School answers kiwi call

Students at Belmont Intermediate School, on Auckland’s North Shore, are using skills learned on their Year 7 Hard Technology programme to make rat bait stations for Brynderwyns-based Marunui Conservation.

Hard Technology teacher Mike Ferguson’s Mangawhai connections made it easy to answer Marunui’s call for community assistance to construct rat bait Stations for the predator free area that now contains kiwis.

The Marunui land was bought for conservation purposes in 1987 and is protected by a QEII National Trust Open Space Covenant.

After 25 years of hard work from owners and locals in partnership with DOC, there has been a restoration of the habitat, kiwi introduced, and volunteer programme added to keep the area predator free.

Marunui’s John Hawley (centre) is pictured picking up 50 of the newly constructed bait stations.