Whangārei Heads · Aotearoa New Zealand

Heads Habitat

Conservation Management and ecological restoration — for the land you love, and the species that depend on it.

Heads Habitat is a community conservation collective. We offer private landowners a conservation-as-a-service via a subscription to manage their properties pest animal and plant problems. Heads Habitats service includes ecological assessments and planting plans. We are not Rentokil (no ecological outcome, no native species focus, no local credibility), we are a sustainable, professional biodiversity focused environmental management business servicing private properties - because without conservation work on private properties then the millions of dollars spent on public land is wasted.

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What We Do

Practical restoration work, done properly.Heads Habitat provides professional pest plant and animal control services for private landowners, lifestyle block owners, and community groups across Whangārei Heads.
We’re not a generic pest control company. Our work is grounded in conservation science, delivered with professional care, and designed to achieve lasting ecological outcomes over the whole peninsula - not just short-term fixes in your own backyard.Every property we work on becomes part of a connected landscape buffer that protects and restores the biodiversity of this extraordinary place. By subscribing you're joining a movement, not buying a service. Do you have Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Youtube Premium? Compare the permanent value of a healthy planet to temporary entertainment.

Predator Control
Professional design, installation, and ongoing servicing of rat, stoat, and mustelid trap and bait station networks. We use best-practice devices, safe toxin application, and meticulous record keeping - so you know it’s working.Pest Plant Management
Identification, mapping, and targeted control of invasive weed species. From mothplant and kikuyu to pampas and woolly nightshade - we know the plants and the methods that work in Northland conditions.Ecological Planning
Site assessments, biodiversity baseline reports, landscape-level pest management plans, and grant-ready documentation for landowners, trusts, and community groups seeking funding.Community Facilitation
Connecting landowners, hapū, councils, and community groups to achieve coordinated landscape-scale outcomes. We help build the relationships and structures that make conservation stick.

Why It Matters

This place is worth protecting.

Whangārei Heads — Te Whara, Manaia, Reotahi — is one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on the East Coast of the North Island. The maunga here are more than icons. They are home to species found almost nowhere else on the New Zealand mainland.
Predator control on private land is the missing link. Without connected buffers between reserves and residential areas, even the best conservation work inside the fence can be undone.

Stats:
• 85% of Whangarei Heads does not have any coordindated conservation plan - millions of dollars are spent on fragmented public conservation land (see our "Mapping The Gaps" StoryMap (https://arcg.is/1rGrny1)
• 80M — Years of evolutionary history in the land snails of Bream Head
• 3 — Remaining mainland locations for Placostylus snails in Aotearoa
• 25M — Native birds lost to predators every year across New Zealand

Taonga species:
Kiwi · Toutouwai (NI Robin) · Kūkupa (Wood Pigeon) · Ōi (Grey-faced Petrel) · Popokatea (Whitehead) · Kakerakau · Northern Horopito · NI Gecko · Ornate Skink

Services & Pricing

Heads Habitat — Cost Estimator

Heads Habitat · Whangārei Heads

What should this property cost?

Drag the property size to see an estimated annual price and the rate per 100m² — built from your Bronze / Silver / Gold device tiers, tunable by hourly rate. Use it to price a property before a site visit, or test how the rate card holds up at different scales.

Property Details

Size and servicing phase drive device count and visit frequency.

Property size800 m²

Servicing phase

Advanced — tune your rate assumptions

Your hourly rate$85/hr

Minutes per device, per visit8 min

Consumables per device, per visit$5

Base call-out / admin fee$350/yr

Estimated Price

Annual cost to the landowner, at today's slider settings.

$1,310

$163.75 per 100m² · Year 1

Devices

Visits / yr

Rate per 100m² across property sizes

100m²5 ha

Why the price per 100m² falls as the property grows: most of the cost on a small section is the base call-out — travel, setup, admin — spread over very little land. Your own three drafts price this three different ways (the per-property Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers, the per-device Model B, and the acreage-based rates in the pricing guide), and they don't quite agree once you convert them all to a $/100m² basis. This tool runs on the per-device Model B logic (the most granular of the three), so you can see how far the others drift from it and pick one to standardise on before it goes on the website. At default settings it reproduces your Model B worked example almost exactly (3 devices, Year 1 → $1,310).

