News • Southland Ecological Restoration Network

Sirocco, the Kakapo - The Not so Flightless Parrot

Sirocco, a hand reared kakapo from the early days of the breeding program, considers himself more aligned to humans than his own type. Because of this he has become quite a celebrity, appearing on numerous occasions as the face of the kakapo. Having just flown to Auckland in early September for a stint at the zoo, he is now back in home territory and about to entertain visitors to Stewart Island. If you would like to see Sirocco, in residence on the amazing Ulva Island between 26th September and the 26th October, then check out http://stewart-island-news.com/kakapo.html for more details.

Posted on: Thursday, 24 September 2009

Waituna Gravel Pit Reveals Great Diversity.

A disused gravel pit on the way to Waituna Lagoon is about to change it’s looks. From being a gorse infested area, which people were inclined to use as a rubbish dump, a combined effort by the Waituna Landcare Group and AWAG (Awarua/Waituna Advisory Group) will see this area transformed over the next few years. Already a visit by the Gorge Road School pupils helped to remove rubbish and weeds from the area and DoC staff have made a great start at getting the gorse under control. A botanical survey by DoC botanist, Brian Rance, revealed 50 native plant species had already recolonised the area. As well, during the tidy up the native common skink was found to be residing there. So watch this developing natural wetland as it gets a helping hand.

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 August 2009

New QEII Rep for Southland

In 1997 Gay Munro was fortunate to take over the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust Representative’s position from Roger Sutton. Roger had undertaken the task from the beginning of QEII in 1978. Now, on Gay’s retirement, the position is being taken up by Graeme Watson, a farmer from Roslyn Bush. Graeme is a keen fly fisherman and has a very real appreciation of natural heritage values and the huge part that protection of these forest, shrubland, tussock remnants play in maintaining the good water quality in our rivers and streams. With Roger’s son Mark, being responsible for QEII covenants in the Waiau catchment, Graeme takes on responsibility for the rest of Southland. If you have any enquiries about the QEII and covenants, then please contact Graeme at (03) 230 4843.

Posted on: Monday, 20 July 2009

Farmers leading Biodiversity Enhancement.

With the recent launch of a book of Biodiversity Case Studies, brought together by Janet Gregory, Landcare Trust and Biodiversity Southland Co-ordinator, there is a new resource for farmers to read about how they might protect biodiversity on their farms. Covering eight different examples the book outlines how farmers went about getting funding assistance to bring to fruition their goals of protecting areas that they saw as special. The book covers topics like fencing off forest remnants, undertaking pest control, reinstatement of wetlands. If you would like a copy of the book then please contact Janet Gregory, (03) 208 7883 or email [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]

Posted on: Monday, 20 July 2009

Guardian of Sherwood Forest Recognised

Environment Southland recognised the stirling effort by Pat Turnbull in her continued stewardship of the nationally significant matai forest remnant on her property with the Individual Award at this year’s ES Environment Awards. Since the death of her husband, Derek, in 2007, Pat’s continued enthusiasm for the BCF restoration work being undertaken at Sherwood Forest and her encouragement of many Southland groups to visit and become involved in that work was acknowledged by the ES judges.

Posted on: Saturday, 4 July 2009

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