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Kereru
Rehabilitation Moore's Bush
Restoration
Quarantine
Island Restoration Wilding Tree
Control
Quarantine Island Restoration
Once covered in lush native forest, Otago Harbour's Quarantine Island (also known as Kamautaurua or St Martin's Island) was left almost barren after more than a hundred years of farming. Now part of the island is being revegetated under the guidance of Dunedin Branch Vice-Chairperson Ken Mason.
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| Dunedin
Forest and Bird planting work group. Everything has to be carried up to 800m. Marker stakes are needed as the grass grows up to one metre tall. |
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The restoration project is a cooperative effort between Dunedin Forest and Bird and the St Martin's Island Community, a religious group which leased part of the island in 1958 as a spiritual retreat. Forest and Bird volunteers, including members of the Kiwi Conservation Club, Dunedin Teen Conservation (1996-2001) and Students for Environmental Action, have been working to extend the original relict patches of podocarp-broadleaved forest.
An area of the island has been fenced off from sheep grazed by the St Martin's Island Community, and a shade house on the island is used to propagate plants such as miro, matai, totara and kowhai.
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| Kiwi Conservation Club members building a stile giving access to the revegetated area. |
Because the island is exposed to drying northerly winds (as well as cold southerlies) and lacks a spring, a major problem encountered by volunteers has been severe drought during summer months. A partial solution to this problem was the construction of a rainwater collection system which feeds a pond used for watering plants during the summer.
The 17 hectare island, which is free of predators such as possums, stoats and weasels, has the potential to become an important wildlife sanctuary in the Dunedin area. Some species, like the little shag and bellbirds, have reestablished themselves on the island naturally. Nest boxes have been placed on the island to encourage little blue penguins to breed there. It is hoped that other native species of birds, lizards and insects can be reintroduced in the future.
For more information
on this project contact Ken Mason, 03-476-7100
kdmason@xtra.co.nz
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