They’re famously shy, but our precious kiwi are now more visible and a bit safer thanks to new tracking equipment funded by NPDC.

Kaitake Ranges Conservation Trust Chairperson Pete Morgan (left) using a kiwi tracker with Kaitake Community Board Chair Graham Chard at Lucy’s Gully

Kaitake Community Board bought the tracking equipment with $3000 from its budget to support residents to care for the environment.

It gifted the equipment to the Kaitake Ranges Conservation Trust whose volunteers are using it to keep tabs on kiwi.

“Our members use the new equipment to track monitored kiwi and detect health issues and study their behaviour including feeding times and whether the males are nesting," says trust Chairperson Pete Morgan.

The trust has worked with other community groups and local iwi to release 31 adult North Island Brown kiwi in the Kaitake Ranges over the last three years and keeps them safe with a network of 827 traps.

The volunteers are currently tracking 14 kiwi, each fitted with a small radio transmitter with its own radio frequency, which tracks their location and sends information on the activity and breeding status of the kiwi.

“Our natural environment is at the heart of the Kaitake community, and our residents are passionate about protecting it. Saving our kiwi and restoring our natural ecosystems helps us to build a Sustainable Lifestyle Capital for our Tamariki and future generations,” said Kaitake Community Board Chair Graham Chard.

The Kaitake Ranges, inland from the coastal town of Ōākura, are part of the Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki/Egmont National Park.

As well as the Mayor and Councillors representing four wards plus the district at large, five community boards give our smaller communities another voice on issues that matter to them and keep an overview of Council services. They are:

• Clifton Community Board
• Inglewood Community Board
• Kaitake Community Board
• Puketapu-Bell Community Board
• Waitara Community Board.

Kaitake Community Board represents the centres of Ōmata, Ōākura and Ōkato as well as a large rural population around communities such as Tataraimaka, Pitone and Hurworth.

Each board has four members and $100,000 each year to fund small projects in their community. Every three years each board creates a Community Board Plan to set out the issues and aspirations and to identify where resources are needed.

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