Feral Goat Invasion
On 12 October 2023, just 6 weeks after the nurse trees were planted in Area 1, I received a call from Steve Ollerenshaw, a logging contractor. He was driving down the unformed road along the southern boundary to access the forestry block, east of Anita Stevens’ property. He told me that he could see three feral goats in amongst my young trees! I was in Melbourne at the time and there was little I could do directly, but I had my phone with me!
I called Martin Denton (my southern neighbour) who was out on the tractor. He drove up to our boundary fence and saw the goats. These were likely part of the herd that I’d seen regularly on Martin’s property. But the electric fence was still working, so I didn’t know how they got on my property, and how to get them off.
Next, I contacted Dave Alden, Bryan Scott (the regular hare shooter from Waihola), and Mike Gorinski. Dave Alden has Dave McFarlane’s son Tom come regularly to his property to shoot feral pigs and deer. Tom was happy to come up on the weekend (after school!) and have a look for them. Bryan said he’d look for them too, and Mike Gorinski said he’d bring his rifle each time he came to check on his sheep.
For me, it was a tense wait. What damage are they doing? Are there only three? And how to find them if they weren’t out on the pasture while the shooters were there?
Dave took some photos of the goat scats and the tops of some trees that had been eaten, but said none of the tree guards had been damaged. I’m surprised that the trees were of any interest to the goats because the pasture was very lush.
When Tom came the following weekend, he found the goats in the forest gully (How? I don’t know). He shot one, and the other two fled through the eastern boundary fence into the pine forest block, and away. There’s no fence between the pine forest and Martin’s property, so they must have wandered in that way. Tom said there was no damage to my boundary fence, so that saves repairs. When he cut open the goat’s stomach, he said it was filled with mostly grass (which was a relief). Anyway, it seemed there were only three invaders, and none left on the property.
The damage to the trees was minimal, and I expect a full recovery. Next time I’m there, I’ll look in detail.
During the Labour Weekend, Tom returned to continue the hunt. He tracked down more of the herd on Martin’s property and shot another four.
Mike Gorinski also had a session, shooting another three on Martin’s place. Mike told me that the ones he didn’t shoot were very wary, so hopefully they’ve decided to leave for a quieter life, miles away.
I got out of this pretty well I think, but I’ll need a rifle when I’m there more permanently. The only thing that I can shoot them with at present is my camera, and they don’t understand trespass law. As the trees grow, it’ll be less of a problem, but I haven’t even started planting the Kauri trees yet, so there’s several years of vigilance required.
The trees I’m planting are one thing, but I also need to keep the property free of grazing animals because I want natural seeding to occur and grazing animals like goats will eat young shoots in the forest.
14 November 2022
