2017/18 was our best season ever with wonderful people enjoying the best of New Zealand nature with us! Hard to believe we were swimming in the ocean from October all the way through to Easter. This certainly made up for a wet winter. We know winter is on its way when the godwits (above) head back to the northern hemisphere to breed. On the plus side the Wrybills and South Island Pied oyster catchers come and visit us in the sunny Bay of Plenty to avoid the cold winters of the South Island

New Product - Nature meets Culture

Foris eco-tours has created a day tour for the discerning client who wants an intimate nature experience and wants to experience a genuine cultural exchange. Our nature and culture experience starts with a short walk in Otanewainuku forest (between Rotorua and Tauranga). This is a stunning forest, home to giant trees and fantastic birdlife.

We lunch at Mount Maunganui and check out Mount Drury and of course New Zealand’s favorite beach at the Mount.

After this we have a private studio visit with Todd Couper. Todd is a Contemporary Māori artist who specializes in wood carving and sculpture, and has forged his own style and direction in carving, with commissioned pieces residing in collections both locally and internationally. Todd shares his story of how his culture inspires his art practice. Check out his work here http://www.toddcouper.com/images.

What is Eco-tourism?

Internationally ecotourism is well understood. Essentially it needs to be five things to be a genuine ecotourism experience.

1. Small scale, locally owned and operated

2. Nature Based

3. Low impact on the environment

4. Educative

5. Financially contributing to conservation

We have used these guidelines since our inception to shape our business. 1 and 2 are easy as we are a small family owned business and we take people to stunning off the beaten track places.

We follow "leave no trace" principles in the areas we work so they would be no sign of us ever visiting the areas we operate. We are lucky to have great tracks in New Zealand that make visiting our special places easy.

We are educators in the truest sense. The "foris" brand invokes the amateur naturalist of the 19th century. We share our passion for New Zealand's natural history everywhere we operate. In addition we teach around 4000 New Zealand students about New Zealand's conservation challenges via our education program at Sanctuary Mountain. We also represent the recreation / environmental community on the Rangitaiki River forum (a community input into the planning process for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council).

As a small company we don't take too many people into the forest but everyone who comes with us pays concession fees and gst included their trip price. Some of this money goes into conservation. But our biggest financial contributions to conservation come via our fundraising efforts with a range of projects. Over the last 5 years this has included:

$100k for our education program via the Ministry of Education

$25k for Takahe related activities

$25k for interpretation projects for Maungatautari

$380K from Trust Waikato and D V Bryant for the education centre and biodiversity lab

$10k for fence materials from WWF

$10k for self resetting traps from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council

Not bad for a small business but we have lots more to contribute!

New Bird

Spot the odd one out. The wee bird is a Marsh Sandpiper, seen at Little Waihi on opening weekend of Duck Shooting season. It is always good to keep your eyes peeled and you never know what you may find.

NEwe

2017 has been our best birding year ever. We are seeing fantastic birds across our region and and across New Zealand. A winter highlight has been the New Zealand dotterels at Ohiwa Harbour, with over 60 of this wonderful endemic species wintering over. As I write they are coloring up into their breeding plumage.

Our January 15-23, 2018 8 day birding tour is on and we are looking for a couple more people to join us in what will be a fantastic week of great birds, stunning scenery and cool company and yummy food. Email now to find our more info@foris.co.nz

For five years we have been doing our bit for conservation with 40 goodnature self setting traps. We along with Robbie from Nature Connection were the first concessionaires to operate these remarkable tools. When we started using them there was a bit of push-back from biodiversity professionals as these were relatively untried new technology. I had met the goodnature team during my time at Zealandia in Wellington and found them to be honest, design driven and focused on continual improvement. During this time goodnature have gone from strength to strength and are now a recognized tool for rat and stoat control.

.

Our education program continues to grow and this year we are introducing an overnight "conservation camp". This involves a two days of fun, forests, friends and adventure. Our partnership with Sanctuary Mountain to deliver a conservation education program is well into its 5th year and we now have delivered education programs to over 10,000 students!

Drop is a line if you want an authentic nature based experience. Come on a great day of hiking (we now have options in the Waikato, around Tauranga, in the spectacular Whirinaki forest, the best bits Tongariro National Park and more. Our birding tours are gaining in popularity for clients who want to see some of New Zealand's peculiar birds. We are flexible so get in touch so we can curate an unforgettable memory of New Zealand nature.

Summer has been magic in NZ. Foris has been busier than ever with our Birding Tours taking off and our regular hiking options growing for the 5th straight year. Visitor feedback is humbling and testiment to the efforts we make to ensure they have a great time.

We were lucky enough to be nominated by a client for the Luxury Travel Guide's Eco-friendly Tour operator of the year and we took out the award. The judges were pleased to see our commitment to conservation education. With 2016 being a record year for our program with 4500 people participating in it!

