History of the plains

In pre-human times, the Mcleans Grasslands Reserve was probably open tussock grasslands and shrublands, with some fast-growing low trees like ko¯ whai and cabbage tree, says Lincoln ecologist Colin Meurk. A woodland might start to develop, but then the Waimakariri River would flood, change course and wipe out whatever had established.

The Waimak’s braids and changed courses were essentially random and any particular piece of land might not have been flooded for 1000 years or more, but the water came for everything eventually.

Ka¯ Huru Manu (the Nga¯i Tahu Cultural Mapping Project) doesn’t yet record any particular Ma¯ori interest in the lands that today form the reserve, but it does record that the Waimakariri River ‘‘traditionally . . . provided several trails to the West Coast for Nga¯i Tahu taua¯ (war) and trading parties. But more often it was used as access into the mahinga kai areas such as [the alpine lakes] Te Ha¯pua Waikawa (Lake Lyndon), O¯ po¯ rea (Lake Pearson), Howdon and Sarah.’’

Environment Canterbury has recorded about a dozen Ma¯ori ovens and related artefacts west of the Christchurch airport. Most have been damaged by stock and erosion.

By the time the Black Maps were drawn up between 1848 and about 1870, there were two significant patches of forest cover in northwest Christchurch – one at Riccarton Bush, a remnant of which still stands, and another at Papanui, which was logged out of existence.

The land cover of the dry plains reserve is described on the Black Maps as ‘‘grass & fern’’.

In his just-published book, The Lonely Islands: The Evolutionary Phenomenon that is New Zealand, Terry Thomsen writes that millions of birds lived on or near the lands now called the Mcleans Grasslands Reserve.

Many were attracted by the river – eating from the water or shores, nesting on river islands and the like. Multiple moa species are thought to have lived in lowland Canterbury, he writes, and kea, kiwi and adzebill may well have crossed these lands.

Harriers and haast eagles probably hunted over the area. Tuatara, geckos and skinks were likely there – and the lizards still are.

And these are just the charismatic species. Throw in millions of insects, invertebrates, earthworms, bacteria and everything else, and the Canterbury Plains were a unique landscape of national and international significance.