Hi all

Below is a draft of a submission I will send to the relevant people regarding heli-hunting with paying clients.

I would like advice on how to attach further submissions and signatures to this document?
DOC is aware recreational hunters don't want heli-hunting. They don't seem to be aware there are a lot of hunting guides who don't want heli-hunting either, that is the direction I have aimed this submission from.

When all WARO permits are reissued in September WARO operators will be able to apply to run heli-hunts with paying clients.

It looks like the writing is on the wall and it may be too late to stop this happening as of now WARO operators have been granted an interim period from March-Spetember to legally run heli-hunts on their existing permits until the new permits are issued.

For the cynical yes I may be wasting my time but at least in ten years time when a trophy tahr population is back to the way it was in the 80's I'll be able to say I tried.

Please read the following, make yourself a brew there is a little reading, some sticky points are:

Trophy fees on tahr on public land
American hunters being described as the main heli-hunitng clientle (for the genuine guys who far outweigh the heli-hunters I know there are a lot of good american hunters out there, I have had the pleasure of guiding a few this year and I have a great respect for people who hunt ethically).

Please feel free to comment and criticise, this is a draft. If you are going to criticise please offer an alternative idea.


Name: Chris McCarthy

Background: Owner/operator of Lake Hawea Hunting Safaris (est. 1993)

Member:

NZPHGA New Zealand Professional Hunting Guides Association
TIA Tourism Industry Association
SCI Safari club International.

To whom it may concern

I would like to congratulate The Department of Conservation on the positive step it is taking to clarify what is legal under a WARO permit with regard to heli-hunting with paying clients.

As I understand it all the current WARO permits are due to expire in September and technically none allow the permit holder to carry a fare-paying passenger eg. A heli-hunting client.

From the information I have read over the last 3 months I understand it is DOCs intention to allow WARO permit holders to add heli-hunting to their permit when the new WARO permits are issued in September.

As a successful professional hunting guide I am opposed to heli-hunting (whether animals are shot directly from the helicopter or herded to the hunter on the ground).

With regard to the document titled “DOC brochure re heli-hunting, 23-4-09”.

I have read this document and the only benefit of heli-hunting is stated clearly

“Heli-hunting is a significant tourism activity in Canterbury and the rest of the South Island. It is
estimated that collectively it could be a multimillion-dollar business for the country.”

If the single benefit of heli-hunting with clients is that it will generate money for our country the negatives massively outweigh this one benefit, I am then opposed to this activity.

Hunting guides such as myself make a living from guiding clients on public land. We will use a helicopter to fly to designated landing sites, establish a camp and spend 2-8 days hunting an area with our clients. We have no need to use a helicopter to search for animals.

No other tourist destination in the world allows heli-hunting with paying clients, why should we in NZ.

Please find the following submission attached outlining my reasons for my view stated above. The submission is structured.

Heli-hunting with paying clients on public land
Heli-hunting needs to be clearly defined.
The benefits
Money

The negatives
Many hunting guides opposed to heli-hunting
Natural quiet
Does not control numbers
Concession fees
There is no heli-hunting in any other country in the world
Safety
Hunters on the ground – safety continued.
No communication
Hunting ethics
Value on tahr
Policing heli-hunting
Whitetail deer Wakatipu herd.

Summary


Heli-hunting with paying clients on public land.

Heli-hunting needs to be clearly defined

Heli-hunting = “It usually involves the use of a helicopter to carry a client and hunting guide to search for, shoot and then transport out trophy animals, particularly tahr and chamois.” “DOC brochure re heli-hunting, 23-4-09”.

If heli-hunting is to become legal, at very least it needs to be clearly defined as to what the term heli-hunting will and will not allow. The above is a very loose definition of what heli-hunting might entail

All the definitions of heli-hunting I have seen will allow.

#A paying client shooting a game animal directly from a helicopter and the helicopter landing at a random site to retrieve the animal.

#Searching for a game animal from the helicopter and chasing it until it is physically exhausted then landing at a random site client(s) and or guide(s) disembark to shoot the game animal and retrieve it.

#Searching for a game animal from the helicopter, landing randomly client(s) and or guide(s) on the ground into position for a shot. Use of the helicopter to herd the game animal toward the client(s) and or guide(s), shooting the animal from the ground and landing a second time to retrieve the animal clients(s) and or guide(s).



Heli-hunting with paying clients on public land – the benefits.

