Coronavirus: Waikato environmental group's concern for pest invasion during Covid-19 lockdown

Thursday, 16 April 2020

One group monitoring pest control at a Waikato lake fears pests will have re-invaded the area by the end of alert level 4 lockdown. 

Pest control across tens of thousands of hectares in the Waikato region has been put on hold during the coronavirus lockdown.

Department of Conservation rules state people should not be checking traps on DOC land, or other public land, during the period.

Some facilities looking after certain native species for DOC have been allowed to continue their work, provided they abide by lockdown guidelines. 

**READ MORE:

* Coronavirus: Keeping wildlife sanctuaries safe during lockdown

* Pests vanquished in their hundreds around Ōhaupō peat lakes

* Prolonged coronavirus lockdown will lead to rise in pests and predators - experts**

However, the National Wetlands Trust was not one of those groups and executive officer Karen Denyer said the following directives from Waipā District Council, they were not carrying out their pest control work during the lockdown. 

That work would normally involve volunteers monitoring pest numbers and regularly re-setting traps for rats, hedgehogs, stoats and ferrets around Rotopiko's east lake near Ōhaupō inorder to protect species such as the spotless crake bird, the native long-tailed bat, copper skink and weta. 

Although there is a pest fence around the lake, Denyer said she is worried about an increase of pest numbers during lockdown. 

'We could be back to square one, we just don't know yet,' she said. 

'I fully expect mice numbers to have skyrocketed.'  

Despite catching two weasels before lockdown, Denyer believes there is still at least one inside the fence that could pose a threat to wildlife around the lake. 

The spotless crake is sensitive to weasels, who eat the eggs as well as the adult bird. 

Denyer said she fully supported the Government's lockdown, and accepted other sanctuaries protecting heavily endangered species with takahe and kiwi - like Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari - be allowed to continue their work. 

'My concern is that we are going to have a re-invasion of pests and that's going to be a massive big job to deal with, and very expensive to get back to where we were.'

Clare St Pierre, chair of Pirongia Te Aroaro ō Kahu Restoration Society, works with other volunteers at pest control in Pirongia Forest Park, where about 60 kōkako live, as well as tui, kererū and bellbird.

There is a a grid of over 1200 bait stations across the park, and the group recently decided to use long-life bait Ditrac in them, in order to protect the native bird from rats and possums.

This 'happy accident' means the kōkako will not be at much risk while the group's work is suspended in alert level 4.

'It is really looking at whether we can do our fresh baiting by August or September before the kōkako's breeding months,' St Pierre said. 

Waikato Regional Council animal pest team leader Brett Bailey said the council's pest control programme covers tens of thousands of hectares across the region, mainly focussing on trapping and poisoning possums, but also dealing with rats and wallabies. 

The programme was not deemed an essential service in alert level four, but council was now looking at if and how contractors could operate in alert level three restrictions.

He did not think there would be a big increase of possum numbers in Waikato post-lockdown.

'No it's only four weeks, which isn't too big in the scheme of things, but we wouldn't like to lose too much more time,' Bailey said.