MEDIA STATEMENT

8th February, 2007

New concept in possum control launched on Banks Peninsula

The Banks Peninsula community has taken the matter of possum control into its own hands.

A public meeting today celebrated the launch of a new concept in possum control on the Peninsula.

The Banks Peninsula possum control programme is the result of two years consultation between the Banks Peninsula Pest Liaison Committee, and the Peninsula community.

The Peninsula community has elected to fund its own possum control to build on the gains made by the Animal Health Board Tb eradication programme.

“The community initiated programme will result in more possum control, and insurance against the return of Tb,” said Banks Peninsula Pest Management Liaison Committee chairman Paul de Latour.

The Community Initiative programme is supported and managed in partnership with Environment Canterbury.

Banks Peninsula is about to be declared Tb free, and the Tb control programme is being moved to other areas of Canterbury where control has yet to be undertaken.

“The Animal Health Board has done so much that it’s too good an opportunity not to take advantage of possum numbers being so low,” Mr de Latour said.

The four year programme will cover approximately one quarter of the 100,000 ha Peninsula each year. Control will start in the southern bays east of Little River during 2007, and continue clockwise from there.

“This is quite an historic moment because it is the first time that landowners and the community have elected to undertake pest control to a greater standard than described in Environment Canterbury’s Pest Management Strategy,” Environment Canterbury’s pest portfolio chairman, Cr Robert Johnston said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media