Chairman’s Update 26th March 2015 – Paul Berry

A very successful Open Day was held at the Kiwi Crèche on February 15^th with 95 people attending. Two kiwi (Ferne & Jessie) were taken from the crèche and released into the Paparoa Ranges behind Blackball. They were juvenile kiwi hatched and incubated at Willowbank, from eggs collected from behind Roa. They spent a year in the crèche before their release. 7 Sponsored traps were ‘sold’ at the Open Day for $100 each, it is intended that sponsors will be emailed the details of what their trap catches each year. We have more sponsored traps for sale – and will be actively promoting this at future Open Days. We also received $120 donations on the day.

Karoro School visited the crèche in early March – they did jobs at home to earn money and have sponsored a predator trap, and given a donation ($126 in total). Both students and parents were blown away by seeing a juvenile kiwi up close, and intend to raise more money and visit again. A thank you letter has been sent for the sponsorship.

The 1.6km of capping on the kiwi crèche fence needs repainting. On Tuesday 24^th March we were very grateful to have a team of 8 volunteers from the ANZ bank & DoC Partnership Rangers come out to start this project. There will be more opportunities for volunteer labour to complete this job before winter. The gorse around the perimeter has also been sprayed by volunteers during March.

250 predator tunnels have been built thanks to volunteer labour – Mark Berry, Paul Noble, Lee Keown, Matt Gallant, Trevor Johnston and Gary Glasson for his nail gun. Thanks also to West Timber, Blacks Fasteners and Steel & Tube for their support. Glen & Bex from Doc have inspected the traps and are impressed with the quality. They will co-ordinate the placing of the traps in mid-April.

Paul Berry