Business gets in behind planned visitor centre
ODT 27 May 2008
By SAM STEVENS
FLORA and fauna is flourishing at the Orokonui Ecosantuary thanks to the hard work of staff and volunteers, and the project will continue to take flight with commercial sponsorship, its managers says.
The sanctuary, 20km north of Dunedin, yesterday received a $100,000 donation from Allied Press Ltd, owners of the Otago Daily Times and Star newspapers.

Ecosanctuary general manager Chris Baillie said after completing a 10km pestexclusion fence around the sanctuary, funds were needed for a Visitor and Education Centre, and tracks and restoration programmes.
Allied Press led the way as a local business which supported the construction of the centre to which 25,000 visitors were expected annually, she said. ‘‘We have had good support from a number of trusts and are encouraging the business sector to become partners in this exciting project.’’


Seeing the bird for the trees . . . From left: Orokonui Ecosantuary business board directors Tony Crick and Stewart Harvey with Dunedin businessman Julian Smith and ecosanctuary general manager Chris Baillie. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY

A decision on resource consent for the $2.3 million centre would be received this week. If successful, building consent applications would be lodged, and the centre could be operating within a year, Ms Baillie said.
Allied Press Ltd managing director Julian Smith encouraged other Otago businesses to support the sanctuary, which, apart from making a valuable contribution to preserving wildlife in the area, would enhance Dunedin’s reputation as an ‘‘ecotourism’’ destination.‘‘This new attraction will bring visitors to the region and will complement existing heritage attractions. It will also teach people about protecting our unique species.
‘‘Allied Press is also pleased to recognise the very many people who give freely of their time. The project needs support from all who are able to help,’’ Mr Smith said.

Ms Baillie said 120 volunteers had recently put in about 800 hours of work a month planting 1000 native trees and shrubs. The 307ha ecosanctuary included 230ha of conservation land which has the highest protection category, Nature Reserve. The forest within the reserve mostly comprises regenerating (100-year-old) native species, with isolated pockets of much older trees. The area was already home to native wildlife including South Island tit, South Island rifleman, brown creeper, bellbird, grey warbler, fantail and many other birds.
Fern birds were last week seen in the reserve for the first time, Ms Baillie said.
A pest eradication scheme was progressing well, and it was now thought only ‘‘one goat, a few hares, and a few mice’’ remained, she said.

Ecosanctuary turns back clock ODT Saturday 26 April 2008 PATCHES of scrub. A scruffy expanse of long grass. Low bush in the distance. A dirt track and a tall, mesh fence. The first view of the Orokonui ecosanctuary from the road falls well short of a picture-postcard tourist installation. But consider the ecosanctuary from the bird’s eye point of view. Here, at last, is a place to touch down safely — the only place in Otago for centuries guaranteed free of guns and spears or pests and pets. Birds can roost near the ground without the fear of being killed by a stoat, a ferret or a weasel. They can leave their eggs in a tree stump safe from rats and hedgehogs. And possums, mice and goats are no longer chewing through their food supply.

Rearing to go . . . The Orokonui Ecosanctuary will release Kaka in the spring.

Ornithologist Tony Pullar says ecosanctuary birds will be able, finally, to ‘‘relax’’.
‘‘They seem to know where they are safe.’’He says normally it is ‘‘unheard of’’ for New Zealand native birds to roost near the ground. ‘‘But there is something about sanctuaries. Once they are established and stay predator-free, the birds tend to revert [to their natural behaviour].’’

The Orokonui ecosanctuary is a 307ha slab of land north of Dunedin overlooking Blueskin Bay and in the hands of the Otago Natural History Trust. It contains remnants of a distinctive Dunedin-style ‘‘cloud forest’’ of podocarps and kaikawaka [New Zealand cedar] that have survived logging, farming and the spread of pests and weeds.

To begin turning back the clock to ‘‘prehuman’’ times, the trust has removed more than 3000 exotic pines and macrocarpas, cleared gorse and broom and created wetlands. It has planted shrubs, trees and grasses indigenous to the cloud forest that hangs on to Dunedin hilltops by feeding on east coast fogs.It has poisoned 800 possums and every last stoat, weasel, ferret, rat, cat and mouse. The only remaining pests are one young goat, a few hedgehogs and some hares, and when they are gone, in the next few weeks, the ecosanctuary will be declared pest-free. Gaining that status will be an occasion fit for Champagne. But the real test of the Orokonui ecosanctuary will be its ability to stay pest-free behind its 10km, $2.2 million mesh fence, which manager Chris Baillie points out is designed to keep out every predatory mammal down to a baby mouse.



