Recreational and commercial hunters have been asked to identify areas where game herds are at risk ahead of this year's large-scale aerial 1080 operation.  

The call comes as the Department of Conservation prepare for the Battle for our Birds, a large-scale aerial 1080 operation to control rats and stoats in response to a beech mast event.
​
It follows a similar campaign to control rats and stoats on public conservation land in response to a beech mast event due to heavy seedfall in 2014 and will be the largest pest control operation in New Zealand's history.

The biggest ever single 1080 operation in Wairarapa's Aorangi Forest Park is about to go ahead thanks to the collaboration of groups that have traditionally been at loggerheads.

TB Free New Zealand is carrying out the 30,000ha operation in south eastern Wairarapa and even hunters are on board, which is a mark of how far the 1080 debate has progressed.