Get Involved
Learn about how you can make a difference.
Get Involved
While membership in the project is voluntary, most of the local landowners have joined and membership continues to rise as word of its successes spread and the results of its predator control work become more apparent. An annual subscription fee of $60.00 is asked from each property, while people outside the project area can join the group as “Friends of the Society” for an annual fee of $20.00.
How to Join
Go ahead and get in touch with our secretary who will guide you through the simple process.
Members & Friends carrying traps out onto the Mahinepua Peninsula
Some thoughts from Matt Sherrard, one of our founding members.
” Life is good here for us. It is not so good for the plants and animals that flourished here long before we came along. The balance in the bush is now tipped so far in favour of the introduced species that we will certainly see the end of most native species in our lifetime unless someone intervenes. I am making the assertion that that someone is probably you and me, the landowners. I feel a moral obligation to cherish the endemic wildlife and plants of our surroundings. “
” The birds seem to be the barometer for the health of the forest. They need the trees for food and in turn spread the tree seed. Without the birds, seed is not placed where it can grow to replace the mature trees and feed the future generations of bird life, a cycle of renewal and growth. As go the birds, so goes the forest, and like the barometer, the sudden drop in bird numbers forecasts a bad stretch ahead for the forest. “
” The indigenous wildlife is totally ill equipped to survive the introduction of predators and competitors …. The possum and his friends should not be condemned for being pests. They are good animals at the wrong place at the wrong time. They are the victims in a struggle created by our lack of foresight. At this point we can only choose to eliminate them or sacrifice an ecosystem that has evolved to sustain the species native to that habitat. It is not a choice that comes easily to us in our modern day sensibilities, but can we have it otherwise? “
” Reclaim our bush for the birds, beasts, and plants that rightfully belong there.
Make this corner of the world a better place and a sanctuary for our native birds.
That’s the beauty of working your own patch, you get to enjoy the results.
As a group we are really just now getting steady on our feet, we have a ways to go before we can run like the wind or soar like a flightless bird. “
— Matt Sherrard