Here again is the Friends of Flora (FoF) newsletter, sent each month to keep you in touch with our work of bringing not just the birdsong, but the snails and the mistletoe, back to the Flora.

Hello, Goodbye. Farewell and heartfelt thanks to Christine and Richard Johns and family who have spent many many hours in committee and 'on the hill'. They are off to Perth for a year, or more. Christine's departure from the FoF committee, along with that of Kim Turner earlier this year, means we can appoint some new blood so welcome to Philip Lissaman, who says of himself: "I have a long working interest in conservation culminating in over 20 years in QE II National Trust working with private landowners and their conservation projects - this continues as the Regional Representaive for Nelson. Through this and previous experiences I have seen so many small scale successes of active intervention in conservation of key or vulnerable species and habitats. Thus the interest in FOF as an extensive example of the same thing. Plus, who could deny the enjoyment of getting up into the Park most months."

....and welcome, too, to Mike Bannock, who has this to say: "Arrived from South Africa in 61. Married Anne in 65 and have 2 sons and a daughter. Dairy farmed in the Waikato/King Country till 1990. Was Waitomo District Coucillor for 9 years in the 80's and was there rep on the Waikato Valley Authority (now Environment Waikato) for 6 years. Moved to current property in Ngatimoti in 1990. Owned and operated Ocean River Seakayaking at Marahau with one of my sons for 6 years from 1997. Albeit very much a layman, have always been interested in the outdoors, tramping and the NZ environment."

Thanks to Teri Tan. A client of one of Friends of Flora's sponsors - Bush and Beyond Guided Walks - has donated her time and expertise to design our new FoF brochure. Teri Tan is Singapore based and works in the publishing industry. A big thank you to Teri for the wonderful job she has done. If anyone would like a brochure/s please contact FoF secretary Maryann Ewers at fof@fof.org.nz

Honeydew - the 'engine room' of the beech forest. On a fine morning in the Flora (or in any South Island beech forest) thousands of blobs of sweet sugary honeydew can be seen on the end of fine thread-like tubes poking out of the bark of beech trees. The threads are, in fact, the (ahem) anal tubes of the honeydew beech scale insect and the other end of the animal is busy sucking the sugar out of the phloem vessels of the tree. The familiar black colour of honeydew-infested trees is due to a fungus that lives off the sugar smeared aginst the trunk, roots and branches. This high-energy honeydew feeds the entire forest - insects such as ants, beetles and flies, nectar-eating birds such as tui, bellbird and kaka and even forest geckos. Also, honeydew nourishes nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil around the tree. Regretably, it also is a food for the introduced german and common wasps, who in turn predate upon our native insects. Where wasps are the most abundant our native birds will not feed on the honeydew and so may not gain the required energy boost for successful breeding. The extent of honeydew will vary according to altitude, aspect and the age of the host trees - young trees have fewer fissures in their bark to allow entry for the scale insect and older trees often have have bark too tough to allow entry.

Wrens recover. FoF-ers may be interested in a new DoC report on rock wren in Kahurangi. The September 2006 report 'A 5 Year Study of Rock Wren in Henderson Basin, Kahurangi National Park' details the decline and recovery of a population of wrens resident in 200ha of alpine habitat below Mt Cobb. From 29 birds in 1986 the study group crashed to just 10 in 2004/5, only to recover spectacularly to 23 in 2005/6. Predator control targetting stoats has been in place since 2000 - there are currently 17 traps with an annual catch of no more than 7 stoats in each 12 month period. The rock wren Xenicus gilviventris and the much more common rifleman are our only surviving wren species. Rock wrens are our only truely alpine bird, never ocurring below the bushline. New Zealand wrens are an ancient family, with the oldest lineage of any passerine (perching bird). The report can be viewed at DoC Motueka (ask for Gavin Udy). All sightings of rock wrens should be reported to your local DoC office.

Pest progress. The pest kills for October 2006 were:

Stoats, just the one (total 323 since February 2002)
Rats - 60 (total 1079)
Mice - 15 (total 694)
Possums - 5 (total 226 since June 2004)

Of the 60 rats, 44 were caught on 'C' and upper 'I' lines, suggesting they are entering the managed area from the back of the park rather than the more usual access from the road end, where, this October a mere five rats were caught. In October last year 7 stoats, 23 rats, 19 mice and zero possums was the tally.

More from FoF next month.

Ivan Rogers FoF Committee