#money

Heli-hunting will bring money into New Zealand. Some hunting guides will make money; some helicopter operators will make money. Generally the hunting guides who will cater for this activity will provide the full package for their clients eg. Accommodations, meals etc so their will be little spin off for other NZ businesses, some also have their own light fixed wing aircraft to transport hunters around NZ and their own helicopters.

The type of guide/outfitter that will provide an activity such as heli-hunting knows how to make money. While that tourist is in New Zealand the guide/outfitter wants to have as much of the pie to themselves as possible. There will be very few $$$ that filter through to the rest of NZ.

The only reason a guide/outfitter would provide a heli-hunt is to make good fast money. A heli-hunt runs at around 90% profit and can be completed in minutes. The result is the guide/outfitter can make a lot of money very quickly, when compared to traditional style guided hunting safaris.

I know hunting guides who have run heli-hunts in the past. These guys know how to make money that’s all they care about. They will do anything for money including crossing concession boundaries and also private land boundaries. We caught two guides heli-hunting in our private tahr valley last year and fined them both $5,000 NZ. One of these operators already has his heli-hunting concession being processed.

At an estimate most of the money that heli-hunting brings into NZ will benefit around 50 people. I can see no benefit from Heli-hunting to NZ at all except for a minimal number of people making a lot of money.


Heli-hunting with paying clients on public land – the negatives.

#Many hunting guides opposed to heli-hunting

There are a good many hunting guides in NZ who do not want anything to do with heli-hunting. As it stands at the moment the NZPHGA has around 90 members who are 60-40% in favour of heli-hunting. Traditionally the association has been pro heli-hunting and for that reason it has deterred ethical hunting guides from joining. Whats going to happen to the 50% of guides in NZ who make their living without heli-hunting and whats going to happen to our clients when they find out helicopters will be able to fly in over top of them on their New Zealand hunting experience, they’re not going to come. What will be left for the genuine guides who walk their clients through our backcountry in search of game showing them the real clean green backcountry? Will their be any trophy animals left or just females and jouvenille males.

# Natural quiet

On a heli-hunt it is impossible to map a helicopters flight path because it is dictated by where they find animals. The result is an extremely noisy aircraft flying unpredictably over vaast tracts of backcountry at low levels with rotar blades thudding. This is a sound, which echoes for kilometres. Natural peace and quiet is a huge part of why people venture into the NZ backcountry it needs to be preserved.

# Does not control numbers

Guided heli-hunting will not control animal numbers, as it is nearly always male animals that are taken. The only way to control numbers is to cull females which I have no problem with DOC using helicopters for as long as the public are notified of when the culls will occur so that for their own safety they can stay out of the cull area and from a recreational point of view they will not have their hunt of tramp interfered with by a low flying machine.

# Concession fees

As a hunting guide I pay concession fees to be able hunt different conservancies. Am I going to have to compete with hunting guides flying around over top of me, if so my business of providing free-range wilderness hunting is doomed. Is this what I get for paying my concession fees

As an outdoorsman I feel the NZ backcountry is for all New Zealanders, as taxpayers we pay for the way in which it is managed. Why should we introduce an activity, which will benefit a small few and have negatives impacts for the other 4 million New Zealanders and also overseas trampers, climbers and legitimate hunters who come here specially to experience our pristine and peaceful backcountry.

#There is no heli-hunting in any other country in the world

Why should we introduce heli-hunting, no other country in the world permits it.
There are no hunting organisations in the world that recognise animal’s shot from a helicopter or herded with a helicopter.

Most overseas countries (especially the USA which is where most clientele for illegal heli-hunts have come from in the past) have a law which states you cannot fly and hunt in the same day. Why should they be able to do it here?


#Safety

Heli-hunting raises massive safety issues for everyone involved, pilot, guide(s) and client(s) and hunters, hikers, climbers on the ground.

