Awamutu Menzshed members, front from left, Bevan Boddie, David Phillips, Malcolm Perano (at back) Graeme Watson and Bill Bailey a Seasons greetit wonrk puttingg the latsest batch of traps together last week.
It’s a trap – about 170 of them.
And Te Awamutu Menzshed members are now about halfway through completing what’s thought to be one of the group’s biggest contracted projects this calendar year.
Menzshed members have been building wooden traps which will be shared between two Waipā organisations working to protect the district’s wildlife.
President Richard Cato said members were grateful because the profits would be put back into paying for the running costs of the shed.
About 120 of the completed traps will be given to Go Eco for use in its Bush to Burbs initiative.
Funded by Waikato Regional Council for three years, the scheme is designed to support landowners with their predator control.
Go Eco biodiversity community co-ordinator Karen Barlow told The News the newest traps – due for collection this week – will be given to landowners between Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari and Cambridge in an effort to provide both safe corridors for native birds who leave the mountain and the restoration planting happening.
Of those 120 traps, Barlow said, the first 50 will be placed on the northern side of the maunga.
The remaining 50 will be given to those organising the Taiea te Taiao project, an initiative seeking to establish an ecological corridor between Maungatautari and Pirongia which last month marked 200,000 plantings in the two years it has been running.
“We’re really grateful for the work menzshed members do for us,” Barlow said.
“Not only are the traps they make well built, but being wooden they are also environmentally friendly.”
“We are pleased to collaborate with these organisations and help in this way,” Cato said.
When The News visited the menzshed last week, a team of five members were manning the assembly line.
Meanwhile, sales of Te Awamutu Menzshed’s book Sheddies – which tells the stories of about 10 shed members – have remained steady since it was released in late October, Cato said.
There are several locations from which to purchase the book in town, or anyone wanting to get a copy can contact the menzshed directly.
Malcolm Perano with an example of what one of the completed traps looks like.
