Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust

Using Drones to Promote Farm Biodiversity

'We’re revolutionising the future of on- farm biodiversity’ - Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust’s new approach to working with landowners.

Biodiversity on Banks Peninsula will soon be boosted from above, thanks to Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust’s (BPCT) purchase of a biodiversity-dedicated drone.

The new drone will be used primarily to support BPCT’s Farm Biodiversity programme – enabling the team to map biodiversity, look into remote ecosystems and safely access difficult or isolated areas.

“Having a drone means we can get right in amongst it and capture a point-in-time record of native ecosystems high in the forest canopy, down very narrow, steep gullies, to the edge of coastal cliffs, and into critical and important biodiversity areas”, said Farm Biodiversity Advisor, Josh Foster.

Using orthophotography, the drone will map entire farm ecosystems, taking hundreds of very detailed, high-resolution images - a task that previously would have required a specialised aircraft and crew at a huge cost.

Once the mapping process is completed, landowners will better understand their local ecosystems, and work with the BPCT team to develop a targeted action plan to help improve their on-farm indigenous biodiversity.

“Our farm biodiversity programme integrates with the existing farming system and provides farmers with useful evidence of the impact their land management is having on biodiversity outcomes,” said Foster. “One of the key advantages of this drone technology is that we can see the impact of our work. We know to a very high degree what’s working and what’s not, which then means we can adapt our actions and approach to ensure we’re meeting our ecological goals and benefiting the wider farming operation.”

As well as using the drone to stocktake biodiversity and monitor habitat, it will also be used to understand what other control measures might be needed on-farm.

“Because it offers a bird’s eye view, the drone can spot weeds in forest canopies and other inaccessible environments, and it can also determine damage from unwanted pests. That will mean we can then undertake targeted weed and pest control.”

As well as harnessing the potential for drones to improve on-farm biodiversity, drone technology also has the potential to make a valuable contribution to BPCT’s other strategic programmes, including its conservation covenants and pest control and eradication programmes.

“It’s a potential gamechanger for biodiversity,” says Foster.

the 2017 Port Hills fire caused devastation

Mitigating the impact of fire on the Port Hills

Representatives from Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and Te Kākahu Kahukura (TKK), a community-led group formed after the 2017 Port Hills fire, are developing a landscape-scale fire strategy to help safeguard the Port Hills from the impact of future wildfires.

With representatives from Christchurch City Council, ECan, mana whenua, private landowners and conservation organisations, TKK has hosted a series of community-led actions to help safeguard communities and the environment from future wildfire events.

“The fire strategy will help us understand the impact of wildfires and to look at regeneration and protection measures,” said TKK chair, Craig Pauling. “We have already begun work to understand how fire has affected the vegetation and how it responds - which might help us both to understand what might happen in the future and to plan for it."

As with most successful strategies, Pauling believes collaboration – of knowledge, resources, tactics and technologies - will form the pathway for protecting the Port Hills.

“All the research points to climate change-induced wildfires becoming an increased threat to our ecology and our communities. We must act now to lessen their potential impact on our environment and on our socioeconomic wellbeing and sustainability.”

At a recent community meeting, FENZ and researchers from Lincoln University talked about the importance of a unified response – from policy adjustments at a national government level, the need for increased investment in FENZ, strategic planning at local and regional government level, and community involvement.

“The emergence of a more severe wildfire climate in New Zealand requires a multifaceted approach. Basically, the more tools you use, the better your chances of success”, says Lincoln University Associate Professor, Tim Curran. “Multiple layers [of actions] improve success, and in the context of the Port Hills that means firefighting strategies, ecological actions and community engagement.”

Those ecological actions include planting ‘green’ firebreaks to protect core areas, and developing community-driven management plans that integrate plant and animal pest control, and favour low-flammability native forest species over highly flammable invasive plant species.

“Fuel is a key determinant of fire behaviour and during wildfires, the main fuel is plants. That means if we plant green fire breaks and low flammability plants, we can manipulate, to some degree, the main fuel source, which in turn can help lessen the severity and impact of these fires.”

