Mana Cruising Club friends of Pickersgill Island :Pickersgill trapping round 2:
Mana Cruising Club Friends of Pickersgill Island
Pickersgill trapping round 2:
After completing a great trip in June the second and final trip for 2020 is scheduled for 9th to 13th of October (about 6 weeks)
This trip will renew lures and gas to the 165 existing traps and extend the network by another 55 traps which will make 220 on the Island. We intend to convert 200 traps to Chirp traps and set out and recover tracking cards so it will be busy. Chirp traps record the date and time of every activation, this will help us to confirm how long the lure lasts and which traps are operating effectively.
Below is some information about “Mana Cruising Club Friends of Pickersgill Island” which covers Cruising Club and longer term objectives of the trapping effort.
There will be around 10 people on the October trip. The first 5 or so will be people that have done trapping on Pickersgill before. The balance of the crew will be made up of available volunteers from MCC membership. So if you want a long weekend in the sounds and to meet a few new MCC members this is a good way to do it. You will be buddied up with an experienced person to learn the trapping ropes. Generally you stop every 100M to attend to traps so it is not too physically demanding. The tracks are well marked with ribbon and range from easy to difficult terrain. They are quite a bit easier now than in June as we trimmed the vegetation on the last trip.
Crew contribute to the boat expenses but it is a cheap and enjoyable few days in the sounds so if you missed out last time don’t make the same mistake again.
Please email me to get on the list if you want to come and are available for these dates. Include information on how flexible you are time wise? (If we need to go a day earlier or come home a day later for weather or completion of the trapping work then flexibility is a Plus.)
Mana Cruising Club Friends of Pickersgill Island
OBJECTIVE:
To assist native species to thrive and to be able to hear Kiwi from the mooring at Pickersgill Island, Marlborough Sounds
Who we are;
Mana Cruising Club members interested in combining boating and conservation interests in the Marlborough Sounds. Our objective is to improve the native flora and fauna living in the Sounds and introducing all members to the experience of cruising the Sounds. This initiative allows MCC to contribute to the Sounds in a positive way while promoting members enjoyment of marine and land based activities, which is a stated goal of our clubs founding documents.
What we have achieved to date;
MCC members appreciate the success that DOC have had with pest eradication on Blue Mine, Long and Motuhara Islands. Their efforts on Pickersgille had come to a halt which was unfortunate as Pickersgill is a natural extension to the reserve created by the other three islands which are predator free.
In 2017 MCC Friends of Pickersgill assisted DOC with rebaiting and gassing the existing 110 traps and in 2019 MCC friends of Pickersgill received a DOC community funding grant to resurrect the rodent control effort on Pickersgill.
This allowed the existing network to be baited gassed and extended by 55 traps in June 2020 and in October 2020 all traps will be converted to chirp traps and extended by another 55 making 220 traps in total. This will bring the trap intensity in line with other Islands that have successfully eradicated rodents.
Regular maintenance of this network is required to ensure that rodent numbers continue to reduce and are ultimately eradicated from Pickersgill.
How we maximise our efforts on Pickersgill;
We have Chirp conversion kits for the extended trap network which will be installed in October 2020. These record Gas and Lure remaining and the date and time of every activation. This information can be loaded to a website for viewing by the wider community. The conversion primarily allows us to accurately measure the effectiveness of the program, identify hot spots and allow trap service intervals to be set at the most effective time span, thereby achieving maximum movement toward repopulation of Pickersgill by the native birds which are already established on the adjoining islands and the continued regeneration of native bush which has been occurring since farming activities ceased.
The effort will be deemed a success when the chirp traps record no activations!
The future;
Kiwi have been reintroduced to Motuhara Island and it is not a flight of fancy to believe that Kiwi could be part of a Sounds experience in the not too distant future. Help us to help the native birds including Kiwi’s enjoy the Sounds with us! Stewart Island should not be the only place that New Zealander’s can see Kiwi in the natural environment.