Kia Ora and welcome to the Awana Catchment Trust Newsletter for Autumn 2012.It’s been a while since the last newsletter, so we thought that it was time for an update on the Awana Catchment Trust and what we’ve been doing. Funding A huge thanks to Colette Farrer, Nicola Short and the rest of the team from Auckland City Council Heritage Fund who awarded ACT with the Natural Heritage grant, and of course to the community on the Barrier for their involvement with the Awana Catchment. We also applied for funding during 2010 for the Auckland Council Coastal Environment Fund for planting and stabilisation works on key parts of Awana Bay suffering from coastal erosion but were knocked back. We did receive funding from the Environment Initiatives Fund to begin weed management in the Awana Catchment by undertaking vegetation monitoring. Pest Eradication All of the feral cats caught appeared to be in excellent condition, with the majority caught around the camp ground and O’Shea Road. The traps also yielded one large ship rap and a trapped Australasian harrier hawk, which was released. Scott had this to say about his experiences trapping, “I soon settled into a routine of checking and re-baiting traps, some of this work was carried out on foot but the use of a motorbike sped things considerably, riding down the valley early in the morning on a clear winters day leaves you well and truly awake! A typical round of the traps took around four hours to complete, depending on the results and the tides. The spell of good weather couldn’t last and soon the wind and rain arrived giving that real “winter on the Barrier” feeling.” It is hoped that getting rid of these pests will have a positive effect on the local native fauna. The feeling of local residents towards the trapping of feral cats seemed to be unanimously positive, and hopefully future trapping sessions could be further extended onto additional adjacent private land. We plan to undertake more trapping this summer/spring when Scott is back from his environmental management studies in the Bay of Plenty.
Wildlife Monitoring Only one feral cat was spotted, but it ended up caught in a trap 3km from the sighting. Where to from here? We’ve been busy finishing a vegetation monitoring plan so we can take action to understand the extent and types of bush present at Awana – as well as establishing a baseline for the presence of large woody weeds so we can keep an eye on them! We plan to start fieldwork for vegetation monitoring this summer. See you at Awana! The Awana Catchment Trust Past Newsletters |
ACT has continued to remove feral predators and monitor wildlife in
The Awana Catchment Trust relies on the goodwill and generosity of public and private donors. If you would 
These days you're only likely to spot the Brown Teal in parts of Auckland
and Northland. And
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