Joining some dots between certain events in NZ, mining, and the use of 1080 by the Department of Conservation (DoC).
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Category Archives: 1080
A Look at New Zealand’s Conservation Science (Dr Jo Pollard)
From CORANZ
by Dr Jo Pollard (BSc (Hons), PhD)
Supporters of NZ’s conservation by aerial poisoning have commonly defended their position with the statement “Look at the science.”
Most of the published science on conservation in NZ is accessed readily, appearing in the NZ Journal of Ecology (NZJE). A browse through the issues from the last couple of years reveals glimmers of hope for ecological management, plus some not so nice things. The following is a quick run through.
Freshest news from Landcare is the observation that ship rats climb up and carefully drink nectar from mountain flax flowers; their furry faces probably transferring pollen between flowers (Donald & Dhami, 2022).
Landcare is now thinking rats might compete for nectar and pollinate “on a widespread and under-appreciated scale.”
Also from Landcare is “Do mice matter?” (Watts et al., 2022). It concludes they do.
When other mammals were fenced out of a reserve, mouse numbers rose and apparently reduced numbers of wētā, caterpillars and other invertebrates, potentially having “catastrophic” effects. Then when the researchers got rid of the mice, unexpected things were noted: non-native earthworms seemed to move into the depleted ground faster than native earthworms, and an extremely high number of beetles appeared in one area.
Stoats and Rats
Studies of alpine-dwelling stoats by researchers from several organisations (McAulay et al., 2020; 2021) supported previous findings that rats are stoats’ preferred prey. Fifty-five stoats were caught in traps laid above the tree line in Fiordland, Mt Aspiring and Nelson Lakes national parks. Stomach contents and stoat tissues were analysed to find out what they had been eating.
At the Fiordland and Mt Aspiring sites the stoats were living on small mammals (e.g. rats), topped up with insects and plant material. There was no bird material in their stomachs, and it was estimated that long-term, small birds made up less than 2% of the diet. In contrast at Nelson Lakes (where there were no rats) stomachs contained small birds (estimated as 15 -26% of the long term diet) and also skinks (19-57%).
The authors warned that when and where ship rat numbers are low, stoats are more likely to eat threatened species. Also that individual stoats have their own feeding habits, so generalisations cannot be made from narrow observations.
On islands where introduced mammals have been eliminated, things have turned out badly for several bird species. Miskelly et al. (2021) (from Te Papa Museum and the Department of Conservation (DoC)) studied birds on 38 Fiordland islands, where Norway rats or stoats were removed several decades ago. Seven islands left unmanaged provided an experimental control. In the absence of rats or stoats, robins have flourished, seemingly aggressively ousting other species, including grey warbler, silvereye and tomtits.
The authors warned that killing off predators to achieve “restoration” can cause declines and disappearances of native bird species. So far then, it seems much is being learnt about ecology that challenges NZ’s Predator Free conservation goal to wipe out mustelids, rats and possums (Predator Free, 2022).
Many Questions
There are many questions: how to deal with increasing mice, once their predators have been killed off; how do our long-naturalised mammals fit into current ecology; what about the results from the Fiordland islands, where it appears that taking away the introduced predators reduced the diversity of birds?
Also challenged within these first few papers is DoC’s insistence on aerial poisoning of alpine zones, to “protect” rock wren and kea from stoats. The stoats are likely to not be eating any birds! Plus the poison is toxic to birds and a very broad range of other creatures. It is not reliable in controlling stoats which shift to eating birds if their rat prey is gone. So the alpine animals may suffer a double-whammy: poison, then hungry stoats. DoC’s idea that stoats must be killing off bird species comes from hunted down, marked and monitored nests. But the monitoring itself makes the nests prone to desertion and predation.
Contributions from DoC to the latest NZJEs include an addition to a large pile of studies on nesting and survival of rare birds wearing radio telemetry gear (Steffens et al., 2022). This gear, ironically, makes birds much less likely to nest, markedly increases energy expenditure and causes fatalities.
Something seems amiss in the animal ethics screening of DoC experiments.
Attempts to improve monitoring appeared in the University of Otago’s study on robins, whose nests were observed from a distance to avoid disturbing them (van Heezik et al., 2020), and trials by various researchers on remote monitoring of kiwi, using their calls (Jahn et al., 2022; Ellis & Marsland, 2022). The latter authors had animal welfare and other concerns about the transmitters DoC routinely uses on kiwis’ legs.
As with DoC, a lack of ethical oversight was apparent in a study from Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP). Nichols et al. (2022) killed 20 rats by feeding them 1080-poisoned food, to make bait for stoats. Since, there has been a change: now they humanely kill their rodents then make them poisonous by injecting them with 1080.
Many articles concerned aerial poisoning using 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate).
Bomans et al. (2021) from Victoria University monitored bird calls before and after aerial poisoning operations realising however that calls did not reflect bird numbers, because survivors might call frequently, e.g. for mates. Dilks et al. (2021) (from DoC and Lincoln University) used trail cameras, baited with rabbit meat and an egg, to record animals before (spring) and after (summer) an aerial poison operation. With no experimental control they could not conclude much, except that all common small mammals were seen far less afterwards. Morriss et al. (2021) (mainly Landcare people) “gathered observations” on deer mortality rates after aerial poisoning, which were highly variable and it was concluded formal research was needed.
Rats Rebound
Two studies demonstrated the classic rat population response to aerial 1080 poisoning, with numbers rebounding within several months and reaching higher levels than before poisoning began (Bell et al., 2021 (mainly people from DoC); van Heezik et al., 2020 (mainly from Otago University)). To gain better control, Nichols et al. (2021) from ZIP aerially poisoned twice a few months apart, spreading baits at extra high density, and managed to nearly get rid of all rats, stoats and possums. Monitoring of any other creatures’ survival was only “incidental”; a grave omission since the authors propose this super-poisoning might become more common as NZ strives to become Predator Free.
Rats are especially well equipped, through their lifestyle and physiology, to withstand a 1080 poison war.
An oncoming weapon for beating nature is genetic modification, and there’s no shortage of interested parties lining up. Inwood et al. (2020) are people from Scion, Landcare, the Environmental Protection Agency and four universities wanting to work on topics such as gene editing to make rats infertile. That idea had been put to bed by a NZ Royal Society review (Dearden et al., 2017) as too dangerous, because modified rats might escape to overseas ecosystems where rats were actually important!
Habitat Importance
Encouragingly, Walker et al. (2021a; 2021b) from Landcare stressed the need to preserve habitat, stating its loss and modification “is a principal, ongoing cause of indigenous biodiversity decline.” Echoing this was Landcare’s study on kereru, for which forest seemed to be a limiting factor (Carpenter et al., 2021).
Long ago, ecologist Dr Carolyn King pointed out “conservation of species is conservation of habitats”.
How good things might have been if DoC’s head scientist Graeme Elliott had listened to Dr King and focussed his career on the observation that mohua, needing tall forest trees on valley floors, were suffering from habitat loss. Instead, stoats were blamed for the mohua’s decline, leading to rampant stoat trapping, followed by rats getting out of control and eating the mohua, then the onset of aerial poisoning to quell rats.
Perhaps the Predator Free movement might yet face up to ecology.
Unfortunately, as restated in the NZJE (McGlone et al., 2020) there is a history of dysfunction whereby conservation management in NZ has departed from science.
The science indicates a need for careful studies and saving habitat, rather than mindless interference and indiscriminate poisoning.
Footnote: A fully referenced copy of this article is available at this link.
Header Photo: pixabay.com
Others: supplied
Predators Are Not Evil But are Mostly Part of Healthy Ecosystems
Opinion by Tony Orman
New Zealand has for many decades waged a war against predators. Currently there are a number of anti-predator campaigns, often using public money in big spend-ups on futile aerial poisoning exercises. In addition, in the end, the blanket operations run counter to the impassioned aim of exterminating predators (e.g. rats) and instead cause major disruption to food chains and serious damage to the ecosystem. For example there is Predator Free 2050, and Zero Invasive Predators, the latter jazzily known by the acronym of ZIP. The zealous programmes have earned international recognition.“Time” magazine which proclaimed “Rats, Possums and Stoats Beware! New Zealand Goes to War Against Invasive Pests.” But the programmes are like the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. At one stage in the fable, the wise man serving the Emperor thinks “What!” “Is it possible that I am a fool? I have never thought so myself. No one must know it now if I am so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my job?”Those questions should be asked of those who champion Predator Free 2050 and ZIP – people from Prime Ministers to central and local government politicians, local bodies, naive unquestioning media whoop as investigative journalists, extreme green groups and even unprincipled “scientists” following the money trail of funding all pursuing the dream of exterminating New Zealand’s predators. However the reality is the dreams are running against the way Nature behaves.
Predator Role
Wildlife mangers overseas are increasingly regarding predators as an important part of a healthy ecosystem. In 2014 Al S Glen of New Zealand’s Landcare Research and Christopher Dickman of Sydney University co-authored a book on “Carnivores of Australia” and in a chapter “The Importance of Predators” said “to maintain or restore functioning ecosystems, wildlife managers must consider the ecological importance of predators.” This is hardly a new idea. Charles Elton, an Oxford ecologist, first conceptualised food webs in the 1920s, speculating that wolf removal would result in over-population of deer on which wolves preyed. The notion was taken up by others such as highly respected conservationist and author Aldo Leopold. Predators tend to remove vulnerable prey, such as the old, injured, sick, or very young, leaving more food for the survival and success of healthy prey animals. Also, by controlling the size of prey populations, predators help slow down the spread of disease. Predators will catch healthy prey when they can, but catching sick or injured animals is more likely and helps in the formation of healthier prey populations because only the fittest animals survive and are able to reproduce. In addition, predators help to reduce the negative impacts that their prey may have on the ecosystem if they become too abundant or it they stayed in one area for too long. Biologists have recognised predators like cheetahs prey on grazing animals like antelope, it keeps the prey population moving around (in fear) and prevents overgrazing in any one area. As a result, more trees, shrubs, bushes, and grasses can grow, which then provides habitat for many other species.
Predator Removal Dangers
If carnivores were removed from an ecosystem, what would happen? Herds of grazing animals, such as antelope, would grow and grow and result, in large herds overgrazing their food source, and as the food disappeared, the whole herd would begin to starve. Caroline Fraser writing for the US’s Yale School of the Environment said experts “beginning with aquatic experiments, have amassed considerable evidence of damage done to food chains by predator removal and have extended such studies to land.” Predators are simply a part of any ecosystem’s food chain. New Zealand’s native falcon prey on other native birds such as tuis and bellbirds. Blue duck (whio) prey almost entirely on aquatic invertebrates, mostly caddisfly larvae. Kiwi prey on worms. When animals of a predatory nature are introduced such as rats and stoats were to New Zealand, they go through a “boom and bust” phase before their populations settle down to a relatively static state. Unfortunately, native prey species can become drastically reduced or even extinct as a result of the predator “boom”. The critical aspect of managing this situation is avoiding predator “booms”. Consequently,the fervour and haste which the Department of Conservation and local councils applies with toxins is reckless and fraught with ecological danger.
Disastrous Outcomes
Large scale poisoning with eco-toxins such as 1080 and brodifacoum may heavily reduce predator numbers initially but with a few short years, the outcome is disastrous. The science is there to show the resurgence in predator numbers and subsequent wrecking of the food chain. Wendy Ruscoe in a study published in Landcare Research’s publication 2008 showed aerial dropping of 1080 will temporarily knock back a rat population but due to the rodent’s amazing reproductive capacity, the surviving rats recover rapidly and within 18 months, are two to three times greater than before poisoning began. A 2007 study by Landcare scientists Graham Nugent and Peter Sweetapple showed rat numbers recovered within 18 months and at the two year mark, rat abundance could be four times greater than before poisoning.
Stoat Prey
The disruption to the naive ecosystem ripples further. A major prey for stoats is rats. When rat numbers are reduced by 80% – 90%, the stoat deprived of its major food source, invariably switches prey to birds. But later as rat numbers surge and boom and pass original numbers, stoats enjoy a virtual banquet of rats, breeding increases and surges and then explodes.The well intentioned but ignorant predator extermination programme usually using 1080, has merely stimulated, within a few short years, major population explosions of rats and stoats. Attempting to poison-away rodent surges in beech-mast years is the ecological equivalent of farting against thunder. All this does (if anything) is delay the inevitable, as the fast-breeding ability of rodents will eventually allow population growth to match the food source. Rather than benefiting the birds and overall ecological health, there is massive ecological disruption by the man-induced mega rat and stoat plagues.
