To date, 1.5 tonnes of lead has been removed from buildings in the Golden Bay and Takaka areas alone. Not all of the builders weigh their scrap lead, but the estimate is that approaching 6 tonnes has been removed in total in the South Island.
The Kea Conservation Trust’s (KCT) lead removal project runs until March 2024 to complete what is funded by Jobs 4 Nature. The hope is to continue on after that date but using a more targeted approach.
The goal is to complete 350 buildings. Here is the list of achievements to date from KCT’s Peter Fraser:
“We have completed 297 buildings to date. We have another 107 quoted and ready to go and hope to add another 30 or so from the West Coast shortly. We have removed and replaced 139,346 lead head nails as well as 4042m of lead flashing. We have used 5533 hours of builders time to achieve this”.
A large percentage of the kea in the Arthur’s Pass area have had very high lead levels when tested. This is particularly problematic in young birds where around 90% of juveniles show high blood lead levels. Lead affects the cognitive function of this highly intelligent species and, in addition to making the birds very sick, is often likely implicated in other deaths – e.g., behavioural issues and road deaths. The Kea Recovery Group, in conjunction with the South Island Wildlife Hospital and international collaborators, will test the isotopes from the lead in kea tested at Arthur’s Pass (and across the South Island), to cross check with sources of lead removed in each area, e.g., lead head nails, lead ammunition. That will confirm that the lead nails and flashings removed from the Arthur’s Pass area is in fact the major source of the issue there for kea, and going forward we hope that kea tested for blood lead will return significantly lower lead levels because of the removal of those key lead sources.
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