The Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group has received $27,000 for its work controlling possums on the Otago Peninsula, while Parker Conservation was given $30,000 over three years to support a population study in the Dunedin area of the threatened New Zealand native falcon (karearea).
Regional council chief executive Peter Bodeker said today that the applications met fund criteria, including supporting positive environmental outcomes in Otago.
New Zealand native falcons could live successfully in plantation forests. The Parker Conservation study, undertaken jointly with commercial forestry operators, would assess their breeding stock, survival and mortality in pine plantations, and establish a baseline population count with which future population estimates could be compared.
Fieldwork for the project would be done during the breeding season (August to February) and the funding would enable:
• An estimate of breeding success, identification of causes of breeding failure, and possible methods to reduce those causes to be done
• A population study from which adult and juvenile survival rates could be estimated
• Insight into whether forestry site preparation, timber harvesting, or pest control negatively affected falcon breeding and if so, how to reduce this impact.
Mr Bodeker said the funding to the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group recognised the important work landowners were doing to cull possums and keep the Peninsula TB-free.
The group had co-ordinated many possum control projects since 2011, involving community volunteers, industry contractors and OPBG members.
The group would also carry out a rigorous scientific monitoring programme to document what happens in the wider environment when pest species successively decline on the Peninsula. This would include monitoring the effects of possum removal on birds, vegetation, and rodents.
"These worthwhile projects will go a long way I'm sure, to enhancing our environment and its precious values. We are glad to have been able to support the groups' efforts and we look forward to considering further equally worthy funding applications," Mr Bodeker said.
