Control cuts could see possums return | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

The days of TB-stricken cattle and ravaged fruit trees threaten to return to Wairarapa after millions was cut from possum control during the recession.
Greater Wellington is considering bringing forward a small amount of money to continue possum trapping after warnings by pest control officers that numbers will explode.
Graeme Butcher, Greater Wellington's Operation's Controller for Biosecurity, said without funding possums will be as bad as 10-15 years ago.
''We would get damage to catchment planting, we would lose a lot of the good work we have done.''
In the past possums ravaged roses bushes and fruit trees in people's gardens and spread tuberculosis to cattle _ affecting 307 herds in 1995 compared to only 5 today.
''I remember driving to Castlepoint and running over possums,'' he said.
The majority of possum control in the Wellington region is overseen by the Government-funded Animal Health Board, but the board is ceasing work in 37,000 hectares of Wairarapa.
This area now falls to Greater Wellington to control but because $8.57 million of planned funding for regional pest control over five years was in 2009 as a response to the global financial crisis, there were scant resources to protect this area.
The Animal Health Board stopped protection efforts because it considered it tuberculosis-free. However, Mr Butcher said possums will re-invade uncontrolled areas and over three-four years their populations will regenerate.
The council's Catchment Management Committee was recommending the council free up $100,000 to spend on permanent stations that will be re-baited twice a year, compared to $1.539 originally budgeted for regional possum control.