The Green Room
As many of you will know, some of our great business minds have come up with this BIG idea to rid us of possums -
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/2431276/Pipes-and-possums-top-of-ideas-list
I don't know if there is a great demand for possums socks, but if that fails apparently it makes a nutritional pet food - seems like a good plan to me.
Herb Christopher from DOC answered this one very well here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/2434006/A-hard-road-to-possum-profits/
Much as we would like to think that a possum fur/meat industry backed by government incentives could replace government funding of pest control, past experience shows that unfortunately it is not that simple.
The existence of such an industry ON TOP OF existing pest control however can contribute to reducing the damage that possums cause.
Now I know why this industry has never quite taken off. Releasing possums into Northland, what were thay thinking?
That said, i think it's good to start throwing around some ideas around as to how we can tackle our possum problem from all angles.
Maybe as well as encouraging business, we need some backers to really get this thing kick started - Icebreaker could come on board maybe? I'm sure a merino/possum blend knit would go down a treat.
If this climate change scientist is right, we're going to have an even big fight on our hands, so we'll need all the artillery we can muster -
http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2008/3/26/are-we-risk-climate-change/?c_id=1501154
Even when the price of a possum skin reached the equivalent of $20, the human catch rate of possums (about 2 million skins a year) still represented about 10% of the natural breeding rate (about 20 million+) and those that were caught tended to be from the easily accessible areas.
I live in a very remote part of NZ and there simply aren't people here who want to head off into the incredibly rugged bush to get possum skins. Nor, I suspect, despite great marketing are there a huge pool of people who can afford to pay $300+ for a possum fur sweater or associated productin these recessionary times. Have you seen the price of some of these possums fur products?
The other problem that arises is the people who are catching possums then start campaigning against possum control operations by DOC that are being run to save birds and rare plants in the special conservation areas. Snowy Peaks/Untouched World's owner is one of these anti 1080 pest control advocates. There is abundant science showing that ground methods simply are insufficient to get pest numbers low enough in these areas to enable the native biodiversity to survive and prosper.
My conclusion is that harvesting possums for fur (or even pet food) will make a contribution, but to save our special plants and animals we also have to continue with extensive conservation funded pest control operations. It is important to keep encouraging the people who are doing pest control including harvesting possums but it isn't the complete answer.
Remember also that possums are only part of the problem. One of the best dimensions to the pest control operations using 1080 is that this method also control rats and stoats that are not targetted by possum harvesters. Stoats kill 95% of the kiwi chicks. Rats have a devastating impact on most native birds. In Tongariro Forest an extensive 1080 operation two years ago resulted in a major surge in kiwi breeding success.
Damn, I bought an Untouched World possum mix jersey!
Yeah, I agree I think there are only a certain amount of people, who as you say Gerry want to head out into the bush and hunt possums. Twenty million possums seems like such a large number, it'll be hard to make even a dent in their numbers without using a number of methods. Do we have figures on how many possums are killed a year by 1080 or an estimate of sorts? Are we winning the battle, or do we need to introduce more drastic methods like sterilisation (once that comes along) to really make an impact?
There was an article in the newspaper on the weekend about how climate change is going to see even more possums being born and surviving and an increase in their numbers, so we'd better sort out getting rid of them sooner rather than later was their warning.
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