Ecological Damage
That is not counting the birds and insects and other invertebrate organisms killed by 1080 as research demonstrated, by DSIR scientist Mike Meads, in the 1980’s. 1080 was originally patented as an insecticide in 1927. Examples are many of human interference directly or indirectly into Nature’s food chains resulting in profound consequences. In a classic 1966 experiment, biologist Robert Paine removed the purple seastar, Pisaster ochraceus — a voracious mussel-feeder — from an area of coastline in Washington state. Their predator gone, mussels exploded in numbers, crowding out biodiverse kelp communities with monoculture. Less than a decade after Pisaster, marine ecologists James Estes and John Palmisano reached the astonishing and widely reported conclusion that hunting of sea otters had caused the collapse of kelp forests around the Aleutian Islands. With otters reduced to low levels, the prey (sea urchins) stripped the kelp forests. When otters eventually returned, they regulated urchins, allowing “luxuriant” regrowth of biodiverse kelp communities.
Toheroa Decline
In New Zealand, the decline of the toheroa shellfish was attributed unofficially to heavy over-fishing of snapper which preyed on paddle crabs which in turn preyed on toheroa. With the heavy decline in snapper, paddle crabs proliferated and almost obliterated toheroas. New Zealand has a long history of an obsession with attempted extermination of predators. In the 1950s acclimatisation societies managing trout fisheries blamed freshwater eels and shags for perceived declines in trout numbers. Bounties were paid out on eels. It had little effect. Ironically the best trout fishing rivers had healthy populations of both trout and eels. Eels simply removed the sick, the old or the unwary thus making for a quality trout population. The concept of being ”predator free” or “zero predators” has no ecological justification, except in limited circumstances on smaller offshore islands and “mainland islands”. Even in islands where predators may have been eliminated e.g. Secretary Island in Fiordland, the success is short-lived and temporary as animals can and do swim from the mainland to recolonise.
Playing God
It seem incomprehensible that an agency such as the Department of Conservation and the Predator Free 2050 and ZIP concepts should go unquestioned in the light of the understanding internationally of the dangers of playing God with predators..But the ‘fly in the ointment’ is human nature. For example a scientist in DOC arguably has a vested interest by way of employment and a handsome salary. Similarly with any consulting scientist attached to Predator Free 2050 and ZIP. For others of zealous nature, as some humans are wont to be, it becomes the pursuit of “The Impossible Dream.” For politicians it’s good P.R. to declare war on the baddies, no matter how pointless and damaging that might be. The sad outcomes are the gross misuse of public funds and more tragically the profound ecological damage that often occurs in the pursuit of that “Impossible Dream.”
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Footnote:
Tony Orman has spent a lifetime in the outdoors observing and reading about it and Nature. He has had some two dozen books published, mainly on fishing, deerstalking, conservation and rural life.
Outdoor Groups Urge a “New Look’ DoC
From Tony Orman,
(Spokesman for the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations)
Some outdoor recreation-conservation groups are calling for a revision of the Department of Conservation priorities and targets following a recent National Radio interview with the department’s newly appointed director-general Penny Nelson.
The new director general of DoC has taken over from Lou Sanson, after holding senior roles both with the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
DoC is responsible for managing one-third of the country’s landmass and some say it’s time for fundamental reform.
DoC head Penny Nelson says there needs to be conversation about what people want conservation to look like.
Laurie Collins of the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust welcomed the opportunity.
“That conversation is much needed,” he says. “In my opinion a change is needed. “Bureaucrats often with ideological bents have had too much influence.”
Tony Orman, spokesman for the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations said the organisation in its successive election charters had called for a revision of DoC’s priorities.
“The charter says reorder priorities of DoC to make its three main priorities conservation, the environment and recreation, instead of its diversion into commercial undertakings,” he says. “Also the name be changed to Department of Conservation and Outdoor Recreation to emphasize its basic function.”
Tony Orman says DoC’s culture needs to change to embrace ecological reality.
“DoC must protect and maintain the public’s conservation estate to embrace the evolved 21st century ecosystem and not try to recreate and preserve a hypothetical 500 AD world.”
Dr. Peter Trolove president of the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers, an advocacy for trout and salmon and rivers, said it had been disappointing in the light of the deterioration in rivers, to see little or no support from the department for Water Conservation Orders (WCO) designed to give waterways national park type protection.
“WCOs are being undermined due to commercial exploitation for irrigation and power generation. Rivers are a finite resource and habitat not only for trout and salmon but native fish, which should particularly concern DoC.”
Laurie Collins of the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust said new DOC director-general Penny Nelson told of audible bird song when living on Kapiti Island. He was critical of the department’s blanketing of public lands with the eco-toxin 1080.
Having worked with the first trials of 1080 and subsequently in department work during his working career, he said 1080 devastated insects and most birds but not all avian species.
“Nectar feeders such as tuis and bell birds – noisy singers – are the least affected. On the other hand, insectivorous bird species, such as bush robins, tomtits, warblers, rifleman and others and predator or scavengers such as falcons, keas and wekas are devastated by the poison.”
Each carcass or invertebrate such as worms killed by 1080 remained toxic. The decline in kiwi feeding on worms after 1080 could well be significant.
Laurie Collins said he was concerned to hear Penny Nelson talk of genetic technology to eradicate “destructive invasive species like possums”. Having worked on possums on departmental work and as a possum trapper, he said the “invasive pest” tag was wrong.
“Possums are demonized. They are a herbivore, not a predator and browsing of foliage has been a function of the ecosystem for millions of years.”
Besides possum populations are low.
“It’s so obvious by noting road kills,” he says. “Nor are they invasive as stated, since possums are slow breeders with one joey a year.”
Laurie Collins said it became a vicious cycle as scare-mongering over possums led to aerial 1080 drops that indiscriminately killed insects and birds.
Possums he said were a resource with the fur fetching over 20 many times the value of crossbred sheep wool.
Laurie Collins says DoC has become trapped in a time warp, with an anti-introduced phobia and an obsession with eco-poisons such as 1080 and brodifacoum.
The new DoC director general has some formidable challenges to get the ship back on a reality course.
“By talking and very importantly listening to and hearing practical people who understand the bush and the natural world, the new captain might steer DoC back on to a sensible course,” he says.
NSW government dropping 1080 poison baits in Sydney water catchment area
EWR comment: The many who have tracked and even opposed the 1080 operations (moving along in NZ for over 50 years) know there is more to this than meets the eye. Particularly in latter years as increasingly the rules have expanded to allowing dispersion into waterways. How can this not affect human health? Look what happened in Auckland. On a grand scale we have also seen the gradual destruction of the very species the narrative has told us were being protected. Slowly but surely the wild food supplies are being severely reduced, and what is left is being rendered too risky to eat. This is not about conservation according to the UN’s supposed biodiversity goals contained in the Agenda 21 documentation. It is all part of the New World Order reset goals, world control of all resources including food. Note Aussie recently proclaimed they are now in the said NWO. So here we have Australia spreading 1080 into their waterways. Catchment waterways for Sydney.
The article is from MSN. (Thanks to Jordan for this link).
msn.com
The New South Wales government is preparing to drop poisoned animal baits into a part of Sydney’s main drinking water catchment considered so important, public access is restricted.
The move has angered a conservation scientist who says mass aerial baiting in the special area contradicts those protections.
However, the NSW government says the baiting is necessary to protect vulnerable native animals affected by the devastating bushfires of 2019/20.
The meat baits, which are laced with the poison known as 1080, are designed to kill foxes and dingoes — also referred to as wild dogs. They will be dropped across parts of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, including within the Warragamba Special Area.
Special areas act as buffers of pristine bushland upstream of dams and are designed to protect water quality. In the Warragamba catchment, “schedule 1 areas” are the most heavily protected and public entry is banned.
They are surrounded by “schedule 2 areas”, where entry is restricted and activities such as bike riding and motorboat use are prohibited.
But according to internal government documents, seen by the ABC’s Specialist Reporting Team, poisoned baits were airdropped in schedule 2 areas in June and July 2020, with more baits to be dropped this month.
Originally, the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) also wanted to bait schedule 1 areas, but it abandoned the idea over concerns about how the public would react.
“We anticipate that there is a risk of community concern regarding the perceive (sic) risks of using 1080 in Sydney’s drinking supply,” the NPWS noted in an email.
“For these reasons we are proposing we don’t bait in Schedule 1 lands. If we determine a way to manage that risk down the track, then we can reconsider.”
WaterNSW told the ABC it considered the baiting a “very low” risk to the catchment, thanks to other mitigating factors.
“These factors … include restricting baiting to areas away from waterways, the high rate of decay of ‘1080’ in the environment, and baiting occurring only in catchment zones far removed from the Warragamba supply storage,” a spokesman said.
Scientist argues dingoes should be protected
The Department of Planning Industry and Environment said the program had been carefully mapped out, and baits would not be dropped within 200 metres of waterways.
That does not reassure Kylie Cairns, a molecular biologist and geneticist who specialises in dingo research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
She is opposed to any baiting in national parks where dingoes roam, saying they are Australia’s land-based apex predator and should be protected.
“If you have the apex predator being controlled in such a manner, you could be disturbing or impacting negatively on the natural environment in that area,” she said.
Dr Cairns said since baiting was typically done to reduce the loss of livestock in agricultural areas it was “shocking” that baiting was planned up to 10 kilometres inside the world heritage area.
“You have to ask, is that really balancing the need to conserve dingoes in their environment … with the impact that they might be doing to livestock operations on the outside of the park?”
She said a growing body of work suggested habitats could be improved in areas where dingoes were well managed and, that in particular, dingoes helped keep kangaroo numbers down, which allowed plants and smaller herbivores to flourish.
Expert says baiting needed to control dingoes
Greg Mifsud is the national wild dog management coordinator at the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions. He supports the use of aerial baiting to access hard to reach areas. And he said it was more targeted than the name suggested.
“The movement of foxes and dogs in those landscapes after fire could be quite different and therefore targeting areas with aerial baiting just means you might be able to get a better uptake of baits by animals that you’re targeting,” Mr Mifsud said.
He was not involved in the program run in the Warragamba Special Area, but he does oversee the National Wild Dog Action Plan and provides advice to landholders and agricultural groups on predator control strategies.
Mr Mifsud said dingoes still posed a significant threat to wildlife and he argued regular baiting was needed because as soon as it stopped, they came back.
“Dogs aren’t going away,” he said.
“Despite the best efforts, they’ve adapted to the changes and they’re moving into areas, like … on the outskirts of Brisbane and places like that. So it’s really just going to be about ongoing management.”
Concerns over ‘cruelty’ and native animals
Mark Greenhill is the Mayor of the Blue Mountains City Council, which covers a large section of the world heritage area. He’s opposed to the use of 1080 because he thinks animals that ingest it die painful deaths.
“We can be more humane than that,” he said.
“My concern is that, apart from the cruelty of the poison, there’s no guarantee this poison wasn’t taking out native animals.”
This year, his council officially banned the use of 1080 in his government area. That ban does not cover land controlled by the state government, such as national parks, but he wished it did.
“The [Warragamba Special Area], while outside our local government area, is still within the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. So, forgive me for feeling somewhat proprietorial,” he said.
A spokesperson for NPWS told the ABC it had seen a 90 per cent reduction in fox activity across the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area since it started baiting last year.
NPWS also said strict legal conditions surrounded aerial baiting and ensured human safety.
SOURCE:
The Bromley, 1080 whitewash
EWR comment: Remember this story? I’ve neglected 1080 for some time now … it is still on the radar though and they continue to spread 1080 here in NZ. Read the latest whitewash on the Bromley incident, mainstream’s article titled: Company was ‘taking shortcuts’ when worker ended up in coma after poisoning incident
(Further updates to follow)
From Carol Sawyer
UNBELIEVABLE? Well no, not really. Time everyone woke up to the corruption. But as far as this article is concerned, why don’t reporters make themselves familiar with the substances in question? The company was making pure 1080, (sodium fluoroacetate), and had in the warehouse the substances necessary to make it (400L of ethyl fluoroacetate, sodium hydroxide, and ethanol) as well as some unknown quantity of sodium fluoroacetate.
“The company was under pressure to meet its supply obligations and decided to try to manufacture sodium fluoroacetate – the active ingredient in 1080 – locally rather than importing it.”
