In 2020, NZ Conservation Trust volunteers began setting up predator traplines along the Styx River in Styx Mill Conservation Reserve and Radcliffe Road Reserve. The Trust’s trapping network long the Styx has since been expanded to include the Sheppards Stream and Janet Stewart reserves.
The Styx is a spring-fed river flowing through Christchurch into the Pacific Ocean. In recent years many groups, including the Styx Living Laboratory Trust, have worked tirelessly to protect, maintain and restore the ecosystem along the Styx.
The aim of NZCT’s project is to protect the wetland and bush birds living and nesting along the Styx from introduced predators like rats, stoat, weasels and ferrets.