Please give us a hand… FINANCIALLY
I would like to donate $20
Help!
$50
While our restoration work relies heavily on volunteers, there are financial costs – a bucket of rat bait costs $90 and a carton of possum bait $400 – and there is fierce competition for funding.
The birds are coming back, thanks to our volunteers!
We also need money to monitor these pests, plan our operations and measure their effectiveness. We welcome donations – these help us to bring back the birds and protect Aongatete Forest.
Tasks on volunteer workdays include filling bait stations, checking stoat traps, monitoring rat tracking tunnels and counting birds calls. We are always looking for more volunteers. Get in touch, preferably by email. Contact details are on the back panel of this brochure.
Other: $ ...............................
NOTE: Donations over $5 are tax deductible. To get a tax receipt you must also email us, advising of your deposit and including your contact details.
Our bank account number is 02-0340-0007399-00
PRACTICALLY I would like to volunteer to help on organised work days in the forest. Please contact me: Name ..................................................................................... Address................................................................................... ............................................................................................... Phone ..................................................................................... Email .....................................................................................
Email: restore.aongatete@gmail.com www.restore-aongatete.net 141 Thompsons Track, RD2 Katikati 3178 Phone 07 548 3238
AONGATETE FOREST RESTORATION TRUST
AONGATETE FOREST RESTORATION TRUST
Bringing back the birds
Bringing back the birds
A FOREST & BIRD AND KATIKATI ROTARY INITIATIVE
A FOREST & BIRD AND KATIKATI ROTARY INITIATIVE
Aongatete leaflet_061212.indd 1
Huia image with kind permission of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa MA_I006690
We thank our main supporters…
Bring back the birds!
We can’t bring back the Huia …it’s extinct. But we can bring back the birdsong and make Aongatete Forest healthy again.
Please help!
AONGATETE
FOREST RESTORATION TRUST
Bringing back the birds A FOREST & BIRD AND KATIKATI ROTARY INITIATIVE
7/12/12 1:05 PM
Restoring Aongatete Forest What’s special about Aongatete?
What are we doing about it?
Where is Aongatete?
Aongatete is part of the Kaimai Conservation Park and an entry point to the network of walking tracks. It is the site of the popular Aongatete Outdoor Recreation Lodge which hosts hundreds of people, including many school children, every year.
In 2006 the Aongatete Forest Restoration Trust was set up by Tauranga Forest & Bird and Katikati Rotary Club with the support of local landowners and Ngai Tamawhariua.
Our ‘HQ’ for volunteer workdays is the carpark at the end of Wright Road off State Highway 2 between Tauranga and Katikati.
There are nine trustees but the real work is carried out by a dedicated group of some 80 volunteers.
The forest is rich and varied and not long ago was home to kiwi, kokako and a host of other native birds. But the kiwi and kokako are gone, the forest is falling silent and the forest canopy is a skeleton of its former glory.
AONGATETE
FOREST RESTORATION TRUST
Bringing back the birds
What’s the problem?
Our aims
It’s the pests! All the Kaimai forests suffer from unchecked pests but Aongatete is particularly vulnerable. Its lowland plants are the favourite food of possums. Stoats and rats thrive and eat the birds, lizards and invertebrates.
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©David Hallett
©Rod Morris
©Craig McKenzie
©TonyJewell
Those pesky rats! The single greatest threat to native forests is the ship rat, Rattus rattus. When ship rats invade a forest, many native species decline and some go extinct altogether. Ship rats eat birds’ eggs, nestlings, insects, lizards and the seeds of the forest trees. In a single year, a female rat can have up to six litters of ten baby rats! It is estimated that the ship rat destroys more than 26 million New Zealand birds every year. Aongatete leaflet_061212.indd 2
To restore the native The Trust coordinates wildlife and plant life ■ Pest control To reintroduce some lost ■ Volunteer activities species ■ Education and public To enhance the public awareness experience and enjoyment of the forest ■ Monitoring of forest health To expand the area of protected forest by working with other groups To promote the restoration of the whole Conservation Park
WHAT WE’VE ACHIEVED: THE FOREST IS COMING ALIVE! More birds are singing. The forest is more healthy and lush. With fewer seeds eaten by rats, seedlings are germinating and carpeting the forest floor. Monitoring confirms what we can see and hear. We are linking with a new Forest & Bird initiative which will extend the area of pest control to nearly 1000 hectares. With our area at its core, this will form the ‘Aongatete Forest Restoration Project’, making a huge, pest-controlled forest sanctuary for native plants and wildlife. ©Craig McKenzie
7/12/12 1:05 PM