31 October 2014

Petrel protection plan part of project

Asking why the Westland Black Petrel crossed the road may sound like a bad joke but it is a serious business for the bird and a Lincoln University researcher.

The bird’s only breeding ground in the world is on the other side, so it is probably a bit keener than your average chicken to make the trip.

The Punakaiki Coastal Research Project site is on the side of the West Coast highway the birds will attempt to cross from. Lincoln University ecologist Dr Stephane Boyer, who is part of the project, said the birds nest on the hill behind the site, in the Paparoa National Park and tree planting by volunteers has focused on the flight path of the petrels from over the ocean to the colony.

Dr Boyer said restoration of the forest would give the birds somewhere to land and help avoid the road.

However, he wants people to help make sure the bird does not have any more obstacles to overcome on its amorous trek.

The project has broad aims- it wants to reconnect people with nature and demonstrate more people visiting a site can be positive for the environment not negative.

The land was once used for mining but due to the significance of the bird’s breeding ground this was stopped. Mining company Rio Tinto acquired the site in 2005 and decided to gift it to the community, and it is now a nature reserve.

Lincoln University became a member of the partnership between Conservation Volunteers New Zealand, Rio Tinto, and the Department of Conservation, which manages the site earlier this year.

It is leading research efforts and Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture Associate Professor Mick Abbott has done a master plan for the site which will see a “living lab” established, as well as grow sustainable tourism which will help protect the reserve.

Dr Boyer, whose work is partially funded by Rio Tinto, said the living lab would be for tourism and education as well as research.

It would cater for professional scientists and members of the public, children and adults.

’We want to attract people,” he said, “volunteers and citizen scientists who want to help with the research.”

They would learn skills which they could use at home, Dr Boyer said.

By making the site more popular people would realise how significant it was, and development around it, which could disrupt the birds, would be less likely.

Lincoln postgraduate students would conduct research there, monitoring diversity and the recovery of invertebrates on the site, as well as the little blue penguins which nest there.

The master plan for the area included viewing platforms to see the petrels as they returned from feeding at sea at night.

“It is an amazing spectacle,” he said, of the mass of birds which fly over the site as they come back to roost.

“People would come from around the world to see it and would stay another night if there was another activity such as the lab.”

It would be “world class tourism” but it would have to be self-sufficient to ensure it worked.

Dr Boyer described it as an ambitious project- the petrels, as they dodge the traffic, might just appreciate the grand vision.

Go to the project website www.prcp.org.nz for more information.

ENDS

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