Excellence at the Westpac Business Awards

Mike Nugent Bindy Caesar Greg Innes photo by Dan McGrath

Photo: Dan McGrath

We’ve had tremendous success at the 2013 Westpac Business Excellence Awards. The Bream Head Conservation Trust won three prestigious awards:

  1. Sustainable Business Award – Northland Regional Council sponsor
  2. Best Not for Profit Organisation Award – Top Energy sponsor
  3. Excellence in Business – Owner Operator Award – Konica Minolta sponsor

This has given our Trust a profile of what I termed the “new normal” where conservation is an integral part of what we are at the Whangarei Heads Peninsula. Conservation at both an operational and strategic levels producing outstanding results of ecological restoration and the relationship management for a sustainable future.

I must convey special thanks to Bill Mallet (Trustee) on his initiative to enter the awards and the hard work undertaken on the entry form – we took the 400 plus key Northland business people present by storm, our conservation group predominantly consisting of volunteers winning these three prestige awards. Yeah…..

I was so proud to represent the Trust as the Chair.

Greg Innes

In making the award the judges said:

The Bream Head Conservation Trust stands out for its outstanding level of connection with the community and all key stakeholders. The Trust exhibited sound planning and monitoring. There are clearly defined goals and strategies. These are well implemented and monitored to ensure success.

The Trust has strong evidence of a well thought out long term plan with processes and structures aligned to this. We look forward to seeing further success with regards to protecting and improving this iconic Northland landscape.

10 Years On…

bream head reserve trap locations…and you can hear the success!

Collectively we are doing great work and the results are phenomenal. Bellbirds, kaka, oi (grey faced petrel) and an extremely rare skink are all part of the successes we are now experiencing.

Our strength is the relationships formed through planting days, track maintenance working bees, school programs, committee and trustee work. Relationships with our stakeholders – DoC, iwi, and funding partners, enable us to achieve results that are highly regarded on a national level in Wellington.
Congratulations and thank you to all who have put effort in over the last decade, your contribution makes a difference.

Are you keeping up with the cold hard numbers?

  • 210 volunteer hours happening every month
  • 2.2 full time equivalent Rangers on the Reserve
  • 30,000 plants have gone in the ground
  • Close to 0% rat tracking
  • 500 school visitors to the Reserve
  • 1000 possum traps have to be set to catch 1 possum (because there are so few)
  • x3 – the kiwi call counts have tripled on the reserve over the last 10 years

Read the full message from Trust chair Greg Innes and get the rest of the facts in our 10 Years on Newsletter (763kB pdf).

Rangers Report - October 2013

Forest Gecko at Bream Head ReserveWe now have eight confirmed lizard species in the Reserve AND counting – well you never know your luck! The eighth species was found by Ben Barr and an equally enthusiastic lizarder from Auckland, Dylan van Winkle. The forest gecko has a very leathery appearance, as can be seen in the photo, due to the way their scales sit relative to each other; this makes them distinctively different to other geckos.

While Ben Barr and student Olly Ball were looking for possible monitoring sites they spotted 8 Bream Head skinks – this is the most we have ever seen in one day and is a very promising sign of population recovery. Amazing what a bit of rat work can achieve.

We have decided to extend the Peach Cove mustelid trap line right around the south face past the Old Woman to the Radar station. Thank you to Clea Gardiner, DOC kiwi team, for helping out with some new double set DOC 200 traps for this job. Baiting fortnightly and using salted rabbit bait have proven to be an excellent combination producing very good outcomes in the trials carried out. If you would like to know how to make your own salted rabbit bait take a look at October’s full Rangers Report.

Read the October 2013 Rangers Report in full (336kB pdf).