Kessels & Associates have assisted many district councils in
determining ecological significance, developing policy and
importantly, consulting with landowners and key stakeholders, such
as Federated Farmers and the Department of Conservation.
Councils we have provided advise to include Waipa District Council,
Hauraki District Council, Wairoa District Council, Ruapehu District
Council, Waikato District Council, Franklin District, Papakura
District, Far North District, and Manukau District Councils.
We have has also assisted Auckland Regional Council (now Auckland
City) and Environment Waikato (Waikato Regional Council) with
natural area surveys and in developing significance assessment
criteria for Environment Waikato's Regional Policy Statement and
their Regional Pest Management Strategy.
Since 2000 K & A have undertaken a number of substantial SNA
projects, including the Key Ecological Site assessment for the
Coromandel in 2000, consultation with private landowners with
Wetlands of Regional Significance (2003-2005), identifying
Significant Natural Areas and threatened indigenous species habitat
within three Waikato region districts. In addition, we have
undertaken numerous surveys of wetlands and bush areas and provided
advice to many landowners over the years on behalf of local
authorities, the Department of Conservation, Iwi, and the QEII
National Trust.
Examples of five recent relevant projects are:
Inventories of Significant Natural Areas in the Waipa
District
Project Scope: The scope of this project was to
identify sites known or likely to be Significant Natural Areas
(SNA) of indigenous biodiversity within the Waipa District and
assessing their significance using the 11 criteria in Appendix 3 of
the Waikato Regional Policy Statement. This work included
summarising all relevant background physical and biological data on
these sites, mapping all SNA's using ArcGIS software, tabulating
any management issues and ranking each site according to its local,
regional, national or international significance.
Inventories of Significant Natural Areas in the
Thames-Coromandel District
Project Scope: The scope of this project was to
identify sites known or likely to be Significant Natural Areas of
indigenous biodiversity within the Thames-Coromandel District and
assessing their significance using the 11 criteria in Appendix 3 of
the Waikato Regional Policy Statement. This work included
summarising all relevant background physical and biological data on
these sites, mapping all SNA's using ArcGIS software, tabulating
any management issues and ranking each site according to its local,
regional, national or international significance.
Inventories of Significant Natural Areas in the Hauraki
District
Project Scope: The scope of this project was to
identify sites known or likely to be Significant Natural Areas of
indigenous biodiversity within the Hauraki District and assessing
their significance using the 11 criteria in Appendix 3 of the
Waikato Regional Policy Statement. This work included
summarising all relevant background physical and biological data on
these sites, tabulating any management issues and ranking each site
according to its local, regional, national or international
significance.
Franklin District Council Rural Plan Change SNA Analysis
& Policy Development
Project Scope: Assessment of the existing
ecological state of the Franklin District; preparation of section
32 analysis; development of SNA criteria, mapping of SNA sites;
field surveys of key SNA areas; development of policy and
implementation methods; consultation with DoC and Auckland/Waikato
Regional Councils, and provision of expert advice during
hearings.
Auckland Regional Council Awhitu & Manukau SNA
Analysis
Project Scope: Identification of natural
features for Auckland Regional Council (ARC) to incorporate into
the ARC SNA database including significance assessment. All
sites were inspected and verified.