Castlecliff Conservation Area

Nau Mai! Haere mai! Welcome to the newest part of the country

PRE VISIT

• Brainstorm the ideas that students already have about the site. Group their ideas under headings such as biodiversity (the variety of life), earth science, recreation, human impacts, etc. according to the objectives for your trip. • Design an outdoor safety code. Appoint class members to help apply it on the day. • Visiting outdoor areas usually requires special gear. Have students list the clothing and other gear they think they will need on the trip. • Locate the site on a map. Work out its distance from the school and how long it will take to get there. Talk about how people would have travelled there in the past. • Find out who the local iwi in your rohe are. Where are their marae? Who are the kaumätua? What stories can they can tell you about the place you are going to visit? • Find out what the students know about DOC. Is there a DOC office in their area? What sorts of things does a DOC ranger do? Check out the DOC web site, www.doc.govt.nz • Use maps and other resources to gather information about the geology and geography of the area. • Examine key ideas related to the history of the site - eg its location and strategic importance; evidence of past occupation and uses. Which groups of people have lived in or used the area in the past, and for what purposes? • Explore New Zealand’s responsibilities under global conventions such as the Rio Convention on Biodiversity. Use the DOC web site to find out about the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy. How do the goals and actions in the strategy relate to the site you are visiting? • Examine the meanings of the words exotic, endemic and native. Consider which exotic plant and animal species could get into the reserve unaided. How could they get there? What would their impact be? • Find out if there is anything that you can do to help look after the environment when you are on your visit.

POST VISIT

• Produce a coast care pamphlet to tell other people about things that they can do to keep this as one of the best parts of the whole bay on which we live. Messages to include are: stick to the paths, keep vehicles out of the dunes, keep rubbish out and control dogs.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 1 • Make a large wall chart of a cross section of the beach from low tide level up to the cliff with teams working on the shells, plants, insects and spiders, birds and fossils. • Find out about the use of coastal plants and animals for food, weaving and as rongoa or traditional medicines. Ask your local kaumätua or check books in the library. • Choose a picture of a bird like the black-backed gull (karoro) and identify its special features e.g. powerful hooked bill, loud calls, keen eyesight, webbed feet and, long wing feathers for soaring. Add labels for these adaptations (features) and say how each helps the bird survive. • Make a “wanted” poster for an introduced mammal pest such as a rat or cat. Describe the damage that the pest is doing and suggest an ecological reward for its elimination. • Draw plants and animals that make a food chain and/or cut them out. Arrange them into a food chain or, for more advanced students, build up a food web. • Find out about three weeds that are established here. Why are they weeds? How did they get brought into New Zealand? • Produce cards describing the aims of interest groups involved with the reserve - e.g. local beach society, iwi, neighbouring houses, surf-fishing enthusiasts, Forest & Bird Protection Society and off road vehicle users. Distribute the cards and conduct a debate on what should go in the management plan for the reserve. • Try modelling some of the coastal processes using a shallow aquarium, sand and a flat board to make waves. Can you create a long shore current by making the waves strike the shore at an angle? What sand patterns are created? • Rippin’ ragwort - Once you have learnt to identify the pink ragwort (contact DoC Wanganui if you want to make this an aspect of your trip) you can encourage students to pull it out. N.B. Please make sure that only responsible students are invited to do this as there are some rare plants around. Fortunately none of them look anything like the pink ragwort. Spread the message - We would love students who have learnt to value this great piece of New Zealand to spread the word to others who think of it only as piles of sand with a few weeds on. Discuss, as a class, things that could wreck this area (e.g. off-road vehicles, loose dogs, new weeds). Now design an information board to tell visitors what’s special about the reserve and what they can do to protect it. As an alternative you could make an informative guide to the reserve.

TEACHER NOTES, CASTLECLIFF CONSERVATION AREA

The following notes are aimed at providing the teacher with some background information. Refer to the activities appended for more ideas for students. This reserve is a surprisingly rich natural area on the doorstep of a city. It is included in this series because of the dynamic physical environment, range of plant and animal biodiversity and famous fossil beds.

2 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui In a small area, students can find nationally threatened plant and animal species. They can see powerful physical forces in action and find a fossil. Being so handy it should be possible to return in different seasons to see some of the annual patterns of life.

