Towards Predator Free Taranaki will help North Island robin, or toutouwai, thrive in Egmont National Park

Pests, predators, killers.

Call them what you will.

Under an intensive long term project almost every rat, stoat, possum and ferret will be wiped out from Taranaki's lush landscape.

It's a lofty ideal but the powers to be - local authorities and central government - believe it can be achieved.

READ MORE:

* Govt commits $11.7m to make Taranaki first predator-free region

* How Predator Free plans to wipe out these pests once and for all

​* The science behind a predator-free NZ

There is really no choice, the public has been told.

If thousands of furry four-legged predators are not eradicated the region's rare endangered bird and plant biodiversity will be lost for future generations.

So an environmental war has been declared on almost all predators in Taranaki - with the exception of cats.

Armed with state of the art technology including wireless node and leg hold traps, motion sensor cameras and the indomitable-looking Viking brand rat trap, the region is the first in the country to take on the task of getting rid of possums, rats and stoats from urban and rural areas.

Led by the Taranaki Regional Council with a war chest of up to $47 million, including $11.7m provided by the government through Predator Free 2050 Ltd, the next five years will be focussed on bringing predator numbers below five per cent.

TRC environmental services manager Steve Ellis says the project presents an array of challenges, and needs the community to feel totally involved to join in the fight

"It is one of the challenges of how are we going to do this, and trying to explain it in a simple, easy to understand way," Ellis said.

"That is difficult because by its very nature this is complex project, with many different facets.

"It's getting into the technical biodiversity science space that not everyone understands."

TRC Taranaki Regional Council environmental services manager Steve Ellis

A hard task

Naturally the project has attracted its share of naysayers, Ellis says.

The region encompasses around 700,000ha - equivalent to 700,000 footy fields - far too big an area to efficiently control every single pest.

Instead the emphasis first up will be around New Plymouth urban areas and beyond to rural farm land, towards Egmont National Park.

"There are people will say we never do it, but you have to have a goal," he says.

The new funding will allow more people and more resources to join the fight, and it will help to start getting people to think about pest control as a normal activity in much the way recycling household rubbish has evolved.

Urban trapping workshops, door knocking, and council websites will all help encourage residents to play their part.

"Like recycling, we need people to respond in the same way so setting rat traps in the backyard becomes as normal as putting out your recycle bin each week.

"As we get smarter, attitudes will evolve."

It about encouraging everyone to grow their own programmes.

"We're not going to get this done overnight, it is long way away."

Ellis says wiping every last rat, possum, and stoat from the region by 2050 is not the target.

"Although we have time limits for our own programme of where we want to be at certain stages, there is no set timeline to eradicate predators, such as by 2050."

"We have time limits to rolling out the programme, and 2050 has been set as the end goal nationally, but the 'Towards Predator Free Taranaki' has no deadline.

"It could be by, or before, 2050.

"We consciously call it 2050 because 2050 is a big goal but it's going to need some step changes in technology to getting there."

TRC/Supplied Smart technology predator traps are connected to the internet and let the farmer know when they need resetting.

How it will work

Christchurch-based Zero Invasive Predators, or ZIP, will provide the technical know how and as the project progresses technology will come and go.

"We're at the point now where the technology we are rolling out now will see some significant progress in the next five years."

The multi million-dollar funding has enabled the project team to plan for the next five years in smaller specific areas, and allow the programme to expand for another five years over the Ring Plain.

"For the project we have put together, the funding is enough to complete what we want to do," Ellis says.

"Whether that gets us to zero predators has yet to be seen so there's going to be some adaptive management put in place and learning new techniques.

"So we are going to learn a lot along the way."

Taranaki Regional Council is no slouch when it comes to predator control.

Since 1992 it has been working with farmers on a self help possum control programme over 250,000 hectares - about a third of the region.

"It's the longest running possum trapping programme in the world," Ellis says.

"We are at the forefront of possum predator control."

The council has no precise information on how exactly many possums, rats or stoats are roaming the verdant Taranaki countryside, and native bush areas.

"We don't do a census on these things but we have a way of statistically figuring out if we are reducing the population by using an index system," he says.

"If we have 100 traps and catch 20-30 possums, that's a 30 per cent index which gives us a line in the sand of what is out there."

Ellis says the target is a 5 per cent or less catch rate after control trapping.

That will show a reduction in population rather than a census of how many predators are out there.

"If you don't catch anything you won't conclusively know if there are no possums."

The self help programme has reduced numbers to 5-6 per cent already.

As a trial the predator free project will also attempt to completely eradicate possums from bush, rural and urban areas between the Kaitake Ranges and Oakura on the coast.

"Getting possums to zero has never been done before, and we've never done a controlled trapping programme for ferrets and stoats on this scale." Ellis says.

To control mustelids and learn about their behaviour the programme needed to be implemented on a massive scale, Ellis says.

