Newsletter #48
Tēnā koutou,
Thank you to everyone who came to our AGM on Friday 06 September; it was great to see so many familiar and also some new faces.
Firstly, congratulations to Karikaas Cheese and Cresslands Contracting for receiving silver environmental accreditation for the work in helping to protect braided river birds.
Karikaas donate a significant percentage of their profits from the gold and silver medal award-winning cheeses in beautiful ‘braided river bird’ boxes. Six different kinds of cheese feature information and images of different braided river birds. A collectable fridge magnet is included in each box.
Cresslands Contracting have donated time and engineering expertise to design, make, test, redesign, remake, and retest (you get the picture!)a tractor-mounted ‘ripper’ to clear weeds on bird breeding sites. Some of these weeds were the size of bushes meaning they would have been incredibly difficult to remove by hand, were too large to be dislodged by floods, and unable to be sprayed given their location. There are two more recipients that I\’ll announce on Facebook soon and in our next newsletter.
Don\’t forget! Forest & Bird\’s \’Bird of the Year\’ campaign is being launched soon. I appreciate that several of you are angling for us to vote for different river and shorebirds, but we have made the decision in past years to put our weight behind one and only one bird, rather than splitting the vote umpteen different ways. We\’ve delayed \’Year of the Wrybill\’ enough times, and with Miranda Shorebird Trust getting behind wrybill in 2019, we\’re hoping for a landslide win! So:
Vote Wrybill for Bird of the Year!
Ngā mihi,
Sonny Whitelaw manager@braid.org.nz
Bird surveys
Bird surveys are coming up soon. To get involved, please contact organisers (not me) for more details. More details are also available on our Facebook \’Events\’ page.
- 21 and 23 October: Cass River (no additional assistance required)
- 21 to 24 October: Waimakariri River (please contact (Helen Greenep helen.greenep@ecan.govt.nz)
- 30 October: Opihi River (please contact helen.greenep@ecan.govt.nz)
- 30 and 31 October: Upper Rangitatata (please contact Marcia Kimber mkimber@doc.govt.nz)
- 3-8 November: Wilberforce River (please contact Nick Legdard: nick.ledgard@xtra.co.nz) (more information is also available here)
- 06 November: Tasman (no additional assistance required)
- 12 November: Godley/McCauley (no additional assistance required)
- 12-14 November: Rakaia River (please contact Marcia Kimber mkimber@doc.govt.nz)
- 16 November: Ashley Rakahuri (please contact Bev Alexander:birdiebev@xtra.co.nz or ph 03 3137009)
Recently released reports and published research
- Anne Schlesselmann et al\’s paper looking into how black-fronted tern colonies are connected has just been published: Contrasting patterns of population structure at large and fine geographical scales in a migratory avian disturbance specialist of braided river ecosystems, Diversity and Distributions, 01 October 2019
- Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Annual Report 2018-2019
- Ashley Estuary bird count report (2019) from the Waimakariri District Council (under the Northern Pegasus Bay bylaw)
- Snapshot of ECan’s Biodiversity Programmes for 2018/2019
- Action for healthy waterways: This document sets out proposals to stop the degradation of waterways and restore them to a healthy state. It seeks feedback on a new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, National Environmental Standards for Freshwater, Sources of Drinking Water, and Wastewater, and regulations under Section 360 of the Resource Management Act in relation to stock exclusion and water metering. Have your say on the consultation. The official closing date for submissions is 17 October 2019 at 5 pm. However, submissions will be accepted for a further two weeks beyond that date, until 31 October.
- Draft Biodiversity Strategy: join the conversation and make a submission.
- Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 review: A comprehensive review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 (DIRA) and its impact on the dairy industry is now underway. The Bill has moved to Select Committee and everyone is encouraged to have their say. See here for the proposed changes and public consultation process
- Hageman et al: Current-use pesticides in New Zealand streams: Comparing results from grab samples and three types of passive samplers Environmental Pollution Vol.254, Part A, 112973
- (News article on the above research: NZ Streams Teeming with Pesticides)
- The August 2019 issue of Policy Quarterly focuses on water quality. It features an impressive line up of articles about water quality: how we reached this point – the good, the bad and the ugly.
- Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan Change 7 and Plan Change 2 – What you need to know
- IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on the oceans and cryosphere
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In-depth Q&A if you don\’t have time to read the whole thing! The IPCC’s special report on the ocean and cryosphere (Carbon Brief)
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Other news
- Calling all Schools! The Predator Free NZ Trust is supporting another round of Predator Free Schools, applications close 20th of October
- Black-backed gull control being undertaken on the Hurunui and Waiau Rivers (DOC)
- Birds and geology, not intensive agriculture, blamed for poor quality of water in some Hurunui District rivers
- Wetlands mapping: What\’s the story? (ECan)
- Government rejects the Waitaha hydropower scheme (Stuff)
- Water Conservation Order for upper part of Ngaruroro River (Stuff)
- Whitebaiters guilty of Fiordland National Park fishing (DOC)
- Hurunui-Waiau Zone Committee: time to reflect – Ken Hughey (ECan)
- Waitangi Tribunal slams Crown over freshwater failures calls for Māori rights to be recognised (Radio NZ)
- Ashburton Council and Mitre 10 = epic fail when it comes to black-billed gulls.
- Lazarus Birds: meet the 5 birds (including NZ\’s Storm Petrel) once presumed extinct (Birdlife International)
- The tab for decades of water mismanagement is falling due (another must-read from Charlie Mitchell/Stuff)
- The Rat Apocalypse in New Zealand (video: The Atlantic).
- The Love Lake Wanaka project will see a4,000 native trees planted along Otago\’s waterways over 5 years.
- Hedgehogs and mustelids a big menace in the Mackenzie Basin (Stuff)
- MIRO helps out overlooked banded dotterels (Predator Free NZ)
- Environmental perceptions: 4 out of 5 New Zealanders are concerned about freshwater quality (Stats NZ)
- For those of you who saw our \’What climate change means for braided rivers\’ presentation at the Braided Rivers seminar in June and/or at the Hurunui Waiau Zone Committee in September…here we go again:
- Marine Heatwave Returns (NASA)
- Ocean Acidity impact on ecosystems (RadioNZ)
- Bird populations are collapsing, and it\’s a sign of a bigger problem (ABS Science)