My Account
The Forest Bridge Trust is a Rodney-based conservation group on a mission to create a connected landscape with healthy forest and flourishing indigenous wildlife from the Kaipara Harbour to the Pacific Coast. It sounds like an ideal scenario and it’s a mission statement most people support, but this is an ambitious conservation goal. Success requires detailed planning, a dedicated team, a lot of staff-hours, community support and education, not to mention an army of volunteers. Above all else, this lofty aspiration requires a passion to see native birds and wildlife survive and thrive in the Rodney area.
The biggest challenge and threat faced by our local native birds, including kiwi, bellbirds, kaka and NZ dotterels, are incursions from mustelids, possums and rodents.
Mustelids, the collective name for creatures such as stoats, weasels and ferrets, are relentless hunters, prolific breeders and cunning enough to go undetected by most humans. You may not have even noticed that there are fewer birds in your garden, but several of our native bird species are in decline and mustelids, rats and possums are a major factor.
Vulnerable ground-dwelling native birds are no match for these killing machines. A stoat will take eggs, kill chicks and attack nesting adults in one single incursion.
There is a war happening right in our backyards in Rodney between mustelids and our native birds, flora and fauna. The Forest Bridge Trust (TFBT) has stepped in to try to even up the odds and give our native species a fighting chance.
The trust was founded in 2014 by Kevin and Gill Adshead. After regenerating acres of forest on their farming property in Glorit, Kevin and Gill started a predator control programme to remove possums, rats and mustelids.
In 2015, they introduced kiwi to their property. Once the kiwi were established, Gill and Kevin started to broaden their outlook. The questions were raised, what if these kiwis thrive and start to travel? What do we need to do to protect them?
That was the start of the Forest Bridge Trust. A small group of people with a big dream to connect Tawharanui’s kiwi population with the kiwi population on the West Coast in Glorit. Protecting the kiwi from mustelids was a principle objective.
The Forest Bridge Trust and its lead funder, Jobs for Nature, set a lofty goal to achieve 54,000 hectares under mustelid control across the “wider bridge” by June 30, 2025.
The trust’s predator control and community liaison teams, as well as several administration and ecology staff members, have started to make headway.
“It’s been an impressive evolution,” trust chief executive Craig Presland says.
“We are proud of our results over the past 12 months. Despite the challenges that arose from covid, we still added 7516 hectares over the year to reach 11,214 hectares as of June 30, 2022 under predator control, that’s 20 per cent of our target with another three years to go.”
Community engagement is critical to ensure the success of this conservation project. With over 1800 private landowners in the trust’s rohe, working with and listening to local people and community groups happens weekly.
“We are now working with 928 of our 1834 key landowners on trapping, fencing and planting projects,” Presland says. “Over 8000 predators were caught during the past year, and over 6400 hours donated by volunteers in checking and baiting predator traps and bird monitoring.”
By passing knowledge on to our whakapapa, the trust hopes to ensure the sustainability of the project and encourage more local families to get involved.
“Our predator control education in local schools resulted in another 129 students attending our Forest Bridge Defender’s Programme over the past year (1535 students since 2015), while 25 parents and whanau attended our workshops subsequently,” Presland says.
The trust isn’t working alone. It is actively engaged with 19 community groups including the Tamahunga Trappers and the Mataia Restoration Project.
Volunteers play an important role in the work. The volunteer programme allows people to get involved at a level that best suits them, be that helping at a planting day, assisting with administration tasks, building traps or maintaining traplines, among other things.
In November, the trust hosted its first corporate volunteer group from Rabobank. A total of 16 Rabobank employees spent the day learning about predator control, checking and rebaiting traps, and collecting tracking cards. As corporate volunteering becomes increasingly popular, the trust hopes to work with more businesses this year and increase awareness around predator control.
Fencing is another important factor to protect local wildlife. Fencing to exclude stock and plant riparian margins to reduce sediment from getting into the Kaipara Harbour helps to improve the ecosystem’s resilience and biodiversity.
“We added another 16kms of new fencing to our 57kms in total since 2017. This is predominantly fencing along the edges of streams and tributaries that flow into the Hoteo River, which then feed into the Kaipara Harbour. We have benefited greatly this year from our strong relationship with Kaipara Moana Remediation as our key funder of fencing and planting projects.”
This year, the trust continues its quest to provide Rodney with a protected corridor of land from east to west. It is steadily working towards the 2025 deadline that will see it meet its short-term goals:
• 54,000 hectares across the Wider Bridge are included within mustelid-controlled networks
• 70 per cent of key landowners across the Central Bridge are contributing towards the trust’s long-term outcomes
• At least five kilometres of new fencing per year across the Central Bridge as we seek to improve connectivity for indigenous terrestrial wildlife
• Key species indicators show biodiversity outcomes are trending positive from predator control (mustelids and non-mustelids)
• External partnerships are effectively supporting the trust’s work, and value and understand its role
It is with great pleasure that we can look back at what has been achieved by The Forest Bridge Trust team over the past 12 months. The Forest Bridge would not exist if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of our wonderful team and the support from all the amazing volunteers and landowners who give their time to help create a safer environment for all our wonderful flora and fauna to thrive throughout our rohe.
Kevin Adshead, The Forest Bridge Trust Board chairperson
“We are now receiving feedback from landowners about the sightings of bellbirds, kaka and tui taking up residence in their gardens and farms in areas not seen before. These are the real successes for the trust and the communities.
Lending a hand
If you are keen to help The Forest Bridge Trust protect wildlife in Rodney, there are several ways to get involved.
• If you are a landowner based in the trust rohe (see map), then contact the community liaison team and they will talk you through the resources and support available to help you with predator control on your land, just email admin@theforestbridgetrust.org.nz
• If you would like to find out more about the many volunteering options then please see the volunteer programme page on the website – How you can help.
• If you are a local business, don’t forget that the trust can help you to facilitate a volunteer team building day. Please email elena@theforestbridgetrust.org.nz
