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LANDCARE OKAREKA REPORT - FEBRUARY 2017

16/3/2017

This report was presented to the LOCA AGM in February 2017 by Mike Goodwin.

Landcare Okareka volunteers maintained all existing plantings along the Lake Okareka Walkway, around the Lake Okareka settlement, within the Lake Tikitapu Scenic Reserve and the Lake Okareka Scenic Reserve. This involves a lot of walking and weed control work and a determined spirit to keep the weed sat bay.

A highlight this year was the planting of 1500 plants at the Working Bee held in the perimeter of the Lake Tarawera transfer station. This was a combined effort of volunteers from Landcare Okareka, Lake Okareka Community Assn, Lake Tarawera Landcare group, and Rotorua branch of Forest & Bird. Bay of Plenty Regional Council helped to organise the plants and their delivery and staff from BOPRC also came to help plant. This planting was a requirement of the resource consent for the transfer station. Original clearing of weeds and on going maintenance of this whole area is partly funded from the LOCA agreement with RLC to manage the overnight campers at Boyes beach.

Another highlight for the Landcare Okareka volunteers was to go in and plant areas adjacent to the new Lake Okareka Community Walking Track from Boyes beach to the DOC camp.

Landcare Okareka holds a Biodiversity Management Agreement for the Lake Okareka catchment with Bay of Plenty Regional Council. LO also holds a MOU with Rotorua District Council and another with Department of Conservation. These agreements allow Landcare Okareka to hold a permit to trap animal pests in the riparian areas around the lake. There are now going to be 100 traps (DOC 200 and 250's) and boxes available (LOCA has recently funded some more from the DOC camp money) and there are 4 teams of volunteers working on this project. Recently several ferrets have been caught.

It is hoped that Landcare Okareka volunteers will be able to assist DOC with wasp poisoning on DOC managed reserves around Lake Okareka. This is using the new Vespex bait which the wasps take back to their nests. Hopefully the weather conditions will come right - and the wasps will switch to feeding on protein. If this new method works it will make it much easier to control wasps where the nests cannot be found in the bush. In the meantime, LO volunteer Mike Goodwin can still come and deal to any wasp nests that you can find.

We are continuing to have issues with Rotorua Lakes Council with several items related to the Lake Okareka Walkway. The mowing by contractor Rotorua Contracting has been extremely erratic over the past 12 months. This has improved recently with the person who used to do the mowing back on the job. Maybe the details of the mowing of the Lake Okareka Walkway actually need to be recorded somewhere to pass onto any new person who may be supervising and actually doing the work. The roofs on the toilets and the shade shelter both require replacement.

The large flaxes growing on the fence line between the walkway track and the Playne's farm are still an ongoing issue. They were supposed to have been removed last summer and that did not happen. Not sure when anything will happen this summer. The last item is the state of the boardwalks on this walkway. They are now past their fifteen year lifespan (built in 2001), especially the first section to just past the bird hide, which has no middle stringer underneath to support the boards. Added to this is the deep grooved machined profile and poor grade of timber used to construct the boardwalk none of which has helped with the durability of the boardwalks.

Landcare Okareka continues to hold a supply of rat bait (Ditrac) from BOPRC, under the Biodiversity Management Plan which is available to property owners in the Okareka settlement who have their own bait stations (see Rat Bait Article in Newsletter). This programme supports the Forest & Bird animal pest control project in Lake Tikitapu Scenic Reserve to protect mistletoe - and birds that spread the seed.

Landcare Okareka is pleased to report that Bay of Plenty Regional Council have accepted the Millar Road wetland area, adjacent to the new Lake Okareka Community Walking Track, into the Bay of Plenty regional wetland monitoring programme.

Landcare Okareka volunteers hope to spend more time in the future working in the Millar Road wetland area restoring the wetland by removing pests - both animal and plant - under guidance from both Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Department of Conservation. See article on page 38.

Thank you to everyone who has helped as a volunteer with or as a supporter of Landcare Okareka over the past 12 months. I look forward to working with all of the LO volunteers over the coming year.

