58 | High Country Contracting T T Richard Loader Taking the bad guys out of the equation Native plant restoration is part of the services offered by High Country Contracting. CONTRACTING EXCELLENCE IN PEST ANIMAL CONTROL SHOP ON www.connovation.co.nz Toxins | Traps | Lures | Bait Stations | Monitoring Tools DOC200 Double Tap Chew Cards Lure-It Run-Through D-Block Smooth Lure Mustelids & Rats Possums & Rats Possums & Stoats Rats, os ums, Mustelids All Pest Animals Rats Rats Possums Experience the Extraordinary Mackenzie Helicopters offers a wide range of Aerial Commercial Operations as well as extraordinary flight experiences from our base in Lake Tekapo. 021 685 011 info@mackenziehelicopters.com • Spraying • Fertiliser Spreading & Cartage • Seeding • Pest Control • Mustering • Lifting • Surveying Lifting the Standard 027 433 1918 | 03 615 6966 richard@helisc.co.nz | www.helisc.co.nz 221 Spur Hut Road, Waitohi Vacuum Cleaners • Generators • Concrete Cutters Chainsaws • Hedge Trimmers • Line Trimmers • Rotary Hoes Brush Cutters • Leaf Blowers • Lawn Mowers • Ride-on Mowers High Country Contracting has been working hard to make a difference to the great Kiwi outdoors through rural pest control services since 2014, when the business was founded by Khan Adam to set a new benchmark in professionalism within the industry. Through a passion and a love of the outdoors, High Country Contracting’s aim is to protect New Zealand’s primary industries from vector spread diseases and to contribute through pest control to the improvement of our native flora and fauna. Over the nine years the business has been operating it has grown from a team of six to a team of fifty covering a wide range of skilled and specialist roles, along with different levels of leadership responsibility. Specialist skill sets include basic chainsaw operations through to felling large trees on sloping ground, trapping, toxin licenses, night and day UAV licences for drones, and a range of firearms licenses. Operating from its Pleasant Point base, the company also has a separate branch in Mosgiel and satellite depots in Middlemarch, Twizel and Alexandra, offering rural pest control services from Banks Peninsula to Fiordland. Through reputation the company’s skill sets have been sought further afield, and a bespoke deer management project is currently underway in the Kaimanawas, working for the Sika Foundation to not only reduce the Sika population’s impact on native flora but also gather data to better understand the health of the Sika population. High Country Contracting’s Development Manager Kuran Ireland says the company’s diverse offering has progressively evolved from animal pest control services including possum work, predator control programmes and ungulate (hoofed animal) programmes. “We’re specialists at providing a high level of pest control solutions, and that’s where we’ve found our niche. We offer drone services for pest control, and pre-and-post operation monitoring. We have a plant pest team focused on wilding tree control through to spraying, and some restorative native planting. We’re there to take out the bad guys and put the good guys back in.” By removing predator species detrimental to New Zealand’s native species, the biodiversity can be maintained or improved and High Country Contracting has a big trapping network for ferrets, stoats, and rats, specifically to protect the long tail bats in the Pleasant Point area. “Working with Ospri we’re decreasing the possum populations to decrease the vector risk of TB in our farming communities, and we survey pigs and ferrets for any disease that’s being spread across the country. “If we allow disease to enter our agricultural environments New Zealand won’t be so niche anymore and that is detrimental to the sector. “The simplest way for us to prevent that is to place people in the field with very high trapping skill sets. “The return on investment having someone on your land is knowing they are suitably skilled to make a difference.” Kuran says there has always been a strong desire to make a difference amongst the team, and that is at the heart of the company’s growth and evolution. “Everyone in our team is passionate about pest control, the outdoors and improving the outdoors. It’s not just a role, and that’s reflective in the work they do and the environments they have to live in. “Our people work away from their homes
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