hat arrangement will allow Ospri access to the land to undertake ground and aerial control operations to tackle pests on that piece of land.
“It’s a very significant block for the outbreak in Hawke’s Bay because we think some of the source infection comes from that block,” Stuart said.
Ospri will work with the landowners through a trust in a co-management arrangement to eradicate pests from their land and at the same time bring back the biodiversity values of that land.
“That will help deal with the possum problem and the TB problem in Hawke’s Bay,” he said.
“It’s a win-win situation for both parties and we’re both very much looking forward to working together on that.
“We hope to be in there this winter, so we’re working with the landowners now to see if we can achieve that.”
The arrangement with the Waipunga block owners is for access over 10 years.
Whether that arrangement can be reciprocated with other landowners currently denying Ospri access for pest control remains to be seen, as Stuart says every group of landowners is different.
“The thing we’ve learned over the past few years is that we have to work with them to find win-win situations,” he said.
He says Ospri is working with a number of others in the area on the same basis.
Despite the optimism over access to the Waipunga block, there is still uncertainty over whether the operation will go ahead.
Just before last Christmas, the Māori Land Court rejected a bid for an injunction to stop Ospri conducting 1080 pest control operations on land in the block.
Ospri was not part of those proceedings, as the case involved trustees making decisions on behalf of the landowners.
That decision has been appealed and will be heard next month.
Stuart says Ospri is subject to judicial proceedings like everybody else but at the moment it is still planning on going ahead with the arrangements to get the pest control operation under way this winter.
In the meantime, Ospri, having decided that infection numbers were not coming down as fast as it thought they should be, has commissioned Landcare Research to undertake an independent review to check that nothing is missing from its plan to tackle the Hawke’s Bay TB outbreak.
“It’s good practice when you’re two years into an infection like this to get independent people to come and have a look at it,” he said.
“Are we doing this right? Is there anything that we are missing? We need to make sure that we’re on the right track, that there’s no holes in the programme.”
The results of that review are due in about eight weeks’ time.
Changes have already been made to a “proof of freedom” model that maps the probability that infection will not return.
Stuart says despite the model being very successful in the past, when Ospri had the Hawke’s Bay situation reviewed one of the recommendations made was that more weight needed to be placed on surrounding areas outside the buffer zone.
“Not enough account was being taken of the risk behind the buffer zone. The area in behind was heavily infected and the possums were coming out through the river gullies that were conduits,” he said.
“The model has now been changed to build that in. It’s a small tweak but in this case it’s an important one.”
Stuart says significant progress has been made working with forest owners to make sure they are doing appropriate pest control on their land.
He says at the start of the Hawke’s Bay outbreak many owners of forestry blocks in the region were outside the tent when it came to pest control on their blocks. Now most are inside the tent.
Ospri’s general manager for service delivery in the North Island, Dan Schmidt, who is responsible for the Hawke’s Bay TB response operation, says from 2019 up until now there has been about 23,000 hectares completed of aerial pest control, 122,000ha of ground control and another approximately 60,000ha of surveillance done.
He says the plan for 2021-22 is to complete another 36,000ha of aerial control, 187,000ha of ground control and to do surveillance on another 41,000ha.
Stuart says the three meetings within Hawke’s Bay, the other two being in Te Pohue and Patoka, have been a great opportunity for farmers to hold Ospri to account.
“It’s been good for us to hear what their views are,” he said.
“Some of the things I’ve picked up are around the pace of delivery and making sure we do what we say we’re going to do.
“They want to hear from us more often, which is good, but the thing I find most interesting is that a lot of farmers turned up and they’ve had their say.
“I didn’t always like what I heard but we’ll go back and reflect on that and make sure we do it better next time.
“We’re committed to eradicating TB in this area. There’s a few years to go yet but we’re on the right path.”
