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Predator Free 2050 from the comfort of your home! Enviromate100 technology helping you participate!

  • Unit removal

      3 May 2023
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    Hi last Friday the combined lines got another 22 possums from within Puketi regardless of the weather. 11 on the first line of 20 x EM100 units and 11 on the second line of 12 x EM100. I decided to pull all equipment from the forest and take a break until more help to cover the day to day running costs (travel and materials) is presented. Thanks a lot to those that have been supportive to date. Personally its both a sad and strange place to be positioned. To have built a business supplying ground based landscape scale pest control on the promotion and anticipation that contractors will be invited to help with the PF2050 ltd directives. Having enough technology to deliver pest suppression, rats and possums, to over 125,000 hectares per year but to find no work / projects are being presented for tender or contract. The only DOC work presented doesn't enable us to target rats whilst delivering possum control, we have no chance to display to them a complete system of multi species pest control. PF2050 Ltd suggested to achieve the objective within the time frame the country needs to be delivering control (elimination) to a new 850k hectare landscape per year. They started in 2016 and its now 2023 and the PF2050ltd web page suggests $100 million has been invested and a mosaic area of 850 k approx. hectares has been funded, though a much smaller area within those sites has actually received any targeted treatment. If supported across the years our company or the technology available sitting new in boxes since 2019 could have easily been worked to implement and deliver 500k hectares of control. Just imagine if other contractors with own tool sets were also contracted to work towards minimum residual targets what the combined managed area achieved could have been.

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    • 06/05/2023 by Janet

      What other technology in NZ can kill this many pests on one wet night? Why are Predator-free shunning the enviroMate is the BIG question ?

  • Wet rainy night with strong winds!

      22 April 2023
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    Guess last night again proved resident possums will still attend EM100 on the night regardless the weather. Last Friday we placed 12 x EM100 (enviroMate100) as a stand alone operation using cyanide cyanara paste to control possums within a cut over pine block that was bordering a neglected non pest controlled DOC block. 8 units had been visited on Friday night capturing 29 possums regardless of night long heavy rain and wind. Wet possums reduced my options to pluck the fur to that of skinning all skin worthy possums. One unit had 7 possums piled nearby two other units had 5 possums from just 5 cyanide baits. All units were reloaded and I will be awaiting how many more are captured on next Thursday night and my return on Friday. How many kill traps would have been required on the same single visit per week / night to catch those same 29 possums, a leg hold trap on platform has historically shown to be 56% effective. The original 20 x EM 100 captured just 4 possums on this same night due all resident possums were removed on the first onsite cycle, the rain slowed those transient possums from moving.

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  • Fridays tallies 17 possums and rats confirmed absent

      16 April 2023
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    Hi

    Just a quick one, 15 possums taken from the forest from the 4th cycle of EM100 units x 20 units. Last week I also targeted rats so that cyanide remained at the end of this cycle foe possum's it work and required a very little amount of "double tap" in rat affected units. Feratox x 2 pellets had been used on the last cycle, its preferable to alternate between cyanara paste and feratox to prevent any chance of poison shy possums. I also added dried currants and fruit cake mix to the flour lure last time to further train possums plus disguise the cyanide when delivered. two possum where "dead before time" as most units were turning at 8pm that being after dark and possums had access to poison on the first night after service. All units have been set to a 6 pm opening this cycle.

    An additional 12 units have been placed to open with cyanara paste (cyanide) for the first time on this new site (pine forest cut over) next Friday. Up to 10 toxic baits were placed within a single EM100 segment. So lets wait to see how many can be captured on the first opening of these 12 units.......

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  • last weeks tallies

      6 April 2023
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    Sorry the delay, last week netted 28 possums in total, 2 possums were cat eaten though the SA2 traps left set last week failed to capture any cats but did capture a young possum. The SA3 trap that was left the whole 7 days "set" alongside the SA2 in the picture did capture 1 possum, this possum was caught a couple of days early before the cyanided was presented! When inspecting the EM100 food tray it displayed the possum attended on the night we serviced the site (Friday) regardless the week prior had no visitors in total (7 uneaten dishes). Saturday Sunday Monday nothing was eaten as the possum was already in the trap. The following two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, showed attendance and bait eaten. There was no rats or possum attendance on the night of poison delivery (Thursday). When inspecting the next EM100 site 100m away a dead possum was collected killed by cyanide. Its presumed that possum had been visiting both EM100. The pre feed used in all EM100 was flour icing sugar and aniseed. The SA3 trap shown in the picture was baited with the same mix as the EM100 but the SA2 was baited with meat and peanut butter.

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  • last weeks captures

      24 March 2023
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    Wet day recording with visitors was not as efficient or consistent as normal.

