Mt plant threatened

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 245, 8 June 1988, Page 3

Mt plant threatened

By

susannah

Walker

Mistletoe on Mt Ruapehu is in danger of being wiped out by opossums. The Whakapapa subdistrict Senior Conservation Officer Mr Roy Grose says the mistletoe could survive if adequate steps were taken. "But it's anyone's guess which way it will go." The problem of opossums feeding on mistletoe is centred on a zone of beech vegetation stretching around the mountain at an altitude of about 800 to 1200 metres. The opossum population there has increased in the last decade and though not very high yet, has very few palatable plant species available to it, says Mr Grose. Opossums also feed on the seasonal fivefinger shrub but this grows in large quantities, unlike mistletoe which is "browsed" by

usually grows in tree forks at a height of 15 to 20 feet. Feeding prevents mistletoe from carrying out photosynthesis, so it dies. "And if mistletoe goes, there's very little chance it'll come back again," Mr Grose says. "It's another plant we're losing out of a diverse range and it just happens to be a pretty plant, so people get emotional about it." But when it comes to solving the problem, Mr Grose says, it's a "catch-22 situation." There are not enough opossums in the zone to warrant spending a lot of money on large scale aerial poisoning. And, in any case, unexpected events such as Cyclone Bola actually do more damage, says Mr Grose. Turnpage 12

Mt plant threatened

From page 3 He says the Department of Conservation encourages commercial trappers, but the opossum population is

often too low to attract them in the Whakapapa area even though the quality of skins is good. Department staff cannot get to the opossums in the bush, but regularly trap them around Whakapapa village. He says the department is trying to protect the mistletoe by putting aluminium bands, similar to those used on telegraph poles, around the base of trees. This has had limited success, because opossums can still jump from one tree to the next. "All we're really doing is controlling the opossums along the tracks," says Mr Grose. "We've really got our hands tied because we'll never get rid of them. We can only control them to acceptable numbers."