To have an unknown and untested person shoot directly from a helicopter is a recipe for disaster. In Australia to shoot from a helicopter a shooter must sit a 3-week course (see below)

- Shooters can only come from National Parks staff (NPWS) & Rural Lands
Protection Board (RLPB) staff. In SA & Qld shooters come from Dept. of
Primary Industries
- There are only 15-18 accredited shooter in NSW, SA & Qld are about 5
each
- Course is approx $3000 cost.................ONLY NPWS & RLPB can be
accredited
- Helicopter company MUST have permit to fire weapons from aircraft
- Shooter must be accredited and also have a permit to shoot from a
helicopter
- Accredited shooter must do a number of hours in the air AND on the
ground
- Must wear safety equipment which includes crash helmet with intercom,
jump suit and CASA approved harness
- Weapons used must have the necessary police permits
- Each flight is accompanied by a representative of the animal welfare
group RSPCA

Heli-herding involves positioning a hunter and guide on the mountain and chasing the animal toward them with the helicopter. I have seen first hand, clients of no helicopter experience get out of the helicopter and fall straight on their back at a pre determined designated landing site of flat ground.

Heli-hunting involves landing at random sites, generally in steep terrain, we have seen one client killed in recent years and there will be more if this activity is legalised.

#Hunters on the ground – safety continued.

On a heli-hunt if a shooter is directly shooting from a helicopter, his and the pilots eyes are fixed on the animal.

If there are ground hunters in the area there is a real danger they could be shot, especially when a shooter with no experience is travelling at high speed inside the helicopter using a shotgun firing buckshot that spreads widely.

#No Communication

Presently ground hunters, hikers, climbers have no idea when a WARO is going to take place. This is another huge problem with heli-hunting. Outiftters/guides can not say six months in advance that they are going to do this activity on a set day, there are too many variables eg, weather, clients arriving on time etc.

Therefore there can be no communication with other people who are in the area when a WARO takes place.

A group of recreational hunters has spent 6 months planning a weeks hunting, they finally get into there hunting area and a helicopter thunders in on the first morning and ruins the hunting for the next 2 days.

Worse still if I have paying clients hunting a conservancy which I pay to hunt in and a helicopter roars in on top of me and takes the trophy animal which we have spent three days working out a plan to hunt legitimately. This happened to me twice last year. What do I turn round and tell my clients?

# Hunting ethics

Heli-hunting does not even feature on the ethics scale it is an appalling way to kill a trophy game animal. A Himalayan tahr one of the world’s premier game animals can be killed from our public land in less than half an hour. This is the ultimate way of devaluing our hunting resource.

Hunters will pay up to $20,000 USD to foot hunt (the only way allowed) sheep species in North America and Canada, some hunts are up to 14 days.


#Value on tahr

“Because heli-hunting is primarily about the taking of trophy animals by recreational hunters and tourists in a commercial arrangement, the Department will apply a concession fee for each animal taken. Wild Animal Recovery Operations (WARO) Framework”

By saying the above DOC is finally agreeing that the tahr is worth something, that’s a positive step. However if you are going to place a value on tahr it needs to be across the board, not just for heli-hunts. The guides/outfitters will simply say they shot the tahr on a ground hunt, they are not going to pay trophy fees if they can get around them, how is that possible to police.

Why not a minimal fee for NZ residents and a more substantial fee for overseas hunters such as other countries have.


#Policing Heli-hunting

How is DOC going to police this proposed activity.

I suspect all WARO operators who apply to do heli-hunting will also have a normal WARO permit.

“The places open for this activity will be as specified in each conservancy’s CMS, management plans, air access strategy or other relevant recreation planning documents. . Wild Animal Recovery Operations (WARO) Framework”

I don’t imagine the heli-hunting permit will cover all of the area that the WARO concession allows. What’s stopping them saying it was a normal WARO we were carrying out when they are identified outside their heli-hunting area.

#Whitetail deer Wakatipu herd

I would like to finish with an example of what heli-hunting has done to one of our hunting resources the Wakatipu whitetail.

The Wakatipu whitetail is what my hunting business was built on. The whitetail deer is our logo. We are the most successful hunting outfitter/guide on whitetail deer in New Zealand. Over the last ten years as illegal heli-hunts have crept in our trophy whitetail hunts have become more and more difficuilt to run.

One helicopter operator has heli-hunted the area that hard over the last few years that there are now very few trophy heads left at all. Any whitetail buck that grows a trophy head he shoots from the air with a paying client. Price is $6000 NZ for a 1-2 hour helihunt.

To try to keep true to our clients, our logo and our name I have been running a 10 day foot hunt to try to compete with this helicopter operator. After 13 days and nights unpaid work scouting the area this year I could not find one mature whitetail buck

Finally I had to face the realisation that these hunts were no longer viable, the animals just weren’t there. These animals used to provide me with 30 days guiding work per year, now I have lost that income and when a client now inquires about a whitetail hunt I have to tell them sorry the mature animals are all dead!

This is an example of one helicopter operator totally exhausting a highly prized hunting resource. I feel if heli-hunting with paying clients is to go ahead the same will happen to the tahr and chamois, they will end up populations of nannies and juvenile males which in the end no one will bother to hunt because there is little or no chance of taking a trophy male. Numbers of nannies however will remain high and will still have to be culled by DOC.

As a hunting guide, a recreational hunter and a genuine New Zealander I fail to see how adding heli-hunting to the WARO permits will benefit our country and make no mistake it will have disastrous effects on our big game hunting resources. The money hungry guides and helicopter operators will have our trophy tahr and chamois populations all but exhausted within ten years just as what has happened to the wakatipu whitetail deer.

#Summary

DOC is considering making available an activity (heli-hunting) that will bring some money into New Zealand. I believe the country would make more money from its hunting resource by cleaning up the illegal heli-hunts which have been going on and making a fresh statement to the world that New Zealand is free of heli hunts and our spectacular backcountry offers equal hunting opportunities for all.

Hunters are already bypassing New Zealand as a hunting destination because of our lack of game laws and the knowledge that illegal heli-hunts have been taking the cream of our trophy animals.

The negative effects of this activity are endless I have covered but a few of them.

The main statement I want to make from this submission is covered earlier. Not all hunting guides want to do heli-hunts, we prefer to deliver a true backcountry hunting experience to our clients. We need to be given an even playing field or the genuine hunters will not bother to come to New Zealand to hunt with us.

Please find attached further submissions and signatures from New Zealand and the rest of the world from people who will be affected by this upcoming decision regarding heli-hunting on WARO permits, we don’t want it.

Regards

Chris McCarthy
Specialist free-range outfitter/guide.
Bull Tahr - Buck Chamois - Red Stag - Whitetail Buck
- Fallow Buck.
Ph + 64 3 443 7282
Lake Hawea Hunting Safaris
www.hawea-hunting.co.nz.



Below you will find, hunting guides, booking agents, hunting orgaisations and the recreational users of our backcountry the trampers, hunters and climbers.

I am opposed to heli-hunting with paying clients.

Good on you Chris, Welcome to the Activists List. I am up to my eyeballs in paperwork right now but contact me at fishnhunt by PM.

DoC figures last year recorded 1300 trophy tahr being taken in Canterbury I ran a rough model past previous stat work and came up with one 12 inch plus bull tahr per 47 square kilometers within one year of helihunt concessions starting and about half that the following year.

Hi Chris,

thanks for your draft - you've nicely put in it what I think myself, and I am glad you're making this stand.

I have migrated to New Zealand a couple of years back now and have planned to go into guided hunting (small scale though), focusing on European clients. The first thing these European hunters inquire before they want to come over is "What about the heli-hunting?". To them it is absolutely unethical to do something like that, and many of them do not want to hunt in a country where cowboys from helicopters shoot valuable trophy animals. If the existence of the WARO loophole at the moment is already pissing paying hunters off at the moment, how will that be in the future if this is becoming legal? And will it stop with Chamois and Tahr, or will our deer herds become an easy prey for them as well?

If possible, I would therefore like to add my name or signature to your submission. Please write me an email peter@jaegerfranz.co.nz and we can figure out how to do that.

Cheers

Peter

Weathered
xxxshooter

I don't mean to try to steal the limelight but I believe if we can land submissions in numbers it will be a lot more effective than fragmented efforts.

What I plan to do here is come up with a last page or even just a few key points that all users of the NZ backcountry agree with (except heli guides) and have as many people as possible copy the page, print it off, sign it (add thoughts of their own if they want to) and email or fax it back to me.

I will give the relevant contact details so people can send their own copy in if they want to. But what I'm hoping to do is gather as many copies as possible and send them in in hard copy all together, or in groups of 100 or something like that.

If anyone has a more simple way of doing it I'm open to ideas, we have until May 15, but I'd like to keep sending them in right until september. If we end up getting some sort of media coverage at least we'll be able to talk numbers.

No lime light on this we need all the help we can get or we will get rolled. I will help you with any info I can. I welcome a good ground hunting guide stepping in you guys need to be represented.

No worries ehtical-freeranger, I'll be with you on that! When is submission deadline?

Well done Chris, a submission comming from the guideing industry has to carry some weight.As you point out, helihunting will destroy ethical tahr hunting in this country.

