Dear Friends of Flora (FoF) members and supporters. Here is email bulletin No.2 to keep you in touch with what we are trying to achieve in the Flora Stream catchment in the Kahurangi National Park. If you missed our first bulletin, let me know by reply email.

Progress on pests. The 'score' from our last monitoring (24/25 Jan) was:

Stoats: 8 Rats: 16 Mice: 16 Which takes our overall tally from Feb 2002 to:

Stoats: 118 Rats: 153 Mice: 387 Weasels: 4 Cats: 1

Interestingly, the tally for this time last year was 19 stoats, 24 rats and 53 mice. Are we starting to make inroads? Certainly most people visiting the Flora in recent months say there are more birds around…

Blue Duck/Whio release approaches The official release of 10 blue duck/whio ducklings into the Flora protection area is still scheduled to take place sometime in late March to mid-April, once all the birds have been sexed, reached the required weight and DoC have fitted them with radio transmitters. A FoF subcommittee is working with DoC officers to sort out the arrangements, which will include media, local iwi and our sponsors. The release is planned to take place at the Flora Stream by Flora Hut. We will keep you informed of progress. FoF are planning a BBQ lunch - so bring a plate when we have a date!

New traps baited. As described in our last email bulletin, FoF has responsibility for lines A (Mt Arthur) G (Lodestone) and I (the 'core' line). FoF committee member Kim Turner has responsibility for new lines D and H as part of his fellowship study. All our new tunnels with the 'Masher' traps are baited, which brings us to…

Next Monitoring. Will take place 18 to 23 February, most of which will be on Saturday and Sunday the 21st and 22nd. Now that we are responsible for monitoring many more traps, we will be trialing new arrangements to organise our volunteers and get the job done. If you are able to join us, expect some new faces! One extra job is to ensure all the traps and tunnels, including our old tunnels with Fenn traps, are correctly positioned and set up. Meet in the DoC Motueka yard (opposite the clock tower) or at Pokororo Hall or the Flora carpark by prior arrangement. If you don't hear from us during the week, but would like to join us, please reply to this email

Watch out wasps! FoF chairman Chris Potter is meeting with DoC next week to finalise arrangements for FoF to carry out wasp control as part of our conservation activities.

That's all from Ivan on behalf of FoF for now, we'll be in touch next month.