The red flowers of northern rata and pohutukawa trees are beginning to bloom along the Kiwi Coast where possums are controlled to low numbers.
Rata and pohutukawa belong to the ancient ‘ironwood’ or Metrosideros native tree family. The showy red flowers of northern rata and pohutukawa around Christmas time are a midsummer icon for Northland.
See the difference with this Mahinepua tree below from 2003 to 2011.
Unfortunately, possums also love rata and pohutukawa with devastating effects. In areas without possum control, grey dying trees can be a stark reminder of the damage that possums can do.
Some community-led conservation projects use the flowering of their rata and pohutukawa trees to monitor their forest health and the success of their possum control.
Sandy Bay Kiwi, Mahinepua-Radar Hill Landare and Whareora Landcare are three such groups that take photos from the same spot each year, and then compare them from one year to the next, looking for changes.
As these photos from Mahinepua-Radar Hill Landcare show, this simple photo taking monitoring method can be dramatically effective in proving results gained from pest control.
To find out more about how to do photopoint monitoring check out the Forest Health Monitoring Assessment Kit (FORMAK) which has step by step instructions.
