Latest news with #DepartmentOfConservation
RNZ News
4 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Conservation Department re-opens Blue Pools Track after two years of repairs
Blue Pools Track has been closed since May 2023. Photo: Unsplash / Michael Amadeus The Department of Conservation is re-opening the popular Blue Pools Track north of Wānaka this weekend, after two years of repair work. Walkers can expect to see an upgraded Blue Pools bridge, a completely new Makarora swing bridge and a new, raised boardwalk. DOC closed the bridges in May 2023, when engineering reports signalled they needed safety upgrades. Previously, DOC operations manager Charlie Sklenar said they were being used by as many as 550 people a day in peak summer. "At times, 75 people would cross the bridges each hour and visitors were regularly exceeding the signposted 'safe number of people to cross' advice," she said. "We needed to ensure these structures were safe for the public. "We made it into a major upgrade and we've really done some significant improvements." Sklenar said the work had been a two-year slog, involving DOC engineers, contractors, specialists, geotechnical consultations and some "unexpected complexities". "For those that know Makarora, [it's] very close to the West Coast, very wet conditions, very challenging. Because these are superstrength bridges, there's some really, really big anchors that needed to go into the ground, so dealing with those conditions has been challenging." Sklenar said the community was buzzing about the opening. "I think it's going to be pretty popular over the coming weeks."
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Department of Conservation proposes cutting 84 jobs, primarily affecting women
Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro The Department of Conservation (DOC) is consulting its staff on another round of job cuts, with a proposal on the table to remove 84 jobs, primarily affecting women. It comes on top of two earlier proposals to meet the government's demand for a 6.5 percent reduction in spending - one was announced earlier this month, which would see 68 roles disestablished , but replaced with new roles, meaning nobody would be put out of work. Another, announced in April last year, would see a loss of 130 roles . Now, Mike Tully, deputy director-general for organisation support, said the agency was consulting staff on a proposal for support functions - "seeing if we can take advantage of new technology and simpler systems to reduce the admin load on our people". A total of 168 roles would be impacted: 149 roles across DOC's support functions were proposed for disestablishment, 18 of which were currently vacant, and 19 proposed to have changes in their reporting lines. However, 65 new roles would be created, meaning a net loss of 84 roles overall. "DOC is always looking at how we can be more agile, working better to make the biggest difference for conservation we can, while finding efficiencies within the context of fiscal and environmental challenges," he said. "Health and safety will always be a top priority for DOC. We are working with our people and the PSA every step of the way, and we ask that potentially affected people's privacy be respected during this process." He acknowledged the cuts disproportionally affected women, but "this has played no role in our decision making". "For context, 52.7 percent of DOC staff are women, and women hold 44 percent of our senior leadership positions," he said. He said DOC was committed to maintaining a diverse workforce, reflecting the communities it serve, and ensuring everyone had the opportunity to thrive in an inclusive and welcoming culture. But the PSA said more than 90 percent of those set to lose their livelihoods were women, and it had come two weeks after their pay equity claim was cancelled . The jobs were set to be axed by July 2026. National secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said it was a graphic example of how the burden of the government's squeeze on public service funding was falling disproportionally on women. It was set to affect staff at 38 locations from Invercargill to the far North. "The current support staff have sizeable health and safety responsibilities, such as monitoring staff radio systems and helping to manage emergencies like fires," she said. "The loss of these team members will mean that these important duties will fall on others - and pose a significant health and safety risk." The proposal would also see many of the affected workers, who are on DOC's lowest pay bands, competing with their colleagues for part-time roles, she said. The continued squeeze on DOC funding ultimately put its projects - and New Zealand's natural environment - at risk, Fitzsimons said.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- CBS News
Tyler State Park in Pennsylvania closed indefinitely due to accident involving park ranger
Tyler State Park in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is closed until further notice due to an accident involving a park resource ranger earlier Friday, state officials said. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said the accident happened just before noon on Friday in the Neshaminy Creek. CBS Philadelphia Pennsylvania State Police said water rescue teams have been searching the creek since noon for a missing kayaker. PSP is investigating the incident. CBS Philadelphia This is a developing story and will be updated as more information comes into our newsroom.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Advisory group exploring how to control Wellington's millipede infestation
Millipedes. Photo: RNZ/Mary Argue Work to explore how to control an infestation of millipedes in Wellington is set to begin, with an expert advisory group due to meet on Thursday. Residents in the capital's southern suburbs have said they're dealing with an explosion of Portuguese millipedes in their streets and houses in autumn. In recent years locals have described waking to find hundreds of scaly black millipedes around their homes, discovering them in shoes, bags and even their beds. At the entrance to Red Rocks on Wednesday there were dozens of dead millipedes on the ground around Te Kopahou information centre, with a few live ones crawling around. A nearby resident confirmed the creature's numbers had dwindled to only "a handful around the area that would normally have dozens". Advisory group member entomology professor Phil Lester said the millipedes are most apparent in autumn, when the adults emerge from the soil. They are not visible at other times of the year as they are typically in the soil eating decaying plant material. The outbreak prompted Wellington city councillor Nureddin Abdurahman to demand an urgent meeting to discuss how the district and regional councils could better monitor and contain the millipedes. The Ministry for Primary Industries said because control options were limited, a Technical Advisory Group - including representatives from the Department of Conservation and regional and city councils - had been set up to investigate possible solutions. If you've been affected by the millipedes contact Portuguese millipedes. Photo: Supplied According to the group's entomologist and an independent specialist in insect biological control, those