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Friends of Lord Howe IslandNewsletter No.45 Summer 2017

Friends Weeding Tours for 2018

The Friends of Lord Howe Island will be running two weeding ecotours to Lord Howe Island for 2018

June 10 to 17 - Staying at Somerset.

August 25 to September 1 - staying at Leanda Lei

see back page for details

In this issue

2 - 3 Report on August 2017 weeding trip

4 - 5 Update on Rodent Eradication

6 Biosecurity dogs for the Island;

eradication of African Big headed ants

7 Friends effort on Sea spurge

8 Funding for Save our Species program

9 Article on conservation volunteers from

New Zealand

10 - Muttonbird Point track opened

12 2018 Weed Trip details

12 Rare bird sightings

In October the Friends committee held a dinner at a Crows Nest restaurant for John Flint who had decided to hand over the role of Friends secretary. Long time Friends member Annie Hawker (left) is taking on this role that John had filled since the Friends of Lord Howe Island formed in 2001. The committee voted that John should be given life membership of Friends LHI for his outstanding contribution to the group in its conservation efforts on Lord Howe Island.

John and his wife Norah pictured at right are enjoying traveling and lecturing at University of 3rd Age since John retired.

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Report on August 2017 weeding trip

This was a small group with Elizabeth Staraj, Carolyn Rae, Norelle Feehan Patricia Petzold. However the group carried out a very important task. In 2002 the creeper Fan flower Scaevola calendulacea was found on the Blinkie Beach dune for the first time. This plant is native to the north coast of New South Wales; it was determined that this probably was an introduction when pots of spinifex grass, propagated at a Port Macquarie plant nursery, were brought over and planted on the dune following its reshaping when the airstrip was installed in 1974. Since discoverty in 2002 this plant has spread and is taking over large areas that are habitat for the threatened plant species Chamyscace psammageton, a small dune herb.

The Lord Howe Island Board Flora Officer determined that it should be removed, and made a request for help by the Friends of Lord Howe Island volunteers.

So three mornings were spent by the small but enthusiastic team on treating this. The technique was a bit of trial and error; over many years the stems had piled up straggling over each other, perhaps ten stems deep. The group members found the only way to treat it effectively and efficiently was to cut a hole in a patch of the stems, scrape the bark off as may as you could, and apply glyphosate to all of the scraped and cut stems. Over the three days the group members had achieved primary coverage of the whole of the main infestation; now it will be wait and see how effective this has been; but it will certainly need more follow up treatment.

Scaevola calendulacea fruit Scaevola calendulacea flower

The August team on Blinkie Beach dune Scaevola site

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On another day the group walked the Boat Harbour track and removed Broad-leafed paspalum from the tracksides. This weedy grass species has been targeted for some eight years now by Friends LHI groups Very little was found along the tracksides, so the treatment by various Friends groups over the past years has been very effective. At Boat Harbour itself there is an area of Paspalum that was treated in May, and our August group repeated treatment by digging out the grass, but more follow up will be required.

This group spent a morning at the Edie’s Glen restoration site, removing the secondary weeds of Cobblers pegs, Fleabane, Scotch thistle and Crofton weed. A backpack was used to spray some of the Crofton weed and Kikuyu grass at the site. This site continues along its restoration to a nice native Lord Howe Island forest, following removal of Rice paper plant and Castor oil plant by various Friends groups over 15 years.

Elizabeth Staraj made a great contribution carrying out search and destroy of Sea spurge along the Lagoon dune from the Aquatic Clubhouse to Signal Point.

The small group also enjoyed walking the Island tracks and beaches, with of course North Bay and the barbecue the highlight day. Another great afternoon was spent on the Little Island track and seeing the Providence petrel chicks. During the week the weather came good and we were able to get down to Ball’s Pyramid for a great cruise with dolphins and seabirds.

tangle of Scaevola stems cut and paintedThe extent of Scaevola on Blinkie dune

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Rodent Eradication update

At the September 2017 Board meeting the Lord Howe Island Board voted six to one to proceed with the Rodent Eradication Project for the Island. This was following advice from the three government agencies that had been given the Lord Howe Island Eradication Plan to evaluate for effectiveness and safety. When these reports came back positive that the aims of the project could be achieved and that the proposed methods of bait delivery were considered safe for the residents and environment.

This is very exciting news for conservation on the Island, and has been a long process that began in 2002 and has been followed closely by our Friends of Lord Howe Island members in the newsletters.

The Lord Howe Island Board Project Officer Andrew Walsh would like assistance from volunteers and has asked if any Friends of Lord Howe Island groups could be run during the period the project was to be carried out.

