By Celsias
Posted on July 5, 2013. Listed in:
The Morgan Foundation has been named as the big conservation winner at the 2013 Southland Environment and Conservation Awards.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) Outstanding New Initiative Award was given to the Morgan Foundation for creating the Million Dollar Mouse campaign, a project that aims to raise one million dollar to fund the eradication of mice from the Antipodes Islands, located almost 900 km south of Stewart Island.Mice were thought to be introduced to the Antipodes Islands by sealers in the early 1800s.
A trip to Antarctica and the Sub Antarctic Islands last year inspired Gareth and Jo Morgan to set up the Million Dollar Mouse campaign. They saw first hand the devastating impact that mice have on the wildlife living on the Antipodes and recognised the need to continue to protect the islands as home of some of the most abundant and unique wildlife on earth.The Antipodes Islands are home to a wide variety of sea and land bird species including the endemic Antipodes snipe and pipit, and two species of parakeet. 
The seabirds range from the tiny storm petrel to the Antipodean wandering albatross, one of the largest flying birds in the world. Small populations of white-capped and black-browed mollymawks breed on Bollons Island. There are also erect-crested and rock hopper penguins and nine species of burrowing petrel.
Mice are the only pest animal remaining on the islands. They are eating the eggs and chicks of seabirds, as well as insects and plant seeds that are a food source for native species and critical to the continuation of the ecosystem.
The Outstanding New Initiative Award was developed to recognise new and innovative conservation initiatives, especially those that have the potential to achieve strong conservation outcomes and that encourage participation by others.
DOC Area Manager for Murihiku & Southern Islands, Andy Roberts, said that the Morgan Foundation’s Million Dollar Mouse campaign demonstrated everything that the New Initiative Award was looking to celebrate.
“This type of project has been a first for Southland,” he said. “Through the leadership of the Morgan Foundation we’ve seen what it takes for New Zealanders to get in behind this conservation issue.”
The Morgan Foundation has committed to matching all public donations dollar for dollar
, with DOC also contributing a third of the cost. “Million Dollar Mouse is proof that the public of New Zealand are prepared to support both conservation causes and partnerships such as these,” said Mr Roberts. To date more than $800,000 has been raised.
The other nominees for the DOC Outstanding New Initiative Award were the Fiordland Conservation Trust for securing funding for an Education Co-ordinator role for the Kids Restore the Kepler programme, and the Southland Branch of the New Zealand Deer Stalkers Association for taking ownership of a gorse control programme at Kilbride on Stewart Island.
