THE CAPACITY OF URBAN RESTORED FORESTS TO SUPPORT NATIVE

Elizabeth E. Elliot,1 Bruce D. Clarkson, Ottilie Stolte, John Innes, Chaitanya Joshi

Photo by Huatoki Native Plant Nursery. Studies have highlighted the ban residents with native nature. plores the question whether great potential cities have to act as The purpose of the research is frequent use of restored forest, refuges for native flora and fauna. to identify which factors among either as a restoration volunteer Habitat restoration in cities has local habitat variables, landscape or simply as a city resident, can been championed as a means to characteristics, site age and pre- re-establish a relationship between improve conservation and re- dation levels determine the ability people and native nature and lead connect city residents with native of native bush birds to greater support for biodiversity nature. to benefit from urban restored conservation. An online survey forests. The study further investi- investigates the role native birds My research combines ecolog- gates how the resources provided play in re-establishing this rela- ical and social science to evaluate by these forests change over time tionship and, more specifically, the contribution that restored na- since restoration. whether appreciation for native tive forests in urban areas in New birds can promote wildlife garden- Zealand can make to native bird Using qualitative, semi-struc- ing efforts and other pro-conser- conservation and reconnecting ur- tured interviews, the study ex- vation behaviour.

1 School of Science, The University of Waikato, email address: [email protected], website: www.facebook.com/Urban BirdProject/ We are monitoring birds and predators at 43 sites in Hamilton and New Plymouth. Sites repre- sent three types of urban forest: unrestored (n = 6), restored (n = 26) and remnant (n = 6), as well as the nearest non-urban forest remnant to each city (n = 6) – the Hakarimata Range for Hamilton, and the Kaitake Range for New Plymouth. Restored sites represent an age gradient of 1 to 73 years since initial restoration planting. Bird counts are conducted along fixed-width transects in the spring and winter to measure bird spe- cies richness and diversity. Preda- tors, which include rats, possums and cats, are monitored using Eurasian blackbirds were the second most frequently detected bird species after . wildlife cameras and chew cards. We have conducted two seasons’ and California quail. The three abundance of predators, and site worth of fieldwork – spring 2016 most abundant species were silve- age will be analysed using gener- and winter 2017 and are gearing reyes (34.6% of the total number alised linear models. up for the spring 2017 season. of birds detected), fantails (14%) and house sparrows (11.7%). We are grateful for the gener- A total of 529 individuals from ous support of Birds NZ, Puke 25 bird species were recorded The most frequently detected Ariki, Forest & Bird, and Trust during the spring 2016 fieldwork predator in Hamilton during the Waikato. – 9 of these were native and 16 spring 2016 field season was the were non-native. The nine natives cat, with 41% of total camera were silvereyes (detected at 40 of triggers, followed by hedgehogs the 42 sites), fantails (31), grey (20%) and possums (17%). The warblers (22), (21), kingfisher most frequently photographed (16), kereru (7), bellbird (2), tomtit in New Plymouth was the (2) and (2). Bellbirds, dog (32%), followed by cats (19%) whiteheads and tomtits were only and hedgehogs (15%). detected in non-urban forest rem- We have one more year of field- nants and kereru only in non-ur- work before we conduct the final ban forest remnants and two ur- analysis. We will use ArcGIS to ban remnants in New Plymouth. further measure landscape vari- Preliminary analysis of the data ables, such as patch area, distance showed that grey warblers, tui, to the nearest forest fragment, kereru and chaffinches tended to roads and water sources, and be associated with forest remnants landscape composition in the area and older restoration plantings. surrounding each site. We are in Open country birds, such as gold- the process of measuring local finches, starlings, greenfinches and habitat variables, such as vegeta- yellowhammers, were typically tion composition, leaf litter depth found at young restored sites. Un- and canopy height. The correla- restored sites were mainly associ- tion of bird species richness and ated with non-native species, such diversity with landscape measures, as mynas, song thrushes, redpolls local habitat variables, relative