Kiwi deaths at Pukaha Mt Bruce

Bridget Percy made this Official Information request to Department of Conservation

This request has been reported as needing administrator attention (perhaps because it is vexatious, or a request for personal information)

From: Bridget Percy

Dear Department of Conservation,

Please answer the following questions:
1. How many kiwi have died at Pukaha each year since 2003?
2. In June 2018 Head Kiwi Ranger at Pukaha Mt Bruce Jess Flamy stated in an email that there were 13 monitored kiwi in the Pukaha Forest and that 3 unmonitored kiwi were found in the kiwi call count or by the kiwi dog Rua. However in your response to my OIA you stated that there are 7 monitored kiwi and 20 unmonitored kiwi currently in the Pukaha Forest.
a) Please respond to my question in my previous OIA - have 6 monitored kiwi died since June 2018 or have they lost their tags?
b) Please explain the discrepancy between Head Kiwi Ranger Jess Flamy’s figure of 3 unmonitored kiwi and the 20 unmonitored kiwi indicated in your OIA response.
3. If your figures are correct and there are 27 kiwi in the Pukaha forest and 10 kiwi inside and given that 105 kiwi have been hatched at Pukaha and 43 kiwi have been brought in to the centre from other places since 2003 please confirm that a total of 148 kiwi have been hatched or brought into Pukaha and there are approximately 36 kiwi left - meaning that at least 111 kiwi have died there.
4. In your response to my last OIA you indicated that a kaka had died from eating bait from a bait station in 2017. Please explain what would stop kaka at Pukaha Mt Bruce from eating 1080 baits which were aerially dropped over the Pukaha Forest in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
4. In October 2018 Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage requested that DOC investigate a private kiwi programme in Hawke’s Bay on why 9 little spotted kiwi had died there.
a) Why has there been no investigation requested by Ms Sage for a similar investigation into Pukaha Mt Bruce where over a hundred kiwi have died?
b) Who would undertake such an investigation given that Pukaha is a DOC facility?
c) With only 7 monitored kiwi and 2 kiwi breeding in the Pukaha Forest what will it take for DOC to stop the release of kiwi into this predator-prone area where so many kiwi have died?

Yours faithfully,

Bridget Percy

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From: Bridget Percy

Dear Department of Conservation,

You are breaking the law by not having answered my OIA about kiwi deaths at Pukaha by the 15th March 2019. I trust that you will have a response to me very shortly.

Yours faithfully,

Bridget Percy

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From: Government Services
Department of Conservation

Dear Ms Percy we have a record of having received three OIA requests from you in 2018 which, according to our records, were responded to on 26 November 2018, 10 December 2018 and 18 January 2019.

Unfortunately, we have no record of having received an OIA request from you this year.

Please therefore consider re-sending your OIA request to [DOC request email] .

Ngā mihi
Gabrielle

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From: Bridget Percy

Dear Government Services,

Here is my OIA request again for DOC regarding Kiwi Deaths at Pukaha Mt Bruce.

Dear Department of Conservation,

Please answer the following questions:
1. How many kiwi have died at Pukaha each year since 2003?
2. In June 2018 Head Kiwi Ranger at Pukaha Mt Bruce Jess Flamy stated in an email that there were 13 monitored kiwi in the Pukaha Forest and that 3 unmonitored kiwi were found in the kiwi call count or by the kiwi dog Rua. However in your response to my OIA you stated that there are 7 monitored kiwi and 20 unmonitored kiwi currently in the Pukaha Forest.
a) Please respond to my question in my previous OIA - have 6 monitored kiwi died since June 2018 or have they lost their tags?
b) Please explain the discrepancy between Head Kiwi Ranger Jess Flamy’s figure of 3 unmonitored kiwi and the 20 unmonitored kiwi indicated in your OIA response.
3. If your figures are correct and there are 27 kiwi in the Pukaha forest and 10 kiwi inside and given that 105 kiwi have been hatched at Pukaha and 43 kiwi have been brought in to the centre from other places since 2003 please confirm that a total of 148 kiwi have been hatched or brought into Pukaha and there are approximately 37 kiwi left - meaning that at least 111 kiwi have died there.
4. In your response to my last OIA you indicated that a kaka had died from eating bait from a bait station in 2017. Please explain what would stop kaka at Pukaha Mt Bruce from eating 1080 baits which were aerially dropped over the Pukaha Forest in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
4. In October 2018 Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage requested that DOC investigate a private kiwi programme in Hawke’s Bay on why 9 little spotted kiwi had died there.
a) Why has there been no investigation requested by Ms Sage for a similar investigation into Pukaha Mt Bruce where over a hundred kiwi have died?
b) Who would undertake such an investigation given that Pukaha is a DOC facility?
c) With only 7 monitored kiwi and 2 kiwi breeding in the Pukaha Forest what will it take for DOC to stop the release of kiwi into this predator-prone area where so many kiwi have died?

Yours sincerely,

Bridget Percy

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From: Government Services
Department of Conservation

Dear Bridget - please accept my sincere apologies for this request having been overlooked.
It will actioned as a matter of priority, but will of course, not reach you within the statutory timeframe (which would have been 15 March).
Again, please accept my apologies for this oversight, which was a result of human error (in this case, mine).
Ngā mihi
Gabrielle

Gabrielle Muir
Ministerial Support Advisor (Government Services)
Policy & Visitors Group
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai
VPN 8069 | MOBILE: 027 564 0691 | Conservation for Prosperity Tiakina te taiao, kia puawai www.doc.govt.nz

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From: Sharon Alexander
Department of Conservation


Attachment OIA 19 E 0175 Percy DOC 5897158.pdf
218K Download View as HTML


Tena koe Bridget
 
On behalf of the Director Operations Lower North Island, Reg Kemper,
please find attached the department’s response to your Official
Information Act request.
 
If you have any further discussion with the department, please contact
Wairarapa Operations Manager, Kathy Houkamau on the numbers provided in
the response.
 
Naku noa, na
 
Sharon.
Sharon Alexander
PA for Reg Kemper, Director Operations, Lower North Island
Kaiâwhina - Kaihautu Matarautaki
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai
Lower North Island Regional Office
28 North Street, Palmerston North
DDI:  +64 6 350 6204
 
 
 

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A. huxleyi left an annotation ()

Hopefully since this request for information was made, the requester has informed herself on how Operation Nest Egg works. Many eggs hatched at Pukaha are not released into the Pukaha forest, instead returning to the areas from which they were collected, and predator free sanctuaries such as Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari. That is how you have a large number of kiwi hatched versus a smaller number in the Pukaha wild population.
Please stop looking for scandal where there is not one. If you care about the kiwi, do some trapping.

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Bridget Percy left an annotation ()

Thanks I know exactly how ONE works (and have always known). There is a scandal here alright and it's got nothing to do with kiwi being hatched at Pukaha to be released in the areas they came from as part of ONE.

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