The exact date that the eradication project will be carried out will not be known until the time. All equipment and personnel will be on the Island for 3 months from the 1st June 2018. When a forecast of good weather for two weeks is given, the project will begin. So the Friends are putting on two trips for winter 2018 – one each in June and August. Assistance could be in the form of filling bait stations, collecting dead rats or birds, observing movements of Providence petrels and Masked boobies during helicopter operations. If anyone does not want to attend while the baiting is carried out, the August trip will most likely be the one to choose, as the project will most likely have been carried out by then.

Two new staff for the Rodent Eradication Program

In November 2017 two new staff were contracted as part of the team to carry out the Rodent Eradication Program.

Ann De Schutter has joined the team as Project GIS (Geographical Information Systems) Officer and will be responsible for the spatial planning and mapping of the aerial and ground baiting components. Most recently Ann undertook a similar role for the Antipodes Islands (New Zealand) Mouse Eradication Project.

Jaclyn Pearson has also just started as assistant Project Manager, Community role, replacing Anthony Wilson. Jaclyn has joined the team after successfully completing the eradication of rats from a populated island in the Isles of Scilly in the UK.

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Biosecurity Detection Dog Team for the Island

The Island’s new frontline defence against biosecurity threats detection dogs Sebbi and Zuma arrived in June with professional trainer Steve Austin. Locals Darcie Bellanto, Rachael McFadyen and Tim Solomon have been employed as dog handlers and have undergone training with the dogs. These dogs are trained to detect a range of biosecurity threats including reptiles, amphibians and rodents and Cherry guava.

The team will primarily work at the airport and jetty to detect incoming threats from planes, yachts and the cargo ship. The dogs will also form part of the rodent prevention and detection network following the rodent eradication project taking place in 2018.The dogs are exercised, groomed, worked and trained daily and undertake surveillance of incoming air and sea freight and luggage. A scent detection wall has been established at the Board’s depot to maintain the dogs’ ability to detect the target scents. Taronga Zoo and Melbourne Zoo are providing snake skins and scats to keep the dogs noses tuned for reptiles.

Introduced ants

The Lord Howe Island Board staff have carried out an eradication program of African Big Headed Ant over the past few years. A final survey of previously infested sites (that have been treated) will be carried out over this summer. It is hoped that there will be no ABH ants found and if so this will be first eradication of this species from an oceanic island globally. To aid residents in detecting ants on Lord Howe Island, the Lord Howe Island Board have produced an Ant Identification Guide booklet.

More good news on ant prevention

The Federal Government, States and Territories of Australia have established a joint task force with a ten-year eradication plan and $411 M budget to eradicate Red Imported Fire Ants from Australia. This is great news as these would devastate the wildlife if they reached Lord Howe Island. This is a seriously aggressive invasive ant, with a venomous sting that swarms to attack disturbances to their nests. They are being controlled from Botany Bay in Sydney, to Gladstone in Central Queensland, with the biggest infestations from Brisbane to the NSW border. Efforts to eradicate Fire Ants on the mainland are very important to keep them out of Lord Howe Island.

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Victoria University Wellington NZ assist with Friends Sea Spurge program

Each year for the past four years I have assisted with a field trip for the Island Biology course at Victoria University. As part of the field trip program, the students contribute a half-day conservation volunteer project on the island. Previously the groups have worked on weeding at Transit Hill and Lagoon Beach. For 2017 the group of 14 students carried out a sweep of the southern end of Lagoon Beach removing Sea Spurge from the dune. The May FLHI group had commenced at Cobby’s Corner and moved north, reaching the creek mouth; the 2017 university group started there and completed the run all the way to the airstrip rock wall; making the first complete search and removal of this part of Lagoon Beach.

Trial herbicide plots for Sea spurge

While working on removal of this species FLHI members have noted that frequently large plants have become buried with wind-blown sand and their roots subsequently are deeply buried, making hand removal difficult. So the May group and the July university group set up four plots and trialled the cut and apply glyphosate herbicide treatment to stems of Sea spurge in the plots. On inspection in December no plants had resprouted, so this technique will be used in further FLHI actions against Sea spurge plants that are deeply buried. The next remaining areas for FLHI to tackle for this weed will be from Lovers Bay south along Kings Beach and Salmon Beach, which have not been looked at thoroughly.

Sea spurge removal ramped up

Since 2007 the Friends of LHI weeding groups have targeted removal of Sea spurge Euphorbia paralias from the Lagoon Beach dune. As the effort required in removing Climbing asparagus from Tranist Hill has diminished, the FLHI are making major effort with removal of Sea spurge.

So far the Friends have checked and removed Sea Spurge from all of Lagoon Beach and around to Lovers Bay, and Old Settlement Beach.

