Whanganui City College students build around 150 trap boxes to keep local wildlife safe

Whanganui City College have been making traps. Back row (left to right): Chris Smith, Charlotte Harris, Shaun Langdon, Dave Craig, Matt Smith. Front row (left to right): Laura Farrow, Ocean Balsley, Reece Van der Steen, Taj Wright. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui City College students have been working to keep the region’s native wildlife safe from predators.

The students spent four days in the school’s hard materials classroom constructing about 150 trap boxes.

Whanganui City College teacher David Craig organised the students, and said they volunteered to take part.

Taj Wright was one of the students who took part in the project, and said he took part because he enjoys making things.

“The other reason why is, I like going out, and I also like using heavy machinery,” he said.

The trap boxes were donated to Predator Free Whanganui, a community programme run by Sustainable Whanganui.

Eastown Timber and Fencing got involved to supply the timber for the boxes, while the Department of Conservation supplied the rat traps going inside the boxes.

Sustainable Whanganui’s Chris Smith said the programme was currently working to establish a network of around 3000 traps across the city.

“There are a few parts of it. Obviously we’re trying to work towards predator-free 2050, the national programme, but for here, we’re just trying to encourage the community to get involved and do things like this so we can actually make sure there are resources available for it,” he said.

Smith’s larger goal was to see biodiversity thrive in Whanganui, and he hoped installing the traps would go some way towards achieving that aim.