Grant helps Waipoua Trust meet giant ambitions

Little Giants: Volunteers also work in the trust's kauri nursery.

The Waipoua Forest Trust is preparing for a stepped-up assault on pests after recently being granted $6211 from the Queen Elizabeth II Trust for predator control.

The trust is also reinforcing precautions in its own regenerating forest and other reserves to prevent the spread of kauri-dieback disease that is killing the giant trees.

The large predator control grant from the QEII's Stephenson Fund enabled the trust to buy 150 Philproof rat bait stations and 24 Timms traps and pest control items.

Highly targeted pests are possums, rats and mustelids. The equipment will enable the trust to extend its trapping efforts in the 155ha Millennium Forest, adjacent to and south of the Waipoua Forest Sanctuary. The trust is calling for more helpers for that task.

''We are currently looking for volunteers to help us put these pest stations out and to work with us on other conservation efforts as this is an enormous task that can only be achieved by the community,'' manager Courtney Davis said.

The trust owns 241ha of formerly milled land south of the Waipoua Sanctuary which is home to great trees such as Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere.

The acquisition was the first expansion to the Waipoua Forest in 150 years. The aim is to reclaim bush in which the diverse native species of kauri country can again thrive, and to ensure that in 1000 years trees the size of Tane Mahuta will be standing in the Millennium Forest, Ms Davis said.

''These forests provided homes for our beloved native fauna like kiwi and kereru which are also sadly under threat from invasive pests.

''The Waipoua Forest Trust is working alongside other local organisations to reverse this trend and re-establish as much of these fantastic ecosystems as possible.''

The kauri tree is facing its greatest threat since 99 per cent of the giant trees were felled in the timber rush from the mid 1800s to early 1900s.

''We are in danger of losing the remainder to kauri dieback disease,'' Ms Davis said.

Recently the trust upgraded its vehicle wash-down station to prevent the spread of kauri dieback. Staff and volunteers also collect up all materials, tools and vehicles and water blast them.

''The disease can spread with a spore in soil the size of a pinhead so it is essential that as well as cleaning our shoes, we wash down all vehicles before they enter and leave the forest,'' Ms Davis said.