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  • A new line within the larger Puketi forest, its on Summit Forestry's leasehold lands and we are using cyanide!

      24 March 2023
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    Working with cyanide in enviroMate100 means each visit to site is another potential multiple capture of possums. If and when rat numbers build up we can implement either a single SA3 trap beside the EM100 or run rat baits. Possum numbers are extremely low across the line. Last week with visitors onsite we collected the previous trapline and dispatch 4 rats and 1 possum then took the visitors in the rain to collect those possums willing to venture out on the rainy night (17 possums) its was the second cycle completion today and another 10 possums were captured. Most EM100 had no possum attendance last night and had sporadic attendance across the last week mainly by rats. The only possum killed on that site was cat eaten though the cat it hadn't stuck its head into a SA2 left set the last 5 days though it had been inside to eat the bait from the (cable tied open) cage traps onsite! The same site last week had shown a cat presence observed through the scavenging on a possum.

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  • Equipment removal! Relocation......

      18 March 2023
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    To the short sighted self-fish person that decided to remove a pair of leg hold possum traps from our Mokau Ridge (marker 16) Puketi Trap line. I will give you 14 days grace, no further information shared, to send the same two traps to Eco-land Ltd P.O BOX 99 Kaeo 0448. Since our operations started in 2009 we have had no equipment removed from the forest. We thank the Community (Hapu’s, DOC, hunters and other forest users) for respecting our work of which has been mainly “unfunded”. Regardless of the rain last night we caught 1 possum and 4-5 rats across the research line of 11X enviroMate100 sites. Sadly the removal of the 2 traps from midline section (the 12th site) has meant the delivery of our data is now limited, and as a result we have removed all operating equipment. Our efforts were to understand if management methodology and tool deployment changes can gain higher capture success, not an individuals or groups effort or dedication when faced with using a prescribed management and set of tools. Our ultimate purpose is to display aerial 1080 is not required in Puketi and I am sure most neighbouring landowners, pig hunters and those that treasure this unique forest would be highly disappointed by the actions of this low life who aids those that already plan to push such a drop!! P.S To the trap thief take a good look at the photo’s what did you miss whilst onsite!

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  • 6th cycle

      5 March 2023
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    6th cycle of 12 enviroMate100 on our "give a little project". Leg holds are used as they are the only permitted trap on the DOC permit. Feel a little sorry for the rats and possums but traps can be a targeted tool of capture and most likely the suffering is still quicker than 1080, Pest Off or Pindone. We captured 10 animals from beside / under 12 enviromate 100 sites (on just a single night with traps open) 3 sites had no capture with one of those sites having had a sprung trap. So a capture success of 83% per EM100 site! or a 41.5% trap capture success. Due all dispenser segments have had non toxic lures placed in them when loading the EM100 I haven't aligned the dish numbers, in hindsight I possible should have to make picture perfect. The first photo of each series shows the trap "away" then the next is "under" then the food segment as viewed. Only two presenting food segments show as untouched. Both of these having a capture animal "under". Regards of the sites showing no trap capture the enviroMate was attended over the night. All EM100 were freshly loaded with trap opening. They will now run again for approx 7 days before another night of trap set. There was still no captures in any viewed conservation project (double trap) DOC200 boxes and SA2 regardless they appear to have been serviced recently targeting stoats and cats though having a bi-catch of rats and possums.

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  • they just,keep coming to site

      25 February 2023
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    Yesterday another trapline seevice was done. 6 possums( 1 young female and 5 boys) 6 rats also. 2 sites had no catch with only 1 site showing none attendence with bait take from EnviroMate100. 12 sites 12 animals caught on a single night. This being in a funded trapping zone. The 8 trapds viewed along my walk path belonging to the project remaing empty.

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  • 4th cycle of enviroMate 100

      31 January 2023
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    4th cycle update: the weather was rather bad over the trap set night. Regardless the 12 sites still caught 7 animal pests. 2 smaller possums and 5 rats. 1 rat again displayed either a Ruru or stoat had made a partial meal of it. So the 12 fixed placement enviroMate 100 sites again delivered a 75% site capture across one single night of trap set within an active trapping project. My return visit was wet and not ideal though we are only permitted to use leg hold traps not our preferred choice of SA3 kill traps. Leg holds must be checked each day where as Kill traps can be left until the weather is more favourable. To date 34 pest have been caught across these 12 enviroMate 100 sites that have had just 4 trap set nights.

