ROTOPIKO COMMUNITY PEST CONTROL PROJECT
NZ Landcare Trust in partnership with the National Wetland Trust has established a community catchment group focused on predator control in a wetland reserve outside the pest-free wetland sanctuary at Lake Rotopiko near Ōhaupō in the Waipā District. The Rotopiko Lakes complex is a 40-hectare site consisting of three connected peat lakes (North, South and East Lakes).
The Rotopiko Community Pest Control project has been designed to engage community volunteers, develop a suitable methodology, install a network of pest monitoring and control devices, and initiate regular vertebrate pest control. For the first three years (2016 – 2018), the project was funded through the DOC Community Conservation Partnership Fund and the Waikato Regional Council Environmental Initiatives Fund. The project is also supported by the Waipā District Council which have purchased and planted a buffer of land around the peat lake complex. The project has become self-supporting and is being run by community volunteers with assistance from NZLT.
The pest control work around North and South Lakes will complement the restored and replanted pest-free habitat around East Lake. The East Lake work is being undertaken by the National Wetland Trust as part of the planned National Wetland Discovery Centre, and together sits alongside catchment enhancement works being undertaken further down the catchment around Lake Rotomānuka by the DOC/Fonterra Living Water programme, and NZLT.
For further information about this project or to be added to the mailing list, contact NZLT.

Project Update, February 2022
Over the summer there have been a good number of weasels and ferrets being caught in our DOC 200 traps around South Lake. The reason for the increase is unclear, but since stoat numbers boom in late summer, it is speculated that this would also occur in the case of weasels and ferrets.
As of the 8th of February, the DOC 200 traps have successfully caught 21 stoats, 41 weasels, 20 ferrets, 426 rats (Norway and ship), 126 mice, 13 feral cats, 29 rabbits and 173 hedgehogs. 36 possums were also caught in Timms traps bringing the total to 918.
The numbers of pests killed by the Goodnature traps sits at 935 so far. This brings the total of mammalian pests removed by volunteer trappers to 1,853.
