Gerald Bruce-Smith

With fewer than 50 residents, Arthur’s Pass people get involved to help keep their community ticking over, and Gerald is no exception. Among his duties he is a volunteer fireman and on the search and rescue team, and is secretary of the residents’ association.

Gerald is also a key operator within the Arthur's Pass community roroa protection project’s predator trapping work. He manages a line of 50-plus traps he has put along greater Bealey Valley, and 20-plus in nearby Crow Valley, and also helps monitor trap lines in the Edwards and Mingha Valleys which were funded by the Coast to Coast race promoter, Robin Judkins. He also helps monitor the great spotted kiwi transmitters. ‘All this keeps me sufficiently busy.’

The Arthur's Pass community roroa protection project is now managed by the locally based Arthur’s Pass Wildlife Trust, of which Gerald is secretary and a trustee. The Trust maintains liaison with the Department of Conservation and is continuing the community-led predator control work, as well as monitoring the area’s great spotted kiwi/roroa population.

Gerald says the project is different from many others because it leaves the eggs and chicks in situ, concentrating instead on providing a high level of predator control to enable the development of chicks, through to juvenile and adult status. He says close monitoring of the birds’ development by trained local contractors, through transmitter readings and inspections of individual birds, is providing valuable information to the Kiwi Recovery Group.

Why kiwi?

Arthur’s Pass residents and bach owners are extremely proud of their kiwi neighbours, whose nocturnal calls are again part of village life. The initiative to protect great spotted kiwi/roroa builds on several years of volunteers trapping stoats around the village environs. Gerald says the voluntarily nature of the work is a significant factor in the project’s success, nearly 10 years after it began.

Villagers have noticed a vast improvement in the number and variety of other bird species around the village , with native bush robins, bellbirds, tomtits, fantails, riflemen, warblers and other small birds filling the air with song. The weka, absent for many years, have also made an appearance, journeying across the Pass and becoming resident.

Both kea and whio/blue duck numbers have also conspicuously increased in number, he says. Whio are particularly on the increase – a direct result of predator control within their alpine valley breeding territories.

 High point

Gerald says the Arthur’s Pass project benefits from strong local support, and their efforts were boosted in 2005 with funding from BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust which provided for a significant improvement in the trapping coverage, enabling much improved protection within the study area.

“It’s an enjoyable and rewarding association between the community, BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust and the Department, which has progressively developed with quantifiable results. I enjoy this satisfying work, both as an interest and as my contribution to retaining this important species and reintroducting other species to the area.

“The location of a number of new great spotted kiwi by dog tracking in the valley, and the ongoing monitoring of adults and their offspring, has been very gratifying,” Gerald says.

Low point

While the Trust is confident that the current level of predator control will provide beneficial protection within the monitored territory, beech mast years (when beech trees flower) mean a potential explosion in stoat numbers. Because birds move beyond the project’s boundaries, they are exposed to the increased risk, he says. As well, fFeral cats have become an increasingly worrying threat, and one that requires close monitoring.

”Our guard can never let up, and just one stoat near a nest or chick can undo so much. We realise that we are surrounded by a large predator population, so our goal really is to establish an effective ring around the Arthur's Pass’ area and to liaise fully with our like-minded associates,” Gerald says.

Thoughts for the future

Although the general statistics for kiwi don’t look too good, Gerald believes that the local great spotted population is in an encouraging state, and that the work undertaken will provide valuable ongoing information on the species.

Support from BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust has been integral to this progress, and he is confident that the Arthur’s Pass Wildlife Trust will continue to assist this population in one of New Zealand’s oldest national parks for many years to come