Volunteers Programme

Sue Tucker, our groundsperson, works most Saturdays with volunteers in the Park from 12.30pm to 3.00pm. In that short period of time the volunteers certainly get a lot of work done! In February Sarah Tarrant, Evan Cowan and Liz Ward removed a huge rotten Mulberry tree.

 In April a team removed blackberry from the weka pen in Rotary Park as it can be a hazard to the birds. The team comprised Vianni Ward and Paul Roberts, Karen Fitzgerald, Paora Heke and Josie Butcher. They brought their own tools and gloves and a ‘go for it’ attitude.

 They worked tirelessly on a slippery slope doing back breaking work. Also in April, a number of students and adults from Saint Johns in Te Awamutu removed glass that had been thrown over the fence into kiwi pens over time. This had to be dug out of the substrate. In total they removed two full feed sacks of glass from these enclosures.

 They also weeded the wetland and removed and pruned excess flax. In June Sue led a team to fell trees and clear the site in preparation for Nocturnal House 2. The team consisted of Karl Formo, Jessica tucker, Mark Bollard, Paora Heke, Robert Prescott, Sue Smith, Finn Ogle, Karyn Fitzgerald and her partner.

 They carried out a mammoth task of felling trees and chopping them up for firewood then mulching the remaining material. Our Rotary partners have also been busy again in the Park netting the Ruru enclosure. Thanks go to Evan Cowan, Ross Loomans and Colin Murphy for installing our new gate and also Tony Collinson-Smith for setting up the electric fence over the new gate. Throughout the year we have also had individuals who have come in and worked with our team.

 Cynthia Steiner worked on gardening one day a week over the summer. Vianni Ward has also volunteered her time for gardening. Josie Butcher has volunteered her time to begin digitizing and archiving our bird and reptiles records. Josie has scanned all our egg cards so far so we can compile them.

 Greg Crail, a volunteer from Telecom in Hamilton, spent a day with our keeping team. He worked with keeping staff to clean aviaries and kiwi waters. He then worked with Patrick Carr to create the new entrance for our temporary visitor centre. Patrick has also had a willing helper over the recent school holidays. Jacob Kohinga has been working with Pat to dig out the Lockwood enclosures and put in a new sand substrate.