Pine Islands - Restoration & pest control in native forests

Through my work as an ecologist within the New Zealand production forest industry I frequently identify Significant Natural Areas (SNAs). These areas are often comprised of remnant indigenous vegetation (i.e., old growth forest) that unfortunately show signs that pests are having damaging effects (e.g. rats and mice are consuming seeds that would otherwise germinate). If not controlled, the lack of recruitment of new trees beneath the canopy will eventually result in these areas being lost (as the old trees are not being replaced).

I very much want to trial the use of auto resetting traps (NZ Autotraps AT220's and Goodnature A24's) in several of these areas in an effort to demonstrate / assess the effectiveness of such applications within the broader production forestry environment. The first site I have chosen is an area of private land approximately 3.5 ha in size (1,000 m long and 25 - 125 m wide) comprised of Tawa and Titoki dominated podocarp (Matai, Kahikatea and Rimu) forest. The site is located approximately 30 km north of Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand.

Updates on this work (and other work I undertake as part of my job and as a volunteer) will be provided on my website https://www.skogsmark.com and on Instagram the @skogs.mark account.