September 2022
From DOC Intranet - an article about FOR
Nelson Lakes district anticipates that community group
‘Friends of Rotoiti’ will clock up over 5000 volunteer hours
by the end of this financial year! They're one of over 600
community groups working on Public Conservation Land
helping Papatūānuku thrive.
Julie Robilliard, Friends of Rotoiti trustee, assisting the Nelson
Lakes biodiversity ranger change the transmitter on a kiwi in the St
Arnaud Range. Photo by Tracey Grose, via Friends of Rotoiti
website
During National Volunteer Week we are celebrating volunteers like
this small group of volunteers who have been working for over 20
years in the Nelson Lakes district. They have been involved in a wide
range of projects and now the results of their mahi are now rippling
out to their local and regional communities.
Established in 2001 to assist DOC with the then new mainland island
Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project, Friends of Rotoiti now work under a
Community Agreement with Nelson Lakes DOC office which
authorises them to work independently on PCL.
The dedicated group of about 20 active volunteers help Papatūānuku to thrive through
monitoring lizards, robins and kaka; helping protect whio, kea and kiwi; and trapping and
controlling rats, stoats, possums, feral cats and wasps. They work closely with the local DOC
biodiversity team in all these areas, especially with the wildlife monitoring.
As well, they are amazing trap box builders!
Over the past two years the Friends of Rotoiti built 400 new trap boxes and replaced all their old
DOC 200 traps with DOC 200 stainless steel traps, with Goldpine kindly donating most of the ply
for the boxes – it’s a great story about collaboration between the Friends, DOC and local
business: Over The Fence - Goldpine.
Barry, Paul, Wayne, Oliver and Simon replacing new traps for old on the Friends of Rotoiti Whiskey
Falls trap line. Photo by Drew Hunter
Friends of Rotoiti volunteers Alex Maule, Kevin Berkett
and Warwick Ward delivering traps and clearing areas for
them to be located. Photo from Friends of Rotoiti website
But that wasn’t enough! In 2021 Friends of Rotoiti launched
Te Whakarauora Whio project in conjunction with DOC,
Ngāti Apa ki te Ra To and the Rata Foundation, to support
the growth of the whio/ blue duck population in Nelson
Lakes and to further protect the area around the Rotoiti
Nature Recovery project. As part of this project these
eager volunteers built over 500 traps boxes for a 52 kilometre trapline. Check out the story
on: Bringing back the iconic whio to the Nelson Lakes district - Rātā Foundation
(ratafoundation.org.nz)
After cleaning up all those old traps and boxes the group have been distributing them at minimal
cost to many backyard trappers and other community groups in their local village of St Arnaud,
and even further out into the Tasman region through groups such as Farmers for Whio, the
Tasman Environmental Trust, and Westbank Native – a native plant nursery who brought 30
traps and boxes from the Friends to give to locals for backyard traps in the Motueka Valley.
People have been very grateful to have the traps on their own land at a minimal cost, and the
conservation impact of this small community group is rippling throughout the wider region.
Traps heading to their locations on the new
Travers Valley trapline. Photo by Butch Goodwin
So this National Volunteer Week let’s celebrate all those volunteers who care deeply that
Papatūānuku thrives and who work closely with us to help achieve this. Friends of Rotoiti is just
one of many small groups who have significant impact for conservation through working hard to
support their local ecosystems and species to thrive, helping to maintain and improve Aotearoa
for future generations.
Further information
Friends of Rotoiti
If you have volunteers approach you with energy to burn and you don’t current