Board slams copter hunting plan

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A proposal to hunt trophy animals by helicopter has been slammed by the West Coast Conservation Board.

The helicopter business of David and Morgan Saxton, a father-son team convicted last month of stealing greenstone in South Westland, plans an aerial safari operation.

Heliventures Ltd, owned by the Saxtons and family, has applied for Department of Conservation (DOC) approval to fly at low levels over large tracts of public land in the West Coast, Canterbury and Otago.

Paying clients are dropped off with guides to shoot animals once they have been located. The shooting party and dead animals are then picked up by helicopter.

DOC asked the board for advice on the proposal.

The board's response, provided to The Press under an Official Information Act request, was a resounding "no".

It said the application should be declined in full because of the adverse effects on natural quiet in the back country and wilderness areas.

Natural quiet was an intrinsic value that needed protecting, said board chairman Hamish Macbeth.

"In the board's view, the intrusive impact of this type of activity on the values of natural quiet and remoteness is unable to be minimised and for this reason the application should be declined," he wrote.

The noise generated by this new style of hunting would be far greater than traditional recreational hunting, where hunters were flown to a base camp or hut.

A suggestion that helicopters would fly away if they spotted other recreational users was a poor attempt at mitigating the noise impact, said the board.

By the time the operator saw other users on the ground, the damage would have been done.

Granting the proposal would set a precedent for similar applications by others and this could add to the noise intrusion, Macbeth said.

The board could see little conservation benefit in using a lot of helicopter time, and fossil fuels, to kill a limited number of trophy animals.

The effect of the helicopters' presence on kea, rock wrens and New Zealand falcons in the area was unknown.

Macbeth said DOC's West Coast conservancy had no time to monitor and record existing helicopter activity on conservation land. The board did not believe other users would be able to fulfil this role for DOC.

"Currently, people on the ground have difficulty reporting illegal helicopter operations as they are required to produce firm evidence - eg, photographs of helicopter identification," Macbeth said.

Natural Solutions for Nature Ltd, on behalf of Heliventures, has argued that the proposal would help remove wild animals while providing a recreational benefit for clients.

The flying of hunting parties allowed for recreation in less accessible wilderness places, it said.

- © Fairfax NZ News