New sanctuary to boost seabird numbers at Cape Farewell
Friday, 20 September 2019
The creation of a new wildlife sanctuary at the top of the South Island is under way with the construction of a new predator-proof fence.
Work has started on a 200m fence across the Cape Farewell headland.
Once completed it will isolate a 2.5 hectare sanctuary, where it is hoped a number of threatened seabird species will be reintroduced.
The sanctuary is part of the Wharariki-Onetahua restoration project, a partnership between online retailer HealthPost, the Department of Conservation and Manawhenua ki Mohua who represent three local iwi.
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HealthPost chair Peter Butler said the vision was to create a 'natural Disneyland' with a focus on making sure the environment inspired a sense of wonder and remained accessible to visitors.
Since its inception in 1988, Butler said the Collingwood-based health company made regular donations to charity but weren't aligned with a particular cause.
Several years ago on a flight home to Nelson, Butler gazed out at the great sandy expanse of Farewell Spit, surrounded by the sparkling sea. It was the catalyst for him approaching DOC in the hope of creating a sanctuary.
The Farewell Wharariki HealthPost Nature Trust was established in 2017, and so far, more than $150,000 has been donated to the project, which has been used for predator trapping, fencing, camera monitoring and planting trees.
Butler said it had made a commitment to donate $100,000 to the project each year, for the next five years with the potential for that to continue. He said contribution to conservation in Golden Bay was part of the company's DNA.
HealthPost staff and volunteers maintained trap lines each year and took time off to plant 1000 trees. They had concentrated their efforts on the Wharariki-Onetahua restoration project. When the tide was out, it covered around 10,000 hectares.
In December, Butler said they hoped to reintroduce the first of several seabird species, starting with fluttering shearwaters and diving petrels.
He hoped that the landscape could be planted with native plants including kowhai, kaikomako, nikau and rata.
'It's such a fantastic piece of land, that whole tip from Wharariki out to the Spit, I think we are really lucky to have been given such a canvas to put our energies into.'
Department of Conservation Takaka community ranger Andrew Lamason said a dawn blessing was held at the site recently, with a mauri stone in a woven harakeke bag lowered into the ground, an acknowledgement of the special place.
The line for the fence had since been dug and construction would begin in October. Current predator trapping would be extended to keep rats, stoats, cats and hedgehogs at low numbers.
Lamason said New Zealand would have previously been 'absolutely teeming' with burrowing seabirds, while they were still present in small populations on offshore islands, their numbers had reduced due to habitat loss and predators.
He said footage from cameras on the Archway Islands, off Wharariki Beach, showed stoats running into sooty shearwater burrows.
He said the partnership with HealthPost enabled DOC to carry out more conservation work in a striking landscape, that had views out across the Tasman Sea, to Farewell Spit and into the Kahurangi National Park.
It was hoped the fenced off headland sanctuary and ongoing pest control work would help seabirds to establish along other parts of the coast.
'What I would like to see is an area where you can go and see flocks of seabirds coming in or departing at dawn or dusk, seeing that happen then being able to walk past the wetlands and down to Wharariki Beach to see the wildlife down there.'