Significant natural areas of the Waipa district: terrestrial and wetland ecosystems
Report: TR 2013/16
Author: Kessels & Associates Ltd
Abstract
Waikato Regional Council is undertaking a project to prioritise areas of the Waikato region for biodiversity management. In order to do so, existing habitats of indigenous flora and fauna (i.e. natural areas) need to be identified, their features described and their ecological significance assessed.
The identification and assessment of natural areas will assist both Waikato Regional Council and Waipa District Council to make decisions regarding policy development and the prioritisation of funding and resources for ecological restoration, as well as being an important information resource for the assessment of resource consents.
Separate significant natural area (SNA) assessments have been conducted for riverine, lacustrine, geothermal, and karst ecosystems. This assessment forms the component of the terrestrial and wetland SNA that fall within the Waipa territorial authority area.
As part of this project, Kessels & Associates, in conjunction with Red Admiral Ecology, have been commissioned to undertake a largely “desktop” exercise to identify, describeand assess the ecological significance of remaining natural areas of terrestrial and wetland habitats of indigenous flora and fauna in the Waipa district.
This report provides a summary of the methods and results of the “desktop” exercise, which was comprised primarily of a literature review, analysis of recent aerial photography and other data, and use of existing in-house knowledge of the Waipa district. The data resulting from this project is held and maintained in an SNA database at Waikato Regional Council.
It is important to recognise that the inventory produced for this study is an indicative and provisional data set of SNA in the Waipa district as at 2007 (based on the year of capture of the aerial photography used as the primary source for determining site boundaries), and it is expected to be updated periodically as new information becomes available. In particular, community consultation and data obtained from field surveys will provide valuable information which could be used to validate the data.
Only predominantly indigenous terrestrial and freshwater wetland natural areas were assessed as part of this inventory. Lake, stream and riverine ecosystems were not specifically included in this assessment, although there were some overlaps with terrestrial and wetland ecosystems. Some comment on these other ecosystems has been made where it was considered appropriate.
Significant natural areas of the Waipa district: terrestrial and wetland ecosystems [PDF, 6.4 MB]
| Contents | ||
| Executive summary | 1 | |
| 1 | Introduction | 5 |
| 2 | Objectives | 5 |
| 3 | Methodology | 6 |
| 3.1 | General approach | 6 |
| 3.2 | Stage one - Literature review | 6 |
| 3.3 | Stage two - Delineating site extent (spatial data) and data set formation | 6 |
| 3.3.1 | Base spatial data | 6 |
| 3.3.2 | Design scale | 7 |
| 3.3.3 | Minimum mapping unit (MMU) | 7 |
| 3.3.4 | Grouping or merging polygons (except for Maungatautari Ecological Island) | 7 |
| 3.3.5 | Grouping or merging polygons (Maungatautari Ecological Island only) | 7 |
| 3.4 | Stage 3 - Ecological significance assessment (attribute data) | 7 |
| 3.4.1 | Descriptive attributes | 8 |
| 3.4.2 | Significance assessments | 8 |
| 3.5 | Stage 4 - Quality control | 11 |
| 3.6 | Data set accuracy | 11 |
| 3.6.1 | Positional accuracy | 11 |
| 3.6.2 | Attribute accuracy | 12 |
| 3.6.3 | Field surveys and 'slither' errors | 12 |
| 4 | Ecological character of the Waipa district | 13 |
