Predator Free Wellington says a $7.6 million funding boost should see rats, stoats and weasels banished from the city twice as fast as originally planned.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage with Wellington Mayor Andy Foster, at Otari-Wilton's bush. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Thomas
Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced the funding today, from a $76m pot of money given to Predator Free 2050 in the latest Budget.
Sage said the project would create 42 full time jobs for the city over five years, repeating the methods used on Miramar Peninsula to remove rats, stoats and weasels.
"It will use the tried and true methods of precision grid of traps and bait stations ... and extend that from Kilbirine to Island Bay, through to the CBD and further out towards Porirua."
Predator Free Wellington project director James Willcocks said the funding was a welcome "shot in the arm", which should double the speed of the project - initially estimated to take 10 years.
"It means we can scale up and move to continuous operations. The goal is definitely five years and then a couple of years at the end just to make sure we've got all our detection systems set up, then job done."
The funding matches similar investment over the next five years by Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the NEXT Foundation.
'We can do this, and we will' - Wellington Mayor Andy Foster
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster said locals were fortunate to have such strong biodiversity in the city.
"What we're doing here is unique, in an urban environment - to get rid of some of those pests - it hasn't been done before."
Foster said people doubted the plan for Zealandia - the 225ha predator-proof sanctuary in Karori which is home to kiwi, takahē, kākā and other birds.
"People said 'you can't do that, it's impossible'. Zealandia is there, it's thriving and it's been the vanguard, if you like, for other predator proof sanctuaries across our country. So we can do this and we will do it."
The next stage of control will be done across 19 suburbs from Kilbirnie, to Island Bay and down to the CBD.
"It means trapping everywhere," James Willcocks said.
The $7.6 million funding boost announced for the Wellington Predator Free 2050 programme covers Phase 2 of the project, which will cover 19 suburbs from Island Bay to Kilbirnie and the CBD. Photo: Supplied / Predator Free Wellington
The method in Miramar involved laying bait stations every 50m in a grid - which meant door-knocking homes, the Wellington Airport, and film studios, Willcocks said.
"That took 3000 individual permissions to get that done. So it's not just putting device out, it's going and servicing those every week for months and months, so we become a part of people's lives.
There was also a grid of mustelid traps every 100m, he said. "Then we infill beyond that with detection devices to see if there's anything happening in really small habitat. It's massive."
The entire Wellington Peninsula covers 30,000ha, and is home to 212,000 people.
Willcocks said the team would be looking for people who were good at customer engagement, as well as sturdy types who did not mind the outdoors.
"When you think about the interaction with households, homeowners, it's an incredibly high trust model, so people that are able to build rapport. And then on the field side of it, you've got to put up with these inclement days in Wellington, so a bit of sturdiness getting out there in a Wellington southerly."
Eugenie Sage said about $12m of the $76m Predator Free 2050 funding had been allocated so far. As well as Wellington, funding of $5.11m has been announced for Banks Peninsula.
Where are the rest of the Jobs for Nature?
The government promised 11,000 jobs in its Jobs for Nature Fund - worth $1.3 billion - that was announced in the 2020 Budget as a response to Covid-19.
James Willcocks, project director of Predator Free Wellington, with Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Thomas
"There are around 1200 that have been created to date - that is a process of over four years so we've never expected to create them all in the first six months," Sage said.
Sage's office confirmed those figures relate to jobs linked to the Department of Conservation. The overall programme straddles multiple ministries, where funding has been announced for specific projects expected to create 3232 jobs.
Sage said the government was working through a process allocating the remainder, and promised that more are on the way.
"It's not always full time for the whole year, but there are a number of jobs being established to enable people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own through Covid, to have work."
