Over the last three years we have been adding an extensive bait station network on Karioi (public and private land) to support our trapping efforts and enhance biodiversity by bringing back populations of local seabirds and forest birds.
Volunteers have supported this work, and as a result some significant conservation gains have been made with seabird – Grey Faced Petrels and Little Blue Penguin fledging again.
Despite this huge community effort, we are still working hard to reduce rat and possum populations to achieve long term conservation outcomes.
Intensive predator control will greatly enhance biodiversity, improve forest health and specifically benefit resident forest bird populations of bellbird, kāka, tomtits, tūī, kererū, pekapeka and ruru.
The Karioi Project is creating a network of tracks approximately 100m apart on up to 750 ha of Karioi (see map below). Bait stations are placed every 50m on each track and filled with toxic baits to control rats and possums and reduce their populations as quickly as possible. Bait stations will be refilled up to three times every 2-3 months and unused baits removed.
We are currently re-applying for consent to use toxic baits in bait stations on Public Conservation Land. Our next round of application will take place between July 2023 until November 2024.