Green firebreaks are essentially strips of vegetation made up of plants with low flammability. Whilst hillsides can prove problematic for the effectiveness of green firebreaks, they remain a useful tool to slow or stop the fire fronts and block radiant heat.

“Green firebreaks also serve other purposes,” says Sophie Hartnell from Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust. “They can improve biodiversity and provide ecosystem services, such as providing food sources, habitat, erosion control and better soil nutrients.”

Green fire breaks are also a way to engage communities. Planting low-flammability species in gardens and on property boundaries is one way people can help prepare for and mitigate the impact of wildfires.

“It’s clear to us that we need a multi-pronged approach to manage wildfires in the Port Hills. We need technology and innovation, we need to look at our firefighting resources, and importantly, we need community input and action. Building resilience and safety is our priority,” said Pauling.

Waiwera Four – Connected Covenants

The Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust’s (BPCT) goal is to enhance indigenous biodiversity and promote sustainable land management on Banks Peninsula.

One of the best ways to reach this goal is by working in partnership with landowners to establish conservation covenants, which enable the long-term protection of indigenous flora and fauna. These special areas are safeguarded forever, and many of them include unique landscape, waterway or heritage values, and they complement farming activities well.

Often covenants sit on steep hill country, lie in valleys and gullies or are spread over rocky outcrops or wetlands - areas unproductive for farming, but which have significant biodiversity value. When protected and effectively managed, they contribute direct biodiversity gains and can improve soil and water quality, plant and animal pest control, erosion proneness and carbon sequestration.

A great example of this is ‘Wairewa Four’ covenant, located on Latham’s sheep and beef farm on the hills above Little River and Western Valley. The property features ancient remnant forest, regenerating bushland, and waterways that feed into local streams and water supplies.

This covenant, and the areas that it connects to, encompasses both new and precious existing biodiversity values, including majestic old podocarp trees (tōtara, and mataī) that date hundreds, and some even to around a thousand years old or more.

Ecologist, Geoff Walls, noted the surprising diversity of native plant and animal species, resulting from the covenants’ altitudinal range, where lowland and upland elements mingle. These covenants are havens for many ecologically rare and threatened native species.

Having a significant area under protection enables more fragile species’ populations to survive and thrive through whole ecosystem stability. The impressive array of fern species is testament to this. Noted botanist, Hugh Wilson, remarked that “the ferns, tree ferns, Tmesipteris [hanging fork ferns], make this a very exciting plot, along with the superlative tōtara.”

Wairewa Four is a lynchpin connecting two existing key covenants at the head of the catchment, together covering around 50ha. They lie in close proximity to a major swathe of protected land (both public and private) stretching from Kaituna Valley to Waipuna Saddle and into Western Valley, an area totaling over 2,200ha. There is also another landscape scale ‘biodiversity hub’ gathering momentum from Wairewa southward across to High Bare Peak and beyond, and eastward toward Te Roto O Wairewa Lake Forsyth and surroundings.

“Covenants are key ‘puzzle pieces’ in the mosaic of connecting protected land. They act as conduits for the protection and enhancement of biodiversity on a large and more effective scale,” said BPCT Covenants Officer, Marie Meal. “These covenants are wonderful reminders of what Banks Peninsula once was – and what parts of it can be again, thanks to the generosity and foresight of landowners like the Lathams.”

Decades of Conservation – a Latham legacy:

Matt’s Great Great Grandfather, W Montgomery was amongst Canterbury’s early settlers – a politician, and later a gold and timber merchant who eventually settled in Little River.

Montgomery and his son WH Montgomery had the foresight to protect a beautiful and prominent forested area – in ironic contrast to the early settlers’ seemingly insatiable need to deforest the Peninsula in order to establish thriving and productive pastureland.

Montgomery Park Scenic Reserve, on the Summit Road near Hilltop, was named in their honour, after their gifting it to the Wairewa County Council in 1941, and is home to what has been said to be to be one of the Peninsula’s oldest trees with a whopping girth of 8.5 metres – a tōtara estimated by one claim to be 2000 years old!