Sodium fluoroacetate IS pure 1080, and NO-ONE in NZ has the consent to manufacture it, not even the NZ government’s own 1080 bait factory in Whanganui. The pure, deadly ingredient is imported from Tull Chemical Co in Oxford, Alabama, and has been for many, many years. It is the active ingredient in 1080 cereal baits, not “the active ingredient in 1080”.
One of the most deadly substances in the world. 1/143 of a teaspoon can kill a 70kg human being and yet this was being manufactured illegally in a warehouse in a heavily built up area, with an aquatic centre (where children learn to swim) across the driveway and a preschool nearby, without consent, without signage, and unbeknown to the other businesses in the building at 56 Wickham St, Bromley.
Not only that but the warehouse had no ventilation. I am told that in court yesterday when asked about the means of ventilation they said they would lift the roller door onto the carpark/entrance!! I am also told that the judge said that 1080 was not to be referred to in court as 1080, but as sodium fluoroacetate. How many people in NZ know the chemical sodium fluoroacetate is 1080! Why would the judge say that do you think? Rhetorical question.
Oh, words fail me… those who have been following this case will know what I mean. A whitewash, pure and simple.
Here is the true story behind this:
https://www.facebook.com/carol.sawyer.3511/posts/2614111712202472
Read Dr Fiona McQueen’s letter on 1080 poisoning & NZ’s native birds that the Wanaka Sun declines to publish
EWR comment: the 1080 issue is still as present as ever. It has been overshadowed more urgently at this blog by the CV VX rollout. The 1080 poisoning however continues, business as usual with currently the East Cape to be slathered with this deadly poison. Sixty years on and we still have the pests? How long does one keep applying a solution that doesn’t work? Meanwhile the beautiful Kea is in serious decline. If you are new to the 1080 problem here in NZ just watch the GrafBoys’ excellent award winning doco ‘Poisoning Paradise‘ & visit their site tv-wild.com. Also see our 1080 pages (main menu). Article below…
__________________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT UNPUBLISHED LETTER BY DR. FIONA McQUEEN – THE WANAKA SUN
“…most conservation –minded NZ’ers would be fairly shocked to hear that 1080 actually kills native birds – in any numbers, small or “huge”. This unfortunate fact has been well and truly proven in peer-reviewed studies and is termed “by-kill”. Which species? Tomtits, robins, morepork and kea to name a few… after the 2020 drop in the pristine Matukituki Valley, 50% of DoC’s monitored kea died”
Dr Fiona McQueen
From Carol Sawyer
On April 15, 2021, The Wanaka Sun published an opinion piece by Ross Sinclair, committee member of the pro-1080 poison Central Otago Lakes “Forest and Bird”…. incorrect and biased as one might expect.
Over the ensuing weeks there were a number of ‘Letters to the Editor’ in opposition to this article. (Notably there were none in support of the opinion piece, although Ross Sinclair was given the right of reply not once, but twice!)
One letter was from Dr. Fiona McQueen, consultant rheumatologist at the SDHB, and author of “The Quiet Forest: The Case Against Aerial 1080”.
The Sun’s editor, Pat Deavoll, told Dr. McQueen in an email on 19 April that she would “certainly publish it in the next edition- you have made some very good points”. It has never been published.
I posted it on Facebook a week ago along with the original opinion piece, with Dr. Fiona McQueen’s permission.
Strangely, I shared it to Upper Clutha Community Notices, a local Wanaka Facebook group with more than 7,000 members. It was approved and then quickly deleted and when I pointed this out to one of the admins with whom I have had cordial dealings in the past, it was reinstated. It was deleted again; again I pointed this out and it was reinstated. It appeared there was disagreement among the admins.
Finally, after 24 hours or so, comments were turned off, this particular administrator sent me an extremely rude private message, totally uncalled for, referring to “your precious post”, the post was deleted, and she blocked me.
Dr. McQueen’s letter STILL has not been published by The Wanaka Sun and yet here in this week’s issue is a letter from John Veysey, commenting on the non-existent letter !! (I thought I must have made a mistake but I have been back through the last 6 weeks of The Wanaka Sun and, no, Dr. Fiona McQueen’s letter has never been published).
Here is her letter again, and I have attached John Veysey’s letter to The Wanaka Sun, from this week’s edition, (which must have a few people scratching their heads as no-one reading The Wanaka Sun has ever seen Dr. McQueen’s letter) :
“Dear Sir,
I would like to make some comments in response to your recent article, “Putting 1080 to Bed”. Firstly, I would expect that most conservation –minded NZ’ers would be fairly shocked to hear that 1080 actually kills native birds – in any numbers, small or “huge”. This unfortunate fact has been well and truly proven in peer-reviewed studies and is termed “by-kill”. Which species? Tomtits, robins, morepork and kea to name a few. How many are killed?
Contrary to Dr Sinclair, I find the data on kea to be extremely alarming. It has been estimated (by DoC) that each poisoning operation will kill, on average, 12% of kea. But sometimes that percentage has been much higher. For example after the 2020 drop in the pristine Matukituki Valley, 50% of DoC’s monitored kea died.
“The keas’ deaths will be horrific, with extreme muscular spasms going on for many hours,” said Dr Jo Pollard, PhD, an independent scientist who has crusaded for years against the use of aerial 1080.
Personal confirmation of this came to me quite separately from an individual working on a DOC hut during 2020. In the days following a 1080 drop he commented, “the keas were making a really awful noise, it sounded like they might have been screaming …” It is very disturbing that there are so few of these iconic birds to be found now around the West Coast, in areas where they used to be plentiful. DOC says its the stoats. Really? Stoats were introduced more than a hundred years ago. The kea population only seems to have plummeted in the last twenty or so (since intensive and repetitive 1080 drops have been underway in kea habitat). More likely it is something that most definitely kills them in large numbers – 1080.
Ross Sinclair has alluded to the recently published paper by Bomans et al, (NZ Journal of Ecology 2021) investigating the effect of 1080 drops on birdsong. True, there was very little difference shown between 1080 and control groups over a period of years (leaving aside the subgroup of tomtits exposed to 1080 where birdsong was reduced). But hold on, shouldn’t there have been a difference? Isn’t that what the whole 1080 programme is supposed to do? Bring back the birdsong? Here is conclusive scientific proof that it is a complete waste of time and money, with a lot of dreadful suffering thrown in for many helpless creatures.
Dr Fiona Mcqueen
Consultant rheumatologist
SDHB”
PCR LTD COURT CASE POSTPONED AGAIN TODAY…. COMPANY NOT TO BE CHARGED WITH MANUFACTURE OF PURE 1080
Are we expected to believe that chemicals were being processed in the Bromley warehouse (this was stated in the original news story) but that despite the chemicals in the warehouse being those used for manufacturing pure 1080, the company was NOT manufacturing pure 1080?
By Carol Sawyer
(See the Stuff article)
Unfortunately Stuff has not made clear, or understood, the difference between importing 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) and storing the chemicals needed to make it! ( See quote).
If you are not manufacturing sodium fluoroacetate, but only importing it, why do you need the chemicals used to make it?! An important question to have asked, surely? As the article points out, manufacturing sodium fluoroacetate is not permitted in NZ. This building contained ethyl fluoroacetate, sodium hydroxide, and ethanol… the products needed to MANUFACTURE pure 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate). It also contained sodium fluoroacetate.
Quote from article: “The factory did not manufacture 1080, but stored the chemicals that could be used to make it.
Manufacturing 1080 is not permitted in New Zealand but some companies, including PCR Ltd, have permission to make cereal bait from imported 1080.”
How do Stuff know the factory was not manufacturing 1080? It appears that PCR Ltd have not been CHARGED with manufacture, which is not the same thing. Assumptions being made here.
Quote from article: “Company spokesman Steve Attwood previously told Stuff the Bromley site was “essentially a storage facility”.
What the company was doing with the chemicals was “a commercially sensitive process of delivering good pest control products”, he said.” ……What on earth does THAT mean?
The accident happened nearly two years ago and yet Unit 1, 56 Wickham St, Bromley, Christchurch has still not been decontaminated and still apparently contains these highly hazardous chemicals, as a Hazchem sign was eventually placed on the building last year and is still there. The three other units under the same roof are all leased by other businesses and an aquatic centre, where children learn to swim, is just metres away and shares the same drive-in entrance. The building is so hazardous that firemen have been forbidden to enter in case of fire! Today the Bromley court case was due to be heard at 10.00 am. After nearly two hours of other cases being heard it was again adjourned. Will it ever come to court? After WorkSafe NZ spent a year investigating this incident, charges were laid in June, 2020.
The case was due to be heard in the Christchurch District Court in mid-July, 2020. It was postponed on the day.
It was due to be heard on the 19th August, 2020. It was again postponed on the day.
It was due to be heard on the 15th September, 2020. It was again postponed on the day.
It was due to be heard on 2 December, 2020. It was postponed again on the day.
It was due to be heard on 9 February, 2021. It was postponed again today.
See original story here : https://www.facebook.com/carol.sawyer.3511/posts/2614111712202472
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PS After I contacted reporter Joanne Naish this afternoon she brought the question of manufacture to her editor’s attention. The editor has therefore made a tweak. This part now reads:”The company previously said it was not manufacturing 1080 at the Bromley warehouse, but was storing the chemicals that could be used to make it.”
READ THE STUFF ARTICLE AT THE LINK:
Photo: Google Maps
NZ honey and 1080: is honey giant ‘Comvita’ telling the truth?
By Carol Sawyer
WAS HONEY GIANT “COMVITA” TELLING THE TRUTH ?
As of today, Japan is warning it will stop importing New Zealand honey if it continues to find the weed killer glyphosate during border testing. What will happen if they ever realize they should test for 1080 poison as well?! On September 21, 2018, Benita Martin sent a question to Comvita – “Please advise what tests for 1080 are undertaken on your honey? I’m worried about the bees that were found on the 1080 poisoned cows and your hives are closest to the location.”
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A Comvita representative responded :
“Comvita uses Analytica Laboratories to undertake Sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) testing. Analytica are an IANZ accredited laboratory who perform a wide variety of bee product testing on behalf of the Apiculture industry. Comvita undertook 1080 testing on a range of honey samples which were taken from honey harvested between September 2017 – March 2018 including honey from 1080 drop zones. No traces of 1080 were detected in any samples which is inline with all scientific literature which suggests the risk of contamination to bees and their products appeared to be negligible. ‘Low risk’ is a category we assign to this residue in our testing schedule, and best reflects where no verified evidence of cross contamination is known to occur. This is consistent with research we have seen elsewhere which indicated 1080 is not attractive to bees and poses no threat.”
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However the Executive Director of Analytica Laboratories said on 20 June, 2018, in an email to beekeeper Roy Arbon :
“… we are not able to test your honey for 1080 unfortunately, because we don’t have a testing method for doing so…”
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What happened between March 2018 and June 2018 ? Did Analytica lose their testing equipment ?!
Is Comvita telling the truth ?
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FURTHER INFO FROM OIA REQUESTS: Neither Analytica or Hills have tests* for detecting 1080 in honey:
* Documents supplied by Claire & Tim.
Roy talks about his experience as an organic beekeeper in New Zealand until 1080 poison!
_________________________________________________________________________
RELATED POSTS:
https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/?s=honey%2C+1080
Poison found in sealife samples THREE YEARS after an aerial brodifacoum poison operation (Ecocide Awareness NZ)
From Ecocide Awareness NZ
Staff from New Zealand Dept of Conservation are often employed as ‘consultants’ for overseas ‘pest’ eradication projects. One example of such an eradication attempt comes from Wake Atoll, known as ‘Wake Island’ – which is between Hawaii and Guam in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is made up of Wake, (525 ha), Peale (95 ha), and Wilkes Islands (76 ha).
Wake is an unincorporated U.S. territory that is managed by the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force. About 70 people reside on Wake (military personnel and contractors). Wake has approximately 19 km of coastline and is an important breeding area for many species of seabirds.Importantly, the coastline is also fished by the local residents for sport and food.
In 2012 an aerial brodifacoum poisoning operation took place over the islands to try to eradicate rats. How long brodifacoum persists in the environment is unclear, but we know it can potentially affect the food chain. These residues may impact on fish that are caught by Wake Island residents for sport and consumption. Three months after the poisoning, 5 out of 48 samples had “detectable levels” of poison – toxicologists therefore recommended a 942 day fishing ban after initial testing was done. But how much longer would the pesticide be in the food chain?