Mike Goodwin

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Lake Okareka Community Walking Track Report - Feb 2017

16/3/2017

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Work on the Walking Track has progressed really well over the past year.
The following has been achieved:

Boardwalks and viewing platforms completed by Owen Builders.
Netting will be applied when track metalling has been completed
All benching has been completed
84% of track edging on the DOC land has been completed
20% of the bush track has been metalled and is progressing well. This has been achieved by the purchase of a compact tractor and a purpose built trailer.

A shipping container was also obtained to house the tractor, trailer and plate compactor. This container is behind the Te Waiariki Purea Trust building.

There have been quite a number of working bees of LOCA Volunteers held throughout the year. These were reduced over the winter months due to the muddy conditions. Working Bees on the track are currently being held every Tuesday from about 4.30 till 6.00pm and on the first Saturday of the month from 9.00 -12.00 noon.

In January this year we hosted 16 students and 4 chaperones from Northern Michigan University who did a sterling job of metalling part of the track. A big thank you to all those who came out to work beside the students and to those who baked and supplied morning tea.

On Saturday 11th February 2017, 750 runners used the track as part of the course for the Tarawera Ultramarathon. An inspection after the race showed no damage at all, in fact if you walked the track yesterday afternoon you would not guess that a race on gone through that morning.

The track is being well used by residents and visitors for walking and running and everybody has remarked that it is a fantastic track. We have also had pushchairs (including a double push chair), wheelchairs and mobility scooters using the track. They also showed great support for the track.

There is still a small problem every now and then with cyclists and dog owners using the track, including some residents of Okareka. Some wait till no one is working on the track and then proceed to walk their dog, however they are still breaking the law.

I would like to thank all those volunteers who have given up their time to work on the track. In particular I would like to thank Sandra Goodwin for all her work and all the emails she sends out to the volunteers. I would also like to thank to Landcare Okareka volunteers for their help with tree planting along the new track.

I would also like to say a big thank you to the Lake Okareka Volunteer Rural Fire Force for carrying in our track timber and the removal of two trees. There is also a big thanks due to Rotorua Quarries for the supply of metal and to Moore’s Quarry for the delivery of the metal.

Finally I would like to thank Mike Goodwin for all his help with track work, weed spraying, tractor driving and so on.

Brian Law
Track Construction Supervisor

P.S. From the LOCA Committee: A huge thank you to Brian Law for all of his volunteer efforts with getting the walking track built - and to each and every volunteer who has helped in any way with this new track.

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USA Students Help With building The Lake Okareka Community Walking Track

16/3/2017

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Lake Okareka Community Assn Walking Track volunteers hosted some twenty students and several supporting staff from Northern Michigan University (NMU) on Tuesday 10 January 2017. The visitors were on an extra mural tour of northern New Zealand coordinated by Doug Farr of "Kuaka New Zealand" http://www.kuaka.co.nz/.

Kuaka are specialists in field based learning programmes for college students from USA, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. Northern Michigan University (NMU), located in Marquette, Michigan is a four year public comprehensive university. Its fastest growing academic areas are clinical science, biology, and the geographical and environmental sciences. I understand students on this tour came from geographical and environmental sciences.

NMU runs the "Superior Edge" programme, the four edges of which are: citizenship, diversity awareness, leadership and real world application of classroom theory. The university has an active volunteer centre on campus that carries out extensive outreach throughout Michigan's Upper Peninsula region.

I found the NMU students and staff to be:

genuinely interested in and intrigued by the Lake Okareka Walking Track project
very keen to get stuck in and help a community group on a real project
fit and willing workers on a hot Lake Okareka day
courteous and respectful
appreciative of the opportunity to meet with local volunteers and learn what the walking track project means for them
understanding of the relationship between the project, the local and regional walkway network and the wider volcanic landscape and region
enquiring of the governance, politics and planning behind a project like this
intrigued by the way the project has been consented and funded.

The students reported that of all the experiences on their study tour, the Lake Okareka Community Walking Track project particularly stood out for the opportunity it offered to interact with New Zealand volunteers on site and on an actual work day.

The Kuaka New Zealand organises college student tours which encompass environmental science, geography, sustainable business, service learning and anthropology.

The Lake Okareka Community Walking Track project has connections with all of these. So it was an excellent port of call for both NMU students and staff. And of course interesting for Lake Okareka Walking Track volunteers to hear something of the Michigan region and landscape, and the significant issues facing the people of the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

Thanks to Hugh Lusk for this contribution to "The Newsletter".

