The Whaka-Ora Pest Project (WOPP), run by Conservation Volunteers New Zealand (CVNZ), protects native wildlife by targeting pests like rats, possums, stoats, and hedgehogs around Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour.

Lily Duval is a WOPPer.

That may sound like an insult, but it’s a good thing for precious wildlife like tūī, kererū, wētā, and native lizards.

WOPP volunteers like Lily have helped wipe out roughly 4500 pests in the two years since the project began. They set and monitor about 750 traps spread around Whakaraupō, in areas including Ōhinehou Lyttelton, Motukauatirahi Cass Bay, and Diamond Harbour.

Lily checks traps set near her home in Ōhinehou about once a month and logs her catches on the Trap.NZ app.

In just over a year as a WOPP volunteer, she’s seen possums, rats, mice, and mustelids in the traplines she monitors.

A big motivation for Lily is protecting native lizards and invertebrates like wētā.

Lily said WOPP is incredibly well managed and those who volunteer receive training, including how to set traps humanely and safely.

“You get fully trained up. If you’ve got any qualms about how to use the traps, the training process is awesome, it’s really well supported. It’s also just a really cool community; you get to meet a lot of people who live in your area and are passionate about the same thing,” she said.

More WOPPers wanted around the harbour

CVNZ regional manager Hamish Fairbairn said there’s now a push to recruit landowners to install and monitor traps on their private properties.

“We’ve put traps and monitoring lines on all the accessible public land within the harbour now and so, to me, the obvious direction for us to go in is to support landowners with trapping that they want to do on their land,” he said.

WOPP receives funding from sources including Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury), Whaka-Ora Healthy Harbour, Pest Free Banks Peninsula, and the Christchurch City Council.

Get involved: Volunteer for CVNZ and find out more about their amazing work