1080

The Department of Conservation will increase its 1080 coverage sevenfold this spring to fight an oncoming plague of rats, mice and stoats.

A 1080 poisoning programme may be needed in Otago's beech forests next year to protect endangered species from a potential pest plague, Doc says.

Anti-1080-poisoning graffiti is obvious, chalked on the riser surfaces of paved steps in Dunedin's Octagon.

A recent aerial 1080 operation in the Silver Peaks area has had several benefits - not only have rat and possum populations been knocked to zero but researchers have had a chance to study the impact of 1080 on the resident South Island robin population.

A disappointed Department of Conservation has reported the deaths of seven keas following a recent 1080 pest control operation on the West Coast that was designed to prevent the birds eating poison baits.

It is time for the Dunedin City Council to have a "grown-up conversation" with residents about whether 1080 should continue to be used on council-owned land, Cr Fliss Butcher says.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, is no friend of the establishment. She made herself unpopular with the Government in her vocal opposition to mining of the conservation estate; she has raised the red flag over Solid Energy's plans for lignite extraction; she opposed the former Labour-led government's policies on biofuels.

Numbers of the nationally endangered mohua in the Catlins are continuing to stabilise, more than a year on from a poisoning programme to reduce predators.

The future of aerial 1080 use in Dunedin needed to be "dispassionately" discussed, city councillor Fliss Butcher said yesterday.

It will be a sad day for the birds and bush of New Zealand if 1080 use is banned or severely restricted before a practical alternative is found.