Whakatipu Wildlife Trust (WWT), whose predator control efforts are aimed at increasing native bird and insect life, is crowing over a $10,000 donation from a Queenstown brewery.
Frankton Arm-based Altitude Brewing’s made the donation from the 1% of gross revenue it gives away to local charities.
‘‘We’ve been a long-time supporter of the WWT,’’ Altitude managing director Eddie Gapper says.
‘‘We’re supported by the community, and this is how the community gains by supporting us.’’
WWT executive officer Joanne Conroy says the ‘‘generous grant’’ will particularly support volunteers undertaking predator control around local lakes, which are the habitat of the recently-named ‘bird of the century’, the Australasian crested grebe.
She notes they’ve installed a new nesting platform in Queenstown Bay, where a pair of grebes apparently mated recently, while numbers around Lake Hayes have been steadily increasing, ‘‘which is really heartening’’.
