Experts making an impact
This story was taken from our 2023/24 impact report.
Predator Free Wellington volunteers* dedicate more than 55,000 hours a year to achieve our predator free mission. This huge contribution is equivalent to having an entirely new Predator Free Wellington field team, valued at approximately $2 million a year in support.
The monetary contribution of volunteers is a crucial aspect of their value, but it only scratches the surface of their overall impact. When we complete our project by 2030, it means we’ll have hundreds more trained volunteers across the city, and thousands of households, watching for signs of rats.
Expanding across the city
Phase 2 of our project extends from the CBD to Ōwhiro Bay, moving east from Rongotai and south from Oriental Bay, Roseneath, and Hataitai. The western edge of Phase 2 is protected by our buffer: an area filled with traps and bait stations that hard-working volunteers maintain. The buffer lowers the chance of rats slipping in from the west and means we can focus on our suburb-by-suburb approach.
John Cleveland leads one of our buffer teams. The Mātairangi Tonga group of Community Rangers monitor 40 hectares of southern Mt Victoria bush, covering the Hataitai velodrome, the badminton hall and the SPCA building. Between April and early October 2024 they checked bait stations 1,480 times, caught 14 rats and recognised 193 instances of bait take! This important work protects mostly rat-free Hataitai from the rest of the Mt Victoria town belt where the Predator Free Wellington team is working.
Learn more about our community heroes doing this kind of work.
Providing training and support
We train the buffer volunteers and trust them to effectively manage their areas. Lee Rowland, the lead for Prince of Wales Park, explains that her team ‘check and refill bait stations, make records, recognise signs of rat activity and understand rat habitat. They are all shrewd observers, and independently decide whether a bait station is in the best spot or should be moved.’
The skilled buffer volunteers share their data with us and deliver rats they catch to local lockboxes. We include these rats in our genomic studies of rat populations: our volunteers are held to the same standard and bring rats out of the field as the rest of our team does. This information helps us develop our Phase 2 work. The lockboxes also house tools and equipment the volunteers need.
Community partnerships in action
Groundskeeper Jo Conlon checks one of the traps at Government House. Photo courtesy The Post/David UnwinOur work with volunteers has also expanded to include partnerships with notable parts of Phase 2. This includes working with Te Papa’s Tory St facility, Massey University, Wellington College, Pukeahu National War Memorial Park and Government House. Together these areas cover more than 30 hectares. For each location, we trained staff, students or contractors.
Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro supports the project, saying ‘Wellington has already demonstrated it is the greenest city in the world in the way it’s reserved that space through a green corridor. It is a wonderful vision for New Zealand being predator free.’
We appreciate the support of the Nikau Foundation which funds our training of these groups.
Essential support for our project
These partnerships are vital because they allow our field team to keep moving forward. We are confident that skilled volunteers are monitoring the buffer. Add to this the thousands of Wellingtonians with backyard traps and many more checking traps in reserves across the city. This huge collective effort suppresses rat numbers. It also lets us focus on one zone at a time as we methodically follow our ‘remove and protect’ model.
*Predator Free Wellington volunteers include Predator Free Miramar, Phase 2 buffer volunteers and the 60 backyard trapping groups working across Wellington.
Posted: 3 February 2025