Te Taumutu Rūnanga and their mahi for pest free

[justify][b]Te Taumutu Rūnanga are involved in an ambitious project to  free their land from mammalian pests by 2050.[/b][/justify] [justify][b]Ngāi Tahu ancestors and[/b][b] Kaitōrete Spit[/b] Kaitōrete Spit is a wild, beautiful, windswept 26km stretch of land. Before European arrival, Ngāi Tahu ancestors walked the dunes and low scrub of Kaitōrete, collecting food and weaving materials along the way. The area has one of the largest concentrations of middens, mahinga kai and pre-historic archaeological sites nationally. Te Taumutu Rūnanga are now part of a group involved in the mammoth task of eliminating mammal predators from Kaitōrete. [/justify]

[b]Moving to a pest free taiao/environment [/b] Pest Free Banks Peninsula/Te pātaka o Rākaihautū hope to have covered the full length of Kaitōrete and the southeast corner of Banks Peninsula by 2024. The project team will lay 280 traps across 4400ha of Kaitōrete to eliminate hedgehogs, feral cats, possums and the three mustelidspecies (weasels, stoats and ferrets). The ultimate goal is to restore the biodiversity and creating a flourishing taiao/environment for whanau. [b]Protecting our mīharo/amazing biodiversity[/b] The spit is a breeding site for the banded dotterel and other bird species. It is home to two flightless moth species, both endemic to the spit, as well as the katipō, several lizard species, and threatened plants. Team members are using a mixture of kill and live capture traps, which have remote reporting nodes to show when they have triggered. To prevent a reinvasion of the pests, a team from Te Taumutu Rūnanga have also been trapping at Taumutu, the settlement at Fisherman’s Point. 

[b]Founding members and their pest free goal[/b] The founding members of Pest Free Banks Peninsula are Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, Rod Donald Trust, Summit Road Society, DOC, ECan, Christchurch City Council, Ōnuku Rūnanga, Te Hāpu o Ngāti Wheke Rūnanga, Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata, Te Taumutu Rūnanga, Wairewa Rūnanga, Living Springs, Selwyn District Council, and the Cacophony Project. The five-year Pest Free Banks Peninsula programme comprises the spit and 23,000ha in the Akaroa area called the extended Wildside. The organisation’s ultimate goal is to free Banks Peninsula from mammalian pests by 2050.