Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Envirologue: 1080, "eco-terrorism" and agendas, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Rosemary, your comments are a bit unfair.
I'll read the book...maybe when it lands in the discount bin. No disrespect here...just pecuniary disadvantage. So...I listened to Dave's interview on Natrad...to get a feel of what the book is about. My critique above is based on that interview.
If there is better balance in the book...this was not conveyed in the interview, where derisory laughter followed mention of those with valid concerns about widespread use of 1080.
Yes, I read the PCE Report when it was first released.
It was Section 8.2 that rattled me.
Simplify regulations
The labyrinth of laws, rules and regulations that govern 1080 and the other poisons
used to control introduced pests creates unnecessary complexity and confusion.Under the RMA, the use of poisons for controlling pest mammals is treated
differently by different councils. Some councils treat the use of poisons as a
permitted activity with only a few conditions, while other councils treat exactly
the same use as a discretionary activity requiring a resource consent. In one case
the number of aerial 1080 operations that can take place under the consent is
specified, making it very difficult to respond to mast events. Many of the rules also
replicate controls already in place under other legislation.
There is considerable scope to simplify and standardise the management of
these poisons. There is a strong case for the use of 1080 and other poisons to be
permitted activities under the RMA, with local control reserved to those activities
that are not covered by already existing controls under other legislation. One
way to achieve this standardisation and simplification could be with a National
Environmental Standard.
There may also be other opportunities for simplifying various practices associated ......and so on and so forth.
A pity...actually a crying shame...that the Commissioner's way of addressing the very real concerns of those who do not embrace widespread pesticide use with such enthusiasm is to recommend fewer controls and protections. And undermine local democracy.
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I'm guessing here that Michael Hood heard the Natrad interview with Dave Hansford on Sunday.
Dave Hansford may be correct and 1080 is the only hope for New Zealand's flora and fauna.
Nothing else, no other pest control measure, could possible measure up to the truly awesomeness of sodium flouroacetate ("you drink it in your cup of tea!!!").
I found two aspects of Dave's interview, well, irritating.
1. Again, its all about the birds. No mention of the huge tonnage of 1080 used by the Animal Health Board (far exceeding DOC's use until fairly recently) for the control of TB...largely in the ever expanding Dairy Herd which is ever encroaching onto marginal land. And shitting up the waterways.
2. The level of disrespect shown by Dave H to those whose opinion on 1080 differs from his. In the real world, out there where Pak 'n Save is a half day's journey, there are folk (and not all banjo players) who do rely on hunting for food. People who prefer the taste of wild pork to the pale offerings the factory farms produce.
Then those who see the dead native birds after a 1080 drop. I've spoken to a part time DOC ranger in tears on seeing this....not only can the pigs no longer be hunted by the whanau, but the very birds 1080 is touted to be saving are killed in significant enough numbers to be seen. (This woman, in her late fifties, was heading up the bush to lay traps and poison bait on hapu land.)
Oh, but of course....this is anecdote...not real hard core science.
IMHO, FWIW, predator proofed fenced 'land islands' are the way to go. Create sanctuaries close enough for the birds to fly between.
Encourage the planting of food trees...not necessarily natives.
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Polity: Saudi sheep: Misappropriating…, in reply to Sacha,
a convenient figleaf for
More fodder for Tremain!
A must see (rather than hear, as it was the usual 'let him off the hook' interview) was Our Leader's body language this morning....
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to izogi,
Gareth Morgan and cats.
Kinda like the problem Old McGreggor had?
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to Sacha,
sitting on her hands and convening a group
It's late, and brain read "convening" as "covening"...and in popped, almost appropriately, this...
By the pricking of my thumbs... -
Hard News: Meth houses and stigma, in reply to andin,
Jeez is the bureaucracy crawling with fuckwits like this?
Yes.
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to Sacha,
Great minds :)
Heh!
My significant other was whining about having to listen to constant doom and gloom on Natrad this morning while he was having his obligatory couple of hours on his back before being folded into his wheelchair for the day.
"Why didn't they pick up the story about the kid in Otorohanga, and the school that is getting it right?"
We sent an email.
Seriously though...if the stories about how it can work don't get as much airtime as the stories about failures, some may perceive the problem as being insurmountable.
And give up trying.
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Hard News: On seclusion rooms, in reply to Sacha,
Boom! We crossed in the ether. (You can delete mine....as long as it goes up somewhere, I'm content. :-) )
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Where are we going?
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This in the Herald this morning.
Not the reactionary "run them out of town" narrative you'd expect.
Expressions of grief at how P has blighted the paradise that is the Far North...and some sound ideas on how to turn things around.
"We're not going to arrest our way out of this," says Northland police commander, Superintendent Russell Le Prou. "We're going to have to do something smarter."
Le Prou talks about Our Leader's Tackling Methamphetamine Action Plan...as a potential smarter option...
The money is funding for a combined approach by police and the Northland District Health Board.
"There has to be some enforcement but what we have to do is concentrate on end users and changing some of their habits," says Le Prou. For police, "it's a shift in thinking", he says.
Unfortunately...
Police and health workers have yet to meet