Rangers Report September 2023

Operations Summary

• Uptake of RatAbate toxin in bait stations across the reserve remained steady at 50-60%
• We are starting to use the $20,000 per year (for three years) from the DOC community fund to work on moth plant control with Aki Tai Here
• The 2000 mānuka and kānuka seedlings planted during this winter’s community planting day have become well established in the Home Bay gully.
• Whangarei Girls High Year 9 girls had their annual visit to the Trust.

 
What have the rangers been up to?
We added the finishing touches on track maintenance as we prepared to have a fully functioning toxin operation. We have now achieved this for the first time since the cyclone. We have also been busy with our standard trapping and Ōi/grey faced petrel nest monitoring/protection. We are encountering the same issues as the previous season with relentless stoats causing problems for the breeding season.
 

Above: Kiwi on the march past one of the southwestern trail cameras.

 

Left: Ranger Tom Grinstead with a mighty big stoat. Right: Ray from Aki Te Here spurring on Ranger Tom Flynn-Plummer after a handpull of a huge moth plant stem.

Read the full Rangers Report for September 2023 for more details, news from our community planting day, trapping tables, updates from all our rangers, and more.

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