There are three key sources of biodiversity data gathered in the wake of the earthquakes, although they focus on vegetation alone. In 2015, the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) completed a survey of trees in the red zone. This database locates 30 000 trees, of which 5000 are fruit and nut trees. Motivations for this survey are unclear, but most likely it was undertaken in response to community interest, not least in foraging. 

 

A map locating these trees was published in The Press at the time, at https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/67690529/fruit-foraging-in-christchurchs-red-zone. The data on which this map is based is located in the data hub.

 

A second source is the Ōtākaro Avon Forest Park website: OAFP is a community group interested in nurturing native plants in the river corridor. They have a number of sites of indigenous ecological significance, based on garden plantings augmented by the group over time.

 

Seven of these are described at https://www.aofp.co.nz/sites-of-ecological-importance. There were originally a number more; most of these have been identified on the map available under ‘current projects’.

 

There is considerable scope for citizen science projects to augment such sources of data: see. The ongoing source for citizen science data is iNaturalist, which takes a broader approach to observations, beyond a vegetation focus. The iNaturalist map is here.

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