Love affair with bogs and mudflats

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 23

Love affair with bogs and mudflats

Wetlands, By Gordon Stephenson. Government Printing Office, 1986. 117 pp. $16.95. (Reviewed by Mavis Airey)

Do not be put off by the unimaginative presentation of this book: like the “shy places” that Gordon Stephenson takes such pleasure in describing, it is full of hidden treasures for those who are prepared to make an effort. It may seem strange to develop a love affair with mires and mudflats, the author admits, and perhaps because wetlands lack the dramatic appeal, of New Zealand’s mountains, bush and coastal scenery, he feels they are one of our least appreciated resources.

A recent inventory listed 2500 wetlands, and there are certainly more, ranging from the brilliantlycoloured thermal wetlands to vast areas of mountain bog, mysterious mangroves which are essential breeding grounds for coastal fisheries, peat bogs which preserve lost relics of Maori history, braided rivers, dune lakes and kettleholes, swamps and saltmarshes, estuaries and sand-spits.

Wetlands are rich in their bird, fish, and plant life, much of it rare or increasingly endangered — as are the wetlands themselves. Some of our best farmland was once wetland, Gordon Stephenson points out, and many of our towns sit upon what was once a yielding bog. He has written this guide to kindle enthusiasm for wetlands, much as his was fired by visiting several of the most accessible ones in the company of people who . are experts in the special features of each. This book is, he says, as much as anything a personal record of discovery — and therein lies its charm.

For not only does he like* his subject, he writes about it well. He shares with us the "strange, rather magic feeling of being suspended above a mysterious primeval habitat” at the Waitangi mangroves; the atmosphere of quiet, gentle solitude as he sat and dreamily watched the ducks and dabchicks at Lake Half, north of Kaitaia; his fascination with the way plants and animals adapt to seemingly hostile conditions: the insect-catching sundew and bladderwort, and the mudfish, which hibernates in times of drought and thrives in water that would kill other fish; his delight in hearing the boom of the bittern and seeing the Rakaia wrayblll’s chicks, described by a wildlife ranger as “bees on stilts.”

Although Gordon f Stephenson describes only 19 wetlands in detail, he has selected a wide range both geographically and ecologically, and postscripts to each chapter list examples of similar wetlands in other parts of the country. He!also gives a brief guide to access* and, some of the illustrations will ! help with identification of species. Definitely a book to keep in the gloyebox of the car.