Recording ecological changes in your covenant

Covenants are monitored regularly by QEII Regional Representatives to assess their ecological health.

Photographs help to record the changes taking place as a result of excluding stock with fences, pest and weed control, and restoration work.

You may also like to create your own record of the results of your covenant management.

What is the best way of taking photos to monitor your covenant?

An effective method of recording changes is by the setting of ‘photopoints’. These are fixed locations from which repeat photographs are taken.

Miles Giller, QEII North Canterbury Regional Representative, says it takes some planning to set photopoints.

‘One helpful thing is to ensure photos are taken from precisely the same position each time,’ he says. ‘It can take a while to develop a reliable technique for this.’

Taking potential regrowth into account is another significant factor to consider.

‘Regeneration can be swift once a covenant is fenced,’ Miles explains. ‘I’ve lost photopoint markers in regrowth and then had battles finding them. A GPS would be handy.

‘It’s also necessary to decide if a chosen point will continue to give you the information you need to monitor changes in the future. Some spots are far more dynamic than others.’

Miles’ hints for setting photopoints

  • Decide what you are monitoring e.g. weed control, recovery of the understorey, restoration work, threatened species or long term succession.
  • Make sure you and your successors will continue to have access to the photopoint to take photos in the future.
  • Choose a place that is easy to find e.g. side of a track, fence stay or big tree (Figures 1 and 2 show examples).

Figure 1 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 1: Miles describes Photopoint 4 at Jane Chetwynd’s 12ha montane podocarp forest and shrubland covenant on Banks Peninsula as ‘from eastern most macrocarpa stump just below house looking NW’.

This photopoint monitors the succession of woody species towards a future Hall’s totara forest.

Figure 2 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 2: Photopoint 3 at Robert Johnston’s 95ha submontane tussock grassland, shrubland and flaxland covenant near Oxford looks north-east from a trig station.

This photopoint monitors the health of the dominant silver tussock under a limited grazing regime.

  • Use a waratah to mark the location of the photopoint if necessary - this is easier to find in the long run.
  • Use two markers – one for the camera position and one to place in the centre of the photo.
  • A square of white venetian blind tacked to a sturdy tree or post makes a good marker for the camera (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 3: A white square on a post marks the camera position for Photopoint 3 at Jane Chetwynd’s covenant.

This photopoint monitors the succession from coprosma through to mountain five-finger and then on to Hall’s totara; a very long term project.

  • To mark the centre of the picture, attach a square of brightly coloured venetian blind material to a long term feature (see Figure 4).

Figure 4 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 4: In the black and mountain beech forest block of the Halls Bush covenant owned by Wendy and Graeme Marsh, Miles established a new Photopoint 7 in 2008 with yellow markers on a beech tree.

He added the second marker higher up the tree as he expects the lower one to be hidden by regrowth within a few years.

  • Mark the photopoints on a photodiagram e.g. aerial photo or a sketch of the covenant. Describe briefly in words where they are.
  • Try to take the photos at roughly the same time of year (see Figure 7 for the effect of snow on vegetation) and the same time of the day to get a similar angle of the sun.
  • Try to have the sun at your back. A clear day is best to see detail such as in a landscape, and light cloud is best for reducing contrast in understorey photos.
  • Don’t hesitate to set new photopoints when required (see Figure 4).

Ecological changes in Canterbury wetland

Since 1994, the 12ha Halls Bush covenant at Glenroy has protected a beech and mountain forest remnant (see Figure 4) and a peat wetland.

Originally protected by Roger and Shirley Dennis, the covenant is now owned by their daughter and her husband, Wendy and Graeme Marsh.

The raised wetland is unusual in this area and with a large number of indigenous species it is of considerable regional significance.

Figure 5 Photo: David Webster

Figure 5: Photopoint 2 at the wetland is described as ‘looking NE from the central fence stay midway along the SW side’.

In March 1999, the wetland was covered with gorse and broom.

Figure 6 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 6: As part of the covenant management, Roger Dennis put a comprehensive weed and pest control programme in place.

By November 2000, he had sprayed the gorse and broom.

Figure 7 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 7: With ongoing weed and pest control, Carex secta, coprosma and manuka were flourishing by June 2006.

The snow had flattened the vegetation; taking photographs at the same time of the year is preferable for an accurate record of changes.

Figure 8 Photo: Miles Giller

Figure 8: The wetland was in a good, weed-free state by January 2008.

‘Photographing the changes over time has provided a record of the improving ecological health of this rare wetland,’ says Miles.

‘Positive change like this is all due to the dedication of covenantors like Roger Dennis.’

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Open SpaceTM Magazine No. 75, March 2009 © QEII National Trust


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