19-E-0533 DOC-6041267
14 August 2019
Tracy Livingston
Via fyi.org
Dear Tracy
I refer to your request of 5 August 2019 for information relating to 1080 operations in
the Hunua Ranges.
We have transferred part of your requests to Auckland District Council. Part of the
information to which your request relates is believed to be more closely connected
with the functions of the Council. In these circumstances, we are required by section
section 14 of the OIA to transfer your request.
The parts of your request that have been transferred to Auckland District Council are
as follows. DOC will also provide you with information we hold in response to these
questions.
2) In addition, could you please point me where I would find the current
numbers of rat and mice and stoat populations in the Hunua Range, as I
have read research that although rat populations drop to nearly zero post-
poison operation, they do increase dramatically around a year after an
operation without adequate ground operations.
3) In addition, could you please explain DoC and Auckland Council rational
of why the Hunua Range, being easily traversed terrain and so close to a
large population, was poisoned instead of using ground control
management of pest species.
4) And please explain the cost comparison between the aerial poison
operation and what it would cost if a land-based pest management system,
and if DoC/Council had put that to public tender?
5) In addition, could you please tell me, if any, what post-1080 poison
operation ecological testing DOC and Auckland Council have carried out on
the Hunua Range that pertains to invertebrate numbers and health, soil
health - including worms, soil fungi and bacteria, fluoride concentrations in
the soil, leaf litter decomposition, and so on. (thinking about how the "Wood
Wide Web" would be affected such as this
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/wood-wide-web-
underground-network-microbes-connects-trees-mapped-first-time)
You will hear further from Auckland District Council concerning those parts of your
request.
Yours sincerely
Department of Conservation
