Recreational Hunters Fall to Control Deer Numbers

Forest and Bird, Issue 306, 1 November 2002, Page 13

Recreational Hunters Fall to Control Deer Numbers

, Forest and Bird

biodiversity officer.

— GEOFF KEEY

he results of a deercontrol trial in the Kaweka Ranges of Hawkes Bay show the efforts of recreational deer hunters are insufficient to control deer numbers. The Kaweka Ranges are a stark reminder of the damage deer can do. Higher altitude beech forests between 1000 and 1500 metres in the Kaweka Forest Park are failing to regenerate. The Department of Conservation considers the situation has reached a critical state across 10 percent of the mountain beech forest. Much of the rest of the forest is in decline. Sika deer have replaced most of the red deer in the Kaweka Ranges as they can survive even in the degraded environment caused by heavy deer browsing. Sika deer eat seedlings of mountain beech preventing regeneration. Forest is changing to grasslands, unpalatable shrublands and fields of fern. The Kaweka mountain beech/deer trial had its origins in 1997 when the then Conservation Minister, Hon. Nick Smith, decided that DoC

would use aerial culling to control burgeoning deer populations in the Kaweka Ranges. The New Zealand Deerstalkers Association counter-argued that deerstalkers could control deer over 580 square kilometres of Kaweka Forest Park. Consequently, a trial was set up pitting recreational efforts against aerial control. After four years, results are now becoming clear. Recreational hunters have fallen well short of the NZDA’s target of 3500 deer a year. Vegetation monitoring shows that deerstalkers’ efforts have a minimal effect on regeneration. In contrast to the negligible effect of recreational control, aerial control is making a difference. DoC’s aerial control programme has reduced deer numbers by 61 percent. This has already significantly improved seedling growth rates although only time will tell if it is enough to allow the forests to recover.