1080 drop at Mt Messenger

Over winter, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation, Te Ara o Te Ata (Mt Messenger Bypass Project) will carry out an aerial drop of 1080 over the project area and the nearby Parininihi block.

Mt Messenger Alliance lead ecologist Roger MacGibbon said this was the only viable method available to eliminate pests initially, though once pest numbers were reduced ground crews could be used to maintain control.

“At the moment we don’t have an alternative to an aerial application of a toxin and 1080 is the best we have,” Roger said.

“We have a ground-based crew who will go in after this drop and hold those pest numbers down to very low levels. But you can’t drag down high levels of rats and possums with a ground-based operation only [trapping and poisoning].

“And the simple reason is that these are three dimensional forests and these animals live up in the canopies, with a lot of research showing that rats particularly, and even to some extent possums, don’t come down out of the canopy a great deal.

“So, you have got no chance with a ground-based operation of intercepting a lot of these animals. But with the aerial application, the bait lands on the canopy as well as on the ground so you can knock them down to low levels and then you can defend that [progress] by a ground-based operation.

“So, while we would like to have an alternative to putting toxins across the landscape this is the only way we have now to manage pests in forests.”

In response to social media posts saying 1080 could leach into waterways from the applied bait, Roger said: “Unfortunately, this is one of these things that has become a bit of a fable without any facts.

“1080 is completely water soluble and interestingly there has been a lot of analysis of waterways within 1080 drop areas. It dissolves out of the baits within hours of the drop and, so far anyway, there has never been any detectable 1080 in the water column of streams draining from areas where 1080 drops have occurred.  

“There is simply no risk [of water contamination] and what we do as part of this exercise, and in all 1080 applications, is to monitor waterways as a precaution.

“If there are domestic water takes, for example, they are either disconnected or avoided. But the science is sound that there is no risk.”