Selwyn Times: October 17, 2018

SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Wednesday October 17 2018 13
Your Local Views
Fire brigade ‘brings out
the best in people’
Firefighter
Christopher
Roper writes
about what
it is like to
be a part of
the Sheffield
Volunteer
Fire Brigade
I’VE ALWAYS had an interest in
joining the Sheffield brigade and
giving back to the community.
After getting in touch with
chief fire officer Neville Croy, he
invited me to attend a meeting
and from then I was hooked.
I was invited into the brigade
like a family member and have
been treated like family.
We all look out for each other
and do whatever we can to help
each other out. I’ve been in the
brigade for two years now and
I’ve loved every moment of it.
The support and training I
have received from the Sheffield
brigade has been incredible, and
once I got to the recruit courses I
loved them.
Fire and Emergency New
Zealand treats each recruit fairly
and brings out the best in people.
The once in a lifetime
BATTLE: Christopher Roper said he will never forget the Port
Hills fire.
PHOTO: ANDREW KING
opportunity I got to help at
the Port Hills fire last year is
something I’ll never forget. We
all worked as a team and I’m
extremely proud of the brigade’s
effort and work ethic in such a
major emergency.
The Sheffield brigade covers
a large area. We attend callouts
from as far as 80km away,
including car accidents, fires and
medical emergencies.
All of these are handled with
the utmost professionalism.
The annual mud plugs and
wings and wheels are great
events hosted by the brigade in
which the public enjoy a lovely
day out.
I’m pleased to be able to serve
our local community in such a
positive manner.
Arthur’s Pass Wildlife
Trust chairman Pete Neale
criticises a planned protest
against 1080 pest control
I’ve just noticed a small article
in the Selwyn Times about a
1080 protest in Arthur’s Pass on
Saturday. Events like this aren’t
helping the plight of our beloved
kea.
Lead poisoning, predation or
vehicle injuries are the cause of
the majority of kea deaths in
the Arthur’s
Pass area. Lead
poisoning and
vehicle injuries
are the result
of too much
human interaction
with
kea, for example
people
feeding them.
This brings
them down
among human populations,
where they then find lead flashings
and nails on baches, or lead
paint flakes around baches. Or,
in the case of the vehicle injuries
and deaths, these are mostly at
and around the viaduct lookout,
where again human interaction
causes them to be in dangerous
situations.
While 1080 is a poison and as
such is not ideal in any environment,
it is a naturally occurring
toxin in Australia for example.
It is also found in low levels in
your standard cup of tea. Where
kea areas have not had predator
control, such as trapping and
1080 drops, the nest survival
rate is about 10 per cent. In
areas where there is extensive
predator control, this goes up
to a 90 per cent nesting success
rate.
As a result of human
interaction and feeding, kea
become used to scavenging,
so when 1080 is dropped near
where kea are often in contact
with humans, they
have been known to
scavenge the pellets.
This is why DOC now
has a 15km exclusion
zone around Arthur’s
Pass Village for 1080
drops. The best thing
that this group could
do in the Arthur’s
Pass Village area
is assist us with
picking up every
piece of rubbish they can find
in the area. And to also help
us educate people – locals and
tourists alike – about the need
to not feed the kea. A fed kea is
a dead kea.
We organised for some
information along these lines to
be handed out to anyone who
turned up at the protest.
•The Arthur’s Pass Wildlife
Trust is made up of a small
group of volunteers who
maintain a predator trapping
network of almost 1000 traps.
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