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RAT BAIT AND BAIT STATIONS - MARCH 2017

14/3/2017

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Thank you to everyone who has been rat baiting over the last few months. There is still rat bait available and it is a very good idea to keep the bait stations stocked up to help protect nesting and fledgling bird life over the next couple of months.

Ditrac rat bait provided by Bay of Plenty Regional Council is, once again available to individual property owners, to support enhancing the biodiversity at Lake Okareka. We are especially interested in getting even more lakeside properties involved with rat bait stations. We believe that we are seeing the benefit of both the rat bait programme on private land as well as the trapping programme in the lakeside reserve areas. If you are interested to have a bait station on your property, but maybe feel that you do not come to your property often enough to keep the bait station full, please contact us. We may be able to work out a partnering system with someone who lives here permanently, and is prepared to keep your bait station filled.

Ditrac is a poison, and care must be taken when using it.

How to Use Ditrac Bait:
It is recommended that bait be fed in a type of bait station, fitted with a locating
rod, that does not allow the rats to carry baits away to be stored. The baits
have holes in them and they thread onto the rod. Rats and mice eat the bait in
the bait station. The bait station protects the bait from the weather. It means
also that bait cannot be eaten by non-target species such as birds, dogs, cats
and children.

Bait stations are available by contacting Mike and Sandra Goodwin 362 8865 or email [email protected]. We have a new type of lockable bait station, like a small suitcase. They also have locating pins for the bait. Cost of these is $20.

Do you have a bait station already? That's great if you do. When you collect your bait you will need to confirm your name and address and the address of the bait station. We need to update our data base about bait stations and where they are located throughout Okareka – and many thanks to everyone who has done this so far.

How do I get bait now? Bait is available in labelled, zip lock bags, containing 12 rat baits. This is enough bait to fill one bait station 2 times during a month. Bait stations should usually not be filled more than twice during a month, otherwise you are wasting bait and feeding potentially dead rats and mice.

If you require the bait or a lockable bait station for $20, please contact Mike & Sandra Goodwin phone 362 8865, 2 Pryce Road or Rod Stace phone 362 8523, 30 Summit Road.

Please phone first to arrange a suitable time to collect bait or a bait station.

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Dabchick Article

14/3/2017

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We started trapping predators around the lake foreshore in September 2103 with DOC giving ten traps to the Dabchick counters to start trapping to help Dabchicks. LOCA purchased more traps and some were donated by individuals. We now have 69 traps spread over four trap lines. These are located at the walkway, Acacia/Loop Roads, Steep Street and Boyes beach and the new walkway. The traps need to be checked weekly and we have a dedicated group consisting of Rod Stace, Mike Goodwin, Steve and Liz Webb, Steve Harvey, Eli and Christian Walters, Dave Scott and myself.

To date we have spent 452 man hours. Our kill totals are Rats - 758, Hedgehogs - 144, Ferrets/stoats - 36 and Feral cats - 2.

This begs the question are we making a difference. There is some evidence to suggest we are, though there could be other environmental influences. The 2013 Autumn Dabchick count gave us an average of 44 birds over three counts. In 2016 this had risen to 72. Besides Dabchicks (NZ’s only endemic Grebe) there are more Scaup and Coot young seen. Pied Stilt have successfully bred on the lake shore near the boardwalk. Also if you are out at dusk or dawn you may hear or see Spotless Crake another at risk native bird.

We have been trialling at an App with help from Steve Webb produced by Trap NZ that allows us to record trap records online and from your cell phone. The developers have loaded data for two of our trap lines into the data base. We will see how well this works and if it is robust and then see if we should be using this as means to capture all our trap data and locations. In 2017 it is intended to set up a new trap line around the Miller Road side of the wetland the new walkway skirts.

After the meeting a number of people talked to me about predation of young Dabchicks and Ducklings by Hawks. It is unfortunate that this happens but we must remember that our endemic birds evolved with only avian predators. The rats, stoats, ferrets etc are something that these birds have not had time to evolve strategies for. Thus eradicating the introduced pests will give the Dabchicks and Scaup a chance to compete in their natural environment.

If you have any suggestions, questions or wish to help please phone:

Mike Vincent
0274 781 899

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