Leading the way.

Once a year the prefects from New Plymouth Boys High School don their red band gumboots and head out to the Taranaki bush to get stuck in servicing traps and picking up some leadership skills along the way.

When Karen and Bob Schumacher heard a kiwi call on their farm in Taranaki in 2005, they felt compelled to do their utmost to preserve our national icon. They knew that key to success would be getting community involvement. The benefits would be three-fold - sharing the trapping maintenance load, creating a safe haven for birds to thrive and exposing volunteers to not only the bushland beauty but also intrinsic conservation principles - one of which is toxin-free trapping (using a network of Goodnature A24's and DOC 200's).

One such community initiative involves local rangatahi engagement. Every year, the prefects from New Plymouth Boys High School head into the bush with Experience Purangi (otherwise known as East Taranaki Environment Trust (ETET) a trust dedicated to enhancing kiwi habitat through pest management in East Taranaki). With the help of a few volunteers they get their hands dirty servicing the nearly 1300 traps that make up the farm network.

"Bush work is fantastic for learning leadership skills very quickly"

- Kat Strang, Conservation Manager at Experience Purangi

On this trip they learn about leadership and what better way than in the bush, securing the future of native taonga. We sent along a few of the Goodnature crew to help them out, sharing knowledge, kai and a love for the outdoors.