September 2019 CATLINS COAST INC. NEWSLETTER Kia ora & Welcome Please enjoy the newsletter from the Catlins Coast Inc. If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the quarterly newsletter please email Catlins Coast Project Coordinator [email protected] Join us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Catlinscoast/https:// The newsletter is a Catlins Coast Official Website great way to ‘share’ www.catlins.org.nz information on what is happening in The Catlins! P urakanui - Photograph provided by Clutha Development WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE CATLINS Catlins Coast Incorporated (CCI) Spring greetings from the CCI Chair The lambs and calves are arriving at this busy time of year for some of us and so are our visitors for others so I hope you have had time for some kind of break to recuperate, refresh or what ever you do before the crazy season really hits. The Tear off Map and Purple Brochure are in the final editing stages and should be hitting the shelves shortly. We have refreshed some photos and added /edited information so it is consistent with our Stakeholders messages and fits with our environmental care and protection of our beautiful community. The CCI appreciate all feedback received to date as part of the review of the CCI resources (Tear off Map, Purple Brochure and Care Code), however there were some suggested additions that were unable to be adopted for various reasons, but overall trust we have all things correct, but do please feel free to contact [email protected] to offer any further constructive feedback. The website is always available for new listings so please contact [email protected] to get the listing process started which includes any community news/notices. I recently attended a Clutha District Council (CDC) community meeting in Owaka regarding the CDC Responsible Camping 6 month trial sites in the Clutha area of The Catlins for fully self contained camper vans. Responsible camping/ Freedom Camping / irresponsible camping or what ever you want to call it, is a very contentious issue but one that Central Government has said is an allowable activity and Councils cannot ban it as much as some of the community would like this to happen. Doing nothing has not been successful, it has only led to anger and stress on the community and pressure on the environment and wildlife so I would like to congratulate the Council for taking on this challenging issue particularly going in to a local body election. As always CCI welcomes you to come along to our monthly meetings. Regards Dianne Miller CCI Chairperson CCI Continued……... Anyone who has any stories and/or poems of The Catlins they would like to ‘share’ on the website, we would love to hear from you as we would include these on the Our Stories page. Should you wish any community information e.g. news and/or up and coming events be included on the new CCI website, please do not hesitate to contact me [email protected] As previously reported, we have access to data from Google Analytics in terms of those visiting the CCI website over the last couple of years and are able to extract comparative data i.e. on a monthly basis. Given the new website went live end of November 2018 there looks to be a considerable increase in numbers from those who visited the old website vs the new website, which is great news! As an example, the following data is taken from the *Home Page for the given dates. However, out of interest the most popular page visited after the Home Page is the ‘Where to Stay’ page, followed by ‘Visitor Information’ page and then ‘Captivating Activities’ page. *Home Page 1st September 2018 – 28th August 2019 = 62,950 1st September 2017 – 28th August 2018 = 41,226 To be noted, after the first anniversary of the new website, the information will become even more useful in terms of comparative data for each of the pages on the website. Lisa Biginato CCI Project Coordinator Project funding 2019-2020 award for: ‘Catlins’ Bats on the Map’ ‘The Participatory Science Platform (PSP) is designed to encourage communities — particularly young people, educators and scientists — to work together on collaborative science projects so that they become more enthused and informed about the role that science plays in their lives.’ The Catlins’ Bat Project, as part of the South Otago branch of Forest and Bird, has been awarded $20,000 towards running such a project through to May next year. This project will bring together community members including all the students in both The Catlins Area School and Tahakopa School, landowners across the region, the existing and any new bat survey volunteers, Earthlore Wildlife Gardens, and bat scientists including Ian Davidson-Watts and Gillian Dennis. There is scope to include you too! Please get in touch with Catriona Gower [email protected] 0223 914 698 Initially, over Winter and Spring 2019, the school students are learning about bats, their ecology and how to monitor them. Bat recorders have been ordered and the students and their families will then be putting them out and about where they think the bats can be found. When they have discovered some bat foraging hot spots, they will work with Earthlore to catch night-flying insects to find out what the bats are eating in these hot-spots and what is the best habitat for the insects and hence the bats. Tahakopa School students learning about bats Catlins Bats Continued ….. I am keen to involve other community groups, and landowners, who would like to have a go at bat detecting and finding out where bats might be around their land: please get in touch! In March some participants will head to the 7th National Bat Conference in Te Anau to present all their project work to the bat scientists attending from both NZ and Australia, and, in the first week of May 2020 an exhibition of the work with a map of where the bats have been discovered, will be open for all visitors to the Owaka Museum. Bat survey volunteers on a training evening 2018 ————————————————————————————-————————— Some of the rubbish picked up from KP! Keep New Zealand Beautiful Week 2019 Kaka Point (KP) rubbish pick up took place on Sunday 15th September, attended by locals and some from out of town (20 plus helpers in total). There were some that couldn’t make the Sunday, but still participated in picking up some rubbish prior to the Sunday. Over 52 bags of rubbish (plus items we were not able to fit into bags) were collected. The pick up was over an area from the Nuggets through to the 35K corner (Paretai straight) and along the KP Beach and some of the KP streets. As per previous years, a lot of the rubbish collected consisted of e.g. bottles/cans (of some form), food cartons/packaging along with containers/barrels and chairs! There were also 19 Telford students and 4 staff members who picked up rubbish on 12th September from the 35K corner heading to Telford and approximately 8k along the Freezing works road and they got just as much rubbish as last year if not more! A thank you to the Telford students/staff for their participation in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful event. As always, although so thankful and pleased with the turnout over the week, I think we all continue to be disappointed and frustrated with the amount of rubbish we seem to pick up each year and that some people continue to deposit their rubbish on our roads. It’s pretty hard to ‘Keep NZ Beautiful’ when this type of behaviour doesn’t seem to change…. Lisa Biginato Kaka Point Resident Clutha District Council - Freedom Camping Trial Councillors have decided to trial an alternative approach to manage freedom camping in The Catlins area over the 2019/20 summer. The increasing number of visitors, along with greater impacts on our communities and the environment, suggests that a change to Council’s current approach is required. Council will investigate potential freedom camping sites for self-contained vehicles in The Catlins as part of the trial. Council staff will consult with landowners and stakeholders to determine the suitability of these sites, and the best way to implement the trial. The budget for the trial is up to $25,000. Council agreed to trial up to three designated sites in The Catlins each able to take a limited number of vehicles, and where necessary, will undertake remedial work to ensure these are fit for purpose. The trial will not include the provision of toilet or other facilities, and the use of the designated sites will be limited to certified self-contained vehicles. Once the trial sites have been determined, they will be publicised through Council’s website and Information / Service Centres. The trial sites will operate on a first come / first served basis, with a limit on the number of nights people can stay. Council will provide information about the trial through its website, brochures and signage, directing people to the trial sites, and also identifying campgrounds in the area. The number of people choosing to freedom camping the Clutha District has increased over the last decade, and includes both international and domestic visitors. In popular areas like The Catlins, this has resulted in more pressure on the environment, and increasing tension between locals and campers. Councillors acknowledged that the Freedom Camping Bylaw and Policy did need reviewing and it would be in the work programme for next year. The results of the trial planned for The Catlins will help to inform this work.