Rugged and beautiful, the Kaweka range dominates the skyline of western Hawkes Bay. The Kaweka Forest Park encompasses 60,000 ha of this region, providing habitat for a number of native species – including mountain beech.
In the late 1990s, a study found browsing by sika deer was having a widespread detrimental influence on regeneration and species composition of the mountain beech forest within the Kaweka Forest Park.
In 1998, the Kaweka Mountain Beech Project began to address the issue and the Kaweka Hunter Liaison Group was developed. The group agreed that aerial deer control supplemented by enhanced recreational hunting would be the control method used to address this issue.
Aerial deer control was carried out over approximately 20,000 ha of the park from 1998 to 2015.
Aerial deer control was ceased for a period of time to allow hunters the opportunity to show that recreational hunting can maintain deer populations at the level needed for canopy recovery.
Hunters are encouraged to harvest as many sika deer as possible in order to help the mountain beech canopy regenerate. DOC will carry out monitoring to evaluate whether or not aerial deer control needs to be reintroduced.
Check out the resources below, then:
For more information, contact:
Hawke’s Bay District Office
Phone: +64 6 834 3111
Email: napier@doc.govt.nz
Deer density (faecal pallet index monitoring) in Kaweka Forest Park:
Get a list of helicopter operators in Kaweka Forest Park.
A notification system is in place to help helicopter operators and their customers plan use of huts in Kaweka Forest Park. See notifications of hut use (username: pub, password: public)
Notes: