Conservationists show the way in pest control

I WRITE in reply to John Veysey’s comments (ODT 26.12.17) regarding methods of controlling pests in New Zealand’s bush. I note Mr Veysey is from Coromandel and I quote two of his comments: ‘‘Older New Zealanders can remember how the native bush was ably protected by hunting’’, and ‘‘Possums were trapped and deer cullers kept deer under control’’.

I spent my late childhood/teenage years on the Coromandel (north of Colville) during the 1940s and 1950s so feel I can claim to fit Mr Veysey’s ‘‘older New Zealander’’ category. At that time there were no possums and no deer in that area. No doubt there were skillions of rats but goats and pigs were viewed as the biggest pests. Locals attempted to keep the latter two under control when farm duties allowed. In the 1950s I recall that a government hunting project which included Barry Crump, spent a week or two killing goats on our farm and in the ranges behind it. There may have been other minor expeditions but none had any real effect.

On return visits during the ’60s and ’70s I was shocked to find the ranges not only infested with the earlier noted pests but also with possums. During the 1980s, lone possum trappers were at work in the area. Again their impact while commended, was really only a drop in the ocean.

It was not until the predecessors of the MEG (Moehau Environmental Group) began a serious trapping and pest control scheme in the 1990s, that any semblance of control was, and has since, been effected. The MEG scheme still maintains rat/possum/stoat and other pest control.

From Colville north today, the bush has never in my lifetime looked better. The bird life is more prolific and varied than ever before. Little or none of this huge improvement is due to hunters and trappers but to dedicated conservationists.

And as for deer culling. I have tramped in the southern bush areas and seen undergrowth eaten until the forest floor looks like something from a parkland. Certainly when wild deer were soughtafter moneymakers and were hunted by helicopters then some areas did flourish briefly. Maybe Mr Veysey can tell me of an area that is ‘‘pristine and natural’’ being cared for by hunters.

K. Beattie Dunedin