In 2015 – THREE YEARS AFTER this aerial operation of brodifacoum – samples from various marine life were taken. The scientists found that some fish (1 of 8 bluefin trevally, and 4 of 4 blacktail snapper, all from within a lagoon) had low but detectable levels of brodifacoum residues.
The scientists suggest that outcomes from their investigation should provide a comprehensive idea of the risks of contamination in marine life over the longer term from using pesticides aerially. In the article, the authors state “All reasonable efforts should be made to minimize unnecessary environmental and nontarget exposures (e.g., through precise application methods) and all risk assessments must consider the specific context of proposed action [poisoning the environment].”
However, an aerial distribution from helicopter of a lethal poison can NEVER be ‘precise’. The environment and the residents’ health have been put at risk.Reference: Siers, Shane R.; Shiels, Aaron B.; Volker, Steven F.; Rex, Kristen; and Pitt, William C., “Brodifacoum residues in fish three years after an island-wide rat eradication attempt in the tropical Pacific” (2020). USDA National Wildlife Research Center – Staff Publications. 2313.https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/icwdm_usdanwrc/2313
Kathy White says: “Remember the Hauraki Gulf brodifacoum poison drop? The dead dolphins, penguins, dogs and toxic sea-slugs? And the DOC man interviewed on TV, lying about having tested the penguins and them being negative. Fortunately there was an astute journalist who probed and discovered they hadn’t tested them – they had just examined them. Years later, in Penny Fisher’s journal articles, it talked about detecting brodifacoum in the penguins and them thinking the penguins may have died of starvation. They did later studies on anticoagulant rodenticides in penguins and found more than 50% of South Island test subjects had at least one anticoagulant in them.”
Image 1: Wake Island aerial view. Source: Pinterest
Image 2: Brodifacoum baits Source: Wellington Council
#publichealth#pesticide#brodifacoum#ban1080#contamination#healthandsafety#toxicology#ecology#foodsafety#cleanwater
NZ’s DoC & Ospri set for another poisoning spree: cyanide and 1080 near Hokitika & near Kaikoura, more cyanide (Ecocide awareness)
Ecocide Awareness NZ
Happy New Year and it’s with a sad heart that we provide a ‘heads up’ for some of the forthcoming next round of proposed poisoning operations in Aotearoa New Zealand – planned by Dept of Conservation and/or Ospri. Other poison operations may not be made public. Three examples are shown in images below, taken from the current online Pesticide Summary. The South Island’s West Coast is already heavily poisoned, with deadly diphacinone, brodifacoum, 1080, cyanide and other toxins. The cocktail effect of these multiple chemicals in sublethal amounts is a total unknown in terms of the impact on our public health. But, despite this, a further mixture of a cyanide and 1080 (bait stations and hand laying) is planned near Hokitika. Meanwhile, on the East Coast near Kaikoura, more cyanide will be laid in bait bags near areas already previously poisoned with 1080. What are the effects of a mix of cyanide and 1080? The streams feed the drinking water supplies for residents and stock. The streams all eventually meet the sea, of course. Are the Kiwi tourists paying to be whale-watchers, aware of the invisible toxins those wildlife face? And thirdly (but by no means, finally) aerial 1080 poison is proposed to be spread by helicopter over 7412 hectares adjacent to sacred Aoraki Mt Cook.
Will 2021 bring any relief from these poisons to our land and water?
#poison#contamination#pesticides#safewater#publichealth#fraud#water#ecocide#newzealand#corruption
HELIOTAGO’S REPUTATION GETS A BOOST … IT MAY NOT BE THE ONE THEY WANT!
By Carol Sawyer
Well,well, well…..it seems that when people look up HeliOtago Ltd, at least one of the photos they get is this one I took of one of their rescue helicopters, ZK-IME, dropping 1080 poison at Makarora, Mt Aspiring National Park, on February 23, 2017.Google has just congratulated me and told me the photo has had 10,176 views and it appears to be tied to the Google Maps ‘HeliOtago Ltd’ location ID.Google said “10,000Hi Carol,10,000 photo views—that’s something to be proud of!Thanks for adding photos to Google Maps—they are helping others make decisions about the things worth doing and places worth seeing. Keep it up!” Things worth doing ?!!!! Dropping 1080 poison ?! 
Google is nuts!
Warning sounded: multiple poison operations currently on NZ’s west Coast Sth Island, includes 1080 & cyanide
A Facebook post from:
Ecocide Awareness NZ
Environmental Conservation Organization · Community · News & Media Website
“Admin are extremely concerned for public health and safety now that almost the entire West Coast of South Island is currently covered in deadly pesticides – mainly 1080, and also cyanide and others poisons, aerial and distributed by hand. From Kohaihai Bluff, North of Oparara River, all the way down to Wanganui Bluff, near Poerua River, around Hari Hari – there are multiple poison operations in and around the coasts, rivers, estuaries and forests. And astonishingly, even more are planned. This presents a high risk of contamination of drinking water and our food chains. As New Zealanders travel around our country during the Christmas holidays, often for the first time – we URGE people to be aware, to take precautions and to share your knowledge of the pesticide risks with others. Remember: 1080 poison has NO ANTIDOTE. If you have internet coverage where you are – much of the West Coast sadly does not – check Dept of Conservation Pesticide Summary interactive maps, alongside the regional councils and Ospri websites. If you do not have access to the internet, please visit your local council and DoC office (if they are open to the public) and insist that the staff find out whether an area is contaminated. Do NOT rely on signage as this is often missing, unhelpful and/or illegible.”
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Below is an image of the areas being poisoned. To find the interactive map at DoC’s website go to this link: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/pesticide-summaries/ (Once you have selected the appropriate area, you will be asked to tick the ‘agree’ box bottom right hand corner before accessing the map).
1080 ACCIDENT AT BROMLEY, CHRISTCHURCH – WILL IT BE A COVER-UP? 18 MONTHS DOWN THE TRACK IT’S NOT LOOKING GOOD!
By Carol Sawyer
Richard Healey says:
“It’s a tale that illustrates an important and irrefutable point, the organisations that New Zealanders believe are there to protect them from the sort of dishonest sociopaths who are behind this sordid mess are actually only there to make them THINK that they are protected.
Where in God’s name should you start?
Where were the “democratically” elected councillors when the West Coast District Council ignored their constituents’ widespread and well publicised opposition to the use of 1080 in order to bankroll this commercially, morally and scientifically flawed enterprise?
Where was the office of the auditor general when $272,549 was slipped out the back door as an “impairment” to avoid scrutiny of what would otherwise be very questionable business decision?
Where were ECAN while all of this was taking place under their noses? The site is still not listed on their register of land use information to this day.
Where were Worksafe when this witches’ brew of toxic chemicals was deposited upwind of a densely populated residential zone without even a rudimentary warning sign in place?
Where was ANYONE when the council, in what I can only view as a barefaced attempt to slink out from underneath its responsibilities for site decontamination, sold off its shareholding at a massive loss?
Where were ECANZ, FENZ and WorkSafe when the job of ensuring that the site was made safe in a timely manner was discussed?
Where were the courts when the task of holding the, frankly despicable, perpetrators of these events promptly to task arose?
The only people who come out of this with any credit are the foot soldiers on the ground who went in to clean up this unholy mess, the ESR team, the FENZ fire-fighters and the ambulance crews and medical staff who saved the life of the worker involved in the original explosion.
Outcomes like this don’t happen through laziness or incompetence. They happen by design.”
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Email from WorkSafe NZ forwarded by Asst Area Commander, Steve Kennedy, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ), to ?, January, 2020.
Here is the text of that email for clearer reading, though I have attached the screenshot too:
“Completed by Steve Kennedy Just a quick follow-up from the operation we mounted with both FENZ and ESR assistance at the Pest Control Research NZ Limited worksite at Unit 1, 56 Wickham Street, Bromley, Christchurch in June last year (Wednesday, 12 June and Thursday, 13 June 2019). The site remains sealed under WorkSafe direction and has not been entered since Thursday, 13 June 2019 the site remains contaminated and the same hazardous substances remain in situ. We continue to work with Pest Control Research for them to developed and produce an adequately robust decontamination and site recovery plan, while there appears to be some reluctance on their part to move this along. I have been ask to confirm our understand that FENZ continues to flag this site/address in your CAD systems as a contaminated hazardous substance location containing quantities of: Sodium Hydroxide [CAS 1310732 ] (solid) Ethyl Fluoroacetate [CAS 459-72-3] (liquid) Ethanol [CAS 64-17-5) (liquid) Sodium Fluoroac by Steve Kennedy”
Also attached is the email that says fire officers must not enter the building. A photo of this email is attached, but for ease of reading I have copied out the text here. It was also sent by Fire Service Asst Area Commander Steve Kennedy, again in January, 2020, and says:
“This message was sent with High Importance.
In June 2019 FENZ, in conjunction with Worksafe, was involved in an incident at Pest Control Research, 1/56 Wickham. The site remains contaminated following an industrial incident involving the manufacture of Sodium Fluoroacetate.
No entry is to be made to this building. The site report and Dispatch Safety Alert have been updated.”
In spite of denials, according to Fire & Emergency NZ, the company called Pest Control Research in Christchurch was manufacturing 1080
By Carol Sawyer
Excellent work by Stuff reporter, Joanne Naish. At last something is starting to come out in the open.
“The company did not dispute official documents from Fenz, but allegations the company was making 1080 at the site had only come from the “anti-1080 brigade”, he said.
“Oh yeah? Here is the text of an email from Fire Service Assistant Area-Commander, Steve Kennedy, January, 2020:
“This message was sent with High Importance.
In June 2019 FENZ, in conjunction with Worksafe, was involved in an incident at Pest Control Research, 1/56 Wickham. The site remains contaminated following an industrial incident involving the manufacture of Sodium Fluoroacetate.
No entry is to be made to this building. The site report and Dispatch Safety Alert have been updated.”
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On site are the following chemicals, according to a Work Safe email sent to FENZ and forwarded by Steve Kennedy to ? on 23 January, 2020. (I have a copy and have posted it up previously):
Ethyl fluoroacetate, ethanol, sodium hydroxide, and sodium fluoroacetate (pure 1080).
See the last method in this document… one way to make pure 1080 is to mix ethyl fluoroacetate, methanol and sodium hyroxide. Ethyl fluoroacetate is highly flammable and very dangerous, as dangerous as sodium fluoroacetate (1080). It isn’t used to make Christmas cake.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/…/Sodium-fluoroacetate…
Ummmm….. why was there no hazardous chemical signage put on this building by Work Safe NZ – until 2020 when a small hazchem sign was put up beside the door?
Why was Unit 2, next door to this one, leased out towards the end of 2019, with the real estate agent who leased it out knowing nothing about what was through the wall, or so he told me? (The accident happened on May 28, 2019).
Read Stuff’s article at the link:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/…/1080-factorys-warehouse-still…
Photo: Stuff.co.nz
DoC raining down 1080 pellets on people and waterways – in spite of safety assurances
Here are two articles by Carol Sawyer reporting on DoC bungles that involved health risks to people, in spite of the Department’s assurances of safety. In spite also of the results reported health-wise, still the Department continues to drop the deadly poison by the tonne, every year, like a ‘veritable lolly scramble’ as one expert in the field has described it. These mishaps are not rare isolated incidents either. EWR
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By Carol Sawyer
Further to this post, I received this message in 2017 from the late Lloyd Hanson, to post on my page :
“John Sinclair the Investigator was one of the original owners of Marlborough Helicopters and I believe sold out to Owen Dodson, who conducted this operation. I am not saying that Mr Sinclair’s summation was incorrect but surely considering his conflict of Interest it would seem prudent to declare this and step away – NOT SO!
I went in to the scene of the bucket loss a few days later and observed dozens of broken 1080 pellets amongst the smashed foliage – a poor cleanup !”
