A month at the Trust (May 2026)
Things have been chugging along at a leisurely pace through the Autumn with volunteers getting their trap-lines ready for the upcoming winter, with some tidying up, maintenance and upgrades. Some fairly large weather events did some damage to the Park, and our trapping network, thankfully this has mostly been repaired.
The APWT welcomed aboard four new volunteers over the last month or so, Andy Buchanan (Rough Creek trap-line), Kate Morrison, Tim Marsh and Merijn Hemels (all wanting to help out with just about anything), we very much appreciate your help.
Predator numbers appear to have eased back a bit since our previous month's catches. This is for the period 30 March to 17 May (previous year, same period, in brackets)...
Stoats: 9 (19)
Weasels: 6 (8)
Rats: 124 (104)
Mice: 16 (2)
Feral Cats: 2 (2)
Possums: 38 (7)
Hedgehogs: 2 (0)
Pigs: 2 (0)
Possums are up considerably as we've ironed out the issues with our new "roving" possum trap network.
As you'll read elsewhere we sadly lost one of our valued trustees this month, Len Doel, to a short illness. Len will be sadly missed by us, and the wider environmental community in New Zealand.
Weed control efforts have just about ended, with the exception of some limited Douglas Fir removal on Bealey Spur.
We are still deploying digital sound recorders all over our trapping network in the southern areas of the Bealey Valley & Bealey Spur. We intend to keep them "out there" as much as possible, until DOC, who have generously loaned them would like them back.
Over the last couple of months Pete & Graeme have been applying for grants from the ECAN Waitaha Fund, SDC Predator Free 2050 Fund, DOC Community Fund & Save the Kiwi. All these applications focused on a different ongoing aspect of the work we do. Unfortunately we were not successful this time around with ECAN. Most of the other's won't be known until June/July. Irrespective of success, we will make sure that our current projects survive. The funding pool available is quite contested these days with so many conservation groups, new & old, doing so much good mahi out there.
Image: One of our Celium hubs shares space with a predator trap. And yes the wind is howling!
Trustee Len Doel has passed away (May 2026)
It is with great sadness that we learnt earlier this month that one of our long serving trustees, Len Doel, has passed away after a short illness.
Len became a trustee of APWT in 2015.
From his teenage years Len had been passionate about New Zealand's natural environment. He increasingly became concerned about the threats facing it and the need to be increasingly proactive - particularly in Canterbury, to which he had recently moved. From a working background at Marsden Point Oil Refinery, to teaching in Primary Schools, Len became progressively involved in the illustration and text of flora and fauna publications, with a particular emphasis on native species photographic imagery, including that of Museum collections. In 2008 he joined NIWA's RV 'Tangaroa' studying the Chatham Rise, and also spent three months in the Antarctic with a Waikato University and Landcare Research team undertaking survey work in the Miers Valley and Capes Bird and Royds. During these periods he built up a good knowledge of IT applications, infra-red monitoring cameras and species knowledge, and had more recently assisted in trap line monitoring with considerable energy.
Len brought his enthusiasm, passion, and skills acquired over a lifetime to our Trust, he will be sadly missed.
Autumn Bird Surveys (May 2026)
Every year, since 2007, around the end of April the Trust performs it's surveys of forest birds in the upper Bealey Valley in Rough Creek and the lower Arthur's Pass Walking Track. These are transect surveys along 1km slices of these areas and take place over 3 fine days each, and yes this does happen :)
Chloe, Bryony, and Graeme did the surveys this year, many thanks!
The aim of the surveys are to get a handle on the carrying capacity of these two very different forest environments year to year, and look for any significant changes. It can also bolster any anecdotal evidence we glean over the season.
Anecdotally this year we thought we could see a fairly significant breeding success rate in the bush bird set. Although the surveys numbers aren't significantly more than in previous years, the AP walking track did have the highest count of species in the 19 years of the survey. Nectar/fruit feeders, such as Korimako (Bellbird), were quite evident this year in both survey sites, which correlates well with the abundant fruiting seen throughout the forests of Arthur's Pass.
This year has also seen digital sound recorders deployed throughout the Bealey Valley and Bealey Spur over the last 3 months, which has provided very useful data on the diversity of bird species within our project areas.
You can view the bird survey results
Here.
Roroa loud & proud (May 2026)
The Trust has had digital sound recorders deployed for a few months now about Bealey Spur and the Bealey Valley.
A recording of a male Roroa (Great Spotted Kiwi) standing right below the recorder's microphone and bellowing it's air sacks out is quite exceptional. This boy is located in the lower Bealey Valley. Sadly he got no reply for all his effort, however there is another established pair just north of him.
You can listen to his call here -
Play Call (472Kb)
The recorders have been programmed to capture all sounds from 6am - 7.30am & 7.30pm to midnight, and are left out for about 10 days. This captures the raucous dawn chorus, kiwi waking up & going off to bed, and a cacophony of other grunts, screams, crashes, gales, and just downright disturbing unidentified sounds.
We'll continue to deploy the recorders until DOC would like them back; we absolutely appreciate they have allowed us to borrow them.
