Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan Nationally important soil sequences in Endeavour Inlet. Generally large, high gradient streams, mostly originating on Stokes massif. Streams with long, low gradient stretches on fans and alluvial flats. Meandering stream systems some of the most well-developed in the Sounds (eg; Kenepuru Head). Infrequent coastal and subalpine wetlands. 2. Climate and Elevation Temperate to cool, moderately dry to wet climate. Temperature inversion and cold air drainage into valleys pronounced. Frosts occasional on gently landforms. Temperate range ameliorated by marine influence by more extreme at higher altitudes. Droughts uncommon. Wide rainfall range: 1200-2000 mm. Rainfall increasing with increasing altitude. Wet on summits. Exposed to strong winds and occasional storms but main inlets and Kenepuru Sounds more sheltered. High ridges and summits of Stokes massif very exposed to prevailing westerly winds and storms. Winter snow on massif occasional. High elevation: 0-1203 m altitude range; mean altitude 400 m. Maritime influence variable: significant influence where exposed to the north, but moderate influence in more sheltered inlets and calmer waters, especially of Endeavour Inlet and Kenepuru Sound. 3. Water High water quality in forested catchments and headwaters. Some degradation in lower gradient stretches as a result of farming activity. B. The Biological Environment [Part of Sounds Ecological District] Total land area in Stokes ecosystem is 27,584 ha of which; 51% is in native forest, 22% is in shrubland (both native and exotic), 51% is in plantation forestry and 3% is in pasture and non-woody native cover. 1. Predominant Indigenous Vegetation Detailed in Table 8 Originally, predominantly forested, except for rock and beach shoreline fringes, coastal and inland bluffs, estuarine embayments, alpine communities, active floodplains and dune systems. Alpine and subalpine communities on Mt Stokes comprise rockland, boulderfield, tussockland, shrublands, and sedgeland and cushion bogs. Tall alluvial forest is a significant feature of the ecosystem. Upland forests and alpine communities, bluff systems and estuaries are still largely intact. Forests of lower altitude hill slopes and toeslopes, and coastal forests severely compromised - very little of the original forests remain although a significant proportion of this is now secondary forest and regenerating shrublands. Alluvial communities and estuarine margins are all but gone; indigenous vegetation of dunes gone. 2. Communities and Habitats Alpine and subalpine communities unique and very distinctive, supporting local endemics, species which occur nowhere else in the Sounds, and species which are otherwise confined to the North Island. The only alpine area in the Sounds App Two - 42