Thread: Proposed 1080 drop for Raukumara Urutawa and Waioweka

This thread was about the proposed aerial drop for the Raukumara and surrounding areas was it not!? Not about Kea.
I'm not fond of aerial 1080 by all means but I also have spend a little bit of time in Raukumaras and to be fair a lot of it is stuffed. It needs a reset. The possum numbers are out of control and in some catchments the deer have eaten themselves out of food.
The head quality has decreased dramatically and a vast majority of the hunters only go in during the roar to target stags. Other than that most of it seldom gets hunted.
There are a few hunter lead conservation efforts that anyone who cares about pests, 1080 and conservation can volunteer their time and money to to help prove that hunters can achieve conservation goals and there is less need for such things like 1080. I'm sure anyone whinging about the 1080 (other than Tb free drops) is helping chip in on some of these hunter led projects?

Originally Posted by sore head stoat

Got this but nothing recently and nothing APNP
https://www.epa.govt.nz/resources-an...r=669&start=10

Look at 2019 report, more mustelid tracking after drop than pre drop- fail. 2022 report not published yet.

Originally Posted by TLB

This thread was about the proposed aerial drop for the Raukumara and surrounding areas was it not!? Not about Kea.
I'm not fond of aerial 1080 by all means but I also have spend a little bit of time in Raukumaras and to be fair a lot of it is stuffed. It needs a reset. The possum numbers are out of control and in some catchments the deer have eaten themselves out of food.
The head quality has decreased dramatically and a vast majority of the hunters only go in during the roar to target stags. Other than that most of it seldom gets hunted.
There are a few hunter lead conservation efforts that anyone who cares about pests, 1080 and conservation can volunteer their time and money to to help prove that hunters can achieve conservation goals and there is less need for such things like 1080. I'm sure anyone whinging about the 1080 (other than Tb free drops) is helping chip in on some of these hunter led projects?

Hasn't there just been a fair bit of search and destroy of deer in there? Used to be renowned for big heavy stags.

Originally Posted by Puddleduk

Hasn't there just been a fair bit of search and destroy of deer in there? Used to be renowned for big heavy stags.

Yeah plenty of search and destroy and still a few hours to go until the end of the financial year. If you look at the condition scores of those animals culled you will see even with the culling there are still plenty of skinny deer around. Not to mention some of the highest possum densities I have seen on PCL. When it was first announced that there was going to be an aerial drop there was plenty of opposition. However it didn't take too long for many of the people that have had a fair bit to do with the Raukumara to change their mind when they stopped and looked at the health of the area.
Still a few good stags get taken but with a healthier ecosystem that will increase.

I know its pedantic but it is Waioeka not Waioweka nothing to do with the weka bird -the name means white foaming water

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

I know its pedantic but it is Waioeka not Waioweka nothing to do with the weka bird -the name means white foaming water

Some of us only went to school to eat our lunch.

I went into the raukumaras afew weeks ago, there was no shortage of deer. There was also a shit load or possums. Alot of the deer I got a good look at were in very poor condition. Skinny as all hell. We will be heading back in to the raukumaras in a months time with a "shoot everything we see" mindset, i hate 1080 but the number need to be reduced in there. What meat we can will be recovered but alot of the deer seen on the last trip were in some very hard to reach spots.

All for the 1080 drops myself, brutal as they are. It's not done for fun. Don't give a toss if any call me 'extremist'. Also don't understand all the hooplah and conspiracies about it. One anti-1080 hippie had a sign that DoC want to kill the environment. Wanted to ask him why they would put themselves out of a job.

Possums are wrecking the bush - best thing about this place. Love our birds. I grew up in bush with canopy stripped back by possums, spent good years of my childhood trying to stop that, trapping day in and out. 22 and a spot way past bedtime. A losing battle without poison on tough country. I've walked huge stretches of land in the weeks post drop, only see dead and dying possums. Nothing else touched. In the 2 years following after the possums have taken a hit bush is in full song. Akatarawas & Tararuas the last, what a change. Bloody phenomenal.

If it happens to knock a few deer and goats, good (seen no evidence of 1080 wiping out deer and goats). Not like they're going anywhere overnight and hunting is not the #1 most important thing in life. A healthy environment is because without that we got nothing. These species turn bush into highways, killing it off - sad and shit for future generations that we kick back and let that happen. 'Extremist' to let that happen.

Most important with the drops is that the public are made 100% aware, given plenty of notice with signposting in all the right spots. I agree that DoC have sucked at that in places. Need to do better.

The OP stated tbe purpose of the proposed poisoning wS to specifically target deer!

Can I ask what are the target species of the baiting?
What is the bait material?

I'm on your side but I have knowledge of 1080 application in Australia so interested to see how it's used.

Also interested in Hunting NZ some day.

Deer with sodoum ouroacetate. Usual concentration in cereal bait is 0.15% I think. Two three 15gram baits are lethal.

Good info. News to me 1080's being used for deer. They are high doses. Got a current link for that DoC proposal?

Sucks to resort to poison but if it means saving that bush and all that've called it home for bloody millennia, so be it. Left to their own devices possums, goats, deer will eat themselves to starvation anyway, taking down everything else along with them. They're not made for this place, basically aliens, and so numbers need to be kept down with force. Just the way it is. Parts of Ireland you see deer starving and fatigued walking among the once forested crags looking for food, ribs on display. Bloody grim. Can get like it here in places unless us hunters lend a hand. Around here in the Valley, steep country, the deer situation is mostly out of control. Reds and goats everywhere, but most local hunters just want that trophy and a selfie.

I'm with TBL; if more hunters helped out, shooting the does and clearing out goats on the walk in to hunt deer, signing up for some culling programs, it wouldn't be necessary to pull all stops and rain poison from the sky.

Anyone know if the free feed has gone in over the last week? They are supposed to drop on the 1st and 2nd. Wondering where they are at.

Originally Posted by A330driver

Yeah mate ,I get that,...and good on them for hosting a public meeting,always a good thing around issues like this.......I’m still looking,but the Govt is responsible to make us all aware,without that information,...public meetings will always create more questions than answers,but that in itself,is always a good thing.....awareness makes us all better informed

all DOC are obliged to do is advertise in a News Paper published in the Operational Area and put a notice on their web site thats it - that meeting will have been a protest meeting if Clyde organised it - once bait is laid warning signs at points of entry - just an aside its Waioeka not Waioweka - the name has nothing to do with the weka bird - it means white foaming water pronounce it like why oar ehh car the e pronounced more like airr thanks

I talked to doc a couple weeks back. They were particularly useless. They didn't seem to have a good dialogue with the contractors.
It's more that there's the odd fella on here that lives nearby. Hoping they'll know whether the current one is pushing back as often happens. As we are likely going to be right under it in our camp its important to know as we can't take all the meat we need for 10 days, so would likely hang some up early on.