SIGNIFICANT INDIGENOUS VEGETATION AND SIGNIFICANT HABITATS OF INDIGENOUS FAUNA IN THE COASTAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE BAY OF PLENTY REGION VOLUME 1 DECEMBER 2006 Contract Report No. 1345 Prepared for: ENVIRONMENT BAY OF PLENTY QUAY STREET P.O. BOX 364 WHAKATANE WILDLAND CONSULTANTS LTD, 99 SALA STREET, P.O. BOX 7137, TE NGAE, ROTORUA Ph 07-343-9017, Fax 07-343-9018, email [email protected], www.wildlands.co.nz CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES 2 3. METHODS 3 3.1 Study area 3 3.2 Collation of existing information 3 3.3 Field survey 2006 5 3.4 Criteria for the evaluation of ecological significance 8 3.5 Threat classifications 8 3.6 Significant vegetation and habitat zone (SVHZ) 9 3.7 Key ecological zones (KEZ) within the Tauranga Harbour 11 3.8 Mean high water springs (within sites in the SVHZ digital layer) 13 4. OVERVIEW OF THE BAY OF PLENTY COASTAL ZONE 13 5. COROMANDEL ECOLOGICAL REGION 15 5.1 Overview 17 5.2 Waihi Ecological District 17 5.3 Mayor Island Ecological District 21 6. NORTHERN VOLCANIC PLATEAU ECOLOGICAL REGION 27 6.1 Overview 29 6.2 Tauranga Ecological District 29 6.3 Motiti Ecological District 267 6.4 Otanewainuku Ecological District 282 6.5 White Island Ecological District 288 7. WHAKATANE ECOLOGICAL REGION 301 7.1 Overview 303 7.2 Te Teko Ecological District 303 7.3 Taneatua Ecological District 319 7.4 Opotiki Ecological District 401 8. RAUKUMARA ECOLOGICAL REGION 437 8.1 Overview 439 8.2 Motu Ecological District 439 9. EAST CAPE ECOLOGICAL REGION 471 9.1 Overview 473 9.2 Pukeamaru Ecological District 473 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 507 BIBLIOGRAPHY 507 © 2006 1 Contract Report No. 1345 APPENDICES 1. Bay of Plenty Regional Policy Statement Heritage Criteria (indigenous vegetation and habitats of indigenous fauna) 528 2. Criteria for assessment of relative significance 529 3. List of common plant names used in the text 532 4. List of common fauna names used in the text 536 5. Field work programme - Environment Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan - significant vegetation and habitat zone – prepared 6 July 2006 539 6. Vegetation structural classes (Atkinson 1985) 542 7. Relationship of sites to mean high water springs 545 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Ecological Districts of the coastal environment of the Bay of Plenty Region (McEwen 1987).............................................................................. 4 Figure 2: Structure of the New Zealand threat classification system (Molloy et al. 2002).................................................................................... 9 Figure 3: Key Ecological Zones within Tauranga Harbour...................................... 12 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Key references on indigenous biodiversity for the coastal environment of the Bay of Plenty Region........................................................................... 6 Table 2: Relative priorities for field survey of indigenous vegetation in the 2006 evaluation of vegetation in the coastal zone of the Bay of Plenty Region. 7 Table 3: Priorities for field survey of threatened indigenous bird sites in the 2006 evaluation of vegetation in the coastal zone of the Bay of Plenty Region. 7 Table 4: Priorities for field survey of other threatened fauna sites in the 2006 evaluation of vegetation in the coastal zone of the Bay of Plenty Region. 8 Table 5: Attributes of digital data layer for the Significant Vegetation and Habitat Zone (SVHZ) ........................................................................................... 10 Table 6: SVHZ sites within each Key Ecological Zone of the Tauranga Harbour.. 11 Table 7: Threatened and notable species in Waihi Ecological District (Bay of Plenty Region), coastal bioclimatic zone. ........................................................... 18 Table 8: Threatened and notable species in Mayor Island Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone........................................................................... 22 Table 9: Threatened and notable species in Tauranga Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone....................................................................................... 31 Table 10: Threatened and notable species in Motiti Ecological District................. 