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I do note that both the pilots received aviation safety awards, four years prior to this dropped bucket episode :
https://www.stuff.co.nz/…/Safety-key-to-chopper-firm…
I did this post at the time too:
https://www.facebook.com/carol.sawyer.3511/posts/1723060241307628
Fiona Stonehouse, one of the trampers who was rained on with 1080 poison by pilot Simon Moar, commented on the article:
“What the article does not say is that we were assured by a DoC worker that we would be fine walking the track that day before we even started the tramp. There was supposed to be a buffer zone of 20metres on both sides of the track which was a condition of our withdrawing our legal opposition submission. We went through the lengthy and time consuming legal process and made terms that we had no alternative but to accept and DoC failed to deliver to those agreed terms because of the bucket malfunction and their decision to continue with the drop despite the fact that they knew they could not comply with the terms of the agreement. It makes no difference what our political opinions on the subject are, we were told we would be safe and that we were allowed to be there and it turned out that we weren’t safe. No body is around this poison and that is what the knuckle heads who use and endorse 1080 fail to acknowledge,”
and when asked why she didn’t find a lawyer she wrote:
“We did find a lawyer who isn’t afraid to take on the government but she costs money and we have been opposing this bs for a long time now.
“Later she wrote:
” Elliot (Graeme Elliott, Principal Advisory Scientist, Dept of Conservation) admitted that our 2013 drop was an experiment at our hearing; there was a control area not being dropped on and Mt Stanley, which was aerially dusted with 1080. We haven’t seen the data from those experiments despite an initial request for them. How dare they experiment with deadly poisons on such a massive scale on a publicly accessible reserve ! We were also assured that 1080 would not be dropped in the waterways because they had a new trick(le) feeder that could accurately direct the flow of the pellets and the gps accuracy would keep the pellets out of the waterways. Well that was a farce from start to finish. Not only did they make sure 1080 was in every waterway but they also dusted people with 1080 – they had a malfunction with a clip holding the bucket on and dropped a bucket of 1080, people were injured and public were dusted with 1080 because of DoC’s ineptitude, and now while we are trying to get some acknowledgement of what went on nobody wants to know. Civil Aviation who should investigate all traffic accidents don’t want to know, the Medical Officer doesn’t want to know and I think DoC are hoping we will just quietly go away. Some of our group have relocated overseas because they became so disheartened with the bullshit but they weren’t natives to start with.”
Fiona’s parents, Doug and Phemie Stonehouse, were waiting in their boat for their daughter and her friends to finish walking the Nydia Bay Track. One of these helicopters flew straight towards and over them. They tried to duck under cover in the boat but say they were sprayed with dust. They have suffered ill health since.
I was reminded of this just the other day when I read a new article (Greymouth Star, 14 November, 2020) entitled ‘1080 Dust Tests “Inconclusive” ‘, which is about ESR’s experiments to see if 1080 dust travels 
. It mentions the two women picnicking near Greymouth, who were showered with 1080 fragments, and the article concluded with this short paragraph:
“Retired fisherman Doug Stonehouse also claimed he and his wife have suffered ill health after they were accidentally caught in dust from an aerial 1080 operation in the Marlborough Sounds.”
Carol Sawyer
March 7
FIRST A 1080 POISON BUCKET IS DROPPED, AND NEXT PELLETS ARE RAINED ON TRAMPERS, IN A ‘MARLBOROUGH HELICOPTERS LTD’ DOUBLE-WHAMMY COCKUP!
This bungled 1080 drop on Mt Stanley/ Tennyson Inlet, Marlborough Sounds on 2 November 2013, may only be six and a half years ago, but how many people know about it ?
Story here : http://www.stuff.co.nz/…/Trampers-want-apology-after…
I was sent two reports in the post that give a bit more background.
1 )”Investigation into uncommanded bucket release” by John Sinclair, NZ AAA and NZ Helicopter Assn, Occurrence Investigator
2 ) “Notes on Aerial 1080 drop 2/11/2013, Mt Stanley, Tennyson Inlet” by Phil Clerke, senior biodiversity ranger, Dept of Conservation, Picton.
These two reports make for fascinating reading.
This drop was conducted by Marlborough Heliopters Ltd for the Dept of Conservation. Two pilots were involved, Owen Dodson and Simon Moar, flying two Bell Jetrangers, ZK-HJI and ZK-HZE. The senior of the two pilots, Dodson, was a director of the helicopter company. Simon Moar was completing only his second poison drop, “but he had considerable experience in other aerial agricultural operations and is a competent pilot with sufficient experience to undertake poison drops”, Occurrence Investigator, John Sinclair said.
According to the report by DoC’s Phil Clerke, Owen Dodson left the barge to commence his baiting, but arrived back “somewhat shaken” and minus his bucket. He had ” visibly received an impact above the eye ( I was later to learn it was from the breaking airline leading to the bucket ). I was unsure of the exact details but picked up that the bucket’s airline then struck the rotors as well. I later learned that (Owen Dodson) also lost partial sight in this eye.
“This report differs slightly from the Occurrence Investigator, John Sinclair’s, report which says ” …….Owen Dodson was carrying out a trickle feed of sensitive boundaries when the bucket and its load of 1080 suffered an uncommanded release from the helicopter. In the departure sequence a pneumatic control line severed and flicked up cutting the pilot’s eye”. Also the “pneumatic control line had connected with the OAT and cracked the windscreen”.
Despite this injury, Dodson flew himself to Blenheim and came back in an R22 with a long lifting chain, after which Moar went off ( with the chain presumably ) to recover the dropped bucket ! Once this was done, Dodson returned to Blenheim in the R22.
John Sinclair’s report has a great deal of detail about the bucket release, But he says ” I believe that the most likely cause of the uncommanded release of the cargo hook was the helicopter’s manual cargo hook release being activated, then not properly returned to the safe position before it was next used” ( Human error, in other words ).
Because of all this dropped bucket palavah, this meant that the less experienced pilot, Simon Moar, had to complete the sensitive boundaries – instead of now-injured Owen Dodson, who had been the one supposed to be doing it, being the more experienced pilot. John Sinclair’s report reads : ” In the course of doing this (Simon Moar) misjudged conditions and allowed the wind to carry a small amount of bait onto the Nydia Bay Track. (Moar was under considerable pressure because of the need to do another drop the next day in Golden Bay. While DoC had offered to postpone the operation there would be the logistics of barging all the bait back to Picton if the operation was curtailed. These pressures may have impacted on his subconscious, especially given that the weather windows this spring have been very few and far between.”
The bait falling “onto the Nydia Bay Track” unfortunately appears to have fallen on the trampers mentioned in the article below. In the Occurrence Investigator, John Sinclair’s, report he just refers to it thus: “The dropping of the bucket did however impact on an adverse environmental effect later in the day”. ( The adverse environmental effect presumably being dropping 1080 pellets on trampers.) In the DoC report, Phil Clerke says a DoC worker, Wendy, “radioed in to pass on that she had met trampers that claimed they were rained on, on the track, at the saddle”.
The trampers, incidentally, knew of the 1080 drop but had been told the track itself was SAFE as it had an exclusion zone of 20 metres.
Some questions I have are these :
1 ) Why did Owen Dodson fly a helicopter back to Blenheim and collect another one, when it had a cracked windscreen and he had a cut on his eye ! Not only that but he returned with another helicopter !
2 ) Why was a pilot who had only done one 1080 drop before, allowed to fly the sensitive boundaries, when as well as this the wind had got up – Phil Clerke says ” the wind was noted to increase in velocity, (Simon Moar) and I had a discussion about this. It was still considered workable.” So pellets land on trampers !
3 ) This question should be asked of DoC : Why on earth was 1080 poison loaded onto helicopters off a barge in pristine Tennyson Inlet ? The DoC report says ” A vacuum cleaner, dust brushes/ pans were to be used with the initial barge clean up to reduce wash down contamination. Wash down would only be used when no further bait fragments could be recovered.” ( Meaning 1080 dust would be washed into Tennyson Inlet, presumably ! )
Postscript:
John Sinclair used to own Marlborough Helicopters Ltd, by the way. Oh, and Marlborough Helicopters Ltd got a safety award !!!! 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/…/Safety-key-to-chopper-firm…
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COMMENT AT FB:
“Tony Orman The Tennyson Inlet drop was a shambles. Toxic carcasses floating in the tide. No animal problem until DOC interfered. All it achieved was a rat population explosion followed by a stoat boom in numbers as proven by research, e.g Ruscoe 2007. And disruption of the ecosystem’s food chain. What is it that these fools in DOC who were responsible, don’t understand?”
Nydia Track Trampers hit by falling 1080 pellets
Tararua Range 1080 Drops by OSPRI Based on Fallacy
Press Release by the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust
A West Coast conservationist and spokesman for the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust has challenged the justification for a 1080 aerial drop in the Tararua Ranges by OSPRI (former Animal Health Board) saying it is founded on a false belief that possums are responsible for spreading bovine TB.
Laurie Collins of the West Coast said current 1080 aerial drops on public lands in the Tararua Ranges were based on twin fallacies of possums spreading TB and the country had a TB problem. “Neither is true,” he said. “It’s irresponsible of OSPRI to be wasting public funds and damaging the ecology of the Tararua’s public lands with 1080 plus telling fibs.” Laurie Collins said the belief that possum spread bovine TB had been disproven a few years ago when in Parliament the Minister of Primary Industries disclosed that of 9830 possums autopsied, none had TB. Yet in 2020 we have OSPRI carrying out mass aerial 1080 poisoning in several areas including public lands such as the Tararua Ranges,” he said. Laurie Collins said New Zealand was virtually TB free and was probably one of the most TB-free countries in the world. The world standard for a country to declare “TB free” is 0.2% for TB infected herds and 0.1% for infected cattle. New Zealand rates of TB infection in cattle were slight, i.e. 0.0019% average generally over the last decade. “It is so far below that required by world standards for a TB free declaration – that New Zealand must be one of the world’s most TB free countries”, he said. “Of deep concern to New Zealanders who are outdoors people, whether tramping, hunting, trout fishing or seeking any recreation in mountain areas, is the indiscriminate spreading of a poison that kills anything which ingests it.” The poison 1080 knows no “species boundaries -whether an insect, bird or animal, it kills, he said. Laurie Collins now retired has long and extensive experience of 1080 having been involved as a Forest Service trainee in the trials of the toxin’s first use in the late 1950s in the Caples Valley, Lake Wakatipu and in subsequent pest management work. In the past there had been cases of farmers wrongly transporting stock from infected areas with resultant TB outbreaks on farms. OSPRI had ignored the stock transportation factor and proceeded to wrongly blame possums and then aerially spread 1080 over adjoining public lands. Laurie Collins cited such an instance in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley. NZ’s extremely low TB infection rates raised the question whether OSPRI had a continuing role. “Instead of celebrating New Zealand’s Tb-free status, OSPRI remains in denial and states their aim is total eradication of TB,” he said. “
Is it that OSPRI want to continue its existence and jobs, funded for by taxpayers and farmer levies?” Even from the first discovery of TB in possums near Westport in the late 1960s, no-one ever seems to have questioned whether the possum infected cattle, or cattle infected the possum. The default position has always been that it is possums that have infected the cattle. “What probably began as a few civil servants getting some money from the then Ministry of Agriculture slowly morphed over time into a part of a growth program in the ministries bureaucracy,” he added.
It’s reported there’s been no consultation for an aerial 1080 poison operation over Mt Pirongia, contravening NZ’s Treaty of Waitangi Act
Facebook page Ecocide Awareness NZ reports on a 1080 aerial poison drop over Mt Pirongia. This is the second report around consultation (or not) by the authorities recently. EWR
“The dirty deed is done. The poison contractors to NZ Dept of Conservation and Waikato Regional Council – Helia1 and EcoFX Ltd leave the scene of the crime, with a police escort. There was NO consultation for this aerial 1080 poison operation over Mt Pirongia and NO consent from at least 13 of the local marae and Maori tribal groups around the maunga. New Zealand laws have been broken, not least the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which these poisoning agencies try to claim they respect. What an insult to the citizens of New Zealand.”
Click here to see the video at Facebook
Private lands are being targeted for 1080 drops by Ospri, DOC and Regional Councils with questionable means of obtaining consents of only one or two owners among the many
This is an excerpt from a recent article from coranz.org.nz which deserves its own highlighting I felt. Bribery & targeting of the one or two owners is a time worn tactic of the authorities. EWR
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“Private lands, which often have numerous owners, are being targeted for 1080 drops by Ospri, DOC and regional councils. A local area, Mahakirau, with 20 partners, “agreed” to poisoning on the strength of a single signature and a bribe of $10,000. At Kennedy’s Bay a group of land parcels with hundreds of different Maori owners, is to receive a 1080 drop on the say-so of just two members of the community. The lack of consultation in both operations has caused enormous friction in the particular communities. In the case of Tataraakina only one trustee gave consent for their lands to be poisoned. How much longer will these authorities be allowed to get away with this behaviour?”
