Predator Free Whangārei: a community effort

Predator Free Whangārei is a collaborative five-year project that builds on years of dedicated and successful community predator control in the Whangārei area.  

The seed for this project was planted in 2018, after initial conversations with Predator Free New Zealand and many months of discussion and development. The project is currently focused on possum eradication in Whangārei Heads as the first step, with three team members now on board to support this project, alongside a much wider team of project partners and community volunteers. Together they are establishing protocols around trapping and access to land and building mapping systems so it is possible to clearly map progress made as possum control gets underway.

Image: Meet the new team of Predator Free Whangārei. 

To help this project succeed, it will need the support of many – landowners, iwi/hapū, Landcare groups, conservation groups, communities, schools, whānau, businesses and more. The Predator Free Whangārei team has been busy notifying the 1,845 landowners in the Whangārei Heads area, and aim to have met with the majority of landowners located between Bream Head and Ody Road by the end of May with onsite meetings, follow up emails and phone calls and community information sessions. 

Consultation with landowners from some of the larger blocks in the Whangārei Heads area is already underway, as well as those landowners who have blocks adjacent to DOC Reserves, as we help share the vision and the details of the project.

If you’re a landowner in the Whangārei Heads area, these are the next steps you can expect from the project:

• A request for permission to access your property from the project team
• A request for permission to use and service traps and/or possum toxins on your property 
• Project team members servicing the traps and/or bait stations
• Opportunities to contribute to the possum eradication, predator control and/or biodiversity monitoring
• We’d also appreciate your input – your local knowledge, including reporting possum sightings, will be integral to the success of this vision

There have been really positive responses from the landowners the Predator Free Whangāre team has met with so far, with good discussions and plenty of support for the long term vision of the project of eradicating possums from the Whangārei Heads area and increasing the intensity of mustelid control across the wider Whangārei area.

The next community information session is planned for Wednesday 21st April at the McLeod Bay Hall. Anyone from the community is welcome to drop in any time between 5.30 pm – 7.30 pm to learn more about the project.

If you have any questions about the project or would like to speak to one of the team, you can visit www.nrc.govt.nz/pfwhangarei or email pfwhangarei@nrc.govt.nz