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Lake Okareka Rat and Mustelid Traps

26/9/2013

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Dear Landcare Okareka volunteers and supporters,
 
Landcare Okareka have a permit from Department of Conservation to set kill traps in the Lake Okareka esplanade reserve areas, in an effort to remove some of the rats and mustelids (stoats, weasels and ferrets) that are most certainly predating wetland birds, especially the dab chicks.

This will be a joint project with the dab chick monitoring group and Landcare Okareka volunteers.
 
Landcare Okareka has a budget with Bay of Plenty Regional Council under a Biodiversity Management Plan for the Lake Okareka area, which includes rat bait Ditrac. This rat poison bait is fed in bait stations on individual properties in the settlement area. The rat bait to the village area is provided to help support the Forest & Bird animal pest control programme in the Lake Tikitapu Scenic Reserve. The F&B project has been set up to help maintain and enhance the mistletoe growing in the reserve, the host plants, the native bush generally and the bird life. But the rat bait in the village area also helps the dab chick population.
 
The dab chick monitoring group were offered the chance to get some DOC 250 traps, contained within specially built boxes. Mike Vincent procured these traps. Landcare Okareka Steering Committee were keen to support this initiative to help protect the nesting wet land birdlife especially dab chicks, as we are not allowed to use the rat bait on public reserve land without going through a very long drawn out permission process.
 
We are seeking volunteers to help with a twice weekly trap checking programme. There is a special tool required to re-set the traps.

Golf balls or ping pong balls with peanut butter act as lure - round white ball shape appeals to mustelids who are sight driven apparently (round white balls look like eggs) and peanut butter is the lure for rats.
 
Please let me know if you would like to help with this project and if a weekday or weekend would suit you best. As daylight saving begins soon, some people may be able to help after work. It takes somewhere between 1 -1 1/2 hours to check the traps. At the moment there are 9 traps out.

You will be given some training to re-set the traps and shown where the traps are located. Trap catch and time taken will need to be taken note of and passed onto Mike Vincent who will maintain a spread sheet of results.
 
The traps have been out for about 10 days now and so far 9 rats have been caught.
 
Kind regards
Sandra Goodwin
Secretary
Landcare Okareka
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Landcare Okareka Working Bee 28th September 2013

24/9/2013

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Dear Landcare Okareka Volunteers and supporters
 
Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped with planting at the DOC camp and beach area off Millar Road and also for the previous scheduled Landcare Okareka Working Bee down near the shade structure on Lake Okareka walkway. Some of the LO volunteers had been dab chick counting, before coming to help plant so those people had a very busy morning!
 
NB: Don't forget to be watching "Country Calendar" programme on TV 1 at 7.00 pm on Saturday 28th September.....
 
THIS MONTH'S WORKING BEE: Saturday 28th September 2013
This will be a combined Landcare Okareka, Rotorua branch of Forest & Bird and Rotorua Botanical Society Working Bee.
We begin at the DOC reserve at Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake), over near the F&B Nature Walk - we have about 50 plants to infill.
 
Then we will come back to the area of Lake Tikitapu Scenic Reserve in the Okareka settlement area, Lake Okareka Loop Road, opposite the fire station andadjacent to the F&B Mistletoe walk, to plant more mistletoe host plants (five finger, Pseudopanax arboreus provided by Rotorua F&B) and other re-vegetation species.
 
WHAT TO BRING: warm clothes (bring rain gear just in case!), strong footwear, gardening gloves, planting spade.
We will provide drinking water and the makings of morning tea to enjoy together.
 
Let's hope the America's cup yacht racing will be over by then - with a positive result for Team NZ!
 
Kind regards
 
Sandra Goodwin
Secretary
Landcare Okareka
Phone: 07 362 8865
Email: sgoodwin@actrix.co.nz
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TREAT ALL POISONS WITH CARE

19/9/2013

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In the last issue of the newsletter Mike Goodwin highlighted an incident with dogs being poisoned with brodifacoum. Apparently this issue has occurred again. I’d like to reinforce Mike’s concerns.

Brodifacoum is an excellent product for killing rats, but like all poisons it needs to be treated with care and you must follow all label instructions precisely.

All rat poisons must be used in bait stations. The bait station should be robust enough to prevent animals such as dogs from ripping them open and ideally the bait should be held captive within the station. Block baits with a hole in them are ideal as they can be threaded onto a rod or wire which will prevent rats from taking them out of the station where other animals may access them.

It is not ok to broadcast rat bait directly onto the ground. When handling poisons always wear the personal protective equipment recommended on the label (e.g. gloves) and wash your hands before touching food or smoking (the latter is a bit ironic given the toxins you will inhale from a cigarette…but hey that’s your choice).

Store unused bait in its original packaging; locked up away from food and animals.

When bait shows signs of deterioration dispose of it, along with the packaging, in accordance with the label instructions. The Ditrac rat bait, which Mike mentioned in his article, is less accumulative than 2nd generation anticoagulants like brodifacoum so it poses less risk to pets but…it is best to treat all poisons with the same care and always follow the label instructions. While looking after the environment, remember to take care of yourself and others (including pets).

Keep up the good work.

TREAT ALL POISONS WITH CARE

Dale Williams | Land Management Officer (Biodiversity) | Bay of Plenty Regional
Council | Rotorua, New Zealand | Ph: 0800 884 881 x7575 | Web: www.boprc.govt.nz
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Landcare Okareka Working Bee 6th September 2013

4/9/2013

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Dear Landcare Okareka Volunteers
 
We would like some volunteers to come to help on Friday 6th September 2013 from 9.30 am with a planting. This will be at the DOC camp, off Millar Road.
 
Directions to get there for those who are not sure: Go to almost the end of the tarseal on Millar Road and look for DOC camp signage on the right and turn down there. Road way in is sealed.
 
We have 15 very large pohutukawa to plant at the camp.
Peter Harding has agreed to come with his Kanga drilling machine to drill the holes for the new trees.
 
We will remove the smaller pohutukawas that are already there, and shift them to the pump station planting. We have some bags of compost to put under the new plants to give them a good start - and will have some buckets to give them all a good drink of water once they are planted.
 
What To Bring: Please wear suitable clothes and footwear - we will still be planting even if it is wet, so bring wet weather gear! Gardening gloves, planting spade. We will bring some drinking water, cups and morning tea things.
 
Many thanks
Sandra Goodwin
Secretary
Landcare Okareka
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