Golden Bay pest eradication project plan gets $3m boost
Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Crown-owned Predator Free 2050 Ltd has announced $3 million in funding for a proposed pest eradication programme in northwest Golden Bay, stretching from Farewell Spit to Whanganui Inlet.
The $3m is part of more than $6m in Jobs for Nature funding announced on Wednesday for three eradication projects as part of the Predator Free New Zealand 2050 mission. Predator Free 2050 Ltd will also provide $1.3m for a project at Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf and an initial $2m for another on the Kaipara Harbour peninsulas.
In Golden Bay, the eradication project is being driven by Onetahua Restoration, which is a partnership between Manawhenua ki Mohua, HealthPost Nature Trust and Tasman Environmental Trust. Those partners aim to work with the community to bring back birds and other native wildlife to the area.
Farewell Spit-Wharariki, which is internationally recognised under the Ramsar Convention, is an important ecosystem for shorebirds including red knot, bar-tailed godwit, variable oystercatcher, pied oystercatcher, and banded dotterel.
**READ MORE:
* Farewell Spit cottage gets new lease of life as conservation base
* Healthpost Nature Trust 'thrilled' by surprise $100,000 donation to conservation
* Conservation minister opens new Golden Bay ecosanctuary at Cape Farewell
* New sanctuary to boost seabird numbers at Cape Farewell
**
But resident and migratory species are at risk of predation.
HealthPost Nature Trust chairman Peter Butler said four pests would be targeted under the project – possums, rats, mustelids (stoats mainly) and pigs.
Department of Conservation operations manager Dave Winterburn there had even been pigs on the spit in Golden Bay.
“They have been found right up near the lighthouse,” Winterburn said. “Staff do go pig hunting to keep on top of the numbers.”
Farewell Spit was a defendable piece of land, surrounded by the sea, he said.
A grant of $250,000 from that $3m fund is to cover the cost of a feasibility study, which is already under way.
Onetahua Restoration project manager Dr Chris Wheatley said the team was on track to complete the feasibility study by the end of December-start of January. That study would help determine what methods could be used and the level of eradication that could be expected in the area.
Once the study was complete, any new technology would be trialled before the project moved from the feasibility to operational stage, possibly in mid-2022.
More funds would need to be secured for the project, which had a rough working estimate of $9m. Every $1 of the Predator Free 2050 funding needed to be matched by $2 from other sources, Wheatley said.
“We’re looking for other funding sources.”
Onetahua Restoration project spokeswoman Sky Davies said co-operation from the wider community was critical to the proposed project's success. About 116 landowners and residents in the area had been contacted so far and the support had been good.
The Golden Bay project is tipped to create up to 50 jobs over five years if it proceeds. The first stage of the Kawau Island project is forecast to create 23 jobs, while the initial phase of the Kaipara project could create up to 36 full-time jobs.
HealthPost Nature Trust was formed in 2017 by Collingwood-based health company HealthPost. It has been involved in restoring native habitats in the area, including the construction of a pest-proof fence at Cape Farewell, planting more than 8000 native plants in the Wharariki wetlands and placing 280 predator traps across eight traplines.
Butler said it was “wondrous” for the trust extend its work via this project by joining together with Tasman Environmental Trust and Manawhenua ki Mohua, which is an iwi-mandated organisation representing Ngāti Tama, Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Rārua in Golden Bay.
“Holy moly, here’s a partnership,” he said. “We’ve been chipping away with the little bit we can do with our little bit of funding, but now we’re come together and with Predator Free 2050. DOC has been great to work with.”