We had another hardworking holiday in the Greenstone/steele creek valleys refurbishing our clubs predator control traps and some minor maintenance on the mid greenstone hut. According to my fitbit i did 105kms in the 6 days of walking the trap lines with heavy tool filled packs. Fixing as we went. Some great company and helpers from the club to knock this project off with a fully restored trap line of 58 DOC 200 single and double traps with an additional 6 automatic AI driven possum traps all now refurbed and doing there jobs nicely on possums. Another Southern Lakes Branch NZDA initiative which is starting to show real success.
Understorey regrowth is thick and lush around our possum control areas and completely devoid where there is no possum control being undertaking in the valley.
The birdlife in the area has exploded with morning chorus abounding and a few surprises with a longtailed cockoo heard and a Takahe paying a midnight visit to the hut. Flocks of rifleman and countless tomtits, kaka and robins everywhere.
The past 15 years of trapping this area has really paid off in biodiversity restoration.
But there is still more to be done in steele creek and greenstone faces to extend the current "island" of biodiversity around the mid greenstone hut. So please get in touch to help out or you can donate $$ to a very satisfying and worthy cause.
The steele creek track is also now fully cleared of windfall from the massive storms of last year on the backs of club members hand clearing the way over sept oct dec last year and February this year on the trapping runs with DOC rangers from Glenorchy appreciating the efforts and flying in for two days of hard chainsawing to clear the remaining big stuff last week. Its now back to the 2 hour leisurely stroll back to mid greenstone from the 3 hour grind it was after the first storm.
So as part of the preditor control operation i installed our own preditor at the start of the track turnoff to our hut to keep thos pesk