One method will be putting radio controlled collars on stoats to understand their behaviour patterns.

"By year one we will know how to target them, and by year two we will know where to put the traps out.

"As we roll out the programme we will get smarter."

The urban and rural programme will roughly follow the Waiwhakaiho catchment from urban New Plymouth to Egmont National Park boundary.

The extra resources will add to the control of stoats and rats already targeted by existing NPDC urban predator programmes.

For residents to become involved, one in five houses in urban areas will have traps set up for rodent control, and neighbours will not be stopped from putting traps in their backyards.

In the rural areas predators will be targeted in Key Native Ecosystems, or KNE, areas.

Traps with wireless nodes will be used to alert a landowner's cellphone when the trap has been set off.

This will reduce the time commitment of checking traps daily regardless of whether they have been set off, Ellis says.

"That is one of the step changes we will see as we progress."

Already 120 similar traps are in use at Pukeiti's world acclaimed rhododendron garden.

A 'virtual' barrier of 2000 battery operated traps will also be set up to eradicate possums between the Kaitake Ranges and Oakura.

The trapping system, together with natural barriers, such as rivers and streams, will stop possums moving back into the national park, Ellis says.

"We will do our best to try and find the last possum, that's when we can call it zero."

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF Towards a Predator-Free Taranaki was launched in May at Pukeiti. (from left) Predator Free 2050 ceo Ed Chignell, TRC chair David MacLeod, Predator Free 2050 chair Jane Taylor, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage with some of the new traps to be used.

Catching cats?

But even if the possums are eradicated, there will still be another pest on the loose.

Cats, domestic or wild, are not specifically targeted by the project, Ellis says.

Feral cat control is already undertaken by the council and rural landowners and the live capture of feral cats will continue.

The issue of how to control predatory domestic cats roaming is a "conversation" the council will address in time, Ellis says.

"Feral cats have not been discounted but we are only doing that if people are interested.

"Cats are an issue but they are not the number one predator, which are stoats and possums, so it will be voluntary for rural people if they want to target cats, we will help them."

Ellis says the dilemma is domestic cats.

"They have to be part of the mix somewhere but stoats, possums and rats are our logical start points.

"If you catch a cat, whose is it?

"So we're not specifically targeting cats in the urban areas.

"As far as we can see the public is not willing to go down that track and we are not willing to push it.

"Cats are predators but we need to have responsible cat ownership in urban areas.

"Owners need to feed them properly and keep them inside at night.

"We have always pushed responsible ownership and that's what it is about."

Morgan Foundation general manager Jessi Morgan says trapping 'owned', or pet, cats was a highly emotive debate.

Naturally it has been left off the predator free agenda, she says.

The Morgan Foundation supports micro-chipping to distinguish between feral, or unowned, and pet cats, to enable rehoming.

Social awareness of how much damage cats do to bird life, once stoat numbers are reduced, will increase, Morgan says.

Communities will grow to realise what is happening and begin to change attitudes to controlling their cats, she says.

Taranaki Regional Council Taranaki Regional Council director of regional operations Stephen Hall.

Working together

The TPFT project will not overlap environmental conservation groups like Taranaki Mounga who have been developing their own predator control programmes to remove predators and restore the Mt Taranaki landscape.

The group, funded by regional council, iwi, corporate, and central government has focused on reducing predators and increasing native bird releases over 34,000ha since 2016.

Operations manager Sean Zieltjes​ says the group doesn't envisage any conflict between the goals of the new project, and the group's own targets.

"Our work will continue on as before but we now have more opportunities to control predators.

"It (TPFT) only makes our work become better, and our dreams become bigger."

TM will be now be able to redesign systems to align more with the regional council work, such as extending stoat trapping in the national park, and be involved in the zero possum programme on the Kaitake Ranges, he says.

But it will stay away from urban trapping initiatives.

Already 36 motion sensor cameras in the park are capturing images of predators to help learn behavioural patterns and distribution trends in order to start a trapping programme.

TRC operations director Stephen Hall says a lot of work has been going on in Taranaki to cull predators over as long period of time.

In an radio interview Hall described Taranaki the "first cab off the rank" for regional predator control in New Zealand.

"We have a proven track record and a significant chunk of predator control through urban and rural areas with rats and possums has been undertaken already," he said.

Hall says the scale of the control programme has never been attempted before.

"It's trailblazing but we're not starting from zero, we will build on existing projects starting with urban areas in New Plymouth, and the Waiwhakaiho catchment."

Strong community support will be vital, Hall says.

"Taranaki is already leading the way nationally with community conservation and there is a large amount of existing effort being undertaken by landowners and the community on pest control.

"This programme will build on that existing community effort and take things to the next level.

"This will be enough for the first five years of the programme," Hall says.

"There will be a noticeable difference in people's backyards and on farms with less predators and native wildlife and plants starting to thrive."

