Ruahines, Tararuas, Haurangis, Rimutakas
Do you hunt any of the above public land ?
A document called the “Wellington Conservation Management Strategy” (CMS) establishes the Department of Conservation’s objectives for the management of these forest parks and is currently under review. A draft Strategy has been out for consultation for some months.
Public submissions on the content of this document close in TWO WEEKS on the 4th of April.
The finalised CMS will determine what can and cannot happen in our forest parks in the lower North Island, and once in place will do so for AT LEAST the next 10 years.
A copy of the complete CMS can be found here, along with DoC's own guidelines for making a submission:
Draft Wellington Conservation Management Strategy
Volume I is is the strategy document, Volume II is an appendix with maps.
Because the strategy is comprehensive, it is both lengthy and covers all conservation aspects. To make things easier the Lower North Island Red Deer Foundation and Hutt Valley NZDA have put together a guide to making a submission, identifying just the issues in the CMS that will directly affect our hunting. There is also a draft submission form where submitters are free to either simply add their contact details and put in the form as-is, or to pick points from it and use them in a personalized submission. Form and guide here:
NZDA Hutt Valley Branch Inc. - March 2017 update WARO Challenge and CMS review
The important thing is to put in a submission. A quarter of an hour putting in a submission that might influence a quarter of a century of hunting is not a bad investment of your time. The more people submit on this review the better the outcome we will get.
If you want to have input into the way the Department of Conservation implement their policy in these forest parks in respect of:
- Wild animal recovery operations (WARO),
- Other control methods such as 1080,
- The role of hunting as both a valid recreational activity and as a means of maintaining deer numbers,
Now is the time to have your say. It will be more effective if opinions both for and against DoCs proposed strategy are referenced against where they appear in the CMS rather than just having a general rant.
