{"id":621712,"date":"2026-10-05T22:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621712\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:58:12","slug":"1080-poison-drop-planned-for-west-coast-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621712\/","title":{"rendered":"1080 poison drop planned for West Coast national park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Conservation plans to drop 1080 poison over a big chunk of the Kahurangi National Park, including the popular Heaphy Track, this summer in a new predator control operation.<\/p>\n

By Vihan Dalal of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n

The operation covers nearly 29,000ha of the national park, including the northern part of the Heaphy Track where it traverses the Tasman Sea coastline.<\/p>\n

The helicopter aerial operation will also stretch far inland, spanning the Heaphy, Lewis and Bluffy catchments between the Gunner Downs and Mackay Downs.<\/p>\n

DOC says the operation to “accurately distribute bait” across 28,883ha aims to reduce rat, stoat and possum numbers in the area in a bid to protect native species such as the rare long-tail bat population and the large powelliphanta snail species.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Powelliphanta snail. (Source: DOC) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

“This bait targets rodents and possums. Stoats are also controlled through secondary poisoning as they feed on the dead rodents,” DOC said in an advisory.<\/p>\n

Native species are fighting for survival from predators, it said.<\/p>\n

“Without protection, we risk losing the unique natural heritage and biodiversity within the Heaphy…<\/p>\n

“Due to consistently high seed production in the lowland forests of these areas, rodent numbers are constantly high, threatening native species.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stoat (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Taup\u014d-based predator control company Epro has been contracted for the aerial operation, starting from this week with pre-feeding of non-toxic baits before moving to the 1080 toxins. It will continue until December 18, weather dependent.<\/p>\n

The 82km-long Heaphy Track is one of New Zealand’s nine Great Walks and one of two on the West Coast, attracting thousands of domestic and international visitors every year.<\/p>\n

DOC in the past few years has spent tens of millions dropping 1080 operations across more than 311,000ha of conservation land on the West Coast including at Heaphy.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the Strava risk to our defence force, and protests in France cost a teenager his hand. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Conservation plans to drop 1080 poison over a big chunk of the Kahurangi National Park,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,273,111,43,139,69,1241],"class_list":["post-621712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-animals","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}