Tread gently On your trip to the reserve you are likely to cause some damage just by walking over the dunes and disturbing the plants and their roots. The tough plants that grow here have a tenuous hold on the sand and when they lose their grip, the wind that roars in off the Tasman causes blowouts that spread until the sand-binding plants get a chance to weave their magic again. Staying off the plants as much as possible protects your environment. Keep to tracks wherever you can find them. Otherwise try to step between the plants and disturb the sand as little as possible. Makin’ tracks - One way students can help is to bring back some branches of driftwood to lay where the main track runs. This encourages people to stick to one track instead of going all over the place and therefore damaging the plants

Access There is a good parking space with a beach sign on Longbeach Drive. A path leads off this to a set of wooden steps down to the dunes. From the steps you can see the layout of this reserve. Looking northwest a line of cliffs sweeps around toward Kai iwi. Taranaki is way off in the distance. In front of the cliffs are newly formed sand dunes. Pause for a moment to look at the sea conditions. (Activity 1: Can you “read” the sea) From here there is a choice of direction and it is sometimes hard to tell what is a real track. Sticking to the main paths particularly near the access points is an important rule to prevent damage to the plants, which are holding the sand dunes together. Many people head straight down to the beach and walk a distance along it before heading back into the dunes. If you choose this option please be careful when recrossing the foredune as it is the most fragile. An alternative is to take the path that leads down into the hollow behind the fore dune. This tends to be a bit overgrown. Watch out for boxthorn.

Earth science This region is a good place to see evidence that sea levels rise and fall. Independent of that, the land can also be lifted and dropped. Sea level change seems to have been particularly common in the most recent Quaternary geological era. It is driven mainly by global climate changes. In the ice ages, more water was locked up in ice sheets and glaciers so sea levels dropped. During the last big ice age it got so low that there was dry land between Wanganui and Nelson. Warmer periods like now bring the sea back up, swelled by melting ice and heat expansion. Low areas are flooded and high land is cut back creating cliffs. Meanwhile, rivers are always carrying sediment (mud and sand) out to sea. Sand being heavier drops first, mud goes further out where, like the sand, it buries shells and other marine creatures.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 3 On a planet that is still active, what goes down eventually comes back up. Certainly the Wanganui region is full of the evidence with widespread deposits of shell fossils. The rise of the land has been driven by the collision of the Australian and Pacific plates under the North Island. Looking inland we see a series of old terrace plains that were lifted, one after the other, out of the ocean only to then start eroding back into it. Nature is full of cycles! Geologists love the fossils along this coast. They are easily accessible in the cliffs and, the layers are gently tilted so that from Castlecliff, which has the youngest layers, back to the west there is a neat sequence of fossils. It has become the national standard and even if a fossil is found in Hawkes Bay it will be called “Castlecliffian” if it is 200,000 years old or “Kaiiwian” or “Nukumaruan” if it is somewhat older. Take a look at the fossils in the cliffs. (WARNING: These are young and actively eroding cliffs. People have been hurt in rock falls. Please keep away from areas where the cliff looks unstable). (Activity 2: Fossil fossicking) Our fossil beds are very new, indicating that recent uplift earthquakes are typical of what has been going on over recent millennia. The remains are really subfossil rather than fossil because they are still composed of the original shell and haven’t been remineralised over millions of years. (Activity 3: Making cliffs) The erosion mentioned in the above activity is likely to accelerate if global warming continues and is already creating headaches in places like Mowhanau. Here however the dunes have pushed the sea back. How did Castlecliff go against the trend? There is a sand budget on a beach. Waves normally push sand up the swash zone because they arrive with more energy than they depart. Then storms scour it back out. In many places people actually fear losing their nice sandy beach, and it has happened on the Coromandel peninsula and at Paekakariki. Here however, nature is generous on the supply side because our rivers are bringing a lot of sand and mud down to the sea and, added to all that is the eroded cliff debris. A long shore current flows past Castlecliff from Taranaki toward Wellington. The faster it goes the more sand it picks up. Any slowing causes the sand to drop again to add to the beach, a process called accretion. The river moles created the interruption that slowed the current and caused the accretion here. Waves came right up to the base of the cliffs 120 years ago. Then starting about 1881, the moles, consisting of lines of rocks and rubble, were placed at the Whanganui River entrance to concentrate the river flow. For a decade or two it did, as intended, help clear the entrance of sand, making it deeper for boats coming into the busy port. Soon however, the sand bar across the river entrance was as shallow as it had been before the mole was built. So the lasting value of the mole seems to have been to serendipitously create this extra bit of New Zealand for you to enjoy! (Activity 4: The mole did it) The sand build up has probably stopped now, but things could change rapidly if the mole was lengthened or shortened. There is a down side. The sea is taking back some of the sand it loses here by digging into South Beach. Take some lenses or magnifying glasses and a magnet with you on your trip for the next activity. (Activity 5: Sands up close)

