Social capital

This is the value generated from social networks or groups of people who work for the common good for the community of Nelson and Tasman region.

The Sanctuary is part of an active network supported by Nelson City Council (NCC) called Nelson Nature. The two projects of most relevance to the BWST are the Wildlife Halo/ Nelson Halo and Biodiversity Corridors.

From July 2021 we also decided to give something back to the community by providing free Sanctuary admission passes to three entities: the Red Cross, Big Brothers, Big Sisters and to Nelson’s land search and rescue (SAR). The passes were gladly accepted and have been used.

Volunteer effort

Important in the success of this organisation is the input of our volunteers, both from operational and governance perspectives. The total hours estimated and recorded against the Sanctuary represents a high level of commitment from many hundreds of people.

Volunteer involvement 2021/2022

1 July - 30 June 2022 2022 2021

Administration 3,700 4,420

Assets 1,138 2,045

Bird Monitoring

Fence Inspection

Fence Maintenance 2,408 1,011

45 865

1,349 1,564

Pest Detection

Cards

Track maintenance

Visitor Centre 4,643 6,905

2,792 630

1,969 4,624

1,605 1,930

Weeding

Planting

General uncoded 719 774

161 161

565

TOTAL HOURS 21,093 23,711 Notes to table

• Administration hours are reducing each year as more work is undertaken by staff, and less additional work required by trustees

• The volunteer efforts with track maintenance, fence inspection and repair, and with pest monitoring and detection were huge

• General line represents hours recorded, but not coded, with most to pest detection or survey work

Pest Detection Team

The pest detection team of approximately 180 volunteers is critical to our ability to prove that the Sanctuary is pest free and ready and waiting to safely accept new species and reintroductions. These volunteers have had a very busy year with more than usual monitoring activities required.

In the last year we had about:

• 11 Fence Breaches (Swales and Fence)

• 10 Biosecurity breaches. Estimated the time spent

• Fence Breaches: 730 hours

• Biosecurity Breaches: 770 hours

The team put in approx. 7,000 hours in the Sanctuary, which encompasses the following activities:

1. Regular weekly and monthly monitoring and rebaiting of the perimeter and interior

2. Quarterly Sanctuary wide surveys (SWS)

3. As required “Response” monitoring and baiting to manage any fence breaches and or incursions immediately they happen

4. Monthly Mouse Surveys

Further explanation

• Point 1 is about business as usual for the sanctuary volunteers in managing our perimeter (our first line of defence) and rebaiting approx. 250 DOC200 traps in the interior (currently our only weasel defence).

• Point 2 is a huge initiative, usually every quarter to bait and card almost 2.5k monitoring tunnels and a week later to collect the cards and examine for any pest footprints. Sadly, because of incursions, we have already had three SWS from January to June. This process takes significant organisation and collaboration by the SWS co-ordinator, the line co-ordinators and our Sanctuary staff and usually involves about 80 of our volunteers for two weekends.

However, recently to close the door on a rat incursion in February the team put in a huge effort over 3 wet weekends in June, putting out and collecting cards twice. The weather over these 3 weekends was very wet but the team stoically went out and completed the job. A fantastic effort.

• Point 3 explains the aspect of rapid response, where a more spontaneous and ad hoc volunteer effort that by necessity involves very fit and flexible volunteers who can drop everything and act immediately - this typically happens mid-week. Every time there is a pest detected and/or a breach of the fence through treefall or storm damage, the “response” team swings into action immediately to set up a standard monitoring grid (15 traps/tunnels) which is then inspected twice weekly in the first 2 weeks and then weekly for another 6 weeks – 8 weeks in total.

• Point 4 is a process we have employed in the

Sanctuary interior since 2020, whereby we gather valuable monthly mouse population data from a consistent sample area of lines and 100 monitoring tunnels within the perimeter. The survey uses the established DOC methodology for monitoring changes in the abundance of rodents and/or mustelids. (This allows data to be compared with previous data and with other parts of the country if necessary.)

Increased abundance of these rodents will typically trigger an assessment regarding an intervention to reduce numbers. So, all in all our Pest Detection Volunteers have had a huge year, firstly by maintaining the regular and routine perimeter and DOC200 monitoring, but also, as a result of breaches, and individual rat and weasel incursions. We are hopeful that the next year will not be quite so busy, but the team are up for the challenge and continue to deliver peace of mind by confirming our Pest Free status for all our key stakeholders.

The 2021/22 focus was primarily making the Sanctuary environment ready for species reintroductions and with pest detection.

Our volunteer representatives

We would like to also acknowledge the volunteers’ efforts -especially the team leaders at the Sanctuary Pete Jamieson, and Kath Ballentine and Sabrina Malcolm, our volunteer connector. A special thanks to the ten volunteer team leaders who have continuously worked on Sanctuary projects and issues throughout the year.

Dave Garnett and Annette Cunningham represent volunteers’ views as volunteer reps and speak directly to the board offering great advice and their perspectives are valued. Their efforts as the official volunteer links between volunteer pool, and myself and staff over this period have been invaluable and have helped bring all parties closer together to work more effectively as a team. These roles aim to improve the exchange of ideas and opinions between trustees and volunteers, which previously relied on staff passing through suggestions from volunteers, or sometimes direct personal contact with trustees.

The coordinators have been working closely with the Volunteer Connector to identify prospective volunteers and to manage their induction, training, and allocation to a team. This past year has seen 25 new volunteers being placed in pest detection teams. Our teams are now fully resourced. In the coordinator space, Peter Jamieson has ably filled the space that Mika left when she moved from the area. The appointment of Steffi in the role of Biosecurity Ranger provides the pest detection team with a dedicated staff member supporting them.

Induction process

Keeping track of the progress of volunteers through this process of Induction, field orientation, and documenting important H&S checks has been tricky. We have used a shared spreadsheet and data on Infoodle but now we have a small team working to get all steps in this process on Infoodle. This is expected to make the process of bringing on board new volunteers more efficient as well as better provide evidence that we are meeting our H&S requirements in respect of new volunteers.

Our volunteer connector Sabrina Marshall covered a number of important issues:

• streamlining the volunteer intake process, most recently incorporating an automatic link between the website recruitment form and the

Infoodle database

• reviewing the volunteer introduction booklets, covering many Sanctuary-related topics in a concise format

• placing interested volunteers into the teams and making volunteers feel welcome.

• Highlighting a volunteer perspective to topics discussed at operations committee.

We also aimed for attracting more volunteers and increasing our supporter base.