Russell on the cusp of becoming first mainland town to achieve pest-free status

Russell is on the cusp of making conservation history by becoming the first mainland town to achieve pest-free status by eliminating rats and possums.

The largely volunteer-run Russell Landcare Trust has been working to remove introduced predators and bring back native wildlife for more than 20 years.

The trust has 7500 rat, possum and stoat traps along with 10,500 bait stations spread over 3000 hectares of the Russell Peninsula.

However, in recent weeks the trust has started removing traps from the bush - not because it has given up the battle, but because in some areas there are no pests left to catch.

That has led to a kiwi population boom with the feathered national icon now outnumbering Russell's human residents by a factor of three to one.

Nik Minchin, the trust's technical advisor, said 2000ha of the peninsula was now possum-free and 1000ha rat-free.

Traps pulled out of the bush were being refurbished by volunteers and placed further up the peninsula, to expand the trust's pest-control buffer zone and prevent re-invasion.

In an area known as Old Russell - which included Ōkiato, site of the nation's first capital, and the car ferry ramp, the only rats caught in the past three years were four that had made their way across by swimming or hitching on a boat last summer.

At Tapeka, the tip of Russell Peninsula, it had been eight months since a possum had been caught and six months since the last rat.

Minchin said it was much harder to eliminate rats in urban areas than in the bush, but in Russell township the trust was now down to one catch a month - despite having a trap every 25 metres.

That put the town on the cusp of being declared pest-free, he said.

"We also have a rubbish tip in Russell, so obviously that's an area where we have caught hundreds of rats. Now we haven't caught one there for more than three months. A dump with no rats, not too many places can say that."

Russell Landcare Trust general manager Ella van Gool said some parts of Wellington were already rat-free, but removing the rodents from an entire town was extremely challenging.

"That's what makes Russell unique. To our knowledge, there are no other towns in the mainland of New Zealand that are rat-free."

Van Gool said Russell had geography on its side - it was located on a peninsula with a defendable neck just a few kilometres wide - but more importantly the project had "enormous" community support.

"When this project was introduced, there was quite a bit of scepticism about whether or not we would be able to achieve it," she said.

"Now that we're getting there, everybody is in support. Many of the landowners give us permission to come on their property for pest control, it's 98 percent of the people we ask. So that's amazing."

Van Gool said other locals supported the trust through volunteer work such as trap checking, maintenance and habitat restoration, giving donations, or just talking to their neighbours about the project's benefits.

"Everybody's loving the wildlife that's increasing," she said.

The current estimate for the number of kiwi in Russell was around 2500, three times the town's permanent human population.

She said Russell was also unusual - and possibly unique - for having significant numbers of both kiwi and North Island weka in an urban environment.

Weka became locally extinct around 1940 but were re-introduced by the trust in 2002.

"Weka are really funny creatures. They are a little bit cheeky, and they come out during the day so you have a lot more interaction with them," van Gool said.

"Not everybody loves them because they like to get into people's gardens. But they are a natural creature of this peninsula, and they are more endangered than kiwi at the moment."

Long-time Russell resident Bridget Hughes said birdsong had increased "enormously" in the past year.

"It took a little bit of a while for them to recover but the kiwi count has increased exponentially. If you wander up the track at dusk you've got probably a 90 percent chance of seeing a kiwi."

Jan Clifton, of Tapeka, said she'd also been struck by the change.

"We hear the squeaking of kiwis now, we have wekas coming down to out back door and looking for food. Sometimes they bring their babies in the springtime, so it's lovely."

Veteran Russell Landcare Trust volunteer Bob Drey said the dawn chorus was now "almost deafening".

He felt proud the town was finally living up to its reputation as a kiwi sanctuary.

"Having removed the predators we're now seeing kiwi and other animals, such as weka, just exploding in population. That's amazing to witness."

The wildlife resurgence has benefited Russell businesses, too.

Shane Maddren, a manager at Orongo Bay Holiday Park, said school and conservation groups booked specifically for the chance to experience wildlife up close.

One evening he counted seven kiwi, including four juveniles, wandering around the campground and between the buildings.

"It's a great achievement for our entire community, I'm proud to be part of it," Maddren said.

The wildlife boom had prompted the park to take the unusual step of removing TVs from its cabins, to encourage guests to spend their evenings watching out for kiwi instead.

Van Gool said catching the last rat would not mean an end to the trust's work.

"We'll always have to maintain predator-free status by monitoring for and responding to re-invasions. There will always be people in cars coming in with trailers and boats that can carry predators. Predators can swim over from the other side," she said.

"In addition to that, we're working on restoring the native bush and creating wildlife corridors, so that eventually we can work on reintroducing the kōkako. They were here a long time ago and we would like to bring them back - but for that we need to connect enough native bush and have enough habitat for them to survive in. It's an amazing bird, and we'd be very excited to have them back."

Earlier this month Foundation North committed $1.2 million over three years to four conservation groups across the Bay of Islands, known collectively as Predator Free Pēwhairangi Whānui.

The Northland Regional Council said it would provide $1.8m and the Department of Conservation would contribute $475,000.

The collective includes Russell Landcare Trust and Pest-Free Purerua Mataroa at the opposite end of the Bay of Islands.