Hunters tired of being ‘tolerated’

Press, 6 July 1985, Page 28

Hunters tired of being ‘tolerated’

PA « Wellington Recreational hunters say they are tired of being only tolerated by national park administrators and will continue to withhold support for the national parks system. In a report to be presented to the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association annual conference, a member of the executive, Mr Brian Burgess, said recreational hunters represented a significant portion of park users. However, they continued to be tolerated and treated only as animal controllers. “Administering departments and boards publicly berate recreational hunters’ efforts when it is a fact that

little is known of such hunters’ contributions towards animal control,” he said. These attitudes along with outmoded clauses built into the National Parks Act continued to be reasons why the Deerstalkers’ Association withheld support for the expansion and concept of the national parks system. Mr Burgess urged the association to establish its case for a more positive attitude towards recreational hunting being built into the National Parks Act. In the meantime, hunters had to live with National Parks and Reserves Authority policy of exterminating

all introduced animals in national parks. “This fact of life is unfortunate because most of us support the concept of national parks — we are Nature lovers and indeed we visit sectors of national parks which few others traverse,” Mr Burgess said. “We are also ‘into’ natural history and culture by preservation and enjoy the use of parks for recreation. But as hunters we are tired of being barely tolerated and living with the suspicion that park administrators have the eradication of game animals and recreational hunting as the real national parks policy,” he said.