“The guys at the Men’s Shed are fantastic,” said Aorangi Restoration Trust founder and patron Clive Paton.
The Trust took in 25 old rusty DOC 250 predator traps that were retrieved from the Palliser Bay coast and have made them like new again.
“We have now got them all back out on the coast catching predators,” he said.
Last winter the Men’s Shed built 50 small houses for the Little Blue penguin or Korora, housing which the Trust now has placed out on the Palliser Bay coast.
“Combined with the predator trapping work we are now sure that we will get the penguins back in numbers,” he said.
“We are already noticing a substantive difference in other bird-life such as red/black billed gulls, oyster catchers, Caspian terns, pied stilts, black and pied shags and dotterels.”
In Wairarapa Moana the Trust’s work is helping to return the bittern and native bats back from the edge of extinction.
If you are able to help or support this important work protecting and retrieving our local native ecosystem, please get in touch with Joe Howells: 027 597 2667.
