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Bats get the benefit Vulnerable to Recovering - are New Zealand’s only native land mammals. “You can hardly signpost it for pekepeka, but we will develop these in a way that they’ll come. We’ll put a lake in, and we’ll do all sorts of stuff,” Morgan said pointing to a map showing the extent of the airport’s Northern Precinct development. Waipā’s 20th change to its 2017 District Plan is ground-breaking for the area between Hamilton City Council’s 8100-house Peacocke suburb and the precinct. The opening of the city’s newest bridge over the Waikato River into the suburb from Hamilton East later this year creates a transport route which will eventually feed into the Southern Links road network around the airport which Morgan says will unlock massive potential. “Development will continue, it’s about the infrastructure lag now,” he said, a reference to Southern Links. The 32km network - now on the government’s “roads of national
significance” list - will start in Hamilton at Kahikatea Drive and finish at the Waikato Expressway in Tamahere. A Waipā District Council plan change It includes 21kms of state highways and going operative next Monday will help the 11kms of arterial roads, largely in Peacocke. endangered long-tailed pekapeka native bat. No starting date has been set. And it can’t come soon enough for Waikato A new design build for the Northern Regional Airport boss Mark Morgan who said Precinct has begun and should start in late the ratepayer owned company can now plant 2026. and pest proof two blocks of land it owns to The airport company – owned by Hamilton the north of the airport to attract pekapekaCity, Waipā, Matamata-Piako, Ōtorohanga tou-roa. and Waikato district councils – lodged the Work can also start on the district plan change in September 2022. Northern Precinct in what Because Waipā was a shareholder, it was formerly 89ha of declared a conflict of interest in processing rural land and is now an the change but was able to make a first stage industrial block bigger decision in support. than Ruakura. An independent planning firm took over The long tailed bat and also granted the application, but Royal - listed as “Nationally Forest and Bird Protection Society appealed Critical” and the short the decision in the Environment Court tailed bat - listed as saying the change would further threaten the Nationally pekapeka. The airport company and Forest and Bird thrashed out an agreement which requires Waikato Regional Airport to develop bat habitat areas within the Northern Precinct. Work can begin on the 4ha and 11ha blocks of land off Raynes Road – the latter fronting the Waikato River - the airport company will develop and then transfer to a charitable trust. Pekapeka have habitats throughout the Waikato but rapid development, which included the loss of roost trees, more street lighting and an Mark Morgan points to the map which shows two blocks of land (marked in yellow) the airport company will develop to protect the pekapeka bat and the new Northern Precinct. Photo: Mary Anne Gill. increase in predators By Mary Anne Gill
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like rats, possums and domestic cats, put them perilously close to extinction. Six years ago, as part of its Southern Links investigation work, New Zealand Transport Agency and Hamilton City Council found that the pekapeka had roosted in artificial bat houses - first established in Hamilton in 2011 as part of a Waikato University student’s masters study into promoting bats within the city. The bats were more prevalent in the region than previously thought but still nationally critical – the highest threat category for a New Zealand species, the research found.
A female long-tailed pekapeka bat. Photo: Colin O’Donnell, Conservation Department.
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The bats are tiny, as this picture shows. Photo: NZ Transport Agency.
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