Publications : OTAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS

OTAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS

New Book Announcement: Restoring Kapiti: Nature's Second Chance
Editor : Kerry Brown
Published by : Otago University Press
240 x 170 mm, paperback, 128 pp, ISBN 1 877276 66 9, about 60 colour photographs, maps
RRP : $NZ 29.95

Exciting Story of Kapiti Island’s Restoration

Kapiti Island is one of New Zealand’s longest and most exciting conservation stories.   After 100 years of hard work animal pests are eradicated, weeds controlled.   The bird life is thriving and its forests are returning.   In the surrounding marine reserve, established in 1992, sea life is flourishing.

People who have contributed to this restoration tell the island’s story in Restoring Kapiti: Nature’s Second Chance, edited by Kerry Brown and published by University of Otago Press.

Kapiti Island became a nature reserve in 1897 and is an ongoing story of outstanding restoration accomplishment.   By 1900, it was home to eleven pest species including kiore, pigs, goats, deer, cattle, the Norway rat, sheep and cats.   Possums were released in 1893 and were only eradicated in 1987, after an intensive programme began in 1980.   Kapiti was declared free of rats in 1999, and it is now the largest single area of lowland coast forest that is free from introduced animal herbivores and predators.

Projects to eradicate possums and rats, and to increase or establish populations of endangered birds, have made New Zealand internationally renowned for conservation management.   Lessons learnt on Kapiti provided models to follow in other parts of the country.   Kapiti is a stronghold for protected native birds: the little spotted kiwi would probably be extinct if it were not for the island.   It is one of the few offshore island strongholds for kaka and, as such, is important for the continued survival of the species.   Other birds finding sanctuary there include hihi, takahe, weka, kokako and North Island saddleback.   Countless invertebrates, bats and lizards and native freshwater fish also inhabit the reserve.

Although Kapiti Island is perhaps best known for its wildlife, it also provides an important home for rare plants.   Its forests and shrublands preserve types of vegetation once common in coastal and lowland parts of central New Zealand, but which are now fragmented and under threat from pests and weeds.

Restoring Kapiti is the first book in University of Otago Press’s Conservation Guides, a new series exploring New Zealand’s inspiring conservation stories.   The next title in the series, Southern Seas: Marine Life at 45° South, will be released in early 2005.   It looks at the Portobello Marine Laboratory, the oldest established marine research facility in Australasia.

Contents
Part 1 Restoring Land and Sea
  1 Kapiti Island Vegetation
  2 Threatened Plantlife
  3 Historical Eradications
  4 Possum Eradication
  5 Rat Eradication
  6 Kapiti Marine Reserve
Part 2 Restoring Kapiti’s Birds
  7 Little Spotted Kiwi
  8 Kaka
  9 Hihi
  10 Takahe
  11 Kapiti Island Weka
  12 North Island Saddleback
  13 Kokako Recovery Part 3 The Future and the Past
  14 Biosecurity of Kapiti Island
  15 Restoring Kapiti Island
  16 Addressing the Enveloping Silence
  17 Kapiti Memories