Chatham Islands, New Zealand

Volunteers from the Greenmeadows Rotary club in Napier completed an enormous task in painting the DOC white house up on Tikitiki hill.  The task at hand was no paint job in the park, with much sanding and preparation work to complete first. 

A total of 20 volunteers (including 2 cooks) stacked up an incredible 425 hours over a period of 2 weeks, finishing with a day and a half to spare before flying home. Their visit was topped off on the last day with a fishing expedition.

Mort Nikolaison, one of the volunteers that had stayed for the entire two weeks said that their club enjoy a variety of volunteer work and that they had thoroughly enjoyed their time, especially with the people on the Chathams.

At the request of members of the Pitt Island community, DOC Threatened Plant Scientist Dr Peter de Lange and Landcare Research Biosystematist Dr Peter Heenan visited Pitt in the last week of November, accompanied by local DOC employee Ben Horne. The three men under took an investigation of the cultivation relicts and gardens of many of the Pitt Islanders as a further step toward their preparation of a Flora of the Chatham Islands.

The gardens of the Chatham Islands reflect a wonderful history of trading and swapping valued ornamentals and medicinal plants, as well as providing historic and modern links back to New Zealand gardens - often the primary source for Chatham Islands plantings.

At the specific invitation of Pitt Islanders what have been dubbed the "two Peters" and Ben made listings for what each garden contained, and with owners permission collected specimens of plants they could not identify in the field, or which appeared to be naturalising beyond the home garden. Some common patterns of "garden favourites" soon became evident, for example each garden had at least one kind of Fuchsia but most gardens had plants to keep the botanists head scratching, and the origin of at least one, a seeding form of wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) remains a botanical puzzle. So far this seeding form of what is generally considered a notorious but mercifully sterile weed has been found only once before in 2006 at Awatotara. That plant matches two other plants gathered from New Zealand gardens. How it got to the Chathams, let alone New Zealand is a mystery because so far it has not been seen in older collections of the more common sterile wandering jew - a form which has been known wild in New Zealand since the 1890s. Another interesting plant this time, an old fashioned rose growing at Flower Pot, and possibly a descendant from a planting made by Fredrick Hunt doesn't match any other seen on Chatham or Pitt Island and seems to be absent from New Zealand as well. To work that one out may take years.

Spring is here, and we are all getting prepared for the new season, opening traplines, arranging island trips and employing additional temp staff to assist with our busy programmes.

Last newsletter I reported that 13 taiko chicks were transferred to the safety of Sweetwater, a predator fenced covenant.  All 13 chicks fledged successfully (but are not expected to return to their burrows for up to 5 years!)

Establishing a Chatham Islands Conservation Trust
The Conservation Board with support from DOC staff have been seeking local interest in the establishment of a community managed organisation for conservation on the Chatham Islands.  A Trust has been proposed to empower and enable the community to manage conservation projects on private land, and provide the mechanism through which to access funding for the protection and restoration of private land.

A public meeting was held this week to further discuss objectives and directions of a Trust and to nominate trustees.  Colin Ryder from Forest and Bird came to the Chathams to speak with landowners and by the conclusion of the meeting 4 locals were keen to get the ball rolling and start the ground work for the development of a locally run Trust.