New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract
Regeneration of native forest on Hinewai Reserve, Banks Peninsula
HUGH D. WILSON
Research Fellow, Koiata Botanical Trust
Research Associate, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research
Hinewai Reserve
R. D. 3 Akaroa, New Zealand
Abstract One thousand hectares in the south-east sector of
Banks Peninsula are being managed for the protection and restoration of native
vegetation and wildlife under a policy of minimum interference. The probable
pre-human vegetation cover (1000 yr B.P.), inferred from current evidence and
some historical records, was continuous forest, c. 55% of it podocarp/hardwood
forest and 45%
Nothofagus forest. About 4% of this old-growth forest
survives. The remaining area is a diverse mosaic of successional vegetation.
Approximately 30% of the total area is closed-canopy second-growth native
forest. About 53% is under scrub of naturalised gorse (
Ulex europaeus)
and broom (
Cytisus scoparius). The remaining 13% is under pasture,
fernland, and native tussockland. The predicted cover 50 years hence, assuming
that fire can be excluded, is 95% second-growth native forest, 4% old-growth
forest, and 1% tussock, shrubland, and scrub which will persist on bluffs.
Successional pathways are diverse, involving both native and naturalised
species.
Monitoring of vegetational change to test predicted pathways and patterns began
in October 1987. To date, observations show that in the absence of grazing
animals and fire, regeneration of native forest is rapid, especially through
gorse and broom scrub, and by the vigorous establishment of native seral
hardwoods, especially kanuka (Kunzea ericoides).
Keywords forest regeneration; succession; Ulex
europaeus; Cytisus scoparius; Kunzea ericoides; podocarps;
second-growth hardwoods; Nothofagus; fire; grazing; monitoring; Akaroa
Ecological District; Banks Ecological Region
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1994, Vol. 32: 373-383
0028-825X/94/3203-0373 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994
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