A month at the Trust... (March 2026)
Well actually, 3 months at the Trust, as we've all been far too busy up this way to stop and recount what's been going on. Happy New Year BTW :D
Trapping has seen a marked increase in predator capture numbers since the beginning of the year, after having noticeably low predator numbers since Spring (last year, same period, in brackets)...
Stoats 35 (37), Weasels 12 (4), Rats 134 (44), Mice 23 (3), Feral Cats 2 (2), Possums 39 (13), Hedgehogs 4 (8), and Wild Pigs 3 (0).
Many thanks to our dedicated teams of volunteers who continue to do the hard yards maintaining our extensive network of traps!
The predicted "beech mast" was a fizzer, thankfully, with only minimal seeding witnessed in our local forests.
Weed control by Bruce, Chris, Graeme, and Conservation Volunteers NZ, has seen 66Ha controlled since the beginning of the year in the Bealey Valley and on Bealey Spur.
The last few months has seen the Trust's continued effort to upgrade it's traps in kea habitat to prevent any unfortunate by-catch. This activity has been assisted greatly by overseas volunteers, such as Johanna (pictured on Lagoon Saddle) from the USA, wanting to "give back" to NZ before departing our shores. This gesture is very much appreciated.
As we head into Autumn, world events have conspired yet again to make our conservation efforts more difficult than anyone would desire. With many of our volunteers based in the Christchurch wider area, fuel prices surging and availability diminishing, this is going to directly impact the servicing of our trap-lines going forward. We can only do our best under this situation.
Weed control progress (March 2026)
After a fairly horrendous start to the new weed control season, marred by almost continuous rainfall through late spring / early summer, things finally stabilised and a considerable effort has been put into removing the invasive weed species from the Bealey Valley and Bealey Spur areas.
To date, Bruce, Chris and Graeme have treated 103Ha this season for control of primary weeds like Broom, Gorse, Russell Lupin, Vipers Bugloss (borage), Foxglove, and Thistle. As is the Trust's policy any other weed of concern encountered is also dealt to simultaneously. On Bealey Spur work has continued with control of the Douglas Fir pines (1850 trees since 2024), Heather, and Spanish Heath; the later has also been a major project of ECAN & DOC over the past 2 years. DOC did further aerial control of Lupin on Turkey Flat, with manual follow-up by ECAN contractors.
Of concern has been the discovery of new weeds in the Bealey Valley such as Monkey Musk, Stonecrop and Lady's Mantle. Monkey Musk is particularly difficult to control as it generally has it's feet in water. Some weeds such as Bird's-foot Trefoil [Lotus Corniculatus] have well and truly taken a foothold now, and are almost impossible to remove. Weeds like this have come in on the numerous uncovered stock feed trucks plying the highway.
Weed control by APWT has taken place since about 2012, and the fruits of our labour are obvious, especially in the Bealey Valley (see the before/after photograph of 5 years hard graft), when you compare it to areas let run free further east along the highway.
ECAN, and it's Waitaha Fund have been instrumental in supporting our increased effort over the past 2 years. This funding stream expires this month, but we are hopeful that residual monies and new funds can follow us forward into the near future.
Less Douglas Fir, more possum traps, what's not to like (January 2026)
Seven international volunteers (Aussie, French & German) from
Conservation Volunteers NZ (CVNZ) led by Hamish Fairbairn joined APWT in late January in it's ongoing quest to rid Bealey Spur of it's wilding pine problem. The Douglas Fir pine trees have established themselves from the "Burnt Face" pine plantations when their winged seeds get spread across Bruce Stream by the strong local winds. The team managed to hunt out more than 50 trees hidden amongst the extremely thick manuka scrub. Once these trees break out above the manuka canopy (some trees over 8m tall were found) they grow quickly, blocking out light to the forest floor, their dropped needles also creating an acidic mat that natives have difficulty establishing themselves in. To date the Trust has dealt to over 1800 Douglas Fir across the Spur.
On day 2, just prior to the onset of heavy rain, the CVNZ team installed 17 "trapinator" possum traps through the lower Bealey Spur forest, and positioned digital sound recorders programmed to catch the dawn chorus, and night wildlife present on the lower Spur.
Volunteers and leaders from CVNZ have partnered with APWT for many years now on numerous projects, always being able to deliver an extremely keen team more than capable of getting the job done. Thanks again CVNZ!
New Bealey Lagoon trap-line (January 2026)
The Bealey Spur trapping network has been undergoing a series of upgrades and improvements over the last half year. At the same time the existence of Great Spotted Kiwi has been confirmed on the upper spur (feathers, scats, probe holes, and potentially some calls), after only anecdotal evidence pointing that way for several years. In light of this, it was decided to fortify the predator control through their territories, and also provide some protection to the birds, invertebrates and reptiles inhabiting the large wetland area (made up of over 100 kettle lakes).
On the 13th December, volunteers Craig (Predator Free Waimairi Beach) & Graeme (APWT) fully surveyed a new trap-line route along the northern perimeter of the wetland. The route utilised follows very closely the historical bridle path used to access "Top hut", and is quite diverse and very scenic with wide panoramic views of the Alps (pictured).
