66 | CONTRACTING Epro T T Richard Loader Pest control team shines at awards Epro team members out in the field. Operations now embrace aerial, land and advisory services, and encompass a wide range of animal pests including possums, rabbits, rats, ferrets, stoats, and wallabies. Family owned and operated Taupō based pest control specialist Epro is driven to restore a land where our native wildlife once thrived, and ensure that our important agricultural industries are protected. “Our ethos is really about leaving the land in a better place than when we found it, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” says Managing Director Kane Stafford. Kane has been part of Epro’s twenty-five year journey almost from the very beginning, starting out as an 18 year old team member, becoming a shareholder in 2010 and then, with brother-in-law Richard Leigh, taking full ownership four years ago. At last year’s Taupō Business Awards, Epro was awarded the Excellence in Strategy in Planning, and Excellence in Community Contribution awards, and Highly Commended in the Employer of the Year category. The icing on the cake was taking the supreme ‘Business of the Year’ award, recognising Epro’s business excellence. “We support a lot of community education programmes including some of the predator free trapping groups in Taupō, and the Kids Greening Taupo programme, which is a local initiative getting kids out planting trees and checking traps. Winning these awards, particularly the Excellence in Community Contribution award, was an awesome measure of success in terms of local community engagement.” Epro was born from the days when tuberculosis was prolific within cow herds and there was a strong focus on on-farm possum control, which Environment Waikato was heavily involved in. “At that stage there were over three hundred herds under the TB programme in the Waikato region alone, so there were real challenges for the local farming community.” The Regional Council decided they weren’t the right entity to do the work, and initiated a management buy-out, resulting in Epro being established. Based in Taupo, Epro’s focus was helping to resolve the region’s TB problems. Today there are less than thirty herds in the TB programme nationally. From its Taupō base, Epro’s pest control contracts have expanded to also include the East Coast, Ruatoria, Auckland, Taranaki, and the Kahurangi National Park at the top end of the South Island. Operations now embrace aerial, land and advisory services, and encompass a wide range of animal pests including possums, rabbits, rats, ferrets, stoats, and wallabies. “We continue the fight against TB working with OSPRI and the Department of Conservation with their national predator control programmes using aerial 1080,” says Kane. “We also do a lot of work for forestry companies prior to the establishment of forests ensuring there are no pests that will eat the plantings. “We do a lot of carrot-based control, which is awesome for all pest species. We’re doing more and more farm management plans for both corporate and private farmers who want more trees and birds on their farms. “That’s where our farm advisory services come in. We build on our knowledge of what has worked over the years and advise accordingly, identifying the kinds of issues and challenges faced on-farm, and offering solutions farmers could implement. People want to ensure that the money they’re spending in these programmes is being spent wisely.” Epro’s aerial based pest control is focused on forest restoration through the delivery of 1080 over large landscapes, and big mountainous terrains. “We’re doing a big project covering 120.000 hectares over the Raukumara Range for an iwi led initiative. We also have 35,000 hectares over Taranaki maunga and the Kaitake Ranges, which is a really cool story about the elimination of possums and the return of kiwi. “There’s another 82,000 hectares over the Hauhungaroa Range, the backbone of the central North Island. “That all involves a lot of consultation with landowners, as well as listening and understanding what everyone is doing in their backyard and finding solutions.” Ground based services is about bait stations mainly for possums and rats on farms. There is also a lot of trapping work, ensuring kiwi, kōkako and other bird life are protected from rats, stoats, cats in the forest. “When you look at some of the kōkako breeding programmes where there are now more kōkako in these areas – Rotoehu, Mokaihaha, Hunua and Rangitoto – that we treat periodically, we’re certainly winning the battle. “There are more kiwi being bred now in other treated areas and actually more and more habitats are needed for them to live because the programmes have been so successful.” Rodent control for ALL environments RURAL/FARMING, URBAN CONSERVATION, COMMERCIAL • 65+ years of rodenticide development and manufacture • Proven solutions for pest control and eradication • Exporting to 20+ countries • Rodenticides are our specialty Orillion congratulates EPRO on winning the ‘BNZ Overall Business of the Year’ at the 9RMWSR +VIEX 0EOI 8EYT˹ &YWMRIWW %[EVHW www.pestoff.co.nz “Our ethos is really about leaving the land in a better place than when we found it, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve.”
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