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We are pleased to announce our ongoing collaboration with Valhalla to control pest animals and plants.

On Saturday, 19th October, a trapping training session was held at Valhalla, attended by seven enthusiastic volunteers, including five new recruits. It was a pleasure to finally meet Christina Gilderdale, who organised this event has been supporting us remotely since April 2024, when LHVS members helped establish trap lines at Valhalla.

During the session, we shared essential trapping safety tips, checked traps, and took the opportunity to identify and clear weeds visible from the tracks. Christina has been instrumental in helping us navigate Trap NZ and has kindly agreed to manage this aspect of the project remotely from her home in Whanganui. Though less available for hands-on work, her expertise remains invaluable.

We are also grateful for the input of Damian Moody, an IT expert, who is assisting with the
technical side of our efforts and helping to ensure our records in the Mathesons Bush Block are accurate and up to date.

Our focus over the past few months has been on controlling aggressive species including Jasmine, Japanese Honeysuckle and Blue Morning Glory along the Tenetahi Road bush area bordering Leigh harbour. We have also started replanting this area and distributing
mulch and are currently awaiting Auckland Council’s additional support, once approval has been received from Auckland Transport, which will enable us to tackle this massive weed control project more effectively.

In addition to our work on Tenetahi Road, we have targeted other weed hotspots, including areas where ladder fern and Pitted Crassula are becoming established. Our proactive approach includes removing flowering climbing asparagus before it has a chance to seed, along with managing a large area of ginger that threatens to merge into the bush.

On October 6, we worked with Steven and Leanne Hyde to address a variety of weeds above Omaha Cove, focusing on moth plant and woolly nightshade. Our efforts have been bolstered by Phil Jones, who is also managing significant infestations of these species on nearby properties. Eliminating these seed sources is essential if we are to make further progress.

We’re very pleased to welcome Damian Moody to our trapping team. He is now managing the Mathesons Bush traps. His extensive experience in trapping is already enhancing our pest control efforts.

While we’ve observed a marked reduction in pest animal numbers, we’re gearing up for a new, coordinated trapping and baiting programme this spring and summer, with a focus on mustelid control.

Thank you to all our volunteers and partners for their hard work and dedication which is helping us to make significant headway in managing invasive weeds and enhancing the local biodiversity.

‘For over 200 hours, a team of devoted volunteers has been waging war in Jasmine Valley; that stretch of paper road beyond Tenetahi Road which leads to Leigh Cove, so beloved by all discerning locals.

Who could have known when this English immigrant was brought to our shores with its intoxicating scent and exquisite little white flowers that it would turn into a rampant mass murderer, climbing up and strangling our magnificent natives. Although great in size,
our trees are no match for the stealthy ways of this invader which calls in reserves of blue morning glory, Japanese Honeysuckle, and moth plant to try and wipe out the rightful inhabitants of our New Zealand bush.

Jo Evans, Sue Gibbings and our other volunteers have managed to defeat these invaders in some battlefields which shows that victory is possible and sustainable with careful management. Where the
enemy has fallen, there is a noticeable demarcation zone and our trees are rising again from near death.

There really is great enthusiasm down in the cove at the moment as victory is within reach.
If you are in the area, do listen for the sound of secateurs snipping the strangling vines, Niwashis slashing the nodes and the trees sighing with gratitude at the valiant efforts made on their behalf.’

Kahili ginger has also been on our radar. We have dug out mountains of rhizomes. These don’t break down too well in the black polythene bags. Auckland Council have provided a large drum and have recommended submerging them in water and sealing the lid. This eventually makes a slurry which can later be poured onto the soil. This is also an effective way of getting rid of mothplant pods.

We have purchased some native trees to replace those that haven’t survived strangulation by Jasmine. Auckland Council have provided us with 100 ferns as well as mulch and we have eco-sourced a variety of native plants.

We will soon be advising our volunteers of a planting day to get all these safely planted.

The morning glory, tradescantia and jasmine were trembling in their roots as, in true pioneering fashion, a dozen or so Leigh locals descended on them armed with gloves, secateurs and rakes. There is an extraordinary satisfaction in reclaiming the forest floor and I felt I was in a real life version of Minecraft, attacking the enemy using real not virtual strength. There is also a degree of cunning in hunting down the famous jasmine nodule which Neil said must be found if we want true annihilation of this particular enemy which released its venomous perfume in a futile attempt to pretend it was a good guy. I have to admit nodule detection was not my forte and I fear many wounded Jasmine clumps might recover to climb again and they will all rise from my patch; as the other volunteers had an air of knowing what they were doing.

