As you may be aware the new WARO concessions (effective 1st July 2015) were arrived at after DOC deliberately excluded recreational hunters from the decision making process and resulted in a number of significant detrimental changes for us including removal of the 5 month summer exclusion in the Ruahines (year round WARO can now occur), the removal of the Tararua exclusion in the Waiohine catchment, Tauherenikau river, Totara Crk, Lower Atiwhakatu catchment and the virtual complete opening of the Rimutaka Forest Park along with a number of reserves in the Wairarapa including Tora bush. The principal seems to have been that everything should be open to heli’s. Around 30 to 40% of the public land in the local Conservancy has been changed all with NO consultation with rec hunters. Other areas nationally are also adversely affected.
However thanks to the lobbying efforts of hunters including many of the 2300 who have hunting permits for the Ruahines, there appeared to be some movement and at the NZDA conference opening evening (Friday 26th June) Mike Slater, the No2 for DOC, announced a review of WARO noting issues with the Ruahines outcome.. He clarified then that all changed areas would be reviewed within a few weeks.
It only took a few days for the reneging to start (as per my recent email to members) and since then DOC have clarified the so called review further: “the review of decisions around areas will be in two parts, Ruahines immediately. Others as part of a second process involving the wider sector that they are also starting soon.”
We have still not received a clarification around the variance to what all present heard Mike say and to the matter of the Ruahine changes not being around area but instead around timing.
Our Liaison groups view is that we are not willing to allow them to bed in changes (for which no justification was given) on the rest of the conservancy in return for the possibility of some hope on just the Ruahines. Everything other than a return to the 2009-15 status quo is a loss and we were denied the ability to advocate for improvements as we had intended.
Whilst the current uneconomic feral venison price limits the harm from the changes (other than in the Ruahines where the operator has his own meat plant and market) the price will rise and the changes now allow the use of chiller trucks at Park roadends, effectively a forward operating base which would then greatly improve the economics of targeting areas like the Rimutaka open country.
So if you think the issue doesn’t affect you then consider what happens to your favourite possie, even if seemingly safe from WARO when those hunters who hunt the open country decide it’s not worth the heli grief and go elsewhere instead – maybe to your possie ? Either directly or indirectly every hunter is adversely affected by the WARO changes. As always our biggest enemy is not some government agency or the WARO guys it is instead our own apathy and the “I’m alright Jack” attitude.
If we are to be treated with respect then we need to act with greater unity and each of us must help out – to help ourselves we must all become involved.
Through the efforts of those who have written, emailed, met with MP’s and spread the word, we have got the attention of DOC, we need to keep going and increase those efforts until we get a fair go because that is not yet happening. Imagine what we could achieve if instead of many dozens asking questions and raising issues we had many hundreds or many thousands ?
Stand up for your hunting and let DOC and the ministers know about your concerns, a lot is at stake and not just in the Ruahines.
Thanks
Gordon George
[email protected]
Chair of the Lower North Island Hunter Liaison group, also Secretary for Hutt valley NZDA
I would like to know how these changes have been made without public notice, there are so many rec hunters now for what reason do the waro need all the public land, give my kids somwhere to hunt in the future.
You have got to be Joking!!!! If 1080 poison wasn’t enough to piss us Hunters off, now we have to deal with Choppers invading our hunting areas!!. This is going to toooooo far!
This will push hunters absolutely mad! Pushing “some hunters” to poach on farms etc,
or worse.
Bloody frustrating .
DOC don’t give a damn what we hunters think (or any NZers for that matter) They have an unofficial agenda and that hidden agenda is called PEST FREE NZ. See these links for the real story
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/chinatown-/
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/1080-a-programme-to-poison-a-nation/
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/the-lord-howe-island-rat-eradication-programme/
DoC’s lack of consultation on WARO with hunters and the NZDA is symptomatic of a much bigger on-going problem for deerstalkers and wild deer in NZ.
Anybody who has bothered to read the links above, that I posted to Bill Benfield’s articles on DoC’s real “pest free NZ” agenda, will easily see that the NZ public have been deceived and lied to for years, about the need for and methods of pest control in our native forests.
Unfortunately because we have all been bullshitted and baffled by scientific opinion on the need for 1080 for the last 20 years “to protect our native species” and not put up any serious resistance to the widespread poisoning of our forests, we are now in the in-enviable position where DoC feels like it can do whatever it likes and effectively get away with bloody blue murder!
I recently joined the NZDA because I expected that they would defend NZ hunters rights and fight for our freedom to hunt wild deer, as stated in their charter. As you can probably gather I am seriously disillusioned with the NZDA, because as far as I can see, they are largely a talk shop and when push comes to shove in their dealings with DoC, they always take the line of less resistance, rather than confronting DoC in any serious manner.
This is the problem with making these sort of compromises with corrupt govt bureaucrats and politicians pursuing an evil agenda. Because the NZDA has never openly opposed the use of 1080 in our forests, as a consequence, it is now being ignored and ridden roughshod over WARO.
1080 was the thin end of the wedge in my opinion, and now we can see the real hidden agenda, which is to eradicate all introduced species from NZ’s native forests. On this basis the days of deerstalking wild deer in this country are seriously numbered, unless a lot of Kiwi hunters wake up in a hurry and start making a proper fuss.
What is particularly disappointing for me is that after returning to NZ after living in the UK for much of the last 20 odd years I find that the 100% Pure image NZ likes to project abroad, is total bullshit. In reality, the whole country has been poisoned and our native species have been just as decimated as the so-called “introduced pest” species.
I doubt very much whether “animal rights loving Britain” or the rest of Europe would tolerate having their country poisoned on a regular basis in the name of “pest control”and I imagine it would not do our primary produce exports any good either, if it became widely known what is really happening in “clean green NZ” with 1080.
So my question to my fellow hunters and all New Zealanders is this…Are we going to continue to remain silent and tolerate this indiscriminate genocide in our public forests, or are we finally going to stand up and make our voices heard?