1080 and us: New Zealanders talk about 1080

A decade ago, Errol Croad had nothing good to say about 1080. Now this award-winning Otaki farmer and onetime hunter says it’s a saviour; both for the environment and for farming.

Read Errol's story here

Saving forests and wildlife

I welcome DOC’s plan to treat with 1080 the Moeraki, Whakapohai and Mataketake forests between the Moeraki and the Haast Rivers next November. In southern South Westland this treatment is successfully restoring the native forest and birdlife. Every year DOC conducts about 50,000ha of aerial treatment here.

  Over the last 15 years, the Paringa to Haast World Heritage listed forest tract has been treated with aerial 1080 approximately every 3 years including around our Wilderness Lodge. I was there in 2009 when DOC treated the 9,000hectares between the Paringa and Moeraki Rivers. This DOC programme was managed very responsibly and was very effective.

Now the 28,000ha Moeraki to Haast River block is due for regular pest treatment. Possum reinvasion has taken place here since the last treatment and urgent action is now needed.

This DOC programme is preserving some of NZ’s largest mistletoe, rata, wineberry and fuchsia and perhaps the New Zealand mainland's healthiest bird populations. I have lived in the Moeraki Valley off and on for 20 years. We now see flocks of young kaka, pigeon and many morepork, falcon, kea, bellbird, tui and insectivorous birds. The Upper Moeraki now has many breeding pairs of whio/blue duck.

Many New Zealand people who love the bush and birds support DOC's 1080 programmes. The science is conclusive.

Without extensive pest control, New Zealand's native forests and wildlife will dwindle to a shadow of their former glory. Trees such as kamahi and the beech trees may survive without pest control. However we will lose fuchsia, mistletoe, rata and even apparently common species like wineberry. We will also lose most of our special birds. Then if we want to see native forest birds, our only option will be to visit offshore islands or small fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.

Congratulations DOC.    

Dr Gerry McSweeney

First published in The Greystar, August 18 

1080 boosts native bird numbers

I can't bite my tongue any more.

Having been involved with animal pest control for 25 years, and used about 400,000 tonnes of 1080 in Southland and Otago, I think I've got a few clues about the stuff. I love hunting and fishing and birds in bush alike, I almost live in it.

Here's some facts I've noticed:
• No-one's ever died or felt sick.
• I've got two healthy children.
• It breaks down very fast in wet bush.
• Troublemakers steal and move 1080 to areas it's not supposed to be.
• Treated areas show remarkable recovery of native bird populations.
• Untreated areas show high rat populations and no birds. (We trap rats). Very few native birds feed on the ground.  Honey eaters, parakeets, warblers, pigeons bounce back first.
• I've found more dead deer with stray bullets in them than poisoned.
• Our South Island bush robins are disappearing.
• Agricultural spray runoff etc are poisoning our rivers.

Go DOC. Do the Longwoods next.
Trev Jackson, Winton

First published in The Southland Times, Tuesday 10 August

1080 claims

Why is it the Waikato Times persists in quoting the likes of Clyde Graf and his wildly inaccurate claims (Waikato Times, July 5)? There are always two sides to a story.

The Advisory Committee for Regional Environment (Acre) continues to support the use of 1080 under strictly controlled best practice until such time as suitable alternatives can be found. These alternatives are being investigated in a multimillion-dollar research programme at Lincoln.

In the meantime, no other country has such a high proportion of flightless birds and no other country is devoid of native land mammals. New Zealand's unique flora and fauna is in a risk class of its own and deserves the best protection currently available.

CATHERINE SMITH

Acting chair Acre

Hamilton

First published in The Waikato Times, Friday 16 July 2010

Rat photo

In response to Lewis Hore (Photo DOC propaganda, Grey Star 4 June). I took a video last night that demonstrates that rats have absolutely no problem climbing trees. Possums also have no problem climbing up trees and the photo in the poster that Mr Hore objects to graphically shows that possums and rats do eat chicks alive. The poster also shows that dogs and stoats also threaten our native wildlife. In this country 26-million native birds are killed by predators every year. Anti-1080 lobbyists continuously try to get this poster banned, presumably because it is such a powerful illustration that our wildlife are in serious peril.

IAN GILL

Department of Conservation, Hokitika

The video has been passed to the newspaper and clearly shows a rat repeatedly running up and down a tree trunk. - Editor

First published in The Greymouth Star, Wednesday 9 June 2010.

1080 vital

Each year 26 million birds in New Zealand are killed by pests.

In Wellington we are fortunate that, thanks to 1080, we can now see and listen to tui and other birds in our gardens.

The West Coast could again be filled with the sound of birdsong.

1080 is our first line of defence and until something better comes along it must be used.

JOHN WHITTY

Aro Valley, Wellington

First published in The Press, May 22 2010

1080 a boon

From time to time, The Press publishes letters stating that the use of 1080 is killing native birds and gets into the rivers and streams, so endangering humans. However, no evidence is presented to back up these claims. Our experience is to the contrary.

