Corridors of native wildlife

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 9

Corridors of native wildlife

THELMA STRONGMAN talks with JUDITH ROPER-LINDSAY, who is concerned that Christchurch city has lost its natural patterns of life.

Experiencing the City

For Judith RoperLindsay, the strongest identifying features of Christchurch are the natural ones — the flat ground, the Avon and Heathcote rivers and the background of the Port Hills.

Not long ago, each of these areas supported its own cycle of animal and plant life, which gave it an additional identity. Judith is concerned that in the city, we have quite unnecessarily lost these natural patterns of life, having been overwhelmed by the skills of architects and engineers. Experience overseas suggests that individuals and communities are healthier for daily contact with the natural patterns and features of an area.

Judith is not advocating a totally "green” city, but she and her group would like to see small remnants of the existing vegetation protected and others reestablished in order to produce a chain of habitats through which wildlife can move in and out of the city. She feels that this contact would add greatly to the quality of life of the people who live and work in the city. Judith Roper-Lindsay considers that the elimination of the natural cycles within the city was started unwittingly by the pioneers who ignored the natural paths which people had made and imposed an unnatural grid system of roads.

They drained the swamps and channeled the streams so that, as the city developed, its natural vegetation of cabbage tree, flax, sedges and raupo disappeared, along with pockets of lowland bush at Papanui and around Dean’s Bush. The birds and insects which lived on the sand and shingle beds were driven away as European plants were introduced. It is for these reasons that she would like to see the Travis Swamp untouched. It is our last area of wetland remaining close to the city and among many other considerations it is a living reminder of the basic environment in which our city is established. Another important consideration is the educational aspect. It would be very sad if a Christchurch child had to be taken

outside the region to see a pukeko.

The strong identification of Christchurch with its European beginnings has led to the planting of avenues of deciduous trees throughout the city. Judith wonders if it is now timely to assert our bicultural nature by embarking on a policy of planting native plants, for instance, along the banks of the rivers.

The drainage board has done a very good job using the rivers to drain off excessive water, but she feels that the status of the rivers as natural systems has been reduced in their functioning solely as drainage channels. She would like to see them returned to their full function, allowing wildlife to migrate up and down the river corridors, bringing life to the heart of the city, and linking it to the estuary and the sea. The presence of ducks in many parts of the city is a factor which Judith Roper-Lindsay considers special to Christchurch. There are few places in the world .where a queue of traffic would allow the safe passage of ducks and ducklings. However, owing to the grass being kept short on the banks of the rivers, the ducks have very few places to hide their nests and in many places they are unable to get in and out of the water safely, because of the steepness of the banks.

The fragments of the natural vegetation systems

which have survived, such as Riccarton Bush, are very But there are a number of natural habitats occurring where the vegetation already has a tentative hold, such as the boggy patches in some golf courses.

Then there are areas, such as the flat terrace downstream of the Millbrook reserve, where an area of native sedge is kept short by mowing. These areas need to be identified and protected. Their natural vegetation would be comparatively inexpensive to restore. The use of native plants in gardens also has an important function in providing food for native birds such as wood pigeons and bellbirds. Fantails and grey warblers also have a tenuous hold within the city. Some of the native birds are dependent on insects. It has been found that 95 per cent indigenous insects are dependent on particular native plants at some time in their cycle, so it can be seen that it is important to try to reestablish the whole ecosystem. Most people care about the conservation of wildlife in the city, Judith finds, particularly those who are in a position to be of direct influence such as architects, landscape architects, parks and recreation officials and water board engineers.

It is sometimes difficult to achieve goals as there is little opportunity for

these people to get together to achieve an overall plan. For instance, the administration of the rivers, the estuary, and the sand dunes along the coast of greater Christchurch, all parts of the same natural system, are administered by different departments and bodies. For this reason, Judith Roper-Lindsay, together with a small group of other professionals, is putting on a one-day workshop entitled "Urban Landscapes 2020.” They hope to attract others, from a wide variety of disciplines, who are interested in the future of the Christchurch townscape with a view towards designing the environment with nature — rather than against it. The workshop will be held - Riccarton House, on May 17.