Environment Southland (ES) proposes to encourage landowners to form neighbourhood groups to carry out possum-control work.
The local authority had signalled in its draft Long Term Council Community Plan it was keen to develop a possum control self-help programme.
ES biosecurity manager Richard Bowman said the authority had been the main controller of possums in the region because of its involvement in the Animal Health Board (AHB) bovine Tb eradication programme.
ES was contracted by the AHB to carry out the eradication work which covered 1 million hectares of land.
However, in June the contract with the AHB was set to expire and would not be renewed, Mr Bowman said.
The bovine Tb eradication programme, which was 90 per cent funded by the AHB, had run for several years, had been extremely successful and was now being scaled back, he said.
A recent survey carried out by ES revealed a residual trap catch of only 2 per cent, Mr Bowman said.
The challenge for the council and landowners now was to maintain low numbers of possums in the region, he said.
If possum numbers rose then there would also be a danger bovine Tb could also become a problem again, he said.
If the proposal was endorsed, ES would encourage landowners to form groups to carry out eradication work at key times and the local authority's role would be to co-ordinate those groups.
There might be a mechanism which would allow landowners to be reimbursed for some eradication costs. Those costs eligible for reimbursement could include items such as chemical bait. ‘‘So that's our aim,'' Mr Bowman said.
It might take several years to build up the programme, he said.
However, once the groups were set up and were operating, then they might also take on the control of
ferrets and stoats as well as possums, he said.