4 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui The differences that your students might pick up from the above activity would be due to the sorting effect of the wind. Dune formation is a big process on this coast where the wind sweeps in and there is a good supply of sand. Any sand that dries out will not stick together and will soon be blown inland. (Activity 6: How do dunes get started?) The foredune is quite a miracle of nature. The onshore winds along our coast are salt- laden and sometimes fierce. Only specialist plants like spinifex and pingao can survive here but once they establish they trap sand until they have created a smooth hill. The slow burying suits the plants and they keep growing by sending out runners. (Activity 7: Spinifex - superplant) It is a bit of a treat to see a lovely natural dune like this stretching for kilometres. In most other parts of the west coast, marram grass from Europe has been planted. There is some near the start of your walk. It looks more like a tussock and grows in clumps that don’t spread sideways as much as spinifex and pingao. Its roots can grow a long way down to get water and as a result it makes tall mounds with unstable sides that blow out. Marram creates problems where it is growing on the foredune. Spinifex is a native plant but, because it is also found in other countries around the Pacific, it is not called an endemic. Pingao is an endemic. That means it is unique to our country and therefore our responsibility to look after. (Activity 8: Precious pingao) Pingao leaves dry bright yellow and are used in a variety of weaving. Tukutuku panels between the carvings on meeting house walls are a showcase for pingao but it can also be seen in kete. As a result there are visitors who come to harvest the plant and local iwi often have to develop rules for the harvest.

Why the Castlecliff dunes are special The coast between Taranaki and Wellington used to have the longest unbroken dune system in the country. When farming began, the shifty nature of the dunes clashed with the farmers’ need to fence in stock. Dunes smother fences! Cattle and sheep find the plants in the dunes rather tasty and when the plants are eaten out the sand dunes start moving because there are no plants to protect them. By the middle of last century, New Zealand began a war on the advancing dunes. The weapons chosen were two introduced plants. First marram grass from Europe was planted to stop the sand, then lupins, which add nitrogen to the soil. That paved the way for many pine forests and new coastal farms. It was progress for people but the natural sand land ecosystems dwindled to 5% of their original area. Many plants and animals have become rare as a result. This precious remnant is still under attack. Off-road vehicles such as dune buggies, quads, and trail bikes continue to rip through them and weeds are invading, spoiling their unique character. See post visit activity about making a coast care pamphlet. This is one of the best remaining dune systems. Off-road vehicles are generally staying out of it so far. There are some great rare plants and animals here because it is relatively unspoilt. Dune fields probably grew when the climate was harsh (e.g. during ice ages) and shrank when the winds reduced during mild periods. During the expansions, the blowing sand blocked up streams to create lakes and swamps. In our area Wiritoa,

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 5 Pauri, Kohata, Duddings, Westmere and Virginia Lakes were formed in this way and there are already swamps at the base of the cliffs in this conservation area resulting from the water building up behind dunes.

Good things about dunes generally • They protect the land behind them by absorbing the energy of the waves. In this reserve they are saving the houses on the cliff tops. Up the coast in places like Mowhanau there is no sand in front so the cliffs are falling down as the waves wash the base away bit by bit. Some houses there are endangered. • With plants growing on them, dunes stop the sand blowing inland and covering everything. • Dunes are a special place for special plants and animals to live. • Being an ever-changing and wild natural place, they are interesting to visit. • They can filter water and trap wetlands where even more plants and animals can live.

