This looks like an uncommon occurrence while still insisting the pay off is worth it to continue its use.
Here is a link to Newshub’s recent news announcement on topic at Youtube:
“The Department of Conservation has confirmed a number of kea were killed in a recent 1080 drop around Arthur’s Pass. The department says it’s awful, not good enough, and they want to do better.”
In ‘clean green’ NZ (not) of course our authorities can kill off 10,000 birds in one drop with 1080 poison (link below article), and believe it or not, they are ‘saving our birds’. EWR
From achnews.org
In Brussels and Florence, people began to express concern over the rising finds of dead newborn birds (tits) in their nests.
When these concerned people notified the bird conservation association Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen and the ecological gardening association Velt, they began a crowd-funded investigation. Over 1000 people sent in dead tits and nests, which were analyzed and a report was published with shocking results.
“We found a total of 36 different pesticides in 95 mesh nests,” Geert Gommers, a pesticide expert said in a statement.
The birds’ nests revealed traces of 36 different fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and biocides. The alarm came when they found traces of DDT, an insecticide banned since 1974, in 89 of the 95 nests examined.
“That DDT is still present in our environment after all this time is worrying,” the statement read.
READ MORE
(NOTE there is a link to the report in the article however the report is not in English, you may have to use google translate):
Do not feed the Kea the sign above advises. Ironic isn’t it? They’ve been fed 1080 unfortunately by the very corporation which purports to protect them. We know 1080 kills every breathing organism (according to Dr Meriel Watts) so what else can we expect? Ten thousand birds in one drop a Landcare scientist has calculated for one of DoC’s drops. This is so not rocket science & yet here we have another sad testimony of the increasingly silent forests. This one is from Carol Sawyer.
HOLLYFORD VALLEY, FIORDLAND NATIONAL PARK, DEVASTATING AERIAL 1080 POISON DROP, OCTOBER 2017 – 18 MONTHS LATER, STILL DISASTROUS RESULTS – NO RECOVERY !
By Carol Sawyer
Yesterday I visited the Hollyford Valley in Fiordland. What a silent place, apart from the cicadas and the tourist traffic. This road is dangerously busy. One rental car passed me on a double yellow line…this is standard.
All of the fantails have gone from around Gunn’s Camp at Hollyford Valley, Fiordland, NZ Photo: Te Ara
A recent survey found this narrow winding road has, on average, 150 buses and 1200 cars on it every day. Knob’s Flat is about to have a $30 million lodge put in by the Milford Development Co, so the influx is going to be even greater.
The toilets are so disgusting that I was told yesterday that some bus tour drivers stop and let their passengers toilet in the forest so they don’t have to deal with the assault on their senses. ( Attached is a photo Shane Wilson took of the toilets at The Divide, on the Hollyford Road, about a year ago. I was going to take a photo myself yesterday but the stench the minute I opened the door truly had me reeling backwards, so I didn’t. )
The 1080 drop in the Lower and Upper Hollyford Valleys in Fiordland, 5-6 October, 2017 has been an unmitigated disaster ! The area had never been 1080 poisoned before.
Read on….
RATS :
For many years, there has been a volunteer trapping programme in place around Gunn’s Camp on the Hollyford Road. Ninety-eight traps are set along approximately 20 kms of the Hollyford Road, back into the bush a bit, from Marian Corner to Humboldt Creek and for a couple of kilometres beyond the end of the road.
These traps are set approximately 200 metres apart, and they are cleared every three weeks, weather permitting. For years, these traps averaged a total of 6 to 12 rats every three weeks, all up.
After the 1080 drop, the next couple of trap clearances yielded very little. This is what one would expect immediately after an aerial 1080 drop.
Five months later, March 2018, the traps were cleared and contained 32 rats. Interestingly, some of the traps had two rats in them, which is apparently unusual.
The following weekend the tally was 24 rats. That equates to 54 rats in a period of 6 weeks, whereas prior to the drop one could have expected, at the most, 12 to 24 rats to be caught in that time.
Rats had NEVER been caught here in these numbers before !
Things have not improved. The latest trap clearance, February, 2019, yielded 19 rats and 7 stoats !!
( These results come from inside the Dept of Conservation itself, but I doubt that they would have seen the light of day if they were not exposed here ! DoC need to understand that not all their employees agree with their poisoning ways.)
BIRDS :
Kaka almost wiped out in Hollyford Valley, Photo: Birding NZ
Gunn’s camp in the Hollyford was a Kaka haven. Twenty to forty Kaka were regularly seen there, and as many as fifty were counted on one occasion.
Moreporks ( Ruru ) abounded. One Morepork used to sit behind a generator shed there, and when the generator was turned off every night it then became very vocal. It was a loved ‘character’ of this special place.
All Kaka disappeared after the drop. Eighteen months later up to 3 Kaka have been seen and a Morepork was heard in the distance one night a while ago, according to regulars ( The “generator” Morepork was obviously killed by the poison. ) Fantails are gone.