North Beach is monitored for this weed species on our visit to North Bay with each FLHI group, and only eight plants have been detected and removed. In November I did find one small plant at Ned’s Beach- the first seen on the eastern beaches of the island, so we do have to be vigilant.

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Saving Our Species Major Funding secured

The Lord Howe Island Board has received funding for 2017 to 2021 under the NSW government’s Saving Our Species- Threatened Species Program with $316,000 committed for year one, with a potential $1.083 M over four years. This program is managed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and aims to secure threatened plants and animals in the wild.

The ten threatened plants species for Lord Howe Island being funded for protection by the Saving Our Species Program are: Little Mountain palm Lepidorrhachis mooreana, Hutton’s Geniostoma, Geniostoma huttonii, Mountain coprosma Coprosma inopinata, Mountain Xylosma Xylosma parviflorus, Lord Howe Broom Carmichaelia exsul, Lord Howe Island Morning glory Calystegia affinis, Rock shield fern Polystichum moorei, Knicker nut Caesalpinia bonduc, Sand spurge Chamyscace psammegeton, Philip Island Wheat grass Elymus multiflorus subsp. kingianus. The majority of these threatened plants species occur in the southern mountains. Remote weed search is required to deliver effective reporting for the program.

Project elements include monitoring of the ten threatened plant species in the Permanent Park Preserve; revegetation; propagation of Phillip Island Wheat grass and Sand spurge; helicopter operations, data collecting and reporting.

Caesalpinia bonduc

Carmichaelia exsul

Coprosma inopinata

Lepidorrhachis mooreana,

Calystegia affinis Geniostoma huttoniiPolystichum moorei,

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Ipomoea cairica on Blackburn Island

In May the FLHI weeding group visited Blackburn Island to trial removal of the introduced vine Ipomoea cairica. Blackburn Island was most likely covered in native shrubs and small trees when the island was discovered in 1788 At some point goats were put on the island and they removed most of the native vegetation. Goats were removed but an introduced grass Rhodes grass Chloris gayana somehow arrived there and now covers 95 percent of the island. In the early 2000’s an attempt was made at reforestation of a small area on Blackburn Island. However a drought following the planting out meant that most of the plants did not survive. In the area left cleared Ipomoea cairica established and quickly filled in the clearing and climbed over any remaining native plants.

The Friends have taken this on as a trial to see if removal of the weedy vine will benefit the native plants. An inspection in December showed that the removal technique was effective and the native plants are responding. FLHI groups will work with the Board to continue the restoration of this site, with follow up removal of the weedy vine and possibly planting more native plants.Infestation of Ipomoea cairica on Blackburn Island (above) and six

months after treatment (below) by FLHI group in May (below right).

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a limestone bluff, shingle pit, subalpine karst cave and lowland dryland. Over two-thirds (67.9%) of groups’ projects took place on Crown land (DOC and other), and just over one-quarter on privately owned land (27.9%). Over one third of projects restoring lakes (40.6%), freshwater wetlands (37.2%), coastal areas (36.8%), streams (36.7%) and forests (35.0%) took place on land in private ownership (including Māori-owned land).”

Not surprisingly, weed and pest animal control were key activities of the groups.

“Weed control and planting of natives were reportedly undertaken by most groups (86.1% and 85.4% respectively). Three-quarters of groups carried out pest animal control (75.3%), with slightly fewer (70.8%) engaged in advocacy and educational activities. Over one-half of groups (56.9%) reported writing submissions to government agencies on environmental matters.”

It was good to note that the importance of monitoring results was also recognised by a number of groups, but ideally more could be done in this area.

“Nearly one-half of groups (48.6%, n = 282) carried out their own environmental monitoring while an additional 3.5% of groups used a contractor for this activity. When asked about other activities, open-ended responses (n = 57) included rubbish removal (2.9%), plant propagation (1.5%), and attending Environment Court hearings (1.1%).”

Almost all community groups received support from local and/or central government agencies.

“A total of 92.9% of groups (n = 295) reported receiving some form of support from project partners. Overall, nearly one-third of the support received by community groups was reportedly provided by councils (31.3%), followed by DOC (21.2%) in line with the largest percentage of projects reportedly occurring on Crown land (43.8%) followed by DOC-administered land (24.1%).”

At the conclusion of their study, the researchers had several recommendations, including more collaborative conservation work.

A volunteer conservation article from across the Tas-man

It has been estimated that between 25,000 and 45,000 people belong to community-based environmental groups in New Zealand. That’s a lot of volunteer work and, as the estimate was made in 2011, numbers since then are likely to have grown. There’s also a pretty wide range of uncertainty in those estimated numbers – 25,000 to 45,000 – reflecting perhaps, how little we actually know about the full extent of volunteer environmental work being done.The volunteer contribution is huge – and is increasingly being relied on by resource management agencies facing biodiversity declines and funding limitations. So who are the volunteers? What are their group characteristics and what kind of environmental projects are they engaged in?