268 Table 11: Threatened and notable species in Otanewainuku Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone......................................................................... 283 Table 12: Threatened and notable species in White Island Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone......................................................................... 289 Table 13: Threatened and notable species in Te Teko Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone..................................................................................... 304 © 2006 2 Contract Report No. 1345 Table 14: Threatened and notable species in Taneatua Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone..................................................................................... 320 Table 15: Threatened and notable species in Opotiki Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone..................................................................................... 401 Table 16: Threatened and notable species in Motu Ecological District, coastal bioclimatic zone..................................................................................... 440 Table 17: Threatened and notable species in Pukeamaru Ecological District (Bay of Plenty Region), coastal bioclimatic zone. .............................................. 475 PROJECT TEAM Sarah Beadel – Project management, client liaison, report preparation. Jenny Lux – Field survey, report preparation. Lisette Collins – Field survey, report preparation. Maggie Bayfield – Field survey, report preparation. Richard Gillies – Report preparation. William Shaw – Technical advice, report preparation. Lucy Manning – GIS mapping. Roger Bawden – GIS mapping. Margaret Honey – word processing. © Wildland Consultants Ltd 2006 This report has been produced by Wildland Consultants Ltd for Environment Bay of Plenty. All copyright in this report is the property of Wildland Consultants Ltd and any unauthorised publication, reproduction, or adaptation of this report is a breach of that copyright. © 2006 3 Contract Report No. 1345 1. INTRODUCTION Environment Bay of Plenty commissioned Wildland Consultants to review the location, extent and site-specific information on significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna within the Bay of Plenty coastal environment. This information will be used as the basis for a plan change to update the Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan (RCEP). The RCEP was developed in the 1990s and became operative in 2003. As it is a RCEP, and is not limited to the coastal marine area1, the objectives, policies, and methods apply to coastal environment but the rules apply only to the coastal marine area. The plan includes a set of A3 maps that show zones and various values and uses. A mandatory review of the plan must be initiated by the 10th anniversary of the date the plan became operative (RMA Section 79(2)), i.e. by 2013. However Environment Bay of Plenty has decided that, due to the age of the ecological information on which the plan is based, a plan change should be undertaken to update the maps. The Resource Management Act requires that the council must provide for the protection of significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna (Section 6(c)). This requirement has been implemented through Chapter 6 of the RCEP - Significant Areas of Flora and Fauna - and through mapping of significant sites, based on the following documents: • ‘Significant Indigenous Vegetation of the Bay of Plenty Coastal Zone’ (Beadel 1994a) ; • Reports on marshbird habitats in Tauranga and Ohiwa Harbours (Owen 1993 and 1994a). Three different zones have been delineated: • Coastal Habitat Preservation Zone in the coastal marine area (CHPZ); (sites of international, national or regional significance below MHWS in Beadel (1994a) and sites with ‘significant numbers of at risk marshbird species’ from Owen (1993 and 1994a). • Sites of District or Local Significances (in the coastal marine area) (SSCMA); (sites of district or local significance in Beadel (1994a) and sites with’reasonable numbers’ of marshbirds from Owen (1993 and 1994a). • Sites of Significance (on land) (SSL) (sites of any significance level above MHWS from Beadel (1994a). Environment Bay of Plenty has decided that these zones, and associated provisions in the RCEP, are to be reviewed, for the following reasons: 1 ‘Coastal marine area’ is defined in the Resource Management Act 1991. © 2006 1 Contract Report No. 1345 • The reports the above zones are based on are over ten years old. Over that time, there have been changes to the condition and extent of these sites and the understanding of what constitutes a ‘significant’ site. • Proposed Change No. 1 to the Bay of Plenty Regional Policy Statement (Heritage Criteria) includes new criteria for determining the significance of indigenous vegetation and habitats of indigenous fauna. • The Owen (1993 and 1994a) reports were limited in their scope, in that they only covered surveyed marshbird habitats in Ohiwa and Tauranga Harbours. One of the aims of this project is to provide region-wide coverage and to include habitats of all types of indigenous birds (and other biota). • Lastly, the council has recently acquired additional responsibilities, by way of an amendment to Section