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LANDCARE OKAREKA REPORT - SEPTEMBER 2013

18/9/2013

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The last 3 months have been very busy for the Landcare Okareka volunteers. Winter is always the busy planting season.

The toilet gardens at Steep St reserve got a complete make over. We also undertook a good trim and tidy up around the reserve there. Castlecorp have been into the reserve since and planted a couple more specimen trees which will provide shade for visitors to the area in summer.


Some of you may remember reading in the Lake Okareka Newsletter last year, about Maddie and Hunter Potter, local children who made a donation of some of their hard-earned money as part of a school project, to Landcare Okareka. During the last school holidays the Potter children, along with their friend Ollie Martelli went to visit the Treeline Native Plant Nursery of Diane Coleman at Kaharoa to purchase their plants. And before school started back, they came with their dad Ian Potter one afternoon and planted those plants in the Lake Okareka Scenic reserve area near the bus stop. Many thanks Maddie and Hunter – and we hope that you enjoy being able to watch your plants and all the others in the area, continue to grow.


A very exciting happening occurred for Landcare Okareka volunteers – when the film crew of Steve Fisher and Don Anderson and interviewer Kerryanne Evans from “Country Calendar” came to film a planting working bee in the Lake Okareka Scenic Reserve in August. This was as part of a programme the “Country Calendar” team were making about Diane Coleman and Treeline Nursery. Diane won Rural Women NZ Enterprising Rural Women Award 2013. Diane spoke about Landcare Okareka as one of her “customers” during her presentation to the competition. She asked that LO also be included in the programme to show where some of her plants are going. LO get plants from “Treeline Nurseries” through both Rotorua District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council. We understand the programme goes to air on the 27th September on TV1 at 7.00pm.


The planting of the area above and around the sewage pump station – Lake Okareka Scenic reserve - is now completed. There will be on-going weed control to be done in the area for the next several years, and maybe the occasional new plant added.


There will be more Working Bees around Lake Okareka....so if you would like to help, watch out for the sign boards and come along. You will be most welcome.

Sandra Goodwin
Phone: 362 8865
Landcare Okareka
Winner of Bay of Plenty Region Weedbusters Award 2012
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RAT BAIT AND BAIT STATIONS - SPRING 2013

17/9/2013

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As I am sure may of you will be aware spring has arrived earlier this year. The birds are beginning to build nests and now is the time to get into rat baiting – as some of you have already done recently.

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 more lake side properties involved with rat bait stations. We believe that the results Lake Tarawera are getting with the increase in numbers of dab chicks could be due in part to their successful rat bait programme. They have many lakeside properties there involved. If you are interested, 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 sgoodwin@actrix.co.nz – made by the Lake Tarawera Pest Management Group and cost is $35. Marcel van Leeuwen, a Lake Okareka resident is also making bait stations, cost is $20, contact Marcel on 362 8468 or email marvl@xtra.co.nz to order them.


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 Bob Scope bait station for $35, please contact:
  • Mike & Sandra Goodwin phone 362 8865, 2 Pryce Road.
  • 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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TIMM’S POSSUM TRAPS - SEPTEMBER 2013

17/9/2013

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Do you currently have one of the loaned yellow Timm's possum traps??

There are a few people with traps that we have not heard from in a while – can you please let us know if you still have a trap and if you are using it, what you have been catching.


These Bay of Plenty Regional Council funded Timm's possum traps are available on loan to any Lake Okareka residents if you contact Sandra & Mike Goodwin 362 8865. The Okareka community has 10 traps which were funded as “loan traps” by Bay of Plenty Regional Council. These traps have been borrowed at various times by members of the community. If you are having possum problems – maybe eating fruit or flowers or they are making a nuisance of themselves at night and you would like to borrow a Timm's trap, give us a call.


If you are not familiar with the “Timm's trap”, we will provide you with some instructions about how to use the traps. We will also give you some advice about what seems to work best as “bait” - such as apple with cinnamon, or apple and peanut butter. If you can, keep a note of any possums caught and pass that on to us when you return the trap. We like to know for our records what is being caught around the place and we can also pass that on to the Regional Council.


For more information or to borrow a trap, please contact:

Mike & Sandra Goodwin
Phone: 362 8865.

Web: www.lakeokareka.org/possum-rat-traps.
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