Protecting native taonga
Planting, fencing and other restoration activities are commonplace on the whenua Māori blocks the Māori Trustee administers, but it’s not every day we protect endangered species while doing it.
Protecting the habitat of a nationally endangered giant land snail is one of the biodiversity wins that Te Tumu Paeroa has had this year.
One part of an ecologically significant, high priority wetland, Perawiti’s Wetland, sits on Manawatu Kukutauaki 3 Sec 2A1A2.
The wetland was once kahikatea forest, and although some still stand, it’s mostly the harakeke, toetoe and raupo that have remained. Alongside other numerous native plant species and the wildlife they support, it makes the wetland one of the largest and most diverse in the area.
In 1993, a survey recorded the presence of a rare native snail subspecies, Powelliphanta traversii koputaroa. The land snail is naturally uncommon, but its wetland forest habitat has also been severely reduced with forest clearance and wetland drainage – the snail is now nationally endangered.
The portion of Perawiti’s Wetland on the Māori Trustee administered block is now fully fenced to keep grazing cattle out, thanks to a Horizons Regional Council biodiversity grant.
This year Te Tumu Paeroa contracted 420 metres of fencing around the wetland, which also keeps cattle safe from predator control in the wetland margin.
Pictured above: The habitat of a nationally endangered land snail, Powelliphanta traversi koputaroa, has been protected on a Manawatū block administered by the Māori Trustee. Photo: Matt Ward/ iNaturalist