For those that don\u2019t know me I\u2019m Quentin (Pepeha). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My father fished these waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He started the mussel farm. They grew fat feeding off the ocean floor .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It isn\u2019t the same now. But that\u2019s because the bush that feeds the bay is different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been trapping the bush round my bay for thirty years. I can see the difference where I\u2019ve cut tracks and baited stations. I see healthy rata where I work while just over the hill possums have eaten the tops bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s not enough. I\u2019m losing. I\u2019m losing because I\u2019m working alone. And old mate over there is working alone. And we disagree about what pest control methods to use. And between us there\u2019s someone who doesn\u2019t do any pest control on their land so there\u2019s a pocket where they flourish and this is replicated all over the peninsula and no one is being effective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this place, Moehau. I\u2019ve walked these tracks season after season. Hundreds of kilometres, thousands of bait stations but it\u2019s all fallen apart up there and currently, no one is protecting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The jewel of the coromandel, the only part of the peninsula that has never been underwater. A unique biodiversity home to dozens of unique species is under a unique threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The threat is everywhere. Everywhere, all the time. The enemy doesn\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to draw a line somewhere and we\u2019re drawing it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This line represents a coast to coast corridor where locals have agreed<\/em> to take a stand. Across this one kilometre stretch of land, from Kennedy Bay to Colville, we are going to build a fence of steel traps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Steel traps. On these we can agree. After years of poison and single kill traps this is like the iPhone coming on the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n No poison. Instant kill, they reset themselves. Batteries last months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve developed software that allows us to gather all the data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can track every kill and check the status of the trap meaning minimal maintenance and maximum data collection. We will use that data to improve our performance. For the first time in pest control history we know exactly what\u2019s going on in the bush. No more guesswork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Predator free twenty fifty has to start somewhere. I look around the whenua and I don\u2019t see the effort. I don\u2019t see a comprehensive plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s do this methodically. Let\u2019s do this scientifically. Let\u2019s do this together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Make a one kilometre predator free barrier, then move up until the entire top of coromandel is liberated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s literally the most important thing in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re not talking about killing possums. We\u2019re talking about saving birds, which changes the floor of the bush, which flows out to the gulf, which feeds the mussels where my old man built his dreams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those that don\u2019t know me I\u2019m Quentin (Pepeha). My father fished these waters. He started the mussel farm. They grew fat feeding off the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5,6],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pepeha","tag-about","tag-who-are-we","post_format-post-format-quote"],"yoast_head":"\n