Transferring vertebrate pest knowledge to regional councils using Envirolink
Landcare Research and other research providers have a wealth of knowledge on managing vertebrate pests, but often that knowledge is either locked up in scientists’ heads or hidden in hard-to-access published scientific papers, which may be difficult to understand. Staff of councils and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment recognised that to improve access to such information there needed to be a funded mechanism to enable councils (especially the less financially well-off ones) to seek advice from research providers about improving environmental management.
In response, the Envirolink scheme was established in 2005, and it now provides $1.6 million (excluding GST) per year to enable eligible councils to contract Crown Research Institutes, universities and some not-for-profit research associations to adapt management tools to local needs and translate environmental science knowledge into practical advice. The scheme’s objectives are to:
- improve science input into the environmental management activities of regional councils
- increase the engagement of regional councils with the environmental research, science and technology (RS&T) sector
- contribute to greater collective engagement between councils and the science system generally.
The scheme has four levels of funding: (1) small (up to $5000), (2) medium (up to $20 000), (3) large ($40 000) and (4) multi-year projects (up to $500 000).
Over the past 10 years Landcare Research scientists have contributed by providing advice on a range of vertebrate pest-related topics, and there have been 52 reports completed by researchers from Landcare Research and other agencies related to vertebrate pest management. However, from questions regularly asked it is clear that Envirolink and these reports are not as well known as they should be. Bruce Warburton and Phil Cowan have therefore compiled all the vertebrate pest reports (see Table), which can be easily accessed from the Envirolink web site (www.envirolink.govt.nz/Envirolink-reports/).
In compiling these documents Bruce and Phil grouped the reports into seven categories. This highlighted the fact that some councils have a particular interest in ungulates and bird pests – two groups that do not get much research attention at the national level. These animals can be significant regional pests, however, and might currently or in the future be included in a particular council’s Regional Pest Management Plan (RPMP).Having access to research knowledge through the Envirolink fund enables councils to get the most up-to-date information to help them make decisions about how best to manage a particular pest, including whether to use a particular management option, how best to monitor the outputs and outcomes of control operations, and, perhaps most importantly, whether to intervene or not.
The focus of the reports also gives an indication of changing pest problems; for example, ungulate management seems to be increasing in importance. Northland Regional Council has a particular interest in deer: their region has historically been deer free, but with continuing farm escapes, and perhaps illegal releases, they have an ongoing challenge to keep the region deer free. Some other regions also have a growing interest in ungulates, especially deer, whose numbers appear to be increasing nationally as a result of declining commercial venison recovery. Pigs also pose a challenge in terms of determining what impacts they have, what densities they might need to be reduced to in order to mitigate any damage, and how best to monitor their number and impacts.
Measuring the benefits of pest control is always challenging, especially for regional councils, who either carry out control themselves or require others to do so to protect a variety of values, including conservation, production and ecosystem services. Research advice provided through Envirolink can help ensure councils’ survey designs are statistically robust and nationally consistent, and as much as possible enable the results to be reported both regionally and nationally.
The bird species that have been the subject of reports (rooks, peafowl, feral pigeons, black swans, and Canada geese) span the range of management options, from eradication (e.g. rooks) to deciding whether there is a need to act (e.g. peafowl), and indicate the regional impacts that some species have in contrast to the nationally acknowledged pests such as possums, ship rats and stoats. Some bird species such as rooks and Canada geese can cause significant damage to crops and pasture, and because these species have little relevance to the Department of Conservation their management becomes the responsibility of councils if they are declared pests of regional importance under their RPMPs.
Rabbit management has always been a focus of regional councils, especially those that have rabbit-prone areas, and there is an ongoing appetite for information on how to address the waning effectiveness of rabbit haemorrhagic disease, options for regional monitoring, concern about poison residues, and the effects of predator control on rabbit populations.
Many regional councils implement their own small mammal control programmes targeting possums, stoats, feral cats and sometimes ship rats, or support such activities by community groups. To help with this, councils have sought a wide range of advice, including control methods, monitoring methods, and how control might be scaled up to a regional level. Because all councils use vertebrate toxic agents (VTAs) for pest control, questions continue to be raised about residues, humaneness and possible alternatives, with particular interest in poisons specific to predators (i.e. stoats, ferrets and feral cats).
At the higher level of strategy development, the councils have sought advice on research priorities (e.g. the Strategic Roadmap for Biosecurity and Biodiversity Research), how to optimise community pest control programmes, and the challenge of whether and how the possum fur industry might contribute to the improved regional management of possums, especially along habitat margins where commercial possum harvesting might reduce immigration.
- improving the science input to the environmental management activities of regional councils
- increasing the engagement of regional councils with the environmental RS&T sector
- contributing to greater collective engagement between councils and the science system generally.
This engagement of councils with the R&D sector has been particularly effective with the development of the councils’ research Roadmap and the ongoing important input they have into the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
The increasing scale and breadth of pests being included in regional council RPMPs is raising new challenges, particularly for measuring the benefits and assessing the risk of large-scale pest removal, and addressing the wide range of social and cultural views about such programmes. The Envirolink programme is well suited to help councils with advice on these and future issues in their attempts to minimise the impacts of vertebrate pests.
Bruce Warburton, Phil Cowan