‘‘ People say, well what’s wrong with mice? But mice do eat little eggs . . . so we have a fence that can keep out all introduced mammals.’’Every second day, volunteers spend up to four hours walking the new road around the ecosanctuary’s circumference looking for damage to the fence or the ground on which it stands. A simple crack in the soil in a dry spell of weather could provide an opening.‘‘Some of the sections are quite steep and because they are looking at [the fence] quite carefully, they can’t rush it. They go out in all weather. They are very committed.’’A hundred volunteers give on average 800 hours a month of their time, energy and skill.
Tony Pullar is one of them. His specialty is the raising of the kaka — the ‘‘very vocal, very visual’’ native parrot — which was common 130 years ago. ‘‘They used to flock and migrate up and down the east coast. One book cites an eyewitness account of a flock of kaka that took 10 minutes to go past.’’The ecosanctuary has four juvenile kaka in an aviary ready to release in the spring. There is no guarantee that they will stay.
Baillie: ‘‘We’ll retain the two adult birds in one side of the aviary so that will be an aural anchor. Their cries will call them back.’’The young kaka will retain free access to the aviary enclosure and supplementary feeding will be provided. '‘We’ll let them go and we’ll hold our fingers crossed.’’

The ecosanctuary has been possum-free for five months and Ms Baillie says their absence has already made a difference. ‘‘You can see the vegetation increasing. The flowering trees are prolific. Certain trees and plants that possums like are really going crazy now.’’ And that will benefit the ecosanctuary’s populations of riflemen, tomtits, grey warblers, brown creepers, wood pigeons, tuis, bellbirds and fantails.
Waitati ornithologist Derek Onley is in charge of monitoring bird numbers at more than 20 stations inside and outside the fence.

There are plans to add more species to the ecosanctuary, with kiwi near the top of the list. It is 136 years since kiwi have lived in Dunedin bush. The skins of the last two are part of the Otago Museum’s collection. They were killed by dogs at Burkes in 1872 and the dogs’ owner took them to the museum. Ms Baillie says the kiwi recovery group working at Haast was keen to bring 20 breeding pairs to Orokonui. ‘‘They’ve been out to have a look at the soil, the climate and rainfall. All those sorts of things are important.’’ Birds that might follow are South Island robin, saddleback, kakariki, takahe and perhaps even kakapo.And not forgetting jewelled gecko, Duvaucel’s gecko, short-tailed and long-tailed bats and tuatara. We’ve started negotiating with Doc and the Ngati Koata, who are the guardians of tuatara on Stephens Island, where they would probably come from. It’s a long negotiation process but we’ve started . . .’’

Safe from predators . . . this New Zealand tomtit has the safest perch in Otago.

‘ She acknowledges that a new ecosanctuary must ‘‘establish its credentials’’ with those working to save endangered species. ‘‘What we are doing here is creating a healthy ecosystem, a natural ecosystem. It’s not a zoo so there won’t be things in cages . . . it will be people coming through and seeing nature on its own terms.’’

Groups of trained volunteers count birds by listening.So far, they have found no marked difference but Mr Onley believes that is because birds everywhere have thrived in this summer’s good weather.‘‘I suspect there are more bellbirds than there were but there are bellbirds all over the place this year.’’He expects the difference to begin showing up after the winter. While she sees the ecosanctuary as ‘‘a community managed thing’’ with a ‘‘strong sense of ownership by the community’’, there has not been unanimous support. She says ‘‘some devel-opers’’ who have had resource consents for houses in the area turned down because of their ‘‘visual impact’’ have argued that for the same reason the ecosanctuary visitor centre should be declined. And she says while near neighbours have been welcoming, some in the area think having an ecosanctuary move in will decrease the value of their property. ‘‘I don’t think they are correct but that’s a view that they hold.’’ Whatever their views, neighbours certainly face a period of adjustment. They will need to get used to the night noises of kiwi, the swelling orchestra of bellbirds and tuis and the endless twittering of fantails. They will also, no doubt, need to get used to the growl of tourist buses and streams of cars using their narrow country roads. There seems little doubt that as the ecosanctuary begins to breath new life into Dunedin’s cloud forest, the quiet times for Orokonui are almost over.

Goodbye to pests . . . The Orokonui ecosanctuary operations manager Elton Smith and dog Jess are part of the team dedicated to keeping the enclosure free of predators..

