2018/23 Duneland health monitoring

Overview

The extent of dunelands under natural landcovers has undergone major declines across the country and in the Wellington Region. The remaining natural areas are under pressure by pest plants and animals, and human activities. This report summarises the results of Greater Wellington’s (GW) programme monitoring the health of these natural dunelands in the Wellington region. The programme surveys the management effectiveness, pressures and state of a representative sample of dunelands over a 5 year cycle. The 20 sites surveyed include twelve sites managed in the GW Key Native Ecosystem (KNE) programme one of which includes a regional park, two sites on Public Conservation Lands managed by the Department of Conservation, one site managed by Wellington City Council and five sites without targeted management programmes.

Key monitoring objectives are to:

determine the state and trend of duneland health in the Wellington region,
monitor the outcomes of management at selected duneland KNE sites, and
establish a baseline against which to survey the impacts of sea level rise and increased storm surges resulting from climate change.

Monitoring network

Drag and scroll on the map to move and zoom in on areas of interest. Hover over monitoring site circles and duneland outlines to see more information. KNE sites are marked with a ‘+’ symbol and can be highlighted by clicking the “Show only KNE sites” option.

Monitoring results

Use the top menu bar “Results” dropdown list or links below to navigate to the following results sections:

Vegetation: Measures of the indigenous dominance of the species richness and aerial cover, the proportion of bare ground and the canopy height of the vegetation.
Pest animals: The presence of rats, mice and hedgehogs detected by chew track cards.
Condition: The pressures and state of duneland health as measured by indigenous vegetation, surrounding land cover, animal and plant pests, pedestrian and vehicle access, and mining disturbances.

This web report may be cited as: GW 2023. Duneland health monitoring data report 2018/23. Greater Wellington.

A static PDF version of this report can be viewed and downloaded here.