Environmental capital

• Sanctuary Lines. There are 10 teams servicing the 17 lines and 6 spurs inside the Sanctuary.

Eight lines contain DOC200 traps and were serviced fortnightly over the reporting period.

All lines and spurs are monitored quarterly during the Sanctuary Wide Survey (SWS).

Eighty volunteers participate in the SWS and servicing of the DOC200 traps.

• Responses. There are 20 volunteers who are available to assist with responses, most of whom also participate in other pest detection activities. Volunteers in this team may be called upon to work in challenging terrain and thus a good level of fitness and ability to work in rough country is required. A small number of volunteers assist with projects such as the trial of different lures currently being undertaken.

Quality Improvement

With a view to encouraging “trappers”, we have developed “Standards of practice for device setting” and an associated “Audit tool” to assess the quality of device placement, condition, and setting. Testing of this tool and the creation of a reporting system remains to be done before we can implement this as a routine, sampling a section of line periodically. In conjunction with this, Steffi has developed a survey on Trap and Tracking device setting to use as an educational tool for volunteers. This is nearing completion. The pest detection team feels that educational talks and networking are important tools to encourage quality of practice and build team camaraderie.

Over the past 12 months we have had a focus on upgrading and ensuring that all monitoring devices in the Sanctuary are in top condition. All perimeter devices have been checked and replaced or recalibrated as needed. An audit on the quality of devices on the lines within the Sanctuary was done in the last SWS. Two working bees were run to refurbish tracking tunnels and we now have a push to replace devices on Sanctuary lines.

Bird monitoring

Led by Katherine Chamberlain, from July 2021 to June 2022 a total of 390 individual five-minute bird counts (39 surveys consisting of 10 count sites each) were conducted in the Sanctuary by the loyal team of Wayne Hennessy, Ingrid Hutzler, Stu Hanchet, Katrina Marwick, Stacey Langham, Steve Nickalls, Alison Balance and me. (we would also like to give a nod to the family members who frequently accompany team members). We are grateful to Simon Hoyle for his analyses of the results. Bellbirds, robins, tomtits and tui all exhibited increases in activity, a relative measure of abundance. Further to the increase in robin activity measured in our fiveminute bird counts, anecdotal sightings of robins at lower altitudes indicate they are becoming more widespread throughout the Sanctuary. Chaffinch, kereru and silvereye activity decreased. Little or no change was evident for other species. During this same period, a total of 177 garden surveys were conducted in 26 locations by 23 volunteers. While we have been fortunate to welcome new monitors to the team, numbers are down from previous years. Many thanks to the garden monitors who contributed. Other species have always been present throughout the Sanctuary; their increased activity in 5MBC’s seems to reflect great abundance rather than distribution.

The pest detection team feels that educational talks and networking are important tools to encourage quality of practice and build team camaraderie.