ANNUAL REPORT 2020 Contents Vision He Kawa Ora: Sustaining the health and 4 wellbeing of Te Kāhui Tupua and their people Taranaki Mounga Project Area 7 Chair and Director’s Report 12 Partners 14 Objective One: Aspire 16 Objective Two: Share 19 Objective Three: Enrich 25 Objective Four: Revitalise 27 Objective Five: Treasure 30 Special thanks to 33 Our People 34 The Taranaki Mounga Annual Report is printed on Acroprint. Acroprint has superior environmental credentials: FSC® certified, acid and elemental chlorine free, completely biodegradable and recyclable. VISION He Kawa Ora: Sustaining the health and wellbeing of Te Kāhui Tupua and their people. Restoring the ecological vitality of Taranaki Mounga in partnership with iwi, agencies and community. Outcomes Project Objectives Actions The ecological resilience of Taranaki Secure the Mounga against animal The creation of a halo. Mounga is restored. and weed pests. • Develop innovative, effective Supported by local and regional • Remove the threat of goats and means of pest control to protect government, Taranaki iw chairs and the significantly lower the number the perimeter of Egmont National community embrace and sustain the of other pests so their impact on Park and beyond by creating a transformation of Taranaki Mounga to Taranaki Mounga is reduced. biodiversity halo and restoring the an ecologically resilient state. • Egmont National Park could become ecological corridors from Ki uta ki The Taranaki Mounga Project inspires the first national park in New Zealand tai (Mountain to Sea). other communities and investors to to be free of hoofed animals. • Oranga Mounga Oranga Tangata: address New Zealand’s ecological Healthy Mountain, Healthy People. Restore Species. challenges at landscape scale. • Create opportunities for health • Transform the ecological prospects and environmental education and of the Mounga through the re- skill development through the introduction of lost species and the promotion of the Taranaki Mounga strengthening of existing populations Project’s focus on nature. of threatened species. Build community support and commitment by ensuring the transformational changes are valued and secure for the long-term. 4 Taranaki Mounga Annual Report Restore Extend Learn Restore more whio Extend the stoat Learn more about (blue duck), toutouwai trapping network the ground-based (North Island robin) to protect whio, rat control on 1000 and North Island toutouwai and kiwi. hectares of land. brown kiwi to the Mounga in 2020. Implement Develop Reduce Implement a Develop a five-year Reduce pest strategy for the weed control plan. numbers complete removal significantly. of goats. Investigate Undertake Establish Investigate potential Undertake a Establish a seabird translocations baseline survey on colony. of kākā. bat distribution and abundance. PHOTO: Peter Florence 6 Taranaki Mounga Annual Report Taranaki Mounga Project Area 2020 was a year of both reflection and action for our project. While New Zealand focused on beating Covid-19 with lockdown measures in place for nearly two months, our Mounga had an opportunity to rejuvenate himself. The lockdown allowed us all an Our team and volunteers have been back opportunity to connect with our on the Mounga since June 2020, firstly Mounga in our own way. It was also resetting our work after the lockdown, a time for our team and volunteers then extending our predator management to recharge after a busy 2019/2020 to enhance our restoration efforts and summer season. enable species to thrive within our project. Taranaki Mounga Annual Report 7 Kaitake and Pouakai Range 2018 2020 2018 2020 200 4965 0 237 hectares hectares POSSUM TRAPS PREDATOR CONTROL AREA COVERED 60 714 60 1925 STOAT NETWORK STOAT TRAPS VOLUNTEER HOURS 0 106 FERRET TRAPS 8 Taranaki Mounga Annual Report A24 Rat Control Block of 1000 hectares 2018 2020 2160 2160 A24 GOODNATURE RAT TRAPS 400 950 hours hours TOUTOWAI (TMP & Contractors) (TMP & Volunteers) MONITORING Taranaki Mounga Annual Report 9 Rest of Egmont National Park 29,170 hectares 2018 2020 Stoat traps 1286 1987 Possum traps 0 0 Predator control coverage area 200 hectares 13,080 hectares Stoat network volunteer hours 168 1456 Rat tracking results (core lines) 89% July 61% Rat tracking (boundary lines) 93% July 58% Possum wax tag results (core lines) 45% July 16% Possum wax tag results (boundary lines) 31% July 23% Whio numbers (within eight monitored rivers) 28 pairs, 58 fledged 44 pairs, 65 fledged Whio released on Mounga 10 8 Monitored kiwi - Taranaki Kiwi Trust 26 7 Kiwi monitoring volunteer hours - Taranaki Kiwi Trust 525 386 Kiwi release on Mounga - Taranaki Kiwi Trust 12 0 New hunters’ tracks 58.5km 4.1km Re-cut hunters’ tracks 40.4km 46.6km Goat culls 594 25 10 Taranaki Mounga Annual Report Ngā Motu Sugar Loaf Islands 2018 2020 30 100 traps Serviced by Francis Douglas Memorial T-REX RAT TRAPS College (FDMC) ON CENTENNIAL PARK 2018 2020 2018 2020 30 Goodnature A24 rat traps, 0 14 0 stoat traps