Significant Natural Areas of the Waikato Region: Lake Ecosystems

Report: TR 2011/05
Author: Wildland Consultants

Abstract

 The Waikato Regional Council has been undertaking a process of prioritising natural areas in the Waikato region for biodiversity management. As part of this process, Wildland Consultants Ltd was engaged firstly, to refine the method developed by the Waikato Regional Council for ranking lake ecosystems.  The refined method is described in Wildland Consultants Contract Report No. 2029:  ‘Methodologies for ranking of lake ecosystems for biodiversity management in the Waikato Region’ which is included as Appendix 2 to this report. 

The project then moved into its second stage, which involved the scoring and ranking of 85 natural lakes (six different types) and 11 human-made lakes within the Waikato region (see Appendix 1 for a list of the lakes).  Wildland Consultants was contracted to undertake this second stage in two phases.  The first phase, for which an interim report was produced in December 2008 (Wildland Consultants Contract Report No. 2091), scored and ranked lake ecosystems in the Waikato, Hamilton, Waipa, and Matamata-Piako districts.  The second phase focused on the remaining lake ecosystems within the Waikato region, and incorporated further revisions to the ranking system, and re-assessment of some of the scores assigned in the phase one exercise.

The lakes that have been assessed have included land of all tenures ranging from conservation estate administered by the Department of Conservation and other Crown owned lands, to local authority reserves and private lands both protected (e.g. QE II or Nga Whenua Rahui covenants) and unprotected.

This report supercedes the interim report, and presents the scores and rankings for all of the lakes considered, based on the most up to date information that was able to be obtained. 

Significant Natural Areas of the Waikato Region: Lake Ecosystems [PDF, 11 MB]