General
Possum in trap
We have shifted the Northern Walkway Line to the Council boundary and about to start adding another line in the bush there.
Next in line is extending Stillwater Boundary and a line along Okura Esplanade Reserve, and getting some DOC250s out to get those ferrets people are spotting intermittently!
Okura Bush/ Kauri Dieback Disease
It is with great sadness I report that pest control in Okura Bush has still not resumed since the rahui was placed over 2 years ago, except for one possum bait drop. Chris Bettany has been trying to keep progress happening in the bush in regard to allowing our KDB trained trappers back in, and she has been told to date that it is stalled by waiting on iwi responses. We have requested for better pest control to occur in there (i.e 1080 drop), but nothing further has been done by DOC yet.
Catch tally
Total catch tally for third quarter 2020
65 Mice, 13 Ship Rats, 1 Norway Rat, 72 Possums, 2 Weasels, 3 Stoats, 1 Hedgehog.
Total catch tally all lines 2020 so far:
773 Mice, 84 Ship Rats, 6 Norway Rats, 170 Possums, 23 Weasels, 6 Stoats, 1 Ferret, 8 Hedgehogs, 3 Rabbit.
Total Trapping Volunteer Hours 2020 so far: 317 hours.
NB: This number excludes the new Weiti Team who have caught 71 possums, 280 Mice, 3 Ship Rats, 3 Hedgehogs, 2 Rabbits and 1 Stoat since they started trapping in residential Weiti in May.
Possum in trap
All of the trapping team are absolute legends!
A HUGE thank you for all your work looking after nature.
–Jo Crawford