Ruud Kleinpaste attracts funds for the Ecosanctuary

In January 2008 Mitre 10 hosted popular guest speaker Ruud Kleinpaste (the ‘bug man’) and donated the proceeds ($1500) to the ecosanctuary. Ruud’s description of the importance of protecting the biodiversity of our invertebrates has direct relevance to the sanctuary’s aims. Chris Baillie, General Manager, also spoke to the audience about the Ecosanctuary project. Many thanks to Mitre 10 Mega.

Staff Update

Ricky Hull joined the staff in January for a six month placement under the Taskforce Green programme. Ricky came from the Conservation Corps programme and prior to that had done some university study. Kelly Gough, our previous Taskforce Green placement is now employed by the sanctuary on a 2 year contract. Kelly and Ricky are both assisting Operations Manager Elton Smith on operational tasks, including fence monitoring and maintenance, and pest eradication and monitoring. They’re doing a great job.

A different kind of wedding gift!

Warm thanks and congratulations to two recently married couples who encouraged their wedding guests to donate to the ecosanctuary instead of buying gifts. Thanks to Teresa Streamer & Stefan Cadogan, Terisha Luxford & Marvin Hubbard. More than $700 was raised.

Rotary commits to ecosanctuary track
By REBECCA FOX, ODT 12 March 2008

ROTARY Club of Dunedin members are prepared to get their hands dirty as well as raise funds in an effort to make the upgrade of Orokonui Ecosanctuary’s valley track a reality. The work could cost up to $240,000.
The track runs from the top of the sanctuary, where the proposed visitor centre will stand, across the Orokonui stream, passing through different types of forest and ending up at New Zealand’s tallest tree at the bottom of the sanctuary.

Ecosanctuary manager Chris Baillie said as the sanctuary was still in its development stage and, as fund-raising was ongoing for the proposed visitor centre, financial and volunteer support for things such as the tracks was essential. ‘‘We would not get off the ground with any of it without the volunteers.’’

The track project had yet to be fully assessed, so the cost could be anywhere between $60,000 and $240,000.
Rotary club president Derek Valentine said it was still early days, but the club was working on fund-raising ideas, including get ting other clubs involved. Members were looking forward to ‘‘getting their teeth into’’ a longer-term project, with the initial aim to make the track ‘‘walkable’’, which would involve building small bridges and steps he said. The club’s support meant the track could be upgraded much earlier than by sanctuary staff alone and the project would pro vide an educational experience for everyone, Mr Valentine said.

Fundraising Vital for the Orokonui Ecosanctuary
By REBECCA FOX, ODT 4 February 2008

The Otago Natural History Trust hopes to build a $1.9 million visitor and education centre which it says will be a ‘‘showpiece’’ of environmentally sustainable design. A land use consent application for the 560sq m building will be notified by the Dunedin City Council on Wednesday and the trust is actively seeking project sponsors. General manager Chris Baillie said the centre would provide essential facilities for the ecosanctuary’s education, tourism, conservation and research activities. A maximum of 120 people a day were expected to visit during the peak of summer.

‘‘ The centre will be a showpiece of environmentally sustainable design, materials and management and will meet the 5-green-star rating.’’
Rainwater would be collected from the roof for use in toilets, solar panels would be installed on the roof and timber used would be from the site or from sustainable sources. Sited at the top of the ecosanctuary, beside the area enclosed by the predator-proof fence, the centre would take advantage of spectacular views over the ecosanctuary, the Silverpeaks and Blueskin Bay.

A description in the resource consent application said it would be made up of seven modular units linked by corridors and propped off the ground by timber poles. It would be covered by a single lightweight atrium roof and would be painted middle green. ‘‘The design is intended to be unique and fit in well with the natural landscape.’’ The building would house a seminar room, a double-glazed glass atrium large enough to fit 50 people and a reception area, along with storage, toilets and a staff room. Small areas would be set aside for refreshments and for a retail outlet. It was proposed the building would be surrounded by a series of ponds with wetland plantings. Space had been allocated for two bus bays and 20 car parks.

The trust had raised more than $600,000 in cash and sponsorship towards the cost of the centre, but construction costs, floor area and facilities included have increased since initial cost estimates four years ago, Ms Baillie said. Funds were successfully raised for the purchase of land at the top of the ecosanctuary and a specialised 9km, 2m-high pest exclusion fence, which cost $2.2 million, Ms Baillie said. The ecosanctuary was in an area zoned rural and in the Flagstaff-Mt Cargill landscape conservation area.

Next stage . . . The planned Orokonui Ecosanctuary Visitor and Education Centre. The building has been designed by a team including Archeco, Healey Engineering, Hadley Robinson and Watercycle Ltd. GRAPHIC: OTAGO NATURAL HISTORY TRUST