Nestled in a beautiful catchment head and gully of Jurassic-like landscape, the Wairewa covenants give a glimpse into the Peninsula’s past – and thanks to families like the Lathams, thriving biodiverse landscapes will continue to be a part of the Peninsula’s future.

nature has repaired the damage done in the 2017 Port Hills fire

Early Valley Restoration – a phoenix from the flames

Wildfires are no match for a determined team of volunteers armed with sturdy footwear, planting spades and 1000s of native plants – who for the past seven years have been quietly working their way across the swathe of land blackened by the Port Hills fire.

Two very important protected areas of biodiversity, the 17-hectare Lansdowne covenants in Early Valley, were devastated by the Port Hills fire of 2017. Prior to the fires, Lansdowne was a haven for biodiversity. Two waterfalls provided a spectacular backdrop to thriving pockets of dry rock ferns, necklace fern, native meadow rice grass, māhoe, pohuehue and clusters of kōwhai. The landowners had supplemented these species with extensive plantings of other species native to the area.

As part of Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust’s volunteer programme, and with support from Kāh Kahukura a network of landowners, and community groups - an intensive revegetation project was established to help restore the biodiversity and ecological values that were lost.

“It’s all about people giving nature a helping hand,” said TKK and volunteer coordinator, Sophie Hartnell. It has been such a privilege to watch so many different people and groups come together over many years, and to watch the forest take shape a little more every year. Together, we have recloaked the whenua in record time.”

Each planting day ends with a shared barbecue at the bottom of the valley, where, fittingly, volunteers get to enjoy venison patties supplied by the landowners. “The venison comes from the feral deer caught on the property – so we start the day with ecological restoration and end it with pest control!” said Hartnell.

Over the past seven years, an estimated 7500 native plants have been planted, with up to 70 volunteers involved at any one time. Native species known to thrive in this area were donated by Trees for Canterbury, with specialist planting expertise and techniques provided by Brailsfords. Volunteers from the South West Baptist Church worked alongside landowners to restore the area back to native bush.

Our focus now is on how we can help protect this area from fire in the future. Fire breaks and fire-resistant species will increasingly be a consideration in restoration projects like this one at Lansdowne, as the effects of climate change become more evident” said Hartnell.

Christchurch Mayor joins pest-free Peninsula movement

One of BPCT's strategic programmes is Pest Free Banks Peninsula. This week, our mission to rid Akaroa township of possums got a boost - thanks to Christchurch Mayor, Phil Mauger.

“Getting rid of possums from the Peninsula will bring environmental, recreational and economic benefits to the community”, he said. "I'm pleased to be helping out, and I encourage all property owners to get in touch with Pest Free Banks Peninsula to help them in their mission to rid the Peninsula of pests. It’s important we all play our part.”

Over the past two years, Pest Free Banks Peninsula (PFBP) has been systematically working its way across the Peninsula, removing pests such as possums, mustelids, feral cats and ungulates (e.g., goats and pigs). Working alongside communities and landowners, PFBP has removed thousands of pests and in doing so, helped support the rejuvenation and regeneration of indigenous animals and plants.

“We’ve had so much support from Peninsula communities for our elimination programme,” said project leader, Sarah Wilson. “It’s now time for Akaroa residents to join forces with us and help create a pest-free future for the Peninsula.”

The PFBP team is trying to contact as many property owners as possible so they can establish a network of bait stations and monitoring equipment across the township. It’s a difficult task given so many property owners don’t live permanently in the township.

“Akaroa is renowned for its natural environment, it's one of the key reasons people have holiday homes there. Bach owners are a vital link in our network, and we need as many of them as possible to join the Possum Knockdown. The more properties we have in our network, the harder it will become for possums to navigate their way around town. Our team has the technical expertise to knockdown possums, now we need community support to make it happen.”

Using Drones to Promote Farm Biodiversity

Mitigating the impact of fire on the Port Hills

Waiwera Four – Connected Covenants

Early Valley Restoration – a phoenix from the flames

Christchurch Mayor joins pest-free Peninsula movement

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