Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
| Zealandia | |
|---|---|
| Karori Wildlife Sanctuary | |
Zealandia on the edge of suburban Wellington
|
|
| Type | Wildlife sanctuary |
| Location | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | 41°17′27″S 174°45′12″E / 41.290817°S 174.753377°E |
| Area | 225 hectares (560 acres) |
| Created | 1999 |
| Operated by | Karori Sanctuary Trust |
| Open | All year around except 25 December |
| Website | http://www.visitzealandia.com/ |
Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, where the biodiversity of 225 ha (just under a square mile) of forest is being restored. The sanctuary was previously part of the water catchment area for Wellington, between Wrights Hill (bordering Karori) and the Brooklyn wind turbine on Polhill.
Most of New Zealand's ecosystems have been severely modified by the introduction of land mammals that were not present during the evolution of its ecosystems, and have had a devastating impact on both native flora and fauna. The sanctuary, surrounded by a pest-exclusion fence, is a good example of an ecological island, which allows the natural ecosystems to thrive by minimising those introduced pressures.
The sanctuary has become a significant tourist attraction in Wellington and is responsible for the greatly increased number of sightings of species such as tui and kākā in city's suburbs.
The sanctuary has inspired a raft of similar projects throughout New Zealand, with predator-proof fences now protecting the biodiversity of many other areas of forest. Examples include the 7.7 hectare lowland podocarp forest remnant of Riccarton bush/ Putaringamotu, the 98 hectare Bushy Park and, the 3500 hectare Maungatautari Restoration Project enclosing an entire mountain.
Historically about 60% of the Wellington region was covered with broadleaf forest. Karaka, kohekohe, ngaio and nikau trees were common but there were also rata, rewarewa and tawa with occasional podocarps like kahikatea and rimu. The whole sanctuary valley was covered with this sort of forest until European settlement of the area and the large fires in 1850 and 1860 that cleared the land to be used for farming. The lower reservoir, retained by an earth dam, was completed in 1878. Parts of the area continued to be farmed up until 1906 when the remaining catchment was purchased for the water works. The upper reservoir, retained by a concrete gravity arch dam, was completed in 1908. From this point, as the whole valley was a protected water catchment area for Wellington city, the slopes were revegetated with introduced trees and the native forest also began regenerating. The upper dam was decommissioned as a reservoir about 1991, the lower one in 1997.
...
Wikipedia