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1080 is here, or is it 1066 and all that???

© Gay Klok

Last year in May I reported that our flora and fauna were in danger and appealed to you to help by writing email letters to be included in a newspaper article: Here is the link to the discussions - Please read so you know why I am so distressed

Discussion in Tasmanian Garden Journal

You, the contributing editors and members of Suite 101 and other gardening groups where I have a connection, responded brilliantly, I was very grateful. You may have wonderered why I never reported the results. I did not report because there was nothing to report. The original article was delayed up to the time Kees and I left our gardens and travelled overseas. On my return, I contacted the journalist who told me that the photographs were lost and he would be pleased if the photographer could take some new ones. This took place and I waited for the article and your letters to be published. After several weeks, when this had not happened, I again contacted the journalist and reported to him that we were observing a new happening in our garden, that we were finding dead possums and wallabies [also a few peafowl] in our ornamental gardens. I was sure, as these occurences were new, that 1080 poison had been laid in the clear felled area abutting our property. The reporter told me to find out if this was so. I rang the contact I had in the forestry department and was told that no poison had been laid and if this practice was going to be preformed, Kees and myself would be informed.

We have been informed today!!!!

Live possum on our grass

Extracts from the letter I received this morning, July 31st, 2002: Vertebrate Management Program As part of the process for developing either a Eucalyptus nitens or Eucalyptus globulus plantation in your area, Gunns Limited Triabunna will need to control the browsing of seedlings by vertebrate pests. Consequently, we wish to advise you that 1080 [Sodium monofluroacetate] poison, mixed with blue dyed baits, [carrots] will be laid. The area that has been clear felled and burnt over the last months is directly abutting our Western boundary where we own two large dams that reticulate water that is used in our gardens [refilling our ornamental ponds] and beef cattle drinking water, all outside taps and in our WC areas.

Burn off

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