April 02, 2024
Wallabies threaten lakes restoration
An explosion in wallaby numbers is the latest threat to the Rotorua lakes.
Te Arawa Lakes Trust deputy chair Rangitihi Pene says the trust is celebrating the centenary of the Te Arawa Māori Trust Board, with the current board having a far more ecological focus than its predecessors.
Working with central and regional government as well as with schools and local communities, it’s running programmes to bring back water quality in the face of invasive species like catfish, introduced weeds and golden clams.
The lakes are also affected by land use and erosion, some of it caused by an estimated population in the catchment of between one and two million wallabies.
“Five years ago they reached a critical mass here and they started starving so the are now spreading out north, east, west and south. You’ve got rats, you’ve got possums and bow you’ve got this huge bag of wallabies which are mobile, a bit bigger,” Mr Pene says.