By ANNE BESTON environment reporter
An aerial blitz against a moth pest in West Auckland is not guaranteed to succeed and the Government may have to give up the fight, says the scientist heading the campaign.
The acknowledgment came yesterday from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's director of forest biosecurity and leader of the painted apple moth programme, Dr Ruth Frampton.
She was responding to questions from Auckland regional councillors on the moth's incursion into the Waitakere Ranges.
Parks committee chairman Bill Burrill questioned whether MAF intended to get rid of the moth.
"Are you conducting an eradication campaign or an elaborate academic exercise?" he said.
Dr Frampton said there were no certainties that the helicopter spray operation would achieve eradication.
Brian Smith asked if the fight should be abandoned before any more money was spent. The campaign was originally estimated to cost $11 million.
Dr Frampton replied: "If we are simply not getting some evidence of good effect from applying Btk from the air, after three sprays that's exactly the option the cabinet will wish to have in front of it."
The spraying sessions are scheduled to take place at three-week intervals, although the first two sprays have been hindered by weather problems.
Dr Frampton said after the meeting that the Government could not go on tipping dollars into aerial spraying if it did not achieve results and it might have to opt for control rather than eradication.
Forest Industries Council chief executive Rob McLagan said opting out of eradication was not acceptable and control was unlikely to work.
Kubi Witten-Hannah, the chairman of a resident advocate group, said if MAF was even remotely thinking about abandoning eradication it should stop what it was doing and replan.
MAF is considering a possible extension of the spray operation into the Waitakeres, considered the most precious wilderness area in the greater Auckland region.
nzherald.co.nz/environment
$11m moth blitz risking failure
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