The report this week will be short and it’s short for two reasons. Firstly I was so interested in the Predator Free Wellington story introduced by Director James Willcocks, that I completely forgot I was reporter and didn’t take notes! He had me at help make our dawn chorus a symphony.

The second reason it’s short is that almost all the information presented to us is included on the excellent PFW website www.pfw.org.nz

 

Predator Free Wellington is a ten year engagement for the city. The challenge is how can we keep people engaged for a decade to get to zero predators (rats, weasels and stoats and opossums). Wellingtonians have embraced Predator Free with enthusiasm and a show of hands indicated that our members are committed trappers.

Wellington is a great model for the programme with Miramar as the PFW testbed. What is happening there is being rolled out over 41 suburbs. This high density monitoring enables real-time data collection and analysis. If there is a sudden outbreak of predators in one area, resource can be deployed to understand the cause and remove the problem.

 

Emma Gieson PFW Community Engagement Manager joined the discussion and shared her enthusiasm for the success of the programme. This is very dependent on quality partner participation and many volunteers.

The talk was particularly pertinent in light of President Elect Bev’s goal that our Club adopts Predator Free Waterfront as one of our areas of focus for our 2018/19 Rotary Year. She has my vote on that one. For those who weren’t able to attend the meeting, explore the PFW website. I’d be surprised if you weren’t inspired as well.

 

Brenda Lazelle