Bryn handing over birdlife battle

Picton Dawn Chorus is after the next generation of environmental guardians to contribute to the boardroom and in the field, as long-time chair Bryn Evans steps down.

Bryn is stepping down after five years, ahead of a trip to Europe with his wife attending two literature courses at Oxford University before possibly stepping back as a volunteer for the organisation.

He says he decided it was time to step down as chair after ensuring the organization was stable enough to continue, despite changing ecological funding support.

“We had to make redundant jobs from the organization after the cessation of the Jobs for Nature government funding programme, which funded most but not all of our wages, but felt that I shouldn't step away until we were stable with lower funding,” Bryn says.

“The leadership of Picton Dawn Chorus isn't solely vested in the board and I've only been a small cog in a machine that's worked damn well most of the time - some of the most vibrant and important people in our organisation are not on the board, but oversee working groups.

“We realized, perhaps slowly, that we were a social organization for people to contribute in their way - it’s more accessible to do weeding on Kaipupu Sanctuary or nurse locally-sourced plants as part of our Ngahere working group than it is to kill a rat.

“Making our mission accessible with our community having backyard traps, bird feeders, events and newsletters has been so important ... with 2000 households here, about a quarter have traps in their back gardens so our community engagement is unbelievable.”

As collective efforts to help local birdlife built, Bryn was pleased to see plans come to fruition, as well as the evolution of approaching the difficult task of securing ecological safe havens.

“Andrew McCallister, who’s been the leading light of the Sounds Restoration Trust wilding project, drew up a 50-page operational plan for 2020 to 2025 for a halo trapping network of 3200 traps and Lee Crosswell, with a bit of help, created that network a whole year ahead of the plan.

“The AT220 [traps] we’ve started to install are the real deal and only need to be checked every few months, so they’re going in around important areas of biodiversity that aren’t on regular walk trails, like the beech forest remnants on the Wedge.

“Our traps connect with Pest-Free Ngakuta Bay’s work on the Wedge all the way to Wild Waikawa up there, and we mesh in quite well together without getting in each other's pockets.

“But predator-proof fences are very expensive, and you might think I'm a bit cynical, but we cannot eradicate predators in our zone, no matter how intense our network is.

“I see us as being a really valuable addition to the concept of preserving all our species with fence sanctuaries and trapping networks to stop species extinction, just as places like Zealandia and Maungatautari/Sanctuary Mountain are.”

However, Bryn says the constant battle against pests always needs new fighters to battle on the side of the native birds.

“The potential for loss of interest is a real risk, and we need people of all ages and skills to be involved because community support is much steadier than the funding applications are - conservation as a sector only gets four percent of philanthropic giving.

“The increase in bird life isn't perceptible enough to make me think we're winning this war, so we need younger, more vibrant people to keep it going.

“But when our resident backyard tui couple come to our almond tree, or more sightings of kaka go on social media that were otherwise thought extinct on the South Island, it makes me want to continue protecting our patch we have here,” he added.