Jeff Donaldson
Government agencies will be required to control pests
such as wilding pines and rabbits on their land, the Government
announced yesterday.
Previously government departments such as Conservation and
Land Information New Zealand were exempt from regional pest
management strategies, but now will be obligated like any
other land owner.
Jeff Donaldson, the group manager of the Otago Regional
Council-owned Regional Services, said the Department of
Conservation (Doc) and Land Information New Zealand (Linz)
had been supportive of pest control work in Otago.
Yesterday's decision by Biosecurity Minister David Carter is
one of two included in Maf Biosecurity New Zealand's Pest
Management Plan of Action document.
Other aspects of the plan are open for public discussion.
The plan could have major implications for inland parts of
the South Island where Linz and Doc manage large areas of
land prone to wilding pine and rabbit infestation.
Mr Donaldson said the altitude of land added to the
Doc-estate through tenure review of Crown-owned pastoral
leases was generally not rabbit-prone, but Doc usually
participated in rabbit-control operations where conservation
land bordered private land if they had sufficient notice to
secure funding.
Linz had also helped with control of lagarosiphon in Lakes
Wanaka and Dunstan.
However, Mr Donaldson said, the departments would be asked to
co-operate in future control of the wilding tree, Pinus
contorta, once control operations started.
The pest management plan of action document said Doc and Linz
voluntarily contributed $4.2 million a year nationally to
control pests.
Biosecurity minister David Carter said the total cost of
preventing pests from arriving in the country and managing
them once they were here was $719 million, while pests cost
the country a further $1.15 billion in lost production.
Exempting government agencies caused tension with regional
councils and landowners, the document said, weakening
regional pest management.
The Department of Conservation's Otago Conservancy was not
able to comment yesterday.
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.