D.S.I.R. reports considered on Arapawa goats

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 2

D.S.I.R. reports considered on Arapawa goats

PA Blenheim I D.5.1.R., reports had been! considered by the Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park Board when it decided to control the goats on Arapawa Island, said the board’s secretary (Mr C. W. Groube) i yesterday. ! He was commenting on t accusations by the Wildlife I Action group that the board jhad ignored these reports. I Mr Groube, commenting in the absence of the board’s chairman (Mr I. Mitchell), !wbo is attending a conference of Commissioners of (Crown Lands in Wellington, ; said that the latest report 'from the D.S.I.R. was received last month. It had been prepared by Mr G. Park, of the Botany Division, Nelson. • It had said that the scenic I reserves of Arapawa Island, notably the eastern portion of the island, provided one of the few opportunities to I retain realistically the pre- ' European patterns of indigenous coastal forest vegetation in the central New Zealand region. The primary object of I biological conservation on the island should, therefore, be the retention and maintenance of the indigenous vegetation.

“Ideally this can be achieved only by the even-

tual elimination of feral goats and pigs from the entire island,” the report said. The future management of ! the feral sheep could be flexi ible until such time as they I became a threat to the vegetation also.

Mr Groube emphasised that the board had not decided to exterminate the ' goats but to control them. The board realised that extermination would be impractical, considering the nature of the land, and tool costly. “There will always be some goats on the island,” Mr Groube said.

The offer by Wildlife Action to cull the goats had not been considered by the board because it was outside the board’s jurisdiction, he said. The board had asked the Forest Service to manage the control programme. Any suggestion on how this programme should be organised should go to the Forest Service.

The board had asked the Forest Service not to use helicopters because of the cost, not to use dogs without permission from landowners, and not to disturb the feral sheep. It is believed that Wildlife Action plans to petition Parliament to stop the goat-con-trol programme.