Who knew this could be so much fun!

PFUHB Volunteers needed

We have already distributed 500 tunnels and traps and both demand and support is outstanding, however…

For PFUHB to truly succeed – our flora and fauna to breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate by doing what birds and bees do, and our communities to thrive and celebrate a greater understanding of and engagement in local, regional and national biodiverse environments – we need a few more champions to put up their hands. There are 2 main roles people can play, both are voluntary and the reward is knowing you’re doing a great thing!

An example of how a community might ‘divide’

Local community coordinators (20-40 needed across Urban Hawke’s Bay) Approx 2-4 hours per week

Basically this would entail:

• Providing a local point of contact to distribute and if necessary maintain traps
• Provide feedback to PFUHB on improvements to, or issues with, the programme
• Co-ordinate 1-2 local working bee’s or workshops per annum – trap maintenance, trapping advice, planting or other biodiversity connected activity.
• Co-ordinate with anyone in your area who has offered to assemble traps
• You would be assigned an area which is entirely negotiable but would include a minimum of 100 households (target volume of 50 traps)
• Posting to your community through Facebook ( we will set up the open group for you to run)
• Group Emails to encourage people to check traps, refresh lures etc.

PFUHB will provide or coordinate

• All funding and sponsorship
• All material and trap supply
• All training pertaining to specific traps (Possums and ferrets) and eventually the use of baits.
• Liaison with local authorities/agencies
• Direction and governance of the overall programme.

These community roles will also present volunteers with an opportunity for a greater say in how the programme runs and evolves going forward, and create a sub-community of PFUHB community coordinators.

I personally think up to 100 traps (200 households) could be readily ‘managed’ by an individual in a few hours a week; and from my own experience I assure you this is a much more rewarding and engaging role than it sounds on paper. No-one, it seems cares much for rats!!!

Tunnel assemblers (about 30 individuals required) 1-2 hours per week.

The second role can either be independent of the first or some may like to do both.

What I’m looking for is a bunch of volunteers prepared to knock together 10-20 tunnels per week.

With the redesign I think 4-5 minutes per tunnel is a realistic estimate of the time required.

PFUHB would deliver all materials on a monthly basis and the traps could either be collected by your local coordinator (role above) or by PFUHB (when we deliver new materials) who would then distribute them.

This is a numbers game 30 people knocking out 10 tunnels per week (maximum 1 hours work) – means the programme can get 300 tunnels out per week and easily meet our goal of having over 5000 on the ground by this time next year.

If you’re interested and would like to talk further please contact me