Climbers checking traps at Wye Creek

Date:  13 June 2013

Queenstown Climbing Club members are doing more than scaling rock walls in the Wye Creek area.

Following an open day last month when five Department of Conservation (DOC) staff and 16 club members set out 43 stoat traps at Wye Creek, members have agreed to check the traps every month. Appellation Central Wine tours funded three Goodnature self setting traps.

DOC ranger and Lise O'Leary set a trap.

Club treasurer Estelle Poiron said members were pleased to be involved in the trapping project to protect the rare ecosystem near Queenstown. She would be drawing up a roster for members to check the traps and refresh the eggs. A report would then be written for DOC about the animals caught.

This is the first step in a long-term plan to protect the flora and fauna of the 250ha Wye Creek ecosystem near Queenstown.

Queenstown Climbing Club member Philip Green installing new traps at Wye Creek

Anyone who wants to help with trap checks can contact Estelle or Ray Molloy. The Wye Creek site is an ideal site for community groups, volunteers from overseas, or businesses to contribute to as it is only a 20-minute drive from Queenstown. After a brief training session, volunteers can spend a few hours or a few days doing some valuable conservation work in one of the few forested areas in the Remarkables.

Background information

Queenstown Climbing Club members have also installed a toilet at Wye Creek and planted a Project Gold planting site.

DOC has identified Wye Creek as one of New Zealand’s priority conservation sites for conservation management as it is one of the few remaining ecosystems that stretch from lake edge to mountain top.

The trapping programme compliments goat and wilding pine control already being undertaken at Wye Creek and throughout the Remarkables.

Related links

• Queenstown area
• Stoats

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