Tracking tunnel project update

Clyde Quay School students are working on a project to help catch pests and make Mount Victoria are safer place for birds to live.  Students have traps set up at school and around the suburb to catch rats, mice and hedgehogs.

Firstly, students made “tracking tunnels” that helped to identify which pests lived in the area by looking at their  footprints. We then got some expert advice from Wellington City Council and “Wild Eyes” about how these pests are affecting the ecosystem.

We found tracks belonging hedgehogs, mice and possibly slugs and snails too!

We signed up to the Student Volunteer Army, and got to work.  Platoon leader, and year 7 student Brian Ngan says “I think this is important because it’s saving the environment.   We are old enough to make a difference” and Liz Patra, principal, couldn’t agree more with Clyde Quay rangatahi taking direct action.

The project consists of 5 main groups: The storytellers, platoon leaders, planners, do-ers, and the habitat restorers.

• Each of the platoon leaders are assigned to manage a group.
• The storytellers manage the media outlets, take pictures, and write for newsletters.
• The do-ers do stuff, such as set and check the traps,

• Habitat restorers are planting and looking after plants around the school
• The planners set up trap lines at school and across the suburb.

The habitat restorers did a survey of birds at the school and saw lots, although they were mostly pidgeons and sparrows!

We know that there is a similar group, Victory over Vermin that is catching pests in the town belt and we wanted to support their work by trapping in the suburb of Mount Victoria.This inspired a few of the students here, and narrows the suitable trap locations down a lot.  Teacher Sandy O’Brien says “I think that trapping is the lesser of two evils when you measure it against the possible extinction of our native treasures.”  As an Enviroschool, we think it’s really important to be looking after our planet so future generations can enjoy what we enjoy.

There are currently two traps set at school and 7 in households in the community.  We hope that by doing this, many more people in Mount Victoria will be inspired to start trapping pests.

What we'd love to do next is:
- Purchase our own DOC200 trap so we can kill hedgehogs (currently we are borrowing one but we'll need to return it.)
- Host a workshop run by a group of secondary school students from the group "Ratted out" where they teach parents and children how to build trap boxes so we can have trapping happening in more back yards in Mount Victoria
- Expand the project so that more students at school are involved (not just the year 7 and 8s)

Although led by the year 7 and 8 students, it has been a real community effort.  Zealandia has donated traps, Wild Eyes has given us inspiration and parents have given us advice.

To conclude, we as a community hope to make Mt. Victoria pest free and have more native wildlife. The council is hoping to make wellington the first pest free capital city in the world.