We are very fortunate to own 4.5 hectares of land on the West Coast. It is mostly mature native bush with a stream that provides us and our neighbours with an ample supply of clean water.

About 10 years ago, we were over-run by possums. It was not uncommon to shoot two or three a night. Then DOC started to drop 1080 on the surrounding bush, in an effort to get rid of the possums and to reduce the incidence of TB in the local dairy farms.

At first a number of dogs on neighbouring farms died as a result of scavenging on dead possums. But the beneficial effect on the bird life has been dramatic.

Whereas we occasionally saw one or two pigeons, we are now seeing flocks of 10 or 20, and are seeing tuis daily. We haven't seen a possum for four years. Even the wekas, which one would think would be affected, are present in large numbers.

The effect on the bush has been equally dramatic. The bush floor was bare; now it's covered in thousands of seedlings of all kind.

Of course we realise that deer and pigs are often poisoned, but they are not native animals, and their grazing does serious damage to the bush.

As to the water supply, no evidence has been presented as to the prolonged presence of 1080 following an aerial drop.

ALISON and PETER CHAMBERS

Cashmere

First published in The Press, 28 May 2010

Hokitika Kea deaths and 1080

In response to Mike McClunie (Guardian, April 29), there were two kea monitoring trials in 2008 – no kea died in the Arawhata trial, but seven died at Fox Glacier.

Since then, the practice of using RS7 pellets in pre-feed operations has been discontinued in kea habitat.  RS5 baits are now used because there baits degrade quicker and trials show that kea are far less interested in them.  Kea have been monitored at two 1080 operations using pre-feed and RS5 baits, and none died.

A fact that is often overlooked is that kea also get killed in traps.  They climb trees to fiddle with a trap that has been set above the ground and they sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to break into boxes containing traps.  They also break into bait stations and they die of cyanide poisoning.

The problem for kea is not 1080.  The latest information from Okarito shows that 50% of kea nests were destroyed by predators last season, when conditions were not high-risk.

With regard to bounties, pests are currently managed down to very low levels at specific sites for specific reasons.  Bounties have already been tried and they failed to control pests down to low enough levels to protect biodiversity.

IAN GILL

Department of Conservation, Hokitika

First published in Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 2010

Info on 1080

IF MIKE WEBBER is to be believed DOC is conspiratorially trying to deceive and poison the public - libellous stuff. He impugns by implication the honesty of the curator of Pukeiti when Andrew Brooker makes statements about the benefits of 1080 in the conservation forest under Pukeiti's jurisdiction.

Neither does Mike quote any authoritative sources for his assertions. Like a lot of anti-1080 protesters he seems neither to have any knowledge of or care about our native flora, the natural cover of our land and the habitat for its inhabitants.

The wildlife can't be saved if the habitat is not protected.

Conversely, I recommend looking at page 14 of the Taranaki Daily News on March 11 for a discussion of the issue by Federated Farmers' Regional Policy Adviser, which is much more scientific and shows where those most affected or concerned stand. 

D. BOWEN

New Plymouth

First published in The Daily News, April 19, 2010 

Eschew emotional exaggeration

Chris Polaczuk was off the mark when he tried to draw an emotional parallel between the criminal shooting of native pigeons and the responsible application of poisons to protect forests and birds (Letters, April 9).

In my 52 years of deer-hunting, I have lately observed spectacular changes in the bush.

It's like the 1950s all over again, with noticeable improvements in bush condition and wildlife, plus the added advantage of deer hunting remaining very good.

I've also recently encountered kaka and falcon in places I've not seen them for decades, and seen an explosion in the kereru population.

Various authorities are to be congratulated for their co-ordinated attack on possums and other pests, including the judicious use of poisons. Poisons are far from perfect, but are the most viable and immediate tool we have.

If we don't control tree-climbing pests now, we won't keep healthy forest, let alone deer. Emotional exaggerations such as the indiscriminate use of aerial 1080 claimed by Mr or Ms Polaczuk, aren't objective. Learning how to read the bush would be a good start toward a balanced view.

GARY LEWIS

Lower Hutt

First published in The Dominion Post, 17 April, 2010

1080 petition 'worthless'

The Kumara petition, like any other taken under similar circumstances, is not worth the paper it is written on.

In a community of that size, where everyone needs to try to get on with everybody else, and there is a bunch of people fanatical about a particular issue, it would take a great deal of courage to say 'no' when one of them knocked on the door and asked you to sign a petition they were peddling.

Congratulations to the three people who found that courage.

A petition should simply be placed somewhere central so that those who actually want to sign it can easily do so.  There should be no pressure. 

The same applies to Hokitika, although, because it is bigger, the need to conform is probably less intense.

I cannot believe that all the inhabitants of Kumara, except those three, really belive that, as it is used here, '1080 kills everything', when all the reliable evidence shows that our native birds actually benefit from the destruction of their predators. 

And, like it or not the only way to achieve anything like complete coverage is an aerial drop of poison.

Y Davison

Greymouth

First published in Greymouth Star, Friday April 9, 2010