Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan 1. Predominant Indigenous Vegetation Detailed in Table 11 Originally all forested except for discrete high altitude alpine areas, tidal flats, estuaries and deltas, some valley non-forest wetlands, some riparian and bluff communities, and slip sites. Alpine and large tracts of mountain and upland hill country communities still predominantly intact. Lowland hill country forests and coastal communities greatly compromised - no original forest remaining. Some of this is now secondary forest and native shrublands. Alluvial forests are almost entirely gone - includes swamp forests, fertile mixed podocarp and mixed broadleaf low terrace forests, and less fertile podocarp- beech high terrace forests. All low altitude non-forest communities variously altered and diminished, especially estuarine fringes, deltas, riparian communities and wetlands. 2. Communities and Habitats Alpine communities highly distinctive, and unique to North Marlborough due to suite of localised endemic species, species which occur nowhere else in North Marlborough, and species which are otherwise confined to the North Island - nationally significant. Moderately large tracts of upland beech forest - stunted and very windshorn on exposed ridges and summits. Lowland hillslope forests uncommon and regionally significant for inland distributions of warm, northern species, and regionally rare species. Remnant alluvial and estuary fringe communities regionally important (including treelands). Very distinctive, highly productive communities, especially tall mixed podocarp forests and swamp forests. Many species for which alluvial habitat is vital are now locally extinct. Large estuarine communities, very distinctive, highly productive, and provide important habitats. Overall, moderately high natural biodiversity due to wide range of altitude and landforms - alpine areas especially significant. Alluvial biodiversity largely lost. Biotic patterns and sequences, dynamics and process functioning largely intact at higher altitudes, but severely compromised and fragmented throughout most of the lower hillslopes, and lost in alluvial areas - uninterpretable. Inter-tidal patterns well-preserved but sequences through to alluvial communities largely gone. Natural productivity variable, ranging from high in alluvial and inter-tidal communities and decreasing to low in alpine communities. Highly schistose rocks relatively infertile. Generally, a low abundance of native fish and a limited whitebait fishery. Trout fishery present. App Two - 56