| 4.1 | General overview | 13 |
| 4.2 | Raglan ecological district | 14 |
| 4.2.1 | Overview | 14 |
| 4.2.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 14 |
| 4.2.3 | Geology and soils | 14 |
| 4.2.4 | Vegetation | 15 |
| 4.2.5 | Flora | 15 |
| 4.2.6 | Fauna | 15 |
| 4.2.7 | Protected natural areas | 15 |
| 4.2.8 | Key significant natural areas | 15 |
| 4.3 | Hamilton ecological district | 16 |
| 4.3.1 | Overview | 16 |
| 4.3.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 16 |
| 4.3.3 | Geology and soils | 16 |
| 4.3.4 | Vegetation | 16 |
| 4.3.5 | Flora | 17 |
| 4.3.6 | Fauna | 17 |
| 4.3.7 | Protected natural areas | 17 |
| 4.3.8 | Key significant natural areas | 17 |
| 4.4 | Maungatautari ecological district | 18 |
| 4.4.1 | Overview | 18 |
| 4.4.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 18 |
| 4.4.3 | Geology and soils | 18 |
| 4.4.4 | Vegetation | 18 |
| 4.4.5 | Flora | 18 |
| 4.4.6 | Fauna | 18 |
| 4.4.7 | Protected natural areas | 19 |
| 4.4.8 | Key significant natural areas | 19 |
| 4.5 | Kawhia ecological district | 19 |
| 4.5.1 | Overview | 19 |
| 4.5.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 19 |
| 4.5.3 | Geology and soils | 19 |
| 4.5.4 | Vegetation | 20 |
| 4.5.5 | Flora | 20 |
| 4.5.6 | Fauna | 20 |
| 4.5.7 | Protected natural areas | 20 |
| 4.5.8 | Key significant natural areas | 21 |
| 4.6 | Waipa ecological district | 21 |
| 4.6.1 | Overview | 21 |
| 4.6.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 21 |
| 4.6.3 | Geology and soils | 21 |
| 4.6.4 | Vegetation | 21 |
| 4.6.5 | Flora | 21 |
| 4.6.6 | Fauna | 21 |
| 4.6.7 | Protected natural areas | 21 |
| 4.6.8 | Key significant natural areas | 21 |
| 4.7 | Ranginui ecological district | 22 |
| 4.7.1 | Overview | 22 |
| 4.7.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 22 |
| 4.7.3 | Geology and soils | 22 |
| 4.7.4 | Vegetation | 22 |
| 4.7.5 | Flora | 22 |
| 4.7.6 | Fauna | 22 |
| 4.7.7 | Protected natural areas | 22 |
| 4.7.8 | Key significant natural areas | 22 |
| 4.8 | Tokora ecological district | 23 |
| 4.8.1 | Overview | 23 |
| 4.8.2 | Bioclimatic zones | 23 |
| 4.8.3 | Geology and soils | 23 |
| 4.8.4 | Vegetation | 23 |
| 4.8.5 | Flora | 23 |
| 4.8.6 | Fauna | 23 |
| 4.8.7 | Protected natural areas | 23 |
| 4.8.8 | Key significant natural areas | 23 |
| 5 | Threatened environments and threatened species of the Waipa district | 25 |
| 5.1 | Extent of nationally threatened environments within Waipa district | 25 |
| 5.2 | Threatened species | 26 |
| 5.2.1 | Threatened flora species | 27 |
| 5.2.2 | Threatened fauna species | 27 |
| 5.2.3 | Regionally uncommon or threatened species | 29 |
| 6 | Results of the significant natural areas inventory and assessment | 30 |
| 6.1 | Significant natural areas inventory | 30 |
| 6.2 | Vegetation composition analysis | 35 |
| 6.3 | Limitations of the assessment | 35 |
| 7 | Conclusions and recommendations | 37 |
| 7.1 | Conclusions | 37 |
| 7.2 | Recommendations | 38 |
| 7.2.1 | Key issues | 38 |
| 7.2.2 | Ecological restoration priorities for the Waipa district | 39 |
| Acknowledgements | 43 | |
| Glossary | 43 | |
| References and selected bibliography | 46 | |
| Appendix I - Key natural areas data and literature for the Waipa district | 49 | |
| Appendix II - Criteria for the assessment of signficance of natural areas | 51 | |
| Appendix III - Types of legal protection in the Waipa district | 75 | |
| Appendix IV - Confidence levels for significan natural area assessments | 76 | |
| Appendix V - Metadata for the "Significant natural areas - Waipa district" data set | 77 | |
| Appendix VI - Photos | 101 | |