The council early this year notified the strategy, which will put tighter controls on rabbit numbers, reducing the allowable number to level 3 from level 4 on the MacLean scale.
The Maniototo Pest Management Company has sought that its properties be excluded from the strategy or if not, that the strategy be modified to allow a higher level of rabbit population on its properties.
After mediation the company and the regional council agreed to two main changes in the strategy, providing clarity and a proviso to the requirement that properties above a modified MacLean 3 should achieve compliance by 2012, allowing for a council approved extension.
Environment judge Jeff Smith said the key elements of the strategy, as adopted by the regional council, still applied, in particular the requirement of properties to reach MacLean scale 3.
Regional council policy and resource planning director Fraser McRae said the change clarified what was in the pest management strategy, what it meant and how it would be achieved.
The implication of the changes was that no council-required control would be needed until properties hit MacLean 4.
Landowners would be required to use appropriate techniques to control rabbit numbers not just do the minimum, he said.
The council was still in discussion with the other company to appeal the strategy, Contact Energy. It had concerns about lagarosiphon control in Lake Dunstan. Implementation of the strategy was on hold until the appeals were worked through, Mr McRae said.
