Volunteers with the New Zealand Conservation Trust have around 200 traps (targeting rats, mustelids and possums) up the Carlyle Stream valley, Lewis Pass. The Carlyle is a large tributary of the Hope River, which flows into the Waiau-Uwha River. Its catchment is about eight kilometres long, with an altitude range from c.500 metres asl at the mouth to 1,835 metres at Mons Sex Milia on the Poplars Range between the Boyle and Hope rivers. The Carlyle’s upper catchment includes Mt Schiehallion (1,636 metres) and Mt St Andrew (1,708 metres). The true right of the catchment drains from the Poplars Range and includes a number of larger tributaries, while its true left side largely comprises short, steep, unbranched side streams.

NZCT’s work at the Carlyle began in 2017 with the deployment of traps and restoration of the DOC hut which is our base. Since then the traplines have been extended beyond the hut and it now takes volunteers a full weekend to check and rebait the traps. We aim to visit the valley monthly, with a small break mid-winter, and welcome new volunteers.

For those in Christchurch looking for a more gentle introduction to trapping, the trust has trap lines in Styx Mill Conservation Reserve and Radcliffe Road Reserve.

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Contact:

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+64 (0)22 533 4280