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News Update - February 2007
January was a busy month for the Pomona Island Charitable Trust. On 4th January we hosted 25 people on the island for Art in the Park, part of the DOC summer programme in Fiordland. All participants has the opportunity to take part in the three activities organised for the day:
- photography under the watchful eye of Graham Dainty
- sketching with Chris Wilkie, artist and local art teacher
- nature interpretation with Trustee Hunter Shaw.
The weather was especially kind and even the local sandflies stayed away for most of the day! Some photos from the day feature alongside this news item.
Ranging in age from four to seventy, everyone who came along had a great day on Pomona. Here are a selection of the comments from the participants in the Art in the Park day on Pomona:
'Great to see somewhere you couldn't normally get to with helpful people to guide you'
'Could see hands-on about pest traps and how much work is involved'
'Excellent volunteer staff with high level of expertise'
'Couldn't be better!'
'The activities arranged were great and the opportunities to try them all throughout the day was great.'
'A great day - suggest it runs again next year'.
The evening before the Art in the Park day, the Trust's secretary Viv Shaw gave a presentation on the work of the Trust. Following on from the day trip to Pomona we have had an exhibition at the Te Anau library of the sketches and photographs people took on the day. There really are some good photographers and artists in the local area so Graham and Chris (the professionals) will need to keep an eye out for local competition!!
From the Trust's point of view these events have been a great opportunity to show the public what we've been up to on Pomona and with such good feedback we hope that we will be able to do something similar again next summer. Our thanks go to Caroline Carter at DOC, both for suggesting the idea and also for organising a great day.
Trap Checks
Whilst the visitors to Pomona were busy honing their artistic skills, we had a team of four out checking the stoat traps. A total of 42 rats and one stoat were caught in January. A further trap check in February yielded another two stoats and a further 29 rats. This now brings our total of pest removed from Pomona to 5 stoats and 252 rats. We are a little disappointed to still be catching stoats, but we had been warned that females can be quite wary so are more difficult to trap, especially when there are so many other food sources available to them.
In January we also checked the stoat traps on the mainland again which yielded 6 more stoats and 14 rats. A further check is planned for the coming week.
Other News
January also saw us work on our application for resource consent for the aerial application of brodifacoum for the eradication of rats. Megan Willans did an excellent job for the Trust in putting together an Assessment of the Environmental Effects of the aerial operation. A lot of time and effort, all on a voluntary basis, was put into this comprehensive document so the Trust is extremely grateful to Megan. Our application for resource consent was notified in the Southland Times by Environment Southland on 3 February 2007. The deadline for submissions is 5 March 2007. Our plan is to undertake the aerial operation this coming winter, weather and funding permitting. We have, however, applied for the resource consent to be valid for a period of 5 years.
Assuming that the aerial operation does take place this year, we have our work cut out for us for the next few months. Before the aerial poison application can happen we need to eradicate the resident deer population from Pomona and also knock-down approx. 90% of the possums.
Work has already started on the deer eradication project with hunters having visited the island twice already. Although no deer were shot, we have a good idea of their locations for future hunting outings. The deer pen on Pomona has also now been repaired and as soon as the radio transmitters have been repaired the pen can be made fully operational. The great thing about the deer pen is that it will be working 24 hours a day 7 days a week and will also be there in the even that deer swim across to the island in the future.
We will keep you posted on our progress on a regular basis. We thank you for your on-going support of our restoration project. This is very much a community-led project entirely dependent, at this point in time, on volunteers to do all of the work, both on the island and behind the scenes.
January was a busy month for the Pomona Island Charitable Trust. On 4th January we hosted 25 people on the island for Art in the Park, part of the DOC summer programme in Fiordland. All participants has the opportunity to take part in the three activities organised for the day:
- photography under the watchful eye of Graham Dainty
- sketching with Chris Wilkie, artist and local art teacher
- nature interpretation with Trustee Hunter Shaw.
The weather was especially kind and even the local sandflies stayed away for most of the day! Some photos from the day feature alongside this news item.
Ranging in age from four to seventy, everyone who came along had a great day on Pomona. Here are a selection of the comments from the participants in the Art in the Park day on Pomona:
'Great to see somewhere you couldn't normally get to with helpful people to guide you'
'Could see hands-on about pest traps and how much work is involved'
'Excellent volunteer staff with high level of expertise'
'Couldn't be better!'
'The activities arranged were great and the opportunities to try them all throughout the day was great.'
'A great day - suggest it runs again next year'.
The evening before the Art in the Park day, the Trust's secretary Viv Shaw gave a presentation on the work of the Trust. Following on from the day trip to Pomona we have had an exhibition at the Te Anau library of the sketches and photographs people took on the day. There really are some good photographers and artists in the local area so Graham and Chris (the professionals) will need to keep an eye out for local competition!!
From the Trust's point of view these events have been a great opportunity to show the public what we've been up to on Pomona and with such good feedback we hope that we will be able to do something similar again next summer. Our thanks go to Caroline Carter at DOC, both for suggesting the idea and also for organising a great day.
Trap Checks
Whilst the visitors to Pomona were busy honing their artistic skills, we had a team of four out checking the stoat traps. A total of 42 rats and one stoat were caught in January. A further trap check in February yielded another two stoats and a further 29 rats. This now brings our total of pest removed from Pomona to 5 stoats and 252 rats. We are a little disappointed to still be catching stoats, but we had been warned that females can be quite wary so are more difficult to trap, especially when there are so many other food sources available to them.
In January we also checked the stoat traps on the mainland again which yielded 6 more stoats and 14 rats. A further check is planned for the coming week.
Other News
January also saw us work on our application for resource consent for the aerial application of brodifacoum for the eradication of rats. Megan Willans did an excellent job for the Trust in putting together an Assessment of the Environmental Effects of the aerial operation. A lot of time and effort, all on a voluntary basis, was put into this comprehensive document so the Trust is extremely grateful to Megan. Our application for resource consent was notified in the Southland Times by Environment Southland on 3 February 2007. The deadline for submissions is 5 March 2007. Our plan is to undertake the aerial operation this coming winter, weather and funding permitting. We have, however, applied for the resource consent to be valid for a period of 5 years.
Assuming that the aerial operation does take place this year, we have our work cut out for us for the next few months. Before the aerial poison application can happen we need to eradicate the resident deer population from Pomona and also knock-down approx. 90% of the possums.
Work has already started on the deer eradication project with hunters having visited the island twice already. Although no deer were shot, we have a good idea of their locations for future hunting outings. The deer pen on Pomona has also now been repaired and as soon as the radio transmitters have been repaired the pen can be made fully operational. The great thing about the deer pen is that it will be working 24 hours a day 7 days a week and will also be there in the even that deer swim across to the island in the future.
We will keep you posted on our progress on a regular basis. We thank you for your on-going support of our restoration project. This is very much a community-led project entirely dependent, at this point in time, on volunteers to do all of the work, both on the island and behind the scenes.
