Alternative to 1080 proves a hard target

‘‘We need more tools in the toolbox. I don’t necessarily think they have to replace 1080 but we do as a country put a lot of effort on new pest control techniques. We lead the world.’’ Kevin Hackwell, Forest and Bird advocacy manager

Finding an alternative to 1080 is the key to ridding the country of the green toxin but if there is a silver bullet out there, it has not been discovered yet.

NZ First leader Winston Peters last week said he would end the six decades of 1080 use in New Zealand as soon as possible if his party forms part of the next government.

Experts, however, were not impressed by the party’s four pest control initiatives to replace the use of 1080.

‘‘Clearly it isn’t working,’’ Peters said when announcing the policy last Wednesday.

‘‘Clearly it is causing serious harm to our native species, our people, our ecosystem, our environment, and our international reputation, and clearly something else has to be done.’’

His plan is to resource groundbased pest-control measures, fund urgent research into 1080 alternatives, halt aerial drops until accurate surveys of pest and native populations are done, and develop economies around the harvesting of fur and meat.

But Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said all those ideas had been tried and tested. Three of them were happening already and one of them – a fur and meat trade – did not work.

‘‘They never knock the number of possums down low enough to make a real difference for our native plants and animals,’’ Hackwell said.

Groups like Forest and Bird regularly undertake groundcontrol measures like trapping but that can only go so far.

‘‘The last population of yellowhead – mohua – in the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island, there was trapping going on for rats in the area, there was a mast event [high seed production], DOC was doing the best trapping they could at the time and they lost the population of mohua because the rats and stoats just overwhelmed the trapping.’’

Ground control was a tough job, he said, and was only feasible in accessible parts of the forest.

Back-country blocks like the 300,000-hectare Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island, where 1080 was dropped after a recent masting event, needed better solutions.

‘‘There is just no way you could ever do that on foot.

‘‘It is the most remote part of mainland New Zealand – more remote than Fiordland, actually.

‘‘We need more tools in the toolbox. I don’t necessarily think they have to replace 1080 but we do as a country put a lot of effort on new pest control techniques. ‘‘We lead the world.’’ Mammalian pests carry bovine tuberculosis and 1080 is used to prevent the country’s primary industries from being crippled by the disease.

Waikato Federated Farmers provincial president Chris Lewis said getting rid of 1080 was fine by him but it needed a replacement which achieved the same outcome or better.

‘‘At the moment, there is no silver bullet,’’ Lewis said.

Baiting and trapping has failed before. Part of the problem is pest control companies struggle to attract and retain staff.

‘‘It’s a noble idea, don’t get me wrong, but the practicalities of it are the modern workforce wants to stay close to town, connected and at the end of the day, if they are any good at working in a rural environment, they will have a good job on a farm.’’