealandia, Polhill, and similar efforts have inspired New Zealand s political leadership to announce a lofty goal: Ridding their entire country of rats, stoats, and possums by The Predator Free 2050 campaign is extremely ambitious, according to most ecologists, but it seems to have captured the kiwi imagination. Families across the country have taken up trapping as a civic and environmentally minded hobby. Emma Marris, National Geographic Capital Kiwi - The Aim Restore a taonga species to Wellington and establish an aspirational touchstone for Predator Free New Zealand: kiwis in the backyard of one of our largest cities. The knock-on biodiversity effects and social capital will be significant in an area around the same size as Abel Tasman National Park. It will be a high profile milestone for Predator Free Wellington and come at a key time to spur community backyard trapping and link with Miramar penninsula projects. Targeted Pests Mustelids are the primary target of this project. Rats and hedgehogs will be secondary.

3 I believe this [bringing kiwi back into our lived experience] is what Capital Kiwi will do they are bringing the kiwi back to the people. Kiwis for Kiwi Michelle Impey Where? Dogs The area is 20,000ha in total. It encompasses the southwestern corner of the North Island: the steep, scrubby hillsides of Te Kopahou, Makara Peak, and stations like Terawhiti, Kinnoull and the Meridian Wind Farms. There are many areas in the mooted zone where core defendable populations of kiwi can be established safe from dogs. The land use ranges from working farm to reserve, and has been vetted by kiwi recovery managers and scientists as suitable habitat for kiwi. Local reference: On the back of community-driven predator control, the Rimutaka Forest Park Trust reintroduced brown kiwi in 2006 into a 1000ha area. Now there is a population of over 130 kiwi giving Wainuiomata s Sunny Grove residents their own goodnight kiwi chorus. Only one kiwi has been identified as a dog victim, following a programme of community cultural change to work with local hunters and dog-owners. Capital kiwi will work with private landowners, PF Welly, WCC, SPCA, DOC and councils on a social behaviour change programme in areas closer to city. Groundwork What We Need 1. Pest eradication: the biggest issue for kiwi is mustelid predation off the nest: The majority of depredation happens once the chicks hatch and are free roaming in the first six months of their lives. Kiwi under a kilogram in weight i.e. below six months of age, are unable to effectively defend themselves from stoats; without intervention less than 6% of chicks survive to breed. But once they re adults kiwi have a fend like Sonny Bill and can take on most challengers. To eradicate stoats requires roughly one trap per five hectares. Eradication will be achieved via a mix of single set DOC series and self-resetting traps providing constant control. 2. Controlled dogs on private land, and dogs on leads in and around reserves where kiwi and pets intersect. Kiwi live alongside people in many places in NZ, from Whakatane to Coromandel. Wellington SPCA chief executive Steve Glassey is supportive: Promoting responsible pet ownership not only improves animal welfare in our community, it helps with conservation efforts like this everyone wins. The groundwork has started via existing council pest control. Reserves like Polhill, Huntleigh, Otari-Wilton, Mt Kaukau and Makara Peak, are already managed with extensive trapping regimes. Zealandia is also a key conservation player in this area and has a programme to extend a safe habitat to the sea, with a strong education component. There is a community will for looking after our native taonga, engendered by the experience of the Zealandia spillover and sustained council and volunteer pest control. In a 2012 Victoria University research survey over 80% of respondents thought native birds ought to be in the city: charmed by the tūī jazz fest and the kākā circus that has come to town Captial Kiwi will look to extend the community engagement models demonstrated in award-winning reserve projects like Polhill Protectors (Supreme Award-winner at 2017 Wellington Airport Wellington City Community Community Awards, finalist in 2017 Green Ribbon Awards in Community Leadership) and Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park, where legions of mountain bikers and trail runners check trap lines. Backyard trapping has spread across Wellington from Crofton Downs; Predator Free Brooklyn attrcated hundreds to their launch. Predator Free Karori has just launched and has truckloads of traps deployed in less than six months in one of NZ s largest suburbs. Karori is in the projected spillover zone of Capital Kiwi and kiwi will be heard calling from its backyards.

