Forget 1080, put a bounty on possums

What would this critter be worth? Photo / NZ Herald

The spreading of 1080 poison over our forests and hills will never go away as long we continue to do it.

The proponents of an industry that is worth about $80 million annually argue that it is the best method of controlling possums, that it saves native bush and stops the spread of bovine TB. The total spend on possum control measures is $117.5 million annually; different agencies are involved - DoC, regional councils and the Animal Health Board. A range of measures are used, including trapping and poison laid by hand.

But 1080 is the big one, and it polarises the country.

Opponents cite collateral damage in birds and other animals killed, while those who use it say birdlife comes back far stronger after a spray and the poison can be laid accurately. Back-country areas which are difficult to reach by foot can also be targeted.

An alternative is the reintroduction of a bounty system.

Take the deer industry. In the 1970s you could not find a deer in the bush. They had been hammered by helicopters and no self-respecting deer would poke its nose out of the bush. A live hind fresh from the hills, used to stock deer farms, was fetching close to $3,000. People came up with ingenious ways of catching live deer - from foot traps to pens in the bush, to bulldogging them from choppers and tangling them in nets fired from a modified gun. There was even an attempt to stun deer with a golf ball fired from a modified rifle. A lot of money was made. If you make something worth good money you will solve the problem.

When we were youngsters growing up in then-rural Pakuranga we earned pocket money trapping possums. A piece of carrot nailed to a tree, a few drops of aniseed on the ground and a metal-jawed gin trap set at the base of the tree were our tools. We got two shillings and sixpence, or 25 cents, worth about $5 today. Good money for a kid. We also shot them at night with a torch and rifle.

The bounty was paid for the ears with a strip of skin from the back, which ruined the skin for the fur trade. The programme ran from 1953-61, and paid out the equivalent of $8.2 million, but was stopped because it was considered unsuccessful.

I don't know how many possums are killed by 1080 annually for our $80 million, but if it was four million, which is probably being generous, that equates to $20 each. If people can make good money killing possums and can also sell the skin and make another $10, so much the better. The more they are worth, the more people will kill them. For $50 a possum I would go and live in the bush, have a much healthier lifestyle and have a lot of fun. The greenies may not appreciate it, but shooting possums at night is seriously good fun.

You would have youngsters on every farm in the country trapping and shooting possums. Many rural communities hold annual possum hunts to raise funds for their local school or kindergarten, and we get invitations from all over the country to attend these affairs. As kids we all had uncles with farms where we spent our school holidays, docking lambs and hunting rabbits and possums.

That is part of the social problem in the big cities _ we have a generation of youngsters growing up with no exposure to farm life or the outdoors.

It could be a solution to unemployment in remote communities where there are no job prospects. DoC argues that bounties harvest only the "easy possums" within reach of roads. Make them worth enough money and people will tramp into the backblocks.

But the fact that official figures put possum populations as high as 70 million begs the question: After all these years of dropping 1080 and other control attempts the authorities seem to be losing the battle. Is it not time to again consider a bounty?

The possum fur trade is booming as the fur is plucked and mixed with merino wool to produce a fine, high quality material. This should be encouraged and supported.

But one suspects one of the major issues is the authorities do not like their control taken away. If you had a comfortable $80 million a year business, guaranteed by the taxpayer, would you want to give it up?