I guess the DoC poisoners will be back again this year, for their biennial onslaught
COMMENT AT FACEBOOK ON THIS ARTICLE:
“Yes try finding birdlife in the Lindus Pass now days, it’s pretty much NON existent”
If you’ve noticed the same anywhere in NZ, please add your comments to our ‘Silent Forests’ page. Just let me know if you want anonymity or if I can add your name. Thank you.
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Photos at Hollyford Valley, Fiordland, NZ (Carol Sawyer)
NOTE: For further articles on 1080 use categories at left of the news page.
If you are new to the 1080 poisoning program, a must watch is Poisoning Paradise, the doco made by the GrafBoys (banned from screening on NZ TV, yet a 4x international award winner). Their website is tv-wild.com. Their doco is a very comprehensive overview with the independent science to illustrate the question marks that remain over the use of this poison. There are links also on our 1080 resources page to most of the groups, pages, sites etc that will provide you with further information to make your own informed decision on this matter.
NOTE: For further articles on 1080 use categories at left of the news page.
If you are new to the 1080 poisoning program, a must watch is Poisoning Paradise, the other longer doco also made by the GrafBoys (banned from screening on NZ TV, yet a 4x international award winner). Their website is tv-wild.com. Their doco is a very comprehensive overview with the independent science to illustrate the question marks that remain over the use of this poison. There are links also on our 1080 resources page to most of the groups, pages, sites etc that will provide you with further information to make your own informed decision on this matter.
If you are pro poisoning of the environment, EnvirowatchRangitikei is not the place to espouse your opinions. Mainstream would be the place to air those. This is a venue for sharing the independent science you won’t of course find there.
Finally we don’t endorse violence in any way shape or form.
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Whilst your comments are welcome, I reserve this venue for comments & discussion around the independent research that mainstream is not presenting. I’m not interested in & do not have the time for long discussions around mainstream vs independent or ‘he said, she said’ scenarios. My reasoning is clearly spelled out in the introductory pages. You are welcome to take or leave the info presented here, and if you are strongly against it the best place for discussing your ideas would be mainstream. Thank you for reading.
A pest worker who worked for a New Zealand local council Environment Waikato for two years, has damned 1080 poison as cruel and destructive of bird life.
Graeme Merekara Shelford, now resident in Australia, said he had a mixture of sadness and anger over the inhumane nature of the poison and that contrary to the claims of government departments and councils using the toxin, it was killing the vast numbers of bird life.
“Numerous times I was told 1080 doesn’t kill anything but possums. I was just ignorant of the damage because of what I was told, but I learned firsthand that is just not true,” he said.
The poison is used by government agencies and local councils to kill predators supposedly annihilating native birds but was killing birds themselves and insects, food for insectivorous birds such as robins and fantails.
Graeme Shelford was involved in trapping, using 1080 and also aerial drops of the poison, which often involved visiting farmers’ properties to talk to landowners before using 1080. His boss was frequently involved in arguments with farmers.
“The farmers looked at us as if we were taking their farms. They didn’t want the toxic stuff. Many of them knew how nasty 1080 is.”
For further info on 1080 visit our 1080 pages (main menu) which include a complete list of resources and links. For other 1080 articles use ‘categories’ at the top left of the news page. If you’re new to the issue a must watch is Poisoning Paradise (links at our pages) a four times international award winning doco by NZ’s GrafBoys that is banned from screening in NZ. Visit their own website called tv-wild.com. They also have a channel on Youtube by the same name or search ‘GrafBoys’.
With regard to Grant Vincent’s comments on the benefits of 1080 poison. As a logging contractor and bushman for the past 35 years, I have seen my fair share of 1080 poison drops. Every year parts of the forest estate where I worked were systematically poisoned every three years.
In my experience this creates very low bird numbers, especially predatory birds like the falcon, morepork, weka and hawk. All these birds I have found poisoned after a 1080 poison drop.
1080 poison was first developed as an insecticide, so what effect does this have on the forest ecosystem as a whole? And then there’s the effect on poisoning our waterways which run down to our coastline.
New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, TBfree and many regional councils backed by Forest and Bird support the aerial use of 1080 poison which indiscriminately kills all creatures that breathe oxygen through a slow, painful death that can take some animals days.
Then there is the crusade to have New Zealand pest-free by 2050, which includes deer and pigs. If you hunt wild game to feed your family, as most of my workers do, be concerned as this will affect you!
As I have always said to people who ask me about the effects of 1080 poison — go into a forest which has been poisoned by 1080 and see for yourself. Listen if you can hear any birds, and you will notice the smell of death.
For further independent science & info on 1080 see our 1080 pages at the main menu. You won’t find that info in mainstream media. Also search 1080 in categories at left of news page.
Environmental Health Watch NZ 
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