Farmers want war on Canada geese

WAIRARAPA farmers and the Fish and Game Council seem set to continue on a collision course over what should be done about Canada geese.
The disgruntled farmers, who blame the geese for laying waste to their pastures and fouling them, ultimately want to see them eradicated from the North Island, and certainly stripped of their status as protected game birds.
They have threatened to close their ponds to duck shooters and refuse access across land as a way of hurting the Fish and Game Council financially through a drop in licence sales, and are not appeased by the council's supposed willingness to cut geese numbers by limiting moulting birds in South Wairarapa to fewer than 2000.
Wairarapa Federated Farmer's president Jim Weston said yesterday the first step must be to get Canada geese off the protected list so they can be shot outside the hunting season.
"But the only proper answer is to eliminate them entirely."
He said the geese were no better than rabbits or possums and as a pest should be eradicated.
"It might be all right for South Island hill country framers on their big stations to have a few geese around but it is not okay for the North Island farmers."
Federated Farmers has been trying to get the ear of Conservation Minister Chris Carter in its bid to change the status of the geese.
"The minister promised a review but it hasn't started as he is obliged to consult with Fish and Game and they have been dragging their heels," Mr Weston said.
Wairarapa Federated Farmers has taken steps to broaden the debate by sending an SOS to all provincial presidents of the organisation, asking them to come out in support of the Wairarapa farmers' stand.
The Canada geese stand-off features in this month's Fish and Game New Zealand magazine.
In an article titled Factoring Farmers into the Canada Goose Equation, author Blake Abernethy, who is a fish and game officer, said a "sudden surge in anti-goose sentiment" among Wairarapa farmers came as "something of a surprise".
He said counts of moulting birds in 2004 indicated that Canada geese numbers in Wairarapa were at their lowest for six years.
This news was "cold comfort" for farmers whose properties were regular feeding stops for geese and did nothing to allay the fears of neighbours who thought their paddocks could be next.
He said Wellington Fish and Game councillors had wrestled with the question of how many Canada geese populated Wairarapa and held two meetings last year with members of Federated Farmers.
From these meetings an agreement had apparently been reached to maintain moulting geese numbers below 2000 birds in South Wairarapa.
That meant cutting numbers by a third, based on head counts made in January this year.
He said to meet the larger harvest the season to hunt the geese had been extended to 10 months ? May to December this year and February and March next year with no daily limit bag.
If the 2000 bird target has not been reached by January then there will be a roundup and a cull.