4 Wellington is leading the way with urban community conservation and returning kiwi to the wild would be the ultimate reward. Morgan Foundation Jessi Morgan Capital Kiwi is well-timed as WCC develops ground-rules and plans for recreational access to 600ha reserve Te Kopahou. DOC fully endorses the Capital Kiwi project. Kiwi are our national icon and a taonga, yet most New Zealanders won t have seen them in the wild. The people of Wellington have shown that they can look after species like kaka and saddleback restoring kiwi to the hills of Wellington can be done. Jack Mace, Department of Conservation, Wellington-Kapiti Operations Manager Kiwis For Kiwis The Capital Kiwi project has been socialised with all major stakeholders: WCC GWRC, DOC, Kiwis for Kiwi, Predator Free Wellington, PFNZ Trust, iwi (Te Ātiawa, Ngati Toa), Transpower and Meridian, and major landowners. Support from key private stakeholders was secured by end of 2017, with the biggest landowner (Terawhiti Station, 5,000ha) secured and motivated. Capital Kiwi is community-led: this has enabled us to have progressive conservations with landowners, with widespread support for the kaupapa. This represents a collective conservation consensus in the wider Wellington region, spanning community, government agencies, conservationists, public and private stakeholders. Go predator free: let s get the kiwi out there mate! Michael Grace, director Te Kamaru Station Look forward to working with you guys on this. What an exciting venture. Love it! Aspirational, inspirational and all that good stuff. Michelle Impey, Kiwis for Kiwi Wellington Tenths Trust on behalf of Te Ātiawa/Taranaki Whanui owners support the concept of the reintroduction of kiwi into Te Upopo o Te Ika/Wellington through Capital Kiwi. The project has exciting possibilities for rangitahi from the iwi manawhenua and nga iwi katoa. Morrie Love, Chair, Wellington Tenths Trust, Te ĀtiAwa/Taranaki Whanui The project has strong support from councils and DOC. A Capital Kiwi steering group comprising representatives from DOC, Predator Free Wellington, Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, iwi, Kiwis for Kiwi, and PFNZ Trust was established in Oct Kiwi translocation would be after three years of sustained predator removal. Predator Free Wellington = peoplescape Capital Kiwi is highly complementary to the Predator Free Wellington (NEXT, WCC and GWRC) initiative. In January 2018 a coalition was forged between the two projects, representing unity and partnership. While PF Welly focuses on Miramar eradication, Capital Kiwi will be tackling the south-western front. Both campaigns will form a pincer movement, working together with community groups to progressively targeting the capital s introduced pests and allowing native wildife to flourish. Capital Kiwi will dovetail with springboard off, and provide a focus for wider Predator Free Wellington, community trapping and WCC/GWRC work. GWRC believes there already exists a groundswell of support in the City for this venture [Capital Kiwi]. With over 70 urban community groups already involved in pest management, CK are in a unique position to build on this capacity and enthusiasm and inspire rural occupiers to join this inspirational journey. Wayne O Donnell, General Manager Catchment Management Group, Greater Wellington Regional Council If there is any landscape that ticks the peoplescape box it s Wellington. Capital Kiwi and Predator Free Wellington are bringing back manu taonga to live, work and play alongside over 250,000 people, with our national symbol leading the way. One of the challenges of kiwi conservation is getting people to understand and care about something they can t see and don t experience. Kiwi are nocturnal and, with rare exception, live removed from our urban populations. Bringing kiwi closer to where Kiwis live makes them top of mind, completely relevant, and creates a sense of ownership with those who are privileged enough to have them living on or near their land. I believe this is what Capital Kiwi will do they are bringing the kiwi back to the people. It will create ownership and a city of kiwi conservationists who now have a more meaningful and real personal attachment to their national bird because it now lives where they live and work. Michelle Impey, Kiwis for Kiwi What does success look like? Kiwi heard from Karori backyards, and from beneath the Brooklyn Wind Turbine.

5 As a passionate Wellingtonian I am sincerely excited about the prospect of bringing back kiwi to the capital, and I look forward to discussing opportunities as they might relate to Te Kamaru Station and how we can be involved in such an inspirational goal Michael Grace Director Te Kamaru Station Pest Eradication Plan The pest eradication plan across the landscape is being led by Darren Peters, Department of Conservation National Predator Control Officer, in collaboration with councils and landowners. Vastly experienced, Peters has been involved at the cutting edge of predator control for many years. Our kaupapa with Capital Kiwi has been to socialise the goal and then work with landowners towards achieving it. The plan will be comprehensive and locally inclusive: mustelid (ferret/stoat), focused to start, moving to core area rat control as we get our sustained systems in place. Darren Peters The mustelid eradication programme is being written by a Fiordland consultant experienced in the DOC stoat eradication programmes nationally. The full detailed plan will be available by mid Schedule The project will be achieved via a combination of funding from PF2050, DOC, corporate support, philanthropic support, WCC/ GWRC support and community fundraising. Meridian is excited to endorse this Capital Kiwi project. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity to return our national icon to Wellington s backyard. Guy Waipara, General Manager, Generation and Natural Resources, Meridian Energy Limited Wellington is leading the way with urban community conservation and returning kiwi to the wild would be the ultimate reward. Jessi Morgan, Morgan Foundation Go Kiwi DOC 200 Goodnature A24 The call to bring kiwi back in Wellington is an achievable touchstone for a modern city forging a positive relationship with its native taonga; striving to be more neighbourly with our natives. It will be a high-profile and vital contribution to PF Wellington and PFNZ interim goals. The resurgent tui and kaka (and tīeke even) in Wellington represent the possibility of people, pets and natives getting on more peaceably. It s not pie in the sky, it s kiwi on our whenua. After all, we are not rats or possums: we are Kiwis! Translocation Contact Discussion with DOC kiwi scientists and managers has indicated support for kiwi translocation should the requirements for mustelid control be met across a three year period. Capital Kiwi will continue to work with the Kiwi Recovery Group throughout this project (research, planning, decision making) towards translocation. Paul Ward gocapitalkiwi@gmail.com

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