In conjunction with DOC who were flying water tanks onto the spur for weed control on the 18th December, Nick (DOC) & Graeme assisted in the flight of 20 new DOC150 traps to the wetland, and later that day fully distributed the traps along the 1km path of the trap-line. This brings the total number of traps in this area to 50, traversing a total of 3.8km across the upper spur. The other 30 traps are maintained by a large team of New Zealand Alpine Club members, whilst the lower spur trap-lines are maintained by Bealey Spur, Christchurch, and Arthur's Pass residents. The Bealey Spur area now hosts 174 mustelid traps.
The Bealey Lagoon trap-line will be maintained by a team of volunteers from Predator Free Waimairi Beach (PFWB), from near Christchurch. The traps were baited and set by Craig & Ben from PFWB on 2nd January.
Weed Control Season (December 2025)
Invasive weed control has started in earnest for this season.
The weather has been extremely obtuse over November and early December with extreme and persistent rainfall, so very little control got achieved over these months.
Unfortunately we haven't seen the normal sequential progression of weed species popping up, instead they've all arrived simultaneously. This has had consequences in prioritising what gets done/where first. We have concentrated on broom/gorse initially, as easy to hunt down whilst they are yellow, and are now into every other weed species.
The Trust is lucky enough to have some residual funding left over from ECAN's 2024/25 Waitaha grant, so contractors alongside volunteers can continue to put a dent in the weed problem.
Crow Valley trap-line upgrade (December 2025)
The upper Crow Valley traps have been getting very close to their use-by date in the last year or so, and needed replacement. The urgency to get this done was further accelerated by the trap timbers rotting down and creating a much higher risk of kea accessing the traps.
On the 25th November the Trust was lucky enough to have DOC fly in (pictured) 18 new DOC150 traps to the Crow hut whilst they were doing other work in the upper Waimakariri Valley.
On the 11th & 12th of December, volunteers Greg, Harry and Jeff serviced the Crow Valley trap-line, and then proceeded to go on the herculean task of swapping out all the upper valley traps.
Jeff reported, apart from being fairly legless on their return to civilisation, that the Crow Valley has had a substantial amount of landscaping from the recent floods, with new gravel features being the primary modifications (also sending one of their traps on an ocean cruise to Chile).
Many thanks to everybody involved in expediating this important project!
Canterbury Aoraki Conservation Board Award (September 2025)
The Arthur's Pass Wildlife Trust received the Canterbury Aoraki Conservation Board's Te Waka o Aoraki highly commended award on 3 September at the award ceremony held in Otautahi / Christchurch. Also acknowledged as highly commended was Conservation Volunteers NZ Christchurch (who regularly assist us in our projects), Styx Living Laboratory Trust, and Trees for Canterbury.
- Te Waka o Aoraki 3rd place: Te Ara Kãkãriki Greenway Canterbury Trust
- Te Waka o Aoraki 2nd place: South Island Wildlife Hospital
- Te Waka o Aoraki overall winner: Whakaora Te Waikãkãwai
Our Trustee, Helen Hamblin attended the ceremony on behalf of the APWT to accept the award. Helen commented on the night... "Awesome to see all the amazing mahi being done in conservation. Engagement of the next generation is happening which is so very exciting."
Beech mast on the way... (August 2025)
DOC have put us on notice that the South Island is going to experience a fairly large beech masting (full seeding) event this coming summer. This is meant to be more intense in beech forests near the backbone of the alps and west. The effect of the mast will diminish as you head east. At this stage it is difficult to predict what we will see in the upper Waimakariri Basin. Irrespective, we should still anticipate it could be bad for us, and keep on top of our trap checks to reduce the number of predators getting through next winter.
Even though the seeding event will be this summer, the actual predator plague associated with this won't come to a head until Spring/Summer 2026.
Selwyn Predator Free 2050 Fund Grant (August 2025)
The Arthur's Pass Wildlife Trust has been successful in it's application to the Selwyn District Council's Predator Free 2050 Fund. Our application was for the purchase of 20 Trapinator possum kill traps fitted with Celium monitoring nodes. An additional 15 traps without nodes was also purchased as Encounter Solutions was able to provide us refurbished Celium nodes at a reduced cost, so these additional traps could be purchased from the budget.
It will probably take several months to come to terms with the foibles of the proposed trapping network.
The APWT has been unable to effectively do any possum control in the Bealey Valley / Bealey Spur areas since 2008, when use of pesticide controls were prohibited due to the possible negative interactions with scrounging kea. These traps will allow the Trust to target specific areas for possums for a time before "leap-frogging" the traps to a new location. Remote monitoring of the traps will allow the traps to remain active for longer, and prudently cleared. The servicing of these traps is done by volunteers.
More cat traps, more protection, thanks to ECAN (March 2025)
The APWT just obtained funding from ECAN's Waitaha Fund to further expand our feral cat trapping network. The Waitaha Fund has been instrumental in establishing this trapping network, and it's expansion since early 2022.
Currently we have 40 monitored cat traps deployed throughout the Bealey and Waimakariri Valleys, with a further 9 manually monitored traps available as required. Over the past 12 months this trapping network has captured 27 wild cats, 28 possums and 27 hedgehogs. The removal of so many cats from these valleys will no doubt give some breathing space to the native wildlife, and allow it to rebound in these valleys.
The additional funding from ECAN will be used over the next 12 months to fortify the cat trapping network with a further 10-20 monitored traps. In recent months we have moved one of our Celium monitoring hubs to give the network better radio coverage into the upper Waimakariri Valley, hopefully allowing us to deploy some traps towards Turkey Flat, cutting off the dispersion of cats into the upper valley area.