In 2015, University of Waikato researchers Monica Peters, David Hamilton and Chris Eames conducted an online survey of community environmental groups in an effort to find out more about their makeup, motivations and achievements. The researchers analysed responses from 296 community groups – out of the estimated 600 or more groups thought to be carrying out volunteer conservation work across New Zealand.

“Responses were spread across all mainland regions of New Zealand (with Stewart Island included in Southland). Seven groups with projects spread over more than one region were also included. The greatest numbers of no-responses were for the Waikato and Auckland regions.”

Most of the groups that responded were small – with no more than 20 members – and had been in existence for more than 6 years. Members tended to be in the older age range.

“When asked what age most group participants were, over half (53.7%) were reportedly in the 51–65 year age bracket, with those in the 31–50 year age bracket (25.7%) being nearly double that of the post-retirement age bracket, i.e. 65 years or over (12.5%).Forests (64.0%), streams (42.0%) and wetlands (33.2%) formed the three most commonly restored ecosystems reported by community groups. Other ecosystems (1.4%) restored included

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“To achieve greater efficiencies in resourcing, agency partners could, for example, assist groups where practical to form networks. In addition, access to larger funds for restoration and related works (e.g. environmental education) would encourage greater collaboration between groups and lessen competition for limited resources… Ongoing financial and practical support is needed to ensure that community groups remain sufficiently resourced to carry out their mostly voluntary contribution to biodiversity restoration, protection and enhancement.”

The role of ‘citizen science’ and potential contribution by community groups is also discussed by the authors.

“With citizen science entering the national vocabulary and wider opportunities for community involvement in scientific research evolving, there is a need for better understanding of how groups measure restoration success. An in-depth understanding of community groups and their projects will assist with improving support delivery by project partners, and in developing an inclusive and cohesive sector based on meaningful partnerships. Ultimately, a strategic approach to supporting community groups will enhance groups’ environmental outcomes at the local level while also contributing to national goals for biodiversity conservation.”The article also noted that NZ flows a worldwide trend s that have seen a continual rise in the reliance of volunteer input into the conservation and natural resource management sector. The increased expectation from resource management agencies for greater community input to biodiversity recognises the strong social and economic benefits that volunteer groups can provide.”

The full article is published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology and is freely available.

Muttonbird Point track opened.

In 2015 heavy rain triggered a landslip on the eastern flank of Intermediate Hill, blocking the Muttonbird Point track. The Lord Howe Island Board staff had one attempt at rebuilding the track and another storm and mudslide washed away the timber for the track rebuild. The repair was delayed pending reports from geologists on the safety of the site.

Finally, following geology reports, the Lord Howe Island Board staff and contractors undertook the necessary repair work in 2017. The track is now open and many tourists are enjoying this popular walk. Friends weeding trips over the years have enjoyed using this track as a round trip to Boat Harbour, and will welcome the opportunity to do this again.

In 2015 the Friends of Lord Howe Island sponsored local contractors to carry out treatment of the track with herbicide to remove the weedy Broad-leafed paspalum grass that had grown up along the tracksides. This treatment was very effective and with follow up herbicide treatment carried out, the track is relatively weed free.

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Unusual bird sightings to December 2017

Friends of Lord Howe Island Newsletter compiled by Ian Hutton PO Box 157 Lord Howe Island NSW 2898.Email ian@ianhuttontours.com

In September one Horsfields Bronze cuckoo showed up at the airport area and stayed several days. this was only the second sighting of this species on the Island.

In September one Brown songlark was sighted in the Old Settlement Paddock. This was the first record of this species on the Island.

Rats pushed the White bellied storm petrels off the main Lord Howe Island, but they are breeding on rat free offshore islets. In November 2017 I found three dead WB storm petrels above Hells Gate- taken by rats and/or introduced owls. As soon as rats and owls are eradicated the Storm petrels will be back to breed very quickly.

2018 WEED TRIP BOOKING FORM

June 10 to 17 - Staying at Somerset. Twin Share Ex Sydney or Brisbane - $2399 p/p.

August 25 to September 1 - staying at Leanda Lei

Twin share cost $1949 P/p

Contact Shelly at Oxley Travel 1800 671 546

----------------------------------------------------------------Please book me on the Lord Howe Island bush regeneration tour (included is my $200 deposit pp) Name(s) Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss_______________________

Address ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________

Phone ________________ Email ________________QANTAS Frequent Flyer number ________________________My bush regeneration experience is years I prefer to go on dates :

June 10 to 17

August 25 to Sept 1