The worm has turned against bird predators

Okaihau College student Hau Tafataha-O'lotofale'ia setting a trap as the battle against predators continues.

The days of predators making the rules on Northland's east coast are well and truly over, according to Kiwi Coast.

A total of 170,000 animal pests have been removed over the last four years by projects involved in the Kiwi Coast initiative, which is now in its fifth year, co-ordinator Ngaire Tyson saying that result demonstrated the power of people working together and the impact they were having on predators.

Milo the kiwi being released at Tutukaka.

Last year alone a total of 56,455 animal pests, more than 1000 a week, had been trapped on the Kiwi Coast, without taking account of the thousands more that succumbed to toxins.

Meanwhile the initiative continues to grow, with more than 80 associated groups and individuals now pest trapping more than 125,000ha in Northland, making it New Zealand's biggest pest control project.

Ms Tyson said the effects of the "landscape-scale" pest control could be seen in flourishing native forests, increasing kiwi numbers, and the return of birdsong to near-silent areas where pests were being maintained at low levels.

"Northland communities are working hard to reduce animal pests and help our forests and native wildlife thrive. Together we are making a real difference on the ground," she said.

"The Kiwi Coast vision of creating New Zealand's first kiwi corridor, where kiwi can roam safely across Northland from one safe area to another, gets closer every year as communities lead the charge to not just reverse the decline of kiwi but ensure they flourish forever."

Since 2013 the collaboration of community, iwi, hapu and agency-led projects involved in Kiwi Coast had destroyed 169,557 pests, including 69,871 possums, 69,233 rats, 5535 mustelids, 8251 hedgehogs, 5429 wild rabbits, 2299 feral cats, 8042 magpies and myna's and 522 feral pigs, achieved by thousands of hours of trap setting and checking each year by a mix of professional and unpaid trappers.

Some of the groups involved had been operating for almost two decades, and had successfully created biodiversity strongholds on both public and private land, Ms Tyson said, adding that Kiwi Coast worked to link predator control networks of individual projects to maximise efficiencies and increase the ecological effects gained by working at a landscape scale.

The Department of Conservation's Northland kiwi call count for 2014 had showed that overall kiwi numbers were increasing at a slow but steady rate at sites along the Kiwi Coast where predators are controlled to low levels.

That bucked the national trend, identified by the Kiwis for Kiwi Trust, of a nationwide decline in kiwi of two per cent per year. In fact, monitoring showed that kiwi populations had more than doubled at a number of sites on the Kiwi Coast.

"As ferrets and stoats can devastate kiwi populations, removing 5535 mustelids from the Kiwi Coast over four years is a huge part of keeping Northland kiwi numbers going up. It's crucial now to sustain this momentum," she said.