Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari volunteers have taken to the streets to raise awareness of the project’s cash flow crisis after seven rangers lost their jobs.
Maungatautari volunteers Ringi Morgan-Fifield, left, and Lyz Reid.
Guided by volunteer co-ordinator Lian Buckett, they are collecting cash, encouraging regular financial support, and offering 10 per cent discount vouchers to visitors.
They collected cash at Chartwell Shopping Mall on August 19, the Te Awamutu branch of The Warehouse on Friday, Te Awamutu Library on Saturday, and plan to collect at Cambridge Library on Saturday.
“We have got a cold call situation, it’s quite a hard sell in current times,” Buckett said. “Some people just walk by, others say they have heard about it, one person at Chartwell donated $300.”
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari operations manager Dan Howie spoke of how his job has become really difficult since the project lost more than half of its 13 mountain rangers as the Department of Conservation’s Jobs For Nature funding dried up.
“It’s been hard on the team,” said Howie who has worked on the mountain for almost six years.
“The reduction in staff has made life more difficult. The work on the maunga does not stop.”
Rangers are tasked with a daily schedule of checking rat traps, tracking tunnels and bait stations every 50 metres within a designated section of the grid.
“This work has to continue,” he said. “But it means some of the other good work we can no longer do.”
“Good work” includes trapping predators outside the predator proof fence before they can get in.
Meanwhile the project has received a grant of up to $78,000 from the Rodmor Trust to cover insurance. It will receive $30,000 this year and a further $24,000 in 2025 and 2026.
Maungatautari volunteers Russell Easton, Joy Hood, Ian Hood, volunteer co-ordinator Lian Buckett, and volunteer Allan Gauntlet raise awareness of the mountain’s plight at The Warehouse, Te Awamutu.
