ORC working on wallaby control

The Otago Regional Council is already taking steps to follow up a recent hard-hitting report on the need to counter the growing threat of wallaby incursions from South Canterbury.

Councillors voted last month to receive the staff report, which highlighted the incursions, including via the Hawkdun Range.

And councillors approved the report's recommendation a ''comprehensive proactive wallaby incursion response, control and surveillance strategy, including funding implications and communications plan'', be drafted for council consideration.

The report highlighted rising numbers of wallaby sightings in Otago and said the threat could be countered through a structured programme that complemented Environment Canterbury's eradication programme, for wallabies outside the containment zone, south of the Waitaki River.

ORC environmental monitoring and operations director Jeff Donaldson said yesterday initial work had begun to prepare the draft incursion response and strategy, which would be presented to the council before the financial year closed at the end of June.

At the meeting, ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead emphasised the importance of countering the wallaby incursions.

Rabbits had already caused extensive damage, and it was vital for future generations money be spent soon to check what could be a huge long-term burden, if wallabies established themselves permanently in Otago, he said.

Mr Donaldson said wallabies could already be found in a 300,000ha area administered by Environment Canterbury (ECan).

He would meet ECan officials in Timaru this month in order to understand what the northern authority had learned from its control programme, and which control tools ''work best''.

It was also ''crucial for us to make sure'' that ORC control efforts were synchronised with the ECan control programme, to achieve best overall results, he said.

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