Farmers not on Forest & Bird's artistic tête-à-tête

Federated Farmers High Country remains prepared to help inform Forest & Bird about the realities of farming and conservation in the Mackenzie.

“Farmers were delighted to hear a group of 95 black stilts have been released over recent weeks around Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo,” says Graham Reed, Federated Farmers High Country chairperson.

“Farming and biodiversity are not mutually exclusive. The Department of Conservation’s biodiversity manager, Dean Nelson, told the Otago Daily Times, ‘we have certainly come a long way from the early 1980s when there were only 23 adult kaki (Black Stilts) left in New Zealand’.

“Captive breeding has undoubtedly helped these birds since farmers see them congregating around irrigators, you have to ask if this hasn’t created optimal conditions. Yet Forest & Bird seems to be obsessing about irrigation but if we put together all the irrigation we have or is planned, it’s still less than five percent of the Mackenzie.

“The balance will remain the same so long as a great deal of pest and weed control is maintained. This requires the commitment and passion generally seen by people who live in and breathe in that environment.

“We can’t see what advantage locking up this land as some sort f pastoral museum would achieve apart from removing competent managers and loading significant maintenance costs onto taxpayers.

“Federated Farmers High Country is also surprised this artistic tête-à-tête about ‘saving’ the High Country isn’t taking place in the High Country or involving those who work and live in the High Country,” Mr Reed concluded.