Biodiversity - seek out the life forms The real treasure of a country is the variety of life that it has aboard (including people of course). This place is a storehouse for an interesting collection of that life. We have already found out about some foredune plants, now lets' look further. (Activity 9: Biodiversity bag, Activity 10: Clean-up kiwis) To find out what is going on in the natural environment we could wander around at random or head out with a plan. Biologists have developed some techniques to make an environmental study faster and more effective. (Activity 11: Make a transect, Activity 12: Quadrats)

Life’s a beach and some of the life forms are shellfish. Let’s check over some of the life that you will find on the beach. Use the illustrations provided to help you identify the shells you find. See also the references for more help. Univalves (One-shell types) This type of mollusc usually has a shell curled into a spiral. They eat by licking with a rasping tongue. Limpets and cat’s eyes lick the greenery off the rocks but the whelks sniff around for flesh. You will notice these predatory types tend to have a slot in the front of their shell opening which is where their siphon comes out. It is the tube that sucks in water for smelling. The ostrich foot is a bigger relation but it is a quieter filter-feeder. Often the only part you find is the ring of thicker material around the opening of the shell. An interesting but unpredictable find is the violet snail. These pretty little shells come from a seagoing drifter that gets around with a raft of bubbles. Bivalves (Two-shell types) Shells that are still stuck together in pairs or ones that have hinges on the side where they were paired up come from bivalves. These animals tend to lead a very dull life because all they need to do is find a safe place to hide and then filter the seawater for plankton. They do this through a pair of siphons- intake and output. The processors inside the shells are the animal’s gills which double as oxygen collectors and food strainers. This lifestyle has obviously been popular in the past

6 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui because the cliffs behind the reserve are a record of millions of years of shells doing the same thing. The safest place is inside rocks and rock-borer shells make an interesting find. One end of the shells is very rough as the animal uses it to grind out the hollow that it inhabits. Other bivalves are not equipped to get inside rocks and so hold on tight to the outside. Oysters glue themselves on while green lipped and, black edged mussels tie themselves down with networks of threads. In the sand or mud of estuaries the pipi and cockles dig in using their muscular foot. Their shells will have come from further up the coast if you find them. Ones that could come from the beach that you are on include tuatua, triangle shells, Dosinias, trough shells, sunset shells and the largest of all the horse mussel which burrows into mud just beyond the surf. Scallops are the most athletic of the bivalves being able to romp around the ocean floor by pumping their shells. Note that many of them have arrived from some distance away having been carried by the longshore current. That is why there are some shells from rocky reefs and inside estuaries mixed in with the ones from off this sandy beach. Another more amazing reason why the shells on the beach may not be from off-shore is that they are often from out of the cliffs and from rocks further inland. Such shells are fossils and they often have traces of the sand stone or mudstone that they were buried in stuck to them. In many cases they are the same species that are still to be found today but sometimes they are a reminder of extinct types. A common shell cast up on the high tide level comes from inside the little ram’s horn squid. The Squid Family are known as the Cephalopods (head-foots). Ram’s horns have a soft body up to 70mm long with the spiral shell made up of air tight sections used for buoyancy control. When it dies the shell floats free and wash up on beaches all around the world. The shell you find may even have drifted here from the Indian Ocean. Once in a lifetime you may be lucky enough to come across a much larger relation of these little creatures. The beautiful but fragile paper nautilus and the larger pearly nautilus both occasionally wash up but you will have to be quick because they are sought after by collectors who regularly beachcomb in search of such treasure. More committed to overall armour are the crusty creatures or Crustaceans. Crab bits are a regular find on the beach. The shells have usually been picked clean inside by the numerous scavengers above and below the low tide level. They are not always from dead crabs. Unlike the bivalves and univalves, crabs can’t just add to the edge of their shell as they grow. They are trapped in their suit of armour and must escape it if they are to get any bigger. The quick stripping act they perform is called moulting. The most numerous crab off the Castlecliff shore is the paddle crab. Crabs are a great take away meal as far as many fish and gulls are concerned and most hide among rocks to avoid this. But out here there is only sand offshore so the paddle crab has a great disappearing trick. When it is not out and about feeding it uses the paddle shaped rear legs for digging backwards into the sand. It is gone in seconds. The paddles are equally useful for swimming and at the other end of the crab, the pincers are powerfully built and armed with teeth to tear up dead fish etc. If you have ever felt a nip while you were swimming at Castlecliff this would be the likely cause. Sometimes there are swarms of bluebottles washed up on the beach. These small jellyfish drift the oceans using stinging cells on their tentacles to catch their prey. They pack quite a sting for humans too but become harmless when they wash up and die.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 7 At times there will also be a good deal of seaweed. It is the obvious plant life of the ocean but more of the food chains in the sea rely on the single celled algae called phytoplankton, which give the sea much of its green tinge. While you are beachcombing check under the driftwood and seaweed. (Activity 13: Under the driftwood)

Seabirds The most common birds along the beach are black-back or red billed gulls. They are opportunistic scavengers and have all-purpose beaks. Oystercatchers and stilts with long sand-probing bills may also be seen, along with terns that catch small fish.