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  • Progress statement

      28 January 2023
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    Hi, Just a quick note to say across that same 12 x EM100 trap line we have now caught 27 pests. Using traps, our only DOC permitted method in Puketi, we need make a minimum two visits to site to gain any captures. If permitted to use toxins we could achieve a similar result or better (up to 400% more captures using cyanide) having just a single visit to the site as and when required to service the EM100.. After this 4th cycle is completed I will pull the gear and place outside of the Job's for Nature work zone to observe any differences in capture %.

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  • 3rd cycle 12 x EM100 automatically luring and 24 leg hold traps in support with capture

      22 January 2023
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    Another 2 visits with a single trap night achieved and checked. The pests still keep coming...... 6 possums and 2 rats from 12 sites. When observing the DOC 200 and SA2 traps set within the same area its noted they are looking rather quite.

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  • 2nd cycle fine weather!

      12 January 2023
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    Hi just to let supporters know I was in the forest last night to set traps, returning today to check captures and reload EM100 with new flour. The line delivered 8 possums 7 being small males and the additional being a first time mum. 4 rats were also caught. All 12 sites where EM100 are placed displayed presence within two days of the last trap set.

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  • Trap line check 3rd Jan 2023

      3 January 2023
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    Hi

    Today Eco-land returned to check (DOC permitted) raised set leg hold traps set last night being 14 days after 12 x EM100 dispenser bait stations were placed. They were programmed to automatically deliver pre feed every second day being used as an observational monitor within an area Eco-land Ltd contracted possum control work last year of which now is within a active "Jobs for Nature project working zone" where hundreds of SA2 kill traps and DOC 200 trap sites are targeting predators namely stoats and cats. Nuts and bolts running time in motion reporting: 48 km driven with each forest visit. Three visits to date 144 km @ .79 cents per km $113.76. 12 X EM100 repayment cost of $2.50 per week is $30, 12 x flour and lure and pre feed material cost @ $12 in total. Leg hold traps and tree brackets x 24 Sets. Labour from Kaeo base to deploy 12X EM100 and then 24 x Traps was 4 hrs total. Labour to recover data and collect captures 1.5 hours total. Capture was 6 possums, 4 by front leg and 2 by rare leg capture. 4 were male and 2 were female. 3 rats were caught. 1 traps displayed as sprung with possum fur. High number of sprung or displaced traps due rats. Had Eco-land been permitted by DOC to use SA3 kill traps these additional rats would now be dead. All EM100 were emptied over night with the only exclusion being where possum's had be caught directly under EM100. The weather last night was blustery with intermittent rain showers. In all over a single night the capture success across the 12 EM100 non toxin sites was 75% all counted or across the leghold hold traps deployed was 37.5% of which is still high for a permanently manged work site.

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  • Shared responsibility!

      29 December 2022
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    Yesterday we checked 19 traps set under EM100 on our farm at Kaeo. In all we caught 4 possums and 5 rats. A total of 9 animals, a capture success of 47%, over a single night. All traps positioned along our neighbours boundary caught.

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  • Work is under way!

      21 December 2022

    Hi, Just a quick update to mention 12 EM100 automated dispensers have been placed in the Puketi Forest. They will run for the next 14 days attracting pests to site. Traps will then be placed and captures gained. So hopefully the 24 traps will capture over 15 pests on the first night. The use of traps instead of poison increases the amount of our visits to site , but we get to also monitor the rats captured.

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  • Sustainability is about making that single dollar achieve something with purpose.

      16 December 2022
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    Why did Eco-land start this page? Frankly we are tired of hard earn't tax payers funds being burnt in things that didn't actually deliver. The best people to deliver with efficiency are those that have been successful in trade working on the coal face Not often are those from the coal face invited to the board room or funding panel to help determine the best and most economical way forward! As a specialist in sustainable land management and design it is natural for me to attempt to create direct reward in return for a environmentally positive physical outcome. What Eco-land tries to do is deliver sustainable solutions and create opportunity for others by leading the way! If we can be successful others can follow unhindered. Pictured is a Welsh traveler who also learnt how to catch a possum, understanding creates reason of which creates more understanding !

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    • 06/05/2023 by Janet

      "The only DOC work presented doesn't enable us to target rats whilst delivering possum control, we have no chance to display to them a complete system of multi species pest control. " I do not understand why DOC ( no doubt hand in hand with Predator free are blocking the traditional self employed pest control contractors... Is it to embed "our way - there is no alternative to 1080 " into the publics mind. Is it because the urban academics controlling pest control at the top do not want to collaborate with the hands on experts in pest control... and how stupid is it to not allow rat and possum trapping simultaneously. What was your tally of pests to date with this project ? I tallied up and got 224. At $10 each which you said you need to be economic you need more donations to balance at $2240.00 . You are a legend Shane because so far you have received only $2.68 for each one. I know that you want this bounty idea to take off so more unemployed professional pest controllers can participate.