Predator free plan for Stewart Island

Predator free plan for Stewart Island?

We love the idea .... Gareth Morgan on his blog listed these benefits for Stewart Island:

• Significant economic gains from tourist visitation
• Social benefits for the community of Oban 
• An enhancement of New Zealand’s reputation for pristine environments
• A substantial ecological dividend from enhancing the natural capital of Stewart Island

 You can download the full report "Eliminating Predators from Stewart island here

http://garethsworld.com/blog/enviroment/predator-free-stewart-island-update/

and Kerry McBride from the Southland Times reports...

Gareth Morgan has announced details of a multimillion-dollar conservation plan - to rid Stewart Island of pests.

The plan, which he estimates could cost between $40 million and $50m, aims to create the world's first predator-free island with a substantial human population.

The price of creating such a global "hothouse" would be that all cats would have to be confined, and could even be shipped off the island entirely during the "elimination" phase.

The project would start by creating about 5000 hectares of pest-free land from Halfmoon Bay to the Rakiura Track, to be protected by a 12-kilometre predator-proof fence. Stage two of the project would then concentrate on the rest of the 170,000ha island.

Its focus would be on eradicating rats, possums and feral cats, but the proposal report notes that there is some risk of pet cats being killed during the operation.

"This may damage any public support for the project," the report says.

"Mitigation measures need to be investigated and tested with the community for acceptance. Measures could include keeping the animals indoors during the operation . . . or holding the cats off the island for the full duration of the elimination project."

Dr Morgan said yesterday that pets would have to be managed, rather than killed.

"The whole thing with pets is you just have to confine them."

Islanders had slowly embraced the project, going from a "none of us like change sort of thing", to wanting to be involved, he said. "They've never been anti; they love the end point."

And as for that end point, "My vision is to have kiwi wandering down the main street of Oban."

He said it was a "massive" project, both technically challenging and made harder by the fact there was a community of people to consider.

Read the full story here ....