The team at Hunters For Conservation have been brainstorming their next move in order to support hunter led conservation. An opportunity to do this popped up when like minded good bugger and fellow hunter Justin Armour from the Tararua Wild Foundation (TWF) got in touch about potentially collaborating on a raffle promotion in order to raise funds to get stage one of TWF's predator trapping program completed!
The TWF have taken the mammoth task upon themselves to reintroduce Kiwi and Blue Duck/Whio into the Tararua forest park. The last breeding pair of both Kiwis and blue ducks was last seen way back in the 70's, nearly 50 years ago. The project is achievable with monitored science and collected data through a bullet proof predator trapping program that has been constructed by the one and only Cam Speedy. It will see at least 1500 predator traps going into the hills strapped on the backs of keen hunters.
TWF's project is located in the upper Otaki River and stage one consists of 445 double and single set DOC200. Within this zone is Waitewaewae hut, which is on the Te Araroa trail. A win-win of having traps here will obviously be controlling pests but also give great exposure to non hunters that the hunting community do really care about seeing native environments thriving. Every trap sponsored by Hunters For Conservation through money raised directly from the hunting community will have the Hunters For Conservation logo branded on them. Goodwood products NZ are making all the traps that will be used in the project and the quality of their workmanship is second to none and will last for years if not decades.
Having a better understanding of an environment's ecology and finding the balance between our introduced game animals and enhancing our native species is the future of hunting in NZ. If we can cement our worth as a hunting community by giving back through conservation projects this is where the general public will gain the utmost respect for hunters.
So how can Hunters For Conservation achieve this? Many businesses within the hunting community have generously come on board donating prizes and an awesome prize pool of over $20,000 has been created. The list of businesses stepping up continues to grow as the hunting community starts to understand and see real value in committing to conservation. So far they include:
PointsSouth
First Lite
Twinneedle
Bloodline Gear
Earth Sea Sky
Hunting and Fishing
Bene Footwear
Top Of The Lake Guiding
Swazi
Hunters Element
Stoney Creek
Go Native
Backcountry Cuisine
Radix Nutrition
Dog and Gun Coffee
Peak Performance Hunting
Gathered Game
WildSide Hunting Safaris
Bootleg Jerky
Doctari Bow Hunting NZ
NZ Hunter Magazine
Rod & Rifle Magazine
NZ Outdoor Magazine
The Hunters Journal
Victory Knives
Zamberlan Boots
Goodwood
Mtngear
Phoneskope nz
Chase and Gather
Lowa
Backlanz
Mountain Edge Taxidermy NZ
Windrift NZ
Maniatis Gunsmiths
Hardy Rifle Engineering
Glacier Rifle Company
Cured Wild Game and Private Processing
Huntech
AJ Productions
Toa Hunter Gatherer
Altitude & Trails
ARWD Bowhunting
So to enter the Hunters For Conservation raffle simply purchase a $10 Hunters For Conservation logo sticker online at PointsSouth. The more stickers/tickets you buy the more chances you have of winning a prize. So you get a sweet sticker to show you are a hunter that supports conservation and at the same time you are contributing to conservation because the sale of every sticker gets donated to the TWF to complete stage one of their predator programme. Also every single person who has already purchased a Hunters For Conservation sticker since their inception will be automatically in the draw to win. The raffle will be drawn mid December and Hunters For Conservation hope to raise at least $7500 to donate straight to TWF to buy traps. Over the next six weeks the prizes and hunting businesses' passion for hunter led conservation will be highlighted on Hunters For Conservation’s Facebook and Instagram accounts so please share this around.
"TWF is doing real boots on the ground, no bull shit conservation project and Hunters For Conservation are proud to support it."
