Visit to Forest Bridge Trust
What a day, what a turn out! Having talked to us late last year, Kevin and Gill Adshead indeed went the extra mile in showing us their property with its impressive conservation and predator control efforts. We covered a lot of ground, literally, and were later fed in true farming style!
The total turnout was 28 of whom 10 were from our Club, Jerry Norman from North Harbour, a number of other technically interested (highly competent) people and an interested group from Paremaremo who are seeking to preserve orchard fruit trees from the Albany Riverhead area, made up the numbers.
The property is some 2000ha that is bounded by the Kaipara Harbour and SH16 that contains some wonderful stands of original bush that bounds the harbour’s mangroves. It is the core to their larger vision of providing a predator-free path between the West and East coasts (see attached map).
We drove to the highest point on the farm and walked, as a large group, down through undulating tracks guided by Kevin. There were a number of different trap types, both basic and technically sophisticated, all well marked. The targets were possums, rats, stoats, cats and on occasions wild pigs and deer. This eradication programme is ongoing that aims at above 90% success ie trap capture rates above this. Over time this slowly declines as the predators become more savvy, and about every 5 years they run an externally administered total elimination programme using 245T poison that is highly regulated, but essential if they are to succeed. Other activity includes regenerating area of bush, wetlands management and fencing programmes.
My take outs: wonderful original bush going right to the boundary of the harbour, the mature Kauri, Matai, Rimu and Kahikatea, the dependence on hard evidence to manage their conservation efforts, and the use of radio tracking devices to identify and locate the kiwis – yes we had one within a few meters of where we were standing!
Our final visit was to a stand of kauri a far-sighted lady had personally planted 20 years ago as an inheritance for family that will be harvested once it reaches 80 years. The Adshead’s provided this at no cost as it fits so well with their vision – indeed it was impressive and humbling to be part of this project. We are following up!
