By ANNE BESTON environment reporter
The scientist heading an $11 million aerial pest eradication campaign in Auckland has abruptly quit her job.
Dr Ruth Frampton, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's director of forest biosecurity, was responsible for the controversial painted apple moth programme in West Auckland.
A twin-engined helicopter has been
dousing 600ha of the city's suburbs for five months in an attempt to kill the moth, estimated to be a $48 million threat to horticulture and forestry.
Dr Frampton, who lives in Christchurch, announced yesterday that she was stepping down but would continue to work for MAF in "a more technical role".
"It's also time to head back to Christchurch and spend more time with my family," she said.
Her resignation is effective from tomorrow.
Dr Frampton has attracted mounting criticism over her handling of the incursion, with the moth continuing to spread for two years before an aerial campaign was launched.
In December, another scientist was appointed to the programme but MAF denied Dr Frampton was being sidelined. At least one source told the Herald then that Dr Frampton had been asked to step down.
A senior scientist close to the programme, who did not want to be named, said he believed the Government would now stop the aerial spraying.
A Government paper giving ministers a number of options to decide on the future of the campaign will go before the Cabinet in the next few weeks.
MAF said last week that it had already been written, but Labour's Titirangi MP, David Cunliffe, who has faced the brunt of residents' anger over being aerially bombarded with Foray 48B, or Btk, said yesterday that it was "still some weeks away".
A Cabinet decision is expected late next month.
Entomologist Peter Maddison, a long-time critic of MAF's handling of the painted apple moth threat and the man who first identified the pest in 1999, also believes that the Cabinet will stop the aerial campaign.
Dr Maddison said he hoped MAF would put someone in charge who could work more amenably with the community.
Relations between Dr Frampton and the community advisory group MAF appointed have been acrimonious since late last year. This year, the group finally called for her resignation.
Community group member Hana Blackmore said with Dr Frampton gone the Government would realise the depth of residents' anger over the operation.
nzherald.co.nz/environment