Marine mammals This area is regularly visited by fur seals. They are quite commonly seen near the mole and sometimes come up onto the beach. All seals are wild animals with a capacity to defend themselves ferociously if they feel threatened. Stay at least 5m clear at all times and don’t get between them and the sea. If there are pups do not get between them and adult seals. Keep dogs away. Tell an adult. Usually they will return to the sea when they are ready but occasionally they are really sick, as is the case when we find them caught up in bits of netting or plastic straps. The Department of Conservation will attend to seals that are sick but generally leaves seals to look after themselves. They come ashore sometimes just to rest or recuperate from an injury or illness. Mothers may leave their pups ashore while they are out feeding. If humans handle the pups, the mother may then abandon them. Fur seals are protected by law in New Zealand. They were once common all around the country and are slowly returning to places they belong. Millions were slaughtered in the 19th Century for their skins. Legal protection has led to a steady population growth but they are still attacked by ignorant people and dogs.

Animal life above the high tide level (Activity 14: Sound compass) In summer the range of insect and other invertebrate life among the dunes will be surprising. One of the more startling encounters you are likely to have in warmer months is with a large insect that flies away heavily when disturbed. If you manage to get close you will see that it is a large locust. In fact it is the same one that swarms in other parts of the world. Watch out for spiders under the logs. A rare find could be the katipo. (Caution: katipo have a very nasty bite, which requires prompt medical attention). The body is only pea-sized and the red stripe seen on the female is variable. They do not leap at people but care should be taken not to touch them. They were once more common here but now you are more likely to find another black spider called Steatoda. It has multiplied rapidly since arriving as an unwelcome guest from South Africa. Both species are likely to be found with traces of web and egg masses under logs etc.

8 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui Birds The number of birds you see or hear may be surprising. From the land side, silvereyes, goldfinches, grey warblers and other small fruit and seed-eaters drop in to feed. Insect- eaters such as fantails and the small but loud singing grey warbler also drop in. Some animals that are unlikely to be seen out in the open during your visit will have left clues to their existence. (Activity 15: Wildlife trackers)

Interesting plants Behind the foredune there are some native plants worth looking for. Some of them are quite rare. The sand daphne is popular as a dry garden plant but is increasingly uncommon in the wild. This is one of the last North Island coastal locations where it can be seen. Note the silky hairs on the leaves and stems. If you find one without the silky hairs then you are probably looking at the very rare “Turakina” species. Tauhinu (cottonwood) with its small, crowded, grey-green leaves is another sand specialist. Look out for its creamy flowers in summer. Another feature in summer is the sand coprosma’s pale blue berries. Hidden among the wiry low growing scramble of branches with needle-like leaves are the edible berries . Also edible are the tiny delicate white cup-shaped fruit of another scrambler, pohuehue (wire vine). Large pinky-mauve flowers on a small creeping plant with kidney shaped leaves belong to nihinihi, the shore bindweed. Toward the cliffs there are wetlands with tall raupo and flax. The flax continues up the cliffs and you will also see some native toetoe. (Activity 16: Toetoe or pampas) Note that the toetoe is not invading new habitats and causing problems like the more aggressive pampas which is now recognised as a serious weed.

Weeds This strip is a precious remnant of natural New Zealand. Despite being so close to a city, it is in a relatively undisturbed state not unlike what the first people of New Zealand would have crossed after they landed their canoes. Today this reserve is in mortal danger of being turned into a typical piece of South Africa or Australia. Thoughtless introductions of plants from those countries have created a spreading menace. A major current concern is the sand acacia. It is a leathery leafed wattle that has been planted down by the Castlecliff playground and along the coast to protect pine forests. It spreads rapidly along the dunes and has the potential to fill the habitat from the cliffs down to the fore dune. That would be a disaster for all the other plants it would smother. It will be a hard job to get rid of. The pink ragwort from South Africa is another weed, which is spreading rapidly. Many people have noticed the arrival of this plant because of the masses of purple flowers that it displays along the roadways into Wanganui from the south. There is an annual volunteer campaign to pull it out of a scientific reserve at Whitiau just down the coast. Other weeds that are likely to be seen include, the nasty boxthorn, marram, tall Canadian fleabane, bindweeds with a white flower, fennel, lupins and kikuyu grass near the steps.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 9 ON SITE ACTIVITIES SECTION

