A milestone in pests - Brook Waimarama Sanctuary

Stack up 26 thousand dead rats, mice, stoats, ferrets, possums and a couple of hundred feral goats, pigs and deer and you’d have quite a pile of carcases to deal with.

Fortunately the volunteers at Nelson’s Brook Waimarama Sanctuary have reached this milestone only after seven years of effort, and the results of their pest trapping have been responsibly disposed of along the way.

Trappers’ spokesman Bryan Hardie Boys says passing the figure of 26 thousand represents a massive effort from volunteers.

“We have 12 trapping lines spaced at 100 metres of elevation up the Brook Valley, and they’re checked weekly by between four and ten volunteers per line, then we have a hunter who’s just about wiped out the bigger feral animals,” he said. “The trappers’ work is supported by another dedicated team of trackers who’ve laid out the network of well-planned and constructed tracks that gives us access to trapping line on the 700 ha site.”

The varied nature of introduced pests requires a varied response. The Sanctuary trappers have 347 DOC 200 traps at 100m intervals targeting stoats, weasels and ferrets; 600 Victor traps for rodents, 140 possum traps spaced strategically through the core of the Sanctuary as well as 20 trial multiple-charge possum traps. Bait ranges from Pic’s Peanut Butter donated for the rodent traps, through to eggs donated by Ewings Poultry to lure the stoats and ferrets.

Additional community support has come from Nelson College technology classes making trap boxes and other schools making trap and monitoring tunnels.

The breakdown of the 26,216 pests caught is: 167 goats, 19 pigs, 17 deer, 273 stoats and ferrets, 3271 possums, 9397 rats and 13072 mice. However, Bryan Hardie Boys says pest monitoring shows the trapping is having only a limited effect.

“We’re still catching a lot of pests after a seven year effort and that’s not just around the edges of the trapped area – they keep flowing in and many mammals respond to stress by breeding more often,” he says. “What’s more, we’re only trapping about one quarter of the total area of the Sanctuary. We can’t do the whole lot…it would cost too much, take more effort than we can muster and includes some fairly inaccessible terrain.”

And in spite of the seven year effort and the 26,000 pests caught, bird counts in the Sanctuary don’t show a huge resurgence.

“We're only making slight gains despite all our hard work,” says Bryan. “However, DOC says as long as the bird numbers aren’t diminishing we’re doing better than out in the bush where native bird numbers are declining all the time.”

All this makes a convincing argument for the $4.2million spend on the 14km pest proof fence that is planned for the Sanctuary. The key benefits include total pest exclusion that would allow reintroduction of threatened such as kakapo, tuatara, and burrow-nesting seabirds; and the creations of a restored forest full of wildlife close to the city and accessible to visitors. The Sanctuary expects to become a major Nelson tourist attraction, and has a business plan which shows its economic and education benefits.

The good news is that the predator proof fence is within range. Fundraising has reached $3.2m, with significant government support still to come. The community campaign to ‘Get Behind the Fence’ has raised $175,000, exceeding targets and indicating strong support in the Nelson region.

Opus International Consultants were recently appointed as project managers for the earthworks and construction of the fence.

Bryan Hardie Boys is keen to hear from anyone who’d like to join in the trapping effort.

“It’s a great team across a mixed age-group,” he says. “Most of us are motivated by getting out in the bush for some exercise, meeting like-minded people and knowing that you’re doing something really useful that will have benefits long into the future.”

People who want to help by sponsoring a fence post or joining the volunteer trappers, trackers and weeders can find out more at www.brooksanctuary.org

ENDS

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