Auckland Regional Council: Draft Regional Pest Management Strategy

9th February 2007

NZDA requests to be heard in support of this submission. It presents material not previously put to the ARC.

Summary: NZDA Concerns with the ARC’s RPMS: NZDA believes the RPMS is deficient in the following:

1. Need for Pest status for Deer or Pigs not proven: The ARC has not provided evidence that deer or pigs are at such numbers that they constitute a threat to native biodiversity values anywhere in the ARC region. NZDA’s understanding is that deer numbers are very low throughout the region, probably outside the Woodhill Forest herd, less than 1000 animals, if that. Wild pig numbers are also low, from NZDA’s understanding.

2. RPMS discriminatory against recreational hunters: The significant number of recreational hunters are discriminated against by these two ARC pest policies, in spite of their harvesting activities being long-standing. For wild pigs, they go back to Captain Cook’s voyages, with their introduction being as a food source for the population. Deer herds in the Auckland region go back to the 1870s.

Though there is a small acknowledgement (Objective d) page 123) that “alternative areas for pig hunting” will be identified, the tone of the RPMS makes NZDA concerned that nothing will happen, and the ARC is simply paying lip service to the concept. Such areas in any case, should be in the ARC area, aimed at minimising travel costs by the pig-hunting community, and have long term security on public land.

3. ARC should recognise and provide for deer and wild pig recreational hunting on public land in the Auckland Region: There is a recognised need for such recreational activity on public land. The ARC should be providing it, not trying to wipe it out.

4. Survey research [W. Fraser, 2001] shows the public does not see wild deer and pigs as pests but appreciates encounters with them. Animals more damaging to native species such as carnivores (wild cats, ferrets, stoats, possums etc) are viewed as pests however.

5. Protection for the Awhitu Peninsula (South Manukau Head Peninsula) Fallow deer herd: This is a small but appreciated herd, on primarily private land. NZDA asks that it be recognised, and protected.

6. Some need for browse of native vegetation: New Zealanders have forgotten that, until probably 400 years ago, large populations of vegetarian moas roamed New Zealand, eating native vegetation. This may sound outlandish to present day Aucklanders, who have only seen moas in museums. But their demise is so recent evolutionarily, that native ecosystems are un-natural without this browsing. We are now aware from recent scientific research, and understanding of tectonic plate movements and better dating procedures, they have evolved for 80 million years, since New Zealand split from continental Gondwana.

More detailed comments supporting these concerns follows:

1. NZDA Opposes deer and wild pigs being designated “pests”:

The parts of the Auckland RPMS that NZDA wishes to comment on are the sections 11.3.6 Feral deer species and 11.3.8 Feral pig. NZDA strongly opposes the ARC’s designation of both feral deer and feral pig as animal pest species. We ask the ARC to remove that designation, except in areas where vegetation surveys show significant adverse impact on vegetation by deer or feral pigs in an area.

NZDA has made previous submissions to the ARC in December 2005 and March 2006, setting out the recreational and food value of wild deer and feral pigs to the significant sized sub-populations of the ARC region that go hunting for deer and feral pigs. I enclose our submission of 5 March 2006 on the ARC’s RPMS Discussion Document.

NZDA asks that this previous submission be treated as part of this submission in its entirety. It sets out NZDA’s concerns and philosophy in detail, and shows why deer and wild pigs are not pests, but a valued introduced species in the Auckland region, and in New Zealand. The same arguments equally apply to feral pigs.

It appears that the ARC has completely ignored that previous well reasoned submission. NZDA is disturbed that the ARC has done this. It identifies that the ARC appears to have made up its mind in advance on its course of action, and that the consultation is not a true consultation.

2. Significant number of Aucklanders are recreational hunters, or wild deer/pigs harvesters:

Recreational hunting and harvesting of deer and feral pigs for the table are carried out by a significant number of citizens in the ARC region. Their needs should also be considered by ARC, and planned for. It appears they have not been, and that ARC considers them an underclass irrelevant for consideration. NZDA disagrees. The ARC has obligations to all its citizens to provide for their sustenance and wellbeing eg under the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act, and recreationally, within its magnificent Regional Parks system.

As set out in our previous submission, there are three NZDA branches with a direct interest in big game animals in the ARC region. These are: Auckland Branch, North Auckland Branch (Silverdale), and South Auckland Branch (Waiuku)

Their total membership is 650, and growing. There are an estimated additional 5,500 residents in the Auckland region that also go deerstalking or pig hunting from time to time. Nationally, there are an estimated 55,000 deerstalkers and big game hunters.

3. Deer numbers now low in New Zealand:

The national deer herd crashed from an estimated 2.5 million in the mid-1960s, to around 250,000 by the mid 1970s [Nugent G, Fraser K W; 1993; “Pest or Valued resource: Conflicts in Game Management” NZ J of Zoology 20, p. 361-366]

The Nugent-Fraser research showed that, since the mid 1970s the national Red deer herd has been at a stable level of around 250,000 wild deer, primarily on public conservation land.