and T-Rex rat traps. STOAT TRAPS PREDATOR TRAPS ON CENTENNIAL PARK ON NGĀ MOTU 0 21 240 240 hours hours BAIT STATIONS VOLUNTEER ON NGĀ MOTU HOURS FDMC Taranaki Mounga Annual Report 11 Chair and Director’s Report All will agree that 2020 has been a year of unprecedented times. As we adjust to our new normal and all the challenges Covid-19 has brought the world, we have been forced to take time to reflect on what is important to us all. The lockdown also gave our tūpuna (DOC) rangers on eight regularly Expansion of cadet ranger a chance to breathe and to balance surveyed rivers. This was an increase programme himself. With Egmont National Park of 71 per cent from the 51 ducklings In 2019, former Supporting Today’s closed during Level 3 and Level 4, located during the 2018-2019 At Risk Teenagers (START) student Taranaki Mounga was free of people. breeding season. Trevor Walker (17) was welcomed to It was a time of calm and regeneration. The annual whio monitoring work on the Taranaki Mounga Project as our Across the region we all slowed down. the Mounga is part of the DOC Whio first cadet ranger. Since then, two We noticed more birdlife and the nature Forever partnership with Genesis more START Taranaki cadet rangers, around us and we had time to connect Energy. Tipunakore Rangiwai (18) and Marley and reconnect with our Mounga in our Joyce (17), have joined the project. All own way. Collaboration is key to more three work closely with our rangers birds across the region The lockdown helped our staff, rangers on a number of predator control and and volunteers to recharge and gave For the last two years Taranaki monitoring activities. They are gaining them time to plan for restoration and Mounga and Towards Predator-Free valuable skills and qualifications. research activities that will continue to Taranaki have been working closely to provide a region-wide predator Optimising predator control enhance the ecological resilience of on Kaitake Range the Mounga. control programme. With more than 4700 traps in the national park and We have been working in collaboration Prior to Covid-19 Level 3 in March 8000 traps across Taranaki, farmers with Towards Predator-Free Taranaki 2020, we reached a number of project living on the park boundary are seeing to eradicate possums in and around milestones. Highlights included: first-hand the positive impact of this the Kaitake Range, resulting in the Post-1080 monitoring work. Whio are now living along rivers reconfiguration of our trapping network. on farmland and there have been The team has worked incredibly hard Predator control monitoring after sightings of toutouwai at Pukeiti, to replace all 300 possum traps with the 2019 1080 operations across some 15 kilometres from their original an optimised lean detection network of Egmont National Park continued location by the North Egmont Visitor 179 leghold traps. One hundred and six in 2020. During monitoring in July Centre. There is also an abundance ferret traps were also installed within 2020 numbers remained low. Rat- of other birdlife both in and near the the 25 traplines containing more than tracking tunnel results were at 61 national park. 500 stoat traps and managed mostly by per cent and only 16 per cent for the Kaitake Ranges Conservation Trust. possum wax tag results. Goats functionally extinct Returning kiwi to the Kaitake Range is This is substantially less than the 89 After 93 years, the world’s longest the goal and aspiration not only of our per cent rat-tracking rates and 45 per running goat eradication programme project but also of the Omata, Oakura cent possum wax tag results before is coming to an end. During the last and Kaitake communities. the 1080 operation. three years an increased effort to National Park a hub for research This was a good result considering reduce the goat population and locate Even with the disruption of Covid-19, that Covid-19 Lockdown restrictions the remaining ungulates has proven a number of research projects were stopped us checking and resetting our successful. At the end of 2019, a conducted across the National Park. stoat and possum traps for nearly two thermal imaging project was run in the We are proud to be at the forefront of months. This meant our team could sub-alpine area of the national park. No testing new technology and to be a hub not work in Egmont National Park goats were detected during 30 hours of for research which will benefit not just until Level 3. Our volunteers had to flying. Since then, hunters have found it New Zealand but also the world. Current wait for Level 2. more difficult to locate goats. research being conducted includes: Boom in whio duckling number This is a win for biodiversity as goats cause significant damage to the forest • Understanding the speed of recovery At the beginning of 2020, a record structure because they eat young of rat populations after an aerial 1080 number of whio ducklings were located seedlings and saplings and ring-bark operation.