A month at the Trust (June 2026)
Another fairly quiet month for the Trust has just passed.
The APWT welcomed aboard three new volunteers over the last month or so, Kate Throgmorton, Maia O'Reilly (PF Waimairi Beach), and Cameron Blair (Lagoon Saddle line). Thank you so much for wanting to help out our Trust!
Predator numbers were on par with those last year. This is for the period 1 May to 6 June (previous year, same period, in brackets)...
Stoats: 7 (8)
Weasels: 5 (5)
Rats: 51 (60)
Mice: 16 (1)
Feral Cats: 2 (1)
Possums: 29 (2)
Pigs: 1 (0)
It would appear we're heading into a El Niño winter and summer (Earth Sciences New Zealand predicts a 95% chance). This might mean our winter could be colder and snowier than it has been in recent years; a great thing, if it happens, to knock back the predators. Summer however could be very warm & dry - a recipe to drive a possible beech mast the following Summer. So a win-lose situation, we'll just have to meet the challenges ahead as they present themselves.
King's Birthday saw our own Graeme Kates awarded the King's Service Medal for services to conservation & community. The Trust is very proud of Graeme for this recognition, as he is one of our founders!
Image: A pleasing sight. A huge patch of gorse high on Bealey Spur no longer a threat.
For the Love of Conservation: Celebrating Graeme's King's Service Medal (June 2026)
By Chloe BarkerSo often our conservation heroes in Aotearoa fly under the radar. So it was joyful to wake up to the news on Kings Birthday that one of mine, Graeme Kates, was awarded The King's Service Medal in the King's Birthday Honours.
Graeme is an absolute taonga in Arthur's Pass.
In late 2002 Graeme privately funded 32 stoat traps which he deployed on the Bealey Valley floor. He caught over 150 stoats in the first month. The seed he planted has grown into our Arthur's Pass Wildlife Trust (APWT). The Wildlife Trust is run almost entirely on volunteer steam, promoting the conservation and enhancement of wildlife in the Arthur's Pass area. APWT now has a network of 107 km of trap lines within Arthur's Pass National Park and Craigieburn Forest Park - and those 32 traps have grown to 1504 traps.
Graeme tirelessly works on organising volunteers to service the trap lines, carry out bi-annual roroa / Great Spotted Kiwi surveys and annual bird surveys, undertake invasive pest plant spraying, and much more. He is always the first person to do the hands on mahi and those who know him wonder where he finds his endless energy!
APWT's work has been hugely instrumental in the preservation of and policy put in place for the Arthur's Pass roroa / Great Spotted Kiwi population - but has had so many wider benefits to all of our local taonga species including kea, whio, pĩwauwau / rock wren, and tĩtipounamu.
On a personal level, Graeme has been so incredibly generous in sharing local conservation knowledge with me since I bought the "Log Cabin" in Arthur's Pass. I have also been lucky enough to do little APWT missions with Graeme and I learn so much every time we hang out. He is one of life's amazing humans, has a beautiful heart, and is a generous and caring friend. I'm so grateful his work has been publicly acknowledged ❤️️️️️️️
Award Link Image: GK in his natural habitat
Autumn Bird Surveys (May 2026)
Every year, since 2007, around the end of April the Trust performs it's surveys of forest birds in the upper Bealey Valley in Rough Creek and the lower Arthur's Pass Walking Track. These are transect surveys along 1km slices of these areas and take place over 3 fine days each, and yes this does happen :)
Chloe, Bryony, and Graeme did the surveys this year, many thanks!
The aim of the surveys are to get a handle on the carrying capacity of these two very different forest environments year to year, and look for any significant changes. It can also bolster any anecdotal evidence we glean over the season.
Anecdotally this year we thought we could see a fairly significant breeding success rate in the bush bird set. Although the surveys numbers aren't significantly more than in previous years, the AP walking track did have the highest count of species in the 19 years of the survey. Nectar/fruit feeders, such as Korimako (Bellbird), were quite evident this year in both survey sites, which correlates well with the abundant fruiting seen throughout the forests of Arthur's Pass.
This year has also seen digital sound recorders deployed throughout the Bealey Valley and Bealey Spur over the last 3 months, which has provided very useful data on the diversity of bird species within our project areas.
You can view the bird survey results
Here.
Roroa loud & proud (May 2026)
The Trust has had digital sound recorders deployed for a few months now about Bealey Spur and the Bealey Valley.
A recording of a male Roroa (Great Spotted Kiwi) standing right below the recorder's microphone and bellowing it's air sacks out is quite exceptional. This boy is located in the lower Bealey Valley. Sadly he got no reply for all his effort, however there is another established pair just north of him.
You can listen to his call here -
Play Call (472Kb)
The recorders have been programmed to capture all sounds from 6am - 7.30am & 7.30pm to midnight, and are left out for about 10 days. This captures the raucous dawn chorus, kiwi waking up & going off to bed, and a cacophony of other grunts, screams, crashes, gales, and just downright disturbing unidentified sounds.
We'll continue to deploy the recorders until DOC would like them back; we absolutely appreciate they have allowed us to borrow them.