We are expanding our hiking options with a few special walks in Tongariro National Park. We aim to explore stunning parts of the park away from the crowds on the Tongariro Crossing. As always we offer great walks, yummy food, expert guides and stunning scenery! Contact us at info@foris.co.nz for more details.

The best birds for us this year have been too many with a lovely pair of Whimbrels in the neighbourhood, fernbirds flolicking, a laughing gull in Ohiwa (a NZ first!), little terns looking gorgeous and falcons fiercely defending their territory against harriers, or always the pelagics off kaikoura. Our birders have been wonderful people to spend time with and have shared their inspirational stories with us.

Tanks to all our supporters, without you what we do wouldn't be possible.

I am lucky enough to spend a large amount of time in some of New Zealand's most beautiful places and every week see a menagerie of NZ's endangered species. Over the last 25 years I have worked in the great outdoors both here in NZ and overseas. I have tried hard to create meaningful nature based experiences for more than 50,000 people (including over 40,000 students over the last decade specifically in formal conservation education programs). I have been privileged enough to work at the "pest free" fenced sanctuaries Zealandia and Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari as education manager roles. With this experience in addition to visiting numerous pest free offshore island sanctuaries I have seen first hand the benefits of a "pest free" environment.

During this time I have watched a seachange in attitudes to conservation in New Zealand. This is vastly different to the negative attitudes towards "greenies" and "treehuggers" I experienced in my formative years as a child of "native forest action council activist" parents during the torrid time as people fought for the protection of NZ's native forests.

With this background you may think I would support the idea of a "Predator Free NZ". Yet I remain unconvinced. Here's why.

There is a huge difference in pest control and pest eradication! "Predator free" implies none not few.

New Zealand does pest control reduces the number of pests to hopefully a level where it gives a native wildlife a better chance to breed and survive. It is done via a range of methods including poisoning, shooting and trapping. . There are numerous groups around New Zealand operating pest control programs at varying scales with mixed results. Many of these rely on dedicated volunteers with very limited funding.

Pest eradication is getting rid of each and every one and most importantly keeping it that way. New Zealand has world leading expertise in eradicating pests. Largely this has been done on islands both large and small and more recently New Zealand's fenced sanctuaries.

The easy access to Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf, or Kapiti Island North of Wellington and now even more so fenced sanctuary's like Zealandia, Sanctuary Mountain, Okoronui, Tawharanui and more bely how difficult it is to keep them pest free.

Fenced sanctuaries such as Zealandia and Maungatautari are only as good as the maintenance of the fence and full time monitoring to respond to any incursion. Zealandia and Maungatauitari have had incursions as a result of damage to the fences and both have manged to successfully eradicate the intruders. In Okoronui a stoat incursion wiped out the south island saddleback translocation before the stoats were caught. It requires a herculean effort to maintain the fences and monitor for incursion, the staff in these organisations need to be applauded.

Island's have the natural barrier of water around them, yet a couple of years ago a stoat incursion on Kapiti Island cost over $300k to resolve. As I write this I am watching a stoat on a wee island in a wetland outside my window (hopefully he investigates the trap I put out for him).

Stoat on a wee island out my window!

In contrast pest control efforts reduce the number of pests to improve breeding success of the native species within the area. This works well in spite of great pest control infrastructure Mount Bruce in the Wairarapa has suffered twice at the hands of a ferret on a rampage killing significant numbers of kiwi before being caught.

Note the difference in terms "pest free" and "predator free". Offshore Islands and fenced Sanctuaries that are pest free have no introduced mammals at all (although fenced sanctuaries haven't cracked the mouse problem yet and some have kept sheep and cows for farming reasons). No cats, rats, stoats, ferrets, weasels, pigs, goats, deer, cows, sheep, hedgehogs, possums, rabbits, hares, dogs or even mice

Getting rid of the full suite of introduced mammals is important to restore forest health. Predator free NZ now says stoats, ferrets, weasels, possums and rats are their target. No mention of eradication of dogs (significant killer of kiwi) or cats (political suicide?). Also the relationship between these predators is interesting as DOC's "battle for the birds" shows. E.g beech mast year = rat boom, rat boom = stoat boom, rats run out of food and rat population crashes, stoats shift to birds for prey.

Browsing animals do significant harm to forests but the hunting lobby is strong and again talk of eradicating ungulates is politically impossible or possibly unnecessary.

Deer exclusion plot showing the impacts of wallabies and deer (note the difference in vegetation inside and outside the fence).

Sir Paul Callaghan is quoted as saying a "pest free nz" is NZ's "moonshot". The"moonshot" idea is simply a great metaphor for continuing/increasing research into new pest control and eradication techniques. Waiting for scientists to come up with the holy grail "breakthrough" may or may not happen. Scientists have been researching in this area for generations. Incidentally there is already funding and research activity into pest control research already. Biodiversity protection is listed as one of NZ's science challenges. And don't forget our existing techniques are based on generations of good science!

