Possums should be treated as a ‘resource’ — West Coast Conservation Board member

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

A South Westland member of the West Coast Conservation Board says possums should be treated as a "resource" with a financial incentive to entice hunters to help contain numbers of the pest.

At the West Coast Conservation Board in Karamea during a discussion about the Department of Conservation's national predator management programme, board chairperson Dr Mike Legge of Charleston noted the effectiveness of aerial 1080 poison in the management of possums.

"It is the most effective poison - animals die quickly. In the last two to three years I haven't seen one possum roadkill," Legge said.

Ngāi Tahu board member Rob Wilson, a Harihari dairy farmer, said it was a shame that culled possums were going to waste.

"When they were under control down our way was when there was a financial incentive [for trapping]," Wilson said.

Prior to the current method of using 1080, commercial operations "which didn't cost the taxpayer," were a way of benefiting the local economy while controlling the spread of possums.

"I see it as a resource. There's a resource that is going to waste that maybe we can utilise," Wilson said.

Recovery of possum skins and fur has been a longstanding practice on the West Coast, with the 'wool' highly sought after for a variety of uses including blending with other materials to make warm clothing.

DOC Western South Island operations director Mark Davies said the control of possums was "a very complex matter".

"We'd all like to see the commercial industry reintstated."

However, the department also had to balance other competing interests in dealing with pest species, including the farmed venison sector which did not want to see DOC "subsidise" the commercial recovery of feral deer.

Davies said the current approach to control was eventually to totally eradicate.

"The vision is Predator Free 2050... but we haven't got a silver bullet yet."

*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air