Herbert Forest Trap Setting Day
Sunday the 13th November 2016
Twelve Club members and a Venture Scout gathered at 8.30am with Khan Adam and three colleagues from High Country Contracting at the Swallows Carpark for a briefing before picking up the traps and setting out to place them. The plan was to place traps at 100 metre intervals along the Swallows, Podocarp and Hoods Creek tracks, alternating Doc 20 traps (in boxes, to catch stoats, rats and hedgehogs) with Sentinel possum traps (attached to trees).
One team of seven trampers set off with Khan and one colleague for the Podocarp Track. The remaining six trampers and two professionals headed up the Swallows Track, each team carrying sufficient traps for their route. The traps were placed a few metres off the track with their positions marked by ribbons.
The second team, having completed Swallows, took the first team’s vehicles up to the top of the Podocarp Track, restocked with traps, and headed down Hoods Creek. About two-thirds of the way down, they met the first group, who had worked their way up having completed the Podocarp Track. Both groups walked back to the road to collect vehicles and head home by around 2.30pm, having placed some 64 traps. It remains to place traps on the loop tracks, tag them all and start regular checking and resetting, tasks which we hope will control predators and help ensure that the Herbert Forest is noted for its thriving bird life as well as its magnificent trees.
Thanks to Khan and his colleagues, and to Jane, Graham, Neville, Sebastian, Roz, Maurice, Phyllis, Noel, Bron, Bill, Ross and Bess.
John.
