What New Zealand’s Latest Environment Reports Agree On
New Zealand’s latest government environment reports span 2023 to 2026. Here is what they agree on, where they diverge, and what the country cannot measure.
Category: Environment
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Mount Maunganui summit track repairs finished as crews start work on the harder base track
Repairs on the summit track up Mount Maunganui are finished, and crews have now turned to the far harder job of putting the popular base track back together after the…
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Sika deer in the Kaimanawa and Kaweka become the North Island’s first Herd of Special Interest
Sika deer in the Kaimanawa and Kaweka forest parks have been made the North Island’s first Herd of Special Interest, handing hunters a formal role in managing an introduced animal…
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Ōhiwa Harbour mussels rebound from 80,000 to 45 million as Ngāti Awa seeks to extend a harvest ban
A stretch of seafloor in the eastern Bay of Plenty that had all but run out of green-lipped mussels now holds an estimated 45 million of them, and the iwi…
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Bird flu reaches New Zealand for the first time as a brown skua tests positive at Petone Beach
Bird flu has been found in New Zealand for the first time, after a wild seabird picked up on a Wellington beach tested positive for the H5N1 strain that has…
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University of Canterbury students turn brewery waste into a potential billion dollar material
A team of University of Canterbury students is working on a way to turn one of the brewing industry’s biggest waste problems into a material that sells for a small…
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New Zealand steps up bird flu defences as H5N1 draws closer from Australia
New Zealand’s biosecurity agencies are on heightened alert as the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu edges closer, with a run of detections in Australian seabirds pushing officials, poultry farmers…
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Power cut spills raw sewage onto Wellington’s south coast as Moa Point repairs drag on
Raw sewage has washed onto Wellington’s south coast again, this time after a power cut knocked out the pumps that carry the city’s wastewater to the troubled Moa Point treatment…
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Lake Tekapo farmers turn merino stations into stargazing tours as dark skies draw the crowds
On a merino and beef station a few minutes from Lake Tekapo township, the working day no longer ends when the sun goes down. Once the light fades over the…
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New Plymouth council starts saving thousands after fitting solar panels to its buildings
New Plymouth District Council has started clipping money off its power bills after fitting solar panels to two of its busiest buildings, with the first system saving more than a…
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What is strangles and how does it spread in horses
Strangles has been in the news since it turned up on a dozen North Island horse properties, forcing new health rules on racing and putting owners on alert. We have…
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Charities race to raise $50,000 to save 15 wild Kaimanawa horses from a cull
A group of just 15 wild horses has become the focus of an urgent fundraising drive in the central North Island, as two charities try to pull together $50,000 to…
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New Zealand starts vaccinating its rarest birds against bird flu before H5N1 arrives
The Department of Conservation has begun vaccinating some of New Zealand’s rarest birds against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, a world-first campaign that aims to give the country’s…
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Endangered yellowheads thought lost in Arthur’s Pass are found alive after a volunteer hears them singing at dusk
A retired Canterbury vet walking down a valley at dusk has delivered the Department of Conservation a piece of news it had almost given up hoping for. Volunteer trapper Hamish…
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El Niño officially declared in New Zealand and forecasters warn it could be one of the strongest on record
New Zealand is heading into an El Niño, and the forecasters who called it say this one has the potential to be among the strongest on record. Earth Sciences New…
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A South Auckland dumping ground reopens as a restored wetland at the heart of Manukau
A patch of central Manukau that spent years as a dumping ground for supermarket trolleys and rubbish has reopened as a restored wetland, and the people who work and live…
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Tarakihi, the fish and chip favourite, has fallen to near collapse on New Zealand’s east coast
One of the most familiar fish in a New Zealand takeaway is in far deeper trouble than most people had realised. New scientific modelling released by Fisheries New Zealand shows…
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New Zealand will vaccinate its most endangered birds against bird flu before the virus reaches the country
The Department of Conservation is preparing to vaccinate some of New Zealand’s rarest birds against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, hoping to build a wall of immunity around…
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New Zealand has just had its warmest June since records began in 1909
New Zealand has just come through its warmest June since national records began in 1909, with a nationwide average temperature of 10.6°C that has climate scientists pointing to a run…
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El Niño is officially back and forecasters say it could be one of the strongest on record
New Zealand is officially in an El Niño, and the forecasters who declared it think this one could turn out to be among the strongest ever measured. Earth Sciences New…
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Ashburton wants every cat microchipped, desexed and registered to protect native birds
Cat owners in Mid Canterbury could soon have to microchip, register and desex their pets under a proposal from the Ashburton District Council that has won early support from conservationists…
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Dozens of dead eagle rays found at Porirua Harbour as Biosecurity New Zealand investigates
More than 30 dead eagle rays and two rig sharks have washed up at Porirua Harbour, north of Wellington, and Biosecurity New Zealand is now testing samples to work out…
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NIWA says a strong El Niño is building and it could reshape New Zealand’s weather right through to summer
New Zealand’s main weather agency says a strong El Niño is taking shape in the Pacific and it is likely to steer the country’s weather for months to come, with…
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Deadly bird flu reaches Australia and scientists warn New Zealand’s native birds could be next
The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has reached Australia for the first time, and New Zealand scientists and officials are urging people to stay alert as the virus edges…
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A world first New Zealand submersible starts clearing caulerpa from the Bay of Islands
A 16 tonne underwater machine that looks like nothing else on the planet has begun clearing one of New Zealand’s worst marine pests from the seafloor of the Bay of…
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Waiheke Island closes in on its last stoats as a new documentary tells the seven year story
Waiheke Island is closing in on a goal that once seemed impossible, the removal of every last stoat from a populated island of more than 9,000 people, and a new…
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Christchurch residents say the Bromley sewage smell is finally easing as new aerators go in
Christchurch residents living in the eastern suburbs say the foul smell that has hung over their neighbourhoods for years is finally starting to lift, as the city council pushes ahead…
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New Zealand on alert for bird flu as the deadly H5N1 strain reaches Australia
New Zealand is on heightened alert after Australian authorities confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in a migratory seabird in Western Australia, the closest the virus has come…
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Up to 1700 South Dunedin homes could be bought and cleared under new climate plans
Thousands of South Dunedin residents are coming to terms with a future in which their street might one day be turned into a wetland, a canal or a pumping station.…
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New Zealand forecasters warn one of the strongest El Nino events on record is forming and the dry east is most at risk
New Zealand’s climate forecasters say the tropical Pacific is building towards what could become one of the strongest El Nino events ever recorded, with the country’s already parched eastern regions…