Special Report
The Minister of Conservation has attacked National’s proposal for a Minister of Hunting and Fishing to advocate for wild game and sports fish management. Conservation Minister Willow-Jean Prime referring to them as “introduced” said high densities of wild animals such as deer caused significant damage.
“Which is why we wish to control them and some regard them as pests,” she said.
National’s shadow Hunting and Fishing Minister Todd McClay says the Game Animal Act defines all deer, tahr, chamois and wild pigs as game animals, but the Biosecurity Act and many regional pest management plans treats them as pests.
“National would strip all references to them, trout and salmon, being pests. They are a resource to be managed,” he says.
Also wading in is the the Green Party whose conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage says there is no shortage of deer to hunt and recreational hunting pressure has been unable to keep the numbers down.
DOC monitoring had shown numbers rose 21% in the South Island and 34% in the North Island during the past decade.
“We need to control deer in national parks and across public conservation land to protect biodiversity, not enable deer to increase further and compromise forest health,’’ she says. There is little point in controlling possums, rats and stoats to protect native birds while allowing the forest under-storey to be eaten out by deer, reducing forests’ ability to regenerate.
Swift Reaction
But reaction has been swift to the reactionary comments by Labour’s Conservation Minister and the Green Party. Laurie Colins spokesman for the Sporting Hunters’ Outdoor Trust said it is heartening to see National giving a refreshing sensible approach to the status of wild animals such as deer.
The Minister of Conservation along with coalition partner Greens, seem to be suffering from an “anti-introduced phobia” in condemning National’s proposal for a Minister of Hunting and Fishing at the Cabinet table if National is elected government he says. “Some couple of hundred thousand Kiwis who go hunting, trout and salmon fishing, should take note come election time. Both Labour and the Greens need reminding that NZ’s farming industries, the backbone of the economy, are founded on introduced animals, pasture and crops.”
He says for far too long, wild animals have been wrongly attacked by hate name calling such as “vermin” and “pests” and using futile extermination attempts such as cruel, ecosystem poisons.
Laurie Collins points out New Zealand’s vegetation is well adapted to browsing having had several species of moa and other vegetarian birds, for 50-60 million years. Eminent ecologist Dr Graeme Caughley estimates the moa population numbered a few million, far surpassing the 250,000 wild deer Landcare Research estimated in 2001. “National’s spokesman Todd McClay rightly says wild animals are a resource to be managed,” adds Laurie Collins.
Even if deer numbers had increased since the 2001 survey, as Eugenie Sage claims, it is only a fraction of probable moa numbers.
Management involves harvesting animals in numbers to keep populations within the carrying capacity of the habitat. “Instead Labour and Greens believe in a hatred of introduced species rather than reality and commonsense by way of management,” he adds.
Archaic View
Council of Outdoor Recreation Association’s spokesman Tony Orman says Conservation Minister Willow-Jean Prime’s opposition reveals an “archaic view” of the evolution of New Zealand’s vegetation. New Zealand’s alpine and forest vegetation is extensively browsed by various moa and other vegetarian birds.
At a 1986 seminar on “Moas and Mammals”, deer browse was said by several scientists to be “not dissimilar” to moa browsing. “One is left wondering how the Conservation Minister and Green “eco-fundamentalists” would view moas and their browsing,” Tony Orman says. “Would they attack moa with 1080 poison?
“The Minister does not seem to comprehend game management is about managing populations. Importantly a culture of regarding wild animals such as deer positively instead of negatively as ‘pests’ is needed.”
In 2001 Landcare Research produced research titled “Introduced Wildlife; A Survey of General Public Views.” The survey revealed 81% of the public favoured deer being managed as a resource and not “controlled’ as a pest.
“So Todd McClay and National seem to be in step with public opinion while in contrast, the Labour government and its partner Greens are sadly out of step.”
Outdoor recreation is an integral part of New Zealand’s national psyche and hunting and fishing are important as outdoor recreation, Tony Orman adds.
Would moa be a target for poisoning or helicopter culling if they were still here in their millions.
Well written Laurie Collins
The numbers of naturally living animal species must always be determined by the available food supply.
Numbers increase when food is more abundant and decrease when there is less food.
I have seen reliable evidence that the regeneration of vegetation consistently exceeded the consumption by herbivores.
The hatred of introduced fish and game species is not justified by evidence.
Conservation is defined as prevention of waste of resources.
Wasting billions of dollars to try to eradicate species that are valuable resources is not conservation.
Polluting our ecosystems with nitrates, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and other deadly toxins is not conservation or common sense.
There are better and more affordable and effective ways of managing the numbers of various species that would be used if we stopped accepting the fallacy that they can or should be eradicated.
We need to stop listening to city dwelling Greenies who do not understand what they are talking about.
Coming from North America, [Colorado] as I do, where game animals are valued beyond description, even revered like Elk & Big horn sheep, white tail & mule deer.The mere suggestion of pest is tantamount to sacrilege/ immorality at the grossest level. We, like our North American society & hunters inherit an ancient history, even prehistoric of the reverence for game the apex of reverence i saw in the 60,000 year old cave drawings in the caves of Lascaux France, ,such was the reverence that the game was the only margin of starvation. When life/death are the difference, game takes on a new meaning. We hunters, society & our culture have been handed this reverence. here to preserve. There is no place for pests & blame in this,, . If it occurs as seen here, it is a transgression of our own selves & our own Commandments of ancient codes. It is Out of step morally with our own humanity & opposes our duty of care philosophically to hand down our cultural flourishing of many centuries to generations beyond cleansed of any flawed thinking that would impede the moral code of care & tradition..
Additionally, it reminds me that our recent history of poisoning large animals to an agonizingly slow cruel death, sends us to the rock bottom of
transgression in moral behavior. No emergency could warrant such depths of cruelty to a Sentient being. We remain gob smacked at 1940’s Nazi activity in Auschwitz & Dachau yet we consign 100’s of large animals to a 1080 death, tearing their guts open in agony. What depths we have probed. For no gain & massive loss of our humanity on the way. One gob smacks yet again, .in tandem; one wonders if we are not drifting away from other ancient Codes of society & civilization handed on to us. The October election will give us a chance to halt our country in reverse gear racial separation & regain the footing that has brought us complete with warts to a prosperous fair & equal society not crippled by backward or stone age thinking dividing us..