Monthly Archives: August 2020

Working Bee

Our first official working bee for the year was held on Sunday, 2 August after having to postpone previous planned events due to Covid-19. It is over 9 years since weeds were cleared and replanting was carried out on council land in front of and behind the brown cottage and along the paper road. 13 volunteers spent 3 hours clearing jasmine, blue morning glory, ivy, tradescantia, moth plant and other weeds.

A big thank you to Ashleigh Lee for providing a delicious lunch and to Nik and Matt for assisting with clearing weeds and spraying. Everyone agreed it was great getting back into restoration mode.

Self Setting Traps

Brush tail possums, Norwegian rats, ship rats and kiore beware!, the new AT220 traps have been installed in the valley. On Saturday 11 July, Nik and his colleague, Matt spent about 8 hours positioning the traps and attaching ramps to encourage the rodents to walk directly into them. One of the traps was checked the next day and in the space of one night had successfully caught a possum.

Funding for these traps was provided by DoC’s Community Fund.

With our efforts and pest control also being carried out by the organisers of the Little Blue Penguin/Korora project, Jenny and Tony Enderby and others who have been trapping consistently along the Leigh Coastal walkway, we are starting notice an influx of fantails (piwakawaka); a very encouraging sign.