Reality check against industry: Predator Free NZ Trust's own published benchmark for landscape-scale suppression is roughly 2 devices/ha and $3–6 per device per contractor visit — this calculator's device density only converges toward that once you're well past lifestyle-block scale (roughly 2ha+), which is expected: small residential sections need tighter device spacing than open farmland.

Transparent pricing. No surprises.

We offer two pricing models — choose whichever is clearest for your situation. All packages include site assessment, professional installation, compliant toxin handling, and full monitoring records.

MODEL A — By Property Size
Bronze — Standard Residential
Up to 800m² section · 2–3 devices included
Establishment Year (Year 1): $895 / year
Maintenance Year (Year 2+): $595 / year
Includes: fortnightly servicing (first 6 months), monthly servicing thereafter, bait & consumables, monitoring records, annual report.Silver — Lifestyle Small
0.5–2 hectare property · 4–6 devices included
Establishment Year (Year 1): $1,650 / year
Maintenance Year (Year 2+): $1,200 / year
Includes: full site assessment, custom trap layout, pest plant assessment, basic weed spot treatment, annual biodiversity summary.Gold — Lifestyle Large
2–5+ hectares · Custom device layout
From $2,500 / year (quoted after site visit)
Includes: integrated plant & animal plan, GIS mapping & reporting, grant-ready documentation, priority response.

MODEL B — Per Device
Establishment Year (Year 1)
$320 per device / year + $350 base property fee
Includes: fortnightly servicing (first 6 months), monthly servicing (following 6 months), bait replacement, monitoring records, annual summary report.Maintenance Year (Year 2+)
$250 per device / year + $350 base property fee
Includes: monthly servicing, adjusted bait use as numbers drop, ongoing monitoring records, annual biodiversity summary.Example — 3 devices, Establishment Year:
• Base fee: $350
• 3 × $320 = $960
• Total: $1,310 / year
• = 19 service visits = $69 per visit

Not sure which option suits your property? Get in touch for a free 20-minute phone consultation. We’ll talk through your site, your goals, and what’s realistic — no obligation.

About

Grounded in the Heads.

Heads Habitat was founded by someone who has spent years working in the field at Whangarei Heads — trapping, monitoring, weeding, planning, and building the relationships that make conservation actually work.
This isn’t a franchise or a generic pest control company. It’s a locally rooted service, built on genuine field knowledge, trusted relationships with tangata whenua and community groups, and a deep understanding of what this landscape needs to recover.

“Most pest control companies solve an infestation. We’re building a buffer — a connected landscape where native species have room to return and thrive. That takes longer to explain, but it’s what actually works.”

With over seven years of 'groundtruth' professional experience in both pest plant and animal control — including work with Bream Head Te Whara Conservation Trust, Weed Action Whangarei Heads, Predator Free Whangarei and alongside Northland Regional Council partners — Heads Habitat brings conservation-grade thinking to private land.
90% towards completing a straight A, Environmental Management degree, and maintaining active working relationships with DOC, NRC, iwi and hapū, and multiple Northland conservation trusts. Heads Habitat operates within all relevant regulatory requirements including GrowSafe certification and Controlled Substance Licence.

GrowSafe Certified · First Aid · CSL Holder · Env. Management Diploma · Firearms Licence · Chainsaw Certified · 4WD Operations · Te Tiriti training - 10+ Years Field Experience · Northland-based

Connections & Affiliations

Heads Habitat acts as a independent intermediately between organistaions and agencies, landowners and councils.• Bream Head Te Whara Conservation Trust (current contract)
• Weed Action (current contract)
• Manaia Landcare (current volunteer)
• Reotahi Landcare (current volunteer)
• Northland Regional Council (previous employee)
• Whangarei District Council
• Department of Conservation
• Predator Free Whangarei (previous employee)
• Kiwi Coast
• Member of the New Zealand Biosecurity Institute

Contact

Let’s talk about your land.

Whether you’re a residential landowner wanting to do your bit, a lifestyle block owner looking for professional ongoing management, or a community group needing strategic support — we’d love to hear from you.Contact details
• Phone: 021 556 638
• Email: [email protected]
• Based: Whangarei Heads, Northland
• Service area: Whangarei Heads & surrounds

Examples of previous work