It’s commonly known that possums, rats and stoats are invading and killing our native wildlife and plants.

But did you know that 80% of New Zealand’s 168 native bird species are classed as being ‘in trouble’ or worse?*

NPDC councillor Roy Weaver says he knows the community treasures its walkways, bush and native wildlife.

“There’s a number of great projects already underway for areas of Taranaki to become predator free,” says Cr Weaver. “NPDC already invests about $130,000 each year on trapping and pest control in our parks and walkways.

“Now we want to know: are we doing enough to protect our patch? Should NPDC encourage and assist more urban trapping or we could look at other ways to protect our natural biodiversity.”

Let’s Kōrero is your chance to feed us ideas about some big projects on our books, that we’re working on as part of our latest Annual Plan which includes an operating budget of approximately $150 million.

You could win an iPad, by filling out our quick two-minute survey at newplymouthnz.com/letskorero between 4 March and 2 April.

(* Source: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report Taonga of an island nation: Saving New Zealand’s birds)

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