VOLUNTEER FOR PUKETI FOREST TRUST
How you can help
Apart from direct financial help, there is a range of practical tasks in which community volunteers of all ages and levels of fitness can be involved.
If you’d like to help with any of these activities please phone the person listed below or contact us.
Checking traps
Intensive trapping programmes are one of the most effective ways of protecting threatened species in the forest. The more accessible trap lines are serviced by rosters of volunteers.
At present volunteers service trap lines S10, P1, P2, T7 and the Puketi Scenic Reserve. Most volunteers work in pairs, and are rostered to go round their trap line every 3 or 4 months. The trap lines are between 3 and 10 km in length. The shorter lines take 3 to 4 hours and the longest about 6 hours. Servicing traps involves changing the bait, clearing out any dead animals, checking the trap is working, resetting and recording. Maps, bait and training are provided. A reasonable level of fitness is required.
Contact: Ian Wilson 09 4019056
Kiwi call monitoring
Kiwi populations throughout the country are monitored by systematic listening every year in May – July during designated periods when there is little or no moonlight. Trust volunteers monitor 12 or 13 sites every year. If you haven’t done it before but would like to, your help will be greatly appreciated. You don’t need to know what kiwi sound like as we have training nights at the start of the listening period. You do need good hearing and warm clothes. Each site is monitored for the first two hours of darkness over four nights. Fine nights with little wind are chosen within the designated period.
Contact: Ian Wilson, 09 4019056
You can listen to kiwi calls here, first the male, and then the female.
Monitoring tracking tunnels
The trust has ten lines, each of ten of tracking tunnels, set out through the core pest control area to monitor rodents. At least once each year, cards and peanut butter are set out in the tunnels one day and retrieved the next to monitor pest numbers. A good level of physical fitness and ability to navigate off-track with map and compass are required.
Contact: John Dawn, 09 4074790
Trap line clearing
Vegetation re-growth and tree falls must be cleared periodically to keep the trap lines accessible. Working bees are organised from time to time and a group of volunteers tackle a section of trap line with loppers and hand saws. (If chainsaw work is required, this is organised at a different time using qualified contractors.) Contact: John Dawn, 09 4074790
Helping with bird counts
If you are experienced in listening to birds and recognising calls, then you might like to help the Trust with its annual bird counts. This involves a long morning, day or over-night walk in the forest, visiting monitoring points and recording 10 minute bird counts. If you aren’t experienced but would like to be, you might like to partner up with someone from the Trust to learn more about bird counts.
Contact: Ian Wilson, 09 4019056
The Trust has a Health & Safety Plan to help manage the well being of volunteers and contractors engaged in Trust work, and other people who might be affected. Volunteers should read and be familiar with parts of the plan relevant to them. Download a pdf of the plan here (latest update 8 June 2020). If you need to use gloves or face masks for Covid-19 protection, you can download instructions on their use from here.
The plan is updated whenever necessary. If you have suggestions for improvement of the plan or are aware of new hazards, please contact one of the trustees.
You can download a copy of the 2-minute form here. Print on A4 paper then cut in half to get two forms per sheet.