What a way to end the year - introducing two new stunning conservation covenant projects under way on the De Passes property in beautiful Kaituna Valley!

Both areas are rich in amazing biodiversity which will be further enhanced once they are fully protected and regain their natural balance. Not only are they highly valuable in their own right, but their proximity to other significant areas of protected native biodiversity will turbo boost ecological gains. It is like laying a korowai or cloak of protection across a vast swathe of ecological taonga .

The first of these covenants is Okana Valley Head, an 11ha area that boasts an array of remnant and regenerating podocarp forest. It houses a valuable headwater source flowing into the Kaituna river through a bushed gully on neighbouring properties to the valley floor, then along several kilometres of riparian plantings into Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere.

The second covenant encompasses 130ha on the opposite valley flank, nestled directly below DOC’s magnificent Mt Herbert Scenic Reserve. It’s a powerful lynchpin connecting 400ha of privately protected land on one side to BPCT’s largest covenant to date - the Parr family’s 334ha Te Ara Pātiki in the head of Kaituna Valley.

The new Mt Herbert South block is part of an impressively large swathe of conservation land stretching from the Packhorse Reserve in Kaituna to Western Valley and further around to Waipuna Saddle. This phenomenal biodiversity hub encompasses a multitude of conservation protections on both sides of the ridge under many different tenures. Collectively they protect over 2,300ha!

This wonderful korowai includes the 500ha Te Ahu Pātiki Mt Herbert and Mt Bradley area under QEII protection, several other QEII covenants stretching toward Orton Bradley, a mosaic of retired private land areas, many other BPCT covenants, and four significant DOC reserves.

“It’s a pleasure and a privilege working alongside such motivated landowners like the De Passes, getting in the driver’s seat, leaving legacies, seeing the pride they take in local natural heritage and enabling future conservation potential values on their land to be realised in tandem with farming goals,” said BPCT Covenants Coordinator, Marie Neal. “Each covenant forms part of a much bigger picture, which the wider community will benefit from forever."

A new conservation covenant under way on the Summit Road in Canterbury offers a rare glimpse into the abundant biodiversity that was once present on Banks Peninsula. 

Situated next to DOC’s Ōtepatotu Scenic Reserve, and overlooking the eastern and Akaroa harbourside bays, the new covenant forms part of Luis Thacker’s farm. It contains remnant and regenerating forest and a rare ecosystem – all home to specially adapted and intricately linked communities of plants, insects, birds, lizards and fungi.

“Areas of remnant forest and rare or ‘Naturally Uncommon’ ecosystems, as they are now known, are top priorities for protection by the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust. Rocky outcrops are an important category in this group” said covenants coordinator, Marie Neal. “It’s a pleasure working alongside farmers like Luis and seeing the pride landowners take in the natural heritage and future conservation potential values on their land.”  

Luis has been working with BPCT over recent months, toward stock proofing eight-hectares of gullies and ridges running below a spectacular rocky ridgeline backdrop. This area will provide a valuable ecological buffer for the well-established DOC reserve next door. Once the fencing is in place, it will be placed under a conservation covenant, meaning it will be ecologically safe and well managed forever.  

“By excluding stock and controlling weeds and pest animals, over time these amazing places can reach their full biodiversity potential. As species establish, thrive, and radiate out, the wider community can also enjoy this rich biodiversity first-hand. Drivers, cyclists and walkers along this section of the Summit Road can enjoy dramatic views upward from the road to a diverse bush-clad amphitheater alive with birdsong, including that of the tūī who are already thriving in this area,” said Neal.

The Thacker's covenant is home to many rare and threatened species, some of which are endemic to Banks Peninsula - meaning they occur naturally here and nowhere else in the world. They include the Banks Peninsula sun hebe Hebe lavaudiana, now categorized as At Risk-Declining; the tough mountain yellow rock daisy, Brachyglottis lagopus, native iris Libertia ixioides, a plethora of fern types and thin-barked, mountain or Hall’s tōtara.

There are also many weird and wonderful mosses and lichens thriving in the often-misty cloud forest environment – like the aptly named goblin moss (Weymouthia spp.) Other-worldly filmy ferns present in Ōtepatotu will one day return into this area as the equilibrium is re-established. Another hoped for re-coloniser is the regionally rare tōī  - mountain or broad-leaved cabbage tree Cordyline indivisa.  Just as important, but easily overlooked, are the shrub and small tree communities, which are crucial for insects, lizards and bird habitat and also act as canopy creators for the regeneration of ground floor species at their feet.