Wye Creek Trapping

Wye Creek is a unique alpine valley the runs from Wye Saddle in the Remarkables, at around 2000m, to Lake Wakatipu at 310m. It has seen almost no farming in it's history and is abundant in a diverse range of alpine, sub-alpine and valley flora with some stands of ancient beech forest. Prior to Queenstown Climbing Club commencing trapping in 2013 bird life in the valley was rare and minimal. Now 6+ years later there are thriving populations of Bellbird, Fantails, Grey Warbler, Silver Eye and Chaffinch with smaller populations of Karearea, Kea and Tomtits. There has also been one unconfirmed sighting of a South Island Robin. By 2019 the focus had largely been on the North Wye beech forest area and a 1km overlap into sub-alpine territory. Future plans include extending our trapping and monitoring network into the South Wye Catchment.