There are plague numbers of ungulates and other pests wandering across boundaries between land owned by Doc, farmers, forestry firms and iwi, eating out and trampling both the native forest floor and crops.
The calls are made as a community-led, ten-year strategic pest management plan is being prepared with $55,000 funding from Otago Regional Council.
Department of Conservation wild animals manager Mike Perry, who oversees nationwide control of ungulates - deer, pigs and goats - said browsing animals in the Catlins were "pushing the forest towards a different base line".
Although Doc does some pest management, including control of rats, stoats and possums in the Beresford Range, the department’s limited budget did not extend to ungulate control in the Catlins due to priorities elsewhere.
Farmers Rachel and Craig Napier said it was challenging to hunt deer and pigs off their land.
Deer could "make the hop, skip and a jump back into the forest," Mrs Napier said.
"They damage crops and fences."
Pigs were a "huge problem," said Mr Napier, who had shot a 250-pound pig on his farm.
The current pest management by Doc was "not working" because it only targeted a limited pest range in some areas, he said.
Forestry block manager Josh Cairns, who was in charge of Catlins forestry for a company owned by furniture giant Ikea, said he used shooters up to four nights a week to prevent damage to trees and deer that most often come out of Doc land.
The charity Forest & Bird owns the Lenz reserve in the Catlins, which also suffers from pest invasion and its regional conservation manager Nicky Snoyink said New Zealand had to invest in pest control "to reduce the damaging effects".
The Catlins plan, due in June and called the Invasive Mammal Plan, was one of the actions to come out of a Catlins Catchment Action Plan and will identify priority pests and areas to target.
However, its scope does not include pest control methodologies, nor is there identified funding for any.
The plan is also restricted to the 200,000ha northern half of the Catlins within ORC jurisdiction - the southern half falls under Environment Southland.
The preparation of the plan has been contracted to iwi-owned Catlins Pest Management.
Its co-director Vincent Leith expressed the urgency of the pest problem and the need for strategic planning to be followed by funding for landscape-scale, long-term, effective pest management.
"Pests don’t understand weekends, boundaries or fragmented pest management.
"As a business owner and Ngai Tahu, our values and aspirations will never be met at this rate."
He had shot five pigs "just on the way home" recently.
He had a dream that impactful pest control would eventually lead to numbers being so low that it would be worth the cost to construct a fence around the entire Catlins that could reduce the rate of reinvasion of deer and possums.
Both Doc and ORC are providing support for preparation of the plan, which includes use of technical data about forest damage and information obtained from a survey of locals’ views, now closed.
Mr Leith said consultation was important because of the multiple landowners, which made pest control challenges "vastly different" to other areas such as Doc-managed Fiordland.
ORC manager for environmental implementation Libby Caldwell said many of the native fauna, flora and funghi of the Catlins were "threatened."
"These ecosystems are in a fragile state."
The council was "supportive of the community setting goals and working towards management and eradication of pests across Otago", she said.
The dream of a fence after extensive pest control would require "long-term planning commitment and a source of continuous funding".
Environment Southland’s land sustainability manager Simon Stokes pointed to Doc’s responsibility, under the Wildlife Act, for managing deer and pigs.
There was a "shared responsibility for pest management across the region, while ensuring that statutory agencies manage the areas and species they are responsible for".
