Kararehe Kino — Vertebrate Pest Research Issue 28
November 2016 — Working with Regional Councils
In this issue
Transferring vertebrate pest knowledge to regional councils using Envirolink
The Envirolink scheme provides $1.6 million per year to enable eligible councils to contract CRIs, universities and some not-for-profit research associations to adapt management tools to local needs and translate environmental science knowledge into practical advice.
Regional-scale biodiversity restoration in Hawke’s Bay: towards a predator-free New Zealand
The Cape to City programme (http:// capetocity.co.nz/) in Hawke’s Bay is the largest wildlife restoration project across a primary production landscape in New Zealand, and the hope is that it will become a template for the large-scale restoration of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity.
Building a community of practice: sustainability monitoring and reporting
The New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard (NZSD) project aims to build a practical tool for sustainability assessment, auditing, reporting and learning. Catriona MacLeod teamed up with Kevin Collins (Collins Consulting Ltd) to identify opportunities for greater collaboration between the NZSD’s researchers, its industry partners, and regional and central government.
Impacts of mice in Waikato forests
Maungatautari Reserve in the central Waikato is the largest pest-free area in mainland New Zealand, with a 47 km pest-fence excluding pests from 3 300 ha of native forest. In 2008 all 13 species of local pest mammals except mice were eradicated from this wildlife sanctuary.
Helping regional councils with strategic investment in research: a roadmap for biodiversity and biosecurity
In late 2013 the regional councils asked Andrea Byrom, from Landcare Research, and Matt Kavermann, an independent contractor, to help them take a broader view of the science system in order to help plan for longer-term needs in biodiversity and biosecurity research.
Assessing the suitability of citizen science data for biodiversity reporting
Biodiversity reporting is concerned with assessing or monitoring the status and trends of species over time. Monitoring can be thought of as either structured or unstructured.
Councils reduce pest monitoring costs with chewcards
Chewcards are 18 cm × 9 cm pieces of plastic coreboard with palatable bait, such as peanut butter, pressed into the channels in the boards (see photos), which are used for monitoring the distribution and abundance of a range of pests, most commonly possums.They were developed in 2005 by Peter Sweetapple and Graham Nugent at Landcare Research as a simple and cheap alternative to existing tools.
Interactive tools for regional council managers: simulating kill-trap networks in the Cape to City predator control programme
Permanent networks of kill traps have the potential to provide long-term, cost-effective control of vertebrate pests over large areas. Such networks are often initially established with large numbers of traps in order to quickly and substantially reduce the pest population to low levels.
What is happening with wallabies in mainland New Zealand?
Five species of wallaby have been present in New Zealand for over 140 years. Since their initial releases wallabies on the mainland have increased in numbers and distribution, and they compete with livestock for pasture, browse seedlings in plantation forests and damage indigenous vegetation.
Assessing kill-trap welfare performance for regional council and community group pest control programmes
Many designs of kill traps are used to control mammal pest species in New Zealand. Trap users include government agencies, community groups and private individuals. Increasingly the public expects that traps used to kill animals will do so as quickly and painlessly as possible.
