On the tail of a lizard refuge

Lizards will be right at home in a new Christchurch Regional Park sanctuary.

In a move to encourage biodiversity in a river zone, the Heathcote-Opawaho Lizard Sanctuary is being developed by the North Canterbury branch of Forest & Bird in partnership with the Christchurch City Council’s Parks Unit.

It is being created in Ferrymead Regional Park, alongside the lower Heathcote River.

A new sanctuary in Ferrymead awaits the McCann's Skink. Photo: Andrew Crossland

The recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Parks Unit and the Forest & Bird Calder Green Reserve committee formalises a long standing co-operative arrangement in the area.

Local ranger Pieter Borcherds says the new agreement “enables the creation of a unique lizard sanctuary zone and builds on a successful relationship with the adjacent Forest & Bird reserve”.

“It also signals a strong commitment to working in an important estuarine ecosystem.”

It is hoped that the specially designed habitat will encourage more lizards to settle next to the riverside walkway from Ferrymead Heritage Park to the Tunnel Road bridge in Woolston.

The planned low-growing plants and rock piles will add to the local biodiversity by providing both food sources and shelter from predators.

Work on the sanctuary will get under way with a community planting day on 27 May at 1pm.

The project, which dovetails with Council and Forest & Bird work along the lower Heathcote River, will feature signage that encourages the planting of trees and scrubs that enhance the habitat for native birds and lizards.

It also builds on the environmental work by Forest & Bird at its adjacent Calder Green Reserve.

Calder Green Reserve manager Mick Ingram says the “open sanctuary” targets the protection and enhancement of indigenous flora and fauna through ongoing “restoration planting” by the river.