Happy Holidays from the Project Janszoon Team
Since our last newsletter in winter, we’ve seen our education programme get super busy as our students embrace the opportunity to get out into the Abel Tasman National Park. We sorrowfully farewelled Erik Lander, our Golden Bay-based Tautoko who passed away suddenly in October and will be much missed.
Our pest monitoring data indicated rising rat numbers in the lower elevations of the park, putting the security of the gains we’ve made in forest bird abundance at risk. We met this challenge with an aerial pest control operation in November, the operation went off without a hitch and we are seeing signs of a favourable outcome which we expect to see reflected in footprint tracking data collected after the operation.
We’ve just published our 2022-23 Annual Report, which gives an overview from our Board Chair Gillian Wratt and Project Director Bruce Vander Lee of what we’ve achieved over this period and our vision for working with our key partners to ensure the gains made will be maintained and improved upon in the future.
There’s evidence that kākā are breeding again in the park, we are monitoring progress but won’t have any definitive results to share until autumn next year.
And, hot off the press, we’ve just completed a whio/blue duck release in the park’s interior as we work to ensure that all available whio habitat is providing homes for this taonga species.
We wish you all a sunny, relaxing Christmas break!
The Project Janszoon team
