This year's theme for Conservation Week is 'take a moment to notice nature'. While at home social distancing, we invite you to get involved and do something for Conservation Week.
We have listed some ideas below. Some can be done during a well deserved break from work/chores at home or while going out for a walk. Get your bubble involved and please make sure you follow all alert level guidelines for your area.
🌿 Start in your backyard! Recognise, remove, report and restore native biodiversity by planting native plants in your backyard. Don't know where to start? Check our pest plant resources.
🦋 Discover the biodiversity of your backyard by participating in our Ecological Monitoring Campaign on iNaturalist and see how many species you can find!
🌳 Mulch a tree in preparation for summer. We imagine a few of you have some lawn clippings or old leaves that you could use. You can do it for a tree in your garden, or a tree on your verge or close by. Check out how and why here.
🐾 Make your own tracking tunnel so you can find out what pests (or other wildlife) are living in your backyard. Pests run through the tunnel to get the lure and leave their footprints on the paper. For instructions on how to make it, check this PDF prepared by one of our youngest volunteers, Benji, who created it during August. Would love to see yours! We also recommend you read our monitoring guide.
🐀 Set a trap or bait station to help protect our beautiful wildlife and your family. You can find our detailed how-to sheets on our website.
🐦 Become a citizen scientist for a day and do a 5 minute bird count. The goal of this activity is to find what bird life is in your backyard. Do you think your street is eerly quiet? Or quite the opposite? Now is a great time to listen out for bird life. Read our guide and fill in the online form with your findings. You can access our files of bird calls here.
🕷 Create a bug hotel. Creepy crawlies are fun to find and are good for your garden too. Give them somewhere to live and you’ll be fascinated by what visitors come and stay.
Kiwi Families has created a great guide on how you can create one at home.
🦎 Create a lizard friendly garden. Predator Free New Zealand Trust has created this beautiful little guide on how to simply add things to your backyard that will benefit native skinks and geckos.
🔍 You can also participate in DOC's digital treasure hunt competition (hurry, ends 9th September) or check our more ways to participate in Conservation Week here.
If you have any questions, please email enquiries@pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz