Big boost for predator free project

A community-led predator trapping programme in the small West Coast town of Runanga is about to take a giant leap forward.

The New Zealand Predatorfree Trust has granted $3000 to the Runanga Village People community group to expand their initial 20 trap programme which aims to build wider social benefits while targeting the rat and stoat problem.

Runanga Village People spokeswoman Kate Kennedy said they are very grateful for the significant boost from NZ Predatorfree after their group initially bought 20 traps and got underway this year.

Their initiative was spurred by the knowledge their decile 9 rated twin town faces significant socio-economic challenges.

Ms Kennedy said being able to improve indigenous biodiversity at their own back door while building social cohesiveness had wide benefit beside the environment.

The new dollars meant the group can now "ramp it up" in the next couple of months.

Already they had a waiting list of residents keen to participate and lay traps, she said.

"This one is my pet project. It started because I bought a 'good nature' trap, and it caught a family of seven rats. They were living in the garage.

"That got me really interested in the whole Predatorfree project."

Predatorfree 2050 national board member and West Coast Conservation Board deputy chair Katie Milne said it is heartening to see the emergence of groups like Runanga Village People.

Every bit of work by groups like it made an inroad.

"Everything that adds to the pool of elimination of those predators is really, really good. Getting community engagement is essential in that.

"Small groups like Runanga were increasingly "key to be able to eventually do the whole job" nationally, Ms Milne said.

Ms Kennedy said their project coincided with another community-led Predatorfree group emerging for the coastal Paparoa Ranges north from Runanga to Charleston.

That group engaged with The Village People about how Rununga and Dunollie could endorse the wider project.

Ms Kennedy said with Runanga and the adjoining Dunollie village on the fringe of the Paparoas, it made sense to join.

"We're well placed as a community, poised right beside the hills.

"It also linked into pest control by Strongman coal mine operator Birchfields, just north of Dunollie, and DOC at the Coal Creek walk on the edge of Runanga.

"If we can get on and up our numbers here in the village, it will be another piece of the puzzle."People are just really keen to jump on board and take a trap."

- By Brendon McMahon
Local Democracy reporter

• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air