Who will pay for culls of Canada geese if their numbers expand, has been the question asked by North Otago Federated Farmers high country spokesman Simon Williamson.
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson wants to move the birds from schedule 1 to schedule 5 of the Wildlife Act, to allow farmers, park owners and aviation managers to cull the geese themselves.
Mr Williamson feared farmers, particularly in the high country where the geese were a big problem, would be expected to pay the cost.
The Department of Conservation also needed to "come to the party" as it controlled much of the land the geese inhabited.
He believed the best option was to hit the birds hard in January during the moult.
In 1995, the South Island canada goose management plan was agreed that set the maximum population number at 20,350. The population has remained well above that level and, in 2008, was estimated to be 35,000.
