Land clearance robs kiwi of a home

Vegetation clearance for development on a block of land on the Kerikeri Peninsula has cost kiwi a prime local habitat.

Rangitane residents, supported by the Department of Conservation, believe a recent development puts increasing pressure on the bird's fragile hold on habitat in the area.

Much of a 2.6ha regenerating coastal fringe block was cleared of black wattle, scrub, low level vegetation, weeds and native ferns before Christmas in an area a conservationist says has a moderate to high kiwi call count - 10 per hour.

The land was cleared, together with associated earthworks and road access, to form a single property site on Kurapari Road.

Dr Greg Blunden, director of the nearby Aroha Island Ecological Centre, describes the area as "great kiwi habitat" with dense ground cover.

He's critical of the Far North District Council for allowing the block to be cleared without even a resource consent, although the company doing the clearing says it has a letter from the council allowing work to go ahead.

Rangitane resident Michelle Robinson maintains the site had high ecological significance because it had consistently the highest kiwi call count on the Kerikeri Peninsula.

She claims to have been told that workers clearing the site had to "usher kiwi off the land" before they could bulldoze.

Adrian Walker, from the Department of Conservation in Kerikeri, said kiwi liked living in areas with black wattle canopy, low-level vegetation and native ferns in regenerating coastal fringe scrubland.

Local areas like this were "quite special" because kiwi have held on there, he said.

Derek Sutherland, project manager for Mount Joint Venture Industrial Trust, said the company had a letter from a council monitoring officer authorising it to clear wattles and other regrowth as long as no heavy machinery was used.

Far North District Council spokesman Rick McCall said the company had applied for a resource consent for vegetation clearance in July last year.

During discussions on the application, DoC staff had expressed concerns about the work proposed and had recommended against consent for one 0.5ha area because kiwi were known to use it as a "corridor" to move to and from other areas.

Mr McCall said a consent was never issued but the clearance work (apart from the kiwi "corridor" area) went ahead anyway.

The council then issued an abatement notice to the developer in December, requiring all work to stop.

Even though the land was cleared without a resource consent, the council believed the abatement notice had been complied with and there was no case for a prosecution against the developer, Mr McCall said.