Birds flock to precious park

HAVING had a little spare time lately on account of the rain, much needed by the way, I got to thinking about how seemingly long-winded words like biodiversity, biosecurity, conservation and environmental conservation were and where they all fitted in with each other.

To even find out exactly what the definition of biodiversity is, you needed to visit Uncle Google. He says it means a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems and can be measured by the number of species in an area or ecosystem.

Uncle also says the definition for biosecurity is security from exposure to harmful biological agents: measures taken to ensure their security.

So when you put the two together, what does this really mean to the average man, woman or child on the street?

Let's take a walk in the park that is our own Bushy Park Sanctuary, 24km northwest of Whanganui and gifted to the Royal New Zealand Forest and Bird Society by GF Moore, rated as one of the top 25 ecological restoration projects in Australia and New Zealand.

Added to this is the Edwardian homestead which now caters for B&B and lunches over the weekends, along with morning and afternoon tea.

The 100 hectares are characterised as virgin lowland remnant rata-podocarp rainforest, something outstanding and unique in this region.

Some 10 paths traverse the sanctuary, giving you 3.4km of walking within the area.

Over the years the sanctuary has seen many bird releases within the recently completed predator-fenced area, including the North Island brown kiwi, saddlebacks, North Island robin, bellbirds as well as the latest release of the hihi or stitchbird in 2013.

Add to this, restoration work on the wetland area where rare native plants are being planted and rimu, pukatea, mahoe, pigeonwood, kawakawa grow, with the New Zealand flax and toetoe.

So we can now see how biodiversity/biosecurity all fit together - that is we have a unique area of biodiversity, that is all ecosystems, inside, surrounded by biosecurity - ie the predator fence - on the outside. Simple. Yes, you say.

It's all down to volunteers giving hundreds if not thousands of hours to create this unique conservation, education and tourist facility for all to enjoy.

Ongoing support will need to come from volunteers along with funding assistance from councils, both regional and district, corporate sponsors, DoC, Ministry of Education and good old Joe public to name a few.

We started off talking about biodiversity/biosecurity and a better understanding of the issue. What's better than a walk in the park, Bushy Park Sanctuary, to see this in action?

- Brian Doughty is president of Wanganui Federated Farmers