MET Co-ordinator's Report :

Stoat Control.

  I have continued to service traps in preparation for the new trapping year. I have issued all of the DOC 200s we brought with the PAM grant to community trappers and have collected in eight  DOC 250s which I have serviced and used to replace faulty traps. And continue to monitor the victor stoat traps and as yet they have killed a few rats but as yet no stoats. While I have three potential new trappers we still are limited by man power shortages.

Rats

We have set 25^th Sept for our baiting day and Liddy has set this up on the web page. We used a school group from Trident to do a rat monitor at Gray's property and this returned a tracking index of 20 % which I thought was quite low given the sporadic pest control history of the block. The block is currently being poisoned and in six week's time we will do a post toxin monitor.

Peter  F - Met Co-ordinator

Education report  :

The last month has seen two more school groups come for an overnight stay in Manawahe. Trident High School came with their year 10 class in preparation for their five weeks on Great Barrier Island. These students have
helped with conservation in the area: they have planted trees on Mountford's  farm; did a rat monitor in
Grays' bush, as well as track maintenance in the Cell Tower Block. We could see that these students were selected on fitness and motivation. They got a lot of work done.

This month we have also had a visit from the first school outside the Eastern Bay: Tauranga Girls College. 
Year 12 Science students came for an overnight camp. They did a rat monitor in a bush block that does not receive any form of pest control as well as a monitor in the Cell Tower Block.  Surprisingly, both monitors came back with zero rat tracks. After their work in the bush, the girls went to the Rotoma Hot Pools, which were nice and warm on a winters evening. This proved to be a nice alternative to the lack of showers at the Eco Centre.  

Upcoming visits

14th September -  Teaching numeracy in outdoor education workshop.

Mid-September - Year 13,  Tarawera High School.

9-11 November - Whakatane Intermediate camp

14-15 November  -  Plant ID Training day, Kokako Trust

Corporate Christmas Functions

The Manawahe Eco Trust now also offers businesses to have their social function at the Eco Centre. This event
will combine team building activities with environmental education in the relaxed atmosphere of our centre. We have created a special flyer for this which has been distributed through the Chamber of Commerce in Whakatane.

Business and Leisure Show 2016

The Manawahe Eco Trust together with the Kokako Trust manned an exhibit at the annual Business and leisure show in Whakatane. We were part of the HALO project and shared our space with many environmental community groups. We were placed right at the entrance and have seen a wide interested from many members
of the public. It also provided a good opportunity for networking with other environment groups in the wider area.

Liddy Bakker - email: educ.met@gmail.com  Ph: 0275699022

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