1080 alternatives, standpoints, issues aired after Solutions Rally in Takaka
The recent Solutions Rally in Takaka gave anti-1080 proponents an opportunity to air their views and demonstrate their opposition to the use of 1080. Organisers were satisfied with the turnout of 130, and said that they were pleased to have provided a forum for people to have a voice.
“I don’t think there’s much really happening if people just point a finger and call names,” said Sacha Horton, who fronted for the organisers on the day. “It’s a dilemma we’re facing. Something needs to move.”
Spokesperson for the organising group Golden Bay 1080 Free, Jerrie Edwards, said that the event gave people the chance to present alternative solutions rather than “just being angry”.
“We’re planning to have more events of a similar nature, putting solutions forward more strongly. One example is the possum fashion parade – we’ve got the models available already. We’ll aim to show people that possum fur is really beautiful. Little by little we can suggest alternatives to the poisoning.”
DOC’s Golden Bay area manager John Mason says that he has “no problems” with people’s objections to poisoning.
“I can quite understand people saying that they don’t like poisoning. It’s a valid point of view.”
John explained that, while there was a tendency for the public to focus on the aerial application of 1080 as a possum-control measure, DOC used other methods as well.
“We do trap possums,” he said. “There’s been quite a bit of excitement about a new kind of trap that gets around the main shortcoming of trapping – that you can only kill one possum per trap per visit. The new trap runs on compressed air and resets itself after each kill so it doesn’t have to be cleared and reset before it works again. It does require someone to get it to the site and set it up, of course. Ground control can be very effective but is more likely to leave pockets of possums.”
John explained that trapping works best on farm-edge situations and in bush blocks within farms. In large tracts of less accessible country, trapping is much less cost effective because considerably more effort is needed to reduce possums to the low levels needed to benefit flora and fauna.
“We have access to various kinds of poisons for pest control,” said John. “They all have their advantages and shortcomings. Some are very deadly to all animals, some can only be laid by hand, and some work better on one pest animal. For example the anti-coagulant commercially known as Talon is what DOC used to eradicate rats from Campbell Island.”
John explained that killing possums in large, hard-to-reach areas involves “putting a bait in front of every possum that’s there”.
“Now that our helicopters are equipped with GPS we get very good coverage of the areas we target,” he said. “The spinner on the bottom of the bucket gives the helicopter pilot a swathe either side of his suspended bucket. The size of the adjustable aperture in the bucket determines the amount of bait spread per hectare. When I first had experience of 1080 possum operations in the late 1970s the dose used to be 10kg/hectare. Now it’s 2kg/hectare and we’re getting very good coverage through the use of global positioning systems (GPS)”
John explained that “before and after” trapping operations were used to establish relative densities of possums.
“The biological statisticians have calculated how many lines of traps you need in a given area to establish those densities. You run a series of 10-trap lines - the traps are 20 metres apart. A computer gives you, say, 20 grid references within a block and 20 directions that are randomly selected. You run the traps accordingly and calculate the impact of the poisoning on the results you achieve. I think the data is a lot more robust these days, especially since the advent of GPS, so we can be more confident about our results. Obviously the aim in any particular area is to get possum numbers down so low that they simply can’t meet each other and breed.”
John said that in his 30-plus years of involvement with 1080 poisoning he had not seen any evidence that made him uncomfortable with its use. “It’s fine that our operations are subject to scrutiny and challenge. It needs to be constructive and the alternatives people suggest must be feasible. We’re comfortable with the scrutiny, but everyone at DOC is a bit bruised by the debate. Our role is mostly about protecting, not killing. The killing is about arriving at pest densities that allow sustainable populations of the species we’re protecting. We’re not unfeeling or unthinking people. The whole 1080 thing does take up a lot of energy and resource. Part of that is complying with the stringent conditions the Medical Officer of Health and the TDC impose on our operation.”
Steve Deverell manages DOC’s anti-possum programmes. He explained that all the alternatives to aerial 1080 are constantly considered and, despite the public focus on aerial 1080, DOC uses a wide range of strategies.
“In fact ground control measures cover more than twice the ground area nationwide as aerial control,” he said. “The idea of a bounty was tried in the 80s and 75 per cent of the possums killed under that scheme were taken from within one kilometre of the road. It’s a blunt instrument that will achieve no great conservation outcome because of natural and understandable human behaviour.” The idea of a vacuum effect is a fallacy, explained Steve. “If you clean up all the possums in one area it doesn’t fill up with possums from somewhere else.”
For Steve, the issue is about weighing up the costs and benefits of any given strategy and then doing the same with any feasible alternatives.
Richard Stocker, speaking as a member of the Friends of the Cobb, said that the debate was not a simple one.
“It’s a trade-off between two groups of people, DOC and us, who are trying to achieve the same thing – conservation of species,” he said. “In this case two species that are endemic to this area – mistletoe and land snails – are threatened with extinction. Aerial 1080 drops control the predators that are threatening these species but we know there will be some weka and robin deaths. It’s not a comfortable choice but we wouldn’t want to condemn more species to extinction.”
Golden Bay Federated Farmers president Graham Ball said that bovine tuberculosis, a disease that can be spread to cattle and deer by possums and ferrets, was a major threat to the national economy.
“Many farmers get concerned when they hear calls to stop using 1080 because it’s very successful in controlling possums,” said Graham. “In some situations aerial application of 1080 is the most cost-effective and successful control. We’re major stakeholders in the Animal Health Board who spend $2.5 million a year on research as part of their plan to eradicate bovine Tb from New Zealand. All New Zealanders would all benefit from that.”
Graham, a lifelong resident of the Pupu Valley, said that even though the benefits of controlling possums were important to farms, he thought that an even greater benefit occurred in the bush.
“The regeneration of the bush and the increase in birdlife up here since the possums have been knocked back have been amazing.”
Neil Wilson
