During July we had the unusual situation of no mid week volunteer trips on Dreamweaver and the only Sunday trip was cancelled. So no trees were planted in July, however there was lots of other work going on. 59 Trust leaders made trips on water taxis, private boats and the DOC boat carrying out a variety of jobs including monitoring kiwis. 

Upcoming volunteer trips
Contact Fiona on info@motuihe.org.nz
Sunday August 18 (full for volunteers, more leaders needed)
Sunday September 15
Sunday October 20
Sunday November 17
Sunday December 8

Mid week trips contact Simon on volunteermotuihe@gmail.com
30 August
24 September
15 October
29 November
12 December

Kiosk Roster manager Volunteer job opportunity 
This coming summer season is the last Fiona will be available to organize the roster for the kiosk operators. We are looking for an understudy who can learn the job from Fiona and carry it out into the future. The job involves setting up the roster which runs from Boxing Day to Easter, contacting volunteers on the kiosk mailing list and liaising with The Red Boats. If you are interested in contributing in this volunteer capacity please contact Jill Soufflot on Operations@motuihe.org.nz.

Dotterel Monitoring volunteers wanted
Our dotterel team is making preparations to monitor the dotterels nesting on Motuihe over the coming breeding season. If you would like to join the monitoring team, please get in touch with Hazel at thuizhenc@gmail.com. Full training will be given. 

Pond update

I had the opportunity to get to the pond this month. It is about half full and our Pateke family had two ducklings, almost juvenile size. A pair of paradise ducks fought off another pair who cheekily tried to land on "their" pond. 
Changes at the cemetery

DOC has taken down the large Macrocarpa tree at the cemetery. Maybe it was dangerous. They have built a good strong 7 wire fence around the back of the cemetery along the cliff top and around the gun emplacement. Makes the area much safer. 

Volunteer House  GOING, GOING, GONE
Our much loved volunteer house which has been our happy place for the last 24 years has been removed by DOC.


Volunteer house as it was

Truck and bin arrive.  Apparently the truck could not get up the road which made the job much harder.

Cladding off and windows out.

The contractors said it was surprisingly hard to get the house down. It was very strong!!


Almost gone.

Gone!. We have to make a decision about what to do about the outdoor shower which is standing on its own.
Apparently there is still a pile of demolition material down at the ramp.

VOLUNTEER TRIPS

Rare Plants Trip 7th July
A very efficient and cheerful group of 17 joined the Trust on the 7th July to help with the kākābeak and threatened plants project. Five different planting sites were prepared, with grass sprayed back and weeds removed. The nursery team planted fresh new kākābeak into empty tubs in the nursery, as well as pricking out another 74 kākābeak seedlings. All the plants are looking great and we can't wait to begin planting them.
The Trust's threatened plant project has been generously funded by DoC. It is a three year project to build on the Trust's work to establish Kākābeak (Clianthus puniceus) on Motuihe. This is one of two species of kākābeak and it is now extinct in the wild. We feel very privileged to be part of efforts to save this beautiful plant from extinction. We are also shining a light on other nationally and regionally threatened species and are working to establish new populations of these on Motuihe in order to build on conservation efforts and advocate for our wonderful native plants. At the moment we have Koheriki (Scandia rosifolia), Tauhinu (Ozothamnus leptophyllus) and Coastal Harebell (Wahlenbergia vernicosa) growing in the nursery alongside the kākābeak. We hope there will be more to come. 
A big thank you to all the volunteers who have helped with this project so far, especially Chris and Monica, who collected the coastal harebells from the Rakino nursery last week! If you are interested in being part of the project please email operations@motuihe.org.nz
Bella Burgess


Kakabeak flowering in the nursery. (photo Bella Burgess)


Rare plants team working in the nursery. (photo Bella Burgess)

DOC Friday boat trips
Lois and Fiona on 12 July and Simon and Jill on 19 July doing a variety of jobs. Fiona and Margaret 26 July doing natural fresh water testing, Lois working on sponsored trees and Simon weeding. 
Weeding Trips
11 keen volunteers collected 14 bags of moth plant pods in July.  One of our water taxi trips was on one of Auckland's foggy days, so the trip over was very slow as it was difficult to see too far ahead.  The fog cleared to a beautiful blue sky in brilliant winter sunshine, although we could still see fog come and go around the Gulf.
Jill Soufflot
Woolshed development/nursery trips
24 July 5 volunteers, 26 July 2 volunteers both trips using Chris's boat.
Kiwi Call Monitoring Trip 
On 6 July 14 volunteers stayed overnight in the woolshed and used their listening sites to record 23 kiwi calls. They also collected moth pods, changed camera cards and several other jobs. The full kiwi call monitoring report with the results for the year will be in next month's newsletter.
Julie Thomson