Most PCA groups came in under the regional council’s required 5% residual catch trap threshold, which meant fewer than five in 100 monitoring traps had caught a possum.
“This is a great effort and the Wairoa PCA farmers should be congratulated for their work as it’s not the easiest country to tackle and it was riddled with possums,” regional council chairman Fenton Wilson said.
The 11 monitored Wairoa PCAs were established in 2010-11 and involved about 120 farmers.
The benefits of fewer possums were improved health for stock, pasture and trees, reduced TB risks and healthier biodiversity on farms, in native bush and around homes.
“Although there are still remnant pockets of high possum numbers on a few properties, a little bit of work can reduce these very quickly and we’ll be recommending to those farmers that they use an approved contractor to efficiently deal to these remaining populations,” Land Services manager Campbell Leckie said.
“With the tougher country up in the Wairoa area annual possum control maintenance is a key to keeping possum numbers low.”
Where monitoring recorded a possum density of 5% or greater the regional council’s animal pest team will discuss with the farmers the next steps to achieve and maintain low possum numbers on their land.
