Community-led project bringing rowi back to Wellington's coast by 2021

Thursday, 10 December 2020

Capital Kiwi teamed up with the Wellington Cross Country Vehicle Club to deploy a network of stoat traps on Te Kopahou, 600ha of Wellington City Council reserve.

Capital Kiwi’s mission to restore a wild kiwi population to the west coast of Wellington is bang on schedule, with all 4400 traps now on the ground, and the kiwi release on track for the end of 2021.

The restoration of native bush in the area, as well as predator control efforts, have found a common goal in the return of the big, brown kiwi.

According to Mākara resident Ruth Paul, a children’s author who has lived locally for about 30 years; “It makes everything else make sense.”

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Ruth Paul, children's author and MÄkara resident, has about 10 Capital Kiwi traps on her property, doing her part to make the area safe for kiwi.

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Capital Kiwi traps cover an area of nearly 24,000 hectares â about the same as the Abel Tasman National Park â from the south-west corner of the North Island, through private and reserve land, all the way up to Porirua.

She first heard about the project when the Capital Kiwi team held an open day at the local hall. “It was a bit of an outrageous idea.”

Capital Kiwi contractor Peter Kirkman and kiwi-detection dog See will likely take on some kiwi management tasks when the birds are delivered to the south-west coast.

In the end, it was the enthusiasm of everyone involved, and the presentation of the science behind it, which made her believe it was possible.

“We’re looking at returning about 25 hectares of recently harvested forest to native bush,” Paul said. “Kiwi would be the cherry on the cake.”

Jansen, pictured here on the far right up on the fence, has been keen on kiwi for a while. This photo was taken around 1962 at the Westshore kiwi house in Napier.

There were about 10 traps on their land, checked regularly by the Capital Kiwi team. It was a high trust model; for traps to be effective, they had to be cleared regularly, and private landowners had to be comfortable with contractors dropping by.

According to project lead Paul Ward, the birds’ return hinged on extensive trapping to remove predators – stoats in particular – and community engagement.

Traps covered an area of nearly 24,000 hectares – about the same area as the Abel Tasman National Park – from the south-west corner of the North Island, through private and reserve land, all the way up to Porirua; the largest community-owned stoat trap network in the country.

Paul Jansen, or Scratch to his mates, brings a wealth of experience to the team, and has been part of many conservation projects, both working for DOC and as part of projects like Capital Kiwi.

They were laid by farmers, predator-free groups, even four-wheel drive enthusiasts. It was the largest community-owned stoat trap network in Aotearoa, funded by Predator Free 2050 Ltd, with support from Wellington Community Trust and philanthropists.

Peter Kirkman checks one of the traps, at Terawhiti Station, one every 100 metres, a dead hedgehog caught in the mesh.

Existing roads and tracks, thanks to farming, Meridian, and Transpower infrastructure, made for easy trap installation and checking, saving time and money.

When Paul Jansen, “Scratch” to his friends, considers retirement, he’d like to look back on his work in conservation and think, “Hey, we might have cracked it.”

The rowi, otherwise known as the Ōkārito brown kiwi lives at he bottom of the South Island’s West Coast, below the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.

Twenty-seven rowi kiwi have been released into a new area near Fox Glacier because the existing sanctuary is full with 600 birds, up from only 160 a decade ago.

He remembered visiting the Westshore kiwi breeding facility as a boy, around 1962, leaning over a baby’s playpen on grass in the middle of the day, and posing for a photo with kiwi chicks.

Now, kiwi roamed the bush in Wainuiomata – albeit in small numbers - and wandered into people’s homes in Northland, something reported to the Department of Conservation (DOC) over the Covid-19 lockdown. “It walked inside and stood behind their TV.”

When it came to public participation, “we’re right on the cusp of people actually getting it”, he said.

Jansen is a DOC conservation advisor and has been active in securing safe havens for native birds for decades.

The idea for kiwi on the west coast began at Polhill, where 70ha of regenerating bush, bordered by Brooklyn, Highbury and Aro Valley, has become home to kaka and saddleback for the first time in a century.

The Polhill Protectors, the group to thank for the safe haven the birds now enjoy, threw around the idea of introducing kiwis to Wellington – a total pipe dream.

Holden Hohaia of Taranaki Whanui says the role of iwi is critical to the Capital Kiwi project.

“The ambition was, what else can we get in here, outside Zealandia?” he said. “There was talk about kiwi, and kokako … but I didn't really think it was going to stimulate such a vast stretch of land on such an ambitious scale.”

The traps used are a combination of DOC250 box traps, and Goodnature A24s.

After talking with DOC’s kiwi recovery team, it began to seem possible – as long as they were the right kind of kiwi. “To my surprise they suggested one of our rarest.”

“It's been a huge job, a lot of wool shed and little church hall meetings.”

The project was a testament to what could be done with everyone on board.

Rowi were the perfect choice. They could thrive in bush or on farm land and, once fully grown they were “capable of looking after themselves”.

Before humans settled New Zealand, rowi lived throughout the northern South Island and into the southern North Island, as far north as Hawke’s Bay.

There are just 400 rowi, otherwise known as the Ōkārito brown kiwi, alive right now, living in a little patch of Ōkārito forest at the bottom of the South Island’s West Coast, below the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.

Holden Hohaia of Taranaki Whānui said it was important to recognise the “absolutely critical” roles of iwi in the project.

Local iwi Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa would have an ongoing responsibility to protect the birds and their ecosystem.

Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio, who are kaitiaki of the rowi, which live on the South Island’s West Coast, must be satisfied they would be going somewhere safe.

A delegation from Kati Mahaki visited after lockdown to meet with Ngāti Toa and Taranaki Whānui to discuss measures to keep the birds safe.

The tono, the request, for the transfer of the birds, is being considered by DOC.

Barry Insull of Wellington’s Cross Country Vehicle Club is a regular trap checker, taking to the barren hillsides on shingle tracks in his four-wheel drive to reach those traps in the hardest places in Te Kopahou Reserve.

Insull knows the tracks like the back of his hand, and can drive them day or night. To see kiwi foraging in the scrubby terrain as he drove by would be “an absolute stunner”.

He and his colleagues are an integral part of the trapping mission, with 168 traps under their watch – one every 100 metres.

Since April 2019, a total of 356 kills – 59 hedgehogs, 50 mice, 12 possums, 125 rats, 65 stoats, and 45 weasels – had been recorded by Insull’s colleagues on Te Kopahou.

“You’re close to the city, but it’s wild lands out here.”