Deer have been at low densities nationally (0-5 deer per sq km in most locations) since the early 1970s. The annual natural increase, between the mid 1970s and 1988, estimated at 80,000/year, was harvested by a combination of recreational deerstalking (55,000 animals/year) and helicopter carcass and live animal recovery (20,000 to 30,000).

At these densities, deer browse in most native environments is hardly noticeable, even on preferred palatable species. This has meant deer browsing over much of the public conservation estate and private land, has not been a problem for the last 30 years in most parts of New Zealand. In any case, deer on the forest fringes of conservation land prefer to eat grasses along the margin, or hop the fence to the farmed crops beyond. There is no evidence of a “deer menace” out there as the ARC seems erroneously to think.

4. Significant size of the recreational and commercial hunting community:

Nugent’s 1989 research [Nugent G (1989) “Hunting in New Zealand in 1988 - Survey Results” Forest Research Institute Report for Deer industry stakeholders (NZDA, Game Industry Board, Mair Foods Ltd, Taimex Trading Co, NZ Acclimatisation Societies)]; was ground breaking.

It is the only research so far to analyse the major contribution of recreational and commercial hunting and their impact on managing wild animal populations. This in itself is an indictment on the one-track perceptions of past and current Crown managers of the wild animal resource – NZ Forest Service, and DOC.

It gives estimates of the number of hunters, total days hunted, and animals taken for 1988, based on a survey of firearms licence holders. It received 4,662 returns. A summary of Table 5 of his Report for hunters active in 1988, is presented as Table 1 below. The Table is divided into big game hunters and small game hunters, two broadly different groups.

Table 1: Recreational Hunters, Effort and Take (1988 Survey)
From [Nugent G, 1989], Table 5

Species	Number of Hunters	Percent of Population	Total Days Hunted	Average Days Hunted	Animals Taken	Animals per Day	Annual Bag per Hunter
All Deer	29,739	0.92	391,713	13.2	52,481	0.13	1.8
Wild Pigs	20,506	0.62	303,738	14.8	101,653	0.33	5.0
Wild Goats	10,253	0.31	66,151	6.5	87,677	1.33	8.6
Chamois	2291	0.07	10,839	4.7	1,794	0.17	0.8
Tahr	953	0.03	3,848	4.0	782	0.20	0.8
All Big Game	42,174	1.27	776,288	18.4	240,454	0.31	5.7

Table 1 shows the very significant effort nationally put into deer and wild pig harvesting – 30,000 deerstalkers and 20,000 pig hunters New Zealand-wide. The ARC region has its share of such people. It also shows the significant hunting effort that hunters put in – 390,000 days/year for deerstalkers, and 300,000 days/year for pig hunters. As well, it gives the animals harvested annually – 52,000 deer, and 100,000 wild pigs. To argue that recreational harvesting is ineffective, as this RPMS does, is not supported by this survey.

The ARC, as discussed in NZDA’s previous submission, should be providing for the significant number of recreational hunters in the ARC region. This is especially true as New Zealand and the world faces up to the need to halt climate change by reducing our carbon footprint. Having recreational harvesting opportunities for the population nearby reduces the need for travelling large distances to the central and eastern North Island, or the South Island to harvest wild game.

5. No deer or wild pig resource on public land in the ARC Region:

There needs to be more areas where deer are recognised and available to hunt on public land. At present there are none on public land. The only recreational hunting deer herd is the Woodhill herd, managed in the privately owned northern third of the Woodhill Pine Forest, now owned by the foreign Hancock Forests investment company (previously owned by the Carter Holt Harvey company).

While NZDA is pleased the RPMS gives some recognition to the Woodhill Fallow herd, we point out its long term future is not guaranteed, as nothing can on private land managed primarily as a production forest.

6. New Information on the evolution of New Zealand species:

6.1 Some need for browse of native vegetation:

New Zealanders have forgotten that, until probably 400 years ago, large populations of vegetarian moas roamed New Zealand, eating native vegetation. This may sound outlandish to present day Aucklanders, who have only seen moas in museums. But their demise is so recent evolutionarily, that native ecosystems are un-natural without this browsing. We are now aware from recent scientific research, and understanding of tectonic plate movements and better dating procedures, they have evolved for 80 million years, since New Zealand split from continental Gondwana.

Botanists current ideas that native species are unbrowsed are un-natural. Such a situation has only occurred in the last 400 years or so, since man wiped out the moas.

6.2 New Information on New Zealand Biogeography:

A recent book highlighting this is noted entomologist George Gibbs’s ground-breaking recent book “Ghosts of Gondwana” (Craig Potton Publishing, 2006). Truth is truly stranger than fiction. See for example, his Chapter 17, Ghosts of the bush: Shrubs versus the Moa, pages 161-6. He discusses the large number of native species that developed juvenile forms to combat browsing moas.

