When Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary Club was searching for a suitable vocational visit for its members, they chose Howick Ward’s award-winning pest free project managed by local stalwart, Karyn Gradon.
Last year the Ellerslie Club awarded Karyn a Paul Harris Fellowship for her efforts to protect precious species for future generations. The environment is one of Rotary International’s seven focus areas, so what better place to see the impact Karyn’s hard work is having on the environment around the Howick area.
Dressed in suitable attire, members scrambled across streams, up banks and through the beautifully regenerating bush to view an array of various traps and trail cameras along with an abundance of tui, kereru, fantails and other birds, now flourishing in the large bush-clad valleys.
Back at Karyn’s home for coffee and cakes on the lawn, members heard how trapping and pest plants were dealt with and the staggering number of possums, rats and mustelids that have been eliminated on the property.
One of the many highlights was viewing the mounted ferret, stoat and weasel (secure in their Perspex cases) caught in the area, which are now used to educate local schools about the unseen pests that are lurking in the bush and destroying native birds.
Karyn enjoyed the Rotary visit and said she looks forward to working with the Ellerslie Club. “It is the least I can do after the honour they bestowed on me with the Paul Harris award,” she said.
Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary president Alister Irwin said, “The vocational visit was both an inspiration and an example of the difference dedicated people can make to our environment. We are in awe of what Karyn has achieved and would love her help to us with something similar in our own Ellerslie area.”
