1080 - the lesser evil?

Conservationists see predators as greater threat to forests than poison, reports Elaine Fisher
It's become a bitter battle, the subject of claim and counter-claim, protests, threats and alleged foul play, but perhaps most bizarre of all is that  staunch conservationists  are battling for the right to spread poisons in our native forests.
"I hate killing any living creature and will avoid doing so at almost any cost. Yet I strongly support using 1080 poison to kill possums in our native forests because I know if we don't we will lose our remaining birds, insects and trees," said Ann Graeme, of Tauranga, long-time conservationist and editor of Forest & Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club magazine and Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) national co-ordinator.
"If we had a better option that 1080 I'd support that, but the truth is we don't," said Ann, drinking a cup of tea which she said contained the same naturally occurring chemical as in the 1080 poison used to kill possums.
Animal Health Board, regional councils and Department of Conservation (DoC) operations to spread cereal pellets laced with 1080 by helicopter in native bush around the country is the focus of ongoing and bitter debate, hitting the headlines again recently when DoC contractors said 1080 was dropped on them as they worked clearing weeds in Egmont National Park. DoC  said the contractors were aware of the operation.
Neale Blaymires of Te Puke, Forest and Bird newsletter editor, who also manufactures pest control traps, said the biggest danger to the contractors was being hit on the head by the small baits and not from the poison they contained.
He too would prefer that poison did not have to be used, but he doesn't want to see New Zealand's landscape changed forever by the destruction of its native bush.
Carole Long, a member of Forest and Bird's Te Puke branch, former member of Forest & Bird's national executive and also one of the trustees of the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust, feels just as strongly.
The trio are worried the anti-1080 lobby has the loudest voice and the public is being told a one-sided story. They are particularly concerned by the DVD made by the Graf Brothers called Poisoning Paradise - Ecocide New Zealand which they say presents a slanted view of 1080 use.
"I believe the motivation behind this DVD is the hunting lobby which is strong in this country, and hunters are concerned that 1080 kills deer and pigs as well as rats and possums ... The hunting industry is also worth a lot of money and has a vested interest in maintaining wild animal populations in our bush," said Carole who has worked at many levels on managing forests for the good of wildlife.
"I agree with Don Merton's analogy likening the use of toxins such as 1080 to using chemotherapy to treat cancer - horrible, toxic stuff but still the most effective tool in the kit to enhance survival prospects. Our forests are sick and there is a need to use a toxin periodically to clean out the massive infection of introduced pests and predators to save the native wildlife under threat."
The trio say they and other conservationists supporting 1080 have no vested interest and stand to make no financial gain from the use of the poison. Their only objective is to give native flora and fauna a fighting chance against what they see as insatiable pests.
Neale says possums, deer, rats, stoats, cats and ferrets are not native to this country, which evolved with just one species of land mammal - the bat.
"Possums evolved in Australia alongside species of trees which developed natural toxins, including 1080 [fluoroacetate], to discourage possums from eating too much of their foliage. Possums in Australia also have natural predators. In New Zealand, they don't."
Neale said it was initially believed possums were vegetarians but filming nests of native birds including kokako, fantail and pigeon revealed possums eat eggs, fledglings and even adult birds sitting on nests.
"Left unchecked, possums will so dramatically alter our native bush that there will be nothing left but a few unpalatable tree species," he said.
Carole said volunteers had set hundreds of bait stations and cut scores of lines through bush at Otanewainuku in an intensive, ground-based poisoning operation, which has proved successful.
"There have been two 1080 operations in the past 10 years and now birdlife is abundant, and rata and kohekohe are flowering and fruiting really well."
However, ground-based baiting operations are not financially viable, even if there was the workforce to carry them out, in much of New Zealand's inaccessible bush.
In response to the Graf brothers' DVD, the Department of Conservation has produced its own, called 1080: Good News for Conservation, which includes extensive footage of research work carried out on the effects of 1080 on aquatic life including koura (freshwater crayfish) and eels. That research found the poison didn't kill  finned fish or koura. The DVD also looks at its effects on insects as well as the resurgence of bird life following aerial 1080 drops.
"Insects like beetles will occasionally eat baits but seldom absorb enough poison to kill them; 1080 has a half-life of around 12 hours within animals and breaks down in the environment. It's quickly dispersed in flowing water," said Neale.
Some kea had died from eating baits in the South Island, said Anne. "But kea also die when the public feeds them chocolate." DoC had changed its procedures for dropping 1080 in areas where kea are used to eating "foreign" foods through close contact with humans and fatalities had been reduced.
"Unfortunately, even in the forest, there are occasionally birds which die but many orders of magnitude more will die if we don't control possums and rats. There is a resurgence - often spectacular - of bird life following the 1080 drops," she said.
Only 3 per cent of DoC-administered land gets any form of pest control and that includes aerial 1080. The continued use of the poison was recently approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority after a lengthy review and strict conditions attached to its use.
Without effective means of controlling possums, Anne believes the only way New Zealand could retain its native birds, plants and insects would be behind high-wire fences such as that constructed around Maungatautari Mountain in the Waikato or on offshore islands.
The trio do support trapping of possums for fur, but don't believe hunters will ever take sufficient numbers of the fast-breeding marsupials to have any significant impact.
Their preference is for a co-ordinated approach between hunters and aerial 1080, and for everyone to work towards the common goal of reducing possums to levels which no longer threaten native trees, plants and wildlife.
It's a paradox that humans, who have proved so successful at causing inadvertent extinction of hundreds of species of animals throughout the world, are unable to achieve the same results with  possums in New Zealand.
In what might also be seen as an unusual alliance, Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird, have combined to establish the website www.1080facts.co.nz/ which sets out to inform the public about what the website says are the science-based facts about 1080 - what it is, why it's used and exactly what it does.