Thread: Newshub attacking Sika

Managing deer populations long term is something the DoC does not seem too interested in, and often do not follow their own printed litterature. They will budget for a few professional hunters, and the odd shoot and destroy missions, yet have backed the destruction of historical huts (the preservation of which is in their raison d'etre), and in some cases will actively fall in behind the closing down of existing public access points to Public lands (the western access routes to the Kaimanawa range comes to mind).

Bungling relationships with land owners has further reduced access to, say the Ruahines. And their unwillingness to robustly remind land owners that unformed legal roads are just that may be an indication that they prefer to not rock the boat, instead of do what their website says, and assist in getting more people to get into the public conservation estate.

If they had devoted just a tiny bit of their budget to long term, slow improvement to our access to Public Lands, to permit regular hunting and tramping access to the front country, the management of deer in those areas with excess populations would become significantly easier.

DoC landing fees are a small example of their weird thought processes. Charge hunters an access fee for helo insertion, then a month later pay for a helo to go in and do search and destroy missions.

But back to the deer in the Kawekas: my photo album from the mid 1980's shows me with much larger Sika than we shot last Xmas, with a handful of 'handbag' Sika deer. Great for the carry out for sure. But emblematic of the increase in the herd size.