The link below will take you to a DOC website that provides plenty of information and access to more links that explain Jobs For Nature.

$416,000 is being invested in additional stoat, possum and feral cat control in these two valleys on the north west side of Lake Wakatipu. This control work is estimated to employ six people across three years helping protect some of the country’s most vulnerable native species.

We are delighted to be one of the local conservation groups that are foundation members of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary. The link below will take you to the Sanctuary website.

It is been a while since posting a news update. Our usual projects have continued steadily as usual through the last few months. However we do have some exciting news to announce about two new projects. Details will be published here soon. We are just waiting for DOC to make a formal public announcement.

Our other main trap lines, along Lake Sylvan, the Buckler Burn and the Greenstone Road continue to function well and be maintained by local volunteers.

Rusty Varcoe continues to trap on both rivers and record the data; we are continuing to catch large numbers of predators.

As with all sectors of the country, we were impacted by COVID in 2020. Two of our regular sponsors were unable to provide us with their support - leaving us with a gap in our budget. I am delighted to say we were able to fill it with support from three new sponsors, Community Trust South (based in Invercargill) and Simplicity, a low-cost non profit fund manager (https://simplicity.kiwi) helped us get through the immediate shortfall. This was later followed with support from Boffa Miskell (www.boffamiskell.co.nz/). We are very grateful to all three organisations.

We were unable to do a full bird count in the spring of 2020, due once again to dangerously high river flows on the Dart and Rees. Instead we completed a modified count on the Rees only, using a different methodology. This in itself cannot be compared to the data from the first count we did but gives us a baseline for the future, if we have similar river conditions. So we now have two baseline counts - one using the full methodology and one using the modified version.

It has been over a year since we posted news updates. Despite COVID, we have been continuing with our work. A series of brief updates of our activities will now follow.

Our plan to place seventy traps along the Greenstone Road, from Kinloch to Elfin Bay, has begun. The traps are currently being built and will be placed in the next few weeks.

We recently applied to the WWF for some funds and we heard this week that we have been successful. These funds will help us support our feral cat trapping activities. Thank you WWF.

Our feral cat project started last week. After a successful two month trial on the Matukituki, traps were placed at the northern end of the Rees valley. The data from the Matukituki trial, show that the satellite linked technology and methodology work well and are highly efficient. More news will follow next year.