Golden Bay MTB Club - Trap Line

When Stage 1 of the Pikikirunga Trail was opened in December 2024 the Golden Bay Mtb Club used trail cameras to measure usage of the trail. While reviewing footage from the cameras it was noticed there were many invasive predators in the area. The club has now established a trap line for invasive predators along the trail, and the Ground Effect Slush Fund has stumped up the $1800 needed to purchase traps and bait to get things kicked off.

The club is partnered with the Takaka Hill Biodiversity Group Trust who have agreed to administer the trap data and provide guidance and advice on the overall trapping strategy. The long term plan is to establish a trap line along the entire trail. The club sourced a bunch of 'pre-loved' trap boxes from the East Mohua Trapping Collective that contain DOC150 traps designed to target rats, weasels and stoats - good news for birdlife in the area. Club members, John, Frazer and Karen worked for several hours to recondition the traps to make them as good as new. Club members will service the traps on a monthly basis entering the data from catches into TrapNZ (a national database for trapping data).

Two other club members Murray Birch and Tony Le Sueur designed and printed a couple of stencils in order to ‘bling’ up the traps with cool logos for the club and Ground Effect. Takaka DOC also gave a hand by providing stencils for warning signs for the traps.

A year on wasp control is underway, bird life monitoring in the Scenic Reserve is about to kick off AND the traps have caught:

2 x cats
28 x mice
76 x rats
10 x stoats
4 x weasels

The catch rates for the traps are sitting at about 30% which is really high, but given that there has been no predator control in the Takaka Hill Scenic Reserve at all this is not surprising.

Many club members volunteered their time during the building of the trail, enjoying the natural beauty of the bush in the reserve and wish to continue to contribute to looking after the biodiversity of the area. Volunteers have removed 800kg of rubbish from the area and the club has undertaken wasp control (and has plans to extend this over the coming year).

A little bit of background info on the Pikikirunga Trail - The Golden Bay Mtb Club is currently building a trail from the top of the Takaka Hill to Upper Takaka. Stage 1 of the trail through the Takaka Hill Scenic Reserve has been completed and has resulted in 3.2km of a Grade 3 downhill flow trail using many natural features to make the trail fun for riders of all abilities. The trail has also opened up this special part of the Takaka Hill to other users such as walkers and runners. The club is working closely with Takaka DOC who administer the Takaka Hill Scenic Reserve for access to the reserve and trail building guidelines. Find our more about what the Slush Fund has been up to with the Golden Bay Mtb Club at: 

PIKIKIRUNGA TRAIL - GOLDEN BAY

GOLDEN BAY MTB CLUB

PROJECT RAMEKA - GOLDEN BAY