There could well have been 8 million moas, some up to 250 Kg browsing New Zealand vegetation. There were enough of them to support the carnivorous giant Haast eagle, now extinct.

The book also discusses that, 20,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, there were no large areas of native forest south of where Hamilton is today. This situation would be mind boggling to present day preservationists, who believe the myth that New Zealand’s plants are very fragile and vulnerable.

Remember too that between 28 million and 22 million years ago, New Zealand was almost wholly under water. Yet many plants from the Gondwana era survived. Some did not though, including species of beech, and eucalyptus species.

It would seem the opposite of this myth is the truth. New Zealand species are very robust survivors. ARC should move with the rapidly changing research knowledge that is now emerging in popular readable treatises such as George Gibbs’s, and get past the previous preservationist myths that have clouded the reality of New Zealand plant species’ evolution.

7. Deer and feral pigs are valued introduced species: It can be seen from the significant number of big game hunters (50,000 active in 1988) that big game hunting and deerstalking are important parts of New Zealand life, especially in the rural communities, and also in the cities. The large number of books dating back over 50 years, and the four current regular hunting magazines attest to this.

7.1 Research shows Public values wild big game animals highly: There is a valuable piece of independent research that confirms this. Wayne Fraser [2001 “Introduced Wildlife in New Zealand: A Survey of General Public Views” Landcare Research Science Series 23], used FRST Public Good research funds to survey a sample of 859 responses on their attitudes to introduced wildlife – primarily mammals. The survey was carried out in 1994. Fraser asked two key questions:

1) Did the respondent consider an introduced species as a pest or a resource (or both). And,

2) If encountered on a trip into the bush or high country, would it increase or decrease their enjoyment.

Effectively the public were asked whether they thought the species were valued introduced species or not.

The responses to these questions are summarised in Figures 8 and 9 in the Report, reproduced below.

Figure 8: Perceptions of introduced species as pests or resources (from Fraser, 2001)

Figure 8 clearly shows that deer are considered the least pest (4%), and the most as both a pest and resource 51% and as a resource (44%). Chamois, tahr, feral horses and wild pigs, in slowly reducing order, are similarly valued. Horses tahr and chamois are less well known with a significant “Don’t know”. Rodents, wasps, feral cats, possums rabbits, mustelids and hares, in that decreasing order, are considered primarily as pests.

Figure 9 shows a similar response to meeting deer, feral horses, chamois or tahr on a visit to the back country. Deer are the most positively regarded, with 95% of respondents being positive, and with chamois and tahr scoring highly positive too.

Figure 9: Likely reaction on seeing introduced wild animals (from Fraser 2001)

The conclusion from Wayne Fraser’s research is that the New Zealand public sees big game animals as valued introduced species.

7.2 Deer recognised as valued recreational animals in DOC’s Legislation:

DOC’s legislation recognises deer and wild pigs as valued recreational hunting resources.

The Conservation Act defines “conservation” (S 2) as “the preservation and protection of natural and historic resources, for the purpose of maintaining their intrinsic values, providing for their appreciation and recreational enjoyment by the public, and safeguarding the options of future generations”.

The functions of the department include “(a) to manage for conservation purposes all land, and all other natural and historic resources, for the time being held under this Act – “

and “(e) To the extent that the use of any natural or historic resource for recreation or tourism is not inconsistent with its conservation, to foster the use of natural and historic resources for recreation and to allow their use for tourism”

Introduced deer and wild pigs are “natural resources” under the Act. So DOC has an obligation to conserve them ie preserve and protect them to maintain their intrinsic value, and provide for their appreciation and recreational enjoyment by the public, and safeguard the options for future generations.

Though DOC talks much about “pests”, the Conservation, National Parks and Reserves Acts do not use the term. “Pests” is a term used only in the Biosecurity Act, a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry act. See Appendix 1 on relevant Acts.

The Wild Animals Control (WAC) Act is a DOC Act that manages many of the animals the Biosecurity Act considers as “pests”. Wild animals include deer, chamois, tahr, wallabies, possums, wild goats and wild pigs.

The WAC Act applies to all land, having regard to the provisions of any Act applying to the land, “and shall be for the purposes of controlling wild animals generally, and of eradicating wild animals locally where necessary and practicable, as dictated by proper land use.” (S 4, (1)).

Section 9 of the WAC Act states “All wild animals shall be the property of the Crown”, provided that when lawfully taken, or killed or held, then they shall be deemed to be the property of the person who has lawfully taken or killed or held them.

8. Conclusion:

Consequently the Wayne Fraser research shows deer and pigs are not normally viewed as pests, but as valued species. There are many more animals that rank more highly as pests than deer and pigs. NZDA proposes ARC put more effort into the species New Zealanders really worry about, eg wasps, rats, mustelids, rabbits etc.

It seems to NZDA that this ARC “crusade” against valued big game animals is against both the desires of the majority of Auckland citizens, and against the interests of Auckland Region ratepayers.

NZDA requests to be heard in support of this submission.

Hugh Barr, National Advocate