Using a best guess model Auckland University has costed a "predator free" New Zealand at $9b. That's roughly the size of our dairy or tourism industries or $2000 for every man, woman and child in New Zealand! The level of monitoring and response required to keep NZ pest free even if an eradication was attempted would be extremely expensive and would need to be done forever. Where is the initial and ongoing funding coming from?

Sir Paul also supported something far more practical, achievable and affordable for immediate conservation gains. In his final public lecture he spoke passionately of:

- Creating a dozen "1000 hectare fenced sanctuaries" in the heart of the conservation estate (think Pureora, Whirinaki, National Park, Fiordland, Te Urewera, the Caitlins). These areas should allign with DOC's national ecosystem management system. Invest where the habitat is the best!

- Each fenced area would be surrounded by 10,000 hectares of intensively managed "halo" pest control

- each "halo" would be surrounded by 100,000 hectares of cyclical hunting and aerial pest control

Rough costings were done at $84m spread over 25 years. Or $7m per year. This is a far more realistic, cost effective and achievable goal. This idea uses existing proven technologies, will protect wildlife and habitat now! It will protect habitat where it needs protecting, i.e in our ancient forests! This would represent approximately 15% of the conservation estate and 20% of DOC's existing budget.This big idea is one which the NEXT foundation should support, it is realistic, something that all New Zealanders can get behind and would certainly be a game changer for conservation.

Daniel servicing a fabulous "goodnature" self setting trap

Two days out of Christchurch and 70 species of birds later I was tired and happy.

A Black stilt was a highlight with only around 100 left in the world! Not the best picture, bad light and taken with phone via spotting scope! We had only landed for 30 minutes and saw this beauty along with some black fronted terns.

Onwards to Kaikoura and a pelagic tour with Albatross Encounter the nest day! My tummy doesn't love the ocean so much but my heart and soul loves being at sea. A sealegs tablet and a couple of hours later we had seen 7 species of albatross and many more interesting birds!

A quick trip to Arthurs pass and rifleman, kea, tomtit and even a crested grebe rounded out a great couple of days!

New Zealand is a great country to bird in, great varied habitats, interesting birds and not too much travel! Give us a shout of you'd like to explore with us!

I love these binoculars. I have used a few over the years but tended to spend my hard earned $ on camera equipment. This xmas I shouted myself. The old adage buy once buy right comes to mind. They are great in low light situations especially in the forests where I spend a lot of time.

It is not everyday you buy something that will last a lifetime, I feel these binoculars are in this category.

Daniel servicing a goodnature trap. Innovative self resetting rat/stoat traps.

"Last, loneliest, loveliest. Most exquisite apart." So said Rudyard Kipling when he visited New Zealand.

Kipling visited New Zealand for 18 days in 1891 and continued to correspond with friends he made on that trip for most of his life. His words live on.

New Zealand was the last large land mass on earth to be inhabited by people. For 80 million years it was a land of birds, reptiles and ancient forests far away from the rest of the world.

The isolation was such that the only terrestrial mammals were a few species of primitive bats. 85% of the landmass was covered in endemic vegetation -from wondrous wetlands to bizarre alpine plants and towering forests in between.

However along with people along comes change.

Today we have a mere 23% of our original vegetation left largely caused by fire for deforestation to create farms.Alongside such extreme loss of habitat people bought with them a suite of new mammals that threaten the remaining wildlife. . Trapping, and poisoning are mainstays of conservation in New Zealand. Across the country armies of people work hard to arrest the decline of our unique species. We are achieving notable success in our reserves and sanctuaries but much work remains to be done!

Foris is doing our little bit by operating 40 goodnature traps but our most important contribution to conservation is the advocacy work we do with 3500 students each year via our education program.

Cambridge High School Students doing a five minute bird count survey as part of their formal year 12 biology progreamme.

One of the activities foris eco-tours are most proud of is our education program. People often ask what students get out of being in the outdoors but for us their faces say it all!

Research tells us if you want to develop an environmental ethic in young people the answer is simple = Multiple positive nature based experiences. Simply put keep taking the young into the outdoors, teach them about what you find, don't push them too hard physically.

We work closely with teachers to develop programs that link to what they are studying back in the classroom.

Our association with Maungatautari Ecological Island has been immensely rewarding with over 10,000 people (we count parents and teachers as humans too) coming through our education program. We are continuing to grow the program and feedback from students, parents and teachers has been overwhelming.

The secret to engaging with young people is finding the right staff, keeping them busy, and surprising them with novel things.

Bring your students on one of our fieldtrips, they will love it!

New Zealand birding is not complete without seeing bar tailed godwits. These stunning birds migrate from SIBERIA all the way to a New Zealand summer. If they can do it so can you! Get in touch with www.foris.co.nz to book a tour now!