Activity 1 Can you “read” the sea Look seaward from the steps or other high point. The waves are pushed up when swells coming in across the Tasman Sea hit the shallow seabed. Draw a sketch of the pattern of waves that you can see. How many waves are there in view at one time? Waves that start to build up a long way off shore and then move in steadily are a sign of a wide shallow shelf. Rising or crashing waves out beyond the breakers on the beach indicate shallow bars of sand under the waves. Calm patches in between are deeper channels, which are often where rips of fast-flowing water form. Rips are a good thing to avoid if you go swimming because they usually cut through the bars somewhere to drain water back out to sea taking anyone caught in them with the flow. Now see if you can add in the location of the bars and rips on your diagram. If you were setting up a surf patrol on this beach where would you put the flags?

Activity 2 Fossil fossicking CAUTION: The cliffs can collapse. Stay away from steep banks. Poke around in the rubble (talus) at the bottom of the cliffs and look for evidence of the life that existed here when this area was under the sea. Compare your finds to the diagrams and name as many as you can. Are these shells fully fossilised into hard rock? Mud and sand that are buried deep and long enough become solid mudstone and sandstone. Do you think the material these cliffs are made out of was buried for long? Note that some of the shells are still the same as ones that are found on the beach today. What happened to the types of shellfish buried in the cliff that are not still around Wanganui today? Older fossils can be found on the beach. These ones have been washed along the shore from older more solid cliffs. See if you can find a different type of fossil on the beach.

Activity 3 Making cliffs When you look up the coast you can see steep cliffs. Describe evidence you can see that the cliffs are eroding quite quickly. Where does the rubble from collapses go if the sea can get at it? Over the last 100 years the rate of erosion up this coast has averaged 0.7m per year. How far would that eat into the land in 10 years? 100 years? 1000 years? What could stop the erosion?

10 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui Activity 4 The mole did it How are the cliffs here different from those you can see up the coast? The fact that these cliffs are not being attacked by the sea anymore is due to the mole at the mouth of the Whanganui River. It slows down the current that sweeps along this beach so that it drops more sand than it picks it up. Measure (with a tape measure or by pacing) how far you now have to walk from the base of the cliff to the edge of the sea. It took 120 years for the dunes to move that far. Work out the average rate of sand build up per year. Will the sand keep building up for ever?

Activity 5 Sands up close Look at some sand through a magnifying glass. Write down the colours that you see and whether they are shiny or dull. Can you see any of the following; Pearly white pieces are shell, sugar-like clear crystals are probably quartz (silica), black grains can be titanomagnetite, the mineral that contains iron. Try passing a magnet over the sand to check the iron content. Repeat these observations with sand from different parts of the beach. Why are there differences?

Activity 6 How do dunes get started? Look closely at the patterns of sand above the high tide level where the sand dries out. Sketch the patterns that you see. What happens when you get down and blow hard across the sand? The ridges and hollows naturally form as wind blows sand. Look at the first big dune behind the beach. It is called the foredune and it is the first barrier that onshore winds have hit in over a thousand kilometres! What is holding this big dune together?

Activity 7 Spinifex, superplant Have a close look at the beautiful silvery plants on the foredune. These are really tough customers to survive out here in the face of the sea wind. What would kill a fern or rose bush if you planted it here? How are these plants spreading? What is the longest runner that you can measure without pulling the plant up? Look at some leaves up close. What is the covering over the leaves? How would this help the plants survive? How did the first Spinifex plant get on to this new set of dunes? Look for the tumbly seed heads and pull one apart to see if you can find a seed.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 11 Activity 8 Precious pingao While you are down here make an effort to find some of the beautiful native sand sedge the pingao. It is a more golden colour than the Spinifex and feels tougher. Make a list of the special features of this plant too. Pingao is harvested for weaving. Local iwi have the traditional right to control the harvest. What rules would you make for people who wanted to pick pingao?

