Rodney West is a special environment full of unique native flora and fauna. All the way from the Kaipara harbour reaching into the Waitemata. There are backyard streams flowing to the Kumeu and Kaipara Rivers, wetlands interconnecting with lakes, and dune ecosystems reaching into the forests whilst making that important connection to the West Coast. Home to an abundance of our native species.
But this landscape is under threat from pests, both animals and plants. Groups and schools across Rodney West, South Kaipara Landcare, Predator Free Muriwai and Waimauku, Manu in the Ville and Pest Free Huapai /Kumeu, are working to change this so that our native flora and fauna can survive and thrive.
Boyd Steel and Shona Oliver have been employed through Rodney Local Board funding to support the groups working to Restore Rodney West, an audacious but worthy task.
Pictured below is Boyd loading the details of a trap placed by Kaipara College Students, onto a free mobile app TrapNZ. This will facilitate the uploading of catch data by the students and maintain location details for their traps, which is part of the “Manu in the Ville” project on TrapNZ.
If you are already trapping or have bait stations active on your property, we applaud you and invite you to join the local project. Check out TrapNZ for the Helensville – Parakai area and search “Manu in the Ville” and please join up. If you require assistance, then help is close by via the Facebook page “Manu in the Ville”.
If you want to learn more and get involved, there will be a trap building day at 42 Mill Road, Helensville from 10am on Sunday 23rd January 2022, ably run by Tora Mckenzie. Our aim is to get enough traps built so the riverside walkway from Te Awaroa-Helensville to Parakai is continuously trapped from start to finish. Attendees can purchase an affordable trap for their own backyard, whilst in attendance.
Help to bring back our beautiful bird song, and see our ecosystems restored to full health. You can get in touch via manuintheville@gmail.com or check out the Facebook page “Manu in the Ville”.
