Te Whakarauora Whio News - Butch Goodwin

Re: Te Whakarauora whio – Friends of Rotoiti project

Friends of Rotoiti have been very active since receiving the initial Rata Foundation funding 26th

August 2021. The first milestone reporting was due on the 1st December 2021 but as this was a short

period between receiving the funding and the first required report ( three months ) we were not in a

position to report on all requested milestones so below I will detail progress to date and the

requested milestones will become better clarified in future reporting once we have the total trap

line boxes deployed in the field, only then can we provide catch statistics and monitoring reports.

26th August 2021 - $156,310.00 funding received.

Early September 2021 Friends of Rotoiti met and a decision was made to approach DOC to see if we

could use the DOC workshop to build the five hundred trap boxes required for the project. Doc was

accommodating and gave FOR free use of the workshop and equipment. Starting September to midNovember volunteers built and completed all 500 trap boxes, installed, and tested all one thousand

doc200 traps with a total of 1319 volunteer hours.

27th November Friends of Rotoiti and DOC organised a community deployment of seven kilometres

or seventy box traps at the head of Lake Rotoiti which involved carrying in boxes and placing them at

one hundred metre intervals along the track. There was so much interest in this community day that

we had to limit the number of people and public volunteer hours totalled 304 hours for the day. This

Lakehead / Coldwater loop section was completed late Dec 2021 and a week later was checked with

four stoats and one rat recorded.

As we have been working around helicopters, and the wasp season DOC has been supportive in

allowing FOR volunteers to undertake training for helicopter safety and the use of epi pen.

February and March 2022 FOR completed the total proposed stage of the Travers valley of 212 traps

all firmly secured to a good sound base, calibrated tested and are in full operation with the goal to

clear and record all traps monthly beginning in April 2022.

Volunteer Deploy Hours

Lakehead – Swing bridge LH 1 – 52 (DOC 1-30) 155

Coldwater – Swing bridge CW 1 – 50 482

Travers – John Tait TV 1 – 55 246

John Tait – Swing bridge JT 1 - 85 252

Currently having voluntary built the trap boxes and Gold-pine’s donation of all their ply offcuts we

have made considerable savings from what was budgeted. Flying hours as estimated at $20k will

most likely end up in the vicinity of $40k by the time we complete the Sabine and I note that working

in together with DOC has been cost effective for both parties.

The original goal was to complete all trap deployment during summer 2022, but realistically we

probably underestimated the labour required in the field to forfill that obligation and therefore

propose to start deployment of the Sabine in Oct – Nov 2022.

It is rewarding to know that when the kiwi translocation happens in May, we have the Travers line

operational and checked on a regular basis.

Thanks to the hard working people putting the traps out

Great Spotted Kiwi Project

The GSK project is proceeding as planned.

The team catching the birds is due to start work on 1 May.

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping this project moving.

Trapping Lines

Catches have increased from the low levels in late 2021. If you can help with any of the lines please contact the co-ordinator