NZ Predator free by 2050?

I would love to put traps in my backyard. The only problem was that when I suggested it my wife kept hitting me with a broom stick and suggesting I was only doing it to get rid of the cat.

national need to get their priorities straight and stop playing the feel good game over conservation, theres little to celebrate with what they have done with conservation in recent years. yes its good news to try and support this sort of technology, but its decades away and in the meantime most of what national have done around managing conservation has been bad news and they need to sort that out and stop accentuating the positive and minimising the negative

Someone's already made an OIA request to DOC for all advice provided on the policy, via the FYI website. https://fyi.org.nz/request/4307-advice-on-making-new-zealand-predator-free Anyone who wants to be updated with DOC's response, when it comes through, can click the Follow This Request link in the top right of that page.

I do see it as a good sign that the government is prepared to set this as a goal, and I do feel that aspirational goals are better than those easily achievable goals. We are well on the way to making offshore islands predator-free. That's a worthwhile and significant milestone. Getting the mainland predator-free will require some innovative thinking and answers we don't have yet. We may or may not get there, but some of those milestones along the way have value in themselves. There hasn't been much positive to see in recent years, so to me it's good to see this, whether it's a political ploy or not.

"I do see it as a good sign that the government is prepared to set this as a goal" Same here. I'm not confident that it's going to work with the existing funding plan (yay if it does), but I also don't envision that the current government's likely to be in power for the next 35 years. There's at least a chance that the predator-free goal *will* still be in place over that time, though. At the very least, this is an official acknowledgement of actually solving the problem and a start towards properly thinking about how, and at the very least finding real money for some of that thinking. There's now a stated intent of doing it, instead of flat-out denying that it's possible, and it's a new avenue for holding the government to account on what it's doing and its effectiveness. That's more than what there was before.

doc keep bringing forward the budget for the following year for dropping 1080 in mast years. so when we dont get mast years there may not be a budget for 1080.... maybe theres the focus on the islands because they are never going to put the money into the mainland that it needs to be continually sucessful. there needs to be an ongoing consistent effective plan with an adequate budget for pest control.

Fonterra looks as if it's supporting work on some interesting stuff: http://www.fonterra.com/wps/wcm/connect/Fonterra_NewZealand_en/Fonterra/Hub%20Sites/News%20and%20Media/Media%20Releases/PREDATOR-FREE%20NEW%20ZEALAND%20CRITICAL%20TO%20DAIRY%20INDUSTRY/PREDATOR-FREE%20NEW%20ZEALAND%20CRITICAL%20TO%20DAIRY%20INDUSTRY?pageID=Z6QReDeI1D46J576BD4MMCCP1E2JMG64BP0JM47PHD0JM46P1DE3S4C3BO86JLC63 "Research is also underway on lowering the height of predator fences to that of a standard 1.1m farm fence, which has huge potential to exclude rats, possums and stoats from farms and dairy production sites."

Y-e-a-h ?. They spent about 3 months last year, trying to catch an evasive stoat that got over a specialty predator fence at Otago's Orokonui Sanctuary. Saw the tracks & got camera shots of it, but couldn't get it. Reckon it got over in a big snow drop. Wiped out a population of Saddlebacks before a dog handler eventually got it. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/284520/stoat-hunt-continues-at-predator-proof-sanctuary If they can come up with a reasonable barrier fence, and drop the cost of doing it, it all adds up to 'Good'. Two other related stories on the link: - DoC spent $600,000 to rid Kapiti Island of 3 stoats. -'Spitfire' is a tunnel trap that sprays a poison on the belly of the stoat. Death after ingestion by grooming. Each trap can dispense 100 doses. ""Field trials will start ... with the help of a donation from the Gary Chisholm Family Trust."" ""Each year, 95% of kiwi chicks die in the wild, half of them killed by stoats. Last year stoats killed an estimated 10,000 kiwi chicks."" ""Researchers are also looking at versions of the Spitfire that will target other predators such as rats, ferrets and feral cats to protect other species besides kiwi.""

Various conservation expert reactions to the 2050 thing: http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2016/07/25/government-plan-for-a-predator-free-new-zealand-expert-reaction/

I understand that only one-sixth of the conservation estate is currently being attacked with any form of predator control programme at all, and this government has operated a sinking-lid funding policy on DOC since it was elected. Many endangered species scientists have either been made redundant, or given up in disgust. So to my mind, this apparent reversal is nothing more than a cynical ploy to placate anyone who cares about conservation, leading into next year's election. As with forcing our 11,000 dairy farmers to keep their cowshit out of our rivers; much is said, very little is delivered.