Activity 9 Biodiversity bag Biodiversity means the great variety of life on earth. It is the real treasure of the planet and includes you! Your group’s mission is to gather as much evidence of life as possible without taking anything that is alive. You can collect any shell, bone, feather, piece of crab, washed up seaweed, jellyfish etc but always check if you already have a sample- the shells are tricky so look at them carefully to see if they are a new type. When you have finished collecting, get all your finds out and sort them into different groups. Discuss with your group and the teacher the reasons why you put certain things together. Make sure you leave it all behind.

Native, endemic or introduced? Some plants and animals are native to New Zealand. That means that they were here before people came. Native species are usually in balance with their environment because they have been here so long and therefore do not usually create new problems. Endemic species are found only in the area that is being talked about. For example the kiwi is endemic to New Zealand and the Turakina Sand Daphne plant is endemic to just a small part of the coast near Wanganui. Red billed gulls are native too but the same species is also found in Australia and around the Pacific Ocean. We call these species that turn up everywhere Cosmopolitan. Bracken is another example of a cosmopolitan species. We have to look after our natives and especially the endemics. If we don’t, nobody else will. For instance the Turakina Sand Pimelea is very rare because the natural sand dune environment it lives in has been reduced to a small fraction of what it was.

Activity 10 Clean-up kiwis While you are doing the Biodiversity Bag, your group could also make the environment better than you found it. Take another bag for litter. Collect as much as you can reasonably carry. On the coast near Wanganui we have had seals killed by plastic straps, gulls killed by plastic wrappers and even a baby whale that choked on a plastic bag. Your effort could save an animal’s life! If you have time, sort and analyse your rubbish collection as well as the biodiversity.

12 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui Activity 11 Make a transect A transect is simply a study of a typical cross-section of an area giving you a chance to meet the locals along the way. Start from as near the sea as you can reasonably get. Stop every 5m and each location go 5m in either direction to record all the plants and animals that you can find. Record the types and numbers. You should get a field sketch of the lie of the land while you are there...

Cliff

Foredune Swamp Sea High tide level Low tide level

DISTANCE DESCRIPTION CONDITIONS PLANTS NAME ANIMALS NAME OTHER EVIDENCE FROM SEA OF THE (TEMP, WIND, OR SKETCH OR SKETCH OF LIFE (EG TRACKS) IN METRES LOCATION HUMIDITY) AND NUMBERS AND NUMBERS

Activity 12 Quadrats Make a more detailed search by putting down a square (quadrat) of wire or measuring out a square with string. A thorough search made in the defined area will usually show up a surprising number of life-forms. You can then calculate the density (numbers per square metre for instance) and compare different results for different areas.

Activity 13 Under the driftwood If you carefully lift up driftwood or masses of seaweed you will find there are usually some interesting creatures underneath. Record what you find. Below high water level there are often sand hoppers to be found. They are more common under seaweed. Sand hoppers are related to the slaters you find on land but they are taller than they are wide.

Super Sites for Education in Wanganui 13 Activity 14 Sound compass Make up sheets like the following:

Ahead

Behind

Now spread out and sit by yourself for five minutes in the dunes. Record every sound that you hear by naming or describing it. Put the nearby sounds in the inner circle, the further away ones further out in your diagram. Share your records when you get back and try to work out how many different life forms the class has heard altogether.

Activity 15 Wildlife trackers One way to find out about the animals present that are too shy for you to see is to look for tracks, fur or feathers and other “signs”. Signs can be a nice way of saying faeces (poo). Refer to the diagrams to help you unravel the clues.

Activity 16 Toetoe or pampas Tall white seed heads on a giant grass plant are a feature in New Zealand. Some are native toetoe but others are an introduced weed called pampas. Try the following tests to see which you think it is. Hold a leaf with two hands and give a sharp sideways tug. If it snaps cleanly it is pampas. Toetoe has more main veins and they are tougher. Once you have tried this test a few times see what other differences you can find.

OTHER SOURCES

In addition to the DoC website www.doc.govt.nz the following may be useful

Crowe, Andrew 1995. Which Coastal Plant? Viking

Crowe, Andrew. Which shell? Viking

Heather, B. and Robertson, H. 1996. Field Guide to the Birds Of New Zealand. Viking

Hesp, P 2000. Coastal Sand dunes. Forest Research

14 Super Sites for Education in Wanganui