Ross Skilton puts in the hard yards trapping, shooting and fencing. Photo / Laurel Stowell
Ross Skilton puts in the hard yards trapping, shooting and fencing. Photo / Laurel Stowell
Kiwi calls have been recorded in 125ha of covenanted bush near Maxwell.
It is on the Skilton family land and the calls were heard after Taranaki Regional Council left recorders overnight to record kiwi they believed could be there given the habitat.
North Island brown kiwi are at risk anddeclining, the Conservation Department's website says. Its office has been contacted for comment.
Since the calls at Aorere Farm were recorded, rat trapping there has increased to cover two thirds of the block, Ross Skilton said.
It's not clear how many kiwi are present, or whether they are breeding - but more recordings will be made this week.
What's now known is Skilton's Bush received an award from Taranaki Regional Council last year "for outstanding efforts to protect native flora and fauna through effective land management and the use of trapping technology".
The 125ha covenanted Queen Elizabeth II block runs along a steep-sided gully. Photo / Supplied
"The Skiltons are great examples of enthusiastic landowners voluntarily protecting the remaining bush areas on their properties," Taranaki Regional Council environment services manager Steve Ellis said.
Skilton's Bush is a long, thin strip of steep-sided and highly erodible gully on Ross and Grant Skilton's piggery, cropping and dry stock farm 25km from Whanganui. Their family trust bought the 307ha there in 2004.
At that time the Ohie Stream gully had been cleared and had remnant tawa and ngaio forest, and lots of gorse. The gorse was being sprayed and the land was grazed by cattle that drank from the stream.
Skilton began working with Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) in 2007 and first looked to fence stock out, a matter of "give and take" boundaries due to the steep contours. The area became a Key Native Ecosystem (KNE) in the council's voluntary scheme, and TRC paid for the track needed before fencing could be done.
TRC did an ecological assessment in 2016 and offered money for weed control. There weren't many weeds, Skilton said, and the gorse was acting as a nurse crop for natives. Instead the money is spent on controlling predators - lots of them.
"We got the environmental award for killing things. We do some of it, and the neighbours do some," Skilton said.
He and others have shot more than 500 goats since 2004. In the first year they shot 90 pigs that had been rooting up pasture.
Thousands of possums have been cleared from the block. Hares damage the regenerating wetlands and more than 250 have been shot.
There are also a few deer, and wild sheep. Skilton uses Goodnature A24 traps for rats and stoats. He never finds a carcase because those are eaten by other predators.
He uses humane kill traps for cats in the bush, and live capture traps closer to houses.
He does most of the poisoning, spotlighting and trapping, with TRC paying for traps and bait.
Parts of the gully have regenerating tawa forest. Photo / Laurel Stowell
The bush is regenerating nicely, he said, with tawa, miro, rimu, pukatea, broadleaf, punga and supplejack. There's not much gorse left.
The area is now registered with the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for permanent preservation.
"It's a big decision, giving effective control of land to another entity. But it's the best land use for it," Skilton said.
Ellis said it was great to be working with keen landowners like the Skiltons to protect Taranaki's biodiversity. Around 20 new landowners join the council's KNE programme every year, he said, and they receive help and advice.
