Department of Conservation Environment Award Finalist 2018: Paparoa Wildlife Trust

Department of Conservation Environment Award Finalist

Paparoa Wildlife Trust

The Paparoa Wildlife Trust is a community organisation that has been working in Conservation in the Southern Paparoa Range for 11 years.

With a strong, hands-on group of four trustees and a flourishing partnership with the local Department of Conservation, we are working to restore native wildlife and habitat.

Our substantial predator trapping program with 1400 traps helps protect 8,000ha from introduced stoats, weasels and rats. The targeted predator control, and the replenishing of kiwi from ‘Operation Nest Egg’, is proving to be a successful combination for the local recovery of our roroa (great spotted kiwi) and whio (blue duck) which are breeding successfully in the protected rivers again.

We have developed sustainability in all our projects, from our purpose-built stoat traps, to our working model of using a mix of local contractors and volunteers to carry out the work we do.

The traps are checked monthly with all data recorded. Last year we caught 653 rats, 140 stoats and 26 weasels in our trap network. Traps are all GPS’d and placed 100 metres apart. This equals 140km which is the distance from Greymouth to Cave Stream.