READ FULL ARTICLE AT THE LINK
Image by Welcome to all and thank you for your visit ! ツ from Pixabay
Time to Rein in OSPRI over Bovine TB Illogic
by John Veysey of Coromandel
At present there are eighteen bovine TB-infected herds in Hawkes Bay. Ospri has found a TB-infected pig on private land. The infected pig was taken from the 12,000 ha of Tataraakina C trust land. Ospri tells farmers that this find “confirms that the spread of TB in Hawkes Bay is coming through wild life and not through movement of livestock”.
BUT Ospri seems to have no logical explanation of how TB gets into a wild pig. They tell farmers that the pig can not transfer the disease to another pig nor to another animal. Ospri’s supposition is that the possum transfers the disease to cattle but for the possum to get the disease from the pig it must eat the meat from a dead pig which has died from the infection.
OSPRI Failure
For decades Ospri and its predecessor, TB-Free NZ, have failed to establish how possums gain infection from cattle or how the disease is transferred back again from the possum to the cow. Ospri’s idea of transfer from a pig depends on a “carnivorous” possum. Eh?
READ MORE
Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay
Contrary to independent studies, DoC claims that 1080 does not kill or harm fish … important safety info if you fish for food
Posted by Kathy White at Facebook
“The Department of Conservation has been giving Pirongia landowners a flier that says “1080 does not kill or harm fish.” This is completely misleading and dangerous for those who eat fish, eels, shellfish and koura. See for yourself what scientists have said in an independent summary of research into 1080 and fish. Quotes: “There are indications of sub-lethal effects on fish among the very limited studies that have been done:“significantly greater weight loss occurred in eels exposed to 1080 compared to those that were not”…”the sub-lethal concentrations of 1080 in the water may have been sufficient to inhibit eel metabolism”…”sub-lethal 1080 exposure presented to eels through ingestion of contaminated possum may have been sufficient to temporarily inhibit eel metabolism” (Lyver et al., 2005)
“96-hour [exposure of Rainbow trout, half of individuals dead at] 54 mg/l, sub-lethal effects on survivors – not specified” (ERMA Agency, Appendix C)”Fish & Game ranger Lawson Davey said the national safety limit of 1080 in any food was 0.001 milligrams per kilogram, but the Cawthron Institute’s October toxicology results of 22 trout fed the poison showed muscle tissue with 1080 levels up to 4.7mg per kg.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/64310400/1080-drop-raises-trout-risk-fears
Preliminary results of a DoC-commissioned study by the Cawthron Research Institute has shown the flesh of trout that ate mice containing the toxin would have levels of 1080 that exceeded New Zealand Food Safety Authority limits.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11332357
The maximum concentrations measured in trout tissue (up to 4.7 mg/kg) were observed at 24 h and 48 h after ingestion. The concentration decreased to close to 2 mg/kg after 84 h. An increase in 1080 concentration in the flesh was observed after 120 h, but the number of replicates at this interval was low (n = 2). Cawthron Institute: 1080 UPTAKE AND ELIMINATION IN RAINBOW TROUT
For more information, click on the link below.
https://1080science.co.nz/is-1080-harmless-to-fish/
1080science.co.nz
Is 1080 Harmless to Fish? | 1080 Science
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on 1080 poison (Wright, 2011) claimed that effects of 1080 on populations of eels, koura and bullies had been studied (by Suren & Lambert, 2006) and that no effect on any of the fish was found.
Three takahē died following 1080 drop in Kahurangi National Park
The killing of natives continues sadly. Poison 1080 doesn’t target pests, it kills everything that breathes oxygen. EWR
From stuff.co.nz
Three takahē have died after aerial 1080 predator control in Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island, one likely due to 1080 poisoning.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) said the cause of death of the other two birds was still being investigated but 1080 poisoning was a possibility.
Photo: Wikipedia
With the Tararuas set to be 1080’d, ex Mayor Feyen advocates a return to alternatives like trapping
Ex Horowhenua Mayor Michael Feyen speaks about the alternatives proposed by the Advance NZ party that will create job opportunities for the people. (Currently the associated dollars funnel into the 1080 poison state owned gravy train). Michael has always been supportive of alternatives to 1080, during his time as both councilor and mayor with the Horowhenua District Council. Unfortunately it was not a vision shared by enough of his colleagues to have gained any traction. Time for change. EWR
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Why is DoC set to poison Fiordland’s stoats when stoats don’t eat 1080 baits & threatened native Kea do?
WET JACKET PENINSULAS, FIORDLAND, AERIAL 1080 POISON DROP STARTS – WEEP FOR THE KEA!
By Carol Sawyer
“So, here they are again and this time DoC have done a wee conjuring trick and say it is for stoats (there being no rats). Stoats don’t eat 1080 baits.”
“We have an estimated 1,000 Kea left in the wild in New Zealand….. in the whole world in fact, as they are endemic – i.e.they exist only here! The latest 1080 poison drop in the Matukituki Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park, February 2020, killed 50% of the Kea. More than that will die in the Wet Jacket Peninsulas drop because it is midwinter and the Kea are very hungry.”
Do you know what happens to 1080-poisoned Kea? They stagger around taking hours and hours to die. They bury their heads in the snow to try and get relief from the pain. Dr.Jo Pollard says “The keas’ deaths will be horrific, with extreme muscular spasms going on for many hours.” David Attenborough called them the most intelligent bird in the world. They are the world’s only alpine parrot.
Three BK-117 helicopters – ZK-IME (a.k.a Big Red the Rescue Helicopter), ZK-HJK,(white), and ZK-HEM, (red and white), and a Longranger, all belonging to HeliOtago Ltd, left Dunedin at 6.30 pm this evening heading west to be in place for starting their evil work tomorrow morning. Seven choppers arrived at Monowai tonight… yet to find out if they are all HeliOtago Ltd or if three are from another company. I have been told HeliOtago Ltd flew the prefeed baits from a private farm property at Monowai, last weekend.
This area has never before been poisoned. The drop was planned for last October but there were NO rats so it was postponed and, I am told, the poison that had been brought south for the drop was instead used in the Kepler Mountains drop last March, which was squeezed in just before lockdown…. I’m informed they added on the Princess Mountains to use all the extra poison up. No monitoring done there apparently.
So, here they are again and this time DoC have done a wee conjuring trick and say it is for stoats (there being no rats). Stoats don’t eat 1080 baits.
I can tell you what it WILL kill in large numbers… Kea. As the area has never before been poisoned there are many Kea reported to be in the area. (A while back a pilot sent me a photo of seven Kea that landed beside him when he touched down there.)
We have an estimated 1,000 Kea left in the wild in New Zealand….. in the whole world in fact, as they are endemic – i.e.they exist only here! The latest 1080 poison drop in the Matukituki Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park, February 2020, killed 50% of the Kea. More than that will die in the Wet Jacket Peninsulas drop because it is midwinter and the Kea are very hungry.
The Empire of the Dept of Conservation, greedy helicopter companies, and all their parasitic acolytes WILL fall… but it will be too late for the Kea.
Any of you gutless DoC employees reading this who put your personal livelihoods before your knowledge of this travesty and the horror it entails, and keep your mouths shut pleading “I can’t afford to lose my job”… hang your heads in shame why don’t you! You know who you are!
Ditto the local media who know about this drop and are too scared to touch it and tell the truth. You know who you are too.
Kea photo: Clyde Graf
Government poisoning of World Heritage sites in NZ – an open letter from Dr Jo Pollard to IUCN World Headquarters
Peter Shadie
Director, IUCN World Heritage Programme
IUCN World Headquarters
Rue Mauverney 28
1196 Gland
Switzerland
email: peter.shadie@iucn.org
11 June 2020
Dear Mr Shadie
Re: Government poisoning of World Heritage sites in New Zealand – Open letter
I am writing to bring your attention to the serious issue of the New Zealand Government’s aerial poisoning of a World Heritage site and hope that you will urgently contact the World Heritage Committee so they may act on this matter. The 40,000 ha Wet Jacket area is to be aerially poisoned this month under contract to the government’s Department of Conservation (DoC). This poisoning is not justified as the appropriate scientific or technical measure necessary for the conservation of this site, and would breach New Zealand’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
The contractor’s application to DoC (attached) to poison the Wet Jacket area describes a hotspot of biodiversity, home to at least 17 species of endangered birds as well as 25 other species of birds. Six species of lizard have been recorded including the rare Fiordland skink. The invertebrate fauna is described as “not fully explored” and “distinctive and important” (Contract Wild Animal Control, 2019).
The 1080 poison to be used is broad spectrum, affecting organisms that breathe oxygen (ERMA, 2007). It is added to cereal food baits and distributed from hoppers carried beneath helicopters. The distribution process creates fragments (Morgan et al. 2015) and dust (Wright et al., 2002). Native lizards, birds and invertebrates are all known to feed on the cereal bait (ERMA 2007). The poison is highly toxic, readily contaminates despite stringent precautions, travels rapidly in water and up food chains, causes reproductive defects across a vast range of species and has highly variable effects which remain poorly understood, with studies being sparse and of poor quality (ERMA, 2007).
Due to poor monitoring, effects of 1080 poisoning on populations of most NZ native animals are unknown (ERMA, 2007; Whiting-O’Keefe & Whiting-O’Keefe, 2007). Only six species of birds were reported as reliably monitored through 1080 drops. Of those, fernbirds suffered most with an estimated 9% loss of the local population per poisoning (Fairweather et al., 2015). Kea have also been intensively monitored, with the finding that on average 12% of birds are killed per operation (DoC, 2016).
The Application to poison the Wet Jacket area shows significant shortcomings, as follow.
Benefits
The reason given for poisoning the Wet Jacket area is to “protect the health and integrity of the flora and fauna susceptible to predation by rats, stoats and possums.” It lists animal species it considers particularly in need of protection: bats, kiwi, parakeets, kea and fiordland crested penguins.
These claims of susceptibility are not referenced or supported by scientific observations. In fact, it was concluded twice that predation was not a problem to kea (Jackson, 1969; Elliot & Kemp, 1999). Short-tailed bats were considered relatively safe from predators, being fast and agile, fiercely mobbing intruders and choosing winter roosts that were inaccessible (Lloyd et al., 2005). “Evidence” of predation of long tailed bats was just an observed association between low bat survival and high rat numbers (Pryde et al 2005; O’Donnell et al., 2011). Doc has attributed failures of some of its invasively monitored bird nests to predators, however they are not representative of undisturbed nests (Ellenberg et al., 2015).
Costs
Known costs left out of the Application include negative ecological effects from aerial poisoning. In many cases, rat numbers rebound to vast new heights within months (Innes et al., 1995; 2010; Powlesland et al., 1999; Ruscoe et al. 2008; Sweetapple et al., 2006). This effect can decimate prey such as invertebrates (Sweetapple & Nugent, 2007). Re-poisoning of rats is likely to become less and less effective due to the rats learning and developing physical tolerance (Byrom et al., 2013; Mitel, 2016; Pollard, 2016). Thus the Eglinton Valley (also in World Heritage site Fiordland National Park) has just received its fourth aerial poisoning in five years (2014, 2016, 2019, 2020). Despite increasing the intensity of the poisoning for rats in September 2019 (DoC, 2019a) another poisoning was carried out this May.
Mouse numbers usually increase soon after aerial poisoning (Innes et al., 1995; Sweetapple & Nugent, 2007, Ruscoe et al., 2008). The increases in rodents during the months after poisoning create ideal conditions to for stoats to flourish (Byrom et al., 2013). In addition, stoats that survived aerial poisoning were found to switch from eating rats to eating native birds (Murphy et al., 1988).
The Application contains no discussion of the conservation importance of the loss of kea, with previous studies indicating a 12% loss of local birds is expected. DoC claims that kea in remote areas are unlikely to get poisoned, however 9% of marked birds were killed by 1080 in an area chosen by DoC to represent remoteness (Kemp et al., 2016 unpublished). The total number of wild kea left is unknown and possibly less than 1000 ((Bond & Diamond, 1992; Harper, 2012; Roy, 2016).
Issues not addressed
Important issues left out of the Application include how much bait will enter the marine area; what effects there will be of baits, fragments and dust in the littoral zone (e.g. on penguins) and in the productive areas of shallow, still water; what will the effects be of the predicted “zero grazing ungulates” (being the last large grazing animals left); what are the chances of cold weather killing off rats in winter if they are left unpoisoned; should a highly diverse, unexplored ecological community be poisoned to try to make it better; what will be done if pest animal numbers are low, without poisoning.
