Waitara schoolkids and New Plymouth Airport are getting on board the Towards Predator-Free Taranaki goal together.

Year 6 and 7 students at St Joseph’s Waitara Full Primary School made pest traps, with help from Taranaki Regional Council, to lay around the airport perimeter.

The Airport bought 40 traps at $10 each, with all proceeds going to the school.

“Pest control is a vital component of safety at the Airport and this aligns perfectly with our wildlife control programme and supports a local school, while contributing to the goal of making Taranaki the first predator-free region in the country,” said New Plymouth Airport Chief Executive Wayne Wootton.

The students numbered and decorated the traps with drawings of rodents, cheese, flowers, mice, helicopters and stars. Each student then marked a spot on the Airport map where they wanted the trap to be set before taking a tour of the Airport.

The traps will be controlled by the Airport team and trapping results will be logged on a project app to assist Taranaki Regional Council in collating data.

You can find out more about Towards Predator-Free Taranaki from Taranaki Regional Council (trc.govt.nz) or Wild for Taranaki (wildfortaranaki.nz).

ENDS

© Scoop Media