On October 15th, the Predator Free Russell project activated a network of traps and bait stations in what is known as the Korarāreka expansion zone. This is a 118ha area that stretches from Wellington Street in the north to the transfer station in the south, bordered by the sea from Tahapuke to Long Beach. This is a predominantly urban zone, which can make catching predators harder as when food supplies like compost bins are present, rats can hunker down in one spot.

This activation is done during spring as this is when rats are typically on the move, finding new territory and mates, and we hope to intercept them on their journey. Of note is that some of the bush areas around town, and areas like Wellington Street (our buffer to Tapeka), have been activated for up to three months already, or in some cases, like for the area behind our Matauwhi Bay depot and the Donny Block near Long Beach, for longer yet.

In the first two weeks of the Kororāreka knockdown phase 112 rats were caught. This brings the total number of rats caught in the Kororāreka zone, including those caught in the buffer lines to Tapeka, to 206. No possums or mustelids have been caught as of yet save a few possums earlier this year in the Matauwhi Bay Reserve. 

We are now pushing our servicing from seven days to 14 days in some areas as we know we’ve already made a big dent in the rat numbers.

It’s worth reminding that if you have given access to your property without the need for notification, our team may be around at any stage. Our next round of servicing is scheduled to take place between November 11th and 14th and we usually service between 9am and 2pm.

Thanks to everyone for the kind offers of coffees and breaks, we’re sorry that we can’t stop and chat to everyone otherwise we’d never get done!

Rat catches in Kororāreka from October 15th to November 5th, 2024.

We are excited to welcome our newest trapper, Serena Collins to our team. Serena started just this week and is hitting the ground running learning all there is to know about predator control here in Kororāreka.

Serena grew up in Auckland, but spent many of her holidays and weekends in the Bay. She ran her own landscaping business in The Big Smoke before making the permanent move to the Promised Land one year ago, and is now thrilled to call Pēwhairangi her home.

“I’ve always loved immersing myself in nature so when this opportunity arose I was so excited! I can’t wait to learn all the ways to best protect this stunning place and work alongside an awesome team who share the same passion.”

Please say hi to Serena if you see her around, she loves a chat!

Our regular Wednesday volunteering days are continuing to make life easier for our field team by making traps, bait stations and whatever else needs building, fixing or maintaining. We have also conducted our spring five minute bird counts in the beautiful bush around Tapeka and we think we’re starting to see the signs of increases in bird populations (more on this in a month or two).

In October, our awesome volunteer team put in 397 hours of work. This is of HUGE value to us as those are hours that would otherwise have needed to be taken up by the field team in the workshop and around. You can see how this helps stretch our funding and grow the project. We say it time and time again, but THANK YOU to all our committed and generous volunteers, we couldn’t run this project without you. We now even have the Baking Brigade who are delivering fresh baked goods every Wednesday morning!

If you would like to be a part of our volunteering team please contact Ella at ella@russelllandcare.org.nz or fill in this form here.

In between servicing our now 1,151ha of elimination zone, we have started to further expand our project into our new 711ha Tikitikioure expansion zone.

This is a large area between the transfer station and the Gas station where a lot of historical trapping, especially for possums, has been conducted. This expansion will join our two major project areas (one being from the Gas station to the ferry, the other being Kororāreka to Tapeka Point).

Because of the sparsity of the area and the trapping that has already been conducted here, we are investigating the use of novel technologies such as thermal drone cameras to help us locate possum strongholds and better target our response. This is the same technology that is currently being used to target deer in the Russell State Forest.

For those properties that this may impact we will be in touch to seek your permission before carrying out any activities. In the meantime, if you see any rats, possums of stoats around here (or anywhere in the elimination or buffer zones), please get in touch with the team by emailing contact@russelllandcare.org.nz. 

Predator Free Russell Areas of Work 2024 November

Cheers and thanks again for our community’s amazing support. Let’s keep this mission going and soon enough, yes soon enough, we’ll have a completely predator-free Russell peninsula.