In this issue, we have a special report on how to create a safe sanctuary for garden birds, including feeding, predator control, and native planting. Daria Erastova draws from new research to offer practical native bird feeding tips and how to avoid common pitfalls. Kim Triegaardt looks at the latest population trends for our garden birds, as revealed in the 16th annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey, and offers advice on how to attract birds to your garden.
This issue also highlights six early women of conservation who worked tirelessly for decades (mostly without credit) in the fields of ornithology, botany, and nature advocacy. They include Perrine Moncrieff, a founder member and Vice President, who in 1925, wrote the first field guide to New Zealand’s birds. Our other unsung heroines include botanist Amy Hodgson, community activists Elizabeth Gilmer and Violet Rucroft, and illustrators Lily Daff and Audrey Eagle.
In Listen to the Land, Ann Graeme looks at whether lessons from Cyclone Bola, in 1988, were learned (hint: they weren’t) and how nature-based solutions, such as making room for rivers and restoring wetlands, can be used to rebuild the parts of Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, and the East Cape devastated during the string of recent climate-related weather events.
Forest & Bird is working hard to ensure that bold climate and nature-first policies are front and centre during the upcoming General Election, along with our ongoing mahi trying to stop new coal mines on conservation land. Thanks to all of you, our legal team recently won another important court case, the latest in our long-running campaign to stop pristine Te Kuha, on the West Coast, from being destroyed by an open-cast coal mine.
All this and much more: Jane Young on whether genomics can help save hoiho, Chelsea Winstanley explains why hedgehogs are a prickly problem for conservationists, Stephanie Bennington shares her latest research on Hector’s and Māui Dolphins, and Mike Dickison takes us behind the scenes at RNZ’s hugely popular Critter of the Week programme.
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