Help me with this, a last page universal submission which everyone can fill out, add too or delete points as they see fit.

What needs added. some of you guys who have the correct terms for DOC lands, operations etc or can elaborate or clarify some points.



Something like this for a universal submission – delete what is in italics before sending this is still a draft - opinions welcome
Submission against heli-hunting with paying clients.

I ………………………………………………………..
Add what is you do in the NZ backcountry and where you are from. (if you have never been here just leave out, if you have say how many times)

I am totally against heli-hunting with paying clients on public land for the following reasons.

I value immensely the natural quiet the NZ backcountry provides

Heli-hunting has no conservation benefits whatsoever, it does not control animal numbers as it is trophy male animals that are targeted

I realise helicopter culling operations are necessary when game animal populations become too high. Although when these operations occur the public needs to be notified for safety reasons and to avoid a trip into the backcountry being ruined by gunshots and a low flying helicopter.

Heli-hunting is extremely unsafe as a recent death suggests.

Heli-hunting is not permitted in any country on earth, why should it be in NZ.

The only benefit from heli-hunting is that a small number of people stand to make a lot of money the other 4 million New Zealanders including trampers, climbers, hunters, legitimate hunting guides and all other users of the NZ backcountry lose out. All for money that can be made from flying a helicopter to a designated landing site and hunting animals on foot.

The first 7 points should be universal to all users of the NZ backcountry feel free to delete any points which you do not feel you agree with.

Heli-hunting is an extremely unethical way of killing a trophy animal, animals killed in this manner are not recognised by any major hunting organisation.

Overseas hunters are already bypassing NZ as a hunting destination because of illegal heli-hunts, which have been conducted in previous years. What are they going to do when they find out it has been made legal and the people responsible for our game animals are pushing it!

Add further points of your own if you wish
Signed …………………………………….



Send to chris@hawea-hunting.co.nz
Or fax +64 3 443 7292

Try to keep to one page. Please email this submission to anyone you think may be willing to support this, keep it moving an lets start sending the copies, I will send them in the post, hard copy in bundles to make a statement.

Alternatively you can email your own to ?



www.hawea-hunting.co.nz

It is public record you should also be submitting to the conservation baords.
Here is the address for service to the Next West Coast Conservation Board Meeting this friday. Get a letter in before thursday and you will be tabled. Overseas hunters have your say you are not meddling and your letter will be noted


Here is an abridged version of my submission

The link to click to send an email

jorchard@doc.govt.nz

Janet Orchard is the DoC person in charge of the Westland Conservation Boards community Liason. Get your letters in ASAP they will at least be tabled and read by the board these boardas are all opposed to heli-hunts and will stop them if they can.

