Jobs for Nature programme in Mangaiti has started

 

At 7am on Monday 4^th October, we welcomed the Jobs for Nature crew to their first day on the job. This has been a long drawn out process, with covid continually causing delays. The week before, DOC approved our covid management safety plan which gave us the all clear to finally get started.

There are three organisations that we must acknowledge and thank for their support, without which this project would never have got off the ground. Go Eco with their administration infrastructure to support the employment of staff, Ngāti Wairere whose Hapū covers the Mangaiti Gully and Hamilton City Council who are the legal guardians of the gully.

The full welcoming ceremony, which we originally planned, was skuttled by level 3 lock down. Notwithstanding covid, we are hopeful that we may be able to resurrect this in the near future and have a community open day, when the public would have an opportunity to meet the crew and discuss our future plans for the next three years.

The JFN Crew will be focusing their work in Zone 2 of the gully.

A survey of stream fauna - eDNA

 

Setting up a passive eDNA collection filter 

A new testing programme has been developed by Wilderlab in Wellington, to capture through filtering stream water, then reading the DNA captured within the filter, to identify the species present. This process is called environmental DNA or eDNA.

The Mangaiti Restoration Trust is one of over 200 community groups, hapū and kura who have signed up to the Environmental Protect Authority’s (EPA) programme Wai Tuwhera o te Taiao - Open Waters Aotearoa. The programme promotes the use of eDNA to discover what species live in their local lakes, streams and rivers and coastal waters. Local co-ordination is being carried out by advisors from NZ Landcare Trust.

From the initial one sample pack supplied by EPA, we have purchased another four with funding from HCC and donations. There is anecdotal evidence that the different arms of Mangaiti Stream have created their own habitat (and not always good), due to where the stream source comes from and the type of vegetation around and over the stream as it runs through Mangaiti.

This sampling is going to give us a basis to develop a stream management plan. We will know what to protect, where the different species are and the habitat that each indigenous species requires to thrive.

Woolly nightshade (an aggressive weed)

 

We have seen woolly nightshade being cultivated as a shrub, with people completely unaware that it is a noxious weed, that we are attempting to eradicate. It is an aggressive, rapidly growing shrub or small tree reaching up to 9 metres in height. Its oval leaves are large, grey-green and are covered with furry hairs. It has a strong unpleasant kerosene-like smell when the leaves are rubbed or crushed. Flowers are purple with yellow centres and grow in clusters at the ends of branches. Berries ripen to yellow and when broken open contain hundreds, if not thousands, of seeds which birds distribute.

When the bushes are small to medium in size, they are easily pulled out roots and all. Large plants can be cut off at the base and the stump poisoned (cut’n’pasted or painted with a bit of concentrated weed killer) otherwise they will regrow. 

Kowhai seed collection – Port Waikato

 

One of the challenges of collecting seed for a restoration area is to get a seed source that is not cross contaminated with other closely related species or hybrids. This is particularly difficult the closer you get to an urban area with many of the plants in domestic gardens purchased from commercial nurseries. This problem effects some plants more than others. Kowhai is one that is particularly vulnerable. The kowhai seed collected this year, was from a pocket of bush on a remote farm north of Port Waikato. Not only was it a very good tree specimen profusely flowering, but also had good nectar producing flowers evident by the number of tui feeding.

Blackbirds fighting

 

From time to time most of us would have seen male blackbirds having a bit of a scrap over their territorial boundaries. This scrap between two female birds on the attached video clip took scrapping to another level. The ferocity was surprising. You will note in the latter stages a male bird gets involved trying to break up the fighting. This video was captured on the path just along from the shade house down in Mangaiti gully.

Cabbage tree moth damage

 

I am sure many of you will have seen a cabbage tree with what appears to be a knotted growing tip. Gerard Kelly (HCC) thinks the top area where the cabbage tree is deformed, could be caused by cabbage tree moth larvae (Catamacta lotinana). The larvae mine the leaves and then migrate to the tips, weaving and knitting the tips together. They then eat leaves from inside out. Lower leaves showing characteristic caterpillar feeding, tips get quite frayed and could be easily spun together. If you see a cabbage tree like the one in the photo it would be worth investigating.