Sign In / Register
We know this landscape through the things that make themselves known. We hear ruru calling in our gardens at 2am and cicadas filling the summer air. We watch kererū crashing rather inelegantly through the trees and see kauri towering above the forest.
These are the parts of the living world that are difficult to miss.
But what about everything else?
Look closely among the branches, and you might find a forest gecko almost perfectly disguised against the bark. Native fish move quietly through our streams, fungi appear and disappear with the seasons and, along the coast, ōi return after dark to burrows hidden beneath the trees.
There is so much living among us that most of us neither see nor know what to look for.
Between November 2 and 6, we are going to see what we can uncover.
Piroa Conservation Trust (PCT) is working in partnership with Pātuharakeke, Te Uri o Hau, Northland Regional Council (NRC) and the Department of Conservation to hold a BioBlitz across the region.
A BioBlitz brings people together over a short period to find, identify and record as many living species as possible. For five days, different teams will head out looking for native birds, seabirds, plants, trees, fungi, frogs, skinks and geckos, and the life hidden within our streams and wetlands.
We will be joined by a brilliant group of ecologists and species specialists from Northland and further afield, who are generously sharing their time and knowledge. It is a rare opportunity to walk alongside people who have spent years learning how to find and understand species that most of us would pass without even noticing.
You do not need to be an expert to join them. The BioBlitz is about learning: sharing what we already know, adding new observations and giving more people the confidence to recognise what lives around us.
For PCT, that knowledge will help us decide where to focus our conservation work.
Before we can protect rare species, we need to know where they are. Before we can care for an important habitat, we need to understand what it depends upon. And to measure whether our work is making a difference, we need a clear picture of what is here now.
That picture will become richer with every person who joins us.
More people means more ground covered, more eyes looking and more opportunities to discover something we did not know was there.
Want to learn more? Join us at 6pm on October 6 at Mangawhai Golf Club, where NRC biodiversity advisor Stevie Tong will explain how the BioBlitz will work and share the results of our recent bat survey, undertaken with Pātuharakeke and NRC.
The survey is a lovely example of why this work matters: by taking the time to look and listen, we now understand far more about the bats living quietly alongside us.
We need as many curious eyes as possible. If you would like to join a survey team, or have land in the Brynderwyns that you would like us to include, please email me at katie.gibb@piroconservation.org.nz.
Come and help us discover what shares our home!
Katie Price – Piroa Conservation Trust
