A dangerous move which must be countered

Forest and Bird, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1 August 1982, Page 6

A dangerous move which must be countered

National Conservation Officer

—David G. Collingwood,

AN ATTEMPT to change the National Parks Act to suit the aspirations of deerstalkers and hunters is being made by means of a private member’s Bill. This was announced by a prominent member of Parliament, and it is aimed at halting the removal of wapiti from Fiordland National Park, which is the policy of the National Parks Authority, the Fiordland Park Board, the Wildlife Service, the Minister of Lands and Forests, and of the Society. Further, the private Bill will seek to set up a defined wapiti reserve in the Stuart and Murchison Mountains area of Fiordland National Park where wapiti hunting can take place without the constraints of the Act and to the detriment of the resident takahe. Since its foundation the Society has recognised the damage to vegetation caused

by deer generally and in particular by the wapiti. The Society has documentary evidence of this damage in spite of erroneous arguments to the contrary being used today to allay public concern. Deer and Resulting Devastation in New Zealand, by Roy Nelson, sets the matter straight with evidence from authorities of the past and the present. This evidence 1s incontrovertible and should be heeded by all. Copies of this booklet should be available from branches, but if they are not, head office can supply them for $1 each. The pert 18 -extreme, 4s many members of Parliament are sympathetic to the deerstalking cause, and unless you make your local member of Parliament aware of the real dangers, there is every chance that the Bill will be passed. This would mean that: e The Bill would put all

national parks at risk, areas could be withdrawn at will just to provide hunting reserves for this sporting minority, and the practice of protecting these imported animals in the national parks with all their damage to the natural forests would continue. ¢ The Bill would put at risk the unique Notornis (takahe), one of New Zealand’s most endangered ground walking birds, which occupies the same area as the wapiti and is diminishing as a result of competition for food by the wapiti. This area must be cleared of wapiti, as the Government is now doing, and not made a _ special wapiti hunting area. Please write to, or contact, your member of Parliament and make your views known on behalf of the Society.