Pomona Island

This article is about the island in New Zealand. For the Scottish island sometimes called Pomona, see Mainland, Orkney.

Pomona Island is the largest island within Lake Manapouri, in Fiordland National Park, in New Zealand's South Island. With an area of 262 hectares (650 acres), it is one of the largest islands to be found within any New Zealand lake.

The island is uninhabited, and lies close to the entrance to the lake's southern arm, 11 kilometres to the west of Manapouri township. It was named by surveyor James McKerrow in 1862 after the main island of Scotland's Orkney Islands.

Natural history

Forested areas of Fiordland National Park generally are dominated by Nothofagus and podocarp species with understory of numerous ferns and shrubs; Crown Fern, Blechnum discolor is an example of chief understory species. Pomona Island is within this area of forest characterisation.[1] Pomona Island has given its name to a mineral form known as Pomona Granite.[2]

Pomona Island Charitable Trust

Pomona Island has its own Charitable Trust it was set up in July 2005 with the aim of restoring the largest inland island in New Zealand to its presumed natural state prior to the introduction of pests. The specific objectives of the Trust are to eradicate all mammalian pest species from Pomona Island ensuring a high quality of indigenous biodiversity on the island in terms of both flora and fauna. Also to reintroduce, through natural and assisted means, birdlife native to Fiordland within the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage Area and provide a safe habitat for endangered and threatened birds to breed thereby increasing the populations of individual species, to monitor conservation activities and their impact on the island's biodiversity.

Pomona Island from Hurricane Passage
Pomona Island Trust Volunteers

References

Line notes

  1. ↑ C. Michael Hogan. 2009
  2. ↑ New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics.1982

Coordinates: 45°30′S 167°28′E / 45.500°S 167.467°E