Volunteering
Volunteering with Russell Landcare Trust is a chance to make a real, tangible difference to the environment and community you love.
Why to volunteer with us?
Whether you’re helping restore native habitats, building traps, clearing invasive plants, or supporting behind-the-scenes efforts, your time and energy directly contribute to protecting Russell’s unique biodiversity. It’s also an opportunity to learn new skills, connect with like-minded people, and be part of a passionate team working to preserve our natural treasures for future generations.
“In all of our volunteering we like to make things as social as possible. While there are some activities that are done solo in the bush, many are group activities and we provide morning tea and lunch whenever possible. We’ve even got a BBQ that comes out sometimes. As much as giving back to the environment is rewarding by itself, it’s even better with a group of friends.”
– Fletcher Sunde, General Manager
Volunteering options
Volunteering does not stop here, we have many other volunteers doing work in the community and there are other ways that you can become involved.
- We have people trapping in their back yards.
- We have a baking brigade on a rotating schedule who bake delicious treats for our weekly volunteers.
- We have administrators and volunteer trustees, and we have people monitoring our camera traps to help detect predators.
If any of this sounds like you or if you’ve got another brilliant way that you can help the predator-free cause, we’d really love to hear from you.
BIODIVERSITY MONITORING
We run several biodiversity monitoring programs such as quarterly five-minute bird counts and are currently looking for more people to be involved with these, or even take the lead on facilitating additional monitoring programs to begin (with the assistance of our volunteer coordinator).
Monitoring is important as we can’t prove that our work has been effective until we can show the resulting increases in local native biodiversity.
The programs that we’d like to add are korora/little blue penguin monitoring, reptile monitoring, invertebrate monitoring and sea bird monitoring.
If you’d like to be involved in any of this please get in touch
TRAP BUILDING
This work is done at our depot in Matauwhi Bay.
This involves working with tools such as drop saws, hammers and drills to knock together the rat trap boxes that are crucial in the field for excluding weka, kiwi, pets and children from our trapping devices.
This is always a pretty social activity with morning tea and lunch provided.
Usually a 9am starting, finishing for lunch at 1pm.
LINE CLEARING AND SERVICING
If you like bush walks but don’t like dealing with dead rats, this one could be for you.
Our trap lines are being continuously overgrown, so we need people to walk them and clear new growth and debris, making the trails quicker and safer for our trappers and volunteers to service.
This is usually done with some light trimmers, secateurs or niwashi at a walking pace. This can be done in your own time or as a small, organised group.
We are always also looking for people to service trapping lines, particularly in our Te Wahapu elimination zone.
This involves being allocated a line (or lines) to set and rebait, usually on a monthly cycle (though sometimes more or less often depending on predator detections).
This is usually solo work, though we ask volunteers to let us know when they’re heading out and we provide all the necessary equipment and training.
BACKYARD TRAPPING
If you would like to look after your own property, we can provide all the training needed as well as traps for you to undertake trapping in your own backyard.
NURSERY
We are planning to build a nursery and grow locally sourced wind dispersed native species. After we finish the building of the nursery there will be ongoing work to grow and plant these taonga.
Other ways to help the project
Donate
Your donation directly supports Russell Landcare Trust’s projects, from predator control and habitat restoration to protecting native species and creating a thriving ecosystem on the Russell Peninsula.
Land Access
As Russell Peninsula is mostly private land, granting access to your land allows us to expand predator control efforts, creating safer habitats for native wildlife and helping restore the natural balance of the Russell Peninsula.
Report Sightings
By reporting rats, invasive plants, or even sightings of vulnerable native species, you help us track progress, tackle threats, and celebrate the success of Russell’s biodiversity restoration.
Get in touch!
We would love to hear from you. Please fill in the form and we will get back to you.
contact@russelllandcare.org.nz
43 Matauwhi Road, Russell 0202, Bay of Islands, NZ