More Information
1080 - The Commissioner’s Overview
Authors: Dr Jan WrightPublication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2011, Issue N.Z.J.For. 56(3) 2011, pp 3-4, Nov 2011
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: In June 2011, Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, released a report entitled “Evaluating the use of 1080: predators, poisons and silent forests”. The Journal is grateful for permission to reproduce the Commissioner’s overview here. As I write this overview it is business as usual in the bush. This might conjure up images of tui popping open mistletoe flowers, fantails flitting from tree to tree behind trampers and the calm of a grove of tree ferns. But in much of our great forests, the reality is far less halcyon. Sadly business as usual is more likely to mean stoats patrolling kiwi nests waiting for chicks to hatch, rats hunting down frogs, geckos and insects, and possums stripping mistletoe, fuchsia and rata. Last summer while on holiday I mentioned to a friend that I was investigating the use of the pesticide known in New Zealand as 1080. She responded “That will be very difficult; there are such good arguments on both sides.” What I have discovered through this investigation is that this is not so. While I respect the sincerity of those who oppose the use of 1080, without it our ability to protect many of our native plants and animals would be lost. And without 1080, keeping bovine tuberculosis at bay to protect dairy herds, and protecting young trees in plantation forests would be much more difficult and expensive.