Peter F, Biodiversity Development Co-ordinator.

Volunteers Veerle and Margaret are now sharing the new stoat line on Pickford’s and I will take Gail up to the Mackintosh C line in the coming month.

I have spent some time clearing blackberry away from bait stations in preparation for our next baiting round. This has been a great growing season and track maintenance is an ongoing issue in all of the blocks.

I attended a meeting at DOC with the Kokako trust and representatives from the QE2 Trust about the ongoing Kokako monitoring project. The meeting looked at progress so far and formulated a plan for the coming year. This is relevant to MET as we do a lot of work around the perimeter of the Kokako area and the Kokako are a good indicator of the general ecological health of the forest in our area.

Liddy, Environmental Educator.

Now that the school year is in full swing I have received a number of bookings for student group educational visits along with a visit from a pre-school and the Ohope Probus group. This month I had a good day out in Manawahe to meet a few farmers. This has given me lots of good ideas to do with the schools. It is quite inspirational to talk to farmers who clearly care about conservation on their land.

Peter F and I had a constructive day at MECC. We have created a plan to get the weeds under control in various stages. We can embark on each stage depending on our levels of support and funding. We also established a more adventurous track which will be interesting for our primary school students. We changed the traps and tracking tunnels and added some bait to get better control of any pests around the Centre.

We will look forward to the Manawahe Monthly Morning Tea being held at MECC on June 15^th.