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Winter blues got you down? Did you know that numerous studies have now confirmed that spending time outdoors is good for both your mental and physical health? So much so, that this even has a medical term, ‘greenspace exposure’, which doctors are now starting to prescribe. Increased exposure to the wide open spaces is associated with decreases in blood pressure, stroke, hypertension, asthma and heart disease, among other conditions.
I mention this for two reasons. Firstly we have the beautiful Shakespear Regional Park greenspace on our doorstep along with many lovely “sand spaces” too. Secondly, because you can start a serious course of greenspace exposure by training as a trapper in the Shakespear Open Sanctuary. The sanctuary has been free of predators for eight years, enabling it to become well-established as a wildlife sanctuary. However it will stay like that only as long as we can keep it pest-free, which means that trapping will need to continue for the foreseeable future – at least until a better means of control comes along. But we are perpetually short of trappers, so here is your chance to get some greenspace exposure and do some good at the same time.
There are 38 traplines and they each need to be checked, reset and re-baited every few weeks (varies from 2-6 weeks) and each one takes three or four hours. This must be done in scheduled weeks but can be done in your own time, and if you are away or ill then you can ask for someone else to do it. You will probably never catch anything but if you are squeamish we have tracking tunnels to check as well, and they collect only footprints. See our website for more details (sossi.org.nz) and email us if you can help.
Another patch of a rare plant was recently discovered in the sanctuary – Korthalsella salicornioides no less, but more readily known as dwarf mistletoe. It is an endemic native that has become more and more endangered, due to felling of its favoured host trees, and is now listed as nationally critical. This is the third discovery of this plant at Shakespear and its arrival at this new site is probably frugivory – I always learn something writing this – it means ‘spread by birds or other animals eating the fruit’. Even better, the plant is ambophilous, which means spread by wind as well as animals. Another great example of the benefits of keeping predators and possums out.
If you are visiting Te Haruhi beach, please watch out for the dotterels which are already pairing up there. They lay their eggs in the sand and scrap furiously to claim stretches of beach for themselves, so please give them space. Last year they started laying really early, in September, which then meant that their chicks were fledged before the summer crowds arrived. We are hoping they will do this again.