solutions could include a tiny parasitic worm that kills the millipede from the inside out - like a "horror show". Managing director of Bioforce Christopher Thompson said his company specialised in controlling insect species using other insects, mites and microbes. He said the nematode Steinernema feltia, which is naturally present in New Zealand soil, could be an effective biocontrol agent against the Portuguese millipede when deployed in numbers. "Once they've wiggled their way in through some holes and gaps in [the insects'] body, they're able to start reproducing. "Eventually they'll get so numerous in there they'll explode out of the host - not something you want to watch just before having dinner." Thompson said a millipede host could hold tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of nematodes before it burst. "It is a bit of a horror show to be fair, but it's nature." He said insects were a particular target of the worm, so it was possible that if used against the millipede population in Wellington, it would jump to other species in the garden - although he believed the weta would be fairly safe. Larger life forms - such as humans, frogs, skinks, and birds - were unsuitable hosts, he said. Thompson said pitting the worm against the millipedes was as simple as ordering the parasite in the post, mixing it with water in a watering can, and pouring it around the property. He said any control efforts would be better sooner rather than later before the "you problem" became a nation-wide problem. Entomology professor Phil Lester. Photo: Advisory Group member entomology professor Phil Lester agreed, telling RNZ it would be great if the millipede population plaguing south coast residents could be nipped in the bud. He said the millipedes was already widespread in Australia and had been in New Zealand for about 20 years. "So, it seems like they would love the New Zealand climate quite a lot and would have the ability to spread widely if we didn't get on top of it now." Lester said the goal of the Technical Advisory Group was to investigate control tools for problematic pest species, including what could be done by the public. He suspected Thursday's meeting would be the first of many and would set the scene for current control options, as well as sparking further research into other methods. Lester said an Australian nematode species had proven to be an effective biological control against the millipedes and it would be great if something similar could be done for Wellingtonians. "If we can encourage that... that would be awesome [and] alleviate some stress for many of the residents." Biosecurity New Zealand manager of pest management Dr Cath Duthie said the Portuguese millipede was first detected at Seaview, Lower Hutt, in 2021 but it was apparent it had been in the region for at least two decades. She said it was primarily a "nuisance pest" where it had been introduced. "As management options are limited, a Technical Advisory Group has been formed... to explore potential control solutions for the species and recommend other control methods for existing identified populations." Duthie said in the meantime, the regional council had information about management options for the Portuguese millipede on its website. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
Researchers egg-static to capture 1st footage of this rare snail spawning from its neck
After a dozen years dedicated to studying a rare species of carnivorous snail, Lisa Flanagan was thrilled to finally film the moment that, until recently, had been shrouded in mystery. Flanagan, a ranger at the New Zealand Department of Conservation, was weighing a Powelliphanta augusta snail when she saw what looked like a tiny hen's egg emerging from a small opening beneath its head. "It was just one of those things that was just a fluke," Flanagan told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "He happened to be laying the egg at that time." Powelliphanta augusta snails take eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which they lay about five eggs a year, through an opening in their neck. But, despite almost two decades of caring for the critters in chilled containers at a facility in Hokitika, N.Z., staff had never witnessed this unfold until that fateful moment on May 7. The whole thing took just under one minute, Flanagan says. N.Z. carnivorous snail filmed for 1st time laying an egg from its neck 4 hours ago Duration 1:03 The footage, she says, confirms certain details about these snails' reproductive cycle, while prompting new ones for those who work with the creatures. In the clip, as the egg emerges, a baffled Flanagan can be heard saying to her colleague: "I wonder if it hurts." Meet one of the world's largest carnivorous snails The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings, where they are threatened by habitat loss. At roughly nine centimetres in length, the Powelliphanta augusta is one of the largest carnivorous snails in the world, known to slurp up earthworms like noodles. Even observing their eating habits has been a rarity for Flanagan. Although they are fed monthly, in the 12 years of looking after these snails, she and her colleagues had only seen them gulp a worm three or four times. The Powelliphanta augusta was the centre of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when coal mining company Solid Energy threatened to destroy the snails' only habitat on the Mount Augustus ridge line. Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats. In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control. But the species' slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said. Why the neck? While reproducing from the side of the neck may seem odd, it is, in fact, par for the course for snails. That's because they are encased in protective shells that allow them to retreat from predators and poor weather conditions. This evolutionary trait, however, can also cause complications, like how to mate with other snails and successfully reproduce, says Kath Walker, the N.Z. Department of Conservation's senior science advisor,. "Powelliphanta have solved this by having an opening (a genital pore) on the right side of their body just below their head," Walker said in a press release. Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites. So, in order to mate, the invertebrate uses the genital pore to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg. "The snail only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business," Walker said. While most snails lay eggs, some reproduce through live birth — also via their neck. Last July, the Campbell keeled glass-snail was captured on video as birthing offspring at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The video shows a mini snail — shell, tentacles, and all — slipping out of its parent's neck. Flanagan said that it is common for Powelliphanta augusta snail eggs to take, on average, 400 days to hatch. When the day finally arrives, she said it "just hatches out as a little tiny wee snail." She says she hopes her own video out of Hokitika shows others how amazing these snails are. "People sort of tend to think it's not like, you know, a fluffy little kiwi or a penguin or something like that. It's just a snail. But no, they're there for a reason," she said.
