Encouraging Results for Wairoa Possum Control Areas

There are encouraging results from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s recent possum monitoring programme in the Wairoa area.

Over the last 3 months trend monitoring for possums has been completed over farms within the possum control area (PCA) programme in the Wairoa District, and the overall results are good.

Most PCA groups in Wairoa have come in under HBRC’s required 5% residual catch trap threshold - which means that fewer than 5 in 100 monitoring traps had caught a possum.

“This is a great effort and the Wairoa PCA farmers should be congratulated for their work as it’s not the easiest country to tackle, and it was riddled with possums,” said HBRC Chairman Fenton Wilson who is the regional councillor for the Wairoa constituency.

The 11 monitored Wairoa PCAs were established in 2010/2011 and involve about 120 farmers across these PCA’s in the northern border of the Hawke’s Bay region. The benefits of fewer possums are: improved health for stock, pasture and trees, reduced Bovine Tb risks and healthier biodiversity on farms, in native bush and around homes.

“Although there are still remnant pockets of high possum numbers on a few properties, a little bit of work can reduce these very quickly and we’ll be recommending to those farmers that they use an approved contractor to efficiently deal to these remaining populations,” says Campbell Leckie, Land Services Manager.

“With the tougher country up in the Wairoa area, annual possum control maintenance is a key to keeping possum numbers low.”

Where monitoring has recorded a possum density of 5% or greater, that property will require an ‘education monitor’. This is more intensive control work and the HBRC animal pest team will discuss with the farmers the next steps to achieve and maintain low possum numbers on their land.

Farmers can decide how best to deal with possums on their land, but HBRC Biosecurity team prefer that farmers get at least two ‘no obligation’ quotes for follow up possum control work from recommended contractors. HBRC-recommended contractors have to meet set standards for ensuring all bait stations on a property are filled and maintained, and must meet responsibilities for both workplace and stock safety.

As a guide, HBRC maintenance contractors should be ensuring that all bait stations are functional, and that the station can be removed from the bracket easily, which means that there are no obstructions and the bracket has not grown into the tree that it is mounted on. When serviced, contractors should ensure the bait stations are free from cobwebs or other foreign matter and contain new bait product (200/300 grams), and ensure a lid is securely in place to stop rain getting in.

Mr Leckie says that if an education monitor on an individual property is not successful and returns a result greater than 5% RTC, the compliance process will start to happen. “This can result in large costs for the farmer, so every effort is made to avoid this.”

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