QEII covenants protect significant landforms
Botanist Shannel Courtney checks out a grass tree (Dracophyllum urvilleanum) on Soper’s Hill Covenant at the QE2 fieldday held May 12. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Two of the open space covenants visited last week as part of the QEII field day in Golden Bay were Soper’s Hill off Tangmere Road and Te Hapua up Pohara Valley.
Attending the field day was Nelson/Tasman’s QEII National Trust representative Philip Lissaman, who oversees the 129 covenants totalling 2,526 hectares in the region, with another 23 pending. Thirty-five of these are in Golden Bay, including the 145-hectare Mangarakau Swamp.
“I try to get around them all at least every two years,” Philip says. “Golden Bay has some spectacular landforms and ecosystems that we are absolutely thrilled to have been involved with local landowners to preserve.”
Soper’s Hill covenant is owned by Frank and Berna Soper. It’s on their Beinn Dobhrain property, which overlooks Waitapu Estuary. The landmark is known by many locals as Waitapu Hill. The Sopers covenanted the 41-hectare section of their property in 1998, and it is classified as coastal land primarily covered in a beech–podocarp forest remnant. In reality this also includes a wide range of vegetation, from wetland species right up to mature beech, rimu, kawaka and numerous epiphytes. It is also habitat for the rare grass tree (Dracophyllum urvilleanum) which is endemic to Nelson and Marlborough. There is a well-formed track through the covenant, thanks to Frank, with much of it running near the coast where seabirds come to nest.
In contrast, Te Hapua (meaning ‘the dwelling nestled in a hollow’) was the name given by Nelson-based botanist Shannel Courtney to his stunning 6.6 hectares of predominantly northern rata-forested limestone country bristling with nikau that he covenanted with the QEII Trust back in 1992. There is no doubting this man’s commitment to conservation; in 2008, he was awarded the Loder Cup, this country’s premier conservation award, for his work with threatened plant species. No surprise then he has documented over 150 vascular plant species that grow in this covenant, including fierce lancewood (Pseudopanax ferox), large-leaved milk-tree (Streblus banksii), native germander (Teucridium parvifolium) and limestone kowhai (Sophora longicarinata).
For Shannel, restoring the forest on his property has been a labour of love. He has spent most weekends for the 21 years that he has owned it eradicating noxious weeds and restoring the area to its former botanical glory. Walking around, he points out different species of rare plants, while every so often stopping en route to remove new growth of invasive species such as climbing asparagus, barely visible to the uninitiated.
Shannel reckons the huge dominating rata trees would have been the same ones growing when the first Maori came to New Zealand 800 years ago.
“There’s so little of our lowlands [under 600m] remaining with anything like their original native forest cover because they simply haven’t been valued and protected. Most of our national parks are, by default, in the upland zone because that’s where there has been the least potential for, and conflict with, other land uses. Yet it’s in the lowland zone where we have a lot of our unique biodiversity because it’s warmer and more fertile,” he explains.
Shannel strongly believes that any remaining natural areas in coastal and lowland zones, so often lost to urban and rural development, should be protected for future generations.
One of his past jobs was working with Tasman District Council drawing up a set of restoration-species lists tailored to the district’s different ecosystems (taking into account factors including geology, climate, landforms and soils). In the Golden Bay lowlands there are 14 identified ecosystems, including the Motupipi plains, the Takaka floodplain and the Onekaka hill country. Each has its own list of native species that originally occurred there and are suitable for habitat restoration, thanks to Shannel.
“This coastal limestone cliff country from Pohara to Tarakohe provides a vital habitat for a unique collection of plants and animals,” he says. “We should try and turn around the past and current spectres of abuse and neglect of these areas and start actively managing and protecting them to provide sanctuary for our besieged natural heritage.” Gerard Hindmarsh
