That has led to a kiwi population boom, with the feathered national icon now outnumbering Russell\u2019s human residents by a factor of three to one.<\/p>\n
Nik Minchin, the trust\u2019s technical adviser, said 2000ha of the peninsula was now possum-free and 1000ha rat-free.<\/p>\n
Traps pulled out of the bush were being refurbished by volunteers and placed further up the peninsula, to expand the trust\u2019s pest-control buffer zone and prevent re-invasion.<\/p>\n
In an area known as Old Russell \u2013 which included \u014ckiato, site of the nation\u2019s first capital, and the car ferry ramp, the only rats caught in the past three years were four that had made their way across by swimming or hitching on a boat last summer.<\/p>\n
Russell Landcare Trust technical advisor Nik Minchin removes a Northland-made Steve Allen trap from the bush at Tapeka, near Russell. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
At Tapeka, the tip of Russell Peninsula, it had been eight months since a possum had been caught and six months since the last rat.<\/p>\n
Minchin said it was much harder to eliminate rats in urban areas than in the bush, but in Russell township the trust was now down to one catch a month \u2013 despite having a trap every 25 metres.<\/p>\n
That put the town on the cusp of being declared pest-free, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have a rubbish tip in Russell, so obviously that\u2019s an area where we have caught hundreds of rats. Now we haven\u2019t caught one there for more than three months. A dump with no rats, not too many places can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell Landcare Trust general manager Ella van Gool said some parts of Wellington were already rat-free, but removing the rodents from an entire town was extremely challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes Russell unique. To our knowledge, there are no other towns in the mainland of New Zealand that are rat-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Tapeka, at the tip of the Russell peninsula, the last rat was caught six months ago and the last possum two months before that. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
Van Gool said Russell had geography on its side \u2013 it was located on a peninsula with a defendable neck just a few kilometres wide \u2013 but more importantly the project had \u201cenormous\u201d community support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this project was introduced, there was quite a bit of scepticism about whether or not we would be able to achieve it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that we\u2019re getting there, everybody is in support. Many of the landowners give us permission to come on their property for pest control, it\u2019s 98% of the people we ask. So that\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Gool said other locals supported the trust through volunteer work such as trap checking, maintenance and habitat restoration, giving donations, or just talking to their neighbours about the project\u2019s benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s loving the wildlife that\u2019s increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current estimate for the number of kiwi in Russell was around 2500, three times the town\u2019s permanent human population.<\/p>\n
She said Russell was also unusual \u2013 and possibly unique \u2013 for having significant numbers of both kiwi and North Island weka in an urban environment.<\/p>\n
Russell Landcare Trust general manager Ella van Gool. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
Weka became locally extinct around 1940 but were reintroduced by the trust in 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeka are really funny creatures. They are a little bit cheeky, and they come out during the day so you have a lot more interaction with them,\u201d van Gool said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody loves them because they like to get into people\u2019s gardens. But they are a natural creature of this peninsula, and they are more endangered than kiwi at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-time Russell resident Bridget Hughes said birdsong had increased \u201cenormously\u201d in the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a little bit of a while for them to recover but the kiwi count has increased exponentially. If you wander up the track at dusk you\u2019ve got probably a 90% chance of seeing a kiwi.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan Clifton, of Tapeka, said she\u2019d also been struck by the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear the squeaking of kiwis now, we have wekas coming down to our back door and looking for food. Sometimes they bring their babies in the springtime, so it\u2019s lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran Russell Landcare Trust volunteer Bob Drey said the dawn chorus was now \u201calmost deafening\u201d.<\/p>\n
He felt proud the town was finally living up to its reputation as a kiwi sanctuary.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving removed the predators, we\u2019re now seeing kiwi and other animals, such as weka, just exploding in population. That\u2019s amazing to witness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wildlife resurgence has benefited Russell businesses, too.<\/p>\n
A billboard at the entrance to Russell township. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
Shane Maddren, a manager at Orongo Bay Holiday Park, said school and conservation groups booked specifically for the chance to experience wildlife up close.<\/p>\n
One evening he counted seven kiwi, including four juveniles, wandering around the campground and between the buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great achievement for our entire community, I\u2019m proud to be part of it,\u201d Maddren said.<\/p>\n
The wildlife boom had prompted the park to take the unusual step of removing TVs from its cabins, to encourage guests to spend their evenings watching out for kiwi instead.<\/p>\n
Van Gool said catching the last rat would not mean an end to the trust\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll always have to maintain predator-free status by monitoring for and responding to re-invasions. There will always be people in cars coming in with trailers and boats that can carry predators. Predators can swim over from the other side,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to that, we\u2019re working on restoring the native bush and creating wildlife corridors, so that eventually we can work on reintroducing the k\u014dkako. They were here a long time ago and we would like to bring them back \u2013 but for that we need to connect enough native bush and have enough habitat for them to survive in. It\u2019s an amazing bird, and we\u2019d be very excited to have them back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orongo Bay Holiday Park manager Shane Maddren says he\u2019s proud of Russell\u2019s conservation achievements. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
Earlier this month Foundation North committed $1.2 million over three years to four conservation groups across the Bay of Islands, known collectively as Predator Free P\u0113whairangi Wh\u0101nui.<\/p>\n
The Northland Regional Council said it would provide $1.8m and the Department of Conservation would contribute $475,000.<\/p>\n
The collective includes Russell Landcare Trust and Pest-Free Purerua Mataroa at the opposite end of the Bay of Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That has led to a kiwi population boom, with the feathered national icon now outnumbering Russell\u2019s human residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43699,16717,31491,1888,60157,23394,111,43,139,69,1118,90,315772,5413,11763,44093,223,61,2951],"class_list":["post-644265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-achieve","tag-becoming","tag-cusp","tag-first","tag-graaf","tag-mainland","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-pestfree","tag-peter","tag-russell","tag-status","tag-the","tag-to","tag-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}