The Tara Iti golf club was decried as an ecological menace when it was going through the permitting process ahead of its 2015 opening. Critics of the private course, built by billionaire investor Richard Kayne and set in the sand dunes north of Auckland, were concerned that plans to remove pine trees would lead to the extinction of the endangered fairy tern, the bird for which the course was to be named.
But once experts were brought in, they discovered that removing the pine trees, as well as creating a significant dune restoration program and trapping the bird’s predators, would be its only chance at survival. By having an environmental manager work with the Department of Conservation, the Shorebirds Trust, and others, Jim Rohrstaff, who serves on the board of Tara Iti and helps manage its daily operations, says the fairy tern population has slowly increased—giving hope that it may one day thrive again.
