Catlins trapping initiative begins
A Catlins group is taking a community approach to predator control.
Papatowai resident Gavin White, who is already undertaking trapping for Forest & Bird and the Department of Conservation on the nearby Tautuku Ecological Restoration Project, is co-ordinating a local team to set and maintain traps to help save Catlins forest birds and penguins in the Papatowai area.
About 30 people met on Wednesday to consider what they could do to reduce stoat numbers in a sustainable way, White said.
‘‘The community in general in Papatowai, many of them who have cribs, live here because they like the environment and are very keen to take some steps collectively.’’
White said small groups could do a little bit and make a big difference in their own backyard to get on top of stoat numbers.
About 40 per cent of the stoat diet was native birds and the rest was insects, which were also food to birds, he said.
The first requirement was stoat traps, and then establish them in two proposed lines known for stoat traffic, as the young ones left the nest and went off to feed.
One of the trap lines could extend from Shank’s Bush for 100 metres, with traps set at various intervals past housing.
The other could be established at the Papatowai Bridge end of town.
There could be various traps set around the estuary, and from Picnic Point to King’s Rock.
White cited the Bluff community trapping project, established in 2009 in Southland by the Bluff-Motupohue Environment Trust, as being successful and inspirational for people.