Chatham Islands, New Zealand

A Conservation Perspective

Retiring member of the Chatham Islands Conservation Board, Peter Johnson, reflects on conservation matters, past and future.

As a botanist with Landcare Research in Dunedin, I had visited many islands but never the Chathams until it was suggested, in 1999, that I put my name forward for the Chatham Islands Conservation Board (CICB). So it came to pass that I was able to board an Air Chathams convair for not just one trip, but for what has become 32 visits. Just as Chathams kai has fuelled my system, so to have the Chathams got into my blood.

Conservation Boards have the roles of advising the Department of Conservation (DOC), reporting to the NZ Conservation Authority, and providing for interaction between DOC and the community. Mainland NZ has 13 Boards, while the Chathams, being special, unique, and of course deserving, have their own Board, appointed by the Minister of Conservation. The CICB has four meetings a year, and its 9-10 members include two Pitt Islanders and the rest from Chatham, except for one mainland member. When I joined the Board I was following in the footsteps of another botanist, Ian Atkinson, who had served for the previous 8 years.

Although the Chathams Board serves a relatively small land area, it has a multitude of conservation issues, including those environments unique to the Chathams, and their large numbers of rare and threatened plants and animals. More than any mainland Board, the CICB has a particularly close relationship with the community. I take my hat off to the Chathams population of a little over 600, in its willingness to stand for so many councils, companies, trusts, and boards, and at the same time demonstrate a commitment to conservation by being members - often long-term ones - of the Conservation Board. In answer to the question "How do Chatham Islanders keep warm?" one might say, "By wearing many hats."

For the record, my fellow members of the CICB within the last nine years have been: Phil Seymour, George Day, Ann Hough, Ken (Dors) Lanauze, Geordie Murman, Denis Solomon, Alison Turner, James Moffett, Joe Tapara, Toni Gregory-Hunt, Donna Gregory-Hunt, Teresa McDonald, Deborah Goomes, Jo Tuanui, Judy Lanauze, Eileen Cameron, Shirley King, Celine Gregory-Hunt, and Lois Croon.

In a recent Chatham Islander, Dianne from Rauceby ended her Pitt Newsletter with the proverb about people, people, people being the most important thing in the world. So that gives me an opening to mention the DOC Area Managers with whom the Board has always had good interactions (John Mason, Adrian Couchman, Alison Davis, and Ken Hunt), and especially to thank our essential Board Support Officers, Sally Lanauze and in recent years Alex McKillop.

When I first visited the Chathams I had been led to believe that I might meet with a certain degree of anti-conservation feeling, and a reluctance by Islanders to accept advice or opinion from a mainlander. I need not have been concerned on either front. True, I have had a few ear-bashings from folk who have had some bone to pick about conservation, the Board, DOC, or the all-embracing 'THEM'. True too, that it took me a wee while to gain the confidence to speak out, or proffer suggestion on some conservation issues. As a plant ecologist and also a gardener I have a long-standing relationship with weeds: partly admiration for their strategies; partly regarding them as foes. Gorse for example, which has the lovely flowers of coconut fragrance, the awful spines that gave me a bloodshot eye up Te Awainanga River, and the dismaying ability to take over farmland and invade natural habitats. I like to think that the gorse hui which the Board led in 2004, might have helped with both the Council pest management strategy and the individual control efforts by Chathams people.

As I see it, conservation is alive and well on the Chathams. At Board meetings, conservation matters have been things for members to learn about, to argue about, to encourage, and sometimes even to criticise DOC about. Field trips by Board members have always been an opportunity to see the real work being undertaken in the bush, sand dunes, and wetlands; a chance to see not only the high-profile endeavours like saving rare birds, but also the essential fencing, planting, weed control, and pest control that is kept going behind the spotlight. I have been lucky to visit many of the far corners of Chatham, Pitt, and the smaller islands, and to not only marvel at nature (which is basically where my own conservation bent - or straightness - comes from), but to also appreciate how much commitment, knowledge, and grunt goes into conservation, especially on private land.

What about the future? For my own part I am pleased to have a tarahinau in our Dunedin garden and a desk job writing a handbook on Chathams wetlands. We have a Chathams botanical tour programmed again for 2009. To the Chathams Conservation Board I say keep up the good work. My replacement (so-to-speak) as the non-weka on the Board has just been announced: Chuck Landis, a Dunedin geologist with a keen interest in conservation matters. May he, like me, be well-fed at Board lunches (for which notable thanks to various local caterers and of late, Vi Mills).

As for the longer future ... remember how at the time of 'The Millenium' the term 'Y2K' was bandied about. Well, I would like to encourage conservation thinking towards Y3K. By then all the gorse and all the possums should be well taken care of. Maybe there will be a legal take for titi? Here's true story to finish with. Pitt school children were visiting the Ellen Elizabeth Preece Covenent to see translocated Chatham petrel chicks being fed and weighed. Also there was a visiting priest, Dennis Nolan, who asked Bronwen Thompson how the petrel chicks might compare in size with those of a muttonbird. Bron nudged one of the school lads, saying "You'd know", and his reply, quick as a flash: "Wouldn't have a clue."!

Cheers, Peter