Take action for nature: a small piece of the puzzle

By Predator Free New Zealand

How is the trap in your backyard going to help the country become predator free by 2050? 

It won’t—at least not on its own.  

Your backyard trap, baited and checked with care, won’t single-handedly make a dent in the local rat or possum populations. But your trap, your neighbour’s trap, the entire street’s traps? That’s when things start to shift, and the momentum builds. 

Nature and wildlife aren’t something that’s “over there” only in national parks and behind predator exclusion fences. It’s right here in our backyards, parks, and reserves. Especially so in Wellington.  

That kākā calling overhead or the tūī that has claimed your kōwhai tree as their own doesn’t recognise the boundaries between safe and unsafe habitat. It’s up to us to make everywhere safe.   

Take Miramar, for example.  

The effort to control rats, stoats, and weasels from the peninsula started with a handful of backyard trappers. Launched in 2017, Predator Free Miramar swelled to more than 1,000 households in just four years. By the time Predator Free Wellington came in to scale up the project to remove predators permanently from the city, the community had already caught 10,000 introduced predators. Today, Miramar has been predator free for two years, and bird monitoring shows native species are up by 91%.  

As Predator Free Wellington expands throughout the city, it will rely on more backyard trapping groups to lead the way in their communities.  

Elsewhere, backyard traps help form a protective halo around other eradication projects. Towards Predator Free Taranaki is eradicating predators from the national park and surrounding farmland—some areas haven’t seen a possum for three years. Backyard trapping in New Plymouth and surrounding towns helps hold the line, reducing reinvasion pressure and making large-scale eradication efforts more effective.  

Backyard trapping is about momentum. It creates safe space for wildlife to return, so tūī, kākā, korimako/bellbird don’t just stay in sanctuaries but can safely spill out into gardens and parks.  

The more people who get involved, the stronger the movement, driving large-scale eradication projects, funding research, and ultimately, making a predator-free New Zealand possible.  

Your trap is a small action with a big impact. Keep setting it. Keep checking it. Keep telling your neighbours and friends. Success relies on getting as many hands-on traps as possible.  
 
Keep going!