Why do it? Biodiversity in Gisborne

In many parts of the Gisborne district, pastoral farming, horticulture and forestry have led to an almost complete loss of indigenous vegetation. There is little riparian bush left near the coast, with Longbush Reserve a rare exception.

Local populations of indigenous birds have also sharply declined. As the Gisborne District Plan remarks, ‘Surviving bird species are generally shore birds or birds of wetland-estuary-scrub margin habitat, although some more adaptable species like tui are still relatively abundant. Weka habitat is particularly scarce and following Cyclone Bola, weka survival has not been certain.’

Of those remnants of lowland bush in the district that are protected from livestock, almost none are subject to the intensive pest and weed control that allows the full range of indigenous species of plants and animals to thrive. The District Plan also describes erosion in the Gisborne District as being among the worst in the world. Longbush Reserve is classified as 7e4, a land type highly prone to erosion.

Fortunately there are a number of ecological restoration projects in Gisborne, including Young Nick’s Head, Tuaheni Point, Kaiti Hill and Te Wherowhero Lagoon.

Stage one - the riverside bush

In 2001 the riverside bush was fenced and placed under a QEII covenant.

The following year, Steve Sawyer of Ecoworks began an intensive programme of weed control and trapping opossums, rats, stoats, weasels and wild cats.

The owners worked with Andy Carrie from the Conservation Corps at Tai Rawhiti Polytechnic to plant the clearings.

The restoration of the bush along the Waimata River is now complete (although ongoing maintenance is essential). The results to date have been dramatic.

The forest floor has been colonised by kawakawa and other plants, and rare plants including black and hooded green orchids are re-emerging (See list of plants at Longbush, attached).

The numbers of indigenous birds including kereru, tui, bell-bird, fantail, kingfisher and ruru (native owls) have markedly increased, with sightings of rare species including whiteheads, weka and the New Zealand falcon.

Grey geckos, long-tailed bats and black-headed tree weta live in the bush, and weta from Longbush Reserve have been used as a source population for a tuatara and petrel re-introduction project at Young Nick’s Head in Gisborne.

Longbush Reserve is now the only area in the Turanga Ecological District with such high remaining levels of biodiversity. Almost every other remnant forest area has high pest densities and abundant exotic weeds.

Stage two - the wildlife corridors

The second stage in the restoration of Longbush Reserve was to create wildlife corridors between the Reserve and regenerating bush in the valleys, which are themselves adjacent to large QEII covenanted areas on several other properties across the western ridge.

This began in 2000 with a planting by members of the Thorpe family, followed by plantings by the Conservation Corps at Tai Rawhiti Polytechnic from 2001-6. In 2006 the Biodiversity Fund awarded a grant to support this stage in the programme, followed by a three year grant over 2007-9.

Since 2000, wildlife corridors have been created along the three streams which run down the valleys from the high western ridges, across the flats and down to the Waimata River. The most southerly of these corridors has been achieved by natural regeneration, while those along the middle and most northerly streams are created by fencing and planting.

Groves of berry-bearing trees (titoki, karaka, puriri and taraire) and the Renee Orchiston collection of 60 varieties of harakeke (New Zealand flax) have been planted along the foothills to provide seasonal food supplies for native birds. A group of local weavers led by Meikle McNab of Ngati Porou care for the Orchiston collection, which is regarded as a national taonga or treasure.

By 2010 when the two most northerly valleys are planted upstream, this second stage of the programme will be completed – although again, ongoing maintenance is essential.

Stage three - 100 hectares of hills

In 2010 the third stage of the restoration of Longbush Reserve will begin. The sheep that currently graze the hills will be removed, and a programme of intensive pest and weed control and planting will get under way.

This is by far the most ambitious phase of the project to date, aiming to restore 100 hectares of hill country (marked in yellow below) as a haven for locally extinct indigenous species of birds, plants and animals, including brown kiwi, weka, robin, tomtit, kakariki, kaka, rifleman, East Coast kaka beak and broom, forest and green gecko.

This will be the largest fully protected area in the Waiapu and Turanga Ecological Districts (East Cape to Gisborne) with the sustained predator and weed control that allows these species to survive and flourish.

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