Ranger Report – April 2026

Week One:

Senior Ranger Andy: A wet start to the week, but by Wednesday Craig and I were out and about continuing our pest control efforts in the Woods Road area with Joyce and Rolf.  Also this week we went out trapping in the West of the forest and checking AT220 Auto possum traps.  
On Friday the 3 Rangers were at the opposite end of the forest, near the Whau Valley Reservoir installing AT220 possum traps and trapping.

Ranger Craig: A lovely cool week in the bush. Andy and I did 2 transects of tests to check for wasp protein feeding. We had one in the north of the DOC area, and one in the south. No wasps were observed feeding on the tuna at either transect. So there will be no vespex op for now, but we may test again, depending on the weather and wasp activity levels in the next few weeks.

A couple of nice observations from this week in the bush:

This fork fern, with conspicuous sporangia, caught my eye growing from a ponga. It is a member of the Tmesipteris genus, I think probably Tmesipteris elongata. A nice parasol shaped specimen of Entoloma conconicum.

Photo credit: Craig Young

Ranger Rose: A spiffin day with the team. Calm, ominous weather before the storm. Will finish up one more toxin block next week, then we can do a post ops monitoring session, yipee. Also – spotted a New Zealand Passionflower/ Kōhia, my very first! 

Week Two:

Senior Ranger Andy: We have been getting back into the traplines this week  82 x rats, 20 x possums, 2 x weasels and a stoat this week.  Shout out to the Rangers and volunteers, it’s been slippery out there and we have all done some quality trapping this week.

I came across some lovely Astelia Solandri flowers on the Green trapline today.  I took a wrong turn on the Fuchsia trapline on Wednesday and ended up discovering a lovely rocky waterfall area covered with Parataniwha. I also saw a patch of Dog stinkhorn fungus to the West of Clements Quarry. 

Photo Credit: Andy Avery

Ranger Rose: A wonderous day on the Wednesday. Felt good to round off one of the last remaining toxin blocks. Bring on the post ops monitoring next week !!!

Week Three:

Ranger Craig: We continued our work to the west of the Pukenui on the Woods Rd property with AT220 and Feratox this week. We have counted a lot of dead possums, although it’s hard to get a highly accurate figure due to scavenging and possums dispersing before the cyanide takes effect. Our numbers are looking around: From 13 AT220s: 57 possums and 18 rats From Feratox in 53 bait stations: ~ 200 possums We’ve installed another 27 stations and will hopefully deploy more feratox next week if the weather improves. A good week getting back into the trapping lines and catching up with maintenance and odd jobs (Andy and I have manually destroyed numerous wasp nests).

A couple of pretty scenes from this week: 

An onion stalk fungus (Leucocoprinus cepistipes). And the Mangere stream as I exited the purple trapline this afternoon.

Photo credit: Craig Young

Senior Ranger Andy: A varied week, with good engagement with our volunteers.  Candace and I went out trapping on Monday West of Clements Quarry on the Bullseye Trapline and I’ve been working on improvements to our buffer trapline network with Trevor and neighbours on the Northern edge of the Pukenui.  

While out in the Coronation reserve Craig and I came across a wine glass fungus –  podoscypha petalodes (see photo below).  

This morning we went back out to Woods Road quarry area with Rolf to continue our pest control work, including pre-feeding and installing baitstations and checking the AT220’s in the area.  We also collected in the ABM’s  It was clear that the tōtara in the area have been heavily damaged by possums and in some areas the forest floor, amongst the beautiful tree roots, is very diminished.  We will continue to improve our pest control in the area.  We managed to get out of there before the worst of the weather descended.  

Photo credit: Andy Avery

Week Four:

Senior Ranger Andy: A busy week for the Rangers of Pukenui.  Shout out to Simon and Zac this week for helping with the mahi.  We got the 100x ink tracking cards out and collected.  We will share the results soon.  
While out in the East of the Bush near the Whau Valley Reservoir I took a shortcut down a river and discovered a huge ancient fallen tree in the bottom of the river valley.  As the tree slowly rots and is turned back into soil by mushrooms, beetles and the elements it has become it’s own complex community of life. It looks like we have plenty of people interested in getting out into the forest to help record the nocturnal song of the kiwi this year.  Thanks again to Zac for supporting me in the meeting and keeping us all on track.
The number of volunteers keeps growing and the Pukenui really has been at it’s finest this week.

Huge ancient fallen tree, waterfall from Whau Valley and a Kahu above the tree tops. Photo Credit: Andy Avery

Ranger Craig: We got the post ratabate tracking tunnels done this week, will update you next week with the results. Today we continued with the woods rd operations – lots more Feratox went out to knock down another load of possums on the edge of the Pukenui.

Ranger Rose: Tracking tunnel cards (Lines A, B, E, F, G, H, I, J and K) were deployed on 29/04 and retrieved on 30/04. Results to follow. 

Some beautiful prose from the lovely Rose to finish off the month:

“Globules of umber kauri gum, filaments of mycelium silk, a snug cavity perfectly crafted, a beak full of plant fibres—these little treasures. They are the details that justify the lengths we take for one trap, one bait station, one chance at a righteous murder. Blessed be the knees, snagged and muddied; nails clogged with clay from scrambling out of supplejack snares; feet wrinkled from hours spent bathing in sweat and stream mud. Fooling rats with nut butter, simply to expose their paw prints as a sign of success. A fabulous week it was.

Acknowledgement is given to the many people who attended mid-week (29/04) and volunteered their precious time to join us at a workshop, learning to discern the calls of morepork from pūkeko and kiwi. Great delivery. This preparation will equip them to sit for hours, listening out for a lonely bird calling out for love, at the darkest time of the month.”

Photo Credit: Rose Warner