The green›fingered friends of Claremont Bush are perplexed at the light› fingered removal of their tools.
Group leader Pauline Knudsen said a tool box, which contained tools worth up to $300 including loppers and secateurs, was taken.
Ms Knudsen said the tools came from a donation from the estate of Helen Trew who had been a teacher at Craighead School for many years, and were used to keep walking tracks accessible to the public.
Six bright yellow possum traps — adonation from Doc — were also stolen.
She said while they had people watching Trademe and Facebook Marketplace in case the tools were put up for sale, she could not imagine anyone selling bright yellow possum traps, as they had ‘‘quite a niche market’’.
Mrs Trew’s former pupil and friend Kate Elsen said her friend would have been ‘‘massively disappointed’’ about the theft.
‘‘But philosophical and hopeful that perhaps the community might donate secondhand tools.’’
‘‘As a Christian she would have forgiven the desperate thief.’’
Committee members are now worried about what to do if they recover the tools, or but replacements.
While they had left everything in a covered location off the track, they were now unsure where they could be kept — or what they could be kept in — to keep them safe.
They could not afford to install any sheds as ‘‘we’re a tiny little community group’’.
Mrs Elsen said they had 10 brilliant volunteers who had trapped nearly 500 pests since April 2018.
Ms Knudsen said Claremont Bush was a podocarp/ hardwood forest; less than 2% of this sort of the original woody vegetation in the district remains.
She said if anyone had ideas on how to store the tools so they would not be able to be removed so easily in future, they could contact the friends at [email protected] or message their Facebook page.
