Recipients

Tavora Reserve Project

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is a community based organisation that was founded in 1987 by local individuals united by a common concern for the plight of the yellow-eyed penguin. There are individuals, groups and organisations both locally and nationally involved in every aspect of the Trust’s work, from planting trees and managing pests on reserves to working with local and government agencies forming policies and plans. This hands-on approach adopted by the Trust that enables people to get involved and make a difference has contributed greatly to the understanding within New Zealand of the problems facing yellow-eyed penguins, and has invoked support for protection measures.

One of the core aims of the Trust is to provide homes for the yellow-eyed penguin by planting trees and re-establishing coastal forest where they breed and seek shelter. The Trust has been propagating plants from eco-sourced seeds at their own plant nursery for 22 years, and in this time have planted nearly 100,000 native trees and shrubs along the Otago and Southland coastline. An additional reward for the Trust has been to see other plant and animal species now inhabiting the re-established forest. The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is a national leader in coastal forestation and in 2008 won the BirdLife International Conservation Achievement Award in recognition of this work.

Plant production currently stands at up to 10,000 per year and all of these are planted at a variety of coastal sites, from North Otago to Curio Bay in Southland. The Trust already works closely with the Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council and several Department of Conservation offices and other environmental organisations to supply trees and assist with planting programmes. The success of this has resulted in huge gains for biodiversity on the South Island’s coastal habitats – more trees and shrubs planted, and therefore more penguin habitat available for breeding birds.

The aim of the Tavora Reserve Project is to continue this vital work at the reserve to enable the Trust to produce plants required to extend the current plantings along the riparian strip leading towards the southern beach where the rare yellow-eyed penguin breeds. The enhanced biodiversity established over the previous years now needs to be extended further. Riparian strips are a mosaic of valuable habitats for plants and animals and help maintain water quality. The restoration of these strips provides ecological and environmental benefits for integrated land-use practices and is a way forward for conservation.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary Eelery Project

The Orokonui Ecosanctuary is 307 hectares of native forest in the South Island’s mainland where indigenous plants and animals can live in the wild without threat from introduced pests. It is home to some of the world’s most fascinating and rare forest wildlife and is open to everyone to visit and explore.

Within the Ecosanctuary there is a spring fed pond close to one of the main walking tracks and it is in this pond that the project team would like to introduce a number of native eel from the Orokonui Stream. Path access will then be created from the Upper Wetland Track, with weed control and native planting undertaken around the edges of the pond. A seat would also be installed overlooking the pond and an interpretive display informing visitors about the importance of maintaining the health of our aquatic ecosystems and waterways will be constructed.

The Eelery plans to house longfin and shortfin eels, known as ‘Tuna’ in Te Reo, which are the real-life taniwha of Orokonui! These majestic monsters have an outstanding lifecycle which can span over 100 years and although their spawning grounds are still much of a mystery, it is thought adult longfin and shortfin eels swim over 2000km in an epic journey to lay their eggs in deep ocean trenches off the coast of Tonga and New Caledonia where the adults then die and ancient ocean currents sweep the hatched baby eels back to New Zealand.

Owhiro Stream Enhancement Project

The Owhiro Stream is located in the Taieri Plains and runs through Mosgiel before draining into the Taieri River near Allanton. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Taieri Plains were home to a vast wetland and Kahikatea Forest. The rich soils on the plains meant the land was highly prized for agriculture and today the land is criss-crossed with an extensive drainage system, and intensive agriculture is the primary land use.

The Owhiro Stream has a long history and is important to local Iwi. As well as providing important mahinga kai species, the river was used as a passageway for canoes returning from Taieri Mouth to the Otakou Marae. The Owhiro Stream is also a large part of local legend involving a Taniwha who crawled from Mount Cook down the Taieri River and upon arriving at the East Taieri area, nestled into the landscape in the spot where Mosgiel Township now lies. The Owhiro Stream is said to be the tail of the Taniwha.

The stream has a history of poor water quality results both in the upper urban catchment and the lower rural catchment, impacted by stormwater and rural runoff. Previous restoration projects undertaken have aided in an improvement in water quality and it is expected that restoration projects such as this will aid in continuing the trend for improving water quality. This restoration project aims to fence and plant both sides of a 900 metre reach of the Owhiro Stream, and in the process of improving water quality, the project will also help to increase biodiversity and numerical abundance of native fish species found in the stream such as eels, red finned bullies, inanga, banded kokopu, and the endangered giant kokopu. These native species are typically found in low numbers and any habitat improvement is likely to increase population biomass. In addition to aquatic species, there have been a number of avian species noted in the area such as royal spoonbill, sparrow, blackbird, pied stilt, banded dotterel, paradise shelduck, mallard duck and pukeko in which restoration of the area will also assist in the protection of. 

The Owhiro Stream Restoration Project will add to previous restoration projects and near complete one of the original aims of the community lead Taieri Trust project – to completely fence and enhance water quality in the Owhiro Stream. The project has multi-agency support and will offer an environmental educational opportunity for nearby landowners, local children and the wider community now and into the future. It is hoped that the completion of this project will encourage the remaining landowners to also fence their riparian areas. The project will help improve water quality and increase biodiversity through creating and protecting habitat for a wide range of exotic and native species.