FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4 MARCH 2013

DOC Refusal Draws Community Ire

Residents at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula say the Department of Conservation is brazenly ignoring the health and safety concerns of its neighbours with a planned aerial toxin operation next to working farms, homes, and campgrounds around Moehau mountain scheduled to take place in May.

Despite a pending request from community members, with the support of the Coromandel-Colville Community Board, to meet with DOC management to discuss alternative pest control measures and a petition from 74 neighbours opposing the toxin drop, DOC staff confirmed in a 26 February letter “the operation will not be cancelled.”

According to Upper Coromandel Landcare Association spokesperson Reihana Robinson, “DOC’s area manager for Hauraki, Melissa King-Howell, and Waikato conservator Greg Martin are essentially hiding from the community. Why? Because DOC cannot justify the radical shift to aerial 1080, it cannot answer concerns about safety and health risks, and it refuses to acknowledge that cost-effective alternative pest control options exist.”

“Ground-based pest control on Moehau has been working extremely well for years. DOC simply will not admit it, due to its apparent drive to move aerial 1080 operations increasingly into populated accessible areas around the peninsula.”

Robinson said the refusal to directly address community concerns and safe alternatives is arrogant and hostile. “Much like drone operators, DOC officials are sending in the toxin aircraft from remote offices in Thames and Hamilton and insulating themselves from the people and the collateral damage to non-target species and our tourist economy.”

Despite DOC’s insistence the 1080 drop will proceed, residents are hopeful an agreement can be reached on continued ground-based pest control. Failing that, Robinson said, “There has already been discussion on the peninsula of an Occupy Moehau operation. A growing number of people feel that a permanent rotating kaitiaki presence inside the mountain toxin drop zone may be the best way of protecting native species, fragile ecosystems, and the health of our community against any aerial operation.”

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