I am speaking out on behalf of ---- ---- -----to support the exclusion of helihunting in the Tai Poutini Conservation Management Strategy. I further commend the board for its wisdom in declining heli-hunt applications in the past. I also wish to express concern from within the ----- ---- ---- ---- ----in regard to the recent actions by the Canterbury Conservators refusal to enforce the clear wording in the departments own concessions and allow heli-hunting to 3 WARO concessions in the Canterbury Conservancy, Mount Hutt Helicopters, Alpine Helicopters and Heli-ventures.
This action by Canterbury office to act without consultation is unsettling. In the past previous applications for a concession of this nature were subject to public scrutiny and have been referred to area conservation boards, heli-hunt applications to the Westland Conservation Board were not just declined but slammed. The Canterbury Board showed good judgement as it also declined the applicants in 2008. The Otago Conservation Board has also in the past wisely refused this activity.
I encourage the Westland board to speak with the Canterbury Conservation Board to achieve consistency within Conservancies with regard to helihunting, I note the Westland conservation management strategy directs the Westland Conservancy to consult with other conservancies to achieve consistency in aircraft access, The Mount Aspiring Draft Management Plan specifically excludes heli-hunts in its aerial access plan. One conservancy allowing a concession will only encourage heli-hunt operators to push into unpermitted areas at will, monitoring and compliance of illegal WARO and heli-hunt aerial activity has been non-existent. I wish to remind the board of the Wanaka Conservators absolute failure to protect the public safety and uphold the terms of a WARO concession after the death of an American tourist Clifford Senter; on an illegal heli-hunt in the Otago Conservancy in 2006. I was over flown by a Wanaka operator in the Landsborough River a month ago, there has been no investigation in this matter despite a clear serial number identification, video footage and a written complaint being filed in Fox office.
Helicopter landings are controlled under the conservation act 1987 to allow us to enjoy the back country in peace and quiet. Authorising heli-hunt concessions within a Conservation Management Strategy will allow uncontrolled landing and access in breach of the objectives of the national parks act 1980 which protects our right to enjoy in full measure our national parks.
The Mount Aspiring National Park Plan is unique and far sighted. It is the first draft plan to identify and expressly prohibit recreational trophy helihunting. While animals such as deer and chamois are not protected, to pursue them in peace and quiet with nothing but our wits and strength is protected under the Conservation Act and enforced under the Wild Animal Control Act. I urge the board to follow this position in its CMS.
There is absolutely no need for these wealthy tourists in helicopters to chase and hunt our animals on public land. These people go to extremes to avoid any contact with our New Zealand outdoor experience, ethic and ecology; there is no place for them in our mountains.
Easy access luxury alpine hunting is already catered for on safari parks, tourist money will be spent in New Zealand anyway without disadvantaging the public on our public lands and at no loss of tourist revenue. There is ample easy hunting for them now on private land, why do they need to fly all over our public land?
Heli-hunting offers no benefit to the conservation estate it does not target females and does not disperse large female groups.
Heli-hunting erodes NZ recreational hunter participation and discourages the taking of meat animals (females) as it removes the incentive (trophy animals) to hunt these remote places. The incentive for NZ recreational hunters to access these rugged areas is always trophy bulls and bucks whilst engaged in this they take females for food to the benefit of all. The trophy animals these people seek on public land are still available to be ground hunted they don't vanish into thin air simply because there are no helicopters hunting them.

---- ---- --- --- has no issue with guided ground hunting, guides still get paid to guide tourists, helicopters are still used under the current landing concession regime to land hunters at huts and designated landing sites, the helicopter takes no further part in the hunt with no increase in intrusive aerial heli-hunting activity.

----- ---- ---- ---- wishes to stress it has no issue with legitimate well managed WARO operations and considers them a valid animal control tool of first choice when allied with recreational hunting. ---- ---- ---- welcomes and will participate in the consultation process to develop new concessions in this area

The Westland Conservation Area aerial access strategy does not support more helicopters flying in our mountains; the chasing and shooting of just one stag or buck chamois can take many hours of helicopter time.

If any conservancy allows these concessions in New Zealand we will be the only OECD country to allow helihunting, no other developed country in the world allows guided hunters to use helicopters or planes to hunt animals for recreation. There is a good reason for this, heli-hunting is perceived as repugnant and unethical by all hunting codes including NZDA who expel members for this type of activity.

New Zealand will, by allowing heli-hunting concessions erode and undervalue the intrinsic value of these alpine trophies as perceived by overseas hunting agencies.
The trophies simply put, will have no value; any idiot can shoot a hairy goat on a mountainside with high powered rifle and with a helicopter to carry him around in, this is counter to all trophy or sport hunting codes anywhere in the world.

What image will these helihunting concessions cast New Zealand in?

In summing up, by identifying and prohibiting these concessions in the draft plan we do not disadvantage any tourist hunters, New Zealand will not lose any revenue, the activity simply goes onto private land. We maintain our international standing as a quality trophy hunting destination. We do not impact any New Zealand recreational users on public land. The guiding and helicopter industry still get to fly NZ and overseas ground hunters to the existing designated landing sites with no adverse impact on anyone. We do not have to allow heli-hunts.

He ihu kuri, he tangata haere To allow even one concession would allow a flood of concessions. There are currently 70 New Zealand Professional Hunting Guides Association members and another 70 odd hunting guides outside this association, within 6 months of the first helihunting concession granted there will be at least 70 heli-hunt concession applications. There is no way to mitigate the impact of this aerial concession activity. Compliance and control under the current regime has been non-existent, in truth we have come to this pass because of non compliance and the failure of conservators to control these heli-hunters. This alone makes a compelling argument against heli-hunts. One concession will to be too many and a hundred not enough
Who will be first to consign the New Zealand backcountry to little more than an alpine themed safari park for the profit of a dozen helicopter operators and 40 – 80 guides? Or will the challenges and the solitude of our backcountry be preserved for the New Zealand people’s inspiration.
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!

Sent mine in this morning, along with a copy of that article from Petersons Hunting.