by David Innes

Earlier this year, Pub Charity agreed to fund the installation of a new trapping line, which has long been needed in or-der to fill a gap in our stoat defences facing south.
Work undertaken in March/April involved volunteers con-structing a new track which runs from the lower Parakau Stream, east onto the slopes of Puketotara and then curving north back to State High-way 25 near Whenuakite.
The first track marking expedition in the middle of the route was enlivened by the flight of a bittern out of the wetland. After crossing a swampy stream, three of us pushed our way through the punga and tea tree and, after an hour working our way up a small ridge and into a small water-course, we finished up in a narrow gully leading to a 60ft clay bluff. That was it for the day and, retracing our steps, we marked the track with pink ribbon.
The next section marked was from the Parakau Stream, partly on an old bulldozed track through semi-mature pine forest. The final section was in regenerating bush un-der pine forest, another kilo-metre in length then down steep country back to State Highway 25.
A few days later came the harder work of actually cutting the track and we recruited younger help to wield the chainsaw. Lesser and older mortals followed and cleared the debris from the track, cut-ting it up with loppers where required. One could work with a small pack on the back or dump it and periodically retrieve it when the chainsaw required refuelling. There was just time to reflect on the scar-city of birds except for the odd fantail, the trees that had succumbed to the drought and those that amazingly had survived. We marked the far point of our labours after four hours with yellow plastic tape and retreated in light rain.
The final day’s track cutting was the final half kilometre uphill from State Highway 25, initially through open kanuka and punga, then steeply uphill through more closed bush. Obstructions on the ground were masked with Carex and stumbles were frequent. After two hours, we were relieved to see the yellow tape from our previous day’s far point. A brief rest and drink and we were motoring down the newly cut highway and back to the road.
The trapline is functioning well after the installation of 25 trap boxes (manufactured in Coromandel town by Moehau Environment Group volunteers) and the addition of aluminium steps on the clay bluff.