Winter is here, and the birds are getting close to nest-making season. It’s important to do a last flush of your bait stations and traps now, before spring, to give them the best chance of success. We’ve had reports of rats in plague proportions around the place, and chances are they’ve impacted your hay and feed if you haven’t kept on top of the situation. There are still reports of some stray stoats being enticed into traps, so stay vigilant with your DOC200s and live traps. Take note of the upcoming events (including one this week) if you need more gear, and share this newsletter with your friends in Franklin to let them know there’s help available.
In this newsletter:
- Upcoming events
- Introducing our new Western coordinator
- Successes
- Long Tail Pekapeka Bat Surveys
- Returning packaging from used products
Upcoming events:
9th July: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
13th August: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
18th August: Bombay bait and trap day, Bombay War Memorial carpark, 9am – 11am
21st August: Friends of Te Wairoa AGM, including guest speaker on the Hūnua kōkako population recovery, Hūnua Hall, 6pm onwards.
7th September: Mangatangi & Maramarua Catchment bait and trap day, location TBC, 9am – 11am
10th September: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
8th October: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
12th November: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
10th December: Pukekohe hub day, Farrell’s Nursery, 9am – 1pm
Although not run by Te Ara Hīkoi/Predator Free Franklin, the Waiuku Trap Library is also open on the third Sunday of each month from 2pm – 4pm at Waiuku Zero Waste.
Please note this is by no means a complete list of upcoming events! There are always more being organised across Franklin. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and website to keep up to date with events in your area.
If you have a Franklin-based predator-free event that you’d like us to help advertise, email it through to pestcontrol@predatorfreefranklin.nz.
Introducing our new Western coordinator
Lesley Fox is the new western coordinator in Franklin for Te Ara Hīkoi/Predator Free Franklin. For the last ten years she has resided in Clarks Beach, having lived and worked in Franklin for most of her adult life. She has a real passion for the area and what nature has to offer in her very own backyard.
Alongside existing Eastern coordinator Lenny van Heugten, Lesley is working to support community groups conduct their predator control programmes and deliver events across Franklin. Lesley is excited to play a role in the protection of our native biodiversity in Franklin and work with a team of passionate people working towards seeing the increase and return of native species.
Successes
We welcome a new group in Bombay. We continue to support the following strong, community-led groups:
- Aawhitu Landcare
- Predator Free Whiriwhiri
- Whakaupoko Landcare
- The C.R.E.S.T.
- Predator Free Karaka
- Paerata Rise
- Drury
- Friends of Te Wairoa
- Predator Free Whitford
- Predator Free Maraetai & Beachlands
- Clifton Peninsula
- Mangatangi & Maramarua Catchment
- Orere-Kawakawa (OK) Pest Free
If you belong to a Franklin-based community group not on this list, who are supporting land owners in predator control, or would like to, please reach out! You can find out more at www.predatorfreefranklin.nz or reach us at pestcontrol@predatorfreefranklin.nz
Franklin-wide, since we started recording catch via trap.nz in late 2017, we’ve almost hit 47,000 predators eradicated, including more than 14,500 possums, over 1,300 ferrets and more than 1,000 feral cats. If you aren’t recording your catch data on trap.nz yet, get into it! These numbers are crucial to build a picture of what’s happening out there and strengthens our funding applications to ensure we can continue to deliver a high level of service to communities.
Thanks to your generous donations, since 1 July 2023 we have received $5,347.41 from those that have received predator control materials, which will go towards further materials to continue to support our communities across Franklin. Donations can be made to
Te Ara Hīkoi Trust
12-3023-0111364-00
For donations over $5, email accounts@tearahikoi.nz and we can supply a tax invoice.
Long Tail Pekapeka Bat Surveys (February – April, 2024)
Over the autumn months, the team at Whakaupoko Landcare have been busy surveying pekapeka (bats) across Franklin with help from Ecoquest Education Foundation. Using Automatic Bat Monitors (ABMs), recent surveying has focused on gaining more data on bat activity along Auckland waterways west of Paerata and Pukekohe. Below are some of the results showing the average number of bat passes per night in 17 sites. With very high activity recorded at several sites along the region’s main waterways, the results have helped to further our understanding of the distribution of our local bat populations.
Over the past year, the Franklin Bat Project has further undertaken research to identify maternity bat roosts through radio-tracking techniques, and additionally to study the feeding locations and preferences of local populations. Generally, the results show that colonies typically occupy large, mature trees such as taraire, and that the normal feeding home range is within 2-3 km of roost sites. Interestingly, all of the surveys have only found female bats – with the question of where the males are located remaining a mystery!
As we continue to learn more about Franklin’s bat populations, a key focus is to create buffer zones around likely bat roost areas. Introduced mammalian predators (e.g., rats, possums, feral cats, stoats, and weasels) are a serious threat to bat populations, and can quickly wipe out entire colonies through predation. Therefore, as our bat populations are currently limited to small patches of mature bush, sustained and intensive predator control must continue to be prioritised.
Returning packaging from used products
Conducting predator control and pest plant control can result in a number of waste products, particularly the packaging. These are contaminated with toxins in some cases, and thus we need to be mindful of what we do with them next. Here at Te Ara Hīkoi/Predator Free Franklin, we’d like to reuse as much packaging as possible before it hits the landfill, to avoid further contaminating the soils there.
If you are attending one of our upcoming events and have some old pest off bags, bait buckets, cut ‘n’ paste bottles, or even any broken traps or bait stations, we’d love to have them returned. The bait packaging we can reuse to split baits, ensuring that as much as possible we are distributing baits in the original packaging. We have purchased cut ‘n’ paste in bulk, so we can refill your bottles and replace the brush heads where necessary. With broken items, we can dismantle them and either redistribute the parts that are still useful, or perhaps look to fix them.
On that note, a reminder that all baits and the pest plant gels are toxins that we are putting into the environment. They are effective, but we do need to be mindful that we use just enough, and not too much. When using these products, experiment with using just a little less than you usually would, and see whether the outcome is the same. If this is so, adjust how much toxin you are using across the board to help protect our environment from unnecessary toxin build-up.
We always welcome returned gear if you are finding it isn’t your cup of tea, or if you took a bit more than you needed. We will redistribute this and make sure it is put to good use rather than stored in a shed.
You have received this email as you have attended one of our events, or contacted us in the past expressing interest in what we do. You can use the link below to update your preferences with which emails you receive – you may like to double check that you are also subscribed to the most relevant mailing lists for your local community groups, so you stay up to speed with what’s going on for you locally. If you are no longer interested to receive these emails, you may also unsubscribe using the link below.
From the team at Te Ara Hīkoi/Predator Free Franklin, a huge, huge thank you for your support, Franklin. Our native biodiversity thanks you for your efforts too!
Happy Trapping!
