Councils, farmers face goose control costs

Councils, farmers face goose control costs [Wellington Fish & Game]
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Fish & Game says the decision to remove the protection status of Canada geese will lump the management costs on farmers, regional and city councils, airport authorities, and DOC.

Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson announced today that the protection status of Canada geese as a game bird will be changed to allow farmers, park owners and aviation managers to cull these birds themselves.

Wellington Fish & Game regional manager Phil Teal says that the costs of controlling the birds will no longer rest with Fish & Game.

“That means all the effort and expertise that Fish & Game puts in to Canada Goose management will be lost,” he says.

The goose population in the Wairarapa and Manawatu districts has been stable for the last five years, despite the misinformation being spread by Federated Farmers.

“With liberal hunting regulations and organised hunts, hunters have kept a lid on numbers and they have actually decreased in the Manawatu,” says Mr Teal.

“All this has been at no cost to the landholder or ratepayers but that will surely change with the Government’s decision today.

“In recent years Fish & Game has been operating a successful effects-based systems that responds to all farmers complaints – that has seen the number of complaints decrease dramatically.”

Fish & Game is now concerned that landholders might attempt to take the situation into their own hands and try and poison geese: “This inevitably leads to non-target native and valued game species being killed.

“Thousands of kiwi hunters will be saddened that such a prized game bird has been relegated to unprotected status for political reasons.”

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ENDS

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