Special area for Wapiti proposed

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 7

Special area for Wapiti proposed

A special reserve area in the Fiordland National Park to preserve its wapiti herd has been mooted by rhe Deerstalkers’ Association as part of a campaign to . save the deer from extinction.

The association wanted the Government to declare a special area under section 12 of the National Parks Act, 1952, said an executive member, Mr J. C. Bamford.

The proposed area is a triangle with sides of roughly 55 kilometres in the National park’s existing wapiti habitat.

Intensive commercial deer recovery around the perimeter of the triangle would confine the wapiti herd, Mr Bamford said. The long-term goal would be the setting up of a pure-breed wapiti herd in the area as a recreational hunting resource. A petition being circulated by the association would give an opportunity for the public to express support for keeping a wapiti herd in the park. Mr Bamford said ,the National Parks' Act required the elimination of all introduced flora and fauna from the parks. This policy was not favoured

by the association, which had continued to press for keeping the wapiti as a recreational herd in a special area in the park. The idea of enforcing the act to exterminate all deer had been promoted by the commercial exploitation of deer. Because of their greater size, wapiti was potentially more valuable than other species, Mr Bamford said. “Complete extermination is impracticable and unrealistic, and a change in the National Parks Act will allow wapiti to be recognised as an asset valued by recreational hunters,” he said.

One possible solution was shifting the wapiti herd outside the park. That was estimated to cost about $lOOO a head. As that was intended to preserve the herd for recreational hunting, one must question the usefulness of a herd confined in a fenced-in area more akin to deer farming, Mr Bamford said.

Another problem would be finding a suitable area free from other deer, and where scientific and ecological values would not be sacrificed. The Southland conservancy of the Forest

Service had said that shifting of the wapiti herd was impracticable. The argument used against the wapiti remaining in the park was that the National Parks Act said they should be eliminated and that national parks should be kept in their natural state for the people’s enjoyment. The wapiti were in a remote area of Fiordland, well beyond the reach of anyone but hunters and dedicated Tampers, so little harm would be done by leaving them where they were, Mr Bamford said. Recreational hunters appreciated the damage an over-large population of deer could create, and accepted that foot hunters created insufficient pressure to keep deer to a reasonable level.. The commercial hunter had a part to play ,by removing non-wapiti type deer, he said.. . . In September the Forest Service had acknowledged that deer in parts of Fiordland had been reduced to tolerable numbers and that proper manage-, ment using commercial hunting could retrieve and retain a recreational .trophy herd of wapiti..