Thread: Whats your solutions to the duck decline?

I've never seen a ranger.

Originally Posted by Toby

I've never seen a ranger.

+ 1 and obviously neither have the dudes shooting 2 to 3 hundy opening weekend !!

My real dad has been shooting 30yrs he said hes never seen a ranger either.

Originally Posted by Toby

My real dad has been shooting 30yrs he said hes never seen a ranger either.

But I ve seen and been spoken to by the Fish pigs heaps of times scuse my description whatever they are called
They have always been polite and no they have never had probs with our catches

I have been seen by doc rangers once while white baiting. They suck ass coming up on their boat interrupting me but I like that they were out checking people on the river. More of this should be happening in our small town.

I would like to know just what the cowboys do with 100 or 200 ducks...I sure hope they show enough respect to the birds to eat them...

edited to add...and I suppose these very people would be the first to wah wah about DOC doing one of their search and destroy in choppers on the deer or anything else on four feet lurking in the wilds...

Originally Posted by Toby

I've never seen a ranger.

We see them every other year or so. Gotta make sure they have ripped the money out of our pockets.

Originally Posted by EeeBees

edited to add...and I suppose these very people would be the first to wah wah about DOC doing one of their search and destroy in choppers on the deer or anything else on four feet lurking in the wilds...

Yes well. they are fuckwits, or at least their bosses are. But rather see that than the green rain they much prefer......

Originally Posted by Tussock

Waterways are heavily polluted around here. Where I used to swim regularly 10 years ago, I now won't take the dog. Stinks too much on the return trip.

The lead thing was undoubtedly a beat up, there are probably only a couple of applicable locations in NZ. What access do birds have to lead that falls in the Waitaki? None. It's a fast flowing, braided river system. What it does exposé shooters to is a lot of tempting birds at questionable ranges. As above, I have watched a tremendous amount of wounding with steel, and these birds if they glide out and get caught in the current are beyond any dogs ability to recover them.

As for heavy metals,since when did we worry about that in NZ? Superphosphate contains cadmium, and cadmium makes lead look like something you would spread on your cereal. Your average dairy farm could no longer be zoned residential, the heavy metals content of the soil (cadmium) would exceed the acceptable cut offs. In time, it will exceed the cut offs for agricultural production, some properties may have already.

I would imagine the destruction of habitat is the major issue. Again, look at the Waitaki. The river used to be a large main channel which changed constantly, then a few hundred meters either side with stable backwaters in amongst the vegetation. These did not change year to year and they were breeding areas for who knows how many ducks and trout. They are mostly gone now. They have all been converted to dairy. There is a narrow sprayed out strip for the main stream, then dairy right up to the edge. What few backwaters that remain are fouled. Just disgusting. Choked with stinking mud and weed. Much of that land that was converted to dairy, is DOC administered land.

A lot of work going on in the USA, UK and Europe about this. UK for example has really recognised that super-phosphates and intensive farming has drained wetlands, changed water ph and general habitat loss. Reading the posts people are saying this has gone nuts here over the last 10-20yrs. I suppose that is correlated to population expansion, industrial scale dairy farming, increase in immigration and tourism which in turn results in the same issues the UK has suffered from. In UK they are breeding and releasing ducks, establishing private ponds, reflooding dams and really big into game management as a result.

the biggest indictment on this current governments attitude to pollution is the 400 million irrigation fun looking to double farming out puts . compared to the 40 million to clean up the mess of intensive farming and town and other business waste.over the whole country.??20 million of that was only put up this week for our 4 worst polluted areas waituna te waihora kaipara and i just forget the other.

I would argue that the USA treats it's land worse. We may not like irrigated dairy farming but at least the cows are outside eating grass. In the states they are locked up in intensive feeding units fed corn and antibiotics. You can just imagine the effluent stream coming out of one of those places and the insecticides they dump on the farms in order to grow the corn in the first place. NZ is better although I would agree it's still not good.

Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

I would argue that the USA treats it's land worse. We may not like irrigated dairy farming but at least the cows are outside eating grass. In the states they are locked up in intensive feeding units fed corn and antibiotics. You can just imagine the effluent stream coming out of one of those places and the insecticides they dump on the farms in order to grow the corn in the first place. NZ is better although I would agree it's still not good.

you dont have to imagine massive just take a look at wakanui east of ashburton lovely idealic spot apart from the crap bieng pumped into the sea
a feedlot perhaps not on a yank scale but gettin there