Bay conservation group to represent Far North in national community awards

Bay Bush Action trustees Stella Kake, Craig Salmon and Brad Windust with their Far North Community Awards trophy and a few of the pests they have caught. PHOTO / SUPPLIED

An environmental group which has so far caught more than 9000 pests in a bid to save a Bay of Islands forest will represent the Far North in the national community awards this month.

As the winners of the 2016 TrustPower Far North Community Awards, Bay Bush Action will compete for the national title in Rotorua on March 25 against 24 regional finalists.

The Far North has a strong record in the national finals with wins by the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust in 2011 and Focus Paihia in 2015.

Bay Bush Action was founded in 2011 to halt the decline of Opua Forest, which covers more than 4000ha of hills behind Paihia and Opua. Like most Northland forests it has been hard hit by pests which have killed many of its trees and birds.

Traplines set up by the group in a core area of 450ha have so far caught 5843 rats, 2122 possums, 104 stoats and 82 feral cats, as well as large numbers of mice and weasels.

The group also supplies pest traps to the public to set up their own community traplines along the edge of the forest, holds fortnightly clean-ups of Bay of Islands beaches, and runs a youth conservation group called Ngahere Toa.

Trustee Craig Salmon said canopy collapse had been reversed in the core trapping area after six years of work, the dawn chorus had returned, seedlings were surviving instead of being mown down by possums and rats, and there had been a striking increase in geckos, weta and stick insects.

Long term the group wanted to introduce kiwi to boost the low numbers living in the forest.

Mr Salmon said he was "super excited" to represent the Far North and Bay Bush Action at the national awards along with fellow trustee Stella Kake, though also a little nervous. He was pleased that deputy mayor Tania McInnes and Focus Paihia chairman Grant Harnish, who represented the district in 2015, were coming along to lend advice and support.

He had no idea of the group's chances of securing another Far North win.

"Everyone there has put in an amazing effort for their communities. We're all winners already, having won our own regions."

Each group will be judged on an eight-minute presentation plus a 1000-word report on their achievements and why they deserve to be the supreme winner. The presentations will take place in the Rotorua Energy Events Centre with the winners announced during dinner that evening at the Blue Baths.

■ Groups that want to enter this year's Far North awards have until March 31 to do so. Entry forms are available from council service centres, from www.trustpower.co.nz/communityawards, or by calling 0800 87 11 11.