My enthusiasm however more than compensated. There is pure joy in pulling jasmine off a native tree that it is ruthlessly strangling to death and the tree sometimes springs back in joy at its release, if it’s not too far gone. There is the same sense of heroism in discovering little ferns quivering under the tradescantia. One group of us worked from the top of the road and one from the bottom of the garden and at one point we reached each other in a real “Doctor Livingstone I presume” moment.

We had pies for lunch as a reward for our sterling performance and there really was a marvellous camaraderie in sharing our battle stories. There were, I’m pleased to say, no injuries amongst the true and brave but at least 10 weed bags full of fallen villains.

We were very fortunate to have the support of Kerryn Johnson and her pest detection dog Pip for 3 full days in May. Kerryn helped to rearrange several of our trap lines. Our aim is to more aggressively target stoats and we have redeployed some of our DoC traps on the borders of the bush and added modified Victor stoat traps. Having said that, weasel numbers appear to be high at present, suggesting there aren’t many stoats around. We certainly had more luck catching them in the early stages of the project. We have caught 10 weasels in a month and possibly more in the AT220’s.

We heard that Forest Bridge Trust have been catching quite a few stoats in the surrounding area. Stoats have a large home range, so this is also great news for Leigh.

Our volunteers Chris and Keith have now recharged all the AT220’s and topped them up with bait so they should be ok for another 3 months.

Madeira Vine
Please keep and eye out for Madeira vine, also known as Mignonette vine which has been seen in the Cape Rodney area. This climbing vine is very hard to get rid of once established and can strangle large areas of native trees.
Mignonette vine • Weedbusters
Madeira vine (tiakitamakimakaurau.nz)

Kahili Ginger
Another invasive pest plant on our radar is Kahili ginger. Over the Easter break volunteers helped to control a large area of this weed. It was evident this was the seed source of seedlings popping up around the bush block.

A group of 10 dedicated volunteers met on Sunday, 24 March to carry out weeding on the Leigh foreshore. The plants are thriving but will be smothered by kikuyu and other weeds unless regular control is carried out over the next few years. If you happen to be walking past, please feel free to do a bit of weeding and place them in one of two composting bags provided. The mulch created in these bags will be used to provide nutrients to the plants along with moisture during the summer months.

Our first official working bee for 2024 was a huge success. On Sunday, 10 March, 12 enthusiastic volunteers met at the top of the catchment and set to work gathering up patches of tradescantia which were starting to creep back towards the stream edges. While the tradescantia leaf beetle is helping to suppress this weed in some areas and groundcovers including oplismenus hirtellus and pratia angulata are becoming established, the tradescantia still needs to be controlled.

After spending approximately an hour in one location, we gradually moved downstream collecting further patches along the way.

This is something we have been planning for ages but haven’t been able to carry out due to the very wet weather in 2023. Everyone agreed it was a very rewarding morning’s effort.

Bat Monitoring

On Friday, 23 February 2024, we were very fortunate to have input from Virginia Moreno, Ecology & Biodiversity Advisor, Forest Bridge Trust, who visited the valley to instal three bat monitoring devices. We have previously carried out bat monitoring using a hand-held device which indicated there was no bat activity. However, Viriginia advised the presence of bats is determined by a number of variables including the weather, temperature and availability of invertebrate prey and they might still be visiting the area. These automatic monitors which were positioned in two locations along the stream and on the border of the bush, will provide a more accurate record of bat activity over a period of weeks. Virginia plans to return to the bush with other members of the Forest Bridge Trust team to carry out a night time herpetological study. We look forward to the results of these investigations.

AT220 Data gathering

On Monday, 11 March, Hamish Stewart, Predator Control Assistant, provided an excellent training session on gathering data from the AT220 self setting traps. While we had been advised to count the rats carcasses or tails of decomposed rats to determine the number of strikes, these devices can do so much more. The data Hamish downloaded from one device indicated it had caught 5 possums and 12 rats whereas our data collection had indicated the machine had only caught 6 rats. Clearly this is a more reliable method of recording as often carcasses are carried away by scavengers including feral pigs. Hamish will be reviewing all our AT220 traps to ensure they are fully operational, and downloading the data.

We are most grateful to Virginia and Hamish for their valuable input and to Forest Bridge Trust for providing us with these experts in the field.