DoC has a strong track record in misleading, pro-poisoning behaviour. It intrudes on nesting birds, attaches equipment to them and their nests, blames predators for nesting failures, then uses the poor nesting results to justify predator control (e.g. for kea (Kemp et al., 2014, unpublished), mohua (Elliott 1996), kiwi (Waterworth, 2019) and kaka (Moorhouse et al., 2003)). It quotes increased “nesting success” as an indication of a bird population’s positive response to poisoning, but nesting success is likely to increase if a population is culled (Nilsson 1984; Arcese & Smith 1988). “Five minute bird counts” are used by DoC to assess bird numbers. This method is notoriously unreliable (Westbrooke & Powlesland 2005; ERMA 2007; Green & Pryde 2012; Hartley 2012), due to major problems such as bird calls increasing after poisoning as birds try to find their dead partners and family, or search for new company.
DoC’s pro-poisoning bias and lack of scientific honesty are also apparent in its publications. For example a stoat plague that followed DoC’s aerial poisoning at Okarito (Kemp et al., 2015, unpublished) was truncated from the published graph (Kemp et al., 2017), despite this being an important outcome. In another example, in a study on bats after a 1080 operation, the contents of one bat roost tree had spilled onto open ground. Inspection revealed a baby bat with placenta attached, which tested positive for 1080. Other roosts in the study were inspected for dead and dying bats by roost camera “where practical” (Edmonds & Pryde, 2015). The published paper has a re-worded section of the original report that now insinuates all roosts were searched equally for dead babies (Edmonds et al., 2017).
The claim that some Eglinton Valley birds are prospering due to DoC’s 1080 poisoning (Minister of Conservation’s media release 11/4/20) is impossible to make: poison in bait stations and trapping are used to try to control mammals in the Eglinton Valley and any separate effects of 1080 cannot be assessed. Mohua (including some from the Wet Jacket area) were restocked there in 2010, 2015 and 2017.
Due to low rodent densities the Wet Jacket area poisoning was postponed in October 2019 (DoC, 2019c). The poisoning has since been promoted in the media as being needed to kill stoats, on the unscientific basis that local, heavily monitored kiwi chicks haven’t been surviving (Waterworth, 2020). These locally monitored kiwi weren’t even mentioned in the Application. There may be a very low stoat kill rate if there is a lack of poisoned rats for them to eat. If the poisoning proceeds regardless of low pest numbers, this will not be unusual. Makarora was poisoned in 2017 for rats despite low numbers (data accessed 22/3/17 via Official Information Act request); poisoning of Arthurs Pass in 2019 went ahead with no rats (data accessed 8/10/19) (mice were present but 1080 pellets are not usually eaten by mice (Fisher & Airey, 2009).
A fraction of the resources being used to poison the Wet Jacket area could support careful, scientific studies of the biodiversity and ecology of the area before a management plan is decided upon. Where populations of rare organisms are considered in immediate danger, localised, benign management can be applied, such as tree banding and caging, and protecting nesting kiwi and kea from DoC staff.
I trust you will act to prevent the unfounded wholesale poisoning of this precious site.
Yours sincerely
Dr Joanna Pollard (BSc (Hons), PhD)
See the IUCN reply to Dr Pollard below references.
References
Arcese, P., Smith, J.M., 1988. Effects of population density and supplemental food on reproduction in song sparrows. Journal of Animal Ecology 57: 119-136.
Bond, A., Diamond, J., 1992. Population estimates of Kea in Arthur’s Pass National Park. Notornis 39: 151-160.
Byrom, A., Banks, P., Dickman, C. & Pech, R., 2013. Will reinvasion stymie large-scale eradication of invasive mammals in New Zealand? Kararehe Kino 21: 6-7.
Contract Wild Animal Control, 2019b. Completed DoC Application form for predator control in the Wet Jacket Area. 34 pp.
DoC, 2016. Aerial 1080 in kea habitat. Code of Practice. NZ Department of Conservation Unclassified document. 24 pp.
DoC, 2019a. Application for DoC permission to use vertebrate VTAs assessment report: Clinton and Eglinton catchments. 11 pp.
DoC, 2019c. Revocation permission ID DoC 5909386.
Edmonds, H., Pryde, M., 2015. Eglinton Valley lesser short-tailed bat monitoring programme 2014/2015. DOCDM 1568082 15 pp.
Edmonds, H., Pryde, M., O’Donnell, C., 2017. Survival of PIT-tagged lesser short-tailed bats (Mystacina tuberculata) through an aerial 1080 pest control. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 17: 186-192.
Ellenberg, U., Edwards, E., Mattern, T., Hiscock, J.A., Wilson, R. & Edmonds, H., 2015. Assessing the impact of nest searches on breeding birds – a case study on Fiordland crested penguins (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus). New Zealand Journal of Ecology 39: 231-244.
Elliott, G., Kemp, J., 1999. Conservation ecology of kea (Nestor notabilis). WWF-NZ Final Report 1 August 1999, 64 pp.
ERMA Review, 2007. Environmental Risk Management Authority’s reassessment of 1080, 2007, Application HRE05002.
Fairweather, A, Broome, K., Fisher, P., 2015. Sodium fluoroacetate pesticide information review. Department of Conservation Report Docdm-25427. 103 pp.
Fisher, P., Airey, A.T., 2009. Factors affecting 1080 pellet bait acceptance by house mice (Mus musculus). Department of Conservation DOC Research & Development Series Feb-Mar 305-308
Greene, T.C., Pryde, M.A., 2012. Three population estimation methods compared for a known South Island robin population in Fiordland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 36: 340-252.
Guthrie, 2017. https://predatorfreenz.org/long-term-study-reveals-bat-response-predator-control/
Harper, P., 2012. DOC shocked five Kea shot dead. Nestor Notabilis 6: 24.
Hartley, LJ 2012. Five-minute bird counts in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 36: 268-278.
Innes, J., Kelly, D., Overton, J., Gilles, C. 2010. Predation and other factors currently limiting New Zealand forest birds. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 34: 86-114.
Innes, J., Warburton, B., Williams, D., Speed, H., Bradfield, P. 1995. Large-scale poisoning of ship rats (Rattus rattus) in indigenous forests of the North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 19: 5-17.
Jackson, J.R., 1969. What do keas die of? Notornis 16: 33-44.
Kemp, J., Orr-Walker, T., Elliott, G., Adams, N., Fraser, J., Roberts, L., Mosen, C., Amey, J., Barrett, B., Makan, T., 2014, unpublished. Benefits to kea (Nestor notabilis) populations from invasive mammal control via aerial 1080 baiting. Department of Conservation. 29 pp.
Kemp, J., Cunninghame, F., Barrett, B., Makan, T., Fraser, J., Mosen, C., 2015, unpublished. Effect of an aerial 1080 operation on the productivity of the kea (Nestor notabilis) in a West Coast rimu forest. Department of Conservation report. 15 pp.
Kemp, J., Hunter, C., Mosen, C., Elliott, G., 2016, unpublished. Draft: Kea population responses to aerial 1080 treatment in South Island landscapes. Department of Conservation, 14 pp.
Kemp, J., Mosen, C., Elliott, G., Hunter, C., 2018. Effects of the aerial application of 1080 to control pest mammals on kea reproductive success, New Zealand Journal of Ecology 42: 158-168.
King, 1984. Immigrant Killers. Introduced Predators and the conservation of birds in New Zealand. Oxford University Press.
Mitel, S., 2016. https://timnovate.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/the-mice-and-rats-are-winning/
Moorhouse, R., Greene, T., Dilks, P., Powlesland, R., Moran, L., Taylor, G., Jones, A., Knegtmans, J., Wills, D., Pryde, M., Fraser, I., August, A., August, C. 2003: Control of introduced mammalian predators improves kaka Nestor meridionalis breeding success: reversing the decline of a threatened New Zealand parrot. Biological Conservation 110: 33–44.
Morgan, D., Hickling, G. 2000. Techniques Used for Poisoning Possums, in TL Montague (ed. The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management, Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, pp. 143-153.
Murphy, E., Clapperton, B., Bradfield, P., Speed, H. 1998. Effects of rat-poisoning on abundance and diet of mustelids in New Zealand podocarp forests. NZ J Zoology 25: 315-328.
Nilsson, S.G., 1984. The evolution of nest-site selection among hole-nesting birds: The importance of nest predation and competition. Ornis Scandinavica 15: 167-175.
Pollard. J.C., 2016. Aerial 1080 poisoning in New Zealand: Reasons for concern.
Powlesland, R., Knegtmans, J., Marshall, I. 1999. Costs and benefits of aerial 1080 possum control operations using carrot baits to North Island Robins (Petroica australis longipes), Pureora Forest Park. NZ J Ecology 23: 149-159.
Roy, E.A., 2016. New Zealand kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, faces extinction
Ruscoe, W., Sweetapple, P., Yockney, I., Pech, R., Barron, M., Cave, S., Ramsey, D. 2008. Interactions of mammalian pest populations following control. Kararehe Kino Vertebrate Pest Research 13: 4-6.
Sweetapple, P., Nugent, G., Poutu, N., Horton, P. 2006. Effect of reduced possum density on rodent and stoat abundance in podocarp-hardwood forests. Science for Conservation 231. 25 pp.
Sweetapple, P & Nugent, G 2007 Secondary Effects of Possum Control. Kararehe Kino 11: 9-10.
Waterworth, K., 2019. https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/stoat-chick-toll-erasing-tokoeka
Waterworth, K., 2020. https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/fiordland/poison-drop-stop-predation-kiwi
Westbrooke, I.M., Powlesland, R.G., 2005. Comparison of impact between carrot and cereal 1080 baits on tomtits (Petroica macrocephala). New Zealand Journal of Ecology 29: 143-147.
Whiting O’Keefe, P., Whiting-O’Keefe, Q., Aerial monofluoroactate in New Zealand’s forests. An appraisal of the scientific evidence. 89 pp.
Wright, G., Booth, L., Morriss, G., Potts, M., Brown, L., Eason, C. 2002. Assessing potential environmental contamination from compound 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) in bait dust during possum control operations. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Science 45: 57-65.
IUCN’S REPLY TO DR POLLARD:
Recent Posts
- Open letter to IUCN World Headquarters – Government poisoning of World Heritage sites in NZ
- Nonessential services in conservation
- Tragedy of kea easily avoided
- Is 1080 “moderately humane”?
- Is DoC looking after our insects?
- Where does 1080 poison go in water?
- Time to think about kea
- Letter to Mike Slater, DOC, Re: Aerial1080 in Arthurs Pass National Park
- Science against 1080
- 20 Reasons why DoC should not poison kea habitat
- Loss of science quality in NZ is having dire consequences
- Response to the Department of Conservation’s reply to “Aerial 1080 poisoning in New Zealand: reasons for concern”
Header Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay (text added)
DoC’s been doubling down on their Sth. Is. 1080 poisoning operations-Jacinda’s magic money tree?
JACINDA’S MAGIC MONEY TREE – LIST OF 1080 OPERATIONS BELOW
By Carol Sawyer
Never have I seen so many winter aerial 1080 operations as now!
They barely gave themselves a breathing space.
The Dept of Conservation aerially 1080-poisoned 61,000 hectares of the Waitutu Forest and the Princess Mountains, Fiordland, March 11-12, 2020, two weeks before lockdown.
Then, as soon as we went into Level 2, they poisoned the Eglinton Valley, Fiordland. (Started on 19 May; completed on May 25, 2020).
1) Eglinton Valley, Fiordland, 7,842 hectares (last poisoned September, 2019; poisoned again May, 2020)
2) Waikaia Forest, Northern Southland, 7,000 hectares (fourth poisoning in 5.5 years, scheduled June, 2020)
3) Wet Jacket Peninsula, Dusky Sound, Fiordland, 40,000 hectares (never before poisoned)
4) Nelson Lakes National Park, Lake Rotoiti, Mt Robert and the headwaters of Lake Rotoroa, 34,000 hectares (notified by VCS Marlborough, July 1 to August 31, but not yet poisoned)
5) Mt Te Kinga forests, Lake Brunner, West Coast, 3,700 hectares, (notified, RNZ news item 29 May, but not yet poisoned)
6) Punakaiki, West Coast, 43,000 hectares (notified by VCS Greymouth, but not yet poisoned)
7) Buller South, West Coast ( Paparoa Range as well as foothills and Pakihi terraces between the Buller River and Four Mile Road south of Charleston), 18,500 hectares (notified, OSPRI, July 2020)
8) Radiant Range and Mokihinui, West Coast, 72,460 hectares ( notified, OSPRI, July 2020)
TOTAL HECTARES (including Waitutu) = 390,000 hectares and 780 tonnes of 1080 poison baits.
How could I have been so wrong?! I seriously thought a pandemic and its ensuing economic chaos would put an end to aerial 1080 poison. I thought the government might have a last blast but this is something else. Jacinda’s Labour Government has turned 1080 poisoning and trapping into a make-work scheme. The only income this scheme makes is from the TAXPAYER!!!
I think the only thing that will end aerial 1080 poison and this mad desire to kill everything introduced into our forests will be nuclear war.
Photo – Lake Brunner, West Coast, South Island from ‘100% Pure New Zealand’, 🤣,Tourism NZ
MICHAEL MEEHAN, DIRECTOR OF PCR LTD (CHCH 1080 BAIT FACTORY), AND CEO OF WEST COAST REGIONAL COUNCIL, RESIGNS
By Carol Sawyer
Did he see the writing on the wall? Below is a letter I wrote to him a month ago.
May 28, 2020 is the anniversary of the explosion in the Bromley, Christchurch, warehouse leased by PCR Ltd, where PCR Ltd/Kiwicare Corp Ltd was illegally making pure 1080… without a resource consent… inside a shipping container!! The building remains so contaminated that the Fire Service will not allow their officers to enter if there is a fire… yet there is no warning signage on this building in a VERY public place, surrounded by other businesses and next to a privately owned aquatic centre.
Work Safe NZ said it would take them a year to complete their investigations. We await their findings with bated breath. The West Coast Regional Council, (49% owner of the 1080 bait factory) has invested over $2 million of their ratepayers’ money in this factory. There are only 10,000 ratepayers. The building remains highly contaminated and dangerous. Even if the WCRC has public liability insurance, that will not protect them when criminal activities have taken place. I do hope that insurance company has woken up!
The whole story, for anyone who has not seen it, is in the links below. This has all been hidden behind a veil of silence… from FENZ, ESR, Work Safe NZ, Environment Canterbury, Christchurch City Council, West Coast regional Council, Dept of Conservation, and PCR Ltd itself. The media have not touched it.
Meanwhile, Michael Meehan is scampering off to another well-paid job … before the investigation results are announced.
I sent this letter below to him nearly a month ago. I copied in all West Coast Regional councillors. No-one responded or even acknowledged receipt, not even Michael Meehan who was the addressee, but I have since spoken to a councillor and so I know they all received it.
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“Apr 21, 2020, 8:11 PM
Dear Michael Meehan,
Below is a story that was posted on social media on 21 March, 2020. I would be interested to hear your comments please.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE BROMLEY, CHRISTCHURCH 1080 INCIDENT
https://www.facebook.com/carol.sawyer.3511/posts/2614111712202472
I understand from the real estate agent who arranged the lease on Unit 1, 56 Wickham St, Bromley that it is leased on a month by month basis and, as it would appear it has still not been decontaminated and still contains toxic chemicals, obviously it can not be used. I gather the lease is $21,995 per annum plus GST, which presumably means PCR Ltd has paid out over $22,000 in the past 11 months for an unused building.
What steps has Pest Control Research Ltd taken to start the decontamination process and why are there no hazardous chemical warning signs on the building?
It appears the other tenants have NOT been notified of this state of affairs. Unit 2 was leased out relatively recently to a painter (flammable materials next door, in other words) and I’m told he was not made aware of the situation with regard to Unit 1.
The owner of the joinery business, in Unit 3, was also unaware of the true situation.
I’m told Unit 4 is occupied by XXXXXXX, the son of the building’s owner. I do not know whether he knows the true situation or not.
Do you, in your role as CEO of the 49% shareholder, the West Coast Regional Council, and as a Director of Pest Control Research Ltd, feel you have a duty of care to these innocent people ?
I did a short followup story the other day, as I was sent photos of the Bromley warehouse taken on 17 April, 2020 which made it obvious that still nothing has been done about this building. Link here:
https://www.facebook.com/carol.sawyer.3511/posts/2639644032982573
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I wonder if all the Councillors are aware just how deadly this stuff is ?
Let’s just take the sodium monofluoroacetate (1080). This is the 100% pure form manufactured without resource consent at Bromley, (not the 0.15% contained in a 1080 bait):
Based on fatal or near-fatal cases of human poisonings, the dangerous dose (LD50) for humans is 0.5-2.0 mg per kg of bodyweight. (Negherbon 1959).
This means that just 35 mg can kill a 70 kg person. That means that ONE STANDARD (5 GM) TEASPOON OF PURE 1080 CAN KILL 70 x 70KG PEOPLE …..and make another 70 people very ill. (The LD50 is the dose required to kill 50% of people who ingest it. It doesn’t mean the other 50% get off scot free!)
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Anyway, I would be grateful if you could answer the above two questions about decontamination and duty of care and I am interested in your comments on the Bromley situation. My interest in this is that I am appalled that such a dangerously contaminated building, one that even fire officers are forbidden to enter, has sat there for nearly a year without the neighbours (immediate and otherwise) being informed of the dangers, and with no warning signage on the building at all.
Yours,
Carol Sawyer
Wanaka”
Toxicologist, Prof Ian Shaw, discusses the mysterious mis-diagnosis in botulism/1080 poisoning case
Thanks to the GrafBoys once again for their brilliant research & tireless work in exposing the dangers of 1080 poison. Visit their TV Wild website for more of their work. Particularly, a must watch is their award winning doco called Poisoning Paradise.
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Canterbury University toxicologist, Professor Ian Shaw, discusses the toxicity of 1080 poison, and also the mysterious mis-diagnosis of the three family members from Putaruru who were reportedly poisoned by botulism …
In 2013 DoC’s helicopter tours and catered lunches failed to quell Māori opposition to aerial 1080 so they dropped it anyway … will this happen to Iwi that protect the Raukumara Reserve?
I was sent recently a NZ Herald article about NZ’s Dept of Conservation (DoC) teaming up with Ngāti Porou to protect the Raukumara Forest Park:
“Iwi including Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Ehutu, Ngāi Tai, Whakatōhea and Te Aitanga-ā-Mahaki, and affiliated hapū, have occupied and continued to maintain mana whenua on all flanks of the ranges.
DoC, which administers the park, was working on a co-ordinated approach regarding its management.
The last large-scale possum control operation was 20 years ago involving aerial application of 1080 pesticide. The region was free of tuberculosis (TB), which was partly why there had been little 1080 focus. There had also been strong local opposition.”
On reading the article I was reminded of Reihana Robinson’s well researched book on 1080 use in NZ called ‘The Killing Nation’. In brief she describes what she terms DoC’s ‘take a Māori into the bush’ strategy outlined in a Landcare Research paper by Chrys Horn & Margaret Kilvington titled ‘Maori and 1080’. The paper investigates how to gain iwi ‘agreement’ to use 1080. It’s about ‘building trust’ they write as ‘research is, by itself, not sufficient to allay community & iwi concerns.’
They are clearly aware and acknowledge that ‘Iwi concerns are substantial’ citing ‘loss of native birds, poisoning of deer and dogs, the potential effect on water supplies and human health, and how poison disturbs spiritual principles.’
The authors, says Robinson, “focus on mind control. They don’t call it mind control. They use the term ‘perceived control’ and it is this underlying psychological construct that must be communicated to ‘help’ Maori communities adapt to change and adversity”. How to get agreement on the use of 1080? … don’t focus on the merits of 1080, convince them of the “merits of pest control or eradicating Tb”.
Robinson describes Horn & Kilvington’s ‘paternalistic clanger’ … “that ‘it is the element of choice that is important rather than the quality of the options’.” They proceed to cite examples where local iwi agreed to 1080 without public outcry … ie ‘how to sell poison to Maori communities’.
Horn & Kilvington then stoop to the ultimate tactic of LYING by claiming there IS an antidote to 1080 poisoning. Patently untrue says Robinson.
Yes we environmentalists know that there is no antidote to 1080. That’s not rocket science at all.
See page 10 of this government document from the MOH (2015) stating there is no antidote to 1080.
“At a time when communities are increasingly negative about the use of 1080, time and resources must be allowed for consultation processes” say Horn & Kilvington. They are concerned that DoC staff do not “recognise the difference between information and consultation”.
(Note, environmentalists who have attended these consultation meetings will concur that the people with genuine concerns are not heard and the meetings are steered by the person at the front to effectively exclude them & to achieve a predetermined desired outcome. This manipulative method is called the Delphi technique, a method used also by councils when they ‘consult’ with you, see below the article).*
Proceeding to the main point here … Robinson describes “the critical role of Urewera Maori within DoC disclosed in the Landcare paper”… “DoC tried to give ‘all the community groups involved a high level of perceived control over the possibility of aerial drops in the area’.
So DoC transported Maori into the Uruwera bush to show “damage caused by possums” and their effect on “birdlife”. DoC’s ‘take a Maori into the bush’ strategy did not work on Moehau in 2013.’ The lunches and the helicopter tours failed as described …
…then DoC went ahead & dropped the poison anyway.
Are you getting the gist now of DoC’s ‘consultation’ and what it really means?
I am going to add a pdf file here of this particular chapter of Robinson’s book so you can read it for yourself. (She did give me permission to quote and to reproduce the chapter for your perusal). Perhaps you may be interested to purchase her book to read the entire scope of concern environmentalists both Maori & Pakeha alike have about the use of this Class 1A Ecotoxin in NZ’s environment. And about how DoC ‘get around’ Māori opposition and the need to consult.
Here is a link to the pdf of the chapter by Reihana Robinson:
Reihana Robinson Maori and Business as Usual
Here is a link to the Herald article:
DoC teaming up with Ngāti Porou to save ‘dying’ Raukumara Forest Park
* How to politely disrupt the Delphi technique.
LG’s definition of consultation
“Consultation is a formal statutory process that occurs in response to a decision that has been taken (even if that decision is a draft decision).”
Kea likely killed by 1080 – DoC
From the Otago Daily Times
A Massey University post mortem has found six kea in the Matukituki Valley of the Aspiring National Park ”are likely” to have died from 1080 toxin.
The birds were among the 12 kea monitored by the Kea Conservation Trust after the Department of Conservation’s aerial 1080 predator control operation on February 11.
DOC threats director Amber Bill said in a statement today it was ”regretful” to lose any kea to 1080.
”But overall, aerial predator control is proven to benefit kea populations.
”It’s upsetting and disappointing to lose six kea but we are confident with effective control of rats and stoats we will significantly boost nesting success and the number of young birds entering the population.
”We are concerned the tracked kea may have learnt to eat human food around the tramping huts, making them more likely to try 1080 cereal bait.
”DOC’s extensive research of kea through aerial 1080 operations show the risk of 1080 to kea in remote areas is very low but increases markedly with birds that have learnt to scrounge for human food.”
Ms Bill said the Matukituki operation followed DOC’s best practice to mitigate risks to kea from 1080 and ensure they benefited from stoat control after last year’s extreme forest mast or seeding.
”We are constantly working to improve our risk mitigation standards for kea, which are informed by our ongoing research programme.
”In light of this incident, we will be investing more to explore potential additional measures that DOC can take to reduce the risk to kea in future 1080 predator control operations.”
Ms Bill said DOC was considering a campaign to discourage people from feeding kea and prevent kea from learning to scrounge.
“Kea are super smart and present unique conservation challenges.
”We need to continue to learn and assess all options to protect this national taonga from predators and other threats.”
Recent rodent monitoring results from the Matukituki showed rats had been reduced from damaging levels – present in 47% of tracking tunnels – to being undetectable – 0% of tracking tunnels -, following the 1080 operation.
Stoat monitoring was underway.
The Matukituki programme was designed to protect rock wren, kea and whio, as well as kākāriki, kākā, and South Island robin following a beech mast-fueled rat and stoat plague.
Ms Bill said DOC was monitoring whio and rock wren to track how these species were doing.
The dead birds were three adult males, one adult female, one juvenile male and one juvenile female.
SOURCE
Environmental Health Watch NZ 
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