An Update
We last heard from Sam Ashby and the Auckland branch last year on the success of their newly formed Conservation Committee. We've received an update that shares how their work has since expanded and succeeded.
Words by Sam Ashby.
We have had quite a year on our hands.
For the Fiordland traps, we funded the stainless steel hardware for our initial 101 predator trap boxes. We sent 5 members down to Fiordland to install 50 of the trap boxes that we built, and checked an existing trap line whilst there.
In the Central North Island, we have been completing ongoing checks of our Waipakihi River trap line. The kill rate in that trap line alone was extremely high, indicating a need for further trapping. 30 more DOC200 boxes were built and installed in the lower section of the river, including cutting a new track for the trapline to cover. This new line connects the bottom end of our initial trap line to the Kaimanawa Alpine Adventures helicopter base, meaning no more covering dead ground for our team. We also covered the costs of some predator traps installed in Clements Mill Road and our members carried out trap checks in the Kaipo and Cascade Rivers on behalf of the Central North Island Sika Foundation.
Our kills for the waipakihi river over the past 20 months has been 161 mustelids (including one ferret), 584 rats and multiple possums. Some very impressive numbers
Back home in Auckland, we have aligned with a local conservation group called Predator Free Muriwai. This group are protecting an area very close to where some of our conservation team have grown up, and a lot of our members spend time at the very popular Muriwai beach on Auckland’s west coast. This group have a goal of having Kiwi re-established into the native bush and have multiple trap lines already set up. We have helped to build more trap boxes and also service their existing lines.
Throughout the year we have run multiple trap building workshops where we have an attendance of around 15-20 members. Initially I thought this would be too many people to manage and be productive but it has been great to see our members split themselves into groups and complete various tasks from cutting and assembling the boxes, fitting the trap mechanisms, making the mesh grates for the ends all the way through to painting our sponsors names on the boxes.
We have also run an advanced trapping workshop led by Cam Speedy of the Central North Island Sika Foundation. We had members from our own club attend as well as a few from the Predator Free Muriwai Group. It was a very constructive and informative day and everyone came away with a lot more knowledge of trapping and with a few new tricks to try in the field. We have set ourselves up with full trapping gear packs so that we no longer need to borrow gear from other groups that we work with. These include our own load carrying pack frames, backpacks with trap setting and safety gear, and all the tools required to work on the boxes on the fly.
Alongside all of the above projects, we have taken over the responsibility of two trap line around a local water dam area. These two trap lines had been dormant for over two years, and trapping this area has been a vital part of both honing our trap setting skills and training new volunteers.
In the Waipakihi River, an area previously never trapped, we have had multiple reports of sightings higher Whio (blue duck) numbers than ever before and have had volunteers hearing Kiwi calling at night and found Kiwi prints on the river bank. This is an area that has not had a Kiwi reintroduction program, the native birds are finding their own way back into this environment with a reduction in predator numbers. These real world results are a key element in keeping our volunteers going back into these spaces in our back country.