Landowners must control their own pests - ORC

Selva Selvarajah
Selva Selvarajah
Landowners are responsible for the control of pests on their properties, even in semi-rural properties where it can be more difficult, the Otago Regional Council says.

Rabbits were decimating vegetable and fruit gardens at Taieri Mouth, making it difficult to live sustainably, resident Sarah Jeffery told the council during a recent public forum.

Mrs Jeffrey said she and her late husband had gone to great lengths to make their lives sustainable in their retirement by planting a vegetable garden and fruit trees, and keeping hens and other small livestock.

However, those efforts had been hindered in recent years by rabbits, which ate all the vegetables except her broad beans.

Cr Stephen Woodhead said he and Mrs Jeffery had spoken about her rabbit problems in the past, and she had also spoken to the council's pest experts.

Resource management director Selva Selvarajah said rabbit numbers were high in semi-rural areas along Otago's coast, but the problem was worse in some Central Otago townships.

Landowners were responsible for controlling any pests on their land.

However, pest control on small landholdings in semi-rural areas could be difficult, because success depended on all landowners in the area undertaking control measures to the same level, he said.

"If people are not careful, numbers could increase steadily."

In such cases, installing a reasonably inexpensive rabbit-proof fence was often the answer, enabling landowners to perform effective control inside their property.

The regional council could perform spot inspections to check whether rabbit numbers were exceeding allowable levels under its pest management plan.

If they were, the landowner would be asked to remedy the situation, and if they failed to do so regional council contractors would do the job and send a bill to the landowner.

No such orders had been made in semi-rural areas so far, he said.

 

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement