Plateau possum control could help kiwi, misteltoe and bats

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 599, 15 August 1995, Page 15

Plateau possum control could help kiwi, misteltoe and bats

Kiwis under threat in Tongariro Forest could benefit from additional possum control operations announced last week by Conservation Minister Denis Marshall. Mr Marshall said there would be six additional wild animal control projects for the Tongariro-Taupo region. Possums are also to come under attack in the Waimarino Forest owned by Winstone Pulp International, where Manawatu Wanganui Regional Council are to spread 1080 pellets over more than 1600 hectares in the pine forest. Tongariro-Taupo regional conservator Paul Green said the additional funding involved approval of a possum control operation in the Taurewa Ecological area, part of Tongariro Forest, an area which contained an important of North Island brown kiwi. Other possum control operations in the area would focus on the regeneration of native mistletoe in the Clements Rd area of Kaimanawa Forest Park. As well, short-tailed bats residing in the beech, podocarp and hardwood forest at Rotokura Lakes in Rangataua Forest near Ohakune would get a helping hand. The additional possum control would

also help to enhance the protection of Pittosporum turneri in the Erua Forest sanctuary. Goat control operations included the Mangamingi Ecological Area and Erua Forest, an area where possums would be controlled over the 1995 winter period. Goats would also be targeted in the Waiotaka Wetland at the southem end of Lake Taupo, which faced a constant reinvasion of goats from neighbouring private land. Mr Green said that criteria used for animal control funding included support for threatened species projects where possums and goats posed a threat, and undertaking goat control operations where possum control had already been carried out. Mr Marshall said these gains for conservation were part of the additional $5 million for possum funding granted to conservation in the 1995 Budget. The possum funding included a transfer of $2 million from Taskforce Green. Allocation of this money to individual regions has been done on the basis of a bidding round by conservancies throughout the country , co-ordinated through DoC' s head office in Wellington.