An aerial 1080 drop in the Kāpiti Coast foothills of the Tararua Ranges is planned for next February after being postponed in spring this year.
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Poor weather prevented the possum control operation over 10,900 hectares of bush and forest between Akatarawa Road in Reikorangi and the Ōtaki River prior to the Christmas-New Year period, when the area is popular with recreational users.

An aerial 1080 drop in the Ruahine ranges appears to have obliterated the rat and possum population.

The Department of Conservation carried out the 'Northern Ruahine Battle for our Birds operation' on November 13-15.
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The date of the drop had been kept quiet as the department held fears staff could be threatened. Police had been notified about a DOC staff member being intimidated by a member of the public in Manawatū early last month after the operation had been announced.

Aerial predator control is under way for the southern boundary of the Hauraki District.

An area of 6300ha of public conservation land in the otahu catchment near Whiritoa will have a 1080 operation.

Starting this month, the aerial pest control is part of the government's nationwide'Battle for our Birds '1080 operation.
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Otahu is largely forested, and drained by the Otahu River and tributaries to the otahu estuary, which covers about 110ha providing significant vegetation and wildlife habitat.

Millions of dollars have been spent killing pests in Greater Wellington forests to give native wildlife a chance and keep TB at bay, but has it been worth it? Piers Fuller reports.

The threat posed by rats, stoats and possums to our bird species is "significant and urgent" and the battle continues to quietly rage in forests large and small around the Greater Wellington region.
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Over the past decade hundreds of tons of the controversial poison bait 1080 have been dropped in the Tararua, Aorangi and Remutaka ranges in an effort to push back a tide of pests, but the advent of new technology is making ground trapping a more attractive option.

Letting rats live a little longer by ceasing to poison and trap them proved a killer move by the Bream Head Conservation Trust.

The successful predator removal scheme involved ceasing the regular poison - not laying for a few months so rats lost their wariness about it, letting them breed up in numbers, then hitting them with a ground-laid 1080 bomb.

It was a double whammy because then stoats ate the rats that ate the poison and died too.
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The result of the major operation that started in April was very satisfying, according to head ranger Adam Willetts.

An aerial 1080 drop over 30,000 hectares in the Northern Ruahine Ranges will take place this Spring to battle an expected surge in predator numbers.

Every 2-6 years beech trees flower and produce massive quantities of seed, in an event known as a 'mast', and sampling by the Department of Conservation in February confirmed a mast was occurring in the Northern Ruahine Ranges this year.
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The operation will begin after September 6, as weather permits, and will see cereal baits containing biodegradable sodium fluoroacetate, known as 1080, dropped over 30,000 ha.

New Zealand First wants to ban 1080. What would that mean for our native wildlife? Dave Hansford writes
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Even for Wellington, it was bloody awful weather. A small, sodden group of anti-1080 protesters huddled against a biting southerly, the rain melting the slogans on their placards. Over the wind, they strained to hear New Zealand First List MP Richard Prosser, who told them he had a few “new truths” to share about 1080.

Environmentalist, journalist and author, Dave Hansford was recently awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to the environment. His recent book, Protecting Paradise, examines the debates surrounding the use of 1080 in New Zealand, and makes the case for urgent intervention to rescue dwindling native wildlife.
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Laura Keown sat down with him at Forest & Bird's national office in Wellington to chat about why some people fear 1080, and how a shared vision for the future of New Zealand's biodiversity can bring people together.

A bird-lover is concerned about the welfare of wildlife after a number of seagulls were found dead on a South Canterbury beach.
The Department of Conservation says it will not take action against whoever was responsible for culling the birds which are suspected to have ingested poisoned wheat.
Zena Guthrie, of South Canterbury Bird Rescue, said she was contacted by a member of the public who spotted several dead gulls on the beach at Jack's Point, just south of Timaru, on Friday.

Kiwi, kakapo, Maui dolphin - and even the great White shark-feature on a list of 150 New Zealand species "prioritised" in an ambitious conservation strategy launched by the government this morning.
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The Department of Conservation's new Threatened Species Strategy hinges greatly on already-announced moves under the Predator Free New Zealand (PFNZ) plan to purge the country of pest predators by 2050.