A landcare group set up earlier this year to cull predators in bush around the craggy Reotahi peak called Mt Aubrey wants people to keep their dogs controlled in the area.
The group was set up formally in May this year after some members had undertaken predator trapping for years on their own accord.
Until recently, three times a week Harvey Gadd and neighbour Jayne Broome cleared and set 22 possum and rat traps but now only check them once a week.
They are constantly disappointed to see dog paw prints along the same tracks people use in the reserve. There are kiwi living in the Mt Aubrey Reserve area and the birds' strong smell and flightless gait are hard for even the tamest pet pooch to resist. The message needs to be made more strongly that dogs harm kiwi and should not be allowed in the area, she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Gadd said he has caught hundreds of possums and nearly as many rats in the five years he has been setting his 10 traps in the lower levels of the mountain, a task richly rewarded by the health of the forest and the ensuing explosion in bird numbers.