Newsletter #94
Top image: Banded dotterel nesting on the Ashley Rakahuri estuary…but not so safe and sound. From Grant Davey’s report ‘Activities at Waikuku Beach 5 – 13 October 2024‘
Tēnā koutou,
Calling for abstracts for the 2025 Braided Rivers Seminar. The Seminar will once again be held at Lincoln University, with a tentative date of Wednesday 09 July. The format will be the same as 2024: a 20-minute presentation + 5-minute Q&A. Please refer to the 2024 programme as a guide, and submit a short bio with your abstract.
As many of you are no doubt aware, the Conference of the Parties (COP)16 biodiversity talks have just ended in Cali, Columbia. These were the first talks since the adoption of the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was established at COP15 in December 2022. The plan includes 23 global targets that the world must achieve by 2030 for a chance at success. Target 3 is to conserve 30% of land, water, and seas (often referred to as “30×30”). And water, of course, includes braided rivers and their ecosystems.
“Over the last weeks, we have seen the largest, whole-of-society mobilization for biodiversity unfold in Cali, triggering interest from around the globe. We have seen Indigenous Peoples and local communities, civil society, businesses and financial institutions, sub-national governments, cities and local authorities, women and youth present remarkable initiatives and action.” – Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity
Notably, the New Zealand Government, one of 196 countries to sign the Global Biodiversity Framework in 2023, didn’t bother to attend COP16. Furthermore, the Government failed to submit a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to show its commitment to the 30×30 pledge. Notably:
“New Zealand is not required…to report on its achievement in relation to the global target…and has no plans to do so”. – current Conservation Minister Tama Potaka
Trying to avoid being political as I write this, make of that what you will, and instead come and enjoy the Waimakariri Biodiversity Celebration Sunday 10 November for a sausage sizzle, activities with our rangers and volunteer organisations, games, music and more, at Trousselot Park, Charles Street, Kaiapoi.
Reminder: Our next General Meeting will be 2-5pm 28 February 2025 at the Department of Conservation office, 31 Nga Mahi Road, Sockburn.
Bird Surveys
Anthony Arps from Aspiring Biodiversity Trust has just sent me the following update, along with three short videos (two at the end of this newsletter), that offer a brief insight into life on a braided river, for both birds and the humans aiming to protect them:
“After a cold wet spring snow levels/depths are finally reducing, and ABT’s upper river and alpine predator control programme is starting up again. With the cold spring weather most of the abundant precipitation has been as snow and river levels/flows have not been excessive, allowing braided river bird nesting to start early; wrybill arriving late August. All was good until about 2 weeks ago when the freezing levels were up with a high precipitation event, translating to a 400 cumec river flow, and resulting in all the wrybill and some tern having to re-nest.“
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Please remember to send me your dates for bird surveys if you would like volunteers, and send me your bird surveys when they are completed. These are added to each of the river pages on the website. This helps researchers and community groups to discern trends over time. Please also send a copy to Miles Burford at ECan, as Miles is compiling an amazing database with the aim of eventually making it accessible online through Canterbury Maps.
- Thanks to Miles, I have updated past bird surveys on the Opihi River
- Reminder: Protocol for best practice in monitoring river birds (DOC PDF)
- Reminder: Have a Health & Safety Plan for bird surveys. You can download BRaid’s H&S Plan here.
News
- Eco-index is an interactive 3D map full of ecosystem reconstruction information. Navigator X uses a “heat map” approach to show the best bang-for-buck locations to undertake ecosystem reconstruction. See: Navigator X for Waitaha / Canterbury
- EcoNet has set up a new website Weed Action Aotearoa New Zealand in ArcGiS Hub premium for people interested in managing weeds. It is now the portal for new users of CAMS weeds and the eToolkit. This is open to volunteers only.
- Advanced tips and tricks for improving trap outcomes – PredatorFree 2050. While these are mostly forest-related, I particularly like the following tips:
- Scuff the ground around the entrance – this makes it more interesting for rats and stoats and easier for them to access
- Put a blaze of scented flour around the station – mix it with icing sugar and cinnamon to make it more appealing
- LINZ Biosecurity Annual Programme 2024-2025 (PDF)
- Waikuku Beach October 2024 disturbance (PDF)
- The Economics of Water: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good: storymap from OECD Environment Directorate Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division.
- Loss of Forest Causes Stonefly to Change Color in New Zealand – YaleEnvironment360
- Just what we didn’t need: another invasive (and aggressive) pest species – NZ Geographic
- ‘Healthy Rivers, Healthy Planet‘: Carbon run is a Nova Scotia based organisation that’s just started a proven river restoration approach to decrease river acidity (yes, acidification of waterways is also an issue for us here in Aotearoa).
Research & Reports
- 2024: Invertebrate communities of the Cass, Ashley, and Aparima Rivers and methods for monitoring impacts of management and environmental change (PDF)
- 2024: Threatened species research gaps and priorities for the Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai (PDF)
- 2024: WMO: State of the Worlds River 2023 The reduced summer glacier balance trends observed over western South Asia and New Zealand over the last few years might indicate that these regions have passed peak water conditions. – p37 (PDF)
- The World’s Rivers Are Driest